Is the dream car turning into a nightmare for its owners?

If you’ve ever dreamt about winning the Lotto or anybody has ever asked you what you would do if it did happen, what would your course of action be? I would buy a nice block of land, a new tractor and a racehorse, to be trained in Castletown.

For some people, it could be home renovations or a holiday home, pay off mortgages or the like. Mind you, for as long as that question has been asked, there have always been people who would nominate the purchase of a Ferrari as their luxury of choice.

If they have been taking in the Formula 1 action lately, however, they might be thinking twice about their choice. For at least the second time this season, neither of the Italian auto giant’s own pair of competitors completed today’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. Not only that, but other cars with their hardware aboard have been engulfed with problems also.

The upshot of all of which has been what looked like a very exciting start to the F1 season for both Charles Le Clerc and Carlos Sainz has hit the skids quicker than a downhill skier with dodgy legs.

Under normal circumstances, one would expect anything powered by a Mercedes engine to take full advantage of any shortcomings in the red corner. How ironic, then, that those behind Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have massively malfunctioned multiply already this season.

All of which has, naturally, played into the hands of defending champion Max Verstappen and his Red Bull colleague Sergio Perez. Now, on several occasions this term, I would have been unduly kindly to Red Bull, not to mention the farce at the end of the last campaign.

Mind you, if you had that self-inflated whinger Christian Horner moaning at you all the the time you’d probably do whatever it took to shut him up as well. Surely Gerri could have done better for herself!

Today, though, it didn’t take any of his nuisance interference for Red Bull outfit to get their wings. Their machines and their drivers performed to a level none of the others could get anywhere near on the day.

Which meant that by the end of today’s race, Verstappen had a full 21 second advantage to the nearest car behind him. Which happened to be that of his teammate Sergio Perez.

Whether anybody can get any closer to them for the remainder of the season only time will tell.