Like a Red Bull in an F1 China shop - Season so far

Red Bull smashing the rest

OK, so the title does not really make sense but Red Bull will feature in this blog entry and China kinda does.  Just go with it.

Looking at the blog list I realized this is the first entry since the season started.

With all the excitement of being back on track and recording the pod, the flow of the blog just came to a halt.

Much like Leclerc in the gravel.

Sigh.

We find ourselves at an enforced break in the season after the cancellation of the Chinese GP due to COVID concerns.  

The next time we'll have cars on track will be in Azerbaijan on the last weekend of April.

With three races in the bank let's take a look at how they have panned out, what we have learned so far, what has surprised us, and what we think is in store for the remainder of the season.

Let's start with some mini-race reviews.

1 - Bahrain

Back on track!!!

The season got off to a perfect start for Red Bull as they closed out a 1-2 with Max taking the win from Sergio.  The last spot on the podium went to a certain Fernando Alonso but more on him later.

Sainz brought his Ferrari home in 4th while team-mate Leclerc suffered engine problems and was one of 3 DNFs for the race alongside Ocon & Piastri.

Elsewhere Stroll ensured both Astons finished in the points, George and Lewis brought their Mercs home in the top 7 while Valtteri, Gasly, and Albon rounded out the points.

Decent start to the season with some good action on track, but maybe a rather foreboding result.

2 - Saudi Arabia

It's Checo time!

The race promised a Max overtaking masterclass as an issue in qualy saw him start from 15th on the grid.

He did not need to break out the full repertoire as, while he did make up a decent number of positions, a safety car came out at a good time for him and at the restart he found himself 4th by only lap 20.

Sergio led from the front and was rarely troubled as Max set about dispatching George and Fernando in order to get 2nd.

The final result saw another Red Bull 1-2 but with the order reversed from Bahrain. Standing on the podium again was a certain Alonso but more about him later.

After the race his 3rd spot was taken way from him and given to George who briefly got his hands on the 3rd place trophy only for the Aston appeal to win and mean George had to hand it straight back!

They both had some fun with it on social media which was good to see.

George therefore did finish 4th, Lewis 5th, with the unimpressive Ferrari pair coming home in 6th & 7th.  The Alpine cars took 8th & 9th while K-Mag completed the points scorers for the day.

Albon and Stroll were the only DNFs.

3 - Australia

Carnage that never was...kinda

The F1 circus then arrived down under where we don't usually have the best of races it must be said.

For the second race in a row Red Bull suffered qualifying drama as Checo binned it in Q1 so did not set a time and started dead last.

With Max taking pole we had a rest-of-grid sandwich served on Red Bull bread...because we don't name a sandwich after the bread remember ;-)

On race day Leclerc lasted just the one corner before he was tagged from behind and spun into the gravel.  Not the greatest start to a season ever for him.

A safety car followed and then another one popped up a few laps later as Albon lost it at corner seven.

George & Carlos gambled on taking a cheap pit stop so lost some track position but would gain it back as everyone else stopped.

Or so they thought.

The safety car was upgraded to a red flag a little while later and now George & Carlos were screwed.

Didn't ultimately matter for George as his car burst into flames later in the race.

Towards the end K-Mag decided to drift into a wall and lose his rear right tire which brought out another red flag.

I Haas lost my tire

We now had a two lap shootout on the cards.

With the most chance of gains to be made being at the restart, chances were that the first couple of corners would be hectic as with no DRS if you took some places the odds were on our side keeping them for these 2 laps.

Hectic does not quite describe what we saw though.

Carnage, chaos, or just a mess probably do a better job.

Cars tagged cars, cars spun, team mates crashed into team mates, debris and gravel everywhere.

Within a few short yards we had lost both Alpines as they crashed into each other and a wall, de Vries & Sargeant were beached in gravel, Sainz had spun Alonso around, and everyone else ducked and weaved to avoid a crash.

Unsurprisingly the red flag got dropped again but with cars not fully through the first sector we had Silverstone 22 all over again as officials tried to work out what the actual order was.

In the end they reversed back to last known position effectively meaning that chaos never happened.  Unless you were Alpine because they could not un-crash or if you were Sainz who got penalized for spinning Alonso around in a lap that never happened and that did not cost any positions for Alonso but ruined the result for Sainz.

Madness.

The result at the end of all this was another win for Max, an impressive second for Lewis, and yet again a certain Alonso on the podium.  More on him soon - promise.

Stroll, Perez, Norris, Hulk, Piastri, Zhou, and Yuki closed out the points.  Worth noting that this meant both McLarens in the points which also meant first points for Piastri in his own backyard.

A whopping eight DNFs this time around meant Gasly, Ocon, de Vries, Sargeant, KMag, George, Albon, and Charles all failed to take the checkered flag.

What have we learned?

Well we have definitely learned what a red flag looks like!

Aside from that we know that the Red Bull is in a class of it's own right now.  The car seems to have no drag and just cruises seemingly effortlessly around the track.  To add insult to injury to the other teams their DRS system is also a work of technical genius and is way more efficient that the others.

Rocket

You simply have to applaud what they have delivered to their drivers and it feels like both titles are nailed on at this point.

We have also seen that the pack feels more closely bunched up this year.  Rather than a three tier distinction of front runners, midfield, and back markers we look to have a more two tiered grid of front runners then the rest if we avoid putting Red Bull in their own category of course.

What surprised us?

Quite simply put the answer is Aston Martin.

The Green machine

We have mentioned we'd be speaking more about Fernando soon and now is the moment.

They have made great leaps as a team and have delivered a package capable of podium results and maybe even a race win during the season.

Fernando has been superb in both qualifying and race day.  He has secured three consecutive third places on the podium and sits third in the drivers standings.  He has the swagger back and it's not ridiculous to imagine he could stand on the top step this year.

However, it's not just Fernando doing the business.

Lance gets a bad rap for being the owners son and that is the only reason he has a drive.  While the latter might be a big reason, he is also surprising everyone with his results. One DNF aside, he has finished 6th & 4th to currently sit 6th in the drivers title tied on points with Carlos and ahead of George & Charles.

Together they have Aston sitting second placed in the constructors behind Red Bull!

At the other end of our surprise is the surprise at Ferrari.

More Ferrari misery

Their best result so far is 4th and Charles already has two DNFs to his name and took penalties for exceeding the number of parts you can change in a season.

They have not looked quick and sit down in 4th as not only have Aston surpassed them but a semi-resurgent Mercedes are also above them.

Mercedes in fact are the only other team to grab a podium so far as Red Bull & Aston have taken 8 of the 9 podium spots.

What do we see ahead?

This feels like a Red Bull dominant season is upon us.  The sheer gap they have to the rest does not feel like mid-season upgrades brought by others will allow anyone to mount a serious challenge for either title.

However, the battle behind them is fascinating.

Aston are looking superb, Mercedes are showing signs of recovery, and Ferrari have to turn things around quickly.

Aston vs Merc for 2nd?

There will no doubt be races that don't pan out for Red Bull either through DNFs or the like and it will be these races where the others need to pounce and maximize their points haul.

Quite who finishes second in the constructors is going to be an exciting one to follow and one which perhaps goes right down to the wire.

Cartoon Credit - The Bull cartoon this blog starts with is based on Bruce Plante's original he did for an article in Tulsa World with some crude F1 editing thrown in by us for comedy purposes.

All other images from F1.com