1. DANNY RIC STILL HAS IT, AND LANDO IS HERE TO STAY
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The Honey-Badger and the Shoey are back! Daniel Ricciardo put a rough start to 2021 behind him and capitalized on the misfortune of other rivals to stitch together the perfect weekend for McLaren and himself in Italy. “For anyone that thought I left, I never left”, the Australian said, moments after taking the chequered flag. It’s been close to 3 years since Ricciardo last won a race in Formula One and it’s safe to say the period since with Renault and McLaren has seen more lows than highs, and being outpaced by the younger Lando Norris all year certainly wasn’t helping the cause. Lando meanwhile continues to be our driver of the season and made it a McLaren 1-2 to further extend his lead in 3rd place in the F1 Driver’s Championship over Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
2. MAX vs LEWIS’ BATTLE HAS STRUCK BOILING POINT
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The image of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull on top of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes could be the most telling image of 2021 as the battle between the two quickest drivers has now reached boiling point. The British Grand Prix earlier in the season blew things up between the two, after which there seemed to be a semblance of calm, but this latest clash between F1’s title rivals at Monza has delivered more yet again for fans and ups the intensity considerably. Verstappen still leads the Championship by 5 points over Lewis and a 3 place grid penalty for the Red Bull star only adds more fuel to the fire heading into Russia and into the business end of the season.
3. THE HALO IS TRULY SAVING LIVES IN FORMULA ONE
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Charles Leclerc at Belgium in 2018, Romain Grosjean at Bahrain in 2020, and Lewis Hamilton at Monza in 2021 – The Halo is truly saving lives in Formula One!
Initially introduced to stop pieces of debris entering the cockpit and fatally injuring drivers such as Justin Wilson at IndyCar, the strength of the Halo is doing more than keeping debris out as we saw it protect Leclerc at Spa in 2018 as Alonso flew over him; save Romain Grosjean in 2020 who could have literally been decapitated if not for the Halo in his horror crash and now Lewis Hamilton who had title rival Max Verstappen land on his head at Monza, battling for the lead of the race and the Championship.
The FIA’s official tests mandate the Halo to withstand a peak maximum vertical loading of 116kN, roughly equating to 12000kg (or a double-decker bus), which meant that it was strong enough to bounce off the 752kgs of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull as it narrowly missed Hamilton’s head in the cockpit.
4. SPRINT RACES AREN’T EVERYONE’S CUP OF TEA
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Sprint Races certainly leave a lot to be desired, including the choice of track, as Drivers and the world of Social Media too lashed out after what was a dull procession at a circuit that offered very little room for overtaking. The reason Sprint Races were introduced in the first place was the spice up a race weekend and offer fans more action but the Monza Sprint offered anything but that, leaving fans and several drivers feeling short-changed in the process.
Perhaps running the Sprint at venues that offer great overtaking opportunities like Spa, Interlagos, Austria or Bahrain would make more sense and at least achieve the initial objective as Monza even prompted Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to say “There’s nothing happening in it, and I don’t see the benefit of having the sprint race. I can imagine it’s also boring for fans, boring for drivers. It doesn’t bring anything, to be honest.”
[Image Credit: Autocar]
Suhail Chandhok
Vertical Head - Sports