Contractual quirks

One curious quirk of Max's reported contract situation was that if George overtook him in the standings by Hungary, then Max would have been free to take George's seat. So it was in George's interest not to overtake Max in the championship standings.

Not that I'm saying that affected George's performance at all. Even when the Mercedes has looked off the pace recently, George has been comfortably outperforming Kimi. Nevertheless, it would have been strange if George had managed to get ahead of Max, only for that to trigger Max's release clause and see him take George's seat at Mercedes.

The tightening of the grid

I was recently looking back at some of the data from formula 1 back in the 90s, and it made me realize that Yuki's current problems in the Red Bull are being made worse by how tight the grid currently is.

Back in the 90s, you would sometimes see 4 or 5 seconds between the front of the grid and the back of the grid in qualifying. Now it's closer to a second and a half, so even if you're half a second behind your team-mate, that can translate to ten places on the grid, or more.

The anti-MBS agenda in formula 1

It should be obvious to even the casual F1 fan that there has been a media agenda to get rid of MBS from his position as the President of the FIA. Whether you think that agenda is justified or not, is a different discussion, but the agenda definitely exists.

Personally, I'm not as convinced by the media's anti-MBS agenda as most people are. In fact there are a few examples, that I agree with MBS on:

1) I completely agree with the swearing ban (now that there's a team radio exception). You rarely hear swearing in other sports (and if an athlete does swear during a TV interview, they immediately apologize). It only seems to be F1 where the drivers want to swear in interviews. Swearing over the radio in the heat of the moment is totally understandable, so it makes sense that team radio discussion should be excluded from the swearing ban (they can bleep it out anyway), but I can't understand why the drivers are so passionately in favour of swearing during TV interviews. Just don't swear! Simple!

2) I also agree with MBS's push for an 11th team. I can understand the other teams putting self-interest first and wanting to protect their own share of the financial pie, but the FIA have to consider the sport as a whole and the fans, so the 11th team made sense.

3) One example where I kind of agree with MBS, but it nevertheless could have been handled a lot better, is that I agree that Toto and Susie absolutely should have been reviewed. There absolutely was a potential conflict of interest, so there had to be checks in place to ensure there was no transfer of information.

That said, the FIA should have made it more clear that this was a review, not a trial. There should have been a statement right from the start stating that this was not a suggestion of guilt, merely a review to ensure all parties were happy that things were being done correctly (which was ultimately determined to be the case). So the optics could have been done a lot better, especially given that the media blatantly used it as an excuse to try to get rid of MBS (which MBS should have anticipated).

So I guess I'm not as convinced by the media's anti-MBS agenda as most people are. He still wouldn't be my first choice obviously, but given that I can remember the dark days of Max Mosley, MBS doesn't upset me the way he upsets most people.

Inconsistent application of the rules

Unsurprisingly, Oscar Piastri was obviously angry about his ten second penalty today in the British Grand Prix for sudden braking behind the safety car.

I think a penalty of some sort was deserved - although maybe five seconds would have been fairer - but I can understand why Oscar was angry, given that George Russell did the same thing in Canada and got away with it.

The difference today presumably was that the rain made the sudden braking more dangerous. That and also the fact that there was time today to apply a penalty in-race, whereas George's sudden braking move at Canada came very late in the race. They would therefore have had to amend the Canada result post-race, and that's something which the FIA don't like to do, presumably for the optics of it.

Optics shouldn't come into sport, though, so again, I can understand why Oscar feels hard done by, even if ultimately, the penalty is his own fault.

Tyre testing

Once criticism of formula 1 that pops up from time to time is that the current tyres don't allow drivers to push to the limit for the entire race. This leads to drivers driving conservatively to save their tyres, which in turn deprives fans of great racing.

However, what the tyre critics fail to acknowledge is that in-season tyre testing isn't allowed these days (or at least, is severely limited), so non-perfect tyres are inevitable. Basically, the teams needs to come together and come up with a solution that allows more tyre testing.

Here are a couple of quick ideas:

1) Give each team a couple of tyre tests during the season (with no new bodywork testing allowed - all test cars must use only parts that have previously been raced).

2) Give the back runners a couple of tyre tests. Maybe the back three teams on the grid at a specific point in the season are allowed two tyre tests each. The teams from seventh to fifth are allowed one tyre test. This would serve two purposes; it would allow tyre development to take place, and it would also help the field to close up.

I doubt things will ever change, but if they stick with the testing limitations we have now, then we're never going to have perfect tyres.

The ten year test

When it comes to formula 1, there's inevitably a lot of debate among fans as to who are the best drivers. In fact right throughout the grid, there is discussion as to whether driver A would beat driver B if they were team-mates. As an example, I heard one fan recently claim that there isn't a single driver on the grid who would ever beat Max in the same car.

Nobody can give a definite answer to that, but when comparing two drivers, I like to use the 'ten year test'. To explain what I mean by that, imagine two drivers in the same car for ten years. What do you think the final score between the two would be?

For most drivers on the grid, as this fan kind of implied, if they were paired with Max then the score after ten years would be ten nil to Max. However, I don't think that applies to every driver on the grid. There are possibly two or three who, if they were Max's team-mate for ten years, would avoid a whitewash.

Lewis Vs Charles

If you were to believe the headlines, Lewis Hamilton's underwhelming performance during his first season as a Ferrari driver has come as a massive surprise that nobody expected.

However if you ignore the hype, the truth is somewhat different. The bookies' pre-season odds suggested they regarded Leclerc as slightly faster than Hamilton. They were proved correct.

Charles being a couple of tenths faster than Lewis is not the big surprise that some pro-Lewis fanboy reporters are making it out to be. Neither is the gap as massive as some anti-Lewis fanboys are making it out to be.

Ignore the headline writers, and the truth is somewhere in between. 

Mercedes's driver dilemma

When discussing Mercedes's drivers for next season, Toto Wolff was recently quoted as saying, "Until the summer break, everything is going to be done."

This is just a theory, but maybe Toto's statement mentions the summer break because that is when the wording of Max's reported release clause comes into effect.

Presumably Mercedes will know after the summer break whether Max's contractual release clause has been triggered. If it is, they'll sign Max for 2026. If it isn't, they'll stick with George and Kimi.

Personally, I'd love to see Max and George as team-mates for all the drama it would deliver, but all the noise seems to suggest that if Mercedes do sign Max, it will be in place of George.

GOAT man bad

I've just read the race report of the Austrian Grand Prix on the BBC website, and for a race which was dominated by McLaren, it's incredible that around half the top comments, or maybe more, are sniping at Max.

Seriously people, why can't you just give credit where credit is due? Lando drove excellent all weekend. How about focusing on that? Lando deserves his moment in the spotlight. Why can't people be positive for once, instead of letting negativity control them?

Formula 1 rules comparison with football

The Max Verstappen/George Russell controversy at the Spanish Grand Prix could all have been avoided if the stewards were still following the rules of a few years ago.

The whole controversy was caused because Red Bull had to guess what the stewards' decision would be regarding George's collision with Max at turn one. The team guessed, incorrectly, that Max would have to let George past (as it turned out, the stewards decided otherwise, because George was not in control of his car when he hit Max), and this is what angered Max causing him to get an attack of the red mist.

Under the rules of a few years ago, the stewards would have advised Red Bull, and Mercedes, that there was no need for a position swap. George would still likely have overtaken Max at some point, but Max's resultant angry move into George could have been avoided.

To go into more detail, a few years ago the stewards used to inform teams when they needed to let a driver through or give the place back. The teams had to follow this instruction, otherwise they would get a penalty. Similarly, if there was no need to swap positions, then the stewards would advise the teams of this. Now though, stewards don't advise the teams, so instead the teams have to guess what the stewards' decision will be. Given the number of variables involved in a decision, that means you have teams and drivers having to guess who was ahead at the apex (and where the apex even is), whether drivers were in control, whether they left enough room, etc. They basically have to guess the stewards' decision.

Imagine if in football you had to guess whether you were offside or not, and if you were offside but played on, you got a yellow card. It would be ridiculous. Well, that's formula 1 right now. They need to go back to the standard of a few seasons ago, when the stewards would tell the teams whether they needed to give the place back, rather than the teams having to guess.

The chink in Max Verstappen's armor

Here's my opinion on the controversy at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix involving Max Verstappen...

Verstappen/Leclerc contact: Charles moved across onto Max's line (causing contact), but Charles was entitled to because; a) he was clearly ahead, and b) he left Max space. Charles therefore did not have to give the position back, so Max was incorrect in his radio messages to his team.

Verstappen/Russell turn 1 contact: George hit Max and because George was not in control of his car, George was at fault, therefore Max did not have to give the place back.

Max's response to Leclerc contact: When Max said Charles had to give him the place back, the stewards correctly disagreed. Charles was ahead and although he moved over, he still left Max plenty of space between the edge of the track.

Max's response to Russell contact: Max was understandably angry at his team for telling him to let George pass, because George was the one at fault (Max was ahead when George hit him), so there was no need to switch positions (as later confirmed by the stewards). However, if Max disagreed with the instruction, he should have made his case to his team, then ignored the instruction, rather than slide into the side of George when he was letting him past.

By sliding into George, Max has cost himself 9 points which could prove costly at the end of the season. His anger should have directed at his own team, rather than at George.

Virtually every race has a controversial decision from the stewards which divides opinion, so a formula 1 driver will inevitably feel angry at times. However, when a decision (or team advice) goes against you, you need to control your anger, rather than let your anger control you. Max is clearly an exceptionally brilliant driver, but arguably the one chink in his armor is his composure.