September 2020

Lewis Hamilton will not be facing any punishment for wearing a Breonna Taylor t-shirt in the Tuscan Grand Prix last weekend. The Mercedes world champion had put on a shirt that was bearing the writings ‘ARREST THE COPS WHO KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR’ before and later in the podium after his victory in the Sunday’s race at Mugello. Following the nature and politics behind the t-shirt, there were reports that the Formula 1 governing body, FIA could be looking to punish the 6-time world champion but however, FIA later acknowledged that they will not be taking any action against the driver in relation to the incident. The message donned on the shirt had received mixed reactions, with some standing with Lewis Hamilton supporting the American who was brutally shot dead by police officers. Others saw the issue as politics stating that it should be kept away from Formula 1. FIA had said the matter was under active consideration as they were investigating into the matter but they later decided not to punish Hamilton for breaching their status. Despite their decision not to charge the driver who is currently leading for the 2020 Drivers Championship, FIA will be looking to prevent such messages to be broadcasted in the future. “There will be no further action, we will have a discussion with him and produce clarification (over podium protocol) in the next race director’s notes.” FIA spokesman said in a statement. In relation to such matters, FIA has been working alongside Hamilton and his fellow F1 drivers, mostly in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement where the drivers kneel wearing branded t-shirts before every race and also on branded helmets for some drivers. They are also keen to protect their status as a non-political organisation. The Formula 1 teams are now on a week long break before the Russian Grand Prix on the 27 September. Lewis Hamilton sits at the top of the drivers standings with 190 points as his teammate Valtteri Bottas comes second with 135 points.

Honda admits that Max Verstappen’s engine failure at the start of the Tuscan Grand Prix was ‘not small’ and the biggest impact that saw him pull out of the race was ‘a very bad situation’ after Verstappen had a good launch at the start of the race and later on lost power and fell back to the midfield by the first turn. He turned onto his rear around the first turn Chicane as 3 cars followed the RB16 and later slid off to the gravel as he ranted over the radio. The Red Bull driver was well aware that he would be retiring from the race due to the technical problem as Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe said the peroblem occured because something went wrong in the formation lap and then escalated itself in a very bad way at the start of the race at Mugello. This was not new to Verstappen as he had also retired from the race a week earlier during the Italian Grand Prix, but his suggestion was that a completely different caused the Mugello race retire. “We’re now investigating the cause of the issue,” Toyoharu Tanabe said. “At the moment I cannot tell you if we could continue, or we had to retire, But the issue is not small. The impact was big. So, it was a very bad situation.” Honda will be conducting the physical examination of the RB16 engine itself while the R&D department in Sakura Japan will be analysing the race statistics. Tanabe also added that they have not put a plan to recorrect the problem as they have to first assess the cause and the damage that has been done. Verstappen’s car has spare engine components to switch to if Honda resolves to introduce another engine for the next race in Russia he will not be incurring a grid penalty. A second race retirement has been slowing Verstappen’s top 3 lead in the drivers’ standings but however Redbull continued to show its dominance in the podium streaks. Alexander albon in the sister RB16 was able to finish third in the Mugello race, being his maiden podium finish. This shows the Honda-powered car is still strong as the car has achieved top three finishes in the 2020 season apart from the season opener.

Lewis Hamilton stands up for his teammate Valtteri Bottas who was the race leader after the race restart which caused multi-car crashes. Nicolas Latifi, Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Carlos Sainz are among the drivers who crashed on the race race restart and could be heard complaing about Bottas who was the race leader at the moment. Sebastian Vettel also went ahead to complain about the Bottas move being the main cause of the accident on the track. “It is simply unnecessary. As the leader, you have to be aware of such things,” Vettel said.  “If you want to wait, you should wait a long time and then step on the gas, but don’t stop and go… If you want to wait, you should wait a long time and then step on the gas, but don’t stop and go.” Lewis Hamilton came to Bottas’ defence saying FIA was the one to blame as he said, “It is absolutely not Valtteri’s fault. It is the policymakers, they are clearly trying to make things more exciting, but today you have seen that that puts people in danger. Maybe they should reconsider that rule.” “They turned off the safety car lights later and later. We are fighting for positions. Especially when you deserve that position, like Valtteri deserved to be in the lead,” the six-time world champion concluded.

Over half of the grid has been issued with warnings over their actions during the race restart in the Tuscan Grand prix after there were multiple crashes involving several cars. Carlos Sainz, Nicolas Latifi, Kevin Magnussen and Antonio Giovinazzi were all involved inthe crash as there were preparations for race restart, the four drivers retired from the race as the stewards called upon Magnussen, Latifi and Daniil Kvyat to help them in understanding the situation. The stewards came up with an official warning to 12 drivers after analysing the incident. The twelve drivers were: Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi, Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, Nicolas Latifi, Alexander Albon and Lance Stroll. “The Stewards conclude that the root cause of this incident was the inconsistent application of throttle and brake, from the final corner along the pit straight, by the above drivers,” read a statement.” “The Stewards acknowledge the challenges the location of the Control Line presents at this circuit and the desire of drivers to take advantage of the restart.” “However this incident demonstrates the need for caution to be exercised in the restart situation and note that there was an extreme concertina effect which dramatically increased as it moved down the field. We also note that some drivers might have avoided being involved in the incident had they not followed directly behind the car in front.” “By doing so they effectively blocked off all visibility of what was happening immediately in front of the preceding car.” “A warning has been imposed as it is the view of the Stewards that no one driver was wholly or predominantly to blame.” Valtteri Bottas, who was leading the race as the crash happened, was cleared of any wrongdoing. “It was further noted that the driver of Car 77 (Valtteri Bottas) and the other drivers involved in the restart not mentioned above, complied with the regulations,” they confirmed. “Car 77 had the right under the regulations to dictate the pace.”

Lewis extended his lead in winning the seventh Formula 1 championship after winning the Tuscan Grand Prix which was rather hectic and filled with crashes at Misano as the race was interrupted by two red flags and three safety car. Hamilton went ahead to lead a 1-2 Mercedes lead followed by Valtteri Bottas as Redbull’s Alexander Albon finnished third being his maiden podium finish in a race that saw 8 cars off the track. The Mercedes racer was able to take back the race leadership from his teammate Bottas following the first red-flag session and continued on to dominate in his race wins, he will be leading in the F1’s Drivers Championship with 55 points after picking the bonus point for the fastest lap. This comes as there are only 8 races remaining in the 2020 Formula 1 season. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moved up to third as Max Verstappen reported a lack of power as the race cars approached turn 1, but Verstappen lasted only one more turn as AlfaRomeo’s Kimi Raikkonen hit him from the back sending the Redbull RB16 car to the gravel and out of the race. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was also a victim as Kimi Raikkonen as they clashed on turn two just prior with the contact with Verstappen, putting the AlphaTauri driver out of the race. This resulted to the deployment of the safety car as also Romain Grosjean were involved in the contact but were able to progress with the race. As the cars were cleared, the safety car was called in at the end of lap 6, only to be called in again later following a series of crashes on the pit straight as Bottas tried to slow the following F1 cars which caused many of the drivers misjudging on when to accelerate. The error caused Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi to ram into Kevin Magnussen’s rear. The series of crash also caught up with Mclaren’s Carlos Sainz and Williams’ Nicolas Latiffi forcing all the four cars out of the race. A red flag was out following the crash and later a 25-minute wait to resume the race on lap 10, the race resumed from a standing start on the grid with only 13 cars on the line-up after Renault’s Esteban Ocon pulling out of the race due to a brake issue. Hamilton’s W11 was also smoking at the race restart but was able to take on his teammate Bottas around turn one and take the lead. Charle’s Leclerc was able to maintain third position but soon faced pressure from the other cars as he was slower on the straights. Later on he was overtaken by Lance stroll, and later on lose places to Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez to end up seventh and later pit for a set of hard tyres. Bottas was able to hold steadily to the gap with his teammate Hamilton, but the gap increased following the wear on his front tyres. The finn went ahead to pit at the end of lap 31 to change his tyres in a bid to close the gap between him and the sister W11. Hamilton also headed to the pit one lap later to also change into hard tyres and was able to exit with a gap of 6 seconds as the race leader. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was able to beat Lance stroll after pitting at the end of lap 27 and Racing point tried to beat him later after three laps but the Renault proved to be unbeatable also taking Redbull’s Alex Albon to take the 3rd position. Albon dropped to fifth. The Mercedes drivers were warned to keep off the kerbs and look after their tyres but five laps later a safety car was deployed after Lance Stroll’s RP20 crashed at turn 9, going into the tyre barrier after it slid off the kerb. The car was left nwith heavy damage but Stroll was able to get out and walk away from the wreck. The safety car was again deployed as the drivers took the opportunity to pit and Hamilton was able to still hold his lead aver Bottas who came in one lap later. But the race was again red-flagged for the second time on lap 45 for the tyre barriers to be re-installed around turn 9 with only 12 cars remaining in the race. Alexander Albon was able to close up on Daniel Ricciardo two laps later to take 3rd and also tried to catch up on Bottas as the race concluded. The Mercedes driver crossed the line 2nd as Albon maintained the 3rd position. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo finished 4th which was just shy of winning his bet with his boss Cyril Abiteboul. Perez finished fifth for the Racing point after a long battle with Mclaren’s Lando Norris who was sixth. Daniil Kvyat recorded his best for the season by coming in 7th place followed by Charles Leclerc in 8th finishing the 1000th race for Ferrari. Raikkonen finished 9th after receiving a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry . Sebastian Vettel finished 10th earning his first points since the Spanish Grand Prix as George Russel finished 11th just very close to winning his maiden points in F1, it was his best result ever. Romain Grosjean finished 12th in the Haas F1 car

Ineos could be moving from team sponsor to team owner with reports saying that the company is close to signing £700 million deal to buy the Mercedes Formula 1 team. It was earlier this year that Ineos, which is the world’s largest chemical producer signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Mercedes, but at that time Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff preferred to call it a ‘partnership’ and not a sponsorship in the deal that involved £110 million. Now all this seems like it was just a lead that Ineos was making in buying the Formula 1 team. Ineos will be buying out 70% of the shares in the German Formula 1 team which is on the high road in winning the seventh consecutive Formula 1 championship. “The ownership of the team is going to be taken over by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos,” Jordan told the British tabloid. “The Ineos name is already on the side of the car anyway and they have this technological partnership so this is a nice way out for Mercedes.” Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan said. “The team will be called Ineos but it will still be run from the factory in Brackley and Mercedes will retain a 30 per cent share in it…It will not be known as Mercedes any more and Toto Wolff, the team principal, will no longer be in charge.” “It has become difficult for them. How can they keep winning? How can they improve on what they have already done? They can’t.” Jordan added. “Toto’s reputation as one of the great team leaders in the history of the sport is already secure. What he has achieved at Mercedes puts him in the same league as Ron Dennis at McLaren and Jean Todt at Ferrari but all good things come to an end.” Rumours had been going around for months that Mercedes was considering letting go of its Formula 1 team as the rumors still claimed that the parent company, Daimler with its success in the F1 the company feels it has nothing more to achieve in Formula 1. Mercedes has been denying the rumors and insisted it was sticking around. Before the beginning of the 2020 F1 season the team statement once read,” “our clear intention to continue competing in Formula 1 as a Mercedes-Benz works team in the years to come, and to do so with our managing partner, Toto Wolff.” The team has also signed the 2021-2025 F1 Concorde Agreement but this does not guarantee the team will be running under current ownership.