I do think it was a little bit premature to advance Tsunoda into F1 this year and although he has been vastly outperformed by Gasly his results aren't actually that bad for a rookie imo. 5 points finishes and his only retirement in Spain was car-related. Yes he's crashed a lot but at least he's reserved that for qualifying and not the races. His problem is the unnecessary outbursts on the team radio (as entertaining as they are for the viewer) and accusing the team of giving Gasly a better car.

Tsunoda's mistakes have been glaring and fairly high profile but there are several mitigating factors for all the struggles for this years rookies. The cut back on pre season testing will have hampered them severely, they're not just learning a new formula but also with barely any testing time compared to previous years. Although Schumacher has had the luxury of several runs in an older Ferraris, neither Mazepin or Tsunoda have had such preparation. Combining this with several unfamiliar tracks will have added to their problems and as Tsunoda correctly pointed out the sprint race at Silverstone denied them much pre-qualifying practice to learn the circuit.

 

It's too easy to think that because they've raced in F2 they should know how to race F1 at the same circuit, but virtually every driver describes the leap between the two as huge and there are so many variables that change a cars behaviour from race to race - from air and track temp to wind, altitude, humidity, tyre choice to downforce and setup.

 

I would consider all the three are starting to settle in and if you remember Stroll had exactly the same sort of problems through being promoted early and now after three years he's a perfectly average F1 driver with occasionally strong days

Here's my belated mid-season ratings:

 

Hamilton: not quite at his imperious best this season but still some outstanding drives [9/10]

Bottas: dropped even further back and despite a few decent results is under huge pressure to perform [5/10]

Verstappen: driving at his absolute best so far in his career, deserves to be leading the standings [10/10]

Perez: up and down, doing a better job for rb 2nd driver but still a good way off max on pace [6/10]

Norris: outstanding, driver of the season so far. no mistakes and ahead of a merc & rb in the standings [11/10]

Ricciardo: massively disappointing, recent signs of finally getting to the grips with the car but the damage has been done [4/10]

Vettel: started awfully but picked up strongly in the second quarter, but for unlucky dsq would have a decent points haul [7/10]

Stroll: ticking along relatively well but not really done anything outstanding either [6/10]

Alonso: took a few races to get back up to speed but seriously impressive in the second quarter [8/10]

Ocon: strong start, horrendous middle period and then the ultimate high [7/10]

Leclerc: very impressive on pace but a few high profile errors have proved costly [8/10]

Sainz: adjusted extremely well to the car and carrying on his outstanding form from past few years [9/10]

Gasly: superbly impressive in general, particularly in qualifying, outperforming the car [9/10]

Tsunoda: a few too many mistakes in qualifying but promising enough in the races even if miles off team-mate on general pace [5/10]

Raikkonen: some absolute howlers but otherwise doing about as much as one can in the car [6/10]

Giovinazzi: completely anonymous for the most part, still not outperforming his teammate and time may be running out [4/10]

Russell: incredible qualifying performances somewhat marred by poor starts, still driving the wheels of that car [8/10]

Latifi: aside from the freak result in the last race still being completely outperformed by teammate though has closed the gap somewhat [5/10]

Schumacher: promising pace-wise overall although a few too many crashes in practice/qualifying [6/10]

Mazepin: showing vague signs of improvement in second quarter but still mostly miles off the pace [3/10]

 

Top 5:

Norris

Verstappen

Hamilton

Sainz

Gasly

 

Bottom 5:

Mazepin

Ricciardo

Giovinazzi

Tsunoda

Latifi

I broadly agree with everything you've said there Dobbo, the only thing I might quibble is Giovinazzi being lower than Kimi. I agree he's felt a little anonymous and it surprised me when I looked closer to see that he generally outqualifies the former world champion, has had far fewer incidents he can be blamed for and has been the victim of team errors that have cost him places at several races. Kimi meanwhile has often started well but has at times looked like he's been asleep at the wheel and borderline dangerous.

Putting the Italian as the second worst driver of the season feels harsh

 

Yes perhaps a 4 is a bit harsh actually and could agree he's above Tsunoda & Latifi at least. I did note his qualifying has picked up but the bulk of my weighting leant towards the races. Of course it is close there with Kimi only narrowly ahead 6-5 but we should note that Kimi is nearly 42 whereas Antonio should be near or approaching his prime if he's ever going to kick on and have a long F1 career.

I think if Alfa can get Bottas to replace Raikkonen I'd be tempted to replace Giovanazzi too, to have had any faith he was going to be any good I'd have wanted him to be clearly above Kimi at this stage, and whilst I think he's ahead it's not by loads, I don't think he could complain too much about not getting a fourth season in F1, but at the moment it does look like it could only be Kimi that leaves at the end of this season.

 

I would definitely have Norris and Verstappen as the top 2 drivers this season, think they've been leagues ahead of the others. Struggle to split the four of Gasly, Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton to make a top 5.

 

It'll be interesting to see what they do with the calendar following the Suzuka news, I find it really difficult to see the intended 23 being reached.

I saw some suggestion of a double header in Texas with the second COTA racing being the Texan GP but Texas is like a corona war zone right now so I’m not sure how many teams will be comfortable with that

Think USA, Mexico and Brazil from the current calendar will all get chopped leaving us with 7 races left as it stands. Nurburgring and Mugello will probably be called up but think they're gonna struggle after that.

A chance of Sakhir added before the final two in the Middle East would be a possibility I guess, perhaps the outer ring again?

Brazil surely is not long for this world with it being a red list country and not looking like that’ll change anytime soon.

 

Would be ok with the outer ring returning again but very very here for a few Euro races stepping in. Sadly I think we gonna end up with two in the UAE :rolleyes:

 

Tbh the sooner that we stop with the sand races the better. There’s no appetite for Motorsport in the Middle East or culture of it really and yet they’ve got like 4 races on the most boring flat carparks.

 

 

Shouldn’t race anywhere that doesn’t have a minimum standard of human rights law. We’d probably lose COTA but Brazil and circuits like Spa and Nürburgring will be a lot safer in the calendar while we bully these countries into the 20th Century.

There's plenty of talk about Qatar and the IMS stepping in if needed plus Bahrain to host again

 

Qatar looking very likely now. Would make for a middle-east triple header to end off the season.

 

I've played the Losail circuit in the MotoGP games and is decent on that but how that'll translate to F1 remains to be seen. Always intrigued by a new track any way so worth giving it a try.

Qatar that could be interesting, we shall see what happens there.

 

 

Fernando Alonso will stay at Alpine for the 2022 Formula 1 season.

 

The double world champion returned to F1 this season with the team after two years away.

 

Alpine chief executive officer Laurent Rossi said: "Fernando has impressed us all since he returned to the sport at the beginning of this year.

 

"His dedication, teamwork and focus to extract the maximum from the team is incredible to b

Rain apparently forecast for three days at Spa-Francorchamps.

 

 

Hopefully, they said that last year and it was a bone-dry snoozefest of a race.

 

Won't be watching it live this weekend though as I'll be at Silverstone for MotoGP but let's hope we get a Spa thriller.

great about Alonso's renewal

 

wonder if they'll announce something about Russell/Bottas soon?

Sergio Perez is staying at Red Bull for next year.

Who knows what the last half of the calendar is going to look like?

 

Latest rumblings are that Mugello is tipped to replace Istanbul Park (which wouldn't be a disastrous replacement!).

Losail replacing Australia is a good shout to try out a new track (but non so great in human rights terms...).

Still Japan/Singapore to be accounted for (I think?) and probably (at least) Brazil to be removed - with Indy being touted as a possible choice... COTA also isn't a certainty with the prevalence of covid in Texas...

 

It's musical circuits!

Turkey is literally doing the hokey cokey this year.

 

Singapore & Japan have already been confirmed as cancelled. I would like a return to Mugello, proved to be a decent race last year.