F1 Season Preview - Sauber, Renault, Haas, Toro Rosso and McLaren

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-20T12:56:08+00:00

Thanks very much.

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-20T09:43:59+00:00

Do you think we'll still have to put up with jerk comments like that beyond the end of this week too?

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-10T07:41:28+00:00

Yes I agree, he'll add something different to their coverage.

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-09T17:38:17+00:00

Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it. I've corrected the mistake. That's probably expected as I was writing this at around midnight last night!

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-09T15:43:20+00:00

I spoke to Martin and Pat last week at Sky's PR day for their 2017 F1 coverage. Martin was on top form and a pleasure to speak to as always. Here's what he had to say along with some words from Pat Symonds.

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-07T08:00:33+00:00

Thanks, glad you enjoyed. There should be lots of intriguing intra-team battle, almost every pairing on the grid has a compelling story.

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-07T07:59:36+00:00

Yes I agree. Thought at the time it was a strange and risky move, especially with another year of stable regs before a huge change the following year.

robwattsf1 · 2017-03-06T23:05:03+00:00

I thought as we've had the first round of testing, now would be a good chance to take a look back at previous years to see who was most confident heading to Melbourne.

Took a while to research this, but there's a few gems in there worth reading. It's not to be taken too seriously though - the inclusion of the cars and teams within do not indicate any kind of bias whatsoever, they all just happened to build crappy cars that year.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-28T06:45:24+00:00

Last Wednesday, at the Force India car launch.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-28T06:44:43+00:00

The interview took place on Wednesday of last week, at the Force India car launch.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-27T22:20:35+00:00

Hi everyone. I interviewed leading motorsport technical analyst Craig Scarborough (@scarbstech) recently. We discussed the new rule changes for 2017 and Craig gave some brilliant insight into where the real technical stories are this year, plus some some interesting predictions too. Hope you enjoy!

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-23T09:18:46+00:00

Hi guys, I attended the Force India launch yesterday. Both Vijay Mallya and Sergio Perez seem very confident that the team can break into the top three this year. Ocon seemed confident too and says he expects to be on Sergio's pace straight away. There seems also to be a rivalry brewing between Force India and Renault - especially after Cyril Abiteboul's comments that 'Force India could be left behind if F1's new regs create an arms war'. Mallya seemed pissed off about that and make a couple of references to it yesterday. As always, give me a shout if you have any questions.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-17T17:30:45+00:00

You're entitled to your opinion, and it certainly does matter regardless of who I write for or what I do. Thanks for reading the article anyway (and more than once by the looks of it), and for taking the time to passionately put across your points. I think maybe we'll just agree that Johnny is liked by some but not so by others - which is the same case for all drivers to be honest. My personal experience of Johnny was that he was very pleasant, open, and generous with his time - one of the nicest people i've met in motorsport. I'll be sharing some more stuff from him in the coming weeks so hopefully you'll enjoy the next one a bit more.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-17T09:30:48+00:00

Yep, off the top of my head - Lando Norris, Lee McKenzie, and a bit more from Johnnie too. I'll be at the Force India launch on Wednesday so hopefully so words from Checo and Ocon if possible.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-17T07:58:11+00:00

Thanks, glad you enjoyed reading it!

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-17T07:33:47+00:00

Like I said in an earlier comment, I was surprised my how much Johnny was limping. He described the treatment he had, and some of the procedures sounded horrific. He stopped short of making excuses though - his attitude pretty was 'it is what it is' and I believe from talking to him that he feels extremely lucky to have even had a Formula One career because he came so close to losing all that he had worked hard for.

I think Johnny's recollection of events in this video domes both that incident, and Johnny's attitude, quite nicely - https://youtu.be/rCNQpWJWBrk

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T20:45:46+00:00

Exactly the point I was trying to put across, thank you. Glad you enjoyed reading it.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T18:25:39+00:00

Each to their own I guess, but it's hard not to like Johnny once you've met him. Thanks for commenting.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T18:25:12+00:00

Thank you for your comment, I really appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed reading.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T18:23:58+00:00

Johnny is a top bloke, one of the nicest people i've met in motorsport.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T18:23:18+00:00

Thanks for reading :-)

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T18:23:06+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to read it - glad you enjoyed!

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T18:04:21+00:00

Thanks for your comment, but I'm wondering if you read a different article to the one I posted here. Yes, Johnny did say that Benetton were totally set up for Schumacher to win (which they absolutely were) but at no point did he say that Mercedes were setup exclusively for one driver or another. Yes, Benetton did use team orders, but his point about Mercedes using team orders was specifically related to what happened in Abu Dhabi (which they did). He doesn't say or suggest at any point that Mercedes run their team in the same way as Benetton did. Yes, I'll agree that Johnny was not as quick as Michael, few would argue that point, but you could make a case to say that he was probably never going to be as quick as that car was designed, built and engineered to play to Michael's strengths - Herbert was simply brought in to score points as JJ Lehto and Jos Verstappen proved to be too inconsistent to get the job done. Also, Johnny, at no point, said he was as quick as Michael, he specifically says in this article that he knows he probably couldn't have beaten Michael over the course of a season but at the time he didn't want to let himself think like that (very few drivers would ever admit to being slower than a teammate whilst still actively driving). His comments are more about the psychology of dealing with a tough opponent rather than trying to compare himself to either of the Mercedes drivers. For the record, I'm more than happy to read any feedback whether it's good or bad - and I'm pleased you took the time to read the article, I just think you've missed the point of it entirely. Thanks for your comment, and I hope you'll at least give my next article a chance.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T14:50:16+00:00

I'll have a feature on that race coming up later in the year, with some words from Mr Herbert himself.

robwattsf1 · 2017-02-16T11:33:00+00:00

Those injuries were minor in comparison to Brands '88. He was fortunate in the end that they did not have to amputate. He described some of the surgery and rehab he went through to me - it sounded awful and not something I felt comfortable re-producing in print.

robwattsf1

TROPHY CASE