F1's Fun in France

In 2021 we seem to be being blessed by the Formula One gods, for the first time ever; the French Grand Prix was good. Not only good it was great!

It seems that on pace the Mercedes and Red Bull are quite similar, with maybe a slight edge towards the Red Bull in terms of outright lap-time. Really this race came down to strategy, often enough to make an F1 fan moan (especially if you’re a Ferrari fan!) but really you would have to say Red Bull were very close to losing out with the two stop.

Undoubtedly it was the correct call because it ensured them the race win, but the overtake on Lewis came a lot later than i’m sure anyone on that Red Bull pit wall would have liked. As is the case with strategy calls even if Red Bull had decided they would commit to a one stop then the likely hood is that Mercedes would have tried the two stop but Red Bull made the call and for the risk Red Bull reaps the rewards.

More interesting for me was the strength of the undercut, perhaps the best thing about the degradation of the Pirelli tyres is that it can cause a strong undercut, rewarding those who pull the pin and dive into the pits early. Max made up an incredible amount of time on his out-lap to the point where even the Mercedes mechanics didn’t even understand what had happened to Hamilton’s lead.

Further down the grid it was another solid podium result for Sergio Perez, he’s really showing his worth to Red Bull now and I would be shocked if he doesn’t get an extension for 2022.

Again Lando Norris had a fantastic weekend with another top 6 finish and deserves his contract extension which i’m sure McLaren were only too happy to give Lando, even if it does take him out of the driver market once some of the more elderly on the grid begin to take their leave.

That being said a top 10 finish for both Alonso and Vettel showed that the older generation haven’t lost any of their ability and i’m happy to see both of them outperforming their younger team mates as they start to get back to where we know they should be performance wise.

My heart does go out to the Tifosi, such loyal Ferrari fans must have been bitterly disappointed to go from fighting for pole positions and top 5 positions in Monaco and Baku to not even finish in the top 10 in France. Ferrari’s strategy once again didn’t pay off the way it did for others on the grid as LeClerec stopped first to put the hard tyres on which in a high degradation race like Le Castellet meant he unfortunately didn’t have much of a chance in the dying stages of the grand prix.

Next we’re onto the double header of the Styrian GP and Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring, which if this season is any indication will be another spectacular race.