SHANGHAI REVIEW BY BEN STEVENS
Neither Valtteri Bottas nor Kimi Raikkonen
have found the same pace as their teammates, and
are quickly being relegated to number two status.
Knowing the Finns, I’m sure they’ll be torn up
about it.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t give props to Max
Verstappen who once again showed his balls, even
if there’s no hair on them yet. He’s clearly at
home in the wet (a trademark of the two drivers
who owned the past two decades) and deserved his
podium with some on the limit defending.
Although as an Aussie allow me to defend
Daniel Ricciardo by pointing out that Verstappen’s
pass on the Aussie was probably aided by the sort
of aggressive setup starting P17 affords you,
and Ricciardo was definitely quicker in the latter
stages. And no, I’m not bitter. Why do you ask?
Outside the big names, two other “winners”
were Kevin Magnussen – getting his first points
in a very racey Haas, and Pascal Wehrlein –
not bad considering he didn’t even race. Ferrari
may have to pay Sauber to take their engines if
Antonio Giovinazzi has another weekend like this
one.
Also amusing to see Valtteri Bottas’ race
engineer Tony Ross call him “Nico” on team
radio, considering the guy’s a robot who had to
be instructed to cheer for his former charge, I’m
guessing they forgot to update his software.
All-in-all, China was Formula 1 at its best.
Sure, not every race is going to be quite that
exciting, but maybe all the doom-and-gloom in the
preseason was overblown. Will they back it up in
Bahrain? Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long
to find out.