Opinion: Where Did It All Go Wrong for Nyck de Vries ?

The big news to come out of the world of Formula One today is that Alpha Tauri driver; Nyck de Vries, has lost his seat at the team for the remainder of the season. His replacement? None other than everyone's favourite Aussie - Daniel Ricciardo, who drove for the team back in the day when they were named Toro Rosso. But where did it go oh so wrong for de Vries? Let's dig in.

As we know, de Vries has had a relatively successful motorsport career thus far, starting with numerous karting championships which led to backing from the McLaren Young Driver Programme. Since making the switch to single seaters, the Dutch driver has won championships in Formula Renault, Formula 2 and Formula E before getting a chance to race at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, where he stood in for an unwell Alexander Albon at Williams. His 9th place finish on debut impressed many, specifically catching the eye of Dr Helmut Marko - the head of Red Bull's Driver Development Programme, who signed him to race full time for the Alpha Tauri team in the 2023 Formula One season, partnering Yuki Tsunoda. However, 10 races into the season, de Vries lies last in the championship standings with zero points and several racing incidents to his name. And, with Red Bull being notorious for dropping drivers mid-season, the "sacking" of de Vries doesn't come as a surprise. Just disappointment.

As mentioned before, de Vries boasts extensive experience and an impressive resume and I believe Red Bull's expectations of him were incredibly high. Possibly too high. They wanted him to be the new star of Formula One and use his expertise to help move Alpha Tauri forward in the rankings. However, he was given a car that performed way below expectations and raced alongside a teammate with a lot more experience in F1. It should be quite natural for him to be behind, especially in his first full F1 season. So, why, after only 10 races, have Red Bull shunned the rookie driver? Should they have let him race the remainder of the season? It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but I think the answer lies at the main team in the form of Sergio Perez.

It's no secret that Perez is under pressure and under-performing at the main Red Bull team. And, with Red Bull loaning Ricciardo, their third driver, to Alpha Tauri, rather than the team taking on a different Red Bull Junior such as Liam Lawson or Ayumu Iwasa; things are pointing towards a direction that could potentially come across as a stark warning for Perez to improve his performance, or else. And, all of this at de Vries' demise.

However, at the end of the day, despite his performance, de Vries has become another victim of Red Bull's ruthlessness. Although, this has to be the most cruel sacking, by far. I feel for de Vries because he's not a bad racing driver. He's a champion. Still, it's a harrowing reminder just how cutthroat the world of motorsport, especially F1, can be.

Race Report: British Grand Prix 2023

Formula One took a trip to the place where it all began this weekend with the 74th running of the British Grand Prix; the oldest race on the calendar. And, with the usual unpredictable Silverstone weather, the weekend was sure to throw up some surprises. From Williams' dominate performances in all three free practice sessions to McLaren's stunning qualifying, which saw both of their drivers starting the race in 2nd and 3rd. But what shenanigans would the race bring? Let's find out.

Despite a morning that saw wet Formula 3 and Formula 2 races, the sun shone down on the Formula 1 grid with an overall 40% chance of rain. And, for what seems like the millionth time this season, it was Max Verstappen and Red Bull on pole, lined up just in front of the two McLarens. Another disastrous qualifying for the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez meant he was starting all the way down in 15th.

The removal of the tyre covers revealed a number of different strategies up and down the grid with George Russell, Esteban Ocon and the Alpha Tauri's of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries starting on softs. Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas are on hards and the rest, mediums. Once the formation lap is over, the race begins.

Surprisingly, Verstappen struggles off the line, giving Lando Norris the edge. The McLaren takes the lead going into the first turn, his teammate; Oscar Piastri, challenging the Red Bull behind. Slightly behind the leaders, the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton goes wide, dropping the home hero into 9th. With plenty of battles up and down the field, it's Norris that continues to lead at the end of lap 1.

At the end of the second lap, DRS is activated with Norris trying to keep at least a one second gap to Verstappen. By lap 4, the Red Bull gets DRS and begins his attack, passing Norris a lap later. Perez, in the other Red Bull, is also starting to make progress, overtaking the Williams of Logan Sargaent for 15th...

After passing the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz at the start, Russell now has his sight set on the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Russell has the advantage being on softs whereas the latter is on mediums. But alas, with some interesting defending from the Ferrari, the Mercedes has to yield at Stowe. Hamilton, however, is recovering from 9th and is all over the back of Fernando Alonso for 7th. He makes a move down the Wellington Straight and flies past the Aston Martin. Back at McLaren, team orders are now in effect as they attempt to hunt down Verstappen and pull away further from 4th placed; Leclerc.

Hulkenberg in the Haas is the first driver to pit after slight contact with Perez damages his front wing. Ocon is next to pit but this looks terminal as he is wheeled back into the garage with a hydraulics issue. Verstappen reports over team radio that his "car's pulling is a bit weird." His engineer dismisses this and tells the race leader it is because of windy conditions - a normality at Silverstone.

Verstappen, who is now three seconds ahead of the McLarens, reports "light drizzle" over team radio. Russell is also reporting drops of rain. This doesn't stop Tsunoda from pitting for a new set of tyres, however. He's fitted with softs for his next stint. Talking of tyres, there's a lot of tyre management going on at the front of the field which is hampering Russell from moving forward on the softs. However, he's not stuck for long. Ferrari call Leclerc in from 4th, fitting him with the hards. The team also inform Sainz of a strategy change but this seems to cause a little bit of a problem with the Spaniard unable to remember what "Plan B" is. Sainz then comes in on lap 26, also switching onto the hards. It isn't long until Russell, Perez and the McLarens also take the plunge, switching onto different tyre compounds - medium, softs and hards respectively.

Back at the front, it's Verstappen who leads with a nine second gap to Norris. However, it's the other Red Bull setting purple sectors. Perez takes the fastest lap with a 1:31.408. Russell finds himself stuck behind Leclerc again. Quite reminiscing of the earlier laps. But this time he quickly clears the Ferrari, taking the outside line around Luffield.

The Haas of Kevin Magnussen has stopped on the Wellington Straight which brings out the Virtual Safety Car that is followed by the main Safety Car. Numerous drivers manage to bag themselves a cheap pitstop including Verstappen and others who have already made one stop before hand. It's Hamilton, however, that has seemed to gain the most from those stops, coming back out onto track in 3rd place, ahead of both Piastri and Russell. But for Ferrari, it's the complete opposite. They find themselves in 7th and 10th after a 4th and 5th start. At the restart, the top ten is Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton, Piastri, Russell, Alonso, Sainz, Perez, Albon and Leclerc. With only a handful of laps remaining, Verstappen bolts leaving the rest of the field trailing in his wake.

Norris finds himself with a Mercedes hot on his heels. He manages to defend for his life but gives Verstappen the chance to extend his lead to two seconds. At the back end of the top ten, Albon is driving well, keeping the Ferrari behind the Williams. Surely DRS will start to play a starring role in this soon?

Out of the points it's Lance Stroll vs Pierre Gasly, with the former going over the white line while passing the Alpine. However, despite everyone thinking he'd need to give the place back to Gasly, it's just a deleted lap time and a slap on the wrist for the Canadian. In the lead, Verstappen sets the new fastest lap. 1:30:275.

Things go from bad to worse for Ferrari with Sainz, on hard tyres, dropping back to P10. He is passed by Perez, Albon and Leclerc - all on faster tyre compounds. The Spaniard then momentarily drops to 11th when Gasly launches an attack. But a bold move for the Ferrari driver sees him keep 10th. Not long after, Gasly pulls off at Vale with what looks like a rear suspension issue. Later replays show us that he got into a tussle with Stroll.

Norris, another driver who was under threat, has pulled over one second ahead of the Mercedes meaning he is clear of any attack aided by DRS. Although three seconds back from the lead, he seems to be matching times with Verstappen. Back in 7th, after passing Sainz, Perez is on the move again. This time he passes Alonso for 6th. Gasly eventually makes it back to the pits. A double DNF for Alpine.

Just moments away from the chequered flag now and it's the other black and white flag which is getting some use. Both Norris and Russell have been warned over track limits. *Flashbacks to Austria.* Stroll, who earlier received the black and white flag, has now received a five second time penalty for his collision with Gasly. Currently in 11th, the Aston Martin driver won't be scoring today.

Back at the front, after 52 laps, it's Verstappen who wins the British Grand Prix. Norris brings home 2nd for McLaren and Hamilton is in 3rd. Piastri, in 4th, gets his best result of his F1 career thus far. Then comes Russell, Perez, Alonso and Albon with the two Ferraris rounding out the points.

The biggest question from today has to be "what happened at Ferrari?" It's a question we seem to ask weekend after weekend. Strategy is the bane of their existence, it seems. But, kudos to McLaren. After a difficult start to the season, this is what the team from Woking needed. Let's hope they can keep this up!

Next up is Hungary in two weeks time. See you then!

Opinion: My Thoughts on the 2024 F1 Calendar

It's that time of year already when the Formula One social media accounts bless us with next season's race calendar. And, although, in places, it has a relatively similar lay out to 2023, there are some obvious differences. So, without further ado, let's dig deeper into 2024.

The 2024 season will begin in Bahrain at the Sakhir Circuit on the 29th February with the race taking place on the Saturday evening, rather than the Sunday. This will be repeated one week later in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Elsewhere, Japan moves to April and Azerbaijan to September in an attempt to "regionalise" the races and reduce the sport's carbon footprint. Also, in addition to the Summer break, an Autumn break has been added in September/October. Everything else is pretty much staying static with the season ending in Abu Dhabi on the 8th December. With 24 scheduled races, a number of these being double or triple headers, as long as no race is cancelled, we're in for the longest season of F1 ever.

So, what do I make of this newly released schedule? Keep reading on to find out.

Firstly, let's address the number of races. I, like every other F1 fan, craves race day. However, is 24 races one too many? For fans, maybe not, but for teams, drivers, F1 personnel; most definitely so. It makes for a very long year, logistically and personally. In previous years, 20 races was the average but, with the ever increasing global popularity of the sport, Formula One see's a gap in the market and if they can cater for more races, which in time creates more footfall, then of course they will. It is a business after all.

And, what about these Saturday races? What's going on with that? Technically, a Saturday race is nothing new with the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix taking place on Saturday 18th November. But still, a Saturday race, unless it's the Sprint, is unusual for Formula One and a quite leap away from tradition.

Initially, I was against the idea but then I looked into it a little bit more and learnt that the Middle Eastern Saturday races were to respect Ramadan which begins on Sunday 10th March. A fair enough reason to change precedings, I must add. It's important for F1 and other motorsport series to respect the cultures and traditions of the countries they visit. If fans don't like it, well, tough.

F1 has become quite notorious over the years for how they schedule races within a calendar season. For example, we quite regularly see a back-to-back race that usually involves Canada and a European race. With the increased use of social media, many fans have made the call for F1 to "regionalise" the races, especially with the sport so adamant about making a change environmentally. And, to be fair, F1 has heard and has made changes for 2024. The Japanese Grand Prix has moved from the Autumn to the Spring and vice-versa for Azerbaijan, slotting them into the relevant places where F1 will be at that time of year. For me, that makes a lot of sense. However, not all race venues were up for a change. Canada still sits in the middle of the European leg but can their reasons be justified as to why they won't move? I suppose so. Their reasoning? Weather and wildfire season. Maybe it's not so easy to change races around as we thought. Regardless, having Japan in Spring and Azerbaijan in Autumn will be weird but when the time comes, I doubt we'll even realise the difference.

As we've already established, this is F1's longest season to date and they've no doubt packed it full of action. However, what went unoticed by myself at first, is a cheeky, little Autumn break at the end of September/beginning of October, which is brilliant for everyone on the road with the F1 circus. Although if I was apart of this so-called circus, I think I'd rather power on through to the end of the season and instead have a longer Winter break. But, that's just me.

The last thing I want to mention is that Abu Dhabi is the season finale and has been for some time now. If I was to change anything in the calendar it would be this. Remember the 2012 season finale in Brazil? That was pure, epic racing. A real adrenaline rush to end the season on. With Abu Dhabi, we don't really get that excitement anymore. I guess it is what it is.

In all honesty, it's not a bad calendar. It's just really busy. Bin off some boring, street circuits and change the season finale and it's pretty much there. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

Now, I better start planning for 2024 else it'll be here!