,
I’d like to take a moment to mention Esteban Ocon, the first finisher outside the Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull triumvirate. His 6th place finish wasn’t exactly spectacular, but he has finished every single Grand Prix he has started, a massive 24 races in a row. That is an impressive feat, especially when you consider his first races were for Manor Racing. However, if he really wants to impress, he is going to have to continue to outshine his teammate (Sergio Perez), and work towards podium finishes. Force India has podiumed before under Perez, so Ocon will have to dig deep to really impress.
And to wrap things up, there is McLaren-Honda. This was Honda’s last home race with McLaren, and they were hoping for a good result. An 11th for Alonso and a 14th for Stoffel Vandoorne isn’t much to be excited about. The McLaren-Honda story the last few years has been fascinating. There has been a lot of back and forth about who is at fault for the mess the team is in. Talk to the McLaren folks and you’ll hear that Honda is too closed-door, refusing outside help, and keeping the majority of their development in Japan (unlike the rest of F1 which is based in Europe). Honda promised too much and delivered too little, completely overwhelmed by the challenge that is modern Formula 1. Talk to Honda and you will hear stories of a team with poor design philosophy, poor communication, and stuck in the glory days of a bygone era. McLaren refused to budge on their famous “size zero” packaging philosophy, hampering Honda’s development plans to the point that Honda had to redesign 95% of their engine for 2017 in order to try and catch the other engine builders. The truth really seems to be somewhere in the middle and once this partnership dissolves for good, it will be really interesting to get the full story on how the last four years have gone down. Fernando Alonso seems set to stay with McLaren, but with a lot of freedom to race at Indy again, or perhaps do the 24 Hours of Daytona and/or LeMans. Will Renault bring McLaren back to the front? Well as a McLaren fan, I sure hope so, but McLaren has been in a drought since 2012, years before Honda came on board. It’s entirely possible, but McLaren fans were also expecting a big push through the field this year and it didn’t happen. As for Honda, their new home is with Toro Rosso. Toro Rosso is a team that has been on the brink of great things for years. The STR12 has been an interesting car, looking very much like the Mercedes W08 on debut. In fact, the STR engineers were disappointed with how similar the Mercedes was, as they thought they had stumbled on something quite clever! The team has been hampered with half the budget of their sister team, a rotating cast of drivers, and a mediocre engine. With a new engine, a proven car, and a promising new driver, 2018 could very well be the year they become “best of the rest.” Could they even challenge the Red Bull cars for superiority? Laugh all you want, but Red Bull Racing went from 7th in the Constructor’s Championship to 2nd in the span of one year, and then on to dominate F1 for the next four years after that! Who knows what Honda and STR have up their sleeve for the new year. But while the 2015, 16, and 17 Japanese GPs have been nothing short of disastrous for Honda (zero points scored across 6 entries), this same race could be very different in 2018.
But that’s all a year from now! Up next is the best Grand Prix on the schedule, because it’s in AMERICA. Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas hosts the 17th round of the Formula 1 World Championship. Will Ferrari finally get their act together and challenge Mercedes Benz? Will Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes secure their respective championships? Mercedes only needs to score 5 more points than Ferrari in the USA to mathematically eliminate Ferrari from the Constructor’s championship. Hamilton only needs to score 16 more points than Vettel to secure his own driving crown. It’s all to play for as the F1 circus travels to America. The lights go out at 3:30pm EST on October 22. We’ll be back in 2 weeks to break down that race as well. Don’t miss the shootout that is the US Grand Prix!
