Nobody has ever won a Grand Prix after their 300th start.

Nobody has ever won at the same track 9 times.

Nobody has won a race 17 years after their first.

Today, Lewis Hamilton changed all that.

And as Lewis Hamilton crosses the chequered flag, there are no cars ahead of him, and that can only mean one thing: LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE 2024 BRITISH GRAND PRIX. He takes home his 104th win. Phew, this is one of the many reasons Silverstone is one of my favorite tracks of the season. There will never be a moment during the race when something is not happening.

Before we get going, I would like to address two very important things. First of all, I apologize for going MIA these past few races; they weren’t very interesting anyway. Second of all, if you mention ANYTHING about Charles’ race today, you will be blocked. ;) Now that that’s settled, let’s talk racing.

I’ll be covering many things in today’s blog, from past races which I haven’t written on to, of course, the race that happened today. I’ll be talking about race pace, strategy, and, of course, my opinions. (If you can’t tell already, I like talking about my opinions.)

Starting off strong, Charles Leclerc won the Monaco Grand Prix! (Did I cry? Yes.) And after 93 years, a local from Monaco wins the Monaco Grand Prix. I won’t be talking about the race because it was SO boring, but I loved watching Leclerc lead the pack. (In a way, the title of today’s blog belongs to Charles as well.)

The Canadian Grand Prix was shortly after the Monaco Grand Prix. To put it into words, really, the real fight was between McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull. And to be honest with you, I’m pretty sure I slept through the Canadian Grand Prix after watching maybe ten laps. (Thank you, F1 TV, for the highlights of each race; you’re my savior.) To put it simply, Lando almost caught up with Max, but he didn’t, and Max won the race.

The Spanish Grand Prix was the first race weekend out of the three in a row. It also included a sprint race which was set at around 3:00 am from where I live, so I snoozed past it. Again, not a very interesting sprint. This was Carlos’ last home race in Ferrari, and I don’t want it to end. Can the 2024 season last forever, or..? Unfortunately, he was not the lead Ferrari in the race, and Charles finished in front of him, stirring up a little drama between them. You can go to Drive To Survive and watch that, as I will not be talking about that in depth. ;) Anyways, long story short, Red Bull won again.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. The Austrian Grand Prix is underway, and during the first maybe 50 laps, there wasn’t anything going on. Until, Lando caught up to Max, and they started a brawl for first position. What was the outcome? Lando DNF and Max going down to P5. Let me explain; Lando and Max made contact and both got a puncture in their wheels. Sadly, Lando had to retire the car, but Max got to keep racing. But guess who stole that front position from the both of them? George. George Russell wins the Austrian Grand Prix! He’s had the pace all weekend and was ready to pounce when the two leading cars left the track.

OKAY. Finally, after all that past race talk, we are here to talk about the British Grand Prix! Let’s just say, it really wasn’t Ferrari’s day. Or…actually, any of the strategists’ days. Deep breaths, right? Deep — WHO MADE THOSE STRATEGY CALLS?? (See, this is where my opinions get in the way of race talk.) WHO ON EARTH told Leclerc to head down to the pits and get Intermediate tires when it wasn’t raining?? I flinched every time I saw him struggling below the points. FAR below the points, mind you. I swear, Leclerc broke the Monaco curse, but it was for a cost, to say the least, as that curse is HAUNTING him. They messed up BIG on Leclerc’s end, but Sainz’s race went pretty well.

Okay, moving on to McLaren. They also messed up strategy calls that cost them places, and the Mercedes did some things that gained them an advantage over the two Papayas. For example, when Lando came into the pits for a change of tires, Oscar Piastri didn’t follow through behind him, and he started another lap with worn-out intermediates on a dry track. The Mercedes, on the other hand, double-stacked their pit stop and gained a huge advantage over the other cars. To be fair, it didn’t really matter in the end because George was called into the pits a few laps later to retire the car from a suspected water system problem.

Where is the dominating driver, you may ask, in the scheme of things? He was in the pack, not far behind, but not attacking either. Until he came into the pits and put on a set of hard tires. He was on FIRE on his hard tires, and for a second, I was holding my breath because I really did NOT want him to steal Lewis’ last home race win in Mercedes. In the end, Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix in the Mercedes for the last time ever, and I can die happy.

Okay, to sum it all up, over the past few races, Mercedes’ race pace is definitely quicker than Ferrari’s, and, of course, I really don’t know what goes on in the Ferrari strategists’ minds, but hopefully, they figure out their things soon. McLaren has the race pace to win a race, but, of course, mistakes happen, and mistakes cost them the winning trophy. Red Bull is still dominating, although this season is pretty fun as Max has only won 6 out of the 12 races so far.

So who’s in the fight? Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and HOPEFULLY Ferrari.

I apologize for this long blog, but I definitely had a lot of fun writing it. And I also apologize again for not posting, but hopefully, this blog makes up for it! Thanks for reading.

much love,

aashna

Is McLaren and Ferrari finally catching up to Red Bull? The answer is yes. And that isn’t just opinions, those are facts — facts I’ll be discussing today.

Before we begin, here’s a quick overview of what happened during Qualifying and the Race. Max Verstappen clinched pole position, with Oscar Piastri in P2 before a penalty was applied. Lando Norris secured P3. After a penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen moved Piastri down to P5, Norris moved up to P2, and Charles Leclerc to P3.

During the exciting Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen finished first, Norris second, and Leclerc third. Here’s the exciting part: if there had been just two more laps in the race, Norris might have won his second Grand Prix. How do I know this? From the data.

The official F1 Instagram posted a graph showing the gap between Verstappen and Norris from lap 43 to lap 63. On lap 43, the gap was 7.5 seconds. By lap 63, the gap had shrunk to just 0.7 seconds. This means that in just 20 laps, Norris significantly closed in on Verstappen — something that seemed unthinkable at this time last season.

Additionally, before Norris started closing the gap, Charles Leclerc was also gaining on Verstappen. As any F1 fan knows, overtaking at Imola is notoriously difficult, with the best opportunities being the last turn with DRS enabled. This challenge is why neither Norris nor Leclerc could overtake Verstappen despite their impressive pace.

So the question is; “Is Red Bull’s Dominance coming to a close?” Let me know in the comments!

with love,

aashna

“And after five long, ruthless, hardworking, disappointing, happy, years…Lando Norris wins his first Formula One Grand Prix. He takes his win in the United States, where all the stars are, Miami, Florida.” -quote on quote, me.

Oh safety car, how much I love you; safety car. If you didn’t watch the race, Logan Sargent crashed out and a safety car was deployed while Norris was still first, because you lose less time during a safety car while pitting, Norris came out in front and led the race to the finish after the safety car.

DAMN. That was a good race. I’m still sort of internally crying that I couldn’t watch it live and feel the thrill. (I found out Lando won before watching the recorded race.)

Although it was a great race, I only have a couple of view points to talk about and some opinions! First and foremost, I deeply apologize for not posting a blog for the Chinese Grand Prix, finals are coming up for me and I am studying all day :)

Okay, let’s talk F1 now. Starting off strong with the race start. Max led the race, with Perez and Sainz overtaking Leclerc and fighting for P2. Perez locks up and eventually has to back down as Leclerc overtakes Sainz for P2.

When does the action start, you may ask? LAP 29, when a safety car was called out after a collision with Kevin and Logan. The Williams hit the barriers, letting Norris, who was leading at the time because he did not pit yet, pit during the safety car and hang onto first place.

Norris maintained a steady gap from Max all the way to the chequered flag when he crossed the line, seven seconds ahead of Max, winning his first ever Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc came in second with Sainz in fourth.

Did I cry? Yes. Am I still proud? Yes.

Just a disclaimer, a couple other things happened in the race, but I won’t be going into detail in those just because I mainly wanted to focus on Lando’s win and I’m still quite busy!

A couple of things happened since the last time I posted, like Sauber kicking out their two drivers at the end of the season, leaving them with no contract for the next year, alongside Sainz who is still looking for a team.

Before I leave things here, I’ll talk a little about the Sprint. Max won the 2024 Miami Sprint, with Charles behind him and Sergio behind Charles. Lando Norris was out on the first turn of the Sprint, and look at what happened!! He won a race the next day.

Rumors were going around that if Daniel didn’t start performing well, Liam will be replacing him. During the Sprint, Daniel qualified and finished fourth. BUT, during the race he qualified twentieth and finished fifteenth. So…I’m not really sure what’s going to happen now. I personally want Liam to replace Daniel, but that’s just my opinion!

Rumors are also going around that Logan will be getting replaced after the Miami Grand Prix. No further news around that yet, but I also personally think he should and will get replaced.

Well, that’s it for today. Thanks so much for reading!!

with love,

aashna

Before we begin today’s blog, I’d like to take a second and remember Jules Bianchi. Jules Bianchi died ten years ago in France due to a horrible accident in the Japanese Grand Prix. He was Charles Leclerc’s Godfather. Though he is gone, he will not be forgotten.

Charles Leclerc was leading the Grand Prix on lap 17. 17 was Jules’ number.

—

“…and Max Verstappan wins the — ” Yeah, yeah, blah blah. The real race, is behind Max and that’s what I’ll be focusing on today. I’ll be talking about the tactics of the race, the drama, and MY opinions.

First of all, I’m going to be super straight forward here. I do not think Daniel deserves the seat for next year. Let me get this straight, Daniel is cool, he’s nice, funny and has talent but his prime time is over, and he’s getting a little overrated. I really don’t want a repeat of last season where Nyck got replaced but I think, if Daniel doesn’t improve his performance, Liam Lawson will take over. I’m also a HUGE Liam Lawson fan so I might be getting a little biased here but then again these are my opinions. If you didn’t get to see the race, on the first lap Daniel and Alex crashed and caused a thirty minute red flag. Who was at cause? Daniel.

Since I’m on a roll with opinions right now, I’m going to talk about drivers contracts and such. Already, I think you know where I’m going with this. First of all, I am still super mad about Ferrari's decision. Ferrari has been trying to get Hamilton to join them for ages so when this opportunity came they took it. Literally why. It was a horrible decision, there have been four races so far and every race Sainz has been on the podium. It’s quite obvious Ferrari favors Charles more than Sainz which I find stupid. Sainz is in his prime right now and he’s doing so well.

If they could cancel the contract, (I’m sure they could, it would just be really expensive.) I would make a petition for it to happen. (Sorry Lewis.)

Okay, now here’s something I’ve been thinking about. I doubt Perez will be getting a seat in Red Bull next year so..Sainz to Red Bull?? He’d be the second driver, since Max will be the first obviously. But still, imagine that dynamic, oh my God. And hold on, Sainz in a red bull suit?? Save me now.

A lot of rumors are going around that he’s talking with Mercedes and I want to go to his face and scream; “NO!” Because, if he goes to Mercedes I might start crying. First of all, it’s a big downgrade. Ferrari to Mercedes? Especially how Mercedes is performing? That would NOT be a Smooth Operator moment. (I’m listening to Smooth Operator right now.)

I personally think, (Okay, here’s my take on the drivers next season.) Mick and George (Or Sebestian Vettel??) at Mercedes. Max and Carlos at Red Bull. Ferrari and Mclaren are already confirmed. Alex, I think will get the seat again for William’s unless another team offers him a spot which would be unlikely. Yuki? Definitely AlphaTauri still, he’s doing so good. Pierre and Estaban? Probably Alpine still. I think the rest of the grid is safe. Except for Logan.

Did anyone else see Logan literally P11 until he pitted and went down to last? Yeah, I was super proud of him. I’ve never been much of a Logan Sargent fan, but I’m proud of him. He’s trying his best even if it’s not working out so well. I know this race is all about winning but something my parent’s always tell me is that you just have to try your best and leave the rest to nature/God (If your religious.)

OKAY. Moving on from my opinions, let’s get into the race tactics. Aside from Max winning the race, this was a pretty interesting race in my opinion. And you should believe me on that because I was watching it at like 10:30pm and if it’s not an interesting race, I fall asleep usually but this race? Wide awake the entire time.

Let’s talk about Ferrari's strategy. Because oh my God?? Charles’ one stop pit worked perfectly and he managed his medium tires so well. I was super proud of him, he deserved Driver of the Day and more. Ferrari just did excellent in today’s race.

We got a little insight on how Stroll’s opinion on the Aston Martin’s straight speed. (It’s bad.)

As well Hamilton, who was not pleased at all.

Everyone’s strategy this race was good and it was lovely to see the over taking skills. Like Yuki who did an excellent move two times, and his home crowd absolutely loved it. (Congrats Yuki for points at your home race!)

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for today’s blog. Thanks for reading! I can’t wait to take a dive into more F1 content in the coming weeks!!

With love,

aashna

“Carlos Sainz crosses the line, it’s a 1–2 finish for Ferrari, what a comeback for the Spanish driver.” If someone tells me that this race was boring I might rip out all of my hair. Boring? Who on earth is going to say this was boring? “Oh it was just Carlos leading the entire Grand Prix, nothing even happened.” No? Nothing happened? Hmm, what about Max Verstappen retiring on lap 3 ending his 43 race start to finish streak? Or, Lewis Hamilton’s engine failure on lap 17? Or wait, you know what? Better yet, let’s talk about how Carlos had surgery maybe two weeks ago and he just won a Grand Prix.

I’ll be covering many things in today’s blog, and that goes from Logan not racing all the way to Alonso’s penalty.

Starting off strong, Alex crashes in FP1 on turn 6, the team then decides to let Alex take Logan’s car for the weekend and Logan does not race on Sunday. (Or Saturday, wherever you’re watching from!) How do I feel about this? I have mixed feelings, Alex is the one who crashed his car but then again Logan seems to be always finishing last. Obviously it was harsh but if you want what’s best for your team you have to do what you have to do.

Fast forward to Qualifying, Hamilton goes out of Q2 and he starts the race at P11, me personally, I think he’s not in his Prime anymore (obviously) and I doubt he’ll be winning another WC, I think Ferrari made a mistake in Lewis’ contract as he is getting old and will probably not get any better than what he is now. Charles also makes a mistake in the last lap of Qualifying and heads to the pits, he starts fifth on race day.

So, just to clear it up, Max is first, Carlos is second and Sergio is third.

It’s race day! It’s lights out and away we go! Carlos gets past Max, but..is that fire?? Fire smokes up Max’s rear tires and he retires on lap 2, here is a little insight on what Max had to say about this;

“My right rear brake basically stuck on from when the lights went off,” Verstappen said. “The temperatures (in the car) just kept on increasing until the point that it caught fire. They (mechanics) could see what was going on but they don’t know what caused it.”

“We had a lot of good races in a row, I knew that the day would come when you end up having a retirement and unfortunately that day was today.”

With Max gone from the race, a lot of non-red bull fans had a spark of hope that a red bull driver would not be winning. Mhm, well guess who took the win from red bull? Yup you guessed it, it was the same person who took it from them last season in Singapore.

Carlos Sainz. But before we get to the last few laps of the race, let’s talk about Lewis’ engine failure on lap 11. It is NOT a good time to be a Hamilton fan. Or a Mercedes fan for that matter as Russel crashes on the last lap..

Speaking of Russel’s crash, does anyone else remember how Russel crashed on the last lap in Singapore last year too? And that Carlos won that same race as well? And in this race, Carlos won and Russel crashed on the last lap??

ALSO. Alonso got penalized for Russel’s crash?? When clearly, there was space and Alonso literally had nothing to do with the crash? That pissed me off a lot.

Now before I finish, I wanted to talk about Daniel’s performance and “rumors” that if he doesn’t preform better, Liam Lawson will be taking his spot. Now me personally, I don’t think that will be happening because Christan Horner absolutely adores Daniel but if we’re talking about opinion’s I think Liam deserves the seat more than Daniel.

That’s it for today’s blog, it was a beautiful race from start to finish, (if you were a non-red bull fan.) I can’t wait to see what’s coming with the Japan Grand Prix!

With love,

aashna

“He’s won the last six grand prix in a row, he’s a three time world champion, yes you’ve got it right, Max Verstappen crosses the checkered flag winning the first race of the season! It’s a one and two finish for Red Bull, what a start to this year’s season!” (Yes I made that commentary by myself. I stole your thunder didn’t I Alex Jacques.)

The first race of the season finished up this Saturday night in Bahrain. (Saturday morning for me :C ) Not many things happened in today’s race but we do get to see where the teams are on their car, strategy, and drivers! If you haven’t seen today’s race, Max Verstappen came on top, Serigo Perez right behind him* (*by right behind him I mean a good twenty seconds behind him.) And Carlos Sainz in third!

Let’s rewind and head back to the race start! One thing that stood out to me personally was when Max wiggled his car just a little bit to block out Charles from taking first place. And then again, a few laps later, George aggressively took second place from Charles. Lewis was all the way in ninth when all of this was happening, so obviously George was the lead driver in today’s race for Mercedes.

Here’s the thing about Ferarri. In my opinion, and it’s been shown by data; they are amazing on one laps (Qualifying) and then they mess up in the actual race. Or at least that’s how it was last season. This first race I think the race pace was pretty good just some unlucky braking issues for Charles.

I forgot which corner it was, but I think it was one of the last but everyone kept on having trouble with braking and they kept going off the track, did anyone else notice that?

Also, before I start talking about the other half of the grid I felt like something was wrong with Alonso’s car. Everyone just kept passing him and his car didn’t catch up to them at all! Thoughts on that??

Okay, let’s get to the other half of the grid. If I’m being completely honest I don’t pay attention to them as much as I do to the front of the grid unless one of my favorite teams or drivers is in the back but a few things stuck out to me. By a few things I mean like two things and one was Lance and Nico colliding and Nico having to go into the pits and change his front wing. Unlucky there as he was tenth at the start.

And lastly, Daniel and Yuki and their place swap. That really pissed me off. Just because Daniel is Christan Horner’s favorite he got to go in front of Yuki when Yuki had the faster pace! Let me remind you, it’s like the last two laps and they’re in 13th and 14th place. Why swap them?? It’s the first race of the season! Don’t get me wrong, I love Daniel but that was just plain unfair.

And I think I might wrap it up at that! Boring race in my opinion, I was half asleep so I apologize if I missed anything! (I woke up at 6:45 am) But I can’t wait to see what’s next in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix!

With love,

aashna

The Bahrain Grand Prix is so close. You can almost smell the tires rubbing on the tarmac. Almost hear the roars of the engine as they whizz past you. But before we get into the racing we need to process what happened during the off-season. For my personal opinion, I still can’t believe Lewis is going to Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season, like WHAT??

But before we get into the drama, I’d like to talk a little about me; Lando and Charles are my favorite drivers. Basic..a little but I have good reasons.

Charles for one is my favorite, not just because of his looks (though he is very pretty (: ) but because of his mindset, his skill, and his goals. One of my favorite stories of Charles is when he was in F2, racing for PREMA; this was in 2017. His father had passed away earlier in the week and Charles went and raced anyway. He fell to last place but fought his way back up and won the race. He was a kid, a boy, who had just lost his father. To have that kind of mentality..it’s just amazing to me.

Lando. Oh Lando. I don’t think I have a solid reason why I like him. I think he has the skill, the patience, and the mindset to win his first race. He’s gotten close. So close. I believe he’s going to achieve it. Soon. (He’s also very funny.)

If you haven’t figured it out already, my favorite team is Ferrari. Mclaren is a close second. If you look at me and I don’t tell you that I’m a Ferrari fan, you would never guess that I am. I have all the Mclaren merch you could possibly think of. (Ferrari please extend your merchandise to the USA). I believe in Ferrari. I know we’re not doing so well at the moment, but we’re getting there, don’t worry!

Okay. Now let’s move onto Lewis Hamilton. For me, Lewis is the star of Mercedes. I didn’t start watching F1 until just last March, but my dad, who has been watching F1 for over 25 years now, has seen all the eras of Lewis. When I was younger, sometimes I would hear my dad talking about Lewis, and my response was always; “Did he win?” Because..at that time, he would always win. When I first heard the news of Lewis leaving Mercedes I was shocked. I thought Lewis and Mercedes were a “ride or die” type of duo, but I guess I thought wrong. I always thought Lewis would retire in Mercedes. I just can’t imagine him in anything but silver.

Where will Carlos go? I would think Sauber, as it will be turning into Audi in the 2026 season. That’s just my thoughts, since it would be a fresh start, a new beginning, and I think Carlos deserves a new beginning, especially because of how Ferrari has treated him. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ferrari, but I do think they could’ve treated Carlos better and they could’ve treated Charles and Carlos equally because they both have an enormous amount of skill and talent.

Who will replace Lewis’ spot? I personally would like it to be Mick. Hass treated him horribly and he deserves the seat more than anyone. I haven’t seen him drive much but I know he’s gone through a lot and deserves a chance. Maybe this is a sign. Just like how Liam Lawson replaced Daniel for a few races and showed everyone that he deserves a seat in the near future.

Before I end it at that, the first testing of the season happened a couple of days ago and if you didn’t see the results, Max was one second faster than everyone else! Who else is ready to hear the Dutch Anthem every weekend? I for one am not ready and would much rather hear the Monaco Anthem! Just my opinion. :)

I hope you liked to read my thoughts and consider following me for more F1 content.

With love,

aashna