A New World Champion

Yesterday Max Verstappen clinches the Formula 1 World Championship on the very last racing lap. It was a sight to behold and a race that will go down in the F1 history books. 2021 has proven to be the most exciting season of F1 we’ve had in a long time, filled with wheel to wheel racing, controversy, drama and conspiracy. Let’s discuss some of the more noteworthy sections of the final F1 race.

Image Source Beyond The Flag

Lewis Hamilton & Max Verstappen

Let’s start at the beginning. Coming into the final race, rival Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen enter the race with the exact same number of points, so you can disregard everything up until this point, none of it mattered anymore, it all came down to who would win this race. Both drivers had extremely cool nerves despite the absurd amount of pressure on them both. Lewis winning would mean that he dethroned the previous record held by Schumacher by gaining 8 world championship titles. Max on the other hand has had a few close calls, but this was his first real chance to become an F1 champion for the first time, every aspiring F1 drivers dream. To raise the stakes even more, though likely both Redbull and Mercedes will be in dominant positions, the new regulations and rules can change a lot next season, nothing is guaranteed in F1. It was now or never.

Image Source Auto Sport

Lap 1 Drama

It didn’t take long before the first controversy of the race sprung up. Essentially a bit of aggressive driving on Max’s part led to him giving Lewis a “bump”.  This forced Lewis off track, however many thought he cut just a bit too much track in this move, gaining a significant advantage that he held almost the entire race. After complaining to the Fia and race director red bull was told that in their eyes Lewis had slowed down enough to make the time gain void, but not many fans agreed.

Image Source Independent

Sergio Perez Joins The Battle

After deciding to leave Perez (Max Verstappen team mate) out on the field without pitting, on OLD soft tires (the ones that wear the quickest) he was left in P1. He knew he would have to pit eventually so with the last life in his tires he decided to slow Lewis down with some spectacular defensive driving, some of the most exciting battling we’ve seen all year. Checko proved to be an invaluable member at Red Bull Racing.

Image Source The Sun

Playing It Too Safe, Max Verstappen Closes In

Mercedes raced an extremely safe race. It makes sense, the last thing they need is a DNF from Lewis, who was world champion the entire race. Despite several warnings from Lewis about his tire age, and wanting to pit stop for fresh ones, Mercedes would not allow it incase they lost track position. Then with less than 10 to go, Latifi (a Williams driver) hit the barrier, forcing the safety car out. This had several very real repercussions on the race. Firstly it brought everyone close together, including allowing max to gain on lewis. However Redbull seized the moment and put max on fresh soft (the fastest) tires before letting him pursue Hamilton, who was stuck behind the safety car. Now it was a coin flip between two very distinct results.

Either the race would end under safety car, guaranteeing Lewis the victory or there would still be some racing laps to come. The cars that had been lapped by Lewis were allowed to pass the safety car as to not obstruct the two championship rivals in their battle, for safety reasons mostly, but also to give the fans the race they wanted to see.

Despite Lewis and his best efforts and unbreakable sportsman spirit, Max Verstappen and his brand new softs were able to overtake Lewis, on their one racing lap, the final lap. For all 57 laps Lewis was champion, and it was stripped away in the very last lap. It must be soul crushing for the driver. Max and Redbull celebrated the victory but Mercedes protested the win.

The protests were centred around allowing lapped cars through and that Max Verstappen technically “overtook”Lewis during safety when in reality it was his front wheels a few inches ahead of Hamilton, immediately letting off to give back the position.

What Now?

You may think that it’s over. And you wouldn’t be wrong, the FIA overruled Mercedes complaints, leaving the team frustrated and appearing petty. Mercedes has now confirmed they will take this to court in Paris where we can see how the rest unfolds.

The post Max Verstappen Wins The 2021 Formula 1 Championship appeared first on Costa Car Trader.

Top Ten Formula 1 Drivers

Before get into the list of the top ten formula 1 drivers, we just quickly want to clarify this is an objective list based on GP wins, Pole positions and championships won. Everyone has their own subjective favourites but for this list is purely based on statistics and numbers. Here we cover the bottom 5 of the top ten Formula 1 drivers. Let’s take a look at some of the best of the best.

10. Niki Lauda

Image Source DNA

Despite being number 1o on the list, Niki Lauda was and is an inspiration too many. The talent of fearless driver sees him accompanying the all time greats of F1, and if the list was a bit more subjective he’d probably be up there in the top 5 given all he has done for the sport. Niki has 24 pole positions to his name & 25 race wins. He also won 3 championships.

9. Jim Clark

Image Source The Automotive India

Jim Clark was one of the greats, that’s how he ended up on this list. Starting in F1 in 1960 and being a talent that gained many followers and fans left Jim in a great spot during his time as a F1 racer. His 33 pole positions, 25 race wins and 2 championships plant him firmly into the top ten Formula 1 drivers. Niki And Jim could be swapped round without affecting the list too much. In the end we decided the 33 pole positions showed a higher level of consistency than Laudas extra championship on Jim.

8. Jackie Stewart

Image Source Formula1

Jackie Stewart is another name that is almost synonymous with motorsport. He left behind a lasting legacy after his retirement races and has the statics to back him up. Jackie has a total of 27 race wins, 17 pole positions and 3 championships.

7. Nigel Mansell

Image Source The Times

A British driver who stuck it out and is often remember for his incredible determinations and grit, with a staggering 31 race wins. Backed by 32 pole positions and a championship win.

6. Fernando Alonso

Image Source Cozy Hall

My personal favourite driver on the grid. Notably Fernando is still a driver at the time of writing, with the team Alpine. Alonso has had his fair share of controversy but the spaniard has proven time and time again that he is hungry for wins and vicious driver. Fernando has won 2 championships, held pole position 22 times and won 32 races.

This is the conclusion for part one of the list. Stay tuned for the follow up where we will dive into the top 5 drivers of all time!

What Does It Take?

Becoming an F1 driver typically requires a combination of natural talent, physical fitness, mental toughness, and extensive training and experience in karting and other lower-level racing categories. It also often requires financial backing or sponsorship to support the costs of racing at the professional level. Networking and connections within the racing industry can also be helpful in securing opportunities and advancing in the sport. Here are 5 steps to get you started:

1. Developing your racing skills: This typically involves starting with karting at a young age and gradually progressing to higher-level racing categories, such as Formula 4, Formula 3, and Formula 2.

2. Building a network: Making connections within the racing industry and cultivating relationships with teams, sponsors, and other key players can be important for securing opportunities and advancing in the sport.
3. Gaining experience: Racing in a variety of different conditions and environments can help drivers develop the skills and experience necessary to succeed at the F1 level.
4. Pursuing sponsorship or financial backing: F1 is an expensive sport, and many drivers rely on sponsorship or financial backing to support their racing careers.

5. Impressing F1 teams: Ultimately, securing a seat on an F1 team requires demonstrating exceptional talent and potential, as well as making a strong impression on team owners, managers, and other decision-makers.

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The Power Is the Same

The first question many people had about the new F1 cars was that of power, wondering what improvements have been made to the engines and what crazy systems have been developed to squeeze every possible horse power out of the car, however in 2022 the cars will use the same power unit containing a 1.6-litre turbo-hybrid units, which is still the most efficient engines that we have. As well as adding more sensors to the unit to monitors the status of the unit better, mainly in an effort to monitor our next point.

Image Source AUTOCAR

Better Fuel

The new cars have been made with better fuel in mind, currently the fuel is 5.75% biodegradable, F1 said they are working hard on improving the fuel biodegradability to fully sustainable, but in 2022 we can expect it to rise up to 10% biodegradable. It will be referred to E10 fuel – Ethanol 10% Fuel. The main point is that ethanol must be a second generation biofuel made in a sustainable way, which ultimately results in no carbon footprint.

Image Source AUTOCAR

7,500 Tests to Ensure Safety First

The 2022 F1 cars have reportedly been through over 7,500 test and simulations which is equivalent to a petabyte. These tests serve the very important tasks of not just making winning easier, but to keep the drivers safety at the forefront. The car can absorb 48% more impact energy at the front of the car, the back has also seen an improvement of 15% more energy absorption.

Image Source Autosport

More Downforce!

The new F1 cars have a lot of thought put into their aerodynamics, starting with the rear wing we still have our DRS there, but this time the shape of the wing is considered for an important reason. Current F1 car redirect the flow of air too of course, but they’re not very considerate of their fellow racers, leaving pockets of what they call “dirty” air behind them that can seriously slow down and affect the performance of a car driving through it, the new system aims to help combat this by reducing the amount of outward airflow but increasing the height it is ejected at, meaning more fair racing round the board. The second part is the new nose, as you can see it’s quite the sight. The new nose has much stronger downforce but also is much better at dealing with that pesky dirty air we spoke about a moment ago. So we sure hope to see some very close racing in 2022, since there’s way less obstacles to overcome for a close race!

Image Source AUTOCAR

With the 2022 season now concluded we decided to revise the article and make some updates. For those of you who missed it, 2022 started out as a great season with a lot of close racing and actual back and forth battles that were entertaining to watch. The two big rivals being Mercedes and Redbull were being dwarfed by Ferrari who was set up for a legendary comeback. While Mercedes struggled with bouncy cars losing power and Redbull had reliability problems the Ferraris were dominant.

Fans were super excited to see new life in their sport but it was short lived. Before long red bull had fixed their issues and had a few close races with Ferrari. Even Mercedes managed to end the season on a respectable position. But where RB & MB started behind Ferrari, they continued to make their cars better, faster and more reliable where Ferrari seemed to stagnate and made little to no effort to stay ahead of the pack. It’s a real shame then to see how Ferraris team managed to drop the ball so hard when they were being pushed by RedBull. The team strategies, radios and decisions made little sense and it was clear that they were out of their depth.

All of this resulted with an early guaranteed championship for Max Verstappen from RB, with the excitement leaving as quickly as it came.

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