Showtime Boys ‘N Girls’, let’s get ready to Rock ‘N
roll!
Yessiree Bob’, Bob’s Your Uncle Mateys! As the
longest ever season of Formula 1 with 23 scheduled events on the F1 Calendar is
about to go Green! Although Don’t Jump the Starting lights just yet! Since like
‘Ol Bob Varsha used to say. Before You can go Racing, First You Need to
Qualify!
And with Russia
now Off the F1 Calendar permanently, will formula 1 stand “Pat” at a massive 22
races or will Thar be another replacement for Russia?
Although it’s not the first time with Bahrain
opening the F1 Calendar this Sunday. And Thar better be an Australian Grand
Prix this year Mates! But it just always feels Weird beginning in Bahrain! As I’ll
date Thyself by noting when I began my F1 Odyssey, Thar weren’t any races in the
Middle east, and now there’s four, nearly a fifth of Ye Calendar, but I digress…
2022 Formula 1 Drivers
Mercedes: #44
Lewis Hamilton, #63 George Russell; Red Bull: No. 1 Max Verstappen, #11 Sergio
Perez; Ferrari: #16 Charles Leclerc, #55 Carlos Sainz, Jr; McLaren: #3 Daniel Ricciardo, #4 Lando Norris; Alpine: #14 Fernando Alonso, #31
Esteban Ocon; Scuderia AlphaTauri:
#10 Pierre Gasley, #22 Yuki Tsunoda; Aston Martin: #5 Sebastian Vettel, #18 Lance Stroll; Williams: #6 Nicholas Latifi, #23 Alexander albon; Alfa Romeo: #24
(R) GuanYu Zhou, #77 Valtteri Bottas; Haas: #20 Kevin Magnussen, #47 Mick Schumacher.
(R Denotes Rookie
Driver)
Sorry Folks, but if you’re looking for any Hard
Hittin’ Formula 1 preview, then Y’all have come to the wrong place! Especially
since the first Day’s Practice sessions have already finished.
And Dating Thyself, since I still prefer to
refer to F1 Teams in their respective F1 constructors rankings, I’ve listed the
10 Teams Drivers in order of last year’s finishing order.
As there’s been very little “Real” movement on
the Driver Front, with seven of the ten F1 Teams lineups remaining unchanged.
At least when I began scribblin’ this, since naturally Rooskie’ Nikita Mazepin
was on Shaky ground due to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine!
Obviously the biggest driver move centers round
the Silver Arrows Dumping Valtteri Bottas in favour of young charger George
Russell. With the Mercedes “Junior” Driver being promoted from Team Willy’
after a three year stint.
Filling Russell’s Williams seat this year is
Alexander Albon, who still has ties to Red Bull, making for interesting “Doings”
at Grove, since Williams runs a Merc’ PU (Power Unit) and ancillaries.
This just leaves us with Alfa Romeo’s All New
Driver lineup, since Bottas conveniently replaces his Finnish bosom Buddy Thee
Iceman’, aka Kimi Raikkonen who retired last year.
While much Fanfare will be made over GuanYu Zhou,
the Sport’s first ever Chinese Driver, who’s the only rookie on the F1 Grid
this season. As Zhou who’s 22 years old, finished third overall in last year’s
FIA Formula 2 Championship. Scoring five wins and three Poles during his 68
starts.
Then as we All know, Haas terminated it’s
contracts with title Sponsor Uralkali and Nikita Mazepin (publicly) on Saturday,
March 6th. Although I’d say this Saturday News Dump didn’t go
unnoticed as intended, albeit missing the major News Outlets at least for the weekend.
As this seemed like a No Brainer, especially after
Haas went to the trouble of running a plain white car on the last day of the
Barcelona Shakedown test and removed All Uralkali signage. Just leaving us
wondering who’d become Mick Schumacher’s new teammate?
While you have to love Gene Haas’s comments
during the Las Vegas NASCAR race that Sunday. Where Gene, and I’m just guessing
here, said sardonically: No, we’re fine on Money, it’s just A Bigger Negative
number…
Then on March 9th, one day before
the second and final Pre-season F1 Test began in Bahrain. Haas surprised us all
with the announcement of having re-signed former Haas F1 Team Driver Kevin
Bacon’ Magnussen! Whale’, at least I Didn’t See that coming. Since Kevin
seemingly was tied-up as a Factory Peugeot FIA World Endurance Championship
Driver this year, while I’m not clear on whether or not He was also under
contract to Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sports Car team? Since He thanked both
organizations for letting Him go so quickly…
Kevin previously drove for Haas between
2017-2020, and it’ll be fun seeing how Mick Schumacher stacks up against the
Dane. Since I always felt Magnussen was better than Romain Grosjean was during
their Haas F1 Days!
As now we’ll All just be ah-flutter’ waiting to See if Thars any true Shakeup in the usual F1 Pecking Order at Bahrain and the rest of the season…
