It’s been a busy seven days since Martin Brundle graced the hollowed asphalt outside of the Hard Rock Stadium, destroying the very idea of influencers and celebrities.
It’s been a week that saw engineers on various teams working hard to get upgrades on their machines in time for next week’s Spanish Grand Prix, with Ferrari’s first major development package expected to arrive in Catalunya before the team does. These are the five biggest stories from the world of F1 this week.
Sir Lewis Hamilton Faces Monaco Ban Over Jewellery Row
Seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is set to go head-to-head with the FIA after they announced that they would be cracking down on drivers wearing jewellery. Following the Australian GP, the Race Director’s notes brought up the rules about wearing anything to the description of jewellery on track, however the rule wasn’t really reinforced until now.
Hamilton arrived at his Miami pre-race press conference wearing eight rings, three watches, four necklaces and two earrings, before declaring that it was a “step backwards” from the FIA.
Loveable rogue and trackside reporter Ted Kravitz expanded on the issue on his Notebook show, saying: “He’s taken his earrings out but he can’t take out his nose [stud] and we thought he was going to have minor surgery to take out the nose [stud],”
“Hamilton’s now saying that he will not take out his nose [stud].”
The Mercedes driver could be on the end of a book-throwing exercise, with the FIA rarely budging to driver’s demands in recent years. Kravitz continued to explain on his show, “If the FIA decide not to scrutineer the driver, which it looks like they can, they can stop Lewis from going out of the pit lane at the beginning of Friday practice because he hasn’t been scrutineered.”
It looks like Lewis will try and open a dialogue with FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem and find a resolution, but it could get a bit grim if it’s not a favourable one.
Sebastian Vettel Makes BBC Question Time Appearance
In something we didn’t expect to see this year, Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel appeared on the BBC’s long-running political open-mic bonanza Question Time, discussing the topic of climate change alongside Fiona Bruce and a gaggle of political figures.
It’s not a secret that Seb is passionate about the world he lives in, from enrolling on an organic farming course during lockdown, or wearing a T-shirt last week that said the Miami GP would be underwater by 2060 due to rising sea levels. The 53-time race winner acknowledged that he’s a “hypocrite” for wanting change and racing petrol fuelled machines around the world, but it’s clear that he wants what’s best.
“I am not a saint but I am very concerned about the future. It is something I ask myself [whether I should be racing in Formula One] and travelling the world.
“It is my passion to drive a car and I love it, and every time I step in a car I love it, but when I get out I am thinking: ‘is this something we should do, travelling the world and wasting resources?”
Incredibly poignant from the German four-time world champion and he followed up his public appearance with a more private one. He appeared at HMP Feltham encouraging young offenders to pursue careers in engineering whilst promoting the new workshop opened on site for the offenders to work with motors.
McLaren Restricts Drink Allocation To Save Weight
Daniel Ricciardo lifted the lid on McLaren’s new choice of weight reduction on the cars, with the struggling team removing some of the water from the drink system out of the MCL36.
With weight reduction being hard to come by this year and potentially meaning so much in terms of qualifying and race pace, it would be safe to say that the team in Orange aren’t the only ones doing this tactic to reduce weight whilst potentially compromising their drivers.
Speaking to motorsport.com, the Australian said: "It's tough as well, because I mean, everyone's obviously fighting for that last bit of weight.
"So we don't have the luxury of putting three litres in the drink system. So we have a little bit, and it's never enough fluid. So naturally, you're gonna get dehydrated. And yeah, this heat was pretty real.”
Dehydration is never something you want to happen in a sport where reaction time and concentration are the difference between life and death.
Miami Grand Prix Goes Down A Storm In US
The dust had settled on Max Verstappen’s win before ESPN chose to declare the numbers behind the Miami GP, and they were pleased to announce that it was the largest American audience for a live Formula One race since the 1995 Brazilian Grand Prix, with the race averaging 2.6 million viewers.
No matter what you thought of The Chicane or the victory football helmets, it clearly went down a treat for viewers across the pond, which will only be encouraging for Liberty Media who will be excited to begin their work in Las Vegas.
It’s not the most-viewed F1 race ever, with that record still belonging to the 2002 Monaco Grand Prix, which was delayed to show on TV station ABC following the Indy 500 broadcast, so technically it wasn’t live. That race averaged 2.76 million viewers so it shouldn’t be long until that record is broken.
Albon’s Red Hair Here To Stay
Before getting underway in Miami, former Red Bull driver Alex Albon explained that he had re-dyed his hair, as he seemed to only score points with red hair.
Of course, Albon managed to pull it out of the bag on Sunday, securing a P10 finish for another point added to Williams’ total. The 26-year-old revealed to Sky Sports that he had a bet with his engineering team before the race, saying: “Before the weekend started, we did say that if I score points this weekend, the whole team were going to dye their hair red,
“I just went to the engineering room and they are all starting to backtrack their comments. They were like, ‘it was a podium’, and I was like, no it wasn’t.”
Hopefully we see an entire red-haired section of the paddock in Barcelona.
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