Can Mercedes fight for the win.
Mercedes’ form has massively picked up since the start of the season and that has shown with Lewis Hamilton getting 5 podiums in a row and George Russell getting a pole position in Hungary. With the new technical directives coming into effect this weekend, George Russell thinks Mercedes could be right up there with Red Bull and Ferrari. Whilst are a bit too far behind to compete for the world championships, they are certainly in a position to finish second in the constructors championship. It would also be nice to see Lewis continue his record of winning a race in every season he has competed in.
Have Ferrari sorted themselves out.
Ferrari could and maybe should be leading both championships, but a mix of bad strategy and engine problems have cost the team from Maranello. Ferrari need to sort these mistakes as otherwise; they are very much looking like a team that is going to finish 3rd in the Constructors Championship despite arguably having the fastest car. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will usually get the best result they can so if Ferrari get everything right, they should be gaining a lot of points in the second half of the season and they need to if they want any chance of winning the Drivers' championship.
Drivers in different teams to next year
They where a lot of crazy things that happened during the summer break, with Fernando Alonso announcing he will be moving to Aston Martin for next season and Daniel Ricciardo announcing he will leave McLaren at the end of the season. This is big because these are two drivers that are trying to give there all to ensure that their respective teams finish 4th in the constructors championship. Also, if Oscar Piastri ends up going to McLaren, then creates problems internally for Alpine and also, Danny Ric is probably the favourite to take Alonso’s seat at Alpine next year which is a whole different story. I expect a lot of questions will be asked to these drivers and teams about this situation.
Which of the lower teams can start the second half of the season well.
Alfa Romeo sit 6th in the championship but haven’t scored with either driver in the last 4 races and the car really hasn’t looked that good compared to the start of the season. Haas have also had a tough couple of weekends and need Mick Schumacher to step up his performances if Haas want to score regular points. Alpha Tauri have been pretty horrendous for a while now and I could see them finishing 9th in the standings by the end of the season. Aston Martin have been really poor this season but their car is pretty decent in the race and Vettel and Stroll are either just in or just outside of the points. As for Williams, Albon is driving well but the car is pretty poor. Nicholas Latifi will have a lot of pressure on him given he is driving for his seat. If this track suits one of these teams really well, they could be up there as best of the rest ahead of McLaren and Alpine given the gap between the midfield teams isn’t too far.
Liam Lawson makes his Formula 1 debut
Red Bull junior Liam Lawson will be making his Formula 1 debut when he takes part in FP1 tomorrow. He will be driving in the Alpha Tauri, replacing Pierre Gasly. Even though it is mandatory that the main driver gets replaced by a rookie for a session, it will still be interesting to see how the New Zealander gets on. If he manages to be ahead of Yuki Tsunoda by the end of the session, eyebrows will be raised for both positive and negative reasons. Lawson is also driving in Formula 2 this weekend, so he is going to be busy.
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