Can Checo win at home?
Sergio Perez currently finds himself third in the drivers' championship, just 2 points behind Charles Leclerc in the battle for second. Sergio has scored 114 points in his last 8 races (14.25avg) and has won 2 races this year. The big question is, can he do it in his home country. Last year, he became the first ever Mexican driver to stand on the podium in their home race and now, he’s looking to become the first Mexican to win at his home race. Can he do, yes. Will he do it, I’m not so sure. Now that Red Bull have wrapped up both championships, they can allow for Max and Checo to battle but I think Perez will need some luck if he is going to beat his teammate. We will just have to wait and see.
Will Max break the record this weekend?
From one Red Bull driver to another Red Bull driver, it’s time to talk about the back-to-back World Champion. After Max won the United States Grand Prix last week, he tied both Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel for the most wins in one season. Can he make it a record breaking 14 wins this weekend. I'm pretty confident that Max will break that record, but the question is will he do it this weekend. My answer to that question is yes, yes he will. Over the years, I’ve called this place Maxico. The reason for this is he has dominated this race on 3 occasions and I expect it to become 4.
Alpine VS McLaren is getting very exciting
Currently, Alpine sit fourth in the constructors championship with 144 points, just 6 points ahead of McLaren. Last time out at COTA, Lando Norris earnt his team 8 points whilst Alpine only scored 1. That was due to a post-race penalty which saw Fernando Alonso drop from 7th to 15th. Alpine are actually going to appeal that decision and if they win that, the 5 points that they would gain could become absolutely crucial. It’s a tough one to say which team is going to be faster this weekend but what I would say is Alpine will probably have 2 cars in the fight whilst McLaren will only have 1. McLaren lost out on third place in the constructors because of that last season and it might well cost them P4 this season.
What has happened to Alfa Romeo?
A few weeks ago, it was confirmed that the Alfa Romeo name would be leaving Formula 1, meaning this current team would change their name back to Sauber in 2024. It was then confirmed that from 2026, they would be rebranded as Audi Formula 1 team. To have Audi back in Formula 1 is really cool, but I am almost certain that they will be hoping for more performance than what the current Alfa Romeo is producing. After scoring a combined total of 21 points in two seasons, Alfa Romeo scored 51 points in the first 9 races this season and they were looking really good. That hasn’t been the case recently though as in the last 10 grand prix events, Alfa have only managed 1 point (Zhou at Monza). It’s quite concerning and they need to turn their form around if they are to hold onto 6th in the constructors (they currently lead Aston Martin by a point). Let’s see if they can have a good weekend this time out.
More Rookies to take part in FP1
For the second weekend running, we will see different drivers take part in FP1. However, unlike last week, some of these drivers have already taken part in some of kind of Formula 1 session. In his farewell drive with Mercedes, Nyck De Vries comes in to replace George Russell. I have genuinely never known someone to have driven in as many sessions as he has without being in a full-time seat. After taking part in Free Practice 1 in Belgium, Liam Lawson returns to Alpha Tauri to take part in place of Yuki Tsunoda. I’m also guessing that he’ll end up driving for Red Bull in Abu Dhabi. Pietro Fittipaldi will be making his first appearance of the season in the Haas. Fittipaldi has previously taken part in two Formula 1 races at the end of the 2020 season so I’m a little bit surprised that he makes the cut as an F1 rookie. And finally, Jack Doohan will drive the Alpine in place of Esteban Ocon. I’m really excited for this; he is a driver I genuinely think could be a star in the future.
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