The Greatest Day in Racing

Last year's three winners: Lewis Hamilton, Alexander Rossi, Martin Truex Jr.
(Photo: NBCSN)

There are three days I look forward to every year more so than any others: Christmas, Easter, and the Sunday before Memorial Day.

Considering that's the day with the most prestigious Formula One race, the most prestigious IndyCar race, and (arguably) the second most prestigious NASCAR race, it makes sense that this is one of my favorite days on the calendar.

Say what you want about Monaco and the kind of racing it produces; I still love it. Strategy becomes that much more important considering how it's virtually impossible to pass. Indianapolis only gets better with age. The past few years have seen some incredible finishes, and I expect nothing different tomorrow. Charlotte, NASCAR's endurance race, will be a bit of an unknown this year. There's an extra stage around which teams must strategize, but with stage racing having provided so much excitement this season, I hope for more of the same in the 600.

So who will win? For Monaco, I'm going with Kimi Räikkönen. After snapping a streak of nearly nine seasons without a pole, assuming Räikkönen gets a good start and Ferrari don't mess up his strategy, look for him to win his first race since his return to the Scuderia in 2014. At Indianapolis, I'm going to be bold and pick Fernando Alonso. Why? Why not. He's got the speed, the team, and the talent. Don't be surprised if the two-time F1 World Champion is drinking the milk on Sunday afternoon. Finally, in Charlotte, I'm picking Kyle Busch. Joe Gibbs Racing is on a high after winning the All-Star Race, which Busch himself won. Look for him to pull off the Charlotte double.

Finally, look for much more frequent blog posts in the weeks to come. I've been quite busy with schoolwork this past month, but now I'm three exams away from finishing high school, so I'll have much more time on my hands for working on this blog.

Opinion: We Have a Title Fight on our Hands

The finger is back. (Photo: CNN)

I finally have some time to myself, so I'll go ahead and put in another post.

I live on the east coast of the United States, so the Australian Grand Prix went lights out at 1 AM my time. But come on, this was the first Formula One race in nearly four months. There was no way I was going to sleep through this one.

I went to bed around 8:00 and set an alarm for midnight, giving me a chance to watch F1 Countdown on NBCSN. Leigh Diffey, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett are better than ever. No wonder Sports Illustrated listed them among the honorable mentions for best broadcast team in 2015.

The race itself started off interesting enough, with Daniel Ricciardo's car getting stuck in sixth gear before the start. He would eventually recover to start the race two laps down, only to retire with similar issues after 25 laps.

But the story of the day was Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, who used pit strategy to their advantage to take the victory in the opening grand prix of the season. The Mercedes men of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished second and third respectively. Vettel, however, proved that this season may not be a walk in the park for Mercedes like they've been used to the past three years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was voted Driver of the Day in a landslide.

(And yes, I went back to bed after F1 Extra and slept in until 8:00am. I actually got a full eight hours of sleep.)

I still want to be cautious with the belief that we could see a legitimate battle for the championship this season. (Keep in mind, Ferrari and Vettel have won early season races before.) But Vettel's pace matched Hamilton's when it mattered most, and a brilliant strategy by Ferrari won them one of the most thrilling races we've seen in a long time. Personally, I cannot wait for China!

Also, in other news, McLaren's Fernando Alonso has just announced his immediate retire...alright, you get the joke. Happy April 1st.

Australian Grand Prix Preview: Wehrlein out, Giovinazzi in

Photo: Formula1.com

Sauber F1 Team have made a driver change before tomorrow's (tonight's? depends where you are in the world...) Australian Grand Prix.

Pascal Wehrlein, still recovering from his accident at the Miami Race of Champions, will be replaced by Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi for the race. Wehrlein received medical clearance to drive this weekend but insists his fitness is still not where it needs to be (again, further proof drivers are athletes). As of today, he plans to be back in the car for China in two weeks.

Giovinazzi will one of two drivers making his Formula One début in Australia (Williams' Lance Stroll is the other). He finished second in the GP2 Championship last season to Frenchman and Red Bull development driver Pierre Gasly, whose hopes of earning an F1 ride this year ended when Toro Rosso re-signed both Daniil Kyvat and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Lewis Hamilton will start on pole alongside Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton's new teammate, Valtteri Bottas, starts third.

Also, as an American, I must give a shoutout to Haas F1 Team. Romain Grosjean starts sixth tomorrow, which is where he finished for Haas at Australia last season.

"Estou de Volta!"

Photo: @MassaFelipe19 (Instagram)

Valtteri Bottas' move to Mercedes is now imminent.

Felipe Massa and Williams have announced that the 35-year-old Brazilian will indeed put his retirement on hold to race for one more season, in a move that now all but confirms Bottas will join Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Massa posted a picture on Instagram breaking the news to his fans, saying, "I want to thank all of you who supported and cried with me. Thank you for all the messages of support and affection for me to return. Thanks Williams Martini Racing for the opportunity and confidence in my work! I'm back!"

Originally, it appeared there would be no room for Massa at Williams in 2017, which forced the Brazilian into retirement after originally stating he wanted to stay in Formula One for a couple more years. My more detailed thoughts on Massa's u-turn can be found here.

I'll have another post up when Bottas is announced at Mercedes.

Photo: Motorsport.com

UPDATE: Couldn't even finish Massa's post before it was confirmed: Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton are now teammates at Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

Bottas made his debut for Williams in 2013 and has scored nine podium finishes for the Grove-based team, including a third-place drive in Canada last season. The 27-year-old Finn is still looking for his first career F1 win and pole position, though both of those are probably imminent given the power in the car Bottas will be driving next season.

Bottas becomes the third driver to have his ride confirmed today, with Massa and Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber) having confirmed their deals earlier this morning (or afternoon for my European readers) as well. Only Manor still need to confirm their drivers, though that's of course secondary right now given their priority is coming out of administration.

No Respect: My Response to Mike Guy's Criticism of Nico Rosberg's Retirement

Photo: Firstpost.com

Yesterday, TheDrive.com's Mike Guy published an article slamming 2016 Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg and his decision to retire. Guy called Rosberg "the Biggest Disappointment of 2016." As a whole, the article has not been well-received (judging by the comment section), nor was it well-received by me. Listen to some of the absurdity here...

"Nico Rosberg, the soft-handed Monagasque semi-royal born with a silver racecar in his mouth, hasn't just walked away from the sport—he's disgraced it by declining to defend a title bestowed upon him by a vastly superior car and, frankly, a whole lot of luck."

Um...

"These pundits don’t have the guts to call out Rosberg for what he is: a semi-royal too spoiled grind it out, too coddled to stick around and protect a championship that was handed to him by Paddy Lowe and deep-pocketed Team Mercedes AMG Petronas. Paddy & Co. built a car so completely dominant that any F1 driver could have driven it to a podium finish just about every week."

First off, this car was not handed to him. Not just any driver can get a ride at a team like Mercedes. Furthermore, Rosberg (along with McLaren's Jenson Button) was the longest-tenured F1 driver on any team. He had been with Mercedes since their return to F1 in 2010; this was his seventh year with them. He helped build the team when he was teammates with Michael Schumacher. If anything, Lewis Hamilton was handed the dominant car after stepping in when Schumacher retired. As Ross Brawn noted earlier this week, "Michael, for sure, contributed to the organization and structure that has gone on to achieve success at Mercedes." And since Rosberg was with the team at the same time, the same must be said for him.

He goes on...

"It’s telling that his dazzlingly talented teammate, Lewis Hamilton, ended up on the cover of Time last month. He’s the real face of F1 because he combines talent with an inexhaustible, you-gotta-kill-me-to-get-me-outta-the-cockpit need to race. That Hamiton [sic] lost to Rosberg in 2016 is because he had really [censored] luck: his ERS system failed twice, his engine blew out once, failed once more, and his hydraulics [censored] the bed in Singapore. All told, the reliability issues probably cost Hamilton 40 points in the race to the Driver’s Championship. Rosberg beat him by 5 points."

Mike, let me tell you something: every driver on the grid is going to have good and bad fortune in a given season. Rosberg was in the wrong engine setting in Spain, which led to the opening lap crash. He was passed on the final lap of Monaco by Nico Hülkenberg, falling to seventh. He spun out battling Max Verstappen in Canada. He drove into Hamilton in Austria (a race Hamilton himself won), falling back to fourth when the worst he should have finished was second. He was demoted from second to third due to an absurd radio rule violation, which would have been legal in the second half of the season since the FIA change the rules every twenty minutes. He spun out on the first lap at Malaysia and (miraculously) recovered to finish third in a race he surely would have won, given the fact that Hamilton lost his engine and that he drives, in your words, a "vastly superior car."

That's a lot of championship points lost if you ask me, not to mention that fact that Hamilton can only blame himself for all the botched starts he had this season.

Also, let me remind you that if you argue like that, you must admit that the only reason Hamilton won the title in 2008 is because Felipe Massa drove away from the pits in Singapore with his fuel hose still attached to his car. Or that he retired from the lead in Hungary after an engine failure. Or that Timo Glock's slick tyres just couldn't hold up in the damp conditions in Brazil. If the field were frozen at the time Massa crossed the line in Brazil, he would have been the champion. That's how close it was.

Yeah, Hamilton's been on both sides of the coin...

Continuing on...

"Rosberg knows all this, and he’s getting out while the getting’s good. The chassis on the F1 cars will change significantly this coming year, which will place added emphasis on aerodynamics, and could chip away at Mercedes’ massive horsepower advantage."

No, Mike. He's getting out to step away from the stress of the sport and spend time with his family, not because he's scared Mercedes might not have as big of an advantage next season.

And finally...

"And Valterie [sic] Bottas, the [likely] incoming Mercedes driver, will easily fill Rosberg's small shoes with his prodigious talents."

Okay, I have to laugh at you here. "Valterie"? "Hamiton"? Really? If you can't spell the names of two Formula One drivers correctly, what business do you have criticizing Rosberg for making a difficult decision that he believes is best for him and his family, let alone calling it "betrayal"? Did you even proofread your article?

To argue that Rosberg is "betraying" Formula One is absurd. He is a great story and a great champion for the sport, and he doesn't need to be on the grid to keep serving that role in 2017.