Welcome Back

Hello everyone and welcome to the second edition of the Driver61 newsletter. Thank you for joining us once again.

This Newsletter

Callum McIntyre - Head of Production

We’re finally here! We at Driver61 have been super focused on videos over these past few months. (We even flew to Paul Ricard to put a subscriber in a Formula 1 car!). However, we have a new member of the team.

James Lamb - Motorsport Writer

James is our new Motorsport Writer at Driver61. He is the kinda guy that has watched back every race that’s on the F1TV archive. He’s a massive F1 nerd - but I have a feeling you lot are too so that’s good.

Scott, James and myself aim to bring you the F1 stories that don’t quite ‘fit’ into a YouTube video, the stuff we chat about in the office and the F1 tweets we like.

McLaren announced this week that they will run a special ‘Future Mode’ livery in Singapore and Japan to celebrate F1 returning to Asia. I really like it, I think its going to look spectacular under the lights in Singapore especially. What McLaren have been doing with their liveries over the past couple of years has been really clever, picking celebratory editions that both look great, give their sponsors some nice exposure and leave the fans wanting more. I still think the Gulf Livery of Monaco 2021 was better but that got on the podium, so maybe I’m just a giant glory hunter. Only time will tell what the Future holds for this one - see what I did there…sorry.

James

Latifi and ‘Pay Drivers’

James Lamb - Driver61 Motorsport Writer

With the news that Nicolas Latifi’s F1 career is to come to an end at the end of the season, it raises the generational question of the role of pay drivers in F1 and if they still have a place.

Pay drivers have been a staple of F1 culture since its inception. You could argue they were the original F1 drivers as nobility and rich racing enthusiasts paid large amounts of money to race each other across Europe in Grand Prix that became the F1 championship. My favourite example of this is Prince Bira of Siam, who funded his own team using two ERAs called Romulus and Remus before the official start of the Formula and then with Maserati, Ferrari, and his trusty ERA again in the early 1950s in F1.

We shouldn’t be surprised about having pay drivers in F1 as they helped build the sport’s foundations.

However, what I think drivers like Latifi show in this day and age of F1 is that there is surely enough talent and money out there that they aren’t needed anymore. Especially with F1 seemingly unwilling to let any teams in that don't own multiple world-renowned car brands. They should not need the funding pay drivers bring in with the new cost cap and massive prize money on offer.

Before slating the man too much, I think it is worth putting his career in context.

Latifi was relatively successful in the lower Formula, but he didn’t blow others out of the water. He didn’t win a single-seater championship on his road to F1 and out of 98 starts in GP2/F2, he won 6 times and got on the podium 21 times. That’s a win rate of 6%.

I watched the back end of his F2 career and thought he was a decent driver so I wasn't surprised when Williams signed him up for 2020 but a win rate of 6% is not going to get you a drive on its own, he needed his sponsor Sofina to get him there.

His Williams appointment is a prime example of a team at the back of the grid in need of money signing someone who would bring that over more talented options. This is nothing new in F1 in the 21st Century. We have had teams in the past which were essentially only paid drivers, look at Minardi - even drivers like Mark Webber only got a seat because of the money he brought to the team and the commercial advantages he had. He had a one-race contract for Australia but he proved himself, finishing 5th on debut, resulting in his infamous podium visit with Paul Stoddart and that got him a seat for the rest of the year.

Once Latifi made it to F1, he did flash some moments of quality; his race in Hungary in 2021 comes to mind, but even then he needed the assistance of a massive first corner incident and the lack of overtaking opportunities at the Hungaroring to help him get his points finish. What we really saw from Latifi was a few too many mistakes, a general lack of pace against his teammate and large gaps in front of him to the rest of the field in Sundays.

In a rambling way, what I am trying to say is that speed is not the only factor in getting a driver to F1, but for them to stay long term, it is the only factor, and unfortunately for Latifi, he didn't show that speed nearly enough.

“Scott’s Take”

‘I care that we have the fastest 20 drivers in the world in those seats. Doesn’t matter to me if their Dad owns the team or not’

Late Nights in Singapore

James Lamb - Driver61 Motorsport Writer

Formula 1 returns to Singapore this weekend after a two-year hiatus due to COVID and I for one am really happy that we are back.

Singapore is the original night race in F1 and the best street circuit, in my humble opinion. While overtaking opportunities are scarce, they can be done and with the race being a war of attrition over nearly 2 hours, it always seems to create drama. I am looking forward to seeing what effect the new regulation changes have on the racing here. Like Hungaroring, if it proves that overtaking becomes easier through the DRS zone into Turn 7, this will be the last proof I need to give these regulations a resounding thumbs up.

I am also really looking forward to seeing these F1 cars back under lights where they just seem to pop differently, with the sparkly helmet designs and clear visors we can see the whites of the driver's eyes once again.

As it's been a while since F1 has been in Singapore, let's remind ourselves of the track and its demands. Singapore has been on the F1 calendar since 2008 and is one of the most physically demanding on said calendar with 23 turns spread over 5.063 km. The drivers will have to complete 61 laps to see the chequered flag which takes nearly 2 hours without safety car intervention, which is historically very likely at the Marina Bay circuit due to its relentlessness and the extreme heat the drivers have to deal with. Carlos Sainz has prepared by putting a bike machine in a Sauna, which puts into context how extreme the conditions are.

There have been many dramatic moments in Singapore over the years: Felipe Massa driving off with his fuel hose still attached, costing him valuable points in his title fight with Hamilton in 2008, Sebastian Vettel hounding Fernando Alonso to finish 0.2 behind at the flag in 2010, Verstappen getting pinched by the two Ferraris at the start of the rain-soaked 2017 edition and Lewis Hamilton’s phenomenal final lap in Qualifying to snatch pole in 2018, to name a few.

However, I want to highlight the last time we were in Singapore as it is particularly special for many F1 fans. 2019 was Sebastian Vettel’s last F1 race win and most likely his last ever in the sport. Let's have a quick look back at that race.

A young challenger to Vettel’s superiority called Charles Leclerc had joined Ferrari in 2019 and shown he was the real deal. He took pole in Singapore after winning back-to-back races in Belgium and Italy so questions were inevitably being asked about Vettel’s place in the team.

Once the race got going, it was clear that track position and the undercut would be crucial as the leaders lapped slowly to keep their tyres going. Leclerc led from pole, followed by Hamilton and Vettel until the first round of stops when Ferrari pitted Vettel early to try and jump Hamilton. Despite being 2 seconds back and having a half-second longer pit stop, Vettel used his hard tyres on the out lap to jump both Hamilton AND Leclerc for the lead once they pitted a lap later.

Vettel was then able to control the race from the front and resist Leclerc’s advances to take his 53rd win in F1 and one that reminded everyone that the German could still do it.

Will he see Vettel win this weekend? Probably not - but if you want to know more about what made him a 4-time world champion, check out our video on his driving style here.