Alonso Gets 100th Podium After Fiasco

Is there Red Bull tension | Alonso a podium machine | Lewis breaks up with confidant

March 24, 2023

In this week’s email:

Alonso Gets 100th Podium: Penalties almost cost career milestone
Red Bull Tension?: The Verstappens vs The Perezs
Lewis and Angela Breakup: Hamilton’s physiotherapist parts ways
Standings: Red Bull continues the 1-2s, but race for 2nd team is open
Meme of the Week: George Russell and the Phantom Trophy

Alonso Gets 100th Podium

Alonso’s start position 👆almost cost him the podium

Do you see anything wrong with the picture above? After the formation lap, Alonso lined up in his spot, but slightly off the mark to the left. This created a 5-second penalty he had to serve, which he did… or did he?

The team served the penalty on his pit stop. For 5 seconds no one must touch the car before they jack it up and change the tires. Everything seemed good until he was on the podium. Literally, no one had a clue that the FIA was investigating the situation. The team’s celebrating with him as he raised the trophy on the stage.

This is when the announcers were made aware that the car jack was touching. The replay was played over and over again, but it was hard to tell watching it on tv. Eventually, the FIA issued Alonso a 10-second penalty, meaning he would fall into fourth place and bump up Russell. They even gave George the trophy too. But just when it couldn’t get any more wild, they reversed the decision and gave the podium back to Alonso. Talk about a dramatic way to get your 100th podium. Also, they need to fix this, like come on, we can’t be taking away podiums after the race like that.

Red Bull Tension?

If you’re not first you’re last

Anyone who watches the races sees how much Max’s dad cares about winning. After Max couldn’t finish qualifying you could see him visibly disgusted, taking off his headset and leaving the room abruptly. But you would think after Max battled back from starting 15th to getting 2nd he would be ecstatic, right? Wrong.

Jos didn’t even crack a smile. But what’s the real reason here? Is it because Max didn’t win or that Checo won? Because Checo is going to be Max’s main and maybe only rival in the championship race. Some other things happened that seemed a little off as well. Max was reporting issues with the car in the later portion of the race and usually, you would nurse the car home to avoid adding extra risk but instead proceeded to get the fastest lap on the last lap.

Also, it was a little strange when Max asked Christian who had the fastest lap and Christian responded that they weren’t concerned about it, but Max proceeds to go for it anyway. Max could deduce the fact Checo had it because: 1) if the team wasn’t worried about it, that means they already had it and, 2) if Verstappen didn’t have it, then Perez would have to have it. That one extra point is the separator for the championship and it may come down to it in the end, so I don’t blame him for going for it.

One last thing. Instead of going to the 2nd place “cone” alongside Checo, Max went to the pit lane instead. Just a lot of interesting behavior to look at, especially considering what happened last year with Max not wanting to help Perez out in the championship standings. So many more races to be had this year, let’s keep a lookout.

Lewis and Angela Breakup

Who’s Hamilton going to lean on now

Angela Cullen, who is she? That’s what I said to myself when she first came on the scene and I’m sure if you started to watch F1 in the last 7 years you probably asked yourself that same question. Who’s this woman glued to Lewis in every shot, always taking care of him before and after the race? Well, it turns out she was his physiotherapist along with being one of his closest confidants. She was his support system, injecting positivity when he struggled.

Then out of nowhere, Lewis announces on his Instagram that they are parting ways professionally. So what does this mean? Were there struggles in the relationship? For most of their time together Mercedes was a juggernaut, always winning. But then he loses the Championship to Max in 2021, 2022 the team takes a step back while George Russell outperforms him after joining, and now 2023 Mercedes looks like they’re now in the back of the pack of Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Maybe it just all added up to a point where Hamilton needed a change. Going to be interesting to see if he’ll bring someone else in or ride solo for the rest of the season.

Standings

We got some interesting stuff after 2 races. First off, Red Bull may just run away with the Championship if they keep going 1-2. But the question is who will win the World Championship between the 2 drivers. If they keep finishing atop the standings every week it may come down to who gets more lucky by the other one having a crash, DNF, or some other mishap.

On the Constructor’s Championship, 2nd place is wide open. Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Ferrari all have a shot. Again this may come down to some luck. We’ve already seen Ferrari have a DNF in the first race and Aston Martin last week.