Good month - Bad month: November 2023
Charting the ups and downs of the F1 circus
Good Month
Laying down the Lawson
AlphaTauri supersub Liam Lawson has been brilliant, scoring his first points at Marina Bay. With Ricciardo and Tsunoda now confirmed at AlphaTauri for 2024, will Williams snap up the Kiwi?
Lizard King
How to mix up F1: Bernie suggested sprinkling the track and we’ve had cottage cheese Pirelli compounds – maybe we just need more reptiles?
Red rush
Ferrari has been battered in this column – but finally Vasseur’s flâneurs have stopped staring at the asphalt and won!
Golden boy
Piastri podium in Suzuka – surely the best debut season since another certain McLaren rookie 16 years ago.
Landmark result
Alfa Romeo scored a point for the first time in six races at Monza. Time for another special edition livery.
Bad Month
Milton Keynes meltdown
Milton Keynes’ answer to Tracy Island went into full Marina Bay meltdown in Singapore: the FIA warned Helmut Marko for making racist comments about Sergio Pérez, before both Red Bull drivers had the quali from hell.
Alan hits the wall
After a trying year, it was looking good for Formula Partridge in Singapore until he “Ah-haa!”-ed it into the barrier on the last lap.
Wikipedia Wizard
“No one reads Wikipedia,” harumphed Toto Wolff in Monza following Verstappen’s record consecutive wins run, after previously waxing lyrical about Mercedes’ own statistical achievements in recent years.
Paltry penalties
Time to review the ‘one size fits all’ 5sec penalty approach. Both Hamilton in Monza and Pérez in Singapore got away with nerfing off rivals.
Perez in pieces
Total disaster-pieces from Pérez at Singapore and Japan – will he lose second in the championship?