How do you play politics at 200mph?

Same energy

What’s that old Robin Williams quote? Politics: “Poli” a Latin word meaning “many”; and "tics" meaning “bloodsucking creatures.” But occasionally, politics can be interesting. I don’t mean stuffy men sitting in a stuffy chamber talking… well, stuffily. I’m talking about when it’s applied to things you like, and seeing as this is a blog that’s mostly about Formula 1, after all the driver movement, I wanted to look into the teams that have a lot of politics, and the relatively chilled teams, that either don’t have a lot of on-track stuff, or they’re genuinely not working with the theme from Succession stuck in their head.

But before that, a quick look at the sport itself. F1 has worked with their broadcast teams this year to allow viewers an insight into what the race director hears from team representatives.

We’ve learned that Michael Masi doesn’t check his emails during a race, but also as soon as an incident happens (e.g. Valtteri Bottas spinning in the pit lane, or Red Bull negotiating whether Sergio Perez can start a race after a crash) the teams are straight on to him, and the knowledge that sporting directors have of the regulations - and how they sell it - makes for surprisingly good TV.

THE POLITICAL DRAMA OF AN HBO ORIGINAL

Let’s start with Red Bull. The perception is that everything is built around Max Verstappen and the other driver has to adapt, with varying results. The Dutch driver is on his fifth teammate in the last six seasons, with Checo Perez the latest to take the other seat. Looking at these two graphs, the first one is super basic: A points split, where Verstappen was outscored only once in his full seasons at Red Bull. But since Ricciardo in 2017, Verstappen has established himself as the definition of a number one driver to the point where now he normally collects two-thirds of Red Bull’s points.

In the second graph, Verstappen is the star, his teammate is the same-coloured circle. Max has, this year, had his most successful for wins and could easily push to 10+ wins in a year. 

But the grouping of the stars, even throughout the years, shows how consistent he is, especially compared to some of his teammates. Albon in 2020, and even Perez to a lesser extent being examples.

Perez mopped up a win in Azerbaijan and he’s being kept on in 2022 in a role he seems happy to play but long-term, Red Bull need to think about life after the skilful Mexican, with five drivers in Formula 2 and Formula 3 all vying for a place, as well as a couple in the sister team Alpha Tauri and letting Alex Albon head to Williams, there are a lot of talented drivers, but very little room for them.

And if we want to look at a bottleneck at the top, it is worth a look at Alpine. At the top of their team is Fernando Alonso. The Spanish driver has two world titles and seems rejuvenated at Alpine, but is the elephant in the room. No one wants to talk about his age, and he generated global headlines when he was allowed to take part in a “young driver test”, but Alpine are retaining him and Esteban Ocon when there are some excellent drivers in waiting. 

And what of Ocon? F1’s newest member of the winners’ club has a long-term deal, but like Red Bull, there are a number of talented drivers waiting in the wings. The likes of Guanyu Zhou, Oscar Piastri and Christian Lundgaard could all conceivably step up, but unlike Red Bull, Alpine don’t have a feeder team they can use as a proving ground. Lundgaard has already headed off to race in IndyCar, in what might be a long-term future and an alternative route to F1.

With the same issue in F3, would it really be so bad to have an eleventh team on the grid? Regardless of the answer, it’s prohibitively expensive to enter, due to a $200m “dilution fund” new teams are obliged to pay. 

And in a pleasing segue, Haas are one of F1’s more cash-strapped teams. Nikita Mazepin’s dad has a lot of money, and Mick Schumacher’s dad is one of F1’s greatest-ever drivers.

The back-markers race against themselves and it is becoming apparent how much they dislike each other, resulting in arguments and near-misses. There are rumours of Schumacher moving over to Alfa Romeo, but whatever happens, it doesn’t look like it’s going to end well.

THE POLITICAL DRAMA OF A RADIO 4 SERIES

Slightly less drama than the teams in tier 1, but there’s still an undercurrent. Let’s start with Alpha Tauri. Pierre Gasly has won a race, and has found himself at the head of the table of the sister team, with seemingly no interest in moving up again. Gasly seems to have turned into Ash Ketchum’s Pikachu (stick with me here) - well above his evolutionary level, but no desire to evolve into Raichu / be Verstappen’s plus one. 

Where Alpha Tauri have done well is to provide certainty, keeping Yuki Tsunoda in for another year, despite the F2 interest from the Red Bull Juniors above. That certainty extends to Mercedes. 

Formula 1’s worst-kept secret was confirmed with George Russell moving to become Lewis Hamilton’s teammate next season, and while Mercedes builds around its seven-time world champion, could be pushed further next year. 

There have been some politics, with Valtteri Bottas not allowed to take the extra fastest lap point for the team in Zandvoort ahead of his more illustrious teammate. With Bottas off to Alfa Romeo, it might be interesting to see whether this bubbles up, while in 2022, if Hamilton is pushed, the team could revert back to the on and off-track battles Hamilton and Rosberg used to fight.

THE POLITICAL DRAMA INSIDE YOUR AVERAGE OFFICE

Williams seems to have stabilised in recent years, but has flared up with 2022’s driver lineup. Red Bull have let Alex Albon go (honest) so he can drive for the resurgent team. But Williams use Mercedes engines, which caused some arguments and an extension of the public spat between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner. Nyck de Vries lost out, but the F2 and Formula E champion could join Bottas at Alfa Romeo.

There isn’t much politics in a team with Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, but it feels like a bad omen for the Italian that any possible contract renewal hasn’t been announced at his home race. Just one point in Monaco is all has managed in 2021, and that was his eighth points finish in 51 races. With de Vries, F2’s Theo Pourchaire and Zhou being possible replacements, as well as ex-Red Bull driver Daniil Kyvat and Ferrari Academy star Callum Ilott, this feels like a reality show waiting to happen.

Formula Scout has an excellent long read of the contenders for an empty seat, as well as explaining other factors why the F2 to F1 pathway looks like it might fail in 2021.

THE POLITICAL DRAMA OF A CHARITY SHOP

Regardless of how things are going at Ferrari, there is always going to be pressure when representing the Scuderia. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc seems to have less interaction than how Lando Norris and Sainz interacted with each other, but wherever they are on the grid, there is always going to be intense interest in how they do.

And from one of F1’s most-historic teams to the revival of Aston Martin, an interesting case, with elder statesman Sebastian Vettel paired off with owner’s son Lance Stroll. Both drivers seem to keep themselves to themselves and neither driver has really interacted with the other. 

THE POLITICAL DRAMA OF AN ADVERT ON A BUS STOP

Lastly, there’s McLaren. The team does a lot right, definitively led by Norris and this year joined by Daniel Ricciardo. But while Ricciardo has always interacted well with his teammates, and Norris has done the same too, the two of them don't seem to have a massive amount of chemistry together, which is surprising. On-track, however, things seem to be going well, with the chance of another third place for the team.

F1 is great to watch, not just because of the speed, the sound, how it looks, or for several other reasons. The storylines and drama, combined with all the above and the ability for the world’s best drivers to strategise, politicise and occasionally criticise at 200mph is something special, and seeing it happen every couple of weeks across the world really is unlike anything else on earth.

PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON – POST-RACE🇳🇱 R13 – Home bankers

🇧🇪 R12 – The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method ☔

🇭🇺 R11 – Everyone wakes up and chooses chaos

🇬🇧 R10 – Penalty, shoot out

🇦🇹 R9 – Doubles

🇦🇹 R8 – Ruining Mr Saturday's graduation party

🇫🇷 R7 – Staying positive

🇦🇿 R6 – The award for Best Supporting Driver

🇲🇨 R5 – The enjoyment of a genuine three-way battle

🇪🇸 R4 – Getting out-thought if not outfought

🇵🇹 R3 – Portimão and the benefits of a rule change

🇮🇹 R2 – Max Verstappen and the Italian curse

🇧🇭 R1 – Bahrain and comparing qualifying pace with 2020

AROUND THE 2021 SEASON

📈 Formula 2, Formula 3 and W Series – Why F1's support races are great

🏁 The pros and cons of sprint qualifying

🔮 Four odd predictions for F1 2021