Monday 16th November 2015

Motorsport on Monday: 16/11/2015

Brazil bores, Verstappen stars, Maldonado crashes

---

What to say about the Brazilian Grand Prix? Well, the threat of rain was briefly tantalising, Hamilton did get a bit close to Rosberg once, and Bottas made a blinding start. But there wasn't really a lot of spice and, with the driver's championship already wrapped up, there wasn't even any points table intrigue (unless you count Williams grabbing a wonderful third and Force India securing a best-ever fifth in the constructors' championship).

More woe for McLaren at Interlagos

Even the inevitable Maldonado shunt (this time with Ericsson) was predictable and didn't generate the outrage it used to. God loves a trier, sure, but Pastor certainly tries the patience somewhat. Despite common perceptions, he's not a rubbish driver, and generally seems able to keep pace with the rather handy Romain Grosjean. He's just a clumsy and overambitious driver, all too willing to try something that's clearly not on.

That's the difference between him and Verstappen yesterday: Verstappen's move didn't look like it would work out, but he positioned his car cleverly, drove it well and made it work. Maldonado's was never going to work because his car was in an impossible position in the first place: it's almost as if he went for the gap, not the move (or, if you believe Ericsson, simply outbraked himself).

As for McLaren, oh dear. Truly pitiful. Jenson says it's scary, the speed at which the other cars are blasting past whenever there's a sniff of a straight, and Alonso isn't even bothering to throw his toys out the pram, he's so cheesed off. Love the tweeted shot of them visiting the podium though; what sort of a Honda miracle will it require to make it even a pipe dream for them next year?

Oh, and I'm sure you've seen the #PlacesAlonsoWouldRatherBe images. It really is the greatest F1 hashtag ever.

Verstappen stars in a dreary race

The kid's alright
The highlight of Brazil has to be Max Verstappen though. He may be but a boy, but the boy can drive. His pass on Nasr was fantastic, one of those moves that you can't quite work out how he pulls off until he emerges ahead; the save he made after kicking the rear out drew cheers from me, not just the pit wall - masterful stuff.

Yet again, he's proved all the nagging, finger-wagging outrage about young drivers coming into F1 wrong. We've been here so many times, but Toro Rosso and Red Bull clearly saw something in him that led them to sign him up - there are lots of young drivers out there, but not that many coming into F1 so early. Those that do are generally special.

Card duly marked, now the bets are on where he'll end up in 2017. Odds on at the moment seems to be stepping into Raikkonen's seat after Toro Rosso's year with the Ferrari engine family, and wouldn't that be something if it were so? The boy's got talent; let's hope 2016 can prepare him for a 2017 shot at the top step.

Ogier triumphs in a miserable Wales

Wales Rally GB
Brilliant French driver Sebastien Ogier celebrated a sombre victory in the Wales Rally GB this weekend, after yet again dominating despite the horrendous events in Paris on Friday night. He respectfully showed the French flag on the podium and the subdued crowd responded accordingly; quite apart from him being a genius, nobody begrudged him this victory.

Kris Meeke was a second-place star in the Citroen, though: he's the best-placed Brit in 15 years of Rally GB since the late Richard Burns won it in 2000. In doing so, he made sure Citroen secured second place in the constructors' championship, and hopefully it'll go some way to securing him a decent seat in 2016.

As always, it was the coverage of plucky Brits outside the frontrunners that kept us entertained, particularly during the night stages through Dyfnant and Aberhirnant. Haymarket colleague Lizzie Pope was among them, co-driving a Vauxhall Corsa with James Newbould in the Network Q. Despite the horrendous weather, they finished 31st overall and 5th in class; sterling work!

Kris Meeke finished an impressive second

PH was on site too, following the Mitsubishi of Tony Jardine and Gordon Noble. Read our live blogs from the boggy fields here...

Maximum BTCC
There's a new team coming to BTCC in 2016 - Maximum Motorsport has acquired one of AmD Tuning's TOCA BTCC licences and will run team boss Stewart Lines in a Ford Focus. It comes after Lines drove a Houseman Racing Toyota Avensis this year; he didn't score any points but did gain valuable experience.

It seems it was a favour from AmD Tuning boss Shaun Hollamby that got Lines his licence - although the former was keen to stress that AmD will continue in BTCC in 2016 too. The team still has two Audis and "we are actively seeking a licence for the second car," he added.

[Images: LAT]

[Paddy78]

Brazil 2008 was one of the most exciting F1 races I have ever seen. Sadly, the ingredients this year didn't add up to anything remotely interesting. Title already won and the Merc drivers so closely matched that it was inevitably going to be a procession.

[Turbobanana]

Paddy78 said:

Brazil 2008 was one of the most exciting F1 races I have ever seen. Sadly, the ingredients this year didn't add up to anything remotely interesting. Title already won and the Merc drivers so closely matched that it was inevitably going to be a procession.

I'm at the stage now where excitement in F1 is generated by the press, not the races.

A bit like football - we as a nation follow it but we're not sure why: it's just always been there. The point was proven by the Rugby World Cup, which drew record crowds, never failed to entertain but was only around for, what 40 days?

F1 (and football) is just too familiar to be interesting.

[Alex Langheck]

There are plenty of other Motorsport series that would love the coverage that F1 gets. And as already said, it seems it's out of habit that it generates coverage - nothing interesting tends to happen. Problem is, the general media won't drop it, and if they did, they wouldn't replace it with WEC, WRC, MotoGP, etc - because they're not going to generate interest like F1 does.