#babettef1

Dear Lewis fan,

I’ve heard you say that the Hamiltons have a heart of gold, but I believe purple favors the bold. Without going into much of the recent controversy I want to say, Lewis will secure that eight title another way. With a focused mind, his priorities this season and the next will be realigned.

Santa has spent the last day and a half reading up on your emotions to prepare himself to write this letter, because Santa wants to understand what route you’ll be taking this winter break. It’s probably clear that Santa stands on your side in the anger against the FIA, but Santa doesn’t want to shed too much light on the situation at the last GP. Instead, Santa wants to celebrate Lewis and you, dear Lewis fan. The start of the season was a hard pill to swallow, right from the first lights out we saw that it was not going to be easy. Still, Lewis fought every single race – the way a seven times champion would. But besides that, Lewis showed us this season that he’s not only a champion on track. He has shown us that he is a champion with a heart for the world, society and F1 as a sport and as a business. The Hamilton Commission was a groundbreaking movement that will continue to make waves in motorsport and society.

Santa sees your hurt, Santa hears your anger but Santa has also seen so many beautiful edits/conversations/pictures/stories and Santa wants to celebrate that as well. Santa hopes that you’ll root for Lewis again next season, to show him your purple hearts. Because next season will be another fight like no other. So, Santa knows that it’s going to be different. Not only because the regulations will change, no, also because Lewis will be the attacker in the championship. A very interesting approach that Santa is sure will bring us some fire.

For now, Santa wishes you a warm and cozy December. Enjoy the end of the season and start the winter break off right with good food, lovely family/friends and fun presents. Santa will fly over your house to check if you are having fun, so don’t you dare not enjoy the end of 2021.

Kind regards, Santa (and his little writer Babette)

A note from Santa’s little writer: I wanted to do something different this year, something to celebrate you with. So I wrote little letters from Santa to every single fan. Call it an advent calendar of letters. It’s small, but I hope still as enjoyable! Let me know what you think. If you want to/can help send fans some festive spirit, please share the letters with as many people as possible. Let’s make December special for everyone on F1blr! Mock-up is from here.

The actual championship fights I witnessed before this season come down to Sebastian vs. Lewis. Because honestly, in 2019 and 2020 becoming a champion was not really a challenge for Lewis. So in my mind this is the first real title fight since (one of my favorite seasons) 2018. Not that that matters, but I can feel myself buzzing for the fact that it’s this close and undetermined.

I think we can make a good guess based on watching Lewis’ and Max’s personalities and actions. We will never know them fully, but a guess is better than nothing! You’ll have to tell me your ways of how you observe! I think I often make a pretty good guess, but I would love your view on how you analyse people and their behaviour (little side note haha).

Okay, let’s get into it because there is a lot to unpack.

Lewis seemed to be happy after the summer break, knowing he was leading again and could potentially extend the lead. But I honestly feel like Lewis is growing into more of a ‘I love this sport, man!’ kind of guy. The way he talks about and acts with other drivers just gives me that vibe. He has big brother vibes with Lando and the way he acted in Zandvoort showed he was pretty happy for Max!

Max has always been a more ‘dry’ person towards others. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, all Dutchies are ‘dry’ haha. But he seems like more of a ‘whatever happens I’ll manage’ kind of guy. So it doesn’t surprise me that he was the complete opposite of Lewis. And after the summer break we saw that very vividly. Max obviously had the upperhand in Spa and Zandvoort and he saw his place in the championship rise to the #1 spot.

Why are these two showing different types of attitude in this title fight up until Monza?

For me, Max is more relaxed and has that ‘I honestly don’t care’ attitude because he has nothing to prove/lose. And people might disagree, but let me explain. Lewis is the reigning champ, he is the title defender and has been since 2017. Lewis has something to lose. Max, on the other hand, hasn’t. If he wins the championship - he will be crowned as the RBR god. If he loses, he’ll just try again next year. Now obviously that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care if he wins it or not. Max wants that title, he wants to make RBR champion. But there is less of a pressure compared to Lewis and Mercedes defending the title in a year they were definitely less dominant.

The Monza… incident

Monza was the race people were interested in, me included, to see what the sprint race would do and if Mercedes could potentially keep Max behind. But after the sprint race, and looking at our top 3, I can get that Lewis felt like this wasn’t good enough in his book and the fact that he was stuck behind a McLaren the entire sprint race… the Mercedes cars seem to struggle immensely when they’re behind other cars (especially the McLarens). So he possibly felt defeated by the equipment.

And then the race happened on Sunday and can I just be honest? When Daniel took and stayed in the lead, I got tunnel vision. I wasn’t even aware that the Mercedes pitstop had happened until the camera showed Lewis coming out of the pits just as Max passed the main straight. And we all know what happened a corner later. I agree, I see this as a race incident that was avoidable. And I say that was avoidable because a race incident in my book often means both drivers have a part to play. Max could have cut the corner, Lewis could have run wide and the incident could have been avoided. But why was there a penalty? Well… like I said, Max could gave cut the corner like we see many drivers do. I think that’s what in my opinion probably made the stewards decide for the penalty against Max.

You know what’s the most important line after Monza? “We are professional enough to move on.” Because in theory they are, they did it once before in Silverstone!

But they indeed both went on and on about it. Which isn’t strange. There were a couple weeks in between Monza and Sochi and the media obviously wanted to know their views. But it’s interesting to me how Lewis kind of made that dig at Max for him being new to this title fight and how it must keep him up at night. It was the first time in the recent races I heard Lewis playing this kind of mindgame. And of course Max, as the ‘dry Dutchie’ that he is, couldn’t care less and sarcastically made a dig back. Look, I don’t mind the mind games and I don’t hate/dislike Lewis for playing them! Like I said, I love a good title fight. It’s just that these two keep butting heads over things created in the media.

And what you said about Max: “He really doesn't seem bothered. Like at all.” is exactly the point I’m trying to make when I said there is less pressure on Max (from Max himself). Max wants to win, wants to beat Lewis but he knows that if it doesn’t happen this year the team will celebrate him and he’ll try again next year. So the pressure of winning the championship plays second fiddle, Max his focus seems to lie more at winning/scoring as many points as possible each weekend. Lewis on the other hand is fighting with his material and Valtteri is struggling too so they seem to be more in it for the long run.

Sochi brings even more fuel to the fire

About Quali.. it’s tricky because we all saw the shift on track when George went out on slicks. I held my breath, seeing if it was really possible in these conditions. George fought the car, Carlos fought the car, Lando fought the car and Lewis was really struggling with getting the tyres heated up. Bumping into the pit entry and spinning at the end of quali shouldn’t have happened but there are a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened: Lando shouldn’t have tumbled down to P7 in the race after leading. So that’s a funny thing… bad luck? Was Lewis’ focus on something else when he was coming into the pits?

Max’ dryness/boldness is an unintentional mind game in itself. Because it could potentially get under his competitors skin and make them worked up. But like I said, this is the way most Dutchies are. So unintentional seems to be the keyword here.

Nico Rosberg and the differences

It’s funny that you mention Nico. Yes, he’s the only one to have beaten Lewis till date but he had to give up everything for it to be possible. Nico always tells the same story and I’ll share it: “Lewis has small moments throughout the season where he seems to lose focus, where he is a small bit weaker. Those are the moments where you need to hit him where it hurts so he potentially stays in those ‘weak lows’” Back to what Nico had to do in order to win from Lewis: he slept in a separate room from his wife and barely saw his kids, he obviously said very specific things in the press and then we have to on track moments like Monaco where he caused a yellow flag.

But what you said is right: Max isn’t Nico and won’t stoop to that level. He has his own approach. Lewis has a very successful approach to the championship as well and I feel like we should celebrate that too. Lewis is a very lucky person on track, look at Hungary when he stayed clear from Valtteri’s bowling attempt and in Sochi he got really lucky with Lando’s tyre trouble. But Nico also says something different about Lewis: “Lewis creates his own luck.” And that is still very powerful to me. Max can be fast, win, but when push comes to shove and Lewis creates his own luck he’s on that podium holding a trophy.

So, we’re not in the clear yet with this title fight and I have a feeling it’s gonna get even more spicy. Only time will tell, but now I’m interested:

Who do you want to win the championship and why?

Towards the end of my answer on this ask I added this comment on Mick's performance:

I get more joy out of comparing him [Mick] to his teammate. And while doing so, I am getting the straight-up fact that Mick is better. Which is exactly why I don’t feel 'guilty’ or 'biased’ when I’m rooting him on. He is better than his current teammate and he has so much potential to grow. The last name helps, but if he would be dead last every single weekend and puts times in the 2 minutes on the board… I don’t think his last name will help him keep his place (especially not in a team like Haas).

And I want to test that idea today. I'm gonna ease into it, going over everything he has achieved since he joined Formula racing and then... we will end with the big F1 bang!

Mick joined the Formula world in 2015 starting in ADAC (German) F4 with the Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing (that also housed drivers like Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Callum Ilott, Guido van der Garde and Anthoine Hubert). I found this really fun video of Mick's first win in F4 for Van Amersfoort racing, look at him!!! He switched to Prema, (closely linked to the Ferrari Driver Academy) in 2016, you can watch the introduction video here. He also entered the Italian F4 championship and became runner-up in both ADAC F4 and the Italian F4 championships.

Prema upgraded Mick to F3 in 2017. Sadly, the season was not as expected. Mick finished as the lowest Prema driver (in 12th place in the championship), but did earn P3 in Monza. He was also declared as the third best rookie that season. He stayed in F3 for another year, 2018, and he got into a rhythm halfway through the season. In the 15th race, at Spa, he won for the first time! Watch him do some fun overtakes here! This victory gave him confidence and he dominated the latter half of that season, taking seven more wins (three of them consecutively). This meant he won the F3 title, 57 points clear of Dan Ticktum in P2. I also found this fun little tribute to the 2018 F3 champion!

Mick moved up to F2 in 2019, racing for Prema together with Sean Gelael. It wasn't his season, he suffered multiple failures, got some penalties and collided with other drivers. But there was also a light that season, Mick won his first F2 race in Hungary! I'm a sucker for a good podium ceremony, so I found that one too! Other than that, the 2019 season maybe wasn't one to write home about. But little did Mick, and we all, know that he would be bigger and better in 2020.

Robert Schwartzman joined Mick at Prema that year. It took Mick a couple of races, but he stood on the podium again (twice) in Hungary. It seems to me that Mick and Hungary are a match made in heaven, just wait till we race there in again in F1 hahaha. Not long after that he went on a 5 race streak podium finish, from Spain to Monza. It was also Monza where he won his first race that season and I still remember that amazing podium with the picture of Michael looking on. Goosebumps! He took the lead of the championship in Mugello, at the same track he drove his dad's car, and won again in Sochi. His title fight that season with Callum Ilott was a heavy, but fair one, and Mick eventually got crowned as the 2020 F2 champion at the Sakhir GP! Of course I have to add a link to that moment, again... GOOSEBUMPS! If you want to watch a replay of all of his 2020 moments, I also got you covered here!

🌸 And then we arrive in 2021, he joins F1 and has been racing for Haas for six races (his last being Azerbaijan) now! Like I said in the quote at the beginning of this post: I definitely see that he is better than his teammate, he seems to be outperforming the Haas on multiple occasions. So I thought it would be fun to summarise where he finished in the race, what his fastest lap was (and what lap). How fast he was compared to the rest and how fast his teammate was. Note that the design in the previous sentence is also the design I will use! All the info comes from the F1 website.

Bahrain - 16 out of 16, 1:36:134 (lap 38). 18 out of 19 fastest and MAZ DNF.

Imola - 16 out of 17, 1:19:193 (lap 58). 11 out of 19 fastest and MAZ 17th fastest.

Portugal - 17 out of 19, 1:22:755 (lap 61). 17 out of 19 fastest and MAZ 19th fastest.

Spain - 18 out of 19, 1:22:637 (lap 54). 12 out of 20 fastest and MAZ 19th fastest.

Monaco - 18 out of 18, 1:16:425 (lap 51). 18 out of 19 fastest and MAZ 19th fastest.

Azerbaijan - 13 out of 18, 1:47:624 (lap 41). 18 out of 20 fastest and MAZ 19th fastest.

So... what does this list tell us? Well, quite a lot. Mick only finished last in a race twice, in Bahrain and Monaco. He was beaten by his teammate in Monaco, the first and only time. Mick has set a faster 'fastest' lap at every single race compared to his teammate. What I mean by that is: F1 writes down the fastest lap of every single driver (so the fastest lap they do in the race) and puts them in a list. So the person with the fastest lap is #1 and so on. So, Mick has never been the slowest of the pack when he did his fastest lap and he has always been faster than his teammate. If this is the way the whole season is gonna go, we can definitely say that Mick is outperforming his teammate.

I'll wrap this up after I say this last thing. Mick is known for needing a season to get into his rhythm. He did two years of F4, two years of F3 (won the title in his second year) and two years of F2 (won the title in his second year again). My theory still stands: Mick will be better next season. It is a big step, he has to get used to the long F1 calendar and just racing the cars itself. Mark my words, we will see a bigger and better Mick next season and the seasons after that!