First Half of the season review

Well after a hectic first half of the season the F1 circus packs up for 4 weeks and we can now breathe and think about the chaos we witnessed for the past 20 weeks. from Mercedes' blistering pace at the start of the season, to the regulation dilemmas, to Aston Martin being slower than the new team on the grid and Kimi Antonelli proving the world wrong. That is not even all of it. It has been chaotic season and we aren't even finished yet. So without any more yap let's get to the recap.

2014 reincarnation?

Going into Bahrain, for Pre-Season Mercedes pulled off a generational sand bag, being 7 and 11th most of the time. Toto was saying they were miles behind the rest of the big 4 but we get to Australia and everyone's guess was right Mercedes were sand bagging. Finished 7 tenths in front of the closest car which is ridiculous. But what we did realize was they were awful at race starts. Kimi and George were swallowed up by the Ferraris. While they did end up overtaking both of them and keep their 1-2 there was a small crack that needed filling and those were the race starts. Up until Miami they were completely swallowed up by the cars behind them. despite this they won 6 Grand Prix and have won 8 out of 11 Grand Prix this season. Even more impressive they had 10 consecutive poles which was interupted by Lando Norris on Saturday. The most impressive thing from Mercedes is young Kimi Antonelli (who is 19 and in his 2nd season in F1 by the way) who is leading the Championship and dominating his Team mate 7-4. He's been so good I have decided to write an entire segment about him.

Close Enough, Welcome Back Senna

Kimi Antonelli. Where do I start? This kid is insane. Whether it is his aggressive moves or his blistering pace he can do the lot the kid is insane. If he can continue on this trajectory then he has a chance overtake Senna or maybe even Schumacher. He won 5 straight races and became the first driver to win his first 5 races in a row. It started in China where he so nearly became a Grand Slam winner if he wasn't overtaken on the first lap by Lewis Hamilton and led the other 55 Laps. He eventually did become the youngest ever in Monaco. Also in Monaco he became the youngest winner of this prestigious GP; the most impressive I think he has done is dominate George Russell. The only times George beat him were in Australia, Barcelona, Austria and Britain. However in Barcelona and Britain was because he was having car problems. But even then he leads the Championship by 50 points going into the Summer Break. He becomes the third driver in F1 history to do this; he is in great company with Seb Vettel and Max Verstappen. While he did struggle a little bit towards the end he will undoubtedly be back and ready for his Home Race.

Money Can't buy Happiness

Aston Martin after poaching the entirety of Red Bull's staff they still can't build a good car. This story starts in Bahrain, we were told that Stroll and Alonso could only last 25 Laps without suffering from substantional nerve damage from the vibrations of the Engine. They sorted the vibrations in Miami but the car was still terrible. Adrian Newey, the man who can see aerodynamics couldn't fix it. Many journalists, like myself were calling it the worst car in F1 history. Alonso was able to pick up 1 point in Monaco after the red flag but it keeps getting worse and worse for Aston Martin. Until we reached Spa, it was confirmed that they would have an entirely new B-spec car for Hungary that would reportedly "help them compete". We all laughed at it because there was nothing saving that car but boy did they impress. Alonso was able to make it to Q2 for the first time in nearly 8 months but it only gets better from here. Both he and Stroll were able to climb up to 13th and 14th making it a huge milestone in 2026. Going into the Summer Break, Aston Martin fans have never felt so confident.

Regulation Problems

There was some controversy surrounding the first half of the season with regulations. People called it artifical racing and awful racing. Me personally I loved it, from the first race we had insane battles. Charles Leclerc and George Russell swapped the race lead 7 times in 19 laps but some reason people hated it. The thing I hated and the same as most people is superclipping. Superclipping is cars saving battery at the end of straights meaning they are losing time. The straw that broke the Camels back was when Ollie Bearman went flying into the wall trying to avoid Colapinto who was harvesting at 50gs. However if you look at Bearmans onboard you can clearly see Colapinto is swerving all over the road. This led to the FIA changing the regs a bit to combat it and it has got better.

There is so much I missed like Lando having his best season by far and Max spinning every 5 minutes. If this article is successful then there will be a part two. hopefully you follow again next time. Goodbye!