Formula 1 arrives at a major milestone this week: the first race of the season around a real marina.
But the sport isn’t here simply to be wowed by the novelty of real water supporting, as if by magic, the flotation of the yachts that make their way into Monaco harbour. The streets of Monte Carlo are still the main attraction as the one race every driver wants a chance to win.
There’ll be a little extra glitz to go with the glamour of Monaco this weekend too, with the FIA’s so-called bling ban pushed back another month for further negotiations — a relief for those in the sport who don’t want a high-profile spat with F1’s biggest star.
One thing Hamilton certainly won’t be taking in the car with him is his latest present from former teammate Valtteri Bottas — and hopefully he appreciated it, because it’ll be difficult to regift.
FIA POSTPONES JEWELLERY SHOWDOWN
The Monaco Grand Prix undercard was set to be a showdown between the FIA and Lewis Hamilton over its new hardline stance on wearing jewellery while racing, but the governing body has reportedly stepped back from the battlefield on the eve of the race.
RacingNews365 reports that the president of the FIA medical commission, Dr Sean Petherbridge, will continue discussing the matter with drivers, with several having expressed dissatisfaction with the almost blanket ban.
Lewis Hamilton was the highest profile among them — the Briton has been resolute in his stance that he wouldn’t remove certain piercings that would require medical intervention to undo — but Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly have also spoken out against the rules on personal and religious grounds respectively.
The impasse was to come to a head this weekend with the expiry of a temporary exemption granted to Hamilton two weeks ago, but the report suggests negotiations are ongoing between Dr Petherbridge and his medical commission, the FIA safety commission and the Grand Prix Drivers Association, with a framework for exemptions based on personal or religious circumstances expected to be reached to avoid further public debate.
Enforcement of the so-called bling ban will be postponed until 30 June, the week of the British Grand Prix.
Though the restriction on jewellery has been part of the international sporting code for more than a decade, the FIA has historically been lenient on enforcing it in Formula 1, with several drivers known to wear wedding rings, piercings and religious necklaces while racing.
However, a change in race director this season, with Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas taking over from Michael Masi, has seen the sport adopt a stricter interpretation of the rules. The approach also trickled down to Formula E, where two drivers were given penalty points and suspended fines for wearing necklaces during the Monaco E-Prix late last month.
Certain jewellery, in particular necklaces and certain piercings, are considered a fire hazard because they can undermine the effectiveness of fireproof garments, and they can also pose an injury risk in the event of assisted extrication from the car.
LECLERC NOT WORRIED ABOUT RED BULL TEAM ORDERS DECIDING TITLE FIGHT
Charles Leclerc says team orders haven’t been discussed at Ferrari despite Red Bull Racing committing early to Max Verstappen’s title challenge.
Verstappen was the beneficiary of three team orders for teammate Sergio Perez to let him by at the Spanish Grand Prix, while the Mexican was vocally disappointed to receive no team assistance at all during the race, particularly when he was the faster driver in the second stint.
But Leclerc says the issue of picking winners inside Ferrari hasn’t taken place despite Carlos Sainz being 39 points adrift of his points total and 45 points behind title leader Verstappen — and despite him being 51 points of the pace before Leclerc’s retirement.
“Red Bull made it clear what their intentions are, and they did it very early in the season,” Leclerc said.
“But concerning us, I don’t know. I haven’t spoken about it with Mattia, and I haven’t heard about anything of this for now.”
The Monegasque also said he wasn’t worried that Sainz hasn’t been able to support his races as strongly as Perez has been able to assist Verstappen, with the two Red Bull Racing teammates being better matched on pace so far this year.
“It doesn’t concern me because I know that Carlos will be back very, very quickly,” he said.
“He’s a very, very strong driver. He’s been struggling maybe a little bit more to adapt to this car. And it fit a little bit better my driving style maybe at the beginning.
“I’m pretty sure Carlos will be in the fight too, very, very soon.
“In the end, it’s up to me also to do the right job and to bring Ferrari on top anyway.”
Sainz has pointed to the SF-75’s looser rear end as a key problem for him to overcome this season, but he’s also suggested there are certain unique characteristics of the car confounding matters.
“It’s very specific,” he said after the Spanish Grand Prix. “It’s a lot of detail. It is probably just too much to put into an interview or to put into words, because I think it also deserves some privacy and some team confidential things.
“But that’s the way it goes. You can either adapt yourself or you can bring your car a bit more to your liking.
“These two things, they take time and they take knowledge and experience. It takes mistakes, it takes trial and error. And this is what I am in the process of now.”
BOTTAS CHARITY AUCTION NO BUM NOTE
Between the Miami and Spanish grands prix Valtteri Bottas enjoyed some down time in Colorado with his partner, cyclist and Australian Olympian Tiffany Cromwell, but it’s turned out to be more profitable than for just his fitness and wellbeing.
The Finn created a social media stir when he posted a photo of himself skinny-dipping in a stream is Aspen, his bare bottom peaking above the water, and the online popularity of the post had him and Cromwell hatch a plan.
“The next day we decided we’d like to print something for charity, and we decided to do it,” he said, per Autosport. “And then it just went like, ‘Boom’.”
Former Mercedes photographer Paul Ripke was brought on board to edit Cromwell’s photo and create a special run of prints for a charity auction.
The limited-edition bare-arse prints raised more than €40,000, which Bottas and Ripke topped up to €50,000 (A$75,300) for German charity Stiftung LebensBlicke, a bowel cancer screening and awareness foundation.
Speaking in Spain, Bottas said he found the popularity of his bare cheeks baffling.
“I was seeing some photos of people taking pictures, some have it in their living room or kitchen or bedroom,” he said.
“What is incredible that that’s like the power of social media. Like we got €50,000 for charity in 24 hours with a picture of somebody’s bum like this.
“It’s crazy. I don’t quite get it. But, you know, we make good.”
UPDATE: Lewis Hamilton has received a personal, signed copy of the famous photo in a handover at the Monaco Grand Prix after expressing an interest in it during an interview last week in which he described it as “one of the best photos I’ve seen”.
MERCEDES’S POINTS PROBLEM
After standing on the Spanish Grand Prix podium, George Russell declared Barcelona was “the start of our season”, such was the progress made by Mercedes after dispiriting opening five races.
It is, at best, just in time for the reigning constructors champion.
Mercedes is third in the standings and 75 points behind Red Bull Racing, but fortunately it should be able to count on the battle with Ferrari preventing either of the two frontrunners from breaking away too quickly, earning it precious time to catch up on pace and start bridging the gap.
But it has a potentially more serious problem it will need to start contemplating if it genuinely sees itself as a championship contender this season.
George Russell leads Mercedes in the drivers standings with a 36-point deficit to Max Verstappen, a not insurmountable margin with 16 races still to run. Lewis Hamilton, however, is almost twice as far behind, with a 64-point gap.
With Red Bull Racing clearly throwing its weight behind Max Verstappen and Ferrari bound to do the same behind Charles Leclerc, will Mercedes consider doing the same for George Russell?
It’s not such a simple equation. Not only is Hamilton a seven-time champion, but he can fairly say bad luck has contributed to the bulk of his points deficit to Russell, and team boss Toto Wolff was quick to invoke some of the older Briton’s dominant drives in summing up his race in Spain.
“That looked like a championship-winning race car he was driving,” he said. “It reminded me of last year and the years before, the race car and the driver.”
It’ll clearly be a difficult discussion if the time were to come for a call to be made.
But if you ask Ferrari, Mercedes is getting well ahead of itself anyway, and Mattia Binotto was only too willing to smack the team back down to earth.
“They were seven-tenths off the pace in the quali lap, which is still a short circuit,” he told Sky Sports. “[In the race] they finished 30 seconds or more from the Red Bull, and it could have been maybe 40 seconds to Charles.
“Forty seconds, 66 laps, is still six, seven tenths per lap. Six tenths, seven tenths a lap is still significant. It’s like Ferrari last year.”
No-one wants to be likened to a 2020-21 era Ferrari, and Mercedes needs a few more races to prove it’s a step better than that.
LECLERC AND SAINZ’S JOB SWAP
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have leant their voices to an as-yet unnamed character for the upcoming Disney and Pixar film Lightyear, based on the character Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.
Both drivers are voicing the same character, with Sainz’s voice used for the Spanish-language film and Leclerc getting a run in the Italian edition.
“It was my first voice acting cameo,” Leclerc said. “It was a completely different experience from what I have done in the past. It was a bit strange and much harder than I thought.
“It was a great experience, and I can’t want to see the final result.”
The Ferrari teammates are far from the first Formula 1 drivers to receive cameo appearances in Disney films, with the Cars series featuring a swath of motorsport stars across the different language releases.
Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Jacques Villeneuve and Vitaly Petrov have all had cameos through the franchises, some of them as the same character in different languages, as well as NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty and Chase Elliot.
Lightyear premieres in Australia on 16 June.
