There’s a word that has become ubiquitous in the Formula 1 Paddock these days. It is used to explain away the unexplainable and can be applied to almost any situation that either needs to be resolved or has now been.
That word is “reset”. Used interchangeably as either a verb or a noun, it acts as an undefined activity to address an undefined problem.
Forza Luigi
According to many pundits, Lewis Hamilton apparently benefited from having one, which led to his victory in Barcelona last weekend.
Lucky him! I thought it was all down to hard work, focus and an unending supply of stubborn determination. Whatever it was, it was good to see his peers acknowledge his achievement.
No doubt it was also a wake-up call to the younger cohort of drivers who had just been served by a man they had written off. This will not be the last time we see Lewis on the top step this year.
Sacre bleu
Meanwhile, spare a thought for Charles Lerclerc, who apparently is in need of one. Having recently signed up for another 2-5 years at Maranello, you would have thought he would have been feeling relatively relaxed.
The deal would potentially see him racing in Red into his mid-thirties, which suggests that, for his World Championship aspirations, it's Ferrari or go home.
Let’s hope he will not see many more weekends like the last two. No one could ever accuse Charles of hubris. The Monegasque owns his mistakes, sometimes a little too much.
However, once he is done with his “resetting”, I’m sure he will get back to his podium ways.
George “Ruffled”
Another person who apparently needs another “reset” is George Russell. A fortuitous engine failure on behalf of Kimi Antonelli did little to assuage the doubters.
George qualified well enough, with a creditable gap between himself and his teammate of some three tenths.
However, on race day, Antonelli was clearly the only dog who could see the rabbit. An embarrassing event was only averted by the intervention of the Racing Gods, who saved Russell from being dumped into third place by his supposed understudy.
Maybe there were extenuating circumstances with Russell’s car. However, the Championship leader always appeared to be the faster of the two, despite trailing the Englishman in the dirty air and heat for most of the race.
The trophy is le mien
There was also another reset with Red Bull and Alpine, with the former being ordered to hand over Isack Hadjar’s third-place Monaco trophy to Pierre Gasly.
Following a successful appeal, Gasly’s pitlane speeding penalties were rescinded, demoting and promoting the respective Frenchmen, accordingly.
Apparently, the problem was all down to FOM’s poor measurement of the distance between the timing loops - not the FIA’s.
This has now led to a tsunami of appeals from other teams who were similarly disadvantaged – Mercedes and Russell in particular.
Has anyone seen our form?
The final reset, though, has to be McLaren and Oscar Piastri. Lando Norris delivered a standout drive to manage the tyre attrition and be there when it mattered to scoop up a podium finish.
However, the team did not seem to have the comparable downforce they enjoyed in previous rounds, with the Antipodean suffering more than his teammate.
The Catalunya circuit was a tyre-degradation fest and, effectively, a low-grip circuit for most of the race. This type of track proved challenging for Piastri last year; let’s hope a quick reset will sort it out!
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