Inside The Box

        The 2023 season is only 2 races long but it seems like there is a big talent gap on the grid. Most years there or 2-3 teams that are considered contenders, 3-4 teams competing in the midfield and 3-4 teams bringing up the rear. The contenders are the teams that will scoop up most of the top 8 positions each race, the midfield are teams that will fight for those two remaining point positions and the bottom tier teams are lucky to get points for the entire season. With the early sample size we have seen in Bahrain, it looks like the competitive balance has shifted.     Red Bull is in a league buy themselves. There isn't another team that you can put in the same category as them and say they have a realistic shot at the constructors or driver  championship. I would lump Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari in the same tier, but teams 2-4 aren't usually considered the mid field.     McLaren is an utter disappointment this yea...

          Don't get me wrong, just making it to F1 means you an amazing driver. However, there are so many extremely talented drivers that won't even get a whiff of being able to drive in F1. With that being said, there are clearly different levels of greatness in the small subset of athletes that get to call themselves an F1 racecar driver.     There are a lot of stats in other sports, especially in North American sports, that can help determine how good a player is. In the NBA, the main definer of greatness is Rings, how many championships did you win? But there are gall of famers, all time greats (Barkley, Dominique, Nash), who do not have a ring. For those players that don't have a handful of rings there are a number of stats you can point to to determine how good they are. Points, Rebounds, Assist, Field Goal percentage, 3 point percentage, blocks, steals, usage rate, PER..etc.      With F1, there aren't too many things you can...

Jeddah doesn't have a long history but the 2 races that we have seen have both been extremely entertaining. There was the insanity of Hamilton/Verstappen battling each other in 2021 with the drivers championship on the line, and there was a great Verstappen/ Leclerc fight for the win last season with Max taking it. A qualifying session yesterday that knocked Verstappen to 15 and a grid penalty landing Leclerc in P12 to start the race. The stage was set for a fantastic Saudi Arabian GP Alonso got of to a great start, taking 1st place by the first turn, unfortunately, he got a 5 second penalty for improper starting position, he was too far to the left in his grid slot. Perez rebounded from his slow start and took back first place from Alonso on lap 4. Alonso had another great race and finished with his 100th Podium taking home 3rd. Piastri made contact with Gasly at the start and needed to pit at the end of the first lap to change his front wing. Lance Stroll caused a yellow flag on ...