I don’t think Mercedes, at least, would hire him as a number two — dropping Bottas would suggest as much.

Ferrari is maybe another question. There’s no doubt Raikkonen has been cast as the team’s second driver, but surely Ricciardo would want assurances of equal treatment before he made a switch.

Red Bull Racing, so far as I know, continue offering both drivers equal resources to compete. I don’t think that’ll change if they’re challenging for a title. We know they like Verstappen’s headline-grabbing nature, but Ricciardo is a product of the driver programme, so there’s already an investment in his success.

Thanks, mate. Hard to say at the moment! That talk of a Ferrari pre-contract is interesting (even if it’s far from solid), but sticking with RBR would offer him the least career risk in the sense that he could get a long-term contract with favourable exit clauses if he were worried about the engine situation.

Quite possibly. Hamilton, for example, is one of the least forgiving drivers in the business when overtaking or defending. Maybe a duel with Lewis would give Daniel more to think about, but then again, like you say, there must be a certain degree of knowing the driver you’re racing against coming into play. I don’t think drivers give Ricciardo more room because he’s nice, but I think they play fair because he does likewise.

It sort of goes back to what Vettel said about the tailwind. Vettel was thinking about what kind of move Verstappen was most likely to make and made allowances in his defence accordingly; Verstappen just overcooked it.

Cutting people wouldn’t be a cost saving — mechanics who work on pit stops have other jobs in the garage. It could well be a safety improvement and would aid visibility, but I maintain that these super-fast pit stops are impressive to watch. Formula One is about precision at high speed on the track, and this style of pit stop adopts exactly that same philosophy.

Yeah, more information came to light after that press conference. The gun thought it had been through the process of attaching/reattaching, which gave the pit stop supervisors — one couldn’t see the rear-left wheel, the other didn’t realise there was a problem —the all clear to turn the light green. The irony is that there were two people who could’ve stopped the release but neither realised there was a problem.

Absolutely right! It’s been Pirelli’s stated aim this season to bring tyre compounds to each race that’ll generate equally fast one and two-stop strategies. Bahrain was perfect in this regard, but the wildly different weather conditions on Friday and Saturday compared to Sunday means we didn’t really get that before the safety car intervened, after which things really lit up.

Yeah, I caught Martin Brundle saying something to the effect that we’d rather have him attempting those moves than holding station. I think that’s true in this case because he obviously pulls off far more than he botches. You wouldn’t say the same about Maldonado, for example!

Perhaps, but he did (and still does to a somewhat lesser extent) have an impetuous streak that we’re also seeing a bit of in Verstappen.

It was aggressive, but Ricciardo isn’t really a spur-of-the-moment kind of overtaker — you can’t be when you’re braking from those sort of distances. He had that planned out as far as he could’ve. He probably didn’t count on Bottas wriggling towards the apex in the braking zone, but he also clearly had it under control.

Not sure how Verstappen is unlucky in this situation, though. Perhaps that he underperformed in the same stint his teammate excelled, but I think his errors speak for themselves regardless of Ricciardo’s race because it was clear both had the pace to challenge for the victory before he made them.

He needs the car first! But you’re right, he’ll get there one day. For the record, I don’t think he has any (or at very least not many) critics who believe he isn’t championship material.

I think that’s the best way to put it, yep. Ricciardo is a polished talent whereas Verstappen is still raw. He’ll learn a little from every mistake he makes — what’ll be interesting is how many mistakes he make when the pressure’s on. I don’t think he’d crack under pressure, to be clear; I just think, as in China, he gets too keen.

Never! Ha, we’ll see. Hulkenberg has certainly raised his game, let’s see if Sainz can respond. I’m sure he’ll be keeping away from suspect fruit after his Melbourne problems, at very least.

Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that he might’ve felt collecting points was more valuable in his quest for a contract extension than risking a crash in pursuit of victory, but I would be concerned as a team principal if one of my drivers had no appetite for victory beyond cleaning up when the other driver has an off day. Mercedes says it doesn’t deal in preferencing one driver over the other, and I think that’s largely true, so as much as the harmony Bottas has brought to the team has allowed Hamilton to get on with it, will that be enough if Red Bull Racing, with two hungry drivers, challenges for the constructors championship? I wouldn’t have thought so.

Yeah, Williams is in big trouble, and Bottas would’ve been a valuable asset — likewise Felipe Massa and probably Robert Kubica. The team chose money over experience, but is the extra development potential those dollars bring enough to counter having limited technical direction from the drivers? I think the answer by the end of the season will probably be ‘no’.

What’s particularly interesting about the Williams situation is whether Paddy Lowe can sort the team out. This is his first car with the team, and it’s hardly set the world on fire…

I don’t think the Belgium fine was favouritism, it was an overreaction. It was a team that wasn’t prepared for that kind of conflict coming down too hard, and that undid Rosberg mentally, which is part of the reason Hamilton cruised to victory at six of the next seven races.

You’re right about his 2016 turnaround. He pulled himself together after that defeat, and he’s spoken at length about how he took his mental focus to the next level — it cost him so much energy that he felt he couldn’t do it a second time and retired.

It was not 100 points better. Vettel was in the championship fight until his Singapore and Japanese retirements.

To be fair, Bottas outscored Raikkonen by 100 points last year.and finished only 12 points behind Vettel.

Dismal is too strong a word. I still think Bottas is a quick driver who certainly deserves (deserved?) a shot at that Mercedes seat. He didn’t put Massa away regularly, that’s true, but Rob Smedly, even if he isn’t the most impartial commentator, reckoned Felipe had a bit of a resurgence at Williams, having found renewed purpose after being pummeled at and by Ferrari with Fernando Alonso as his teammate. But, again, you’re right to say Bottas should’ve been more consistently ahead as well as further ahead.

I think Bottas still has a lot to learn about the mental side of things. Being in a top team like Mercedes, which is internally so driven to be the best at everything, is tough, especially when you’re being consistently beaten by your teammate and struggling with the car. Rosberg eventually managed to overcome it for one season, so it’s not out of the question for Bottas, but that’s where I see the difference being.

Agree and disagree! I think Bottas is a good number two precisely because he occasionally challenges Hamilton for wins.Admittedly this is often when Hamilton has off days, but a driver who’s being challenged by his teammate tends to perform more strongly more often.

I think we’re going to learn that with Nico Hulkenberg in particular this year — he’s been a bit lacklustre while paired with Jolyon Palmer, but Carlos Sainz in the other car is really whipping him into shape. Daniel Riccciardo, too, is a better driver for having Max Verstappen challenge him. Neither of these is a number one/numer two driver scenario, but I think the principle is still the same.

Yep, this is the big question. Ricciardo has said as much too — that he’s waiting to see how the season is shaping up as part of his call to stay or go. The trouble is that it might be hard to know if Ferrari has finally found that killer instinct that deserted it late last year in time for him to make his decision.

I can’t agree that Ricciardo is in the twilight of his career. The best class of F1 driver — and it’s hardly controversial to consider Daniel in this group — can race well into their 30s. Fernando Alonso, the very best of them, is 36 and shows no real sign of slowing down. It’d even be too early to say Ricciardo’s already plateaued, although this season could demonstrate how much more potential he has to unlock.

Perhaps what you’re rightly picking up on is that there’s limited scope for him to move among the frontrunners at the moment. Mercedes and Ferrari both have theoretical availabilities next season, but they’d likely be short-term contracts given both have junior drivers mastering their craft in the midfield. I don’t see LIberty having any influence on which teams take which drivers, but the natural movements of the driver market are probably boxing Ricciardo in more than anything.

Yeah, I have been hearing this rumour of a pre-contract in the past couple of days. Hard to say if there’s anything to it, but some sort of non-binding agreement would be in his interest either in negotiating a better deal with RBR or, obviously, in moving to another frontrunning team.

Is it a good move? Hard to say. Charles Leclerc, admittedly after only two races, will likely need another year at Sauber, but he’s Ferrari’s long-term driver, which would mean Ricciardo would have to usurp Vettel next year as the team’s number one driver, and Sebastian may well be the reigning world champion by then. It’d be a high-stakes move.

It wouldn’t be surprising, you’re right. At the end of the day it comes down to how often he can put himself in front of Vettel to force the issue. He came close in Bahrain, but Vettel just has that much more in the tank to combat him.

I like the sound of the current engine. It’s obviously not the same scream of the old naturally aspirated blocks, but I think these engines sound more interesting. You can hear how they’re working. Whether or not on balance that adds to the spectacle is subjective, though, I suppose.

You can’t pin the competitiveness solely down to the Mercedes power unit, though. Certainly at the beginning of the era it counted for a lot, but the regulations change last season proved that Mercedes is operating well on all levels; it wasn’t shown up as successful off the back of the power unit alone.

Technology counts for a lot in F1, it’s what makes it what it is. Sure, it’s not the road proving ground it once was, but mastering the tech has always been part of the game. I don’t think that’s negotiable.

I don’t see Toro Rosso challenging for wins, I’m afraid. The team just doesn’t have the budget to develop at the speed of the top teams and the Honda engine, while apparently reliable, is still underpowered compared to the others. Perhaps in the coming years this might turn into a place near the frontrunners, but Red Bull will always provide it less funding relative to the senior team.

I am excited about this driver line-up, though. I think there’s a lot of potential in it.

I’m talking about aerodynamics regulations changes. The cars of 2017 were substantially different to those of the previous season.

Hamilton’s titles have been no softer than some of Schumacher’s. He had one particularly easy year in 2015, but in 2014 and 2016 he was challenged, obviously losing the latter to Nico Rosberg, as you said. Last year he walked to the title in the final races only because Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel tripped over themselves. Sure, you can argue this makes it a soft win, but for three quarters of the year he fought hard for it, and I don’t think those efforts should be discounted.

I will be curious about Sergey Sirotkin, but Williams is keen to emphasise that its driver line-up — in other words, not choosing Robert Kubica — was down to performance and not money. That might be the case, but the argument is there to be made to the contrary, and Williams needs to make sure its brand isn’t damaged by not making the counterpoint.

I think you could well be right about Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez, but at least in Nico Hulkenberg’s case he can hang onto his Renault drive as the team improves to (potentially) championship-winning contention and try to prove himself then. I think Sainz will likely outclass him, though.

I think Stoffel Vandoorne will come good. A bit like Kevin Magnussen before him, it’s hard to find your feet and perform as a rookie when the entire team is in turmoil around you. But you’re right to say he needs to start converting his junior career wins into F1 form to save his reputation.