So, it's fair to say the season so far has been anything but boring! With incidents, radio messages and a few records being broken; F1 is showing everyone what its made of!
Everyone probably went into the new season thinking 'yeah it will be Hamilton against Rosberg with the occasional threat from Ferrari'. It started off that way but then Red Bull pulled out multiple surprises! The first one being bad for Kvyat by switching him and Verstappen after multiple collisions with Ferrari's Vettel on the opening laps, two races in a row. Verstappen had lots of eyes on him when he joined last season and this move up made everyone wonder what he could do now he was in a higher team. He battled against Raikkonen for first in Spain by choosing a two stop strategy. He kept the ice man behind and managed his tires to become the youngest ever race winner! There is no denying he has talent, but the Red Bull can't be that bad either, being able to keep behind a Ferrari who were thought to be Mercedes closest rivals.
Mercedes never expected to have an easy year, they knew teams were getting closer and closer but the battle between their team mates would begin again. However, Rosberg had a good end to the 2015 season and kept that momentum, winning every race in 2016 until Spain when the Mercedes team mates took each other out in the first lap and handed the win to Red Bull's Verstappen on his debut race for the team.
This led to the fans being able to see the midfield and how close it all is. Highlighting that intense battles go on throughout the field and they are just as good as the ones going on at the front of the field. You never know who is going to get into Q3 or who is going to end up in the top 10 at the end of the race. Some teams like Force India and Sauber aren't having the easiest of times but never the less they give every race weekend their all and enjoy themselves. It is easy to miss the things that are important and a victory to a team in their own right; for example when McLaren Honda got in Q3 for the first time since they rekindled their partnership. The team and fans celebrated as it showed how they had got through tough times but their hard work was starting to pay off and they could see results.
This year is only going to get more interesting and I cannot wait to see how the battles develop over the season!
-ShortySian
