Page 130 - Classics Issue

Barcelona, somehow when I say that in my head I hear Freddie Mercury belting it out with the wonderful operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé with all the theatrics that seemed to defne him as an artist, it and a defning moment in his career. For the last few seasons theatrics is not a word you could use in the same sentence as Formula One, but 2017 is almost worthy of a Mercury-style intro… At the quarter point of the season, we actually seem to have an exciting season in front of us. Ferrari has certainly used their time well over the break and has come back with a car that is now competitive, and they’ve thrown a large gauntlet down in front of the Mercedes garage. The season opener in Melbourne saw Vettel on the top of the podium, then he swapped places with Lewis for China only to win again in Bahrain with Mercedes repeating their Melbourne results with Hamilton and Bottas. Russia was a disastrous outing for Hamilton missing the podium all together as new team-mate Valtteri Bottas secured his frst ever Formula One win, leaving the prancing horses of Seb and Kimi to congratulate him on the podium. So the bigger cars, wider tyres and new management have given us a fying start to the season. Other Paddock Life commitments have meant I’ve been watching the season unfold from the best seat in the house – my sofa, in front of a big HD TV with my phone continually blowing up with texts and calls from friends watching the race live. It’s been a long time since there’s been anything to text about during a race other than “shall we go to the pub and watch this later...” Now I’m setting my alarm clock! Images John J Breen