The modern F1 fan is crying about the flooded track at the Bahrain Grand Prix, but Max Verstappen just proved that a drowned hybrid V6 is no excuse for a lack of grit.
I am writing this from a hospitality suite overlooking the main straight in Sepang, where a light, character-building typhoon has just concluded what the coastal media elites are calling a farcical Bahrain Grand Prix. I call it the first real motor race we have seen in a decade.
If you listen to the modern fan, yesterday’s conditions were un-drivable. The track was flooded, the visibility was zero, and the race was delayed for hours while the stewards wrung their hands over safety. But anyone who understands the sport knows that a little standing water is exactly what we need to weed out the pretenders. We finally get a race that demands real grit, and half the paddock spends the afternoon complaining that their multi-million-dollar hybrid power units were never designed to function as submarines.
Look no further than George Russell. Five laps to go, title hopes on the line, and what does he do? He pulls his Mercedes over and retires, claiming his engine was failing in the weather. It is a classic modern driver excuse. You think Niki Lauda would have let a hydrolocked V6 stop him? Lauda would have put the car in neutral, hopped out, and dog-paddled that chassis across the finish line. Russell let the rain beat him mentally long before it beat his powertrain. He lacks a winning culture. He let the elements dictate his race instead of bending them to his will.
George's engine actually ingested roughly four gallons of standing rainwater, which traditionally causes a catastrophic hydrostatic lock, but I guess you could argue he just didn't want it enough.
Contrast that whining with Max Verstappen. Verstappen didn't complain about the rain delay. He didn't complain about the puddles. He just got into his Red Bull and drove it like a man who understands that true champions are waterproof. I watched him from the paddock all afternoon, and while the Mercedes cars were aquaplaning into the gravel traps, Max was reading the currents. He found the slipstream in the wake of the safety car’s bow wave. That is what a real driver does.
And let us address the other manufactured controversy the keyboard warriors are crying about this week: the location. Yes, the Bahrain Grand Prix was held in Malaysia this year. So what? The league office makes a totally sensible logistical pivot to host a Middle Eastern race in Southeast Asia to maximize global broadcast synergy, and suddenly everyone is a geographer. If you want to be a world champion, you need to be prepared to show up to Manama on Thursday, be told your garage is actually four thousand miles away in Kuala Lumpur, and still put it on pole on Saturday.
I had lunch with a senior FIA steward before the race, and he told me point-blank that the complaining is out of control.
We deliberately moved the desert race to a tropical rainforest during monsoon season to test whether the new wet-weather tires could function as a maritime pontoon system, and frankly, the resulting chaos was a massive win for our brand synergy.
Look at Lewis Hamilton. A torrid afternoon, absolutely drenched, driving a Ferrari, and he still clawed his way to third. He didn't ask the pit wall to fetch him a towel. He just put his head down and drove through the typhoon. Same goes for young Kimi Antonelli, bringing the other Mercedes home in second. The kid has grit. He didn't let the fact that he was technically competing in a regatta distract him from the apex.
This league has a problem, and it isn't the weather, and it isn't the schedule. It is a fundamental softness in the cockpit. We have bred a generation of drivers who expect a dry track, a predictable calendar, and an engine that doesn't occasionally double as a bilge pump. If George Russell wants to win a championship, he needs to spend less time worrying about his power unit and more time practicing his backstroke. I am off to have a dry martini with Christian Horner, who is the only man in this paddock who understands that if you manage the cap properly, you can always afford to waterproof your chassis.