Peaches, Pits, and Mids

A Summer Break Performance Review

Photo courtesy of Formula 1

It seems like every post lately has begun with “apologies for being quiet on here.” That sentiment extends to this piece.

Lately, I’ve been having a bit of an identity crisis when it comes to Substack: What do I want to write about? Who am I writing for? How much do I want my own voice to be a part of it? What is engaging and what isn't?

As I’ve mentioned previously, I started Formula Flash as a way to write about a sport I had begun to love while living in a city and working a job I didn’t. Substack quickly spiraled into a portfolio builder. Now that my job is writing about Formula 1, I’m at a crossroads. 

Part of the reason I’ve been silent is because I’ve been busy traveling, writing and reporting on Formula 1 trackside. It’s also because I’ve been overthinking pretty much every word I write on here. And I am likely trying a bit too hard to sound casual yet cool yet intelligent in an unpretentious way. But as summer break sets in, I thought I’d put the 2,000-word think-pieces on hold (although this one is double that) and get back to actual on-track action. The politics, economics and culture around the sport are what drew me in, but if the Belgian Grand Prix showed me anything, it’s that all the million-dollar bottom lines and online fanfare rely on the margins of performance: seconds, pounds and centimeters that separate the very good from the great. 

Growing up, my family would sit around the dinner table asking each other our “highs” and our “lows” of the day. Once I got to high school, my friend group would do a similar thing, gathered around a fire pit or someone’s couch. We called it “Peaches and Pits.” 

Peaches

Max Verstappen 

It’s difficult to not rate Max Verstappen highly. The three-time world champion is leading by 78 points and he’s won exactly half of the races so far this season. Yet it’s lackluster compared to 2023. Even he, discussing how much he’d miss his RB19, seemed to know his performance had hit a peak before it had suddenly fallen, breaking most records in the sport’s history book. 

At the start of the season, Red Bull’s internal power struggle—an odd game of tug-of-war between the team’s principal Christian Horner, advisor Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen—began to seep onto the race track. An investigation into Horner’s alleged inappropriate texts with a female employee showed early signs of a culture shift inside the Red Bull garage. Then Red Bull’s chief designer and technical officer Adrian Newey announced his immediate departure in May. Newey, developing 13 drivers’ championship-winning cars, is credited with engineering the team’s dominant performance. On Thursday, Red Bull’s sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, announced his move to Audi F1 Team as team principal. Throughout it all, Verstappen departure rumors circulated, with Mercedes, and now Aston Martin, as the top bidder. 

It’s natural for the field to even out at the end of a Formula 1 regulation era. As Red Bull was hit by development punishments following overspending in 2021 and other teams caught up in speed, it was inevitable that the 20-second leads that defined Verstappen’s 2023 season would cease to continue. 

But perhaps Verstappen’s biggest win of the first half of the season was losing. I was sitting in a dive bar with friends in Manhattan in March when the crowd, gathered around the screen, let out a roar: Verstappen’s Red Bull billowed smoke as he called it quits in the Australian heat. As Lando Norris’ McLaren hovers closer and seven other drivers took a win from the Red Bull driver (instead of just two others last season), the statement that “real F1 is back” oozed into the paddock. What was beginning to become monotonous for new and traditional fans alike—inspiring headlines like Vox’s “Formula 1 grew too fast. Now its fans are tuning out”—took a turn for the better. 

Now that Verstappen is battling other drivers on track, he’s back to dropping expletives on the radio, blurring the line between impassioned and aggressive driving and reclaiming his nickname “Mad Max.” Verstappen’s clash with both Norris and Lewis Hamilton in Austria and Hungary made for great television—something Liberty Media (and Netflix) are in the business of selling. 

Oscar Piastri 

This time last year, Oscar Piastri was sitting at 34 points in the drivers’ championship. The Australian crossed the finish line last week, swaddled by Southern Belgium’s evergreen backdrop, in second place, pushing him to fourth in the standings with 167 points so far this season. 

Despite three second-place trophies and a win, Piastri’s performance seems overshadowed by his teammate’s success. In Hungary, Piastri led after he overtook Norris on the first lap. Then, a poorly timed team strategy pitted (and prioritized) Norris ahead of Piastri, launching him into first. The ensuing calls for the British driver to give up the place and let Piastri through went on for laps on end. With two laps to go, Norris had “made his point,” as his race engineer said, and pumped the brakes to allow Piastri past. The 23-year-old’s first win was muted. What should have been a celebratory occasion was tainted by a slight crack in fans’ faith in McLaren. After winning a sprint race in 2023, a feature race win was almost certain for Piastri, but it’s unfortunate it had to end with the spotlight shining on Norris rather than the winner himself. 

Consistency remains Piastri’s biggest character flaw. In order to close the gap between his car and his teammate’s papaya orange McLaren, small mistakes need to be ironed out. As entertaining as it is to watch him skirt into the gravel and veer back on track, it’s often a blow to his timesheets. However, it’s taken Norris six years at McLaren to reach his first win (along with a solid car). In his year-and-a-half stint in Formula 1, Piastri has racked up more points than most. In the last eight races, he’s accumulated 126 points compared to Norris’ 116. Currently, he’s sandwiched in the standings by two Ferraris and has both Mercedes trailing behind him. Piastri is a likely candidate for another win over the second half of the season—hopefully, one that doesn’t include belabored team orders.