The Victors

the Baku Grand Prix runs on Saturday and not Sunday.

1. Ferrari will likely unveil a new engine. They are hoping it will add an additional 15 hp, but they aren't expecting miracles. McLaren and Ferrari each has a couple of weekends, where it looked like they would close the gap and possibly challenge Kimi for the Championship, but neither car has been consistent enough to challenge Mercedes.

2. Ferrari is now basically admitting that their first attempt at complying with the rules was a dogshit engine that proved completely unreliable. Ultimately they settled for a backup engine that they admit was a much safer design than they were tying to complete, but it was 30-40 hp light. They are closing that gap, but they don't think they have an equivalent engine to McLaren, Red Bull or Mercedes, though they are getting closer.

3. What Ferrari does have, most believe, is the best aero and chassis of all of the cars, though they did get the set up wrong once or twice. They nailed the aero with an understanding that is still way ahead of the others with Red Bull adapting some of their unique designs to some extent but with far less success. Mercedes and McLaren don't seem concerned necessarily with the inverted rear wing, the rear exhaust diffuser thing, nor a couple extra vertical pieces at different locations nor are they going to change their suspension to match Ferrari. They have the higher HP engine and the better integration of the ICE and electric motors along with the operating software.

4. After much speculation, it seems that at least one Mercedes will finally have major upgrades. Mercedes has been winning at a level where major renovations just weren't justified. But they do have a new turbocharger and major engine upgrade and George will be the guinea pig this weekend. Interesting that they will only be testing it was George and Championship leader Kimi will take the safe route of letting George get the bugs out.

5. Heurta has given up on his ambition of driving for Cadillac. He just hasn't had any level of success in F2 where he would have sufficient super points to make the jump. Back to Indy is likely.

6. Lando and Max sound like they will both race in the 24 hours of LeMans next year. The race doesn't conflict with the F1 schedule and both have expressed a clear intent to race in it.

7. Hadjar is out for another race, so Lawson keeps the Red Bull seat and Yuki the Racing Bull seat.

8. The final race this year will be in December and almost certainly at Imola in Italy. Abu Dhabi has to formally cancel before it can be announced, but the racing teams have already begun making arrangements to compete at Imola a week prior to the scheduled Abu Dhabi race (so it will be moved from Abu Dhabi to Imola and will be raced a week earlier). It is really just a matter of Abu Dhabi formally cancelling the race in their country for it to be moved to Imola, with it likely called the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Imola.