Luiz Pereira Bueno, Brazilian F-1 driver

For most Formula 1 fans, Luiz Pereira Bueno, often referred as Luiz Bueno, was just another unknown, wealthy driver from a far away land who managed to buy his way into a single ride in Formula 1 and fulfill a dream. It is true that Bueno had a single Formula 1 start, the Brazilian Grand Prix of 1973, driving an outdated Surtees model and finishing a lowly 12th after starting dead last. However, Bueno was not wealthy and he was definitely not a nobody. He was one of the main drivers of the pre-Fittipaldi generation, for Luiz had been racing since 1957 and rose to prominence as a Willys (Renault) factory driver in the early 60’s. There he raced Gordinis, Interlagos (a Brazilian version of the Alpine), Alpine, Formula Junior and the Bino prototypes. He won many races in the yellow cars, and even after the demise of Willys as a manufacturer, Bueno raced the Bino prototypes for a few more seasons.

One of the best things that happened to Brazilian racing was the closing of the Interlagos race track for renovations during 1968 and 1969! That meant no racing in Sao Paulo, where most of the best drivers and teams were located. It also meant that drivers began looking abroad to continue racing, and Luiz was one of them. He raced for Stirling Moss’ Formula Ford team in 1969, and just like Emerson Fittipaldi, won a few races, in fact six. However, Luiz reckoned he was too old for adventures, being 32, and decided to return to Brazil for good for the 1970 season. He did take part in the International Formula Ford (winning in Rio), Formula Three and Formula Two tournaments held in 1970 and 1971, and soldiered on with the Bino prototype during the 1970 season, winning a few more races.

In 1971, Luiz and Anisio Campos bought two Porsches, a 910 and a 908/2, set up a team called Equipe Z, which eventually got Hollywood cigarette sponsorship. Driving this car Luiz was basically unbeatable in local racing and even won an international race in Argentina. He also raced the car in the 1000 km of Austria of 1972, starting seventh with Tite Catapani (they failed to finish) and ended second in the 500 km of Interlagos of 1972, behind Reinhold Joest (Porsche 908-3).

By then Bueno had his first try in Formula 1, driving an older March 711 in the non-championship Brazilian GP of 1972. He did well to finish 6th, 2 laps behind the winner, Reutemann. 

As for his single World Championship outing, there isn’t much to say. Bueno’s car was a Surtees 

TS9B, and he was obviously forewarned by Big John to avoid crashing or over revving the engine. 

He ran a very conservative race, with the aim to finish, and that he did (this was a big deal at the time, you must remember). Dreaming of a 6th place that time would be impossible, for while the 1972 race was poorly supported, and the 1973 race had a full entry.

Luiz spent his last three seasons driving other Hollywood sponsored cars in Brazil. The Porsche 908-2 had been outlawed for 1973, so Luiz drove Chevrolet Opala and Ford Maverick saloons in sprints and long distance races, sat out 1974, and had a powerful Berta prepared Maverick and a Berta-Hollywood prototype for the 1975 season, winning six races.  He officially retired, but raced a few more times, once in a touring car race in 1978, unsuccessfully racing in the Brazilian Stockcar championship in 1982 and in the 1984 1000 km of Brasilia, retiring for good.  

Bueno was actually the only local Brazilian driver do manage getting a one-off ride for the Brazilian Grand Prix. At the time it was usual for local drivers to hire extra GP cars and participate in their local race. There were rumors that Antonio Castro Prado, Francisco Lameirão and Eduardo Celidoneo were getting rides for the local race, but these came to naught and maybe highly speculative. Part of the reason is that privateers usually did not take cars to the South American rounds, and most of these one-off happened in more humble teams. Works teams usually took as little equipment as possible.

Much more information about racing in the 70's can be found in my book MOTOR RACING IN THE 70'S - PIVOTING FROM ROMANTIC TO ORGANIZED. It is a 472-page book about racing in the period,  with 242 photos, covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 5000, other lower formulae, Formula Indy, NASCAR, Touring Cars, Sports Cars, Can Am, Trans Am, IMSA, DRM, local racing scenes, main driver profiles, plus long lists of makes that raced in the period, main drivers and racing venues from 85 countries, year highlights, performance and financial analysis of the sport. It can be bought at Amazon shops in the USA, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia, Japan, 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426

The Winkelhock dynasty

Formula 1 dynasties are not that unusual. Just recently, Nico Rosberg, son of Keke, emulated his father’s 1982 feat and became world champion. Before that, Damon, son of Graham Hill, also managed to repeat his dad’s feat and became a world champion. There have been less successful dynasties: Michael Schumacher,  the F1 records  destroyer until second notice, was a seven-time world champion, however his brother Ralf only managed to win a few races, not bad for some families. Some children did better than their dads: Max Verstappen is this generation`s hot shoe and may yet be a world champion, while his father Jos only managed a couple of podiums.  Jacques Villeneuve, the son, won a championship, yet most, including this writer, consider his father much better. At any rate, the son was better than the uncle, the eponymous Jacques. Emerson Fittipaldi raced against his brother for a short while, and there is very little comparison between their F1 results. Later on, Wilson’s son Christian also raced in F1, with little success, and there may still be a Fittipaldi driving in F1. There were also the Scheckters: Jody a champion, Ian never scored a point. Plus the Magnussens: another case in which the son has been better than the father. The Rodriguez brothers, the Stewarts, the Piquets, the Andrettis, Senna and his nephew, etc.

You get the picture.

Then, there were the Winkelhocks.

Manfred first came to notice in 1977, when he was chosen as one of the BMW Junior Team Drivers. In a very competitive DRM small engined class, Manfred beat the likes of Hans Stuck, Eddie Cheever, Marc Surer, all BMW drivers and Ford’s Hans Heyer and Toine Hezemans.  The impressive Manfred was soon added to the BMW F2 team for 1978, as a third driver. Although March-BMW won both the 1978 and 1979 championships, Manfred did not fare well. He was fast, but his team mates got all the glory.

Eventually, Manfred reached Formula 1, while racing Porsches, BMWs and Fords in sports cars. His first try was in an Arrows, in the 1980 Italian GP that ended in a DNQ. In 1982, 83 and 84, Manfred suffered driving Cosworth and BMW engined ATS, under the recalcitrant leadership of Mr. Schmidt. In spite of the barely tolerable ride, Manfred managed to qualify the car better than most would expect, starting with a fifth place start in Detroit in 1982, and several Top 10 in 83 and 84. However, his only points were scored in his third entry, the Brazilian GP of 1982, and basically because the first and second on the road were disqualified.

In the last race of 1984 Manfred finally had a chance to drive a competitive car, a Brabham-BMW. He did not do well, and ended in 10th place.

For 1985 Manfred was signed up by RAM, and his performance dropped. He retired from most races, but the worse was yet to come. After winning in a Kremer Porsche at Monza, in the World Sportscar Championship, Manfred had an accident in Mosport and died from his injuries.

His brother Joachim had a much shorter F1 career, with an even worst car than Manfred’s rides, the AGS Cosworth in 1989. This was the age of over subscribed entry lists, and Joachim did not prequalify in the seven races he was entered. After the French GP, Joachim who was a promising German F3 Champion, was dropped from the team, never being considered for a F1 ride again.

Joachim did find a very successful career in Touring Cars and Sports Cars, managing to win the extremely competitive BTCC for BMW in 1993, and then the Le Mans 24 Hours of 1999, quite possible the most competitive ever in terms of field depth, aided by Yannick Dalmas and Pierluigi Martini, also driving a BMW. He drove a few more years after that, and then retired.

The third Winkelhock was perhaps the least rated of the three, and certainly had his detractors! Markus was Manfred’s son, and admittedly, did not really have a very brilliant career in the lower formulae.  Not withstanding, he was listed as Midland’s test driver for the 2006 season.  Then, he had a chance in 2007, and was entered as one of the drivers for Spyker, which was the renamed Midland team, in the European GP. Manfred got the drive because the team’s driver, Christjan Albers,  had left the team after the British GP. Markus got a deal for a single race in his native Germany.

The race looked bleak. Markus would start dead last, but there were weather related issues. As the driver with the least to lose in the lot, Spyker deciced that Markus should go to the pits, and his tires were changed to intermediates, while everybody else was on slicks. Winkelhock then started from the pits, and suddenly, a downpour came, and Markus was the only driver in the field who had tires to withstand the tempest. All hell broke lose, and as unlikely as it sounds, Markus Winkelhock passed many cars, and the German ended up in the lead of his first GP, driving a Spyker!   By the end of the second lap he was 19 seconds ahead of second place, and 33 seconds by the third lap! In total, Winkelhock led 6 laps, but his luck ran out. The race was red flagged, and restarted with Markus on pole (he started last and first in the same race, also very unusual), but the team rolled the dice once more and placed rain tires on the car, but the rain never came back.

A most unusual F1 career, for this was his first and last race in the category! As he retired after 15 laps, he led almost half of his laps in Formula 1.  And Winkelhock actually managed to lead more laps than GP winners Peter Gethin and Jochen Mass.  The nasty Spyker was taken over by Sakon Yamamoto in the next race and by the end of the year the team was sold to Viljay Mallya, who created the Force-India team.  Markus continued racing GTs and Touring Cars,   having won a few races and the 2012 FIA GT1 Championship.

As for the Winkelhocks, at least one their lot led a Grand Prix.  The last one in which a family member was entered. Such an unusual dynasty.

A dream come true at last

Fernando Alonso`s victory at SPA, driving a Toyota in an endurance race was a dream of mine. I appreciate Alonso, but am not necessarily a die-hard fan of his. The dream has to do with something else.

I began following racing at first timidly as an 8-year old in 1969, and my first full season of "serious" racing was 1972. By then I had become aware of the different categories, venues, and styles. I loved Formula 1, but I also loved the World Championship of Makes.

That season, a large number of Formula 1 drivers still raced in the Endurance championship. Off the top of my head, I came up with this list of drivers that raced in both F-1 and the Prototype championship that year: Ickx, Regazzoni, Marko, Galli, De Adamich, Bell, Redman, Peterson, Schenken, Ganley, Cevert, Hill, Migault, Beltoise, Amon, Pescarolo, Pace, Soler-Roig, Revson, Merzario, Andretti, W. Fittipaldi Jr., Wisell and Stommelen.

Out of many drivers used by Ferrari in its prototype campaign in 1972, only Sandro Munari did not race in F1 the same year.

While it is true that 72's  top 3 in F-1 did not touch endurance racing, the number 4, Ickx, won and was extremely competitive in both categories.

Times were different, of course. For one, the F-1 championship had only 12 races in 1972. Second, even GP drivers did not make much money back in those days, and to make a few more Dollars, Francs of Deutsche Marks,  they raced not only in the Makes Championship, but also Formula 2, Touring Cars, Formula 5000, Can-Am, Interserie, 2 Liters, hill climbs, and even local racing. With time, and TV, the F-1 schedule expanded to the current 20 plus races and so did salaries - in a nutshell, there is no more NEED for a driver to risk his neck in other categories, for any Joe can make US$ 500,000 a year driving F-1.

Every once in a while a current F1 driver might risk driving at Le Mans, like Hulkenberg a couple of years, back, but by and large, drivers stay in their own categories. I actually never thought I would witness a top F1 driver (Alonso is still highly rated, after all) ever again drive in an Endurance championship race.

Of course, I do not expect this to be a trend. For one, Alonso only accepted the ride because it was Toyota, which is the absolute class of the field. Back in 72 there were at least five competitive teams around, some with as many as 4 cars in certain races. Current GP drivers might be lured into Endurance if, and only if, there are a few top manufacturer teams - driving in a privateer LMP1 team is unlikely to draw top F1 contenders back into the long-distance game.

So let us enjoy while Alonso and Toyota are still around. Both are not likely to linger on much longer.

70s customers cars

Things have changed immensely for Formula 1 teams. Up until the early 70s, Formula 1 teams were basically forced to build cars for other formulas, racing them as works teams or selling them to customers. The extra income was necessary, until commercial sponsorship matured in the mid 70s, and Bernie Ecclestone expanded the Formula 1 concept into a more viable proposition.

Lotus, for instance, built Formula 3 and Formula 2 cars, selling them to customers in the early part of the decade. Lotus F3 cars were very common in 1970/71, rare by 1973, when Lotus had built the last non-Formula 1 car, the Formula 2 that became known as Texaco Star. There was some talk of a Formula Indy Lotus in the early 80's, but it never materialized.

Brabham was a major race car builder, in fact the cars were very common in F2, F3, Formula Atlantic, and even in Formula 5000. The Brabham BT40 was the last formula 2/formula 3 from that constructor, in 1973, and a Brabham BT43 Formula 5000 that briefly hit the race tracks.

The Henri Pescarolo Surtees, 1976. Sponsored by model manufacturer Norev.

McLaren was pretty much involved in F5000 in 1970, in fact, it was the most successful builder at the time. A McLaren M25 one off F-5000 car appeared in the mid 70s. McLaren also became involved in Formula Indy, winning two Indy 500 races (1974 and 1976) with the works team, and several other races. Among others, Penske used McLarens for a while. This involvement lasted until the end of the decade. McLaren also built a Formula 2 car for the 1972 season, winning the final race at Crystal Palace. McLaren was also involved in the Can Am series, staying as a works team until 1972, and winning the 1970 and 1971 titles.

It could be said that March was a race car builder who also happened to be in Formula 1. In fact, pretty much all F-1 Marches from 1972 on were based on the F-2 car, not the other way around. March was very successful in F-2, winning many titles between 1971 nd 1983, and in F-3, a category it left in 1981. It also built Formula Atlantic and Formula 5000 cars, in addition to sports cars.

Surtees had some success in F-5000 from the onset, winning a title in Europe (Van Lennep, 1972) and being competitive in USA (runner-up, Posey, 1971), also winning the 1972 F-2 championship (1972, Hailwood). It left F-2 in 1974, concentrating in Formula 1 with no great effect. It should be noted, however, that a Surtees F-1 won the British Group 8 championship of 1977, with Tony Trimmer.

Shadow began in F-1 in 1973, and it was active as a works team in Can Am, Formula 5000 and the revised Can Am, as of 1977.

Matra built F-1 cars until 1972, but it was concomitantly active in Sports-cars, in fact much more successful in the latter category, winning titles in 1973/74.

Ferrari had been in F-2 and Formula Tasman until 1969, but from 1970 until 1973 it built only Sports Cars out of Formula 1. In fact, it built more than 25 of the Ferrari 512, to meet Group 5 regulations. From 1974 on, it built only F-1, until the early 90's, when the Ferrari 333 was released.

Other constructors that were involved in F-1 in the 70's, but also built cars for other formulas or categories were Lola, Trojan, Ralt, Penske, Parnelli, Merzario, Martini, Ligier, Tecno, Bellasi, Alfa-Romeo.

Much more information about racing in the 70's can be found in my book MOTOR RACING IN THE 70'S - PIVOTING FROM ROMANTIC TO ORGANIZED. It is a 472-page book about racing in the period,  with 242 photos, covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 5000, other lower formulae, Formula Indy, NASCAR, Touring Cars, Sports Cars, Can Am, Trans Am, IMSA, DRM, local racing scenes, main driver profiles, plus long lists of makes that raced in the period, main drivers and racing venues from 85 countries, year highlights, performance and financial analysis of the sport. It can be bought at Amazon shops in the USA, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia, Japan, 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426

No hard feelings

You don’t have to be a big connoisseur of motorsport to figure out that despite the apparent comradery, sincere hugs in the podium, and hearty laughs at press briefings, there is a lot of competition in the sport. There always was, there always will be. Super inflated egos, good doses of money, media exposure, sponsors, adrenaline, fame, beautiful women, all mixed with nationalism and short careers are explosive elements.

Each teammate is really just another Formula 1 opponent. That's why there is so much antipathy among drivers in the top category of motorsport, specially now that racing is no longer as deadly as in yesteryear - danger actually enabled comradery. However, whether you like it or not, one less colleague means an open opportunity.

Here's the scenario. A driver risks his own life to save the driver who involuntarily ruined his Formula 1 career.

I'm not inventing things, it happened.

In 1973 Ferrari was going through one of its worst seasons. Despite winning two races in the World Championship of Makes, in Formula 1 the team went from bad to worse. Its car, which in 1972 was  competitive, became a disaster in updated guise. In addition, there was the serious political situation. Ah, Ferrari politics!!! Mauro Forghieri, the excellent Scuderia engineer was removed from the team earlier that year. Some say he asked to leave, others say he was kicked out. The fact is that Caliri, and the other engineers did not handle things well in 73, and during the course of the year the Cavallino team collapsed.

Jacky Ickx, the team's top driver for four years, left before the end of the season. And for the first time in many years, Ferrari was absent from several GPs.

Meanwhile, Arturo Merzario persevered, testing the F1 cars and prototypes in Maranello. He had lunch with the Commendatore from time to time, and actualy persuaded him to bring Forghieri back. Arturo also suggested bringing back Clay Regazzoni. Little by little, a good version of the B3 was developed, the version that would be used in 1974.

In the middle of the year, Marlboro was already quite displeased with BRM, and stated that it would not renew the sponsorship, which was eventually invested in McLaren. Also unhappy was Clay Regazzoni, who had pole in the first race of the season at Buenos Aires, leading it for a while, but who had completely lost confidence in the team towards the middle of the season. As Ickx moved away from Ferrari, Clay worked on his return to the team for 1974.

The obvious thing would be to keep Merzario. Among other things, he contributed greatly to the development of the B3, plus the Commendatore actually liked him. Meanwhile, Caliri had been furious with Arturo since the 1000 km of Nurburgring when Arturo failed to comply with team orders and diced with Ickx for the lead, after the Matra-Simcas dropped out. Caliri, who angrily extracted Merzario from the car when Arturo finally heeded to pit orders, was one of those who wanted the Italian out of the team. The Merzario hate-club eventually convinced Lucca di Montezemolo, the new boss, that Arturo should be kicked out.

Many names were considered. Jean-Pierre Jarier, who was the rage in F2 that year, Chris Amon, former team driver, even the names of Brazilians Pace and Emerson were considered. In the end, through Regazzoni’s lobbying, Ferrari ended up opting for his former BRM team mate Niki Lauda, ​​rejecting  Arturo.

The Italian had no choice but to go to the weak Iso-Marlboro team, thus ending any possibility of a top flight F1 career once and for all.

The rest is history. The B3 became an excellent car, and Ferrari narrowly missed the 1974 championship. Lauda was the fastest driver of the year, and in 1975 became the first Ferrari champion since 1964.

1976 - the Nurburgring is the scenario once more. After driving an excellent GP of England with March, at one point reaching fourth position, Arturo Merzario loses the place due to lack of sponsorship. The world of F1 is small. The same Jacky Ickx with whom Merzario had his issues between 1973 and 1975  left the Williams team, dejected, after the British Grand Prix. Frank did not hesitate, and despite financial issues with Merzario in 1975 that led the Italian to leave the team and almost seize Williams property in Monza, Frank rehired Arturo.

Merzario and Lauda recently

Williams's car, a former Hesketh, was a piece of crap. It was no wonder that Ickx left the team. But Merzario, above all, liked to race and be a part of the scene, so much that he raced through his 60s! And there he was, at the same Nurburgring that caused his Ferrari dismissal.

Trying to save a current teammate, as Arturo did in 1971, when Ignazio Giunti perished in an accident in Buenos Aires, is one thing. Risking life and limb to save the driver who helped sink his F1 career at Ferrari, altogether another. And this is exactly what brave Arturo did. With the help of Brett Lunger, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl, Merzario plunged into the flames of Lauda's burning No. 1 Ferrari, which could explode at any moment, and helped take the Austrian out of the car in time to save his life. Remember that Lauda was a front runner when he crashed, and many people saw the accident AND DID NOT STOP!

Lauda survived, and that same year, he reached out to Arturo to give him a present, a gold Rolex watch. Arturo refused to accept, only received the gift upon insistence of the engineer Carlo Chiti who was also present.

No hard feelings, Arturo and Niki built a beautiful friendship that persists to this day. Recently, they were together in the Nordschleife, cementing this friendship on the basis of the courage and kindness of a great human being, despite his small frame. Niki would still win many other GPs and two championships, while Merzario's F1 career only went downhill from there. It was also the end of the Nordschleife in F1, much to Denis Jenkinson’s dislike.

IF YOU LIKE RACING STORIES FROM THE 70S, BUY MY BOOK MOTOR RACING IN THE 70s, available in Amazon shops worldwide. amazon.com/dp/1732674426

The wealthiest Formula 1 driver on Earth

There was a great deal of controversy surrounding Canadian driver Lance Stroll past year. In the opinion of many, his billionaire father would be the only leverage to the young driver's career. This opinion seems to prevail in many countries, except Canada, I suppose. Time - that is, the 2018 season - will tell whether or not Lance has any talent, for he will need it to get this latest Williams far up the grid.

However, this post is not about Lance. After all, Lance’s father is very  much alive, so Lance himself is not an extremely wealthy individual just yet. As the post is entitled "The wealthiest Formula 1 driver in the world", do the math.

Yes, I know a certain Bernard Ecclestone tried to qualify for the 1958 Monaco and British Grand Prix with an old Connaught-Alta. At the time a mere car dealer, Bernie was very optimistic to think that had any chance to start the race, for, among other things, there was a huge entry list that year. Bernie's competitive career is somewhat obscure. Ecclestone was not the only top Formula 1 team owner to have tried a career as a driver. Ken Tyrrell, Max Mosley, Frank Williams, Eddie Jordan, among others, also drove competitively without much success. Colin Chapman, in my opinion, could have been a good driver, and Enzo Ferrari was not a bad driver in the 20’s. On the other hand, multi-champion Alain Prost tried to own a F1 team and was a failure. Le Professeur was completely out of his element as team chief. To each his own.

TO BUY MY BOOK Click here https://www.amazon.com/Motor-Racing-70s-Pivoting-Organized/dp/1732674426 

The world's richest former Formula One driver is neither Michael Schumacher nor Ayrton Senna's estate.  Not Jackie Stewart, either. Do not even think about Eddie Irvine, although he has been exemplary in terms of investing his money.

He is an Italian driver who did not do very well, at least in F1. He tried to qualify 15 times between 1989 and 1990, and actually ran 9 GPs with Minardi. At the time, F1 had an immense number of Italian pilots, among them Alboreto, Patrese, Nannini, so he did not stand out even among its countrymen. His best finish was a timid 11th. place. He won races in Italian F3, but when he tried his luck on the F-2 and F3000, he did not do well. However, in sports cars he had a reasonable resume. In fact, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours of 1985 with Klaus Ludwig and John Winter, other less expressive races, and also drove for the Lancia and Toyota teams.

His name, Paolo Barilla, who according to Forbes magazine, has a fortune of $ 1.3 billion. He and his brothers inherited the largest pasta maker in Italy, the homonymous Barilla.

You might be a tad disappointed that the guy's net worth was basically the result of inheritance. Be that as it may, he is by far the richest Formula 1 driver ever.

2020 UPDATE

Some people have taken exception to this post, stating that Bernie Ecclestone and Roger Penske were probably wealthier than Barilla.  As for the first, his fortune can be at best estimated. Penske's fortune has allegedly taken a hit as of late, and probably more so during the 2020 pandemic. As for pasta, people are still eating tons of it, all over the world. I also believe that Barilla at least tried to have a career as a race driver, which cannot be said of either Bernie and Roger, who were business people doing some driving on the side.

Some people have mentioned Revson(!), Pedro Diniz (!!!), and even Johnny Dumfries. I have no idea how much Prince Bira was worth, he might have been a more likely candidate.

Since the subject of money in racing apparently arises your interest, you should know that I have written an entire chapter on money in racing in my book Motor Racing in the 70s - Pivoting from Romantic to Organized. The issue is not discussed only in terms of Formula 1: Sports Car, Le Mans, USAC, NASCAR, Lower Formulae, Can AM, Interserie, Formula 5000, IROC Formula Super Vee, Touring Cars and other categories are also discussed, providing some rare facts and figures in regards to this issue. Hundreds of sources were researched for the book.

TO BUY MY BOOK Click here https://www.amazon.com/Motor-Racing-70s-Pivoting-Organized/dp/1732674426 You may also buy it from amazon stores i UK, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Mexico, India, Australia, Spain, Japan, providing the ISBN number 9781732674424.

The book is not only about money, of course. It has 472 pages, 242 photos, and provides highlights of global racing in the decade, with long lists of venues and drivers from 85 countries, hundreds of unknown manufacturers, short bios of main personalities from the period, essays on the main racing categories of the world, with applicable rare statistics. Some of the information will blow your mind away. 

Carlos de Paula is one of the top Brazilian Portuguese translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top Portuguese AI Translation editor as well. 

Some considerations concerning the Bahrain Grand Prix

This is not a news report. There are tons of other more qualified sites where you can read reports on the race. These are just some observations I had about the race.

Ferrari is doing mostly well, however, my feeling is that Mercedes still has the upper hand, and it has lost two easy races. However, the gap has shortened between the top 2 teams in F-1.

In fact, it seems obvious that having a Mercedes engine is no longer guarantee for good performance. Both Force India and Williams have dropped further down the field, while Renault, Toro Rosso, McLaren and Haas have leaped ahead.

For Robert Kubica, strangely, good news. Had he been hired as the Williams race driver, certainly tons of people would blame him for the poor Williams performance. It would be a nasty comeback for the talented Pole. Better dreaming about what could have been, rather than being disappointed with poor results.

Mclaren dropped Honda, and now, two races into the season, has to witness a Honda equipped Toro Rosso, driven by a rookie, no less, qualify and finish better than a Mclaren Honda did the last three seasons. Worse yet, Pierre Gasly was a front runner during the entire race, mostly running 4th or 5th.

Another surprise was Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber. I, for one, believed Alfa Romeo would be better served with a link up to Haas (both technically and in marketing terms), and when the Sauber-marriage was confirmed I was disappointed. I confess I am an Alfista at heart and seeing Alfa eternally at the back of the grid did not make me happy. Yet, Ericsson did race well yesterday, and yes, part of the result was due to a one pit stop strategy. But Ericsson, never highly touted during his F1 career, actually showed a lot of grint and skill keeping the car ahead of faster machinery.

Kimi Raikkonen again suffered the ills of frantic Ferrari pitstops that remind me of 50s, 60s and 70s entertaining Ferrari pit work. Kimi is so far doing all the team requires of him, but honestly, I do not think the team is serving him well.

I do not remember a top line team doing as bad as Red Bull did on a first lap of a race as yesterday. Both cars out in unrelated incidents. It can only get better.

A funny thing I noticed. Bahrain, being Bahrain, a devout Muslim country, Martini sponsorship on the Williams, and Chandon on Mclaren were nowhere to be found. Strangely, the logos for Estrella Galicia appeared on Renault, and Singha on Ferrari. Isn't beer considered an alcoholic beverage in Bahrain?

I guess beer is not an alcoholic beverage in Bahrain. Beer logos were prominently found, not so Chandon and Martini Rossi.