Daland F1 - A F1 2021 My Team Story

[jasontoddwhitt]

Norris, McLaren dominate at Monza
McLaren takes advantage of Mercedes' struggles to extend points lead

In a very straightforward affair, Lando Norris raced off from the pole and never relinquished the lead as both Norris and McLaren extended their leads in their respective championships.

Mercedes were woeful in a very wet qualifying session, forcing Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton to start P6 and P9 respectively. Things didn't get much better during the race, as Mercedes got stuck in a DRS train and found it very difficult to overtake.

"We couldn't move forward," said Lewis Hamilton. "It was a very frustrating race because we were just stuck."

Perhaps Mercedes should've tried a one-stop strategy. That's exactly what Daland driver Jason Whitt did. Stuck at the end of that same DRS train and splitting the Mercedes, Whitt rolled the dice and made the one-stop work on his way to a P5 finish.

"We compromised our setup yesterday to be able to run in the rain," said Whitt. "They were forecasting more rain for today, but it held off to the very end of the race and it wasn't heavy enough to make a big difference. But we couldn't move forward. I had a freaking Mercedes behind me and Lewis couldn't gain on me. It was just a very weird race."

"We definitely gambled on the one-stop," said Whitt. "Had we stuck with Plan A, we would've finished P9 or P10. We were praying for rain, but it didn't really come so I had to fight like hell to keep Gasly behind me for P5. Huge day today for us."

With Fernando Alonso securing P4 and Whitt securing P5, Daland has solidified their hold on P4 in the constructor's race. The newest team in Formula One currently holds a 26-point lead over Ferrari.

2022 Italian Grand Prix Race Results
POS	DRIVER	TEAM	LAPS	GRID	BEST	TIME	PTS
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	53	1	1:21.104	73:10.939	26
2	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	53	3	1:21.323	+3.564	18
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	53	2	1:21.300	+15.762	15
4	Fernando Alonso	Daland	53	4	1:21.523	+19.390	12
5	Jason Whitt	Daland	53	8	1:22.058	+49.117	10
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	53	12	1:21.628	+49.554	8
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	53	5	1:21.868	+52.302	6
8	George Russell	Alpine	53	7	1:21.956	+52.407	4
9	Sergio Perez (DOTD)	Red Bull	53	20	1:21.885	+55.331	2
10	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	53	6	1:21.906	+55.796	1
11	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	9	1:21.837	+56.078
12	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	53	11	1:21.818	+56.706
13	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	53	10	1:21.807	+57.433
14	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	53	13	1:22.235	+1:16.102
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	53	14	1:22.236	+1:17.552
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Williams	52	18	1:22.327	+1 Lap
17	Nobuharu Matsu****a	Alfa Romeo	52	17	1:22.617	+1 Lap
18	Robert Shwartzman	Alfa Romeo	52	21	1:22.748	+1 Lap
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	52	16	1:22.941	+1 Lap
20	Mick Schumacher	Haas	52	22	1:23.135	+1 Lap
21	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	51	19	1:24.253	+2 Laps
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	31	15	1:23.016	DNF

[jasontoddwhitt]

Verstappen cruises to win at Sochi
Alonso and Ricciardo round out the podium as Norris salvages points finish

Max Verstappen got back into the win column after beating Lando Norris off the line and cruising to an easy win at the Sochi Autodrom. The win was Max's second of the season and was reminiscent of his dominating performance at Zandvoort, as he led all but one lap of the race. Fernando Alonso got his second podium of the season, as he absolutely drove the wheels off of his Daland machine to hold Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas at bay.

It was the third podium performance of the year for Daland F1, as the second-year team has solidified its hold on P4 in the constructor's championship.

Norris had a rough day, as contact between him and Jason Whitt after the first round of pit stops caused Norris to have to pit for a new front wing. The pit stop dropped Norris to P15, but he was able to salvage a P7 finish, only allowing Hamilton to trim five points off his lead in the World Driver's Championship.

"I've got to be smarter than that," said Norris. "I put my car in a dangerous situation when I could've easily just waited for a better opportunity. Jason didn't do anything wrong. I made a late lunge, got my braking all wrong, and I'm probably lucky I didn't completely ruin both our races. Ultimately, I'm trying to win a championship and I've got to make a smarter decision there."

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, recovering from a grid penalty, finished P8 and P9 respectively. Whitt, who completed most of the race without the aid of DRS, limped home to a P10 finish.



"I don't know if the contact with Norris rattled something, but several laps later, the DRS just refused to work and it never came back," said Whitt. "Don't get me wrong, our car was complete **** all weekend compared to Fernando, but I feel like I could've stuck with the Ferraris if I had DRS late."



Race Highlights

[jasontoddwhitt]

Strategy call sends Ricciardo to Singapore win
Bottas and Alonso round out podium

Despite getting his second straight podium and third of the season, Fernando Alonso was highly annoyed in the post-race with how the closing laps played out. And who could blame him? Alonso had dominated the race, racing away from the pole position at the start of the race, and looked set to get his second victory of the season and the third for Daland F1.


Alonso had no trouble getting off the line at the start.

"Hindsight is always 20/20," said Alonso. "But I'm left to wonder how it would've played out if we had just stuck to the original strategy."

Daland decided to pit Alonso early to cover an attempt by Max Verstappen to undercut Alonso, which forced Daland to switch Alonso to a two-stop strategy. Despite a masterful job of owner/teammate Jason Whitt holding up Verstappen for four laps to allow Alonso to open up a nine-second gap, Alonso had to pit out of the lead late. He gave up the lead to Daniel Ricciardo and came out behind Valtteri Bottas who was running P2.


Whitt frustrated Verstappen for four agonizing laps.

The nature of the Marina Bay Street Circuit makes overtaking extremely difficult, and Alonso found that out the hard way. Despite being on much fresher soft tires versus the old mediums that Ricciardo and Bottas were running, Alonso could not get around Bottas.

"It's frustrating because we should've won this race," said Daland team principal Brian Doyle. "Mercedes and McLaren made the one-stop work. Jason made the one-stop work. Unfortunately, we let Red Bull spook us into pitting early. I just feel this was a missed opportunity."

In the championship fight, Lando Norris retired on lap 51 with a mechanical issue, but Lewis Hamilton was unable to take advantage as he limped to a P10 finish. Because of the P10 finish, Hamilton was jumped by Ricciardo, who now only trails his teammate by 21 points. Despite his challenges earlier in the year, defending champion Max Verstappen finds himself only 40 points back this late in the season. The title race is shaping up to be quite exciting down the stretch.







Race Highlights




Whitt probably had the overtake of the race, powering past Pierre Gasly on the outside of turns 22 & 23.

[jasontoddwhitt]

Daland F1 suffers double disappointment at Japanese Grand Prix

The Japanese Grand Prix proved to be a day of disappointment for Daland F1 as both Fernando Alonso and Jason Whitt suffered mechanical failures. Alonso was running in fourth place while Whitt had worked his way up to sixth and had opened up a small gap on Charles Leclerc. However, on lap 16, Whitt's car went up in smoke due to a failed turbocharger, forcing him to retire. Alonso followed suit on lap 31, having to park his car due to an unspecified mechanical failure.

"This weekend was a complete disaster," said Alonso. "You never want to finish P21 and P22. That's precisely what we did and it's a shame because we were both looking at solid finishes."

Whitt expressed his frustration at the situation, saying, "It sucks because that is our third DNF of the season and fifth as a team. We only had two total DNFs last year, so we obviously have some work to do in the reliability department for next year. It's a shame because we've both been firing on all cylinders and scoring points."

Daland F1 team principal Bryan Doyle acknowledged the setback, saying, "We definitely opened up the door for Ferrari to get back into the race for P4. But we'll put this disappointment behind us. We'll have to prepare to take an engine penalty for the US Grand Prix with the turbo failure on Jason's car."

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton dominated the race from pole position and cut 15 points off of Lando Norris' advantage to re-enter the conversation for the World Driver's Championship. Norris battled back from an engine penalty to minimize the damage to his title hopes. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished second, tightening the race even more. Max Verstappen rounded out the podium, bringing himself closer in the title picture with five races to go.

[Jeffrey99]

Nice to see this still going. The little things like fake sponsors and not as many contingency sponsors so the cars looked bland compared to the AI kinda killed the mode for me. With F1 22 just being added to EA Play, just started a career on there. Always like following racing careers.