Guess who’s back, back again? Olufolakẹ’s back, tell ya friends!

Here’s what I think about this race: It was important in the context of the championship, but the only interesting part was the change of positions due to safety cars. Again, we’re lacking wheel-to-wheel and overtaking.

Zandvoort is a narrow track, so passing cleanly is a real challenge.

Oscar Piastri — catch him if you can. You probably can’t. Lando Norris looked like he’d be dominant until Piastri snatched the pole like it was his birthright.

And then came perhaps the most consequential moment in the driver championship thus far. Norris smelled smoke, and his engine gave out. What a shame. That might have been one of many nails in the coffin that’s carrying his championship hopes. He came into the race nine points behind his teammate, with a chance to cut the deficit to two points. But through no fault of his own, he’s now 34 points behind.

People have likened this championship to the 2016 battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. I disagree — there’s a lot less history, vitriol and luck involved in this championship than there was between Hamilton and Rosberg.

This is more a battle of errors — who can make the least mistakes? So far, the answer is Piastri.

To cry favoritism toward Piastri is to watch Formula One in your imagination, not in reality. I will not elaborate.

Norris could come back, but it would require a huge drop off in performance from Piastri, and considering his form so far, I doubt Piastri will suddenly forget how to drive. 

Like Norwegian soccer manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær said, “mountains are there to be climbed.” I can only suggest that Norris gets to climbing.

It’s very clearly a two-horse race to crown the first McLaren champion since Hamilton in 2008. I hope it comes right down to the wire, or at least close to it. 

Speaking of horses, that was quite a disappointing weekend for Scuderia Ferrari. It’s rare to see a driver error from Hamilton. I’m still not entirely convinced it was purely an error, but onwards and upwards.

Charles Leclerc was massively unlucky to get hit by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but incredibly lucky to not get pinged by the stewards for passing George Russell off track.

Speaking of Antonelli — imagine becoming public enemy number one in Italy, as an Italian, the weekend before the Italian Grand Prix. What a time.

But on a more serious note, I think he was promoted too quickly. He’d be in the class of 2029 if he was in college. He’s so young. He’s fast, don’t get me wrong, but Toto Wolff just didn’t want to miss out on a young talent like he did when Max Verstappen was climbing through the ranks of junior formulae.

Toto is like Real Madrid — after missing out on signing Neymar, they’ve gone after every Brazilian wonderkid, even if they weren’t ready for the pressure — see Endrick’s move to Madrid.

Antonelli’s F2 championship performances were nothing to write home about, except that one wet weather race win at Silverstone.

But hey, I’m sure Mercedes has more information than I do.

Now let’s turn our attention to everyone’s favourite governing body: The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or FIA.

If I was overlord of Formula One for a day, I’d make five changes:

1. Bring back the point for fastest lap.
2. Make sprint races reverse grid order in the top 10.
3. Hire permanent and impartial stewards.
4. Tighten up the rules — less room for discretion.
5. Make sure that decisions are made/penalties are applied during the race (where applicable).

Let’s focus on changes three and four. Stewards are the referees who should uphold the rules as they’re written. As it stands, stewarding decisions leave too much room for discretion. While this isn’t inherently bad, it means that the sport cannot ensure a certain standard of “refereeing” across races. This is emphasized by the fact that stewards change from race to race. How many times have I said that the rules need to be applied evenly across drivers? Stewarding decisions should be made based on the violation, not on the result. Simple as. Discretion can be applied when it comes to dishing out penalties — five seconds? 10 seconds? Stop and go? But if something is wrong in Abu Dhabi, it must also be wrong in Monaco.

This leads me to change five. I hate, and I mean this, I hate when they investigate incidents after the race. Stewards have the live telemetry and all the camera angles. What else do they need?

I get it, some things cannot be judged until after the chequered flag — for example, the FIA could not have known Russell’s car was underweight at Spa 2024 until they weighed it. But investigating incidents and then handing out penalties three hours after the race is over is quite frankly stupid.

Take Hamilton’s five-place grid penalty. The infraction he committed was one,  not severe (too much discretion was used in my opinion if you read the document), and two, committed before the race even started. So, why was he not penalized until after the race?

Why did the stewards have to investigate Leclerc and Russell after the race? They didn’t even investigate the right thing. Their issue was causing a collision, not the illegal pass.

Then, Carlos Sainz Jr. ended up with a 10 second penalty when he was wronged? Despite the fact that their documents state that drivers and teams have the right to appeal decisions — the stewards decided not to speak to Sainz.

Decision making is not transparent, and an opaque governing body is likely corrupt. That is all I will say.

Now to the best part of the weekend, and my second favourite moment of the season: My boy, mon gars, Isack Hadjar stood on the podium!

I cried real tears when he crossed the finish line. After his heartbreak in Australia, he’s gotten better with every race. He’s the rookie of the season, and it’s not close.

I’m so proud. I felt like I was watching Morocco’s 2022 World Cup run.

Hopefully he doesn’t get demoted to RedBull.

On to Monza — Fratelli D’Italia, it’s over to you.