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Unpredictability still key for F1

Formula 1 teams strive for perfection and try as hard as they can to prevent surprises. But unpredictability is a good thing for the sport, argues JONATHAN NOBLE

After a broken blue rubber tube put Lewis Hamilton out of the Australian Grand Prix, it was remarkable to hear that Nico Rosberg's retirement in Singapore was caused by contamination from a substance used in pre-event servicing.

This chemical, invisible to team members working on the car, sat undetected inside Rosberg's steering column for the entire Singapore weekend. And unluckily for the German, it only caused the short circuit that wrecked his controls at the very worst time: just before the start of the race.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.