I’ll start this off by saying that I don’t even know why I care about this predominately European sport of futuristic looking cars driving around set courses with very little overtaking, but I do. I care enough to write this whole article about it. If you’re not a Formula 1 fan and you clicked on this article by accident, I’ll keep things simple.

2017 was supposed to be the year of massive change. Changes in the technical regulations were supposed to allow Red Bull and Ferrari to catch up to the dominant Mercedes team, who had won 51 out of the 59 Formula 1 races run from 2014-2016. Although one team running around and winning endlessly seems rather boring, it did produce some in-team fighting between the two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. So much so, in fact, that after beating for the first time Lewis Hamilton in 2016 and winning his first World Championship, Nico Rosberg retired, and his spot was filled by Valtteri Bottas for this year.

Everything was pointing toward a great year for F1. New regulations allowing other teams to actually be competitive, new drivers at big teams, and even new management for F1 itself. The season started out so promising with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel opening up a sizable lead in the championship by winning three out of the first six races, and Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton having just two. All of the signs pointed to a tightly contested battle coming down to the last races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi respectively, but then the unthinkable happened.

Ferrari imploded. Just six weeks ago Sebastian Vettel had a massive lead going into Ferrari’s home race: the Italian Grand Prix. His lead was poised to grow as Ferrari was supposed to storm to victory and please the home fans, but that’s not what happened. They had no pace, and as a result, Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas came home in first and second with Vettel finishing nearly thirty seconds behind them. For all you non-motorsport fans out there, 30 seconds in racing teams is about twelve thousand years in normal time.

Things didn’t get better from there. The next race in Singapore suited the Ferrari chassis, and as a result, Ferrari’s Vettel qualified first. But after that, disaster, he caused a collision on the first lap and his rival Hamilton went on to win. In Malaysia, he had an engine failure in qualifying, so he started in the last position. In Japan, he had an engine failure in the race, so he finished in the last position as well.

Hamilton is now 59 points ahead in the championship, and with just four races left to go, is poised to take his fourth world championship title and his third in four years. Although I am a massive Hamilton and Mercedes fan and I really hope that this does come to pass. I was hoping for more of a championship fight between Mercedes and Ferrari. However, Ferrari did what they’ve done for the past nine years. They completely imploded. It’s been ten years since they’ve had a driver win the world championship, and based on their performance this season it looks like that streak will continue for who knows how long.