What Went Wrong for Paul Bonhomme?

This Red Bull Air Race season has seen a lot of thrills and spills for just about everyone on the tour. It all started off with Hannes Arch getting second place after beating his former mentor, Mike Mangold, who was also the champion last season.

The season started off very well for Paul Bonhomme, who took the first two wins of the season in Abu Dhabi and San Diego. He took a second place finish in Detroit after he and American Kirby Chambliss fought it out in the final, winning by just 0.15 seconds. Arch took third. Bonhomme came back in Rotterdam with a win, but has faltered since then, taking seventh in front of a home crowd in London, third in Budapest, and 10th—and thus no points—in Porto recently.

On the other hand, the man he thought he would be competing against, Mike Mangold, had taken zero wins and only three podiums the entire season.

In the season, it seemed like Bonhomme didn’t want the demons of the previous year to haunt him, and he thus made himself as quick as possible, but against the wrong competitor. He kept competing against Mangold and didn't appear to take Arch's campaign too seriously, because he was only in his second year of flying in the Red Bull Air Race.

Also, in the first place flyoff against him, Arch would always pick up penalty points so it appeared that Arch wasn't that great in a high pressure situation.

Unfortunately for Bonhomme, Arch matured and pulled off some amazing flying, at the expense of his teammate and former mentor, Mangold.

If anything, Paul Bonhomme should just compete and not care who he's flying against. He did say that he was flying to win and not resting on his laurels, but in the final bit of the season, he ended up taking a breather; a breather that would haunt him for next year.

The champion for the season hasn't yet been determined. If Bonhomme is to become champion, he has to win the race and hope that Arch ranks 10th or lower. If Arch is to become champion, he needs to get at least ninth place. Right now, it looks like Arch has the upper hand, but as we saw last year in both RBAR and Formula 1, it ain't over 'til it's over!