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F1 - the pinnacle of unwatchable motorsport.
I enjoyed todays race - some good battles going on. I try and ignore Max now and I think he got about 2 mins of airtime today! 🤣
And F1 has always been more than just the race for me - the politics and tech are an equal part of the appeal.
For racing you can’t be a club meet at Donington - full pit access too!
Not a bad race even if it never bubbled over into its full potential. A year ago you could have bet big on Sargeant sticking it in the wall to bring out a second safety car, which would have spiced it up a lot, but I guess you can’t have everything.
Bearman’s drive was impressive on multiple fronts. Obviously it was a solid weekend off the back of no testing, and his first few laps were a real statement of competence in terms of being punchy but never overstepping the line of risk—a real quality job on the pure racing front—but also it implies that the Ferrari is a car that a rookie can get into and not only put decent laps in but fight wheel-to-wheel with confidence and then manage on a longer run to the flag. That bodes well for the season, and I reckon Lewis is feeling pretty happy about his move right now.
Ricciardo is sadly looking quite lacklustre these days. A couple more races like that and Lawson will—or at least should—have his second bite at the cherry.
convert
Full Member18yr old lad (with admitted talent – though only came 6th in F2 last year as he settled in) sits in actual car for first time 24hrs before race, drives around a bit and 11 other drivers with a shed ton more experience are not in a position to beat him through a combination of lack of talent, lack of machinery and lack of overtaking opportunity within the track and race design. Meanwhile at the front, a bloke who has previously won 36 out of the last 45 races won again without being challenged in any way whatsoever. Remind me again why this is a series worth following right now?
Oliver had almost no practice time, the track is very difficult and fast, and he not only kept it out of the wall but actually started putting moves on people and finished ahead of a 7 times WDC! If you're a fan of racing and that doesn't impress/entertain you, I don't know what would!
If you want non-stop action without having to think, watch Stadium Super Cars. It's great fun.
Oliver had almost no practice time, the track is very difficult and fast, and he not only kept it out of the wall but actually started putting moves on people and finished ahead of a 7 times WDC! If you’re a fan of racing and that doesn’t impress/entertain you, I don’t know what would!
Well, we're think about this from completely different ends. I'm seeing that him being able to do this is evidence of why it (the whole thing, not his performance) is dull! You have to go to Luke Littler in the darts decently to find something similar - I can't think of an actual sport where someone that green would be able to hold their own. And when you need to hold up darts as a comparator, you know you are in trouble!
Jackson Goldstone?
He's not new to the sport though, just new to that level, he's a decent F2 driver.
A better comparison might be Mo Farah trying his hand at half marathons, yes he was new to that but hardly a novice runner.
There have been other rookies who have impressed immediately, Lawson most recently.
Hamilton and Villeneuve especially spring to mind as being at the front from day one. And Bambrilla if anyone can remember that far back! How many rookies get to make their debut in a potentially race-winning car? I can add Coulthard and maybe Magnussen to those above. And Michael Andretti but he didn't impress. Not trying to take anything away from Bearman, he did a fantastic job, but rookies being really good does happen.
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18yr old lad (with admitted talent – though only came 6th in F2 last year as he settled in) sits in actual car for first time 24hrs before race, drives around a bit and 11 other drivers with a shed ton more experience are not in a position to beat him through a combination of lack of talent, lack of machinery and lack of overtaking opportunity within the track and race design. Meanwhile at the front, a bloke who has previously won 36 out of the last 45 races won again without being challenged in any way whatsoever. Remind me again why this is a series worth following right now?
It's not quite as tough for the rookies as it once was , previously the only way for stand-in young drivers to even work out how the buttons worked was actual car seat time. But now with the incredible simulators they have he's probably already done hundreds of laps of this circuit which explains much of how he can be on a reasonable pace straight away.
I do completely agree with the question is it worth following, I've watched F1 for 30 odd years and I can't remember having this lack of enthusiasm. Pretty sure it's three things; this generation of cars are quite boring to watch in isolation, they sound unstressed and like they're operating on half throttle, they look heavy and docile to drive. The absolute domination of Max and Red Bull creates so little jeopardy. At least in many of the Hamilton champ years there was some sort of internal challenge and you could argue 17,18 Ferrari's were actually superior for at least part of the season. And when you have 24 races plus sprints watching every race is almost impossible for most so the engagement suffers.
I very rarely miss a race but I've not watched the either of the first two live and really don't feel like I've missed, well, anything of consequence.
Well the most distressing news from that tweet is that U2 are possibly releasing a song about Horner. Please let it be resolved one way or another before that is inflicted on us.
So U2 are going to release a song about Horner because the brother of the complainant is married to the guitarist's daughter? This has to be a joke.....
Struggling a bit because I don't follow that much other sport, but Emma Raducanu? Ronnie O'Sullivan?
It's closer to football or something though where most of the performance comes from the rest of the team.
None of those team sports send you through a wall lines street at 200+ MPH AFAIK though 😉
Like I said though, if you're not feeling it, there's tonnes of other motorsport. I dipped out a bit in the Schumacher years and followed touring cars and rally.
I have no idea what is going on with this year's season, so far.
Well, I kinda get what's going on, on the track. It's just the rest of it that is a bit bonkers.
Red Bull imploding.
Sainz almost exploding with appendicitis.
Young bloke in the Ferrari does pretty well.
KMag gets ridiculous penalties for what appeared to be racing incidents/argy bargy at worst.
And yesterday I read that RB (no, not that RB - the cashappVisaMastercard RB) are threatening to go to the FIA over KMags unsportsmanlike behaviour for slowing everyone down, so the Hulk could pit & stay in front. 😆
Everyone praised Perez when he managed to slow down Hamilton a few years back, and it was great racing craft and tactical play......but KMag does it, and it's boo hoo we're telling Mummy.
The whole thing is turning into a bit of a shit show.
...and Merc have screwed up again!... 🤦♂️
I think the thing with Haas was because there was an illegal pass involved before the slow driving. Without the illegal pass, Haas would not have scored the point. Does seem a bit unsporting to me.
Hamilton's move is looking smarter by the day!
One of the commentators pointed out that the drivers were having to lift in the high speed sections again where Ferrari and RB weren't. Seems like since the clever hydraulic suspension they were using got banned, they haven't been able to get the car working quite right.
If they don’t want drivers to do that kind of thing, then the FIA need to make the penalty a drive-through or stop/go.
Agree. If a place isn't given back IMMEDIATELY bring back the drive through penalty. Ths=ese random 5 or 10 second penalties aren't harsh enough.
Whilst F1 has always been about money as well as sport, the willing nexus of sports washing hosts and profit maximising owners who just want to increase the number of races is turning the whole thing into an anodyne "product". And the relatively locked in technical regulations in the name of cost caps means it's the same procession for even longer than the previous periods of one team domination so you can't tell one race from another. I'm out.
I saw it as a cheeky but smart bit of tactical play myself,
It's like underarm bowling in cricket. It didn't used to be illegal, but it's pretty lousy sportsmanship.
We all have our own lines in the sand I guess. To me this kind of stuff is cheeky but basically okay. Whereas I find running people off the track during overtakes, blocking people on outlaps/leaving the pitlane in quali and so on totally unfair.
Mag did an absolutely perfect job of it, he was basically slowing right down in the exact parts of the track you can't overtake in, then going balls out on the bits where you can. Think I read they were losing 1.5s / lap to Hulk yet nobody had a chance at overtaking. Masterful driving really, and great thinking from Haas to maximise their chances of a point.
Speeder
Full Member
Yanks in chargeToo many races
Night Races
Too many oil countries
Max
Jos
Horner
DRS
900kgs
Too much aero
I'll add copy and paste street circuits.
Felipe Massa's going for it!... 🙂
I’ll add copy and paste street circuits.
I don't understand Jeddah at all, it doesn't look like a street circuit, it looks like a track but the visuals mood board was all UFC octagons. Holding the race and night doesn't help either as you can't see where they are on track as there's no points of reference.
If he's claiming lost earnings and compensation, that could be more of a go-er than "I want to be listed as 2008 world champ" That's if he can prove that FIA did know at the time, and that what? The hose pipe wouldn't have stuck to his car during the pit stop? How does that bit work then?
Seems to me that the whole thing hangs on “Bernie said it would have meant that race would have been void” (because, as far as I recall, Bernie’s comment is the only thing that implies a scenario where Massa wins); the problem being that the sentence starts with “Bernie said”, which makes it about as watertight as a tea bag, partly because Bernie isn’t actually the rule book and partly because Bernie always chooses what “Bernie said” means based on who’s asking, why they’re asking, and which colour Y-fronts he’s wearing today.
Hopefully they’ll throw it out once and for all and we’ll have no more tedious column inches about it.
Mag did an absolutely perfect job of it, he was basically slowing right down in the exact parts of the track you can’t overtake in, then going balls out on the bits where you can. Think I read they were losing 1.5s / lap to Hulk yet nobody had a chance at overtaking. Masterful driving really, and great thinking from Haas to maximize their chances of a point.
The blocking wasn't the problem. The problem was that he went off track to pass Tsunoda (an illegal pass), then blocked Tsunoda to let his teammate make a pitstop without losing position. He should have immediately given the position back. IMO, off-track passes should be penalized by either giving the place back immediately or being served a drive through penalty on the next lap. If they let this go, it's setting a precedent for professional fouls and teams will just add it to their bag of tactics.
That could be very interesting!
It seems weird that they would leave such a successful team for one with such a patchy record, though
Unless the atmosphere at Red Bull is unbearable.
And the company car will be superior.
And the company car will be superior.
fiat 500?
While Toto chases Max to drive his shit-box - Fred chases the cream of the paddock to build him a Red Bull beater!
dakuan
fiat 500?
Yeah but have you seen what the red bull lot get as a company car?
Yeah but have you seen what the red bull lot get as a company car?
I knew someone who worked for Red Bull 15 years back. She got a company car. It looked exactly like that. Not joking.
There are plenty of rules I’d change…
I think now that there's a cost cap, I'd sweep away as many of the rules as possible. Have min/max sizes for cars and aero stuff and engine displacement (even make everyone have the same engine if you like) and pretty strict rules about driver safety and let them have at it otherwise.
I think now that there’s a cost cap, I’d sweep away as many of the rules as possible. Have min/max sizes for cars and aero stuff and engine displacement (even make everyone have the same engine if you like) and pretty strict rules about driver safety and let them have at it otherwise.
Like Indycar then?
It's currently more interesting than watching F1.
But no, not what I had in mind, I think Indycar, errrr, cars are essentially the same car aren't they? Minor engines swaps aside, I'd be a bit more generous, as long as the car conforms to the (pretty loose) aero rules and car size, and engines rules, they can have anything they like, 6 wheels, fans, anything they can think of within the budget.
It seems weird that they would leave such a successful team for one with such a patchy record, though
I dunno, from the outside your making that judgement based on emotion and their record for winning (or not). If you were an employee though, you probably value the specifics of the role you are offered and the culture more.
Especially with the cost cap meaning it doesn't matter to Newey whether he's at RB or Alpine, he'd be working with the same budget unlike before where RB would have been the fun sandbox for him to join.
[i]I think now that there’s a cost cap, I’d sweep away as many of the rules as possible. Have min/max sizes for cars and aero stuff and engine displacement (even make everyone have the same engine if you like) and pretty strict rules about driver safety and let them have at it otherwise.
Like Indycar then?[/i]
I read that and thought of the CanAm cars. Now that would be interesting for a few years
After the mention of the red bull company cars above I saw one today!
Can't remember ever seeing one before.
Just heard some new 'business jargon' that made me smile.
We have a team of people lined up and waiting to start a project that was meant to start last Monday. It was delayed for a week by the client for some admin reason. We have the team waiting to start on Monday and the client has just delayed again for another 'internal process' reason and it looks like we now won't start until after Easter.
The account manager told me that "The client is doing a KMag until they get their budget in the new financial year"
https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/status/1768711686146424842?s=46&t=EQoHg-RGok071Fjc15ZHKw
Horny Horners accuser to appeal.
He’s checked out of Mercedes!… 🤣
https://twitter.com/lh44updates/status/1768709215525208077?s=46&t=EQoHg-RGok071Fjc15ZHKw
He’s checked out of Mercedes
Hilarious!
Seems strange that she's left it so long to appeal.
As for Ham, just listened to the Back at Base podcast, definite bromance between Toto and George. Taking his kids karting
Just looked at the UK start time for the GP this weekend - unless I need a piss in the middle of the night I won't be getting up for 4am to watch it! 🤣
Which is a shame as getting up in the middle of the night to watch F1 was a bit of a tradition.
Pretty much every rule change that I can remember since the banning (and unbanning & postponed banning) of active suspension at Silverstone 1993, has been with the intent to "improve racing". I was on board with these new ground effect cars, with a reduced aero wake... I should've known better really.
Not sure that I can be arsed to emotionally invest in one of my favourite races of the season.
The problem with major rule changes is that it always opens up the chance that one team will find something the others miss. When that happens, it takes the others years to catch up, especially with engine freezes and cost caps. Ferrari took several years to catch up with Merc's turbo-hybrid engine, Renault never did, Honda basically had to scrap their first effort and start again. Now, after a decade of stable engine rules, the Honda, Merc, and Ferrari engines are all very close in performance and it's the aero and suspension package that makes the difference. Ferrari, Merc, and McLaren have all improved their cars from last year, but not by enough to seriously challenge Red Bull in races. If the current rules were frozen for ten years, it's quite likely that the other teams would catch Red Bull and you'd have a series of competitive championships. Changing the engine regulations for 2026 just makes it more likely that we will see one team dominate again.
unless I need a piss in the middle of the night I won’t be getting up for 4am to watch it!
One of the conundrums of being in your fifties, “Now I’m up pissing in morse code, shall I turn the Australian F1 on…?”
I watched this the other day (for the boat content) and was interested by the fact that AD was saying that he was going to have more time on his hands and was looking to do some long passages.
To me that sounds like he's stepping back a bit and is looking for a new challenge (as he knew 'nothing' about sailing at that point).
I watched that Adrian Newey thing....tbh I don't know why he made the film (or allowed it to be released). I'd be embarrassed to be saying "i dont know how to sail, but I'm buying a 5 million pound boat".
I’d be embarrassed to be saying “i dont know how to sail, but I’m buying a 5 million pound boat”.
You pay someone else to do the sailing bit - you just enjoy the ride.
Yeah, i don't see the point. But then, I can sail (i just can't afford a £5m yacht 😂)
Valtteri is a legend.
"You can rent it for free because I am very rich already" 😀 😀
How many people buying £5m + yachts can actually sail? I bet the majority are skippered by professional crews who know what they're doing when the shite hits the fan.
He's obviously got an interest in sailing as his America's Cup involvement a few years back shows.
F1 needs more Bottas's.
The Race do a post-race podcast and they've a long running segment called "Valtteri Bottas Sympathy Corner" where they generally bemoan his fate during the race either because the car breaks or some-one drives into him...They asked Valtteri to voice the intro and he agreed! They were commenting on the fact that not only is he rare amongst F1 drivers that he's OK to take the piss out of himself and join in on the joke, but to actually go ahead and record it for them.
He's one of a kind.
Has Mazepin started his comeback?
Wasn't he in the team because daddy paid for it? I think that along with his history of dubious social media posts probably makes him unemployable [by an F1 team], doesn't it?
I bet the majority are skippered by professional crews
Most stuff above 60-70' needs a skipper +1.
I think he's not just looking at the odd week here and there but fairly long periods of time on board.
Mazepin got his arse handed to him by Schumacher, who isn't fast enough to land a drive. The days of a no-hoper like Mazepin turning up with a big chequebook and getting a drive seem to be over, the teams aren't as financially desperate as they were five years ago. His father is still sanctioned, so getting money out of Russia will be impossible anyway. On top of which, Mazepin is widely loathed and will drive other sponsors away. No team will touch him with a barge pole even if he does manage to get financial backing.
https://twitter.com/susie_wolff/status/1770554247899226162?s=46&t=EQoHg-RGok071Fjc15ZHKw
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68615850
For all their pronouncements of their professionalism, and self aggrandisement of their business and sporting acumen, I've seen more probity and respectability in the WhatsApp chat groups of teenaged school-girls . What a shower of half-assed ****puddles they all are. I should waddle down to the bookies and place a bet on who gets fired first. I think my money's currently on Ben Sulayem
I do agree with the sentiment of what you are saying but have to ask what you are doing reading the WhatsApp chat groups of teenaged school-girls?