Sounds fun. I'd like to experience a race but I also know that the best place to watch a race is my sofa. It's hard for me to justify the travel.
As far as the race goes, I am completely neutral and have no favorites, but I stopped caring after Perez's gearbox went POP.
I went to COTA in 2016. Seeing a race live is a cool experience for lots of reasons, but if you want to see the race as a whole, there really is no better place than your couch. Even with how sh*t some of the TV coverage can be (looking at you, Monaco).
Absolutely go to one. If I ever get my ass in gear and go back to Europe, I want to go to Spa, too (if it survives). I did COTA just to get the experience of a live race weekend under my belt. I want to go to Spa because I love that track. After that, I'm content for the rest of my life never going to another F1 race in person again.
Congratulations to the catch fencing and the halo today.
Congratulations to the catch fencing and the halo today.
Halo also did its fair share in F2 this weekend.
My working theory on Ferrari is that too many people who work there think that Ferrari is special. The only people who do well at Ferrari are people who don’t care about the Ferrari legacy. Alonso, Schumacher, Raikonnen, Lauda and Scheckter all had personalities which allowed them to not care much for the history and they were focused only on the present. They tended to get the best out of whatever they were given. In team principals only Jean Todt seems to have had that personality (other than Enzo himself). Everyone else seems to trip over themselves trying to be Ferrari, the most successful team in F1, rather than doing the actual job in front of them.
My working theory on Ferrari is that too many people who work there think that Ferrari is special. The only people who do well at Ferrari are people who don’t care about the Ferrari legacy. Alonso, Schumacher, Raikonnen, Lauda and Scheckter all had personalities which allowed them to not care much for the history and they were focused only on the present. They tended to get the best out of whatever they were given. In team principals only Jean Todt seems to have had that personality (other than Enzo himself). Everyone else seems to trip over themselves trying to be Ferrari, the most successful team in F1, rather than doing the actual job in front of them.
Yup.
My wife and I have been watching F1 for like half a decade now, and the days of us making jokes about the Ferrari team uniform including clown shoes, or the strategy team being lead by Pagliacci the Clown have certainly come to a middle.
Silly season suddenly went from boring and predictable to exceptionally silly this morning.
F1 teaching Indy that they can do their scandals better.
LOL, could post this in two threads:
Like, Lewis is rich, but this is like when you "buy" part of an asteroid of whatever, and you've got what's like 1/100,000,000,000th of it.
Sadly you are probably right.
Which is a shame because he would instantly become the most likeable owner.
As a marketing investment I honestly wonder how low the stake has to be that you can just do this as exposure. Like more people know who the Broncos are today.
So my only real interaction with F1 is Drive to Survive and keeping a causul eye on the results. The more I watch this, the more it is clear that Red Bull is breeding ground of toxic awfulness.
It is simultaneously very funny that Hamilton finds driving on regular roads with us plebs "very stressful" and also 100% understandable if you've ever driven in, say, Florida.
Verstappen started from what, 15th? And that race didn't even look vaguely difficult for him. He's driving a f*cking rocket ship.
Ferrari have to be doing performance art.
Ferrari have to be doing performance art.
So comical.
Then Alpha Tauri conveniently do Red Bull a massive favour with whatever that was with Yuki.
Mercedes apparently stealing pages from the Ferrari play book.
Red Bull must be giddy watching everyone else sabotage themselves.
Mercedes apparently stealing pages from the Ferrari play book.
Red Bull must be giddy watching everyone else sabotage themselves.
It was rough in the moment, but I don't think it's quite that level of blunder.
It unquestionably weakened Hamilton's position in order to improve Russell's. Had it been a call about midfield positions, it probably would have been one of those "well, let's wait and see how this plays out" sort of things, but it was hard to take emotionally since it was almost explicitly them giving up the chance at the win.
Then, seeing how things played out, I think became clear that ultimately it was the better call for the team's point haul. I think if they had both stayed on those used mediums, at best they would have had a 3-4 rather than a 2-4 -- both Verstappen and Leclerc probably would have been able to take them both on the fresh softs starting from the safety car. However, it almost certainly would have been Hamilton 3rd rather than 4th, so the benefit to the team came at his detriment.
Ultimately, I think it's just yet another situation where Hamilton has been at exactly the wrong place when a safety car strategy call had to be made, and Mercedes had to chose between two bad results for him and attempt to salvage what they can from a situation where circumstances outside their control conspired to ruin a result they had rightfully earned had the race finished cleanly.
I really don’t get the idea that it was a Mercedes strategy call failure. They weren’t going to win on the probabilities but they might have had a shot if Russell had been able to back up the pack. With Hamilton a bit off in the distance they might have been able to hold on. Not a good shot but if they wanted the win, it was the only option. Of course it doesn’t seem they had Russell on board with that plan since he pitted. The mistake was not pitting Hamilton too. But if you told Hamilton the win was long odds and he needed to pit to secure 3rd, do you think he would in a year when he’s not in the driver’s championship?
I do think the strategy teams tend to overvalue track position. It seems common to all the teams including Red Bull. It’s a big psychological barrier to pit from the lead in the final laps of a Grand Prix. But pit stops are risky events and you can lose more places than the forecast of a wheel gun malfunctions. See Botas at Monaco.
TL;DR Mercedes didn’t screw up. Circumstances were against them and they got good points. Ferrari make unforced errors all the time.
They didn't mess up the way Ferrari messes up, but I think they would have done better if they had kept both drivers on the same strategy. Pit them both or don't pit them at all.
Pit them both or don't pit them at all.
This is the way. They either have to pit both and hope they're somehow faster than Max on soft tyres, (they weren't) or leave them both out on mediums and hope George can hold Max behind (he couldn't).
I don't think either way gives them victory but the split option was the worst choice.
EverythingsTentative wrote:Pit them both or don't pit them at all.
This is the way. They either have to pit both and hope they're somehow faster than Max on soft tyres, (they weren't) or leave them both out on mediums and hope George can hold Max behind (he couldn't).
I don't think either way gives them victory but the split option was the worst choice.
Pretty much my thoughts also.
In the moment was calling it a Ferrari level mistake over the top? Ya probably. But after reflecting after the race this pretty much sums up my thoughts.
Hamilton vows not to quit F1 as talk of Ricciardo to Mercedes gathers pace
My surprise here s that:
A.) Lewis is 37? He's older than Vettel? What?
B.) Like many Americans, I didn't really start paying attention to the sport until Drive to Survive. And hooooly wow, the fall-off Ricciardo has had since then.
EDIT: And why did I think Latifi was, like, 36?
My driver of the day is Nyck Devries being like "Guys? Guys? I can't get out of the car. .....guys?"
My driver of the day is Nyck Devries being like "Guys? Guys? I can't get out of the car. .....guys?"
Hell of a drive, though. It's like he's he's some kind of world champion or something? 
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