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Well, Logano has his third Championship. He goes from being out of the round of eight to being champion. Even though he was far from the best driver/team during the regular season. The playoffs add a lot of excitement and I know why NASCAR went to this format. But a one race winner takes all is no way decide who was the best driver for a whole year.
btw - If you haven't seen it, the Xfinity race you should check it out. Great race.
Yeah, Allgier's drive to the front in that race was fantastic. He deserved that championship by far.
I'm glad Logono won yesterday. Of the 4 drivers, I was rooting hardest for Blaney, but Joey getting his 3rd championship was good too. I'm glad neither Bell or Byron won the race, since that would have tarnished the championship in either case.
That was a great drive to the front but it would never of happened without some perfectly timed cautions. But I don't hold that against him. lolQuote:
Yeah, Allgier's drive to the front in that race was fantastic. He deserved that championship by far.
Perez qualifies 16th, Max 5th. Red Bull basically guaranteed to stay 3rd in the Constructor's Championship.
I just hope the Driver's championship isn't clinched before the final race. A Lando win and a Max DNF tonight would spice things up.
Also, it amazes me that one of the most inconveniently scheduled races of the entire season is one that takes place in the USA.
Vegas must have made F1 an offer that they can't refuse. lolQuote:
Also, it amazes me that one of the most inconveniently scheduled races of the entire season is one that takes place in the USA.
Gasley was impressive again. I was hoping for better from HAAS.
I've don't ever remember a year when the dominate team changes from week to week so often. It's great.
Ferrari still has a good shot at the constructors championship. HAAS is clinging to 6th by one point.
I was half awake for the 2nd half of the race. Sainz had every right to pass LeClerc for 3rd. It is late in the season, Charles isn't fighting for anything in the driver's championship, and Ferrari dropped Sainz at the end of the year, so screw team orders. Plus it didn't hurt the team from a points standpoint, and he deserved the podium if he could get it.
There's still uncertainty at the top for Constructor. It would be epic if Ferrari could squeak it out. And the Alpine, VCARB, Haas battle for 6th, 7th, and 8th will make the final two races interesting.
There was an article somewhere (perhaps Planet F1) where someone was speculating that Lance Stroll might win a championship yet. :confused:
Only if it's for sale. lolQuote:
There was an article somewhere (perhaps Planet F1) where someone was speculating that Lance Stroll might win a championship yet.
Glad to see GM is going to be fielding a team starting in 2026. Sounds like at first they wont have their own power plant but plan to within a few years. Be interesting to see which power plant they use.
F1 basically gave Michael Andretti a double middle finger when they denied his new team but granted the GM team, which was most of the same people backing it minus Michael. I guess there are still some people in F1 that are butt-hurt that, decades ago, Michael accused his F1 team of giving him a crappy car when he was an F1 driver as a way to get him out of the car because he had a fat contract, with a footnote of he was almost certainly right. I'm glad Mario Andretti is at least involved with this new team.
Red Bull looking like they'll be back to struggling for consistent podiums and the one-off win here and there for 2025 like they were in the late 2010's. Sad, really.
With Mercedes seeming to get their act together again, hopefully 2025 has multi-way battles for both championships.
That was a strange race. The officials really messed things up for a few people. I don't know what they were thinking, there was no way for someone to retrieve that mirror under green.
HAAS made a bad call bringing in Mags before Gasley. No one was making any time on hard tires and Mags was doing a good job keeping Gasley over a second behind him. That probably cost them 6th in the manufacturers championship.
Yeah, leaving the mirror there until it got hit, then multiple punctures, then a Safety Car. No idea what that was all about. All they needed was a brief VSC, have a steward retrieve it, and then end the VSC. I was watching the timing and there was a 13+ second gap at race speeds between two groups of drivers, that increases to almost 30 seconds under VSC. Easily, easily enough time for one person to run onto the track from the end of the pit lane wall and grab it and be safe again.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
The penalties were a bit much. Ferrari has a fair chance to win the Constructor's championship still. If they can finish 1-2 and McLaren don't finish 3-4, I think Ferrari wins it.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/abbi-p...race-abu-dhabi
This is exactly the kind of stuff that a "women's only" racing series can't do if they expect to be taken seriously. The driver was crowned champion, and then the schedule of the final race weekend was adjusted to add another race, thus making it mathematically possible for her to not win the championship.
I remember a couple years ago there was massive, massive butthurt in the "media" when someone involved with F1 said he didn't see a female F1 driver making it to the grid in the next 5 years. Some people don't understand how long it takes a driver to make it into an F1 seat. If there aren't any teenage female drivers right now that are absolutely kicking ass in the lower tier series', then that 5 year statement will continue to hold true.
This F1 Academy series is a bit of a punch line. Their races are just a handful of laps, the cars are quite slow. Believe it or not, there was a race winner earlier this year that was disqualified because she took the checkered flag and kept racing at full speed, not knowing the race was over, and took the checkered flag twice. Mindblowing.
Max dumping Oscar in turn 1 was completely boneheaded on Max's part. It did add drama to the Constructor's championship battle for the entire race.
McLaren have to be the favorites going in to 2025. Of the top 4 teams, they are the only one who will come back with the same two drivers, which is a huge positive from a team cohesion standpoint.
My understanding is that the 2025 rules package are mostly the same as the 2024 rules, so the good teams and the mediocre teams are likely to remain the same. I suppose Aston Martin could have a jump in 2025 with the Newey effect, that would be a good thing for the sport.
If I were forced to wager, I would bet that Lando wins the driver's championship, McLaren win the constructor's championship. After that, who knows, which is a good thing.
Max has been pulling a lot of bonehead moves recently. Ever scent their car lost dominance. I hope we have a different champ next year.
I'm always a little sad when all the racing is over for the year. Now just got to wait for the Daytona 500.
Well, it's December 9th. The YEAR is almost over for the year.
I'm not big on IMSA, but I do watch the Rolex 24 each year, and that is like a month before the 500. It gets drivers and owners from all of the big racing series, which makes it interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
Yeah, anything helps when your Jonesing for that racing fix. lolQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
I always get a laugh when a business makes a bad move then wants the other party to minimize the mistake.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/sergio...doff-continues
Perez should get every penny he was promised. His F1 career is probably over when he leaves RB and RB got a lot more money than he does.
Yep. No one forced them to sign him on for 2 additional years when he was already several races into his catastrophic slump. No sympathy for them having to write a check for services not rendered.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
I guess it's official, Red Bull is going with Lawson. Sort of feel bad for Tsunoda. He had a really good year. Max probably likes have a such a junior driver as a partner, it should prevent any interteam competition.
I think we've seen Tsunoda's ceiling. He's a very capable driver. We haven't seen much of Lawson, but they must think he has the potential to be better than Tsunoda is now.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
I really wish Red Bull had had the stones to swap out Perez during the summer break. The worst that would have happened is that they still finish 3rd in the constructor's championship.
Having pondered all the possible scenarios at great length, I still think their best option would have been to steal Carlos from Williams and pair him with Max for 1 year and keep Lawson at VCARB for a full season, and then re-evaluate in 1 year. I think Max/Carlos as a team have a higher point ceiling potential in 2025 than Max/Lawson. And, let's be honest, Sainz deserves a better seat than a Williams.
Yeah, Carlos definitely deserves better than Williams. I wish HAAS would have grabbed him.
Red Bull might have been worried about to MUCH competition between Max and Carlos. It's a lot easier when you have a clear number 1 driver.
looks like Mick Schumacher is going empty next year, wonder if he will ever get another chance again in a cockpit.
certainly does not look like it
Yeah, each passing year makes it even less likely. There will always be new talent coming out of F2 each year, so being out of a seat for 3+ years pretty much guarantees he won't be coming back. It is somewhat of a shame, it would have been nice to see him in a car that was more competitive than Haas was when he was there.Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisE
You know it is the "slow F1 news offseason" when PlanetF1 posts an article speculating that Max Verstappen may go to Williams in a year or two. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Rolex 24 starts tomorrow on NBC, then switches to USA, then pretty much only on Peacock until the final hour or two when it is back on NBC. Such a grind of a race, I always feel terrible for the cars that have mechanical issues in the last hour or two.
just seen Lewis Ham. in Red with the old 2023 Ferrari
what a funny sight, wonder if this will be his last F1 Season
he will be 40 this year
If so, we'd have to change the title of the thread.
Or at least mark it resolved:D
I hope he does well at Ferrari. It is a shame that the Mercedes went from mostly untouchable for years to struggling for the occasional podium once the new regulations went into effect a few years ago. I hope doesn't retire after just 1 year at Ferrari.Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisE
Wasn't that the race that Dale Jr's car caught on fire and he came real close to being seriously hurt.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
well he is 7xWorld Champion:D, I do hope he does well with Ferrari but I will be rooting for Lando Norris.... go Lando goQuote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
well I think Lewis with 40 is Fit, look at Fenando Alonso(43) and still going strongQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
I caught the late 1 1/2hrs of the Rolex 24. Really good finishes. Amazed it was that close after 24hrs.
Absolutely. It was the best finish I've ever seen where all 4 classes had close finishes for the class win.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
It was fun to watch the racing at the Bowman Gray track. I though Hamlin would win once he got the lead but Elliot came back.
Next stop Daytona. Looking forward to it.
I liked the rule that only Green flag laps count.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
My biggest beef when Nascar went with the stage system was the wasted laps between stages under caution. Especially at road courses, where there can be something like 60 laps to begin with. They end up burning at least 4 laps of caution between stages, which ends up being over 10% of the scheduled race duration. I thought they tried out not throwing a caution flag at the end of stages specifically for road courses at some point. That would be a permanent change I would be in favor of. Or just not counting the laps between stages towards the total race duration.
Opening race weekend! Looking ahead at the TV schedule, I don't even see what channel if any the practice sessions are on. Qualifying is on ESPNU at midnight Saturday morning. Race starts at midnight Sunday morning on ESPN. I'm definitely staying up late to watch it live.
I honestly have no idea what to expect. If it is anything like the end of last year, then there's 7 or 8 drivers that could potentially win. I guess we'll know more after the practice sessions and qualifying what to expect.
If Max wins the championship this year again, it will likely be a hard fought win. I hope Liam Lawson catches on quickly in the second seat.
If I had to pick a constructor's champion for this year, I'd have to go with McLaren. Of the top 4 teams, they are the only one to have the same driver pairing this year. And of course they won last year, so they have the momentum and experience of how to get it done.
I saw one practice listed. I use this site for racing schedules,Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
https://www.tvracer.com/
You really don't know what cars are going to be the strongest. It'll be interesting to see. I've noticed the last couple of years that McLaren has gotten off to very slow starts and Aston Martin got off to good starts. Lots of unknowns this year, should be fun.
Yeah, now my onscreen TV listings shows Practice 2 tonight on ESPN2 at 11:55. Sometimes the listings that are more than 1 day into the future aren't accurate.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
Yay! The 2025 season is officially underway.
If I were a betting person (which I'm not), I would bet $1000 to anyone else's $1000 that Hamilton will accidentally stop in the Mercedes pits at least once this year, whether in Practice, Qualifying, Sprint, or Race.
My qualifying opinions:
-Not at all surprised to see McLaren take the front row
-Not at all surprised to see Max and George get the second row
-Very surprised to see a Williams and Racing Bull in the third row
-Disappointing to see both Ferrari's all the way down in row 4
-Disappointing to see Alonso and Stroll in 12th and 13th. Apparently Adrian Newey hasn't had a meaningful performance impact on the car yet.
-Disappointing to see both Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson knocked out in Q1.
I think it should be very obvious that Liam Lawson absolutely needs to perform in order to keep his seat in the second Red Bull car. If Yuki Tsunoda in the Racing Bull consistently outperforms Liam in the Red Bull, expect a seat swap after 6 races or so.
I thought Yuki should have gotten that seat to begin with. He had a very good year.
HAAS is off to a terrible start. Disappointed to see that.
Not a great first race for most of the rookies. Obviously Kimi had the best day of the rookies, and Oliver salvaged what had been a disastrous weekend to finish the race on the lead lap.
The Ferrari engineer <--> Hamilton radio messages show that there is a lot to learn there.
Oscar's spinout was a bummer, but at least he was able to finish in the points.
It was a pretty chaotic first race.
Yeah, fun to watch. If three more cars would have wrecked HAAS would have scored points. :p
Man, HAAS performance was terrible. They never came close to challenging anyone.
Was impressed by the poise of Norris.
I was very happy for Lewis to get the Sprint pole. Hopefully he can hang on and take home the win. I'm guessing Max might be vulnerable in second place, but maybe he can hold on to that position as well.
Liam Lawson qualifying dead last for the Sprint is another strike against him for keeping his Red Bull seat. He's nowhere near Max. I bet Sergio Perez is thinking "Hey Marko, miss me yet?"
Liam Lawson qualifying dead last for the race. Not good. I mean, yes, it is only his second race weekend in the seat. But to be that far off of Max means that even if he cuts the gap from himself to Max in half, he's still going to struggle to earn points each race.
It's early, but I would say there is no chance that Red Bull wins the constructor's championship this year.
Otherwise, I've been really impressed with the other rookies so far this weekend.
Yeah, Max is still very much in the mix for the championship so is Piastri. Actually all the usual suspects are hovering around.
HAAS looks better this race but it is a fairly low speed course. I read last week they were really struggling with the car at high speeds.
Interesting race. I was surprised how many teams pulled off the 1 stop strategy. Too bad for the RB guys that they committed to the 2 stop early.
It is very early, but McLaren look poised to dominate each race. They might win as many as Max did a couple years ago.
It has to be devastating that both Haas's scored in the points, and Liam Lawson was nowhere near them.
Yikes, just seeing that LeClerc, Hamilton, and Gasly were all disqualified from the race. That bumps up lots of people. Ocon finished 5th, Bearman finished 8th for Haas. Great points day for them.
Wow, really great day for HAAS. Hard to say where they really stand compared to the others, big swing in performance.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
What did the Ferrari's get disqualified for? To much red? :D
LeClerc - car was underweight after the race
Hamilton - skid plate underneath car was not thick enough
Gasly - car was underweight after the race
The unofficial rumor is that Tsunoda and Lawson will swap seats ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in 1.5 weeks.
If so, it could be a win-win move for both. Lawson performed way better in the RB last year than he has in the Red Bull this year.
I'm curious to see what happens if they do swap. It could take several races for Tsunoda to get use to the Red Bull car. Red Bull might not see immediate gains.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Great point. Tsunoda may have little to no experience driving the Red Bull car, and his disadvantage is having 4+ years in the RB. If they are substantially different, which it sounds like they are, he might have an even more difficult time adjusting than Lawson.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
I've heard rumblings that if things go haywire they might try to poach Botaas (Mercedes backup driver) or even Zhou Guanyu (Ferrari backup driver). They might need to swallow their pride and bring Perez back. At his worst he was still performing better than Liam has in his first two races.
It was officially announced earlier today that Tsunoda and Lawson have swapped seats. I hope Tsunoda performs well enough to keep the seat for the remainder of the season, and that Lawson gets some quality finishes back in the RB.
If nothing else, it'll make it more interesting to watch.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
I am thrilled that Tsunoda is getting a shot. Personally, I think he should have been chosen for the #2 Red Bull seat at the beginning of the season. Tsunoda turned in a better record than Lawson when they were racing head-to-head in the last six GPs of 2024.
For the last couple of years, I've been a Lando Norris fan, with my wife rooting on Verstappen. But she always takes the "easy" pick. I'm more for an underdog who's got a true shot, and that was definitely Norris a couple of years ago.
However, I seem to be switching to Piastri these days. Norris seems a bit "broken in the head" these days. I hope I'm wrong, as he seems like a nice kid, but I don't know.
I would have loved to see Alonso pick up a couple more wins, but I think he's done. He still frequently outperforms Stroll, but that's not saying much. In fact, so far this year, Stroll has looked better. But, I'm not sure that's him getting better, or Alonso showing his age.
Interestingly, this is about the only sport I follow, having paid for the F1 app on Roku for a few years now. I was into NASCAR for quite a few years, but (from my perspective) they've gotten a bit weird as of late.
I'll still watch the highlights of 24 Hours of Lemans, and maybe the Datona or Sebring races, as gosh, those endurance races are just a whole other animal. And the Ford vs Ferrari Matt Damon movie is on my top-ten list.
Anyway, enough rambling.
Tsunoda looked fast and comfortable in the Red Bull, Lawson looked fast and comfortable in the Racing Bull. So far, so good on the seat swap.