Hamilton 5x World Champion ?

[techgnome]

Weight requirements should be calculated without any tires on. Shouldn't be punished for extra tire wear, shouldn't be "saved" by post race clag accumulation. Too much room for shenanigans with the tires being part of the weight calculation. Hopefully that will change eventually.

IT won't... why should it? Then again... what do I know? I'm just a developer... not an F1 or FIA technician... Maybe they include tier weight, maybe they don't. I assume they do, because that's why they go off the line at the finish to pick up any extra clag that they can for weight purposes...

-tg

[OptionBase1]

IT won't... why should it? Then again... what do I know? I'm just a developer... not an F1 or FIA technician... Maybe they include tier weight, maybe they don't. I assume they do, because that's why they go off the line at the finish to pick up any extra clag that they can for weight purposes...

-tg

Based on what I've read as well, I'm sure you are correct, which to me is silly.

Picture a single frame cartoon with a teeny F1 car on a scale, and wrapped around the tires are hundreds of pounds of trash, Martin Brundle and his microphone, etc. Caption: "Weight looks good!"

[techgnome]

Based on what I've read as well, I'm sure you are correct, which to me is silly.

Picture a single frame cartoon with a teeny F1 car on a scale, and wrapped around the tires are hundreds of pounds of trash, Martin Brundle and his microphone, etc. Caption: "Weight looks good!"

If I had any artistic ability of any kind, I would so create that cartoon... Well played...

-tg

[wes4dbt]

Seems like everyone in F1 has circled the wagons around tire wear causing the weight problem. Pirelli said a tire could lose 1 kilo of rubber. Whatever the reason, Russell did a hell of a job.

With Mercedes improved performance and Ferrari's lack of performance I wonder what Lewis is thinking.

I saw Sainz is going to Williams. That's good for Williams and bad for Sainz. A big step down.

[OptionBase1]

Totally baffled by Red Bull's decision to keep Perez.

Bringing Daniel Ricciardo out of retirement to Alpha Tauri last year, instead of bringing up Liam Lawson into that seat, makes sense in literally only one scenario - and that is to have an accomplished veteran in the wait in case Perez has yet another mid-season meltdown.

Perez has his meltdown, arguably the worst in his Red Bull tenure, and Red Bull sticks with him. The rumor is they weren't confident that whoever replaced him would be better than he has been. Well, when a driver isn't scoring points to begin with, it doesn't matter if they finish 11th or 20th.

Basically, Daniel's presence at Alpha Tauri/VCARB has accomplished absolutely nothing except keep Liam Lawson from getting a year of real F1 experience. With the Perez decision made, VCARB should immediately replace Daniel with Liam, and keep Daniel on as a reserve driver.

If Perez sees the season out and doesn't manage to be consistently at least in the mix for podiums, and Red Bull loses out on the Constructor's championship, then Red Bull as an organization will be as much to blame for that colossal failure, if not more to blame, than Perez. This is a company with two F1 teams, reserve drivers, F2 drivers, etc. There's absolutely no excuse for not having a viable plan B, and having the stones to implement it, in the not unexpected case that Perez implodes.

I read something that there was financial pressure from within F1 for Red Bull to keep Perez because of the financial support he brings to the sport as a whole from Mexico and Latin America. If that was at all a factor in Red Bull's decision, then that's terrible.

[wes4dbt]

I think one thing that makes Perez appear to meltdown is that RB doesn't seem to have the dominate car anymore. Max has went 4 races without a win. Certainly haven't seen that in a long time.

It's been an enjoyable stretch, got awfully tired of Max, Max, Max.

[Shaggy Hiker]

What is 'clag'? I think I picked it up from context, but I'm curious about that.

[OptionBase1]

Tire dingleberries.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Now THAT's an evocative description!

[OptionBase1]

Crazy Daytona Nascar race tonight. I remember when the "Car Of Tomorrow" first came out with the wing in the back that caused cars to go airborne when they got spun around.

I'm pretty sure Josh Berry's car flipped because of the aero shenanigans from the 2 being right behind him. If you watch the replays, the 2 had a similar trajectory and it started to lift off the ground just slightly a couple times but never flipped over.

[wes4dbt]

Yeah, crazy race. You gotta give it up for NASCAR and the safety of those cars. There was some big wrecks and everyone walked away. Three wide racing lap after lap at 190, impressive. Sorta wanted Bush to win, just to see him in the play offs.

[OptionBase1]

McLaren looking strong. I thought maybe Max could pull off the win after the fast start, but it wasn't to be.

The scuttlebutt about Red Bull is that it's not that all the teams suddenly made simultaneous huge gains against Red Bull, it is that Red Bull was doing something in a "gray area" as far as rules were concerned, the FIA told them they had to "fix" whatever that was, and that has cost them multiple tenths per lap. That would certainly make sense based on their initially dominant start, followed by consistently only being "in the mix" for the win.

[OptionBase1]

Logan Sargeant out at Williams effective immediately, some F2 driver I've never heard of has that seat the rest of the year.

There was talk of Liam Lawson or Mick Schumacher possibly taking over for Logan for the remainder of the year, it's a shame neither of those possibilities panned out.

At this point, I would say it is 90% that McLaren wins the constructor's championship, 9.99% that it is Red Bull, and 0.01% that it is Ferrari or Mercedes.

I think right now, if Lando Norris wins the rest of the races and gets the fasted lap point and Max finishes 2nd in all of them (Lando cuts into Max's lead by +8 points per race), Lando wins the driver's championship by 2 points. That's a longshot, but then there might be races where Lando wins and Max finishes 4th or something where the cut into the lead is more than 8 points per race. I'm rooting for Max to win the driver's championship, but he's certainly going to have to fight for this one probably almost as hard as his first one.

[wes4dbt]

Yeah, Lando winning the championship seems unlikely. But it's been nice not having Max winning every race by 20 seconds.

Last week I read an article about F1 clarifying the braking reg's. Made me wonder if this was where RB had it's major performance advantage that suddenly disappeared.

[OptionBase1]

Lando pole, Max starting in a distant 7th.

Imagine a scenario where Max wins the driver's championship by just a few points - a margin small enough to where if Lando hadn't been forced to let Oscar Piastri pass him for the win a few races ago, Lando would have been the Driver's champion as well.

McLaren could possibly take the lead in the constructor's championship this weekend. What a season.

[wes4dbt]

Be interesting to see it plays out tomorrow. If McLaren pulls it off again I might start being a true believer. lol

If they finish 1,2 and Max/Perez is 4th/5th. It'll be within a few points. Been a while since Red Bull has had to sweat.

Looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

[OptionBase1]

Ferrari with the right strategy call. It sucks for Lando, he had the opportunity to cute into Max's lead big time today.

Red Bull could easily end up down in 3rd in the Constructor's championship within the couple races.

Lando still has a good chance to win the Driver's championship. I don't see Max winning another race this year, their pace deficit is just way too big, and there are 6 other cars that can potentially outrun them each weekend.

[wes4dbt]

It is a little shocking how RB suddenly went from dominating to being behind on performance. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks F1 found RB was doing something outside the rules and made them bring their car back within the rules and isn't telling anyone because of the problems that would create. Because it's hard to believe the other 3 major teams all found more performance at the same time.

You got to know there's a cabal of super rich people hiding behind the curtain pulling the strings. lol

[techgnome]

I have a feeling it was more of a grey area that RB was operating in, and the FIA probably started getting a bit more nit picky about tolerances, and it caught RB with their proverbial pants down.


-tg

[OptionBase1]

It is a little shocking how RB suddenly went from dominating to being behind on performance. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks F1 found RB was doing something outside the rules and made them bring their car back within the rules and isn't telling anyone because of the problems that would create. Because it's hard to believe the other 3 major teams all found more performance at the same time.

You got to know there's a cabal of super rich people hiding behind the curtain pulling the strings. lol

On a different but tangentially related topic (sports scandals being covered up for financial reasons), I'm convinced that Ohtani's interpreter took the fall for Ohtani's own gambling problem.

And Michael Jordan's first retirement after the 1992-1993 season was because he was constantly gambling, but the league couldn't make that public because of how detrimental it would be to the NBA as a whole. So he was allowed to "retire" instead of being suspended.

And other teams were almost certainly involved in the sign stealing scandal in MLB several years ago, possibly even my home team the Minnesota Twins. If you look at the record for the most home runs hit by a team in the course of one season, 4 of the top 5 slots are all from the 2019 season. The Twins came out of nowhere to break that record that year. Looking at the top 26 Seasons/Teams, something like 10 of them are all from the 2019 season. Juiced baseballs? I don't think so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...me_run_records

[Shaggy Hiker]

Gambling is one thing, but when it comes to cheating in professional sports, the money is so great that anything not explicitly forbidden is effectively mandatory.

[OptionBase1]

Max starting the race tomorrow in 6th, Lando starting in 17th. Ooof, what a waste of an opportunity to cut in to Max's lead even more. That being said, I suspect that Lando will drive through the back part of the field fairly quickly and might end up finishing right behind Max in the end.

[wes4dbt]

What happened? DirecTv and Disney were at war so I didn't have that channel. Glad to see they settled and the stations are back.

[wes4dbt]

What happened? DirecTv and Disney were at war so I didn't have that channel. Glad to see they settled and the stations are back.

[OptionBase1]

I didn't catch it live, but I think Lando's final run in Q1 got interrupted by a yellow flag which forced him to slow down.

Crazy race today. Perez desperation leads to catastrophe for himself and Carlos Sainz. Norris passing Verstappen was great. Piastri holding off Charles for lap after lap was great to watch. Bearman making F1 history by driving for 2 different teams in his first 2 F1 races ever and scoring points in both of them. Colapinto scoring points for Williams.

[wes4dbt]

This is funny, https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/v...ence/10656035/

Hope we get a pic of him picking up trash along side the track. lol

I can't blame him for being angry, to suddenly go from winning most races by 20 seconds to struggling for a podium is a big fall. I really don't have a good explanation either.

[Shaggy Hiker]

So, the driver gets to do community service, but the two bosses got only a warning for the exact same word?

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[OptionBase1]

Tomorrow's race should be a good one. Lots of qualification shenanigans should lead to some critical overtakes. It will be interesting to see how far up Perez makes it from P13. He might only barely make it into the points. Can Ferrari recover from a horrific Q3 to challenge for the podium? Does Max drop like a stone from P2 or can he retain a podium finish? Can Piastri make it a McLaren 1-2 from P5?

It is also rumored to be Daniel's final race for RB and that Liam Lawson will finish the season in that seat. If so, that's absolutely the logical decision, albeit a couple races late IMO. Daniel's best F1 years are behind him, and they need Team RB drivers to be young guys with potential.

[wes4dbt]

There are a lot more question marks than usual. I'm curious if Max can make a comeback. I can't quite figure out Mercedes place in all of this. They had a good car for a couple of weeks then they weren't competitive with the top cars the last couple of races. I've notice the last few races that Williams has become competitive with the mid pack car, which is a step up.

[OptionBase1]

Largely uneventful race. Verstappen held his own, Perez mired in traffic. Piastri salvaged a podium, Ferrari gained some spots, Colapinto deserves a seat in F1 next year.

50/50 that Max wins the driver's championship at this point. 0.01% chance that Red Bull wins the constructor's championship at this point.

[OptionBase1]

Latest rumor is that Perez will announce his retirement from F1 at the Mexico race. Seems a bit odd after he just signed a 2 year extension with Red Bull a couple months ago. Further rumor is that Red Bull will try to lure Piastri away from McLaren to fill the Perez seat. Even further rumor is that Max is going to be driving somewhere else (Mercedes?) in 2026.

If all of that was a Parlay bet, not sure I'd take it.

[techgnome]

The Max-Merc rumor has been swirling for a couple weeks now ... beginning to suspect there's a bit of smoke there...
Even if Perez retires from racing, it's possible the contract has him staying on in some other capacity - reserve, development, or non-F1 racing - so I wouldn't rule that out just yet.
But the Piastri move ... I don't know about that ... with what McLaren has been doing lately... then again, if RB is set to lose both Perez and Max... that would be a pretty good/quick way to getting a #1 spot, which I don't see happening at McLaren as long as Norris remains there.



The next two or three off-seasons are going to be interesting.

-tg

[wes4dbt]

if RB is set to lose both Perez and Max... that would be a pretty good/quick way to getting a #1 spot, which I don't see happening at McLaren as long as Norris remains there.

Yeah, that's about the only way it would make sense. Not that these things always do.

I don't see Norris as being that far ahead of of Piastri. Norris has more experience, be interesting to see if Piastri keeps improving.