Motorsport

I used to work with his dad. He made a fortune in share options from our company, and quit at about 40 with this crazy idea of buying a lorry to drive his son around the country go karting so he'd become a F1 driver.

We all thought he was bonkers. But yes, that's what you can do with a few million.

Trowel 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 crikey!

Really reminds me of Hill 1993. He lost three 'first' race wins in a row through no fault of his own. Team orders, then an engine failure, then a puncture in three (I think successive?) races.

Had a proper sulk about the unfairness of those as a 9 year old.

I've followed Lando since McLaren signed him as a child, and curiosity had me seeking out and tuning into his Euro Formula races. I've always watched junior formulas but I don't usually go that far down the pyramid. It was immediately clear that he had something extra that set him apart.

I'm pretty happy to see most of the new wave do well though. I really like Leclerc, Russell and Albon as well. They all seem like decent people as well as good sportsmen. Seeing them all twitch streaming together and messing around on racing sims during the pandemic really reinforced that impression for me.

Google Norris Vettel photo. Seb had more hair then but really doesn't look that different. Lando is about 3ft tall.

It's near the top of my watch queue now! I remember him from when he was at his peak, but I didn't follow racing at all back then, so I'm looking forward to it.

I'm glad someone else has said it, couldn't agree more. 'We race as one' is literally just a photo op of drivers in t-shirts with nice messages written on the front to them.

I don't think any driver should be blamed if they don't speak up about it while they are actually sat in those countries though. It's a different kettle of fish to Hungary. Who knows what those barbaric cunts would try to pull.

Some of the MotoGP riders aren't happy about F1 going to Qatar either:

the-race.com/motogp/is-qatars-f1-race-really-bad-news-for-motogp/

But yeah, I've had issues for years with MotoGP doing a race in a religious dictatorship like Qatar. Money trumps everything

Huge crash in Moto3, race red flagged (for the second time today) amazing that everyone walked away from this. Pedro Acosta must've flown 60+ metres down the track at 140+mph

I've only just stopped crying ffs.

Norris was having a lot of trouble keeping the car on the track and you can overtake under safety car if the car in front is off track. So I imagine he would have been in a worse position if a SC had come out.

It would very likely have been a red flag + countback.

Finally got around to watching the Schumacher doc tonight. If you'll permit a self-indulgent review, please read on:

Overall I thought it was entertaining and well made, with some great 90s F1 archive footage I'd not seen before. Quite disappointed that they essentially ignored his Sauber-Merc Endurance period as his pace in that series was legendary (and was what got him properly noticed), some onboards would have been great (if they even exist). Similarly, there was hardly any coverage of the Merc comeback which would also be really interesting to learn more about his feelings on it.

Good to learn a bit more about what he was like off track, clearly he was a decent man, personable and incredibly dedicated. The interviews with the family do a lot to illuminate that side of him.

On track, the doc further confirmS that he was pathologically certain about his entitlement to employ whatever tactics he saw fit, be it calculated or heat of the moment, irrespective of risks and ethics. On a personal level that's a shame, I'd have loved there to have been some humanising revelations about his racing conduct. Perhaps something along the lines of private doubts or embarrassment about some of those more brazenly unsporting moments. Maybe that's unfair seeing as he's been robbed of the opportunity to reflect and speak for himself, but I really hoped to find something new that gave me pause and an excuse to revise my memories from the time.

It's hard to articulate what I mean by this, but by way of example, there was a recent Netflix documentary about Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick, and in it, Roddick admits that he was an arrogant twat when he was competing and developed this persona as a means of coping with anxiety, self doubts and stress. It totally reframed my perspective of that period. I'm not saying Schumacher was as obnoxious as Roddick btw, only that both had competitive personas that made them hard to like.

Anyway, after watching the doc, I gained further respect Schumacher's single-mindedness and work ethic, but I still can't admire him as a sportsman.

My main takeaway was feeling deeply sorry for Mick. It's tragic that he's been denied the opportunity to speak to his dad about racing. Not that it's in anyway comparable, but motorsport is one of the things I share with my father, and hearing the mixture of sadness and acceptance in his voice at the end, brought a tear to the eye.

Well worth watching, whether you're a Schumacher fan or not.

Bottas has had 5 engines now as far as I know and Hamilton was always going to need a 4th. The fact that there are more races being added to the season and no wiggle room in the allocation means pretty much everyone is going to have to take a 4th regardless of reliability, it's dumb. But to dismiss what they attempted in the last race is a completely blinkered viewpoint but not entirely surprising.