Motorsport

Do they not do that to Russell at the Merc Initiation party?

Lewis needs to insist that everyone involved in F1, drivers, announcers etc call him Sir Lewis. Even Bono. And he gets a free pass to ignore them if they don't.

Don't know if the regs are actually worded this way, but wouldn't it be delicious if they were.

Does raise the point that teams should be going through the F1 rules and reinterpreting every use of 'any' to mean 'some'. Might have opened up a load of new loopholes!

I kept out of this thread due to anger and disappointment at the result of the last GP.

What a pile of horseshit. Probably the most corrupt thing I've ever seen in F1. Doesn't help that the dinosaur that's Ecclestone is happy with it because "he doesn't want to see Schumacher's record broken".

This stinks. Not sure I'm an F1 (McLaren and Russel) fan anymore.

So this new clown Mohammed ben Sulayem has not ruled out punishing Lewis Hamilton for not attending the FIA gala saying, get this, ‘rules are rules’. You what? How tone deaf are you? Rules are rules only when you feel like it clearly you bunch of cunts.
Seriously, fuck off F1!

Loopholetastic.

the-race.com/formula-1/belgian-gp-f1-fans-get-compensation-but-is-it-enough/

Pretty disgraceful but unsurprising. Shows the FIAs denials around the motives for the safety car laps for what they were. The FIA unfairly influenced the Championship and ripped off fans to save some cash. Shameful.

the-race.com/formula-1/edd-straws-2021-f1-season-driver-ratings/

Don't know if anyone else reads these articles after each race but Ed Straw ranks drivers weekends out of 10. Unusually, his rating system is that 5 is considered average and represent an F1 driver doing an ok job, and 6 is a good score (so no Championship Manager style starting with a 6). Frankly, I'm with him on this, it's always ridiculous when everyone gets 7 or 8 in these sports things. Anyway, his scoring is always well reasoned and pretty consistent, taking in qualifying and race performance.

Personally, I think the resulting averages are a fair reflection of how I saw the season. As I've said before here, I thought Lewis marginally deserved the title more for his stronger finish, but his 'bad' weekends were certainly worse than Max's and it's right that they dragged his average down. I was surprised by how much, but ultimately it's maths and arguably offers a more interesting perspective than the drivers standings because Ed didn't mark drivers down for things outside their control.

Looks like Masi might have been given the boot.

If the latest FIA org charts are anything to go by anyway.

Increasingly seems like Hamilton's played a blinder having been dealt a particularly shitty hand. Enhanced his reputation and garnered sympathy by being impeccably polite and sporting in the immediate aftermath, then kept his mouth firmly closed. Totally removed the ability to shift the debate away from Massi's management of the last few laps onto Hamilton's own words and conduct. With no racing, the F1 news cycle can't move on.

The silence gets louder every day and the pressure on the FIA gradually amps up.

I don't think Hamilton will retire (although believe he'd be prepared to if the FIA actively provoke him) but he can absolutely afford to just bide his time and watch from the sidelines. The implicit threat of quitting and the further damage that would do to the sport is the only power he has left to effect change.

If Massi goes, it's evidence that it's working. Presumably, Hamilton will only be forced to comment once summoned to the first official press conference of the year which isn't until the first test in late Feb. Got another 5/6 weeks of letting speculation work for him.

FE starts tonight. Qualy on now (nearly finished): www.youtube.com/watch?v=NobFopLpNeM

The head to head knockout format seems pretty decent, much better than the old system, love the new live lap comparison graphic they have.

It's because the cars are too slow - on full circuits they'd just spend most of the time easily trundling round despite being at full throttle.

Are they slower than touring cars?

They don't need to be racing f1 circuits though, smaller tracks with a bit of runoffs or sand traps would look better and add more excitement. 90 degree corners are boring, and the endless camera switching, urgh, it's like watching a. Transformers movie.