Yeah good race.
George Russell is such a knob.What did he do?
He's always super quick to get on the radio to try and get other drivers penalised. I don't like it when any driver does it, but he seems to do it more.....even Leclerc has commented on it... “But I can imagine George being quite vocal on the radio, it’s normally the case.”
Sure, he can sound a bit whiney on the radio but he's no worse than most of the other drivers. We may not get all the radio broadcasts but you can guarantee that Max is on the radio pdq if he spots even the slightest possible misdemeanour or rule stretch. Like I said, George will often sound a bit whiney about it but they're all commenting on stuff throughout the race.
Yeah good race.
George Russell is such a knob.What did he do?
He's always super quick to get on the radio to try and get other drivers penalised. I don't like it when any driver does it, but he seems to do it more.....even Leclerc has commented on it... “But I can imagine George being quite vocal on the radio, it’s normally the case.”
I'd rather they didn't have a radio at all TBH, but anyway don't pay too much attention to this comment from Leclerc, he's deflecting because George correctly called him out for moving in the braking zone resulting in him getting a penalty.
The whining over the radio is analogous to footballers throwing themselves on the floor at the slightest bit of contact.
It is done to get the attention of the officials and maybe the opponents get penalised.
Russell does do it in a particularly 'whiny school kid' type way, but I find it quite funny. Especially when he throws in a Bliiiimey. Or a Criiiiikey. Or is that just LollipopmanF1 over-egging it a bit? 😁
Not sure how I feel about the Hamilton situation. He clearly doesn't get on with this type of car. And he clearly doesn't get on with the Ferrari. I don't think he is as far from Leclerc's performance (hmmm, is it Leclerc, or LeClerc?! Never paid much attention) as he thinks/feels he is.
I feel sympathy for him, but then at the end of the day he's being paid multi-millions of pounds to jet around the world and drive the most advanced racing cars there are. He is not at home weeding the front drive, or having to find the motivation to install the skirting board that really should have been done months ago. As such, my sympathy only goes so far. 😄
I don't know if it's the Ferrari specifically, I think it's the ground effect cars in general, he's not looked confident for a few years. We saw a similar drop off with Vettel at the end of the blown diffuser era, different types of cars suit different drivers. I think Riccardo might have been another top drive to struggle with ground effects, Check too probably.
Lewis is almost certainly hanging on to see what the 2026 cars are like and if they suit him, he'll definitely do 2026 IMO, and if he's competitive stay on for a couple more years, if not he'll probably retire at the end of next year, no chance of him going this year
I don't think Russell was whining. The move to the inside by Leclerc to cut him off was pretty poor and the Effayeay agreed.
Not sure what to make of Lewis, I think its clear he's lost an edge in qualifying. That was evident last year vs Russell too. Its hard to say where qualifying pace ranks in Hamilton's skill set. He has the most poles of any driver so its something that has been a strength throughout his career, but against "Mr Saturday" and his current team mate, who is lauded for his one lap pace he has struggled. But they are both 27 vs Hamilton's 40 years, which surely has to also be a factor?
I think its clear he's lost an edge in qualifying.
There's also some luck thrown into it, Hamilton was arguably held up by Colapinto in corner 6/7 in Q1 and was [only] 0.2 behind Leclerc, who only just scrapped through Q1 himself. I don't think he'd have put it on pole, but for some-one who holds the record for pole (40 more than the nearest next driver) I guess anything less than Q3 is probs a bad day at the office. It's clear these cars don't suit his 'last of the late brakers' style, and it's clear that he's struggling to adapt (he always seems to want more rear tyre grip, the same way that Max always wants more front) and I don't think the 2026 cars are going to suddenly suit him more. Perhaps he'll retire? Who knows.
I wonder what the issue that Leclerc was complaining about was?
According to PlanetF1 (and Russell) it was plank wear cos the car was running so low....they increased tyre pressure fro the later stint To reduce wear, and it ruined the performance.
https://www.planetf1.com/features/uncovered-ferraris-ride-height-problems-cost-charles-leclerc-hungarian-gp-win
Fun little bit with Alex on Chris Moyles show
Colapinto has had another crash, at the Pirelli test at the Hungaroring this morning
The Race reporting that Cadillac have settled on Bottas and Perez, which is exactly what I would do if I was running the team.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/cadillac-closing-in-on-race-winning-line-up-for-f1-debut/
And Bottas facing a grid penalty on his first race back.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/valtteri-bottas-grid-penalty-f1-comeback-rule-change/
Just looked back at my prediction for the year on page 1. Got Ferrari badly wrong, did ok on the others.
I'm going with the constructors' title being a toss-up between McLaren and Ferrari and both teams having fierce intra-team battles. Red Bull have lost key technical staff and I expect them to struggle to catch up to the top two. I hope I'm wrong, but I think Lawson will struggle if the car is as difficult as this year's one so I expect Verstappen to easily beat him and maybe challenge for the drivers' title if the Ferrari and McLaren drivers take points off each other. Lawson to be demoted back to RB and replaced by Tsunoda mid-season. Same with Merc, Russell should easily beat a rookie but they will need a much more consistent car to challenge for titles. Newey won't have any input into next year's AM so they'll be treading water until 2026. Williams should improve greatly, having two top drivers should lift the team massively. My wild prediction is that they'll jump to the front of the midfield teams. Sauber, Haas, Renault, and RB will all have rookie drivers and that will be enough for Williams to jump ahead.
Perez and Bottas officially confirmed - and Horner politely told the sod-off!! 🙂
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/cadillac-firmly-rules-out-horner-f1-approach/
Solid lineup choice, tonnes of experience and whilst not the quickest on the grid, they both are race winners.
also:
No-one got anything to say about the Zandvoort quali?
I like the swoopy track with the height differences more that the modern, mostly flat ones. Maybe not a good for overtaking etc but looks more challenging to drive.
The McLarens owned quali with others racing for 3rd as far as I could see. nothing much between Piastri and Lando which should make for some interest in the actual race.
Anyone who knows what their talking about care to comment?
damn, not going to give spoilers, but damn
Certainly a result for RB.
In one way it was a great race, with a few incidents, but it was also a shit race and I suppose that's why they're getting rid of it. I'm gutted they're getting rid of it though as I wanted to go there...
The red bull is soooo much slower than the McLarens. In face everyone is sooo much slower than the McLarens.
Gutted for Lando, I fear if he doesnt win it this year, he never will. Decent race though IMO, Happy for Hadjar too!
Great to see Hadjar get a podium; another stellar weekend from comfortably the rookie of the year. Also good to see Leclerc getting all BTCC and then also managing to remain philosophical after getting Sopered himself.
Anyway… I’m setting off for the road trip to Monza tomorrow night, so the Ferraris had better pick things up. I’m still quietly confident that Monza will play to the strengths—relatively speaking—of their car (if it stays dry at least) but with Hamilton starting sixth at best I’m not sure it’ll be the party night that we might have hoped for before the season started 🫤 Certainly the dream drink-Monza-dry podium of Hamilton-Leclerc-Antonelli must have pretty long odds at the bookies 🙂
Ah well… maybe they’ll pull something out of the bag. Maybe Hadjar will… Alpha Toro Cashapp have generally fared pretty well there.
Andiamo!
Gutted for Lando. Fortunately the season is still far from over (unless you’re an Australian commenting on facebook), and next time it could be Piastri on the wrong end of some bad luck.
Was there any follow up on the incident between Russel and Leclerc? Given the Sainz penalty I would have expected something.
Was there any follow up on the incident between Russel and Leclerc?
No further action / racing incident. In my opinion the right decision.
Was there any follow up on the incident between Russel and Leclerc?
No further action / racing incident. In my opinion the right decision.
Agreed, that's a rarity (the righ decision being made, not me agreeing with you, tbc).
Interesting move to F2 by Colton Herta - there aren't many who step back on the single seater ladder in the hope of switching formulas. Hope it works out for him...
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/seven-things-herta-and-cadillac-revealed-about-his-f2-f1-gamble/
Interesting move to F2 by Colton Herta
I think it's a smart way to go about it. Let's face it, this is his only shot at getting into F1, remote as the prospect is. This will give him a year or two to acclimatize - I think Indycars and F1 are so different that I doubt anyone could switch either way and be truly competitive without a year or so to adjust. I predict that he will just become another interesting footnote in the history books, but at least he's not going to spend the rest of his life regretting that he didn't give it a try when he had the chance.
So Ferrari have emptied the tanks and chucked out the ballast! Standard fair for Monza! 🤣
Tomorrow, Monza! The road trip so far has been fun (and rather wet on a couple of days). Fingers still crossed it’ll be Ferrari’s best weekend of the year.
Max on pole, how wide is the Red Bull going to get?🤔
My prediction will be Oscar 1st, Max 2nd and Lando 3rd by the second Lesmo
“Who says you can’t overtake at Monza?” Nobody, ever.
We take the piss out of Ferrari for their pit wall comms but WTF is going on at McLaren? What a joke. If I was Piastri I'd have parked the car just before the finish line.
Skinny wings always win there. I’m amazed that anyone runs anything more than the minimum
What a joke. If I was Piastri I'd have parked the car just before the finish line.
Why, because he was asked to let Lando through?
Entirely correct i think given that Lando gave the first pit stop to piastri to help protect him from leclerc.
Absolutely correct decision by McLaren. As usual Piastri’s fan club have absolutely lost it. They forget to take in the whole situation before criticising. It’d be hilarious to read if they weren’t so annoying.
It’s still anyone’s championship (unless you’re an Australian fan).
Would have been harsh for Norris to lose a position because of an error by the pit crew, entirely the correct call by McLaren.
Entirely correct i think given that Lando gave the first pit stop to piastri to help protect him from leclerc.
Doubly so because Lando was specifically told that there would be no undercut from the other car which is effectively what happened because of the team's error. If they'd said "we want to pit Oscar first and he'll be free to race you after his stop so you might lose the position" I expect Norris would've been less supportive of the strategy.
Stupid of Lando to give the option to Piastri of pitting first. There was never any real danger from LeClerc behind for Piastri & if there was, so what? Lando is trying to get his foot back in the door of the driver's championship, so shouldn't be helping out Piastri.
The constructors is virtually sown up. Why should Lando care if Piastri comes under pressure from LeClerc? It could have helped him further and in terms of the constructors, so what if Piastri takes a couple less points because LeClerc passes him?
Hell, Piastri & LeClerc might have had a collision; Lando takes 18 points, Piastri takes 0 points. Boo hoo. The constructors situation has barely changed, but Lando has just halved the points deficit.
Stupid. And not exactly what I want to watch from a race.
After you. No, I insist; you first. Ooooooh, sir; can I have my place back? There was an oopsie in the pitlane.
Albon did well.
Hamilton did pretty well.
Poor old Alonso with his suspension giving up. Whoops!
Tsunoda. Oh dear. Red Bull need to find someone who can drive that car. Or make a more benign one next year.
Albon did well.
Yes he's been the best driver in the midfield all year. He's probably top five for the season in terms of performance (with Verstappen, Piastri, Norris and Russell ahead). He's making Sainz, who a lot of people rate very highly, look pretty ordinary.
Tsunoda. Oh dear. Red Bull need to find someone who can drive that car. Or make a more benign one next year.
That's def part of it but also Tsunoda does not have the same car as Verstappen, it is a hodge-podge of bits from different specs.
That said, I've never thought Tsu was particularly special, give Hadjar a crack at it.
Tsunoda. Oh dear. Red Bull need to find someone who can drive that car. Or make a more benign one next year.
What they need is to stop chucking youngsters in at the deep end all the time and expecting them to perform at Max's level. Either stick with them for a couple of seasons or accept the second seat needs an experienced No. 2 driver - even Checo in his 'terrible' 2024 season contributed a chunk of points.
The like of Max and Lewis come along once in a generation. The next really big thing will be obvious before they enter F1.
Yuki was never the one, and without Honda would have struggled to get to F1 at all. His junior formula career was OK but nothing to shout about.
Ah yeah.
My comment on Tsunoda wasn't very clear. I like him & feel sorry for him being thrown to the lions at Red Bull. He was doing well at Torro Rosso/VisaCashApp Not Red Bulls/Racing Bulls and it was a shame he was shoved in the seat when Lawson was found to be lacking after a whole 2 races 🙄. I think Racing Bull would have been in a good position if it had stayed as Hadjar & Tsunoda all season.
It will be interesting to see what they do with the Red Bull seat next year. Probably promote Hadjar. But, really?! Is that sensible? Not IMO. I think they should keep him where he is for next year. But then what do you do at Red Bull? Keep Tsunoda there for another year? Might as well have just kept Lawson there & seen how he developed.
