Well, not really.  A Mercedes in the wall this race puts more pressure on the next race etc….

I’m being nice and saying he’s a pretty decent driver.

I don’t have to like him do I?  I mean it’s not like I’m telling you not to like him.

Nor am I trying to insult you on a personal basis. But I have broad shoulders.

I don’t have to like him do I?

Of course not, but you could express your dislike less emotionally and based on educated facts at hand rather than a disingenuous conclusion and you’d come across a lot more credible in your opinion.

Well, I watched the race last night. I had heard Lewis has tied up the championship, but didn’t know any of the finishing positions.
From what I understand about practice & qualifying, they didn’t really know what to expect in the race. The Merc always seems quite hard on it’s tyres & although I have heard a few times during the season that they had improved matters it does still seem to shred them up when conditions aren’t ideal.

I felt mostly pleased for Verstappen to get a result & sorry for Ricciardo for another DNF. I think if I was him I’d have been out of that car & thrashing it with a large branch (hmmm, perhaps a cactus), ala John Cleese.
The thing is, has Ricciardo just jumped from the frying pan into the fire? The Renault team aren’t exactly showing stellar reliablilty or performance. And Red Bull will be switching to the Honda engine this year, which seems to have been a  bit more reliable this year; although not sure about the performance of it though…

It’s like or dislike. It’s an emotion. Nothing more. I don’t like the guy as soon as he opens his mouth on or off the track. Not saying it’s rational.

On the facts at hand he’s a decent driver.  When he was just a driver (around the time of his first championship), I quite liked him.  If he stuck to driving, I probably still would.

Now his image will appeal to others – possibly you for example. And that’s fine. That’s not rational either though.

I see Smedley’s off from Williams.  Always seemed like a decent bloke, but can’t help speculating about whether he’s either a) walking away because of their recent performance and what he seeing for the future b) being ushered out becuase of his contribution to their recent perfornance and/or the way out of it.   Either way I get the feeling he won’t need to look too hard for a new post.

Smedley story here:

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11545398/rob-smedley-leaving-williams-at-end-of-f1-2018-season

He seems to have been responsible for Williams dropping from the top of the midfield to struggling to survive. Ferrari weren’t much good while he was there either. Can’t imagine other teams are going to be fighting each other to hire him.

Didn’t they also lose their aero guy this year?  Gonna be a tough job for Clare to get things back on track. Especially with two new drivers as well.

eta: yes they lost DeBeer who was their aero guy and their chief designer Ed Wood

https://www.pitpass.com/61911/Aero-boss-De-Beer-leaves-Williams

Last months Racecar Engineering had an article about the current Williams F1 car and interviewed Paddy Lowe (CTO at Wiliams). He reckons the biggest difference between all the current F1 cars isn’t the engine, but the aero.

The floor on the Williams doesn’t work as expected, and there isn’t much they can do to it without starting again, not something you can do mid season.

Mr Pole at it again.

Finger boy lost his rag again.

https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/3342/video-vettel-destroys-fia-weighbridge/

How did he only get away with a fine?  You clearly see him trying to bully the official, who is only doing his job, then drive at him momentarily.  Seeing as he has a reputation for overreacting on occasion I’m surprised they didn’t throw the book at him.

Wouldn’t surprise me if Vettel has a mental breakdown at some point, seems the pressure of driving for Ferrari is really getting to him.  LeClerc being there next season could be the trigger!

then drive at him momentarily.

That was inexcusable. I’d have put him at the back of the grid for that. Lack of respect, disregard for safety etc. If he’d gone a couple of feet more he’d have knocked him over which who knows what sort of injuries.

I haven’t heard yet if Lewis has a penalty for the moves he pulled which certainly wouldn’t have been tolerated by the stewards had it been one of the newer guys.

I haven’t heard yet if Lewis has a penalty for the moves he pulled which certainly wouldn’t have been tolerated by the stewards had it been one of the newer guys.

I don’t think he cares, he’s chill the cigars are out, he’ll roll in third and be happy finger boy will win and still be angry!

we live in hope

#F1 #BBCF1 #BRAZILGP RACE Update 1615GMT: Given recent shower developments in the vicinity, latest FIA forecast from MeteoFrance goes with 60% chance of showers by race start

— Ian Fergusson (@fergieweather) November 11, 2018

The Stewards didn’t even seem Lewis’ moves to be worthy of investigation.  Sirotkin wasn’t on a hot lap and no one could explain why he was going so fast into traffic which was backing up in preparation for a fast lap.  Even he (Sergey) explained himself poorly.

Kimi, well, was very Kimi about it all.

mercs win

Ooh. O’Connor accuses Verstappen of pushing and trying to punch him in the paddock.

Glad to see Finger Boy way back.

Crash Pushstappen, lump him one yer gert girls blouse.

https://twitter.com/MaximeB123/status/1061692213288189952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1061692213288189952&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fsport%2Flive%2Fformula1%2F45190875

Such a mincer.

Community service for Verstabb’em, Vettel pretends to be happy for his team mate but fails to look anything other than angry, Raikkonen shrugs shoulders cause he’s earning millions and there’s a beer waiting in the fridge so who cares, Lewis & Mercedes win.

Should be Sir Lewis and SPOTY winner surely.

Thomas is still the bookies favourite for spoty. Hamilton in third behind Kane. There’s been a few good British results this year.

Lewis talking to Max in the room after the race was classic:

Lewis – you do know he’s allowed to unlap himself, right?

Max – yeah but you cant just take out the leader!

Lewis – but you’re on different strategies, he’s got nothing to lose and you’ve got everything to lose.

Very much a Multiple World Champion to a rookie.  During the press interview afterwards, Lewis, who was a few seconds behind Max said, “I wasnt surprised, Estaban was faster on brand new tyres, Max chose to race, if he’d (Max) have given him more space, it’d have worked out for him.

Kinda sums it up nicely in my opinion, and shows how much Lewis has grown.

shows how much Lewis has grown

Yes, I think getting beaten by Rosberg matured him a lot. He was always blindingly fast, but now he seems to be driving much more intelligently than Vettel or Verstappen.

lewis 10-10 the rest

going into the last race

No disadvantage whatsoever in Verstappen letting him past. What bizarre driving

I like his driving sometimes but he drives me up the wall in that he never thinks anything is his fault, blames his problems on other drivers, the team etc.

Unless he takes some responsibility he will never become a great driver, just one of the “never proved his potential” many.

Christian Horner inadvertently summed up what happened to Max in Brazil whilst speaking after the US GP, he said, and I quote “Max doesn’t like being overtaken. By anyone.”

That arrogant attitude has placed him in hot water a few times this year (Bottas, Vettel, etc) but this time, whilst the Stewards found in his favour, the cause of the collision was still that “i don’t want to be overtaken” in his head.

Hopefully this might help him realise, that whilst, yes, the Stewards found in his favour, punishing someone else doesn’t always (or often) help YOUR race. Not being there to have the collision, would most certainly HAVE helped your race.

Suggestions that Kubica will get the other Williams drive for next year. Personally I think that ship has sailed, I’d rather see Ocon but money talks.

Also Smedley going back to Ferrari.

Should be Sir Lewis

The crown takes a dim view on subjects who take measures to avoid paying their taxes, so unlikely.

Big crash in the F3 at Macau today

Driver is Sophia Floersch, she’s hurt her back but is mostly okay.  THe thing she crashed into was a press box of sorts,  two photographers were hurt. Condition TBC

That was a horrible crash in Macau. She must have been 10-15′ in the air. God knows how she survived…

It was horrendous – the speed she hit that building was frightening 😳

Holy crap. Was everyone wearing a helmet?

That’s shocking – hope everyone is ok.

They could do with some bigger catch fencing.

What happened, brake failure? She was going so much faster than everyone else. Or already airborne before the braking point?

She hit the car in front of her which launched her through the catch fencing (through, not over, apparently).

https://www.motorsport.com/f3/news/sophia-floersch-macau-crash-analysis/4300061/

Edit: And she hit it backwards which surely must have helped a lot.

Well at least the track didn’t get completely blocked like every other Macau crash, ever.

Looking like Kubica has got a Williams deal for next season…

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kubica-williams-race-deal-2019/4301134/

**** YES

Is it George Russel in the other seat?