Panflute

Tsunoda did indeed outqualify Lawson 6-0 this season in regular qualifying (it was 2-1 to Lawson in sprint quali). However, if you look at the qualifying data, the delta between them was actually very close. Tsunoda of course still had the edge, but for example Lawson was closer to Tsunoda than Piastri was to Norris over 2024. When you compound that with the fact that Lawson has only done a handful of races for VCARB whereas it was Tsunoda's 4th full year with the team, that difference wasn't as resounding as the 6-0 quali whitewash makes it seem. My guess is Red Bull took a gamble and see a lot of growth potential in Lawson. Lawson's aggressive driving in the past few races probably also appealed to the likes of Helmut Marko.

As expected.

Yes.

Never.

I don't.

There are persistent rumors that a Sainz move didn't happen because there is some beef between the Sainz and Verstappen camps. Red Bull also appear to look for a driver that is either young and can use some time to grow into the role, or a more experienced driver who will accept a clear number 2 role. Sainz fits neither of those descriptions. That's probably why they hung on to Pérez for so long. He was the clear number 2 and the Verstappen camp was happy to keep him in that spot as it wasn't at the time costing Max in the WDC. With Tsunoda, Red Bull appears to have doubts not so much about his driving ability, but about his mentality. They suspect he will easily crack under the pressure when driving against Max and potentially cause a lot of drama within the team. This was reported by Ronald Vording, who talks to Helmut Marko almost every race and is usually very well informed on Red Bull. In any case, I expect Tsunoda to head Aston Martin's way in 2026 when they get Honda motors.

^The truth on that is somewhere in the middle. McLaren were not clear of the rest of the field by half a second like the dominant cars of the past, but they did have a faster car than at least Red Bull in the vast majority of cases. Max did have an advantage in being able to defend more aggressively, but for example at the US Grand Prix Lando 100% should have passed Max but didn't because his attacks were all too predictable and Max defended perfectly. It also exposed McLaren's poor race management as they just pretended a 5 second penalty wouldn't come their way when every commentator said it would the moment the incident happened. That had absolutely nothing to do with luck, but with Max/Red Bull outdriving and outsmarting the entirety of McLaren. McLaren in general just have a chronic issue with extracting the most out of a Sunday. Silverstone and Monza were both lost on strategy, and even races they did win, they fumbled a 1-2 or put a damper on the result by confusing team orders and overall poor communication. Will Joseph in particular is terrible at communicating efficiently. All these things combined made it so that Max kept finishing ahead of Lando when he really had no business to. Looking at it plainly, Max still won races when the car wasn't completely there (Emilia Romagna, Spain, Canada), and Lando has so far only won when the car was unbeatable on pace. Part of that is down to Red Bull having a far better pitwall than McLaren, but part of that is also down to Lando himself. That he nearly ruined his own race 3 times while being under 0 pressure in Singapore also says that, individually, he's not quite on Max's level yet. That all being said, I don't think many drivers would've done a better job in Lando's position. Maybe Charles Leclerc since he's very good at going wheel-to-wheel with Max (and anyone else), but he also cracked in 2022. Maybe Lewis even though he was error-prone this season. But now that Lando has had a taste, I reckon he'll put up much more of a fight next season. For all the credit Charles gets for his 1-lap pace, Norris is right up there in terms of scary quali performances. So if McLaren can more reliably convert poles into wins, Lando will be tough to beat.

Driver of the season - The only real and boring answer here is Max as he is on a level that no other driver can touch at the moment. However, to make it more interesting I'll say Lando Norris. People were quick to dismiss him wholesale after the failed title bid, and yes, he does fall short of Max and Max would've won the championship if he drove for McLaren. But I'm putting it into perspective by comparing him to Piastri. Many, including myself, expected Piastri to slowly start outperforming Lando this season. There were indeed races where Piastri had the better of him, and there were some races where Lando was favored due to the WDC fight. But when you look at the results over 24 races, Norris obliterated Piastri. 21-3 in quali, and 16-8 in race position, 8 pole positions to 0. People now write off Lando after the failed title bid, but forget that Charles Leclerc crumbled under the pressure just has hard if not harder when he had the joint fastest car in the first half of 2022. Last year many said Lando would be outperformed by Oscar, and Lando stepped up his game, especially in quali. This year people say Lando hasn't got what it takes to be a champion. If he can take his wheel-to-wheel to the next level, I think he'll be the 2025 WDC (and ofc if McLaren can maintain its can within a competitive window all throughout next season). Disappointment - I don't think Pérez was particularly disappointing given the writing was on the wall there. He was always going to tumble down the order once the car stopped being dominant. In terms of teams, the disappointment of the season has to be Red Bull. We all thought they were gonna sweep 2024 and they ended 3rd in the constructors. In terms of disappointing drivers, I'm gonna say Fernando Alonso. I love Fernando but it was sad to see that, along with the decline of Aston Martin, he was right back to his old complaining self. I hope I'm wrong, but this time it seems like the fire is gone for good. I expect 2025 to be his final season in the sport. Race of the season - Brazil easily. Changing conditions, drama all weekend, red flags in quali and the race, confusion about the rules, Stroll with hands-down the funniest DNF of the season, 2 Alpines on the podium, the WDC being decided in 1 corner, and a career-defining drive by Verstappen. The narrative of Silverstone and Hamilton's resurgence was great too, but I feel like Brazil 2024 is the race we'll still be talking about 10 years down the line. Overtake - Piastri on Leclerc in Baku. Ok, maybe it was aided by the flexiwing (Baku was the race that exposed it), but it was a ballsy all-or-nothing move that definitively established Piastri as an amazing driver.

Ended up getting pretty close to the top 2 in the 2nd half of the season, but the initial gap was too big. iirc I came all the way from last.

Already talked about it on the Discord, but I'm currently going through (most) Zelda 3D games. Started a playthrough of Ocarina of Time but since I already beat that a handful of times and know that game inside-out, I decided to pause it for something new and am now a fair bit into Skyward Sword (HD Switch version). I really struggled to get into the game as the first 2 dungeons didn't really do it for me, but it's starting to grow on me now. Some of the puzzles and dungeon gimmicks are amazing, and save for a few annoying enemies and actions, the button-based control scheme on the Switch actually works quite nicely. After these two, I have the following waiting for me: Wind Waker HD (completed the original before) Twilight Princess HD (completed the Gamecube original before) Breath of the Wild (never played before) Tears of the Kingdom (never played before) I'm still doubting whether to play Majora's Mask again. I finished it once on the N64, even getting all the masks, and while I loved it at the time, I have a feeling I am not going to like a playthrough of it.

A bit late, but this weekend marked the 10-year anniversary of Lewis Hamilton winning his second championship; his first with Mercedes and the start of a long silver dominance.

Because money.

By going all in on global warming.

Any sandstorms?

Elections.