Panflute

Any sandstorms?

Elections.

Colapinto's performance in Brazil probably put a dent in his RB prospects.

Maybe I was invited but I'm not allowed to tell.

I can't recall it happening at least. Sometimes one driver from a low-end team can catch a lucky break (like Gasly in Zandvoort 2023) but for both of them to get a result like that based on good strategy and merit is truly a result for the ages. Of course it would not have happened without the wet conditions, but given how many established drivers/teams struggled today it's still a great performance. Ocon did look good on the first restart but I think Max was just holding back to get temperature into his tires and would've caught him. His pace was just that much higher in the end.

Yup. The race weekend is over so my rage at Lando has settled. Guy is just getting treated unfairly now.

The question was (paraphrasing): "A decisive moment was the VSC, pitting under that, and the red flag that followed. Can we get your take on that?"

It is real, but as I said on the discord server, I took it more as him talking about Red Bull's strategy to stay out being lucky, as it was a massive gamble and they couldn't have known that Colapinto would bin it. And yeah, I honestly think his reaction was pretty reserved when you take into consideration that he was looking at a slam dunk decisive WDC points swing a few hours earlier. Had I been in his situation, I would probably still have been crying in the fetal position.

Accurate.

Raining.

There's really no telling what the pecking order will be like after next year, but I reckon Max might want to be in a team with a Mercedes power unit.

McLaren did their best to fuck this race up but got bailed out by a lucky VSC. They're lucky they have such a quick car and strong driver line-up because their pitwall is not even close to being the best.

McLaren went for an unusual strategy and did 2 push laps total on their softs, so it was probably more tricky to get performance out of them on the second run and for whatever reason Piastri was able to get more out of the tires at that point.

Are you alright?

I don't think it's just Newey leaving. The entire organization was on its ass at the start of the season due to a power struggle in the wake of Horny Horner's leaks. Newey leaving was just part of the fallout. That sort of instability will just affect an organization, starting at the top and trickling down to the on-track performance. I also don't believe this had anything to do with some secret part Red Bull had to remove from their car due to a regulation change; they weren't necessarily going slower, it's just that some teams came with really good upgrades and were suddenly ahead of them. Red Bull went down a wrong development path and stagnated.

True, although one factor is that Piastri is probably a cut above his manager Mark Webber when it comes to ability and potential, so that might become a problem for him at some point. On the other hand, he's had the measure of Piastri since after Baku. Norris's tire management in particular appears to be amazing. If he can keep it up and weeds out the unforced errors/nervousness behind the wheel, the WDC will be his to take next season.

Just Hamilton fanboy cope as usual.

I'm always hesitant with Ferrari because the moment you think they're back, they start to fall back again. I remember them also being quite strong near the end of 2023, but then 2024 came along and they were nowhere near Red Bull once again, until the latter started to drop off. I have the most faith in McLaren because nearly all of their updates seem to work, so they appear to have a clear sense of where they're going whereas Red Bull are still trying to figure out where their problems come from. Next year, the driver pairings of Ferrari and McLaren are also gonna play a huge part in the WDC I expect. With Norris and Piastri on one end, and Leclerc and Hamilton on the other, it's gonna be difficult determining driver hierarchy. So if one team figures this out before the other and starts prioritizing their lead driver, it might be what decides the drivers' championship. Red Bull I don't know. It looks like a classic case of unrest in the top layer of an organization trickling down to on-track performance with a few months of delay. But as it stands now, I don't think Max will become WDC next year.

Schizophrenia.

I think that Formula One is inherently about finding the limits of the rules and exploiting them until you get reeled in. All teams do it all the time when it comes to building the car, so I don't think one should expect it to be any different from a driver point of view. I would like to see someone do an illegal overtake and build a gap just because it would force the FIA to look into this rule. In the end people can think of it what they want, but the real issue is that the way the regulations are phrased encourage this kind of driving. With the Verstappen-Sainz incident I do think it was dismissed on the lap 1 basis, because if I recall correctly there were 2 other incidents in that turn that didn't get punished. There's also a precedent of leniency in these situations, so again drivers will be aware of how the rules are applied under those circumstances and adjust accordingly. Whether it's a good idea to effectively ignore lap 1 incidents is a different story, though. I also got the impression that Norris was first inclined to give the place back, but with McLaren adamantly telling him he was ahead of the apex (he wasn't), he was undermined by his own team. It seems like the team didn't want to decide between hauling out of there and pulling a gap immediately or giving the place back. They just kind of waited with their eyes closed hoping the situation would resolve itself, and it didn't. I can't help but think Red Bull or Mercedes would not have made that mistake. I expect McLaren to be in the right place next season pace-wise to sweep both championships, but with Ferrari having gotten its shit together recently and the ever-present possibility of a Red Bull resurgence, they really need to learn to make the most out of the hand they are dealt.

It is indeed a flawed rule, and the 'ahead of the apex' rule really needs to be looked at, and/or account for whether the driver ahead has a reasonable chance of making the corner. But as it stands, that is the way the rule is applied and Verstappen continues to exploit it. He effectively baited Norris into it. Norris should indeed have done it earlier and fight an exploit with an exploit. But he didn't. Max didn't make it 'not a clean battle'. He knew what he was doing within the rules. It was on the limit, but not over it. Also not sure what similar situations there were where the driver did the same thing as Max and got penalized. People point towards the Russell-Bottas incident, but that was an entirely different situation. The only argument you could make is that Max should've gotten penalized for running Sainz wide on T1, but as we all know drivers tend to get a bit more leeway for first lap tomfoolery. McLaren was clearly faster on the hard compound. At one point Norris was pulling a second a lap on Verstappen. Then Norris spent like 10 laps following Verstappen in dirty air, and by the time he got by, he still managed to pull a 4-second gap in 3 laps. If that isn't clear overspeed, I don't know what is. However, the real fumble was on McLaren as a team. F1TV commentators unanimously agreed immediately that Norris would get penalized if he didn't give the place back. From what I read, it was the same on Sky. This was before the actual penalty was issued. So if they all saw it, for McLaren to bluff was obviously the wrong call. Maybe they banked on Norris being able to pull a 5-second gap, which was ambitious, but that penalty might also have been 10 seconds had the stewards also given Norris another track limits violation (which they wisely didn't). So yeah, I consider it a failure on McLaren's part to properly coach their driver during the race. Not sure if Norris would've been given another chance to overtake, but given the speed advantage and the fact Max might've cooked his tires with that last defensive maneuver, it was still better than risking what many commentators considered a slamdunk penalty.

Fact is McLaren took a huge risk by not giving back the position and trying again. Norris was very clearly not ahead at the apex, and he was also on the outside of the track, in which case I'm not even sure that rule is wholly relevant. I also reviewed the footage a couple of times but I can't actually tell whether Max was fully out of track limits with 4 wheels. In any case, another fumble by Norris. McLaren can whine about Verstappen all they want, but the fact remains that Norris once again had the faster car and didn't make it count. A clear pace and tire advantage and yet he got schooled.

It's a race incident but Checo looks more at fault. He had the better perspective and could easily have avoided the collision. Bottlejob as usual.

Ralf Schumacher to come out with a statement saying how disgraceful it is they don't let Mick drive the safety car.

If the trend from the most recent races continues, I would put my money on Piastri. Norris is too self-deprecating, Charles sometimes takes too much risk making errors or just has entire periods where his performance disappears, and Russell is also a bit error-prone when pressured. Although yesterday he was perfect when his team weren't. Piastri has a mentality more like Max in that he seems very stable and calculating. We'll have to see though what happens when he gets in a position to fight for a title. Charles Leclerc seemed every bit as promising as Max in that regard but kind of crumbled when he got the chance in early 2022.