Panflute

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.

Super harsh and kind of shitty. I'm not a George fan or anything but he worked really hard for this win and also played a major part in the strategy. It was probably my favorite race of the season so far but this just turned it into a massive bummer. Still, the rules are there for a reason and this one is definitely on the team.

Let's not put that amount of pressure on him... I remember a lot of 'new Pelé/Maradona/Messi/Ronaldo' hypes that faded into nothingness. Granted, none of them achieved what Lamine Yamal achieved at the Euros, but he's still not fully developed as a player and I hope he gets the space to make mistakes and learn from them.

I can't see Red Bull clawing this back unless they come back really strong after the summer. But Red Bull already implicitly communicated they don't value the Constructors when they resigned Pérez.

Verstappen's worst race in years. McLaren coasting solely on the fact they have the fastest car now. When you get a 1-2 and still fucked up the strategy, that's almost impressive.

He doesn't need to be anything special, but if he keeps this up he's going to leave F1 with the same reputation as Latifi.

Pérez should just be put out of his misery. This is an embarassment and doing insane damage to his reputation.

Shitty way to go out with that late of a goal, but not too surprising in the end. We are just too average in many regards, and England have much more quality. Even if their full potential hasn't come out, it's still enough to beat us. Whether it will be enough to beat Spain remains to be seen, but I hope so. Would be cool to see England win something, but I also really hope those players show what they are really capable of in the final.

Will Pérez survive the summer at Red Bull? Place your bets.

My list of dream game concepts: An MMO based on the Mass Effect universe, with combat similar to the main game series instead of the usual point and click gameplay of older MMOs. A resurgence of old-school driving games in the vein of Need For Speed pre-Underground. No upgrades, no progression system, no story, just expensive cars racing through exotic terrain. Open world can be in there, but only if it is not used as an excuse to not have to do actual track design like it is in the Forza Horizon series. Basically the original Hot Pursuit 2 but with better graphics and modern steering wheel support. Rock/Midwest emo soundtrack is a bonus. A game like American Truck Simulator/Euro Truck Simulator 2 where you can drive regular cars. I know there are mods but they are a bit meh. More First-Person Shooters based on Doom 3. So slower paced, story-driven games with old-school level design.

Tip: Don't go to PlanetF1.

Piastri was on point today though, he just got screwed by strategy. If I'm not mistaken, he was within DRS range of Lando before the latter pitted. George is doing absolutely fine this season. He got outdriven by Lewis in the rain but was on point otherwise. Just super unlucky with his DNF. Still, I do believe that Mercedes can trust him to be their main driver after this season, which is apparently something that's still being questioned. If Max goes to Mercedes, though, I doubt it will end well for George.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that Bono actually asked Lewis about the Intermediates and the latter said no, it's too dry. Turned out to have been the right call because Pérez and Leclerc saw their races killed by swapping to Intermediates at that point. I feel like Max, Lewis and Carlos Sainz stand out as 'strategist racers'. George Russell also has this impulse, but he often still goes for risky, all-or-nothing gambits that end up being nothing.

Going by GP's comment, pitting early for intermediates was Max's call. So it's not just RB being on point, but Max himself. I honestly don't see anyone knocking him off his throne until he has a consistently slower car.

Leaving Piastri out for 1 more lap was incomprehensible. They were already a lap late with Norris.

One of the best races of the season. Can't help but think McLaren screwed themselves yet again, though. How many races is it now that they've had a better car than Red Bull? Yet Norris failing to take points from Verstappen yet again. Speaks to the point many pundits were making in previous seasons, that to beat Verstappen to WDC over an entire season, you don't need an equal car, but a car that is considerably quicker.

England really got that win in the bottom of the ninth.

There's a lot of speculation in the media about the different power units. In the Dutch media, particularly Ziggo (who aren't always well-informed and have an anti-RB agenda now believe it or not) are saying that every driver wants to sign for a team with a Mercedes PU as that will be the best one. I've seen some of that rebuked in British media, who suggest the RB power unit is actually shaping up pretty well. Curious to see who'll be right.

Of course it is. Why else would they sign such an old driver? With all due respect for Hamilton. But with Leclerc and Sainz they could've gone on for the next 5 years or so.

RZA and Cilvaringz apparently. The 88-year commercial ban might've been just RZA, though.

God this was such a stupid fucking gimmick.

Reportedly the amount of money Pérez brings in to Red Bull through sponsorships and RB market value in Mexico/Latin America far eclipses the extra money RB would get from winning the constructor's title. It's really only that and having a clear 1-2 driver dynamic for stability that I can think of as reasons to cling on to Pérez. Sad though, I would've really liked to see Max go up against Sainz or the likes.

Forget to enter my predictions, move up 2 places. Hell yeah. I much prefer the official F1 fantasy though, been playing that against a friend and I'm also apparently in the top 100 of my country.

Suddenly hearing some rumors of Sainz going to Alpine, since Alpine are in their turn rumored to be using Mercedes motors from 2026 onwards.

Wasn't this some deranged fan who just copy+pasted the e-mail list from the Christian Horny leaks?