This. It wasn’t certain he would even get a second year in the car, and he’s been consistently stomped by Albon all season. While he hasn’t always had a fair shake (see: Albon getting his car in Australia), he’s had enough of a chance to prove whether he belongs. Sainz being given the seat for next season was the death knell for his F1 career, and the wreck last weekend was just the last straw for this season.
As it stands, there’s three seats technically open for next year - Mercedes, RB2, and Sauber/Audi. The Mercedes seat is all but guaranteed for Antonelli, so at least two of Zhou, Bottas, Magnussen, and Ricciardo will not be actively driving F1 next year (unless Ricciardo replaces Perez). Personally, Sauber/Audi should definitely keep Bottas - he’s still a very solid driver and a PR treasure, unless VAG wants a more corporate appearance. Bottas, with his mullet and naked butt calendars, definitely doesn’t fit that. If Honey Badger keeps the RB2 seat, I won’t miss Zhou or Magnussen terribly. Zhou is just a guy, obviously talented, but probably wouldn’t be in F1 if it wasn’t for his sponsors, and Magnussen - while toning down his antics since Miami - still seems a borderline menace on the track. You only get to do that if you’re a championship contender.
Logan should have been dumped long ago. I’m still not quite sure how he ever made it into the seat to begin with…
And I don’t need an explanation.
Bernd Mayländer put the safety car into the wall at Parabolica yesterday.
Not to be upstaged, Kimi Antonelli did the same thing.
Antonelli is not ready. We’ve seen a fair number of drivers dominate the feeder series yet never quite make it in F1 - Grosjean springs to mind. I don’t think there’s any reason to believe a driver who is at best somewhere in the top ten in the current F2 pack is ready for F1.
God, I hope I have this on DVR!!!
I doubt it since it happened on Thursday. I didn’t see any footage of it happening on YouTube, but this video describes the incident.
Thanks for that link. That guy’s voice is like a nice cold beer. I wish he was doing race commentary. I could un-mute and hear some thoughtful reporting instead of shreiky non-stop nonsense.
Someone uploaded a clip to imgur.
Nothing terribly crazy.
I wonder if Bernd was feeling frisky and Burnt himself?
I gotta admit, I’m jealous as fuck of this guy. If you aren’t actually driving an F1 car, his job is about as good as it gets.
Great drive by Leclerc on fucked up tires! Great race!
That might be one of the worst trophies I’ve seen in recent years. Though not nearly as bad as the sonic the hedgehog trophy back in 1993 or 1994? I forget which.
That was very satisfying to watch! Ferrari at Monza! Man, what a party!
Donington (officially the European Grand Prix) '93. It was the one where Senna overtook five people on the first lap and then set the fastest lap by going through the pits. In I actually looked the Sonic trophy, but I was 10 at the time…
McLaren absolutely handed that race to Ferrari. Why not at least split your strategies? Let Piastri pit but keep Norris out.
Monaco and Monza - LeClerc won the two most important races for himself, as he said in an interview.
Norris really likes those last lap fastest laps, doesn’t he? Beat Hamilton’s last lap by eight hundredths of a second, to take the eight point advantage he needed to catch Verstappen by the end of the season. That’s assuming Max or Jos isn’t in prison for murdering the entire team. He’s pissed about the car falling back in the pack.
Max sounded oddly resigned during the race. “Are we fighting this guy? Ok.” He’s usually smarming it up unless he’s losing, in which case he whines constantly.
I’ve decided passing on the outside of a chicane is Piastri’s specialty. I’ve seen him pull it off quite a few times this season, and it always looks so nice.
After a night of drinking (otherwise know as “a night”) I decided I had nothing but time and money left to play with. Figured I’d load up the camper that sits in my yard looking forlorn and forgotten and head to Austin.
Here’s what I found out: $900 for dry camping*, another $400 for a pass to wander around the circuit, with no seats (I would greatly prefer that, actually). Estimated fuel/food/beer around $2100. 9 days away from home and The Crew, 6 of them driving for hours and hours.
Fuck it. I’ll stay home and watch it on TV. Would be fun, though. COTA had nightly events in the camping areas, coffee and doughnuts on race day, blah blah blah. I mean, it’s not unreasonable if you had a group of 4 friends in one campsite. But for just me, who would probably just sit around and drink beer when the cars weren’t running, seems kinda wasteful. The last race I attended (Indy, long time ago), I thought was down-right cheap! Seem to recall like $80 for 3 days access to all events, seating in the stands except the actual race. Camping wasn’t excessive. But there were six of us, in two spots, and much fun to be had. Except the massive downpours.
*No Hook-ups. The Premium spots (full hook-ups, across the front straight from the pits) were sold out, and the price listed was $10k, but that might be a default since they were not available.
I don’t know I’ll ever go to an F1 event - just too much cash. Hell, I could probably do the whole week with the flight at Le Mans for the $2k. Definitely thought about the WEC race at COTA a couple weeks ago, though. Meanwhile, GA at Vegas is going for ~$1k. Support series and spectacle can make it feel less bad, but it’s just a hard sell to spend as much for a Vegas GP as a week in France with the 24 Hours…
Funny, I’m an easy drive to Vegas and never even considered going there. I doubt you can get within hearing range of the race without putting out a serious chunk of change. No camping, no hangin’ around. I lived in Vegas. There was a reason I left. I hate Vegas.
I will admit it is a fantastic race! I was totally wrong about that.
