Posts by stormybadger8

mellowtiger83 said:They never actually removed a single screw from the Benetton. Nobody at Fio is going to find software by unscrewing hardware.

Are you actually 100% sure about that? 😁

Back then, if you wanted to get to the software, you first had to secure the connector to the board...
and to do that, you’d have to unscrew the bolt and the connector cover before you could screw the D-SUB RS-232 connector into the board. 😁

Maybe if Superman organized this shortcut...

mellowtiger83 said:I don't think you get the whole Balestre and pricing thing; there isn't much connection to today's story.

Well, obviously you don't get it... because I honestly couldn't care less about Balestre, Prost, or Senna.
But I really don't get how you can wrap your head around this story when someone who loved Prost but hated Senna wouldn't have penalized Senna just because they lacked "grounds." 🙂

Look, if he wanted to penalize him, he would have, and that’s it—end of story. No one could do anything about it.
What "grounds" for a penalty? What nonsense? Who was he supposed to justify it to???
To you? To Senna? To who, exactly?

And honestly, it would have been way easier back then than it is now. Today, the media pressure is insane. You have footage of every single crash or move from a million different angles. You have every possible piece of evidence proving who's at fault, yet they still manage to penalize drivers who did nothing wrong, or fail to penalize someone when it's obvious from a satellite view that they messed up.

Back then, it wasn't even possible to argue. The media and fans barely had any decent information; it was all just "I think" and pure speculation.
The judge hands out the penalty and that's that. You can cry about it and complain to the water department all you want, but you're still getting the penalty. ☕

mellowtiger83 said:So now you're wondering why there wasn't a penalty?! What penalty? For what, exactly?
You think Havel wouldn't have handed out a penalty if he could have? He just didn't have any grounds to do it.

Stop lying to yourself.🤣
Even today, refs can hand out penalties for basically nothing, so imagine how much harder it is when they actually *can't*...

Honestly, I couldn't care less about this endless bickering over Schumacher and Hunt. I don't give a damn who's at fault here or there...

But the idea that you need a "valid reason" to slap someone with a penalty actually had me laughing my head off. 🙏🤣
Look at Piquet and Villeneuve—Villeneuve got dinged recently just because two Ferraris sandwiched him. He was innocent as hell and did nothing wrong...
The only thing Villeneuve is guilty of in that mess is having a bad reputation, and that's about it.

1. Vettel
2. Leclerc
3. Hamilton

4. Verstappen
5. Bottas
6. Albon
7. Norris
8. Sainz
9. Perez
10. Kvyat

11. Raikkonen
12. Gasly
13. Magnussen
14. Giovinazzi
15. Russell
16. Kubica

DNF Stroll
DNF Hulkenberg
DNF Ricciardo
DNF Grosjean

TP Vettel
FL Bottas

coastalwolf6 said:Pretty sure he was an alien too. 😁

First and last letters fit, middle doesn't even matter...
Alien or firefighter, it's all the same to Mary 😬🤣

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Valtteri Bottas
3. Charles Leclerc

4. Max Verstappen
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Nico Hulkenberg
7. Lando Norris
8. Kimi Raikkonen
9. Kevin Magnussen
10. Pierre Gasly

11. Daniil Kvjat
12. Carlos Sainz
13. Alexander Albon
14. Antonio Giovinazzi
15. Sergio Perez
16. Lance Stroll
17. George Russell
18. Robert Kubica

Hard pass. Daniel Ricciardo
Hard pass. Romain Grosjean

Maybe. Sebastian Vettel
Likely. Charles Leclerc

mellowtiger83 said:They’re conveniently ignoring the fact that Hamilton had to race against elite teammates, and everyone except Bottas is a world champion.

Sure, go ahead and repeat that 5,000 more times and maybe if you say it loud enough, it'll actually become true on a global scale...
And I bet you'd make at least a few thousand, if not a hundred grand, just peddling that nonsense. 🤣

Did someone steal your login, or are you just drunk again? 🤷🤣

mellowtiger83 said:Total nonsense about Nico Rosberg. I have no clue why anyone would put him in a different league from the rest of the drivers listed here.

Look, Lewis Hamilton isn't leagues ahead of Nico Rosberg—he’s just slightly better. Marginally.

Those are the facts.

Besides Hamilton, he grabbed about 20 wins and 30 pole positions!

If that makes you think Hamilton lacks class, fine. To me, it proves Nico Rosberg is world-class.

Honestly, nobody besides Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, or maybe Sebastian Vettel could have taken a title against Nico Rosberg. Nobody.
I don't get why everyone is underselling the guy so much.

Rosberg isn't a top-tier driver. You can try to convince yourself otherwise, but it won't change reality.
He's a very solid mid-tier driver sitting right at the top of that bracket, but he's not elite.
He's barely a step above Valtteri Bottas, not "just a tiny bit slower" than Lewis Hamilton.

As far as being Lewis Hamilton goes, he drove through most of the turbo era in Germany pretty poorly, especially during the Nico Rosberg years. That's why he looks way better now than he actually is...
Actually, "poorly" might be the wrong word. It's more like Hamilton was driving in some kind of sleep mode—doing just enough to get by, but nowhere near his actual limit.

Which isn't exactly surprising. Hamilton is the type of guy who wants to drive full throttle and live on the edge...
Because of that, he probably found it incredibly boring sitting in a car that Toto Wolff tunes before every race just to make sure they don't look *too* dominant...
And he would've been bored even if he went all out, because he wouldn't have seen a single competitor on track unless he was lapping them.

Basically, the guy just lost his drive.
He only found it again once Ferrari and Red Bull became competitive enough to actually pose a threat at certain tracks... before that, he was literally fast asleep.

Sure, Nico Rosberg would’ve grabbed three titles if he had someone like Jolyon Palmer in his seat instead of Lewis Hamilton...
because Mercedes was so dominant back then that almost any driver could have lapped Ferrari and everyone else, especially during the Rosberg era from 2014 to 2016. There’s zero debate there.☕

But calling Rosberg some kind of elite tier? Not happening. He’s just a decent mid-field driver at best.
If we’re talking about him snatching a title in that monster German machine while racing against a guy like Palmer, it wouldn't just be Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Sergio Pérez, or Max Verstappen who could do it... honestly, even Sergio Pérez, Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa, Nico Hülkenberg, or Carlos Sainz Jr. would have cruised through.
Rosberg belongs in that second group, not the first.

Saying he'd lap someone just means he's a talented kid. I mean, Brendon Hartley in a Red Bull Racing car in 2016 would’ve easily lapped Alonso too.
If you're struggling with the math, here it is: Hartley isn't actually a better driver than Alonso, just like Rosberg isn't miles ahead of the guys he was lapping...
He’s right there on their level, and in some cases, he’s actually slower and worse. And that’s assuming we’re talking about "standard" Formula 1 drivers—let's not even get into comparisons with Palmers and that crowd who shouldn't have even been on the grid.

What isn't up for debate is that Lewis Hamilton is significantly faster and a better driver than Rosberg. He should have won without breaking a sweat.
With a car like that, Rosberg didn't have the raw talent to close a 100-point gap to Hamilton, let alone take a title away from him.☕

shadowmarlin22 said:What a troll. Bringing up 2016 when Lewis had to retire in Malaysia because his engine blew while he was leading? That win and the championship should have been his easy...
And of course, he lost and missed out on the title against a guy in an equally dominant car. A car so dominant that most races ended in a Mercedes 1-2; retiring in that situation just hurts even more.

Exactly. Because the car was so dominant that they were basically cruising to 1-2 finishes all season, it’s an even bigger embarrassment for him...
Look, if a driver of Hamilton's caliber has one, two, or three DNFs in a car that dominant, it's brutal. Nico Rosberg wouldn't have stood a chance at the title even with one bad race or one DNF, let alone against someone like Hamilton. 🤦

To win that year, he needed to dominate almost every single race—like, 80-90% of them. He had to.

Rosberg is a driver on Mark Webber's level, not Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, or Lewis Hamilton.☕
Even in that dominant machine, Hamilton should have tucked Rosberg away in his pocket, just like Vettel handled Webber in 2011 and 2013 when they had that dominant car...
And yeah, Vettel had DNFs in both of those seasons, so what?
He could have had two, three, or four DNFs and still easily cruised to the title without Webber even sniffing it. ☕

Gary Palmer8 said:Come on, don't go comparing a driver who's basically just okay like Vettel to someone like Hamilton...

Because of 🙂
Is it maybe because Hamilton gets a free pass for everything?...
The guy misses out on the title in 2016 while driving arguably the most dominant car ever, and nobody even blinks...

Fast forward to Australia: he starts on pole and somehow barely scrapes a finish, trailing way behind Red Bull Racing, but hey, everyone calls it a "superb drive" and a miracle just because he managed to stay on the same lap as Bottas despite having floor damage...
Sure, Mercedes probably had to use a microscope to actually find that "famous" damage, but whatever...

Gary Palmer8 said:Getting rid of Vettel would be their smartest move

Oh, absolutely...
Maybe if Mercedes had dumped Hamilton after Australia (which they should have done immediately given how much Bottas has been messing with him lately), they’d probably just end up copying McLaren's strategy like they always do...

Timothy Castillo6 said:FIRE BINOTTO!

Not happening...
Unlike some kid who just wants to iron things out, Binotto actually understands the car, the crew, F1, the drivers, the tech, and all that. 🙂
And he doesn't strike me as the type who only cares about what the press says about him either...

He could actually be pretty good.
It takes time. And you should never, ever let the vultures or the media dictate terms—you just shut them down and do your job properly. You don't force aggressive changes to the team or the car just because the media is screaming for it...

The boss is doing just fine right now...
If anyone deserves the boot, it's the strategy crew who have zero clue what they're doing, or those guys who are still too scared to take responsibility and are just laggingly copying Mercedes...

A musical breakdown of Vettel's race in Bahrain 😬

neonfox65 said:@ tibi

Look, crimsonhawk23 said it, and I heard people say it that way too, so that's why I'm spelling it like that.

I mean, some drivers have straight up called your favorite guy, Max, an "idiot," but I didn't see you typing it out like that. 😁

neonfox65 said:Yeah, sure. You used to jump down Max's throat at every single contact, but now you're suddenly seeing things differently? That changed after the last race when Fetl "pushed" Sarla. Now, whenever something happens with Max, you can't say a word because he'll just steamroll you. So you stopped whining about Max being favored at RB after what we saw with Ferrari in Melbourne 👋 God bless you!

Give me a break, those two things have zero connection...🤦
Sainz's attempt to overtake was pretty much the same mess as Leclerc's in Australia. It was obvious he didn't have the move, but there was absolutely no way it was going to work like that...
The one huge, massive difference is that Sainz went for a violent shut-out and tried to ram Max once he realized he had zero chance left...
Leclerc, on the other hand, stayed calm and smart—he didn't try to force a collision and just backed off from a failed move...

Basically, Sainz was trying to pull a move like Max used to do in previous seasons. 🙂
Just force your way in and see what happens. If the guy brakes, I'm past him; if he doesn't, we crash, whatever...
He should've gone to Dr. Marko's school instead of joining McLaren...

Also, stop calling Leclerc "Sarla." It sounds too much like "Šarla,"
which immediately brings to mind "šarlatan," and that’s just annoying to read...
And where did you even get "Sarl ???"
He might be Karl, since Charles is basically Karl or Karlo...☕

EDIT:
Fine, if you don't believe me, here's Wikipedia for you to check the facts...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leclerc

cosmiccyclist8 said:I mean, damn, TBF he’d probably get a slap after the race instead of having his win threatened. 🤦

Look, I know he would...
But hey, for all the conspiracy theorists out there 😁

I've heard even stupider crap, like how they "accidentally" only tightened three wheels on Vettel's car instead of all four just to force a DNF and stuff. 😍
What kind of kid thinks stalling a cylinder is a thing? 🙂

copperdrifter26 said:Some people claim CL was driving too aggressively and trashed the PU, but do they even get that the PU strategy is basically decided before the race even starts? You can look at the live timing and see exactly how many seconds per race the engine can run in a specific mode. Charles wasn't even close to being the fastest on the straights anyway. Plus, the PU issue could be similar to what Kimijev dealt with in Barcelona last season—where he lost a cylinder just so they could fix the issue and use a fresh PU in the next race.

Oh, conspiracy theories now? 😬
Fine, if nobody else will, I’ll throw one out. 🤣

The issue might actually be that Binotto shut down a cylinder—basically just clogged the damn thing up...
because the kid wouldn't follow team orders, like "hey kid, just chill out a bit." 🙂

As crazy as that sounds, it's not even totally impossible...

Regardless of whether Ferrari prefers Leclerc over Vettel, if the kid actually ignored team orders, that means he went against the crew. And at Ferrari, that is an absolute, hard no. 😉

I can't even begin to explain why people act like this. It’s honestly exhausting. stormybadger8 says:
stormybadger8 😉

Rough break for him. Two races, two DNFs. Tough luck.😁

What's up with that?🤔

If they actually wrote anything, it was probably mid-race—and they likely posted it the exact second it happened.
Not after he watched the footage, saw what actually went down, and finally had a chance to cool off...

Alright, let's see what you guys have got. ☕