ruggedhawk20 said:Just look at the engine. For the last two years, the McLaren chassis has been an absolute disaster.
That is exactly what I have been telling him for the past two days... this season they had a fantastic engine but were still completely underwhelming, yet next year they'll be running a brand new, unproven power unit, all while we sit here assuming everything will just magically fix itself mid-season.
@neonfox65/">@@neonfox65, you claim that because the Renault engine struggled early on, yet Red Bull managed to snag three wins with it by season's end, we should be optimistic about McLaren Honda next year. But let's be realistic: McLaren isn't Red Bull. I fail to see where this optimism is rooted when McLaren spent this entire season running superior Mercedes engines and still couldn't pull off a single victory. Is there any chance we might actually see Newey joining them next season?
neonfox65 said:Lord of the Rings without the rings (title) 😂
How can you be so certain the contract hasn't been signed? The fact that there hasn't been an official announcement yet doesn't necessarily mean it isn't finalized.
Forget about those three rounds of speculation; just look back at how many issues Renault dealt with during testing before this season, only to end up finishing second in the standings with three wins under their belt.
And listen, if Alonso had overtaken Petrov, we’d be talking about something significant. 😳 But no, this period wasn't particularly fruitful for him or for Ferrari.
I suspect the deal hasn't been inked because McLaren is currently facing driver lineup uncertainty for the third time in a row. Even if it has been signed—and even if Honda makes progress next year at the same rate Renault did this year—who is to say McLaren will actually be competitive enough to challenge Red Bull? They've had superior engines for several years now (including this year), yet they still haven't managed to produce a better car.
Where is your logic? If Alonso had wanted to stay at Ferrari, he would have stayed because his contract would have required it. Instead, Alonso requested his exit from Ferrari because he simply ran out of patience with them. They failed to provide him with a car even remotely comparable to a couple of Red Bulls over five years; it stands to reason that he would leave to pursue victories elsewhere.
I suppose I do believe everything I read, seeing as you are busy defending a driver's decision to walk away from the very team where he was the undisputed master of championships—all without having a signed deal anywhere else, only to watch them struggle to complete three laps without a breakdown, while they still haven't offered him a contract.
Do you honestly believe it wasn't Lewis Hamilton who sabotaged them, rather than the team pushing him out? ☕
Is that so? Well, if I recall the reports correctly—and perhaps I misread them—they turned down his request for a one-year deal while simultaneously stripping away his privileges regarding technical staff selection for his side of the garage. If those rumors hold any water, it wouldn't look much like a mutual parting; it would look more like they forced him out just to clear a path for Ford. ☕
So, you actually opened a new thread for a post that was published only twenty minutes ago? And considering it took you at least ten of those minutes to compose this response, one can only assume you started typing almost the second that link went live. We simply cannot operate this way; the forums would be utterly choked if every controversial comment triggered an immediate rebuttal like this. For future reference, just hit the report button on the little icon and give the moderators about 24 hours to step in. Only if there is absolutely no movement should you reach out to them directly or start a thread here.
Seriously, Mark Ruiz8, how do you manage to never get bored of yourself? If you’re going to keep up this level of constant trolling, please just move over to the bathroom humor threads; you can't bring this kind of nonsense into every single discussion.
The goal here is to center discussions on specific events rather than tying them to a particular city or individual. Doing it this way makes things much easier for everyone to navigate and significantly more searchable on Google. Ideally, we want to see smaller, focused threads dedicated to specific happenings while they are still relevant, instead of a few massive, bloated threads that try to cover everything at once—those just inevitably devolve into endless, unrelated arguments. I suppose I could elaborate further, but that covers the gist of it.
I am going to close this thread if the tone continues to mirror that other discussion about bathroom humor. Alternatively, I can merge it with that one, if you prefer.
I suppose, if we're being honest, a white helmet is an excellent choice to pair with a red car. I find myself hoping they’ll stick with it for at least one full season without making any drastic changes. At the very least, it makes him easy to spot on the track. In recent years, that seemed like a pipe dream given how often they swapped out helmet designs.
adminica already weighed in, but since my name is in the title, here’s my two cents. I’ll essentially be saying the same thing, just more concisely. 😉 The reasoning behind your permanent ban was explained when you were banned. You aren't the only one who tries to spark a debate about their own permanent ban every single time they ask for it to be lifted. Where would the moderators even begin if everyone had to weigh in every time someone requested a reversal? Then Tijs steps in to give his take, and you decide he isn't an expert on football; then I step in, and suddenly you're demanding someone from the NFL staff show up too... It won't happen, and there is simply no need for everyone to offer their input yet again. If you look back at your previous threads where you insisted on these exact same points, you might realize that people aren't going to come back every few months to repeat the same arguments to the same person. Over and out.
I’m going to go ahead and wrap this thread up now. The request was submitted, a broad explanation was provided, followed by endless layers of justifications, and so on. It seems quite clear that the subforum moderators you’ve been dealing with aren't interested in having you back; they don't believe your long-term participation would be any different from the behavior that led to your permanent ban in the first place. Without getting into anyone else's specific files, speaking strictly as a moderator here, I am certainly not in favor of allowing you to post again. That being said, if I have somehow misread the situation, or if any other moderators have additional input, this thread can be reopened. But as things stand right now, there is simply no need for that.
We aren't going to get into the whole Ukraine debate right here. This thread has devolved into some pretty low-level nonsense, so I’m closing it down. Just hang tight while we go through some "renovations" and tighten up the rulebook a bit. Then, we'll get back to it.
The job of a moderator is quite simple: moderate. That entails, to a significant degree, scrubbing off-topic nonsense and sheer garbage from the boards. For instance, what should a moderator do if someone wanders into a thread about Obama only to drop a biased, loaded rhetorical question about how he landed his position at Yale Law School? If we allowed those kinds of baseless claims to stand, would we then be obligated to leave up theories that Kamala Harris is merely a puppet candidate working for some subterranean alien overlords secretly running the country? It isn't about suppressing opposing viewpoints; it's about cleaning up stupidity, regardless of which side it comes from.
Hmm, quite an odd thing to claim. It isn't entirely clear what he means by suggesting his departure is actually what's best for the team...
I suspect the reasoning is straightforward: for Ferrari, a long-term commitment to Sebastian Vettel is the superior move. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was prepared to stick around for one more year to see if Honda could find its footing, but that would have left Ferrari in a precarious position.