Posts by Amanda Kelly

Jason Campbell70 said:Alright. Fine. Let's get to it.
Playing the victim. Should we actually respect the guidelines that the FIA Race Director laid out so clearly during the driver briefing right before the race?

I'm pretty sure the guidelines didn't exactly say you could just wander off the track whenever you felt like it.
They told the drivers they wouldn't be penalized for running wide at that spot. It was basically an "if it happens, don't sweat it" kind of deal.
There’s a massive difference between a momentary lapse in judgment and someone intentionally driving off track just to grab an unfair advantage. It really comes down to intent. You're either making a mistake, or you're playing the system.

The FIA screwed up, and now they're paying a heavy price for it.
If they saw Hamilton was gaming the pre-race directives, they should have shut him down immediately. There was no reason to wait until thirty instances had passed. They should have cut him loose after five, maybe ten at most.

If you want proof that Hamilton isn't exactly the saint he pretends to be, just look at how he handled that first warning. He basically ignored it, acting like it was nothing, and only backed off when they hit him with the second one. It wasn't even a choice; he just didn't want to deal with it.

Raymond Anderson4 said:I can't agree with you there. Red Bull Racing is clearly the superior car. They didn't lose a single sector compared to Mercedes-Benz.
Plus, they were making up ground in the third sector. Max was consistently dropping tenths off just in sector three alone.
Right now it’s obvious Red Bull Racing has the faster car.

Is it the car or is it Max?
Do me a favor and actually look at the race data. If you're talking about both Red Bull Racing cars, then sure, maybe you've got a point. Otherwise...
It's entirely possible the driver was simply faster. Just one guy. Max.

We'll see how the cars actually compare once we see how everyone else performs on track.

mellowtiger83 said:My neutral take is that Lewis didn't gain any kind of advantage here. I don't know what you mean by "stealing" a win...

I disagree. In my book, Lewis definitely gained an edge. We're talking at least 30 x 0.1—so about 3 seconds.

mellowtiger83 said:... Honestly, I'd have preferred to see Max take it, but it wasn't just down to bad strategy.

I’m with you on that. Max handed this one over.
All this talk about Lewis being some sort of alien superhuman? It's total nonsense.

Nice work, Max! That was seriously convincing.
I think the hype surrounding this year's Red Bull is actually justified—it looks like Max finally has a car that can fight.
Judging by the satellite team's pace, it’s obvious Honda really knocked it out of the park this time.
Of course, this is just one qualifying session. I'll be a bit more cautious once we get a few races under our belts.
Ferrari is looking better than expected. 👍
Smells like a good season ahead.🙂

1. Verstappen
2. Hamilton
3. Bottas
4. Sainz
5. Norris
6. Leclerc
7. Tsunoda
8. Ricciardo
9. Gasly
10. Stroll
11. Alonso
12. Vettel
13. Raikkonen
14. Giovinazzi
15. Russell
16. Latifi

Forget Perez, Schumacher, Mazepin, or Ocon
Verstappen takes the podium
Verstappen wins it all
__________________

graniteharbor502 said:👍

You are joining NightMare! You can also select any number that hasn't been claimed by anyone else yet.

I'll take 55.

graniteharbor502 said:It's like seeing Terry Carter2 in a noir thriller or maybe somewhere lost in the outskirts of a classic American drama.

If you can, let's go with Nightmare.

Anyone else feeling a bit lonely out there?

Alex Barnes93 said:Something I totally missed while watching the broadcast—and honestly, this was the absolute highlight of the race—was how Valtteri Bottas sat in the pits for 37 seconds only for them NOT to change all his tires before sending him back out 🙏 I mean, even Ferrari couldn't pull off a mess that bad 🙏

Check it out: https://streamable.com/1meknp

Man, they didn't even swap out a single 🤦 🤣 They take off the hards, slap on new mediums, then rip off the mediums and just shove those same used hards right back on 😂

E2: The craziest part of this whole circus is that neither Russell nor Bottas even needed to pit in the first place.

a) Don't underestimate the chaos of Ferrari's pit crew!

b) This is so bizarre I’m starting to think the whole thing is rigged.

ruggedhawk20 said:Well, we’re going even harder than that—if only George Russell had actually won.

Because he proved anyone can win in that car. But more importantly, he proved Mercedes will do absolutely anything—even screw themselves over for extra points they don't even need—just to keep up the illusion that Lewis Hamilton is the GOAT.

Anyone with half a brain sees that Russell didn't just finish eighth yesterday; Mercedes practically shoved him into eighth place. And they did it twice. Russell—who is a totally mid driver—could have won in the most dominant car in Formula 1 history despite one intentional pit stop blunder. They literally had to mess up twice just to pull him in.

See, Russell has given us plenty of proof to realize that Lewis reached all those records simply because he's driving the most dominant car ever and gets absolute preferential treatment from the team because he's good for marketing. He's a handsome, well-spoken guy who dominates the media and social feeds effortlessly. Of course, they're going to let him dominate the track, too. Lewis is indeed the GOAT—but not for his driving, for his influencer game. He's the best influencer among drivers and the best driver among influencers. He's leagues above a Handball player, but barely reaches the ankles of Niki Lauda.

So yeah, we've got more than enough reason to go wild. And we'll be doing it for a long, long time. You can read it or you can ignore it—whatever. Your call.

That bolded part is just plain wrong. I think ruggedhawk20 got a little carried away with his own creativity there.
There’s definitely some driver error involved in this one, for sure.

ruggedhawk20 said:Well, we’re going even harder than that—if only George Russell had actually won.

Because he proved anyone can win in that car. But more importantly, he proved Mercedes will do absolutely anything—even screw themselves over for extra points they don't even need—just to keep up the illusion that Lewis Hamilton is the GOAT.

Anyone with half a brain sees that Russell didn't just finish eighth yesterday; Mercedes practically shoved him into eighth place. And they did it twice. Russell—who is a totally mid driver—could have won in the most dominant car in Formula 1 history despite one intentional pit stop blunder. They literally had to mess up twice just to pull him in.

See, Russell has given us plenty of proof to realize that Lewis reached all those records simply because he's driving the most dominant car ever and gets absolute preferential treatment from the team because he's good for marketing. He's a handsome, well-spoken guy who dominates the media and social feeds effortlessly. Of course, they're going to let him dominate the track, too. Lewis is indeed the GOAT—but not for his driving, for his influencer game. He's the best influencer among drivers and the best driver among influencers. He's leagues above a Handball player, but barely reaches the ankles of Niki Lauda.

So yeah, we've got more than enough reason to go wild. And we'll be doing it for a long, long time. You can read it or you can ignore it—whatever. Your call.

I'm praying to the heavens. 🙏Nicely written (the whole thing). I can't agree with everything you said, though.

So, you think you’re being clever with this logic that the championship was decided by a single race. Honestly, that whole biased, "I discovered fire" attitude is a bit much.

Sure, a title can be settled in one final showdown, but we had a 21-race season here.
This TBF-style math actually holds up.
That calculation accounts for 18 races (about 85% of the season), while your argument only covers one (roughly 5%).

With a 5-point gap at the end, Hamilton really could have closed that distance with just one better finish in any of those races TBF mentioned. He didn't need to win them all; he just needed to jump up a few spots—say, moving from P7 to P4, or P5 to P3.

On the flip side, Lewis did deal with some mechanical issues, and there's no denying that part of it.

bluepuma9 said:I'm not taking anything away from Alonso's title. I'm just saying the McLaren was a more reliable machine back in 2005, and Raikkonen—who was likely at his absolute peak then—could have just as easily been the champion.

Fine by me.
I was just building on the criteria ruggedhawk20 laid out. He pointed out 1991, for instance, where Mansell and Patrese had 10 DNFs while Senna only had one. Back then, car unreliability was even more brutal than it is now.

bluepuma9 said:Sure, it was fast, but since they blew up half the time due to reliability issues, it didn't really change the final result. 😁

Kimi's got two, JPM's got four. I wouldn't call that a "good chunk" of races.
Might be down to the drivers, too.

No offense to our esteemed moderators, but this discussion has drifted way too far off course.

ruggedhawk20 said:You already got the list on the last page.

Fine, here it is again

Alain Prost 1986
Senna 1991
Michael Schumacher 1995

Titles won in cars that weren't the absolute best.

I’d throw 2005 into the mix too.
I've always felt the McLaren was actually faster than the Renault that year.
Alonso beat out two massive talents at McLaren (Kimi + Montoya), which makes that title pretty damn impressive.
IMO

I don't see how those blunders in the Mercedes pit lane actually changed anything today.
Not a damn thing, if you ask me.

Everything was pretty much set in stone before that even happened. You can't just erase 60 laps of Russell dominating the field. Or, to put it another way, those final 20 or 30 laps—and the eventual result—don't change the fact that Russell was absolutely crushing it all weekend long.
With a Mercedes car this good, you could drop in some rookie who hasn't scored a single point in his last 35 races and he’d likely take the win. He’d be paid about what a benchwarmer on a bottom-tier MLS team makes. Give him a day or two to get used to the seat, and he's golden.

Mercedes really screwed Lewis over. Not specifically today, though. They did that the moment they decided someone else was stepping into his seat for this race. You could see how that test would play out from the very beginning.

Lewis shouldn't have let himself get too comfortable with the crown. A pro at his level really should have seen that coming.

It doesn't really matter how George Russell stacks up against Valtteri Bottas tomorrow.
For Bottas, this is all about pride, and the pressure to beat a one-off replacement is going to be intense.

George Russell actually walks away a winner regardless of what happens here, so he shouldn't lose any sleep over it.
If he beats Bottas, everything is perfect—it's a massive win.
If he doesn't, nobody is really counting on him to pull that off given the circumstances.
The real catch is if he can hold his own against Max Verstappen—basically everyone else.
That’s the actual test for Russell tomorrow. Beating Max. That’s how we find out what kind of grit the kid actually has.

Personally, I wouldn't bet on it. I doubt he'll take down Max.

Anyone managed to snag an Intel Core i5 yet? 🙂
Saw this morning they're actually back in stock.
Prices are way higher than they should be, though.

Gary Palmer8 said:Yeah, he probably would've walked away with over 20 wins anyway. 🤣

10

Jason Campbell70 said:...
Ferrari's smart approach to driver management is paying off, with better results coming season after season, race after race.

It’s been at least a decade since Ferrari had two drivers actually capable of winning a championship in the same year. Not just showing up, but actually fighting each other for the top spot.
Now they finally do!