Jason Campbell70 said:Regarding that driver with four consecutive championships: Just an average driver. He's only winning titles because he happens to be sitting in the greatest car ever built. Is it really that simple?
Same story, just two posts later, and now we're talking about a different driver who pulled off four consecutive titles: It wasn't just a stroke of luck with a single win or one title. Four in a row? That's pure skill.
Hahahahah.
😂 Just beating a dead horse here. Give it a rest, man.
Max is clearly showing he has the pace in that Red Bull Racing car. It could get interesting—expect some chaos on track.
They're swapping out Vettel's engine just an hour before qualifying...
Valtteri Bottas is looking pretty dominant in Free Practice 3 so far—he’s sitting four tenths ahead of George Russell, even after clipping that last corner. George managed a clean lap, but it just wasn't quite enough to close the gap.
Listen, buddy, 1. I’m not even going to get into the whole Maradona debate. 2. Seven straight championships for Mercedes-Benz—that’s what proves they were dominant, not two practice sessions from George Russell. Every elite driver plays a role in shaping the car; Lewis Hamilton deserves a massive amount of credit for how much he influenced the development and technical feedback. And his driving? Don't even get me started—especially when it rains, he's just on another level. 3. He won the title in 2008. He was a young driver back then, so obviously, he wasn't stacking up trophies left and right—give him a break. Plus, you saw how Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing dominated right after his era because the cars were simply superior.
George, we're right there with you—man, it would have been something to see Lewis Hamilton and George Russell sharing the same seat.
Since 1960, we've seen plenty of those wild seasons where the championship basically went to whoever happened to be sitting in the best machine—think back to '82 or '86. So, all this arguing you guys are doing 🤷 is kind of missing the point. And then there’s this guy with his "influencer" insults—honestly, your precious Maradona was basically just a social media influencer himself . At the end of the day, the race car is the foundation; the driver is just the final layer on top. And when it comes down to it, Lewis Hamilton is the GOAT ☕ .
stormybadger8 said:But wait, what exactly is the "disgrace" here? It's not like George Russell is just giving Valtteri Bottas a gentle tap... We started out 0.3 seconds behind, now we're at 0.6... If things went like this in Free Practice 3, we'd be looking at a full second gap, maybe two during the race...
It’s a disgrace for Lewis Hamilton that he was losing to the same old Bottas, only getting crushed like this once in a blue moon on Fridays. He usually barely scraped by him—like, if he didn't squeeze out every last atom of strength for some alien laps in qualifying, he wouldn't have beaten him by even two-hundredths. But Russell? He does that the very first time he sits in the car. And here we have Russell, who hasn't been able to score a single point in a Williams Racing car for two years, even though even someone like Kubica managed it...
Bottom line: jumping into a car like this and absolutely demolishing Bottas is insane. It really shows that Bottas is a total hack... Look at the comparisons: When Aton jumped into Williams, he was 0.5 seconds slower than Nicholas Latifi's... When Emerson Fittipaldi jumped into Haas F1 Team, he was 0.4 seconds slower than Kevin Magnussen...
It's normal for an unprepared driver jumping into a car on short notice to be about half a second slower (even against Nicholas Latifi's pace). But this? Having Bottas be over half a second slower? That's not normal. 😳 Regardless of whether Russell has some experience with Mercedes-Benz, if they were neck-and-neck or if he was just close, that would be bad enough. But the fact that Bottas is this far behind? Unbelievable. 🤦
Give me a break. Six-time champ—how is that shameful? A six-time champion is a big deal. 🙏
George Russell had arguably the best junior career through Formula 3 and Formula 2—maybe ever, if you're counting Charles Leclerc.
Look at the guy; he’s got massive potential and is clearly an elite driver. I mean, who else can claim a qualifying Head-to-head record like his?
Yeah, we all know how much prep work goes into this kind of thing, blah blah bla☕
George Russell is showing he’s got massive potential—we're talking on par with Max Verstappen or Charles Leclerc. If he can just get a competitive car under him, he’s a future champion, no doubt about it. There is absolutely nothing shameful about what Lewis Hamilton is dealing with here. The man has won everything there is to win, so calling this a disgrace is just ridiculous.🤷 This actually just proves Russell's raw talent. It's exactly what we saw back in his junior days when he swept up every single trophy available—showing total dominance even while stuck in a hopeless car during head-to-head battles. He's just built different.
stormybadger8 said:Look, Hulk still has way more experience in the FIA than Stroll ever will. 🙂 He’s got so much more under his belt that the crew actually trusts his feedback way more than they trust Stroll's...
A team is a team. You can change the name, swap out the engines, whatever—but the way a crew operates stays pretty much the same...
And as for the experience gap: Stroll in the FIA—a season and a half (maybe two by now)... Hulk—6 seasons...
You're talking a lot here.... On the subject of experience and building that trust, I'll just point to LeClerc and Vettel. That should be enough for anyone paying attention.
If you're saying the car needs that much tweaking just because the driver isn't sitting in it every single weekend, then how exactly does Hulkenberg manage to drive just as well as Stroll?
Look, there’s no making excuses for Russell. I actually really like the guy—probably more than anyone else on this sub (more than even the guys over at 😁)—and I'm convinced his driving talent was already obvious in the junior categories. This streak of qualifying dominance isn't some fluke. Just because his teammates got lucky in one race and managed to snag a point ahead of him doesn't mean anything to me...
But putting all that aside, he's finally got a real shot to prove himself, especially if he gets two races under his belt. No sense in making excuses here; everyone expects him to perform at the level we know Bottas can deliver.
We’re expecting an announcement today. Williams and Mercedes are in talks regarding George Russell, and from what I can tell, Williams isn't being particularly stubborn about it. We could be looking at 🎉
Hulkenberg outpaced Stroll in qualifying during the second race and finished just one spot behind him in the main event. Sure, he needs some time to adjust, but it’s really not that big of a deal... Hulk was already making it into Q2 during the first race—just three days after getting into the car—and he was only 0.065 slower than Stroll. There isn't much of a "preparation" excuse here, especially if we're believing the hype that anyone could win in a Mercedes GP if they had 90% of the grid's talent behind them.
Anything less than second place or a podium finish is just a total fail.☕
Now we'll see if Bottas can actually prove he's more than just mediocre once his teammate isn't some GOAT running circles around him. Only Lewis or Max can pull that kind of stunt—making their own teammate look completely incompetent just to grab the headlines.
Of course, anything less than second place feels like a failure—especially since the narrative is that 90% of the grid should be able to win in this car (just look at what Sainz has been saying)
Bold prediction here: Mercedes won't even be the top constructor for points this race☕
Honestly, if we want to protect Lewis's legacy, he might be better off sitting out this race and the next one. It would give Valtteri Bottas a chance to prove he’s more than just a placeholder—showing everyone what he was capable of back at Williams (maybe even giving his teammate a run for his money)—while also preventing Mercedes from just steamrolling the field. It'd be nice to actually see some new faces in the winner's circle for once.
And then you take one look at the highest-grossing movie lists and realize—yeah, we’re definitely going to be waiting a long time before the superhero era actually ends. 😁 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_..._films_by_year
Maybe it was someone like Steve Collins—that guy was shattering records when he was only 15—he used this counter-V style where his skis would overlap in front...
When it comes to handball, if you ask me, Karabatić is in a league of his own—no competition at all. That career was just something else 😂 Of course, my personal favorite will always be Ivano ☕
Jessica Gonzalez said:Team Sports - Michael Jordan
Individual Sports - Lance Armstrong (I guess Usain Bolt is his only real competition)
Looking at them as sporting icons—who’s the GOAT at first glance?
Team sports — Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, Pelé, Diego Maradona Individual sports — Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods