Herr Marko is threatening to pull his teams from F1 again. Doubt it will happen.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/motorsport/f1-2021-red-bull-helmut-marko-threatens-to-quit-formula-1-after-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-max-verstappen-lewis-hamilton/5583aa6e-c603-445a-8674-6e46984ab88f

I have grown to hate Marko. Honestly, I don’t know what he brings to the team.

Not sure, but at that level you have to be aggressive to be successful. His **** with calling Mercedes sore losers for doing exactly what he would do in their position is just so fake and tiresome, though. The RB leadership just has this very aggressive, litigious attitude all of the time that is plain annoying.

Some people may not know that Marko was a Porsche factory driver, back in the heyday of the 917. Back then, I had some respect for him, but he wasn’t of particular interest when compared to people like Siffert, Rodriguez, Elford and others. Those guys are the true heroes, Marko was just a co-driver. My humble opinion.

So, in the early days with Red Bull, I just assumed that he was some sort of driver coach. I don’t know what he was able to impart to Red Bull’s drivers, but I would make the observation that the key drivers that found success with Red Bull can drive circles around Marko and he couldn’t teach them much of anything. I mean really, what’s he going to teach Sebastian Vettel?

So I don’t know why he remains within the team, other than he is perhaps the resident *******. I guess every big team in Formula One needs to have one.

Anyway, in the unlikely event that I ever secure a meeting with him, I will be sure to bring a baseball bat with me.

I've had a couple of days to let my temperature cool.
Still calling bullshyt.
The best call would have been a red flag when to crash happened.
Everyone to the pits. Everyone tweaks their car, gets new tyres and settles in for a standing start to determine the winners all the way through the field.
A real shoot out not a turkey shoot.
Michael Massey should be taken out back, shot in the head and left for the hogs....figuratively of course.

I keep seeing the red flag idea come up, and while it could have been "best" for racing there was no justification for it based on safety. If they were to modify the rules for safety cars at the end of the race, sure, but as is it's just not there.

I recall hearing that Masi stated to the teams he wouldn't red flag for incidents at that corner, even, but I don't remember where.

Edit: Not knocking the idea I just know that people would be furious if there were a spurious red flag five laps before the finish as well. It would be an obvious manipulation of safety rules to accommodate spectacle.

I'm ok with red flags, however, I believe they should change the rules surrounding them. No fixes to the cars and certainly no changing of tires. It is simply halting the race to clear an obstruction. You do the rest of that stuff under green conditions.

There have been too many races where one driver or another gains a huge advantage by not having to stop during the race at all or at least for a second/third time.

There is certainly some things that FIA, Masi, and stewards need to tighten up. I believe if they did so it would remove a lot of the controversy.

Masi himself said "it's a motor race". So let them race to the finish. Doesn't have to safety related. It can be competition related to stop and restart. There had been enough slow laps that they had fuel to run five more laps on the current fuel loads. "Spectacle"? Isn't that what racing is supposed to be?

Yeah but if you're Mercedes (or any team) how much money do you put into a sport where regulations are second to spectacle? Either the regulations mean something and can be planned to or it's not an actual sport.

But regulations and spectacle can both exist. It's done all the time. Regulations have to be reviewed and evolve.

Actually, no. It’s a contest of skill.

WWE wrestling is a spectacle, air shows are a spectacle, Christmas parades are a spectacle. Like that.

What part of making one decision, followed by angry outburst by one team, then doing something different in line with what that team asked for, did you miss??

Java, just can't help yourself can you, always have to throw in a insult.

High speed, loud cars, planes flying over, pretty people, fabulous locations, bright lights, etc. etc. No that's not a spectacle. LOL

Which part was the insult?

I’m asking if you don’t know the whole story.

So then, there’s no point to the actual race? Just drive around in circles for two hours and put on a spectacle. Everybody wins? Everybody gets a trophy, they just have to take their turns?

All the off track crap may be a spectacle, and the on-track stuff may be spectacular, but it’s still a sporting competition, first and foremost.

Having watched F1 racing for 50 years, let’s just say I miss the good old days.

Here, a breakdown of what went down. No mention of red balls radio call but the rest is there.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.explained-understanding-one-of-the-most-chaotic-controversial-title.4B98awxwP7JPgBWxIt5KnL.html

How can Masi tell the teams one thing, then change his mind and tell them something else opposite that?

If he’s going to let lapped traffic unlap themselves, why just a few of them and not all of them?

His recent poor decision wouldn’t look so bad if it wasn’t in a position with what he previously stated about a similar situation.

But the big problem is the Red Bull radio call in between the two communications he had with the team. I wonder if anybody from Liberty Media had a vote in that…

And how is it we have a race Director with his background?

Hey Reg,

I've never known a season likes this, been very exciting, closely fought, full of drama, conspiracy and lots of controversy

I'm actually not with RBR but with Honda, been with them for the last 3yrs, also another 6.5yrs previously, there is more Honda in me than Ferrari :D

Sad news when Honda announced they were leaving, was expecting things to wind down but Honda went aggressive turning everything up to 11 :cool:

Going to try and carry on my Man Cave R&R until next summer, after that not sure really.....

RB Powertrains looks interesting, brand new from the ground up project, I'm intrigued to find out what manufacturer will take claim of the name, will it be Porsche, Audi, VW or someone else, place your bets now :confused:

I knew a girl once that said, "I've never been in the Army but the Army has been in me".

But I don't think that is the same thing. :)

Partly the same thing as I was bent over by one of them and felt a bit dirty afterwards ;)

Good to know, but did you have on see thru white pants with an ass tattoo that could be seen thru the pants? IIRC, the tattoo said "Property of US Army"

BTW, this was in court. No joke.

You could do 'property of RBR' or which ever

So, what exactly did you do for Honda?

Congrats on a winning year, Captain!

On my trip to COTA for the US F1 race, I met a gentlemen who worked for Honda. In my good fortune he ended up sitting in the same row. I did not want to be a geek so I did not pester him with many questions. I did not find out what he did. I also saw him at the Austin airport for the trip back. I congratulated him for a successful race. He watched the race from Grandstand 12, the same one we were in.

Ross Brawn, Formula 1’s managing director of motorsports, has revealed they will stop team principals from being able to speak to the race director during Grands Prix next season.

https://www.nytimespost.com/f1-team-principals-will-not-be-able-to-speak-to-the-race-director-next-season/

good rule change

Reg, she sounds like a classy lady :(

Javadog, I'm only a senior design engineer/technical expert/consultant working within Honda F1. Or a small squeaky cog in a big machine ;)

Paul, thanks, been a long time in the making, COTA is one race I'd love to do, Honda has 10's of 1000's of 'associates' so he could be from any part of the business, did he mention it was Honda F1 or just Honda?

Don’t you generally do composite parts? That seems to be more of a chassis thing, than an engine thing. What bits did you design for Honda?

A story from a friend is that my buddy is an engineer, and attended some conference. At dinner one evening he sat down and at the table and everyone introduced themselves. Two of the men said the were in engine design at Honda. They did not know each other. Everyone assumed Honda cars. Come to find out, one was working on the Honda Jet, and the other in the Honda motorcycle division.

Two things on Social Media this morning. I found an article that sums up both:

Toto and Hamilton will not attend the end of year trophy shindig.

Reports that Hamilton may retire and hinted such on Sunday.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/hamilton-retirement-wolff-f1-mercedes-25715211

I gotta ask; what is up with the sweat rag? OCD??

Captain, are you referring to what I had said?

As predicted by almost everyone, Mercedes withdrew their appeal... shocking, I know... Almost every appeal in F1 is withdrawn.

I think they had a good case but I also think that the public wouldn’t take kindly to them if they won.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I don’t like Lewis or Max, and I am damned tired of Mercedes domination, but I think Lewis got screwed.

I wonder how much if any input the F1 race engine shops have with their namesake company? I assume Ferrari is pretty tight with their street car factory simply because their street cars are so close to race cars, but does Honda really work with the F1 engine department or is it run like a completely different company?

Or does Mercedes have much to do with Ilmor building their F1 engines or do they just right the checks?

Most F1 engine shops are separate to the road car engine shops but the F1 shops will use more of the road car engines shops facilities ie manufacturing, inspection, etc than visa versa

Honda F1 engine designers and engineers are often seconded form the road car side of the business and after they have experienced F1's accelerated learning (school of hard knocks :D) they go back to using this knowledge improving the road car engines or chassis

For many years my Ferrari day started with a walk through the engine shop, great way to start a day, loved the oily smell but clinically clean workshop. This was a separate engine shop inside the F1 factory to the road cars but F1 would use some of the road car engine production facilitates

Mercedes don't write Ilmor checks they have a a big F1 engine shop that does everything, located a few miles from the F1 chassis factory

Redbull are building a huge F1 engine factory right next door to the F1 chassis factory, this won't come on line fully until way into next year

A F1 engine shop is not really a 'shop' as such but an engine factory that does everything ie design, stress analysis, simulation, manufacturing, machining, assembly, dimensional inspection, non-destructive testing, metallurgy inspection, dyno testing, durability testing, failure analysis etc, etc Some more specialised manufacturing processes such casting, metal treatments etc maybe done outside with suppliers

Big F1 teams like Ferrari and Mercedes have around 2000 people working on their F1 teams, that's not enough people as they also use numerous outside manufacturing suppliers

These are a bit brutal.

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I though Knights were supposed to be noble and exhibit qualities that are above others?

give back to Max for the first lap schmozal

Excerpts from an hour with Wolff:

https://formularapida.net/wolff-talks-of-dropping-appeal-court-case-disbelief-of-race-masi-more/