I wish Schui all the best. I wonder if he'd be a good fit in sports cars; maybe a second wind and a successful career, like, for example, Tom Kristensen or Bob Wollek or David Hobbs were able to carve out.

His last name has gotta be as much of a burden as it is an asset.

Hulk is probably the best driver in the last 10 years not to have a win. He just always seemed to be in the wrong car and it's happening again.

He also had the tendency to make race ending mistakes when in points scoring positions.

Congrats to the pole winner . And great to see Vettel in Q3 he got everything out of that Aston Martin .

Here's what I hope for tomorrows podium
 

Vettel first, Kmag second and DannyRic third.

Come on, it could happen. Perhaps Max and Russel and Ham and Charles could forget to set their alarm clocks and the rest could all have flat tires or run out of gas.

Could happen!

or BIG ONE in turn one takes out the front of the field
PLUS a lot of tyres in the middle :p

Lots of battles to be won in the last race....

Can Mercedes beat Ferrari to 2nd in the constructors?

Who will be runner up in the drivers championship, Perez or LeClerc?

Can Alpine hold on to 4th or will McLaren take it away?

Can Alonso beat Ocon to be top Alpine driver?

Can Alpha Tauri beat Haas to 8th in the constructors championship?

US driver Logan Sargeant finished fifth yesterday in his race , that finish provides enough points to gain his super license . Unless some crazy last minute snafu happens he will be in the Williams next year .

And the season is over ☹️ . Congrats to the winner in a cake walk win . Good race for second and third . Very happy Vettel scored a point in his final race , he is a class act. Hammy's luck ran out today .

Will be interesting to see where Latifi/Schumacher/Riccardo land for next year . Just around the corner is the 24 Hours of Daytona and the kickoff of the new top class machines . Can't wait .

Hamilton's lick ran out with a retirement. The first in many races. Not one win in 2022.

The race for second place was the best race of the day.

Now we have to wait 105 days for the next race. :(

He was on the radio slagging off the team saying they should have pitted. He was fighting for 4th, pitting would have resulted in P5 or P6. He is such a douche. I believe that was the first mechanical DNF since George sat in for Hammy when he had "covid" and was about to win when the car mysteriously broke.

Good on Ferrari.

Mixed feelings about Seb's retirement. He's gotten so green and save the planet that it's hard to like him these days. Loved him when he just raced and won.

I had forgotten that Seb narrowly beat Alonso for his first RB WDC in the final race. I still blame 'Nando's loss that year on Grosjean taking him out at Spa at the first corner of the start.

As long as my friends in other teams don't beat me I get a lot of enjoyment from their success too :D

Great to see Ferrari hang onto 2nd in the constructors, Alpine best of the rest and Haas finishing a credible 8th :cool:

Sad to see Vettel and Ricciardo leave, F1 needs more characters like them :(

Captain what are your thoughts on Williams for next year and beyond ? They have been improving and now finally have some sponsorship $$$ to spend . Albon is a solid driver and young gun American Logan Sargeant bringing youthful energy . Do they have a chance to fight for consistent points soon ?

I bet he could feel the loss in pace and was thinking that it was going to cost them, but chilled out when the analysis on pit window came in. I don't know what "slagging off" to you is but I didn't get that impression.

Sauber won tie breaker with Aston which ended up being worth millions of prize money. It’s a shame when you are racing in your mirrors. I wonder if it would be better if they divide all prize money equally to all teams for a 5 yr period. I suppose then the only incentive then is winning vs $$.

It is always about money. Every single member of the team wants a bigger paycheck. All of them. They may love their job, but only because they get paid to show up do they do their job. Just like everyone on the planet with a job. More money means more computers, bigger and nicer facilities, and it is the ultimate motivation.

Yea, racing is a true sport, but it is a professional sport. No one does it for fun except club racers, and they all have spent a lot of money to have fun. Money they earned at a job, or the lucky ones got to inherit the money from parents that worked hard.

Glen is 100% right, it's not formula fun it's F1

The team in question I believe are busy investing in the business and don't now have to choose a paid driver but they've been suffering from brain drain on the technical side for quite a while now

Usually the more motivated, more experienced, more capable, more ambitious and more brave individuals have already left, leaving or thinking about leaving. They are exactly the people the team needs the most

The lack of external signals showing the team has real ambition and the budget to match their ambition isn't a good advert for attracting the experience people they so desperately need

New graduates and the less experienced will join and if nothing changes most will move on.

In F1 the pace of technical development/progress moves at a relentless pace, a team can be left behind in no time and the team has been left behind for countless years. Catch up on their own merit won't happen next year or the year after, more like a 5yr timesspan at the minimum

Just my humble opinion on what I find to be a sad prediciment for one of the most successful teams in F1

^^^^^

In essence we need more cigarette money

Captain, that is exactly what happened at NASA just after Kennedy set the goal for going to the moon before the end of the decade. The USA had only launched two men into sub orbital flights, and had not yet orbited the earth! Yet Kennedy said we will go to the moon, and back before the end of the decade.

All of sudden all the world's top engineers and scientist, came flooding to Florida. Canada, and Europe had a massive brain drain and the top engineers came floding to NASA for good jobs inventing how to make a rocket that can get to the moon. Hundreds of totally new technologies were either invented, or refined by orders of magnitude. New ways to even manufacturer some new products. The very first user programmable computer was on the moon command module. A compass is useless in space, so IMUs were reduced from the size of a fridge, to one that can go into space in a small capsule.

It was all about the task of how in the heck can they do it, and how many engineers can they hire. All the top people worked there, or for the companies providing the equipment. They threw enough money and engineers at it and solved the problem.

I did hear one wag say they did learn that no matter how much money and however many engineers you put on the task, it still takes nine months to make a baby.

Cigarette money gaves the world the best race liveries ever :cool:

Quite funny thinking back now but a F1 team I worked for created from tobacco money gave everyone a 20 packs of cigarettes every few months as an employee perk :eek:

Funny that no team ever sported the Senior Service Ciggy livery though.

One of my favs was Eddie Jordan's Bitten and Hisses

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1669067994.jpg

This is fun https://twitter.com/_richardparry_/status/1594857432236593152?s=46&t=ypueg7tQZ12ZpaAXcljQWg.

Don't forget the grid girls from those days, too. ;)

I still have my Club Jordan magazines via the Team Jordan fan club. They often featured their lovely umbrella girls. Fwiw, Motogp again includes the beautiful brollies.

High-res version if the Richard Parry Red Bull brilliance, https://richardparrydesign.wetransfer.com/downloads/11886fea3eaeaa64b9446d03140f288320221122002922/8d814b

He has also given Mercedes and Ferrari the same treatment, https://lnk.bio/_richardparry_

Mattia Binotto has officially turned in his resignation at Ferrari effective the end of this year . Let's see who Ferrari picks as a replacement .

Apparently the replacement is the Alfa guy Vassuer

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/63758235

Losing Binotto will be a backward step for Ferrari, don't think he was doing a bad job

Redbull and Mercedes will be quietly pleased as they'll be out of the championship contender picture for at least the next 3yrs

I'm sure McLare, Alpine and Astom Martin will see it as their golden opportunity to break into the top 3

Its very interesting to hear your informed perspective, Captain, versus the ravings of F1 fans on motorsport bulletin boards. Thanks.

I'm conflicted about Binotto too.. On the one hand he must have been a great boss to work for, covering his troops, instilling a culture of no-fear-for-mistakes. But on the other hand the F-ups have been fast and furious this year, to an unprecedented level.
With THAT car and those drivers, they shoulda contended a lot longer and ultimately he is the boss. Maybe too nice a guy. Also they ran out of upgrade $$ 4 races before other teams, not well managed. Yeah conflicted. Vasseur was a great manager in F2, but he has not set Alfa on fire either. We shall see ! Gonna be a long winter !

Ferrari have lost quite a bit of technical leadership now. They needed a stronger manager, and somone who "understands" the Ferrari culture. If they bring in someone from the outside, it's going to be another body over the wall in a year or so.

I can't find where Vasseur is confirmed? Is that a done deal? The rumor mill suggested there was a chance that Brawn might be coming back?

So many tobacco liveries over the years. Marlboro probably being the most iconic in that it never changed much and was instantly recognizable across many different motorsports. My favorite is probably Lotus' JPS since my interest in F1 started around 1977-78.



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1669756702.jpg

https://youtu.be/mjHYQIfs1Jo

Daniel Ricciardo Opens Up About Red Bull Return

Been a, pinch myself I must be dreaming week....

Had a senior F1 FIA engineer round for supper, great to catch up with an old friend, really interesting to hear about the approach to the 2026 regulation changes. More electrical power, sustainable fuel, narrower/shorter cars, less drag and multiple DRS systems. Also reassurrig to know there are more prospective teams/motor manufacturers wanting in than there are available spaces

Then last night a friend invited me out to the pub with a few of his friends, only 6 of us but a combined +200 years of world championship motorsport experience. :eek:

I'm just a lowly desk jockey but a few of the other guys have engineered F1 legends like Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton etc and rally legends like McRae, Burns, Loeb etc

Between us the experience spanned 24hr Le Mans, F1, WRC, Indy car, Dakar, Touring cars, Sebring 24hrs, Daytona 24hrs etc etc

Working with/for Porsche, Aston Martin, Honda, Ferrari, Renault, Alpine, Subaru, Mini, Alfa Romeo, VW, BMW etc works teams

Topics covered wasn't podcast conversation worthy as motorsport talk was brief. Too busy discussing, house insulation, solar panels, EV cars, crap cars we/our dads owned, home heating options, home renovation projects, holiday destinations etc :rolleyes:

Anyone eves dropping would have thought it was just a table of, boring, middle aged dads out for a drink. They'd have been right too! ;)

Wonderful! Boring is the curse of familiarity. Any of us pikers from outside your world would be drooling just from your summary of the CVs. Cheers!

Paul, I forgot to add, as I don't go out much, the evening was only a tiny, bit more fun than my one and only Pelican meet up

That was with Jim-Bob (Lowyder993s) and his friend Joe-bob eating pizza and drinking beer in Maranello many, many years ago

It's a good thing there weren't any interlopers at that table asking questions like what was it really like working with Steve Nichols and Gordon Murray and how did you get the paint off the MP4/4 between races and was Steve Matchett as good a mechanic as he likes to remember he was?

But man, Captain Ahab, Jr., I envy your life....

That is my favorite Livery. There is just something about it. Along with the 1967 Lotus 49.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1670026908.jpg

No envy necessary, just need pity, mega-struggling at the moment, fighting against the systems, taking a good beating which is wearing me down

Glad you mentioned Steve Nichols, Gordon Murray and the McLaren MP4/4

Been a real social butterfly lately and remembered to ask another friend who came over for dinner last weekend

My friend is easily one of best F1 designers I've worked with. He makes the super complicated, super simple. He says it as it was or as it is with no bull5hit so I believe 100% of what he says

He also happens to have been one of the designers that worked on the MP4/4 as part of the small design group of around 12

In a nutshell he said the MP4/4 was the evolution of Gordon's last Brabham, the BT55. The MP4/4 was mostly his design and he knew the answers to most of the questions about the design of the car

Just looked through an article about the MP4/4 and spotted another familiar name I know well, who happens to be where I'm working at the moment. Next time I see him I'll ask him about his opinion too and report back

As for Steve Matchett, I worked at the same team as him, remember most of the good mechanics back then but can't remember if he was any good or not