Japan may have the best F1 fans in the world. I was lucky enough to spend a few weeks there many years ago. F1 is my go to conversation topic especially if I see some memorabilia around and there’s plenty of it around Japan. I had more F1 discussions in the 3 weeks than I’ve ever had in such a short period.

I turned on the TV right after the fireworks, but why did Perez come back out for 2 token laps before officially retiring his car? He wanted to make a pit stop and serve a 5-second penalty? What difference did that make?

I think it was assumed he might try for fastest lap.

This is why they sent him back out:

<iframe width="1046" height="436" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xll0VOsiE84" title="Hit the Pace CAR" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>


seriously:
if he retired without serving the penalty,
the stewards could impose a grid penalty at the next race.

Congratulations to RB on winning the constructors championship . They certainly earned it .

RB has more points than Mercedes and Ferrari combined and the bulk of those are Max's. Do you suppose Checo is feeling somewhat demoralized about now?
McLaren have made some fantastic progress through this year.

Best
Les

I think Checo is done at RB after next year . I don't care how mentally tough you are , getting your butt handed to you at almost every qually and race has to get to you . You physically train for hours , you train on the simulator . You are in endless discussions with your engineers and team . And nothing makes you faster than your team mate .

I don't think Checo is done in F1 . His experience could be useful to a lesser team . But at RB it's game over . And with Liam Lawson and other young hot shoes lurking in the shadows it's just a matter of time .

The announcers said the rule book says if you can't serve the 5 second penalty because of a retirement, they give you a grid penalty at the next race. So he went out, did a lap and was called into the pits for a pit stop, and they did the 5 second penalty, on a race where it made zero difference, and no grid penalty next race.

I have been watching F1 for 30 years, and that is the first time I remember any car that was pulled into the garage go back out to do laps. It was never officially "retired" until the penalty was served. After that, yep, officially retired.

They even waited on sending him out until Max came in for his last pit stop. Then the pit for Perez was a nice slow pit stop after the penalty was served. Back in the garage.

They really knew the rule book. Back in the glory days of Porsche winning at endurance races they read the rules carefully, and found many 100% legal loop holes that allowed them an edge. Just follow the rule book and be legal. Much like the USA tax laws that are insane complex. Tax avoidance with legitimate deductions is 100% legal, tax evasion is where you can go to jail.

Lawson seems to be pretty solid. Why not sign him as a youngster as opposed to keeping Danny Ric? his best days are behind him now.

^^^ Here's a theory . Riccardo drives next year for AT . He replaces Checo for 2025 . Lawson signs with AT . They groom him for 2-3 years at AT then move him to RB when Riccardo retires .

100%. How much defending does the guy require week after week? He's consistently 0.5 to 1 sec behind his team mate, starts way down for one reason or another, and pretty much ALL his overtaking moves yesterday reeked of desperation. It's gotta be awful to be given the best car in F1 and realize you're not World Champion material. They shoulda kept Albon or Gasly and given them more time, they've sure given Perez way more time than the others. Must be tough to be Max's team mate.

Also found it curious NOT hiring Lawson, depends on how locked down his contract is I guess. He looks like he has the measure of tsunoda or will in no time, possibly Ricciardo too (we'll see). Not often that Suzuka is boring...

LAstly, part of me is a bit suspicious of McLaren being able to operate such a turnaround within the confines of the budget cap when Mercedes (not exactly wankers) have been unable to do the same in 2 seasons... Pass the popcorn.

Folks need to look at the points. If Max wasn't there who would be winning the championship? Ummm, Checo. I guess the rest of the field should retire too, cause they are behind Checo.
I guess I just don't get the Checo bashing. Why not just praise Max for the brilliant drive as checo is really close to the rest of the field.

1 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 400
2 Sergio Perez MEX RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 223
3 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 190
4 Fernando Alonso ESP ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 174
5 Carlos Sainz ESP FERRARI 150
6 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 135
7 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN MERCEDES 115
8 George Russell GBR MERCEDES 115
9 Oscar Piastri AUS MCLAREN MERCEDES 57
10 Lance Stroll CAN ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 47
11 Pierre Gasly FRA ALPINE RENAULT 46
12 Esteban Ocon FRA ALPINE RENAULT 38
13 Alexander Albon THA WILLIAMS MERCEDES 21
14 Nico Hulkenberg GER HAAS FERRARI 9
15 Valtteri Bottas FIN ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 6
16 Zhou Guanyu CHN ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 4
17 Yuki Tsunoda JPN ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 3
18 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 3
19 Liam Lawson NZL ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 2
20 Logan Sargeant USA WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
21 Nyck De Vries NED ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 0
22 Daniel Ricciardo AUS ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 0

What's the saying? Lies, damned lies and statistics ? lol
What the above shows me is Checo in the same car has 1/2 the points of Max. Half.
You may expect that driving the best car in the field this year he would be scoring about 80% of MAx's points. (25 pt vs 18 is about >70% + the occasional reversal with a couple of wins when Max is off his game?)

Also I think any of the top 9 here (can't believe stroll is 10th!) in that second car would do better. Without a doubt. Hamilton, Norris and Alonso in particular. It's not really Checo bashing, I like and feel for the guy, but how do you defend suzuka and tons of previous races? awful qualifying followed by running into every other car on the grid? OR, are we instead saying the redbull is barely better than the rest (based on Checo alone) and Max is worth ALL that gap ? Either way how do you like your cake ?

Oh there's no defending the poor performance and mistakes Checo made at Suzuka. That was hideous. Probably frustration at its best showing there.

Yes, Checo has just more than half the points of Max but 33 more than the next guy. Could it be more, Sure. Do I think Max is worth the gap...yes, he is. He is on top of his game right now. When it clicks, it clicks. I don't care who his teammate might be, they'd all get a spanking by Max. Second seat is second seat no matter what. Especially at RB.

Yeah I'll agree with that ! the 2nd redbull seat is a curse right now ;-)
Other fun questions: Was Sargeant really an upgrade from Latifi ?
What is happening to Stroll right now? has he quit mentally ?
Why is Bottas still in F1 ?

I knew it!!! A Maxinator.

There are some terrible disparities between team mates. The Ferrari duo are most closely matched with 15 points between them. I suppose you could say Albon has eclipsed Sargent (21 - 0). I have to wonder how long it will be before Lawrence says to Lance,"Sorry Son we can't afford you."
In a car Max described as a "rocket ship " on the cool down lap, Checo was frustrated and making desperate moves which earned him a penalty.
Part of me would like to see Carlos in the RedBull, just to see.......

Best
Les

He bought the team just to have a seat for his son to be in F1. I suspect he will just sell the team and let his son fight for the seat before he fires his son.

Yeah Glen, I know how it went, but I'll bet there have been days when he was tempted. :D

Best
Les

Hey, it is just a business expense! No big deal for a billionaire.

The next guy is not in a Red Bull.

In the current field, Perez is at best a mid-low pack talent.

https://sports.yahoo.com/andretti-f1-team-entry-bid-152612761.html

One step closer.

They’d be fools to not let them in. The teams are just milking this for as much as possible on the back of recent success. This is ironically largely in part due to the U S of A.

It’s just another team to beat. It would take years for them to be competitive if competitive at all.

Great news but now let's see how much it cost's for Andretti to acctually become the 11th team

I'm guessing $500M minimum

Captain the current Concorde Agreement has the entry fee set at 200 million . If they ( F1/teams ) want new teams to pay more than that does the Agreement get amended ? Rewritten ? Who decides what a current fair market entry fee should be ? And if F1 goes in the toilet does the entry fee get lowered ?

I could go read on this but recollection over the months suggests that the 200M is more like a bond. Don't make it to the show, lose the money. The Captain's estimate must be to get 2 cars to the grid and not much more.

So I don't know the details on spending caps but that seems to be the major cheating today.

The Capt's estimate is for the Andrettis to be allowed in, not the amount needed to build or buy a team.

"Formula 1 teams are naming their price for how much it will take to welcome an 11th team.

While the FIA, F1’s governing body, has a $200 million entry fee to offset revenue and prize money dilution from another team entering, that has not swayed most teams into supporting an additional contender.

Instead, teams are looking for at least $600 million, per Motorsport.

One source said that that is the lowest figure they have heard, and some teams are pushing for more. The current FIA rules apply through 2025, but some teams are pushing for them to be amended earlier to increase the entry fee."

My estimate us just the price of the entry ticket, cars, team, race shop costs on top of the $500M

Think the current Concorde Agreement finishes the end of 2025

The value of teams have sky rocketed since the current Concorde Agreement was written, hence exsisting teams poo pooing the measly $200M

Alpine who are a lower mid-field team on a bad day and a upper mid-field on a good day sold 24% stake for $200M earlier this year valuing the team at $833M.

Cheapest team is worth minimum $200M and most expensive team Ferrari which I have read were valued at $2B

I've heard the value of $600M quite often quoted inside F1 by people who know what's being discussed by the teams and FOM and journalists that think they know

I just rounded it down to $500M as I think Andretti/GM deserve an entry so I was trying g to save them $100M as they're going to need lot's of $100's of millions just to get their ass handed to them on a plate :D for at least the first 3-5yrs it will take the team to consistently get up into the lower mid-field of the grid

My memory is foggy, but didn't Honda once sell it's team to Braun for one dollar?

Yep, bargain of the century :cool:

Somebody needs to tell me, if the Andrettis want to be in F1 so GD badly that they'll spend everyone's money to get there, why don't they buy into an existing team for a couple of hundred million with the eventual goal to own a controlling interest, whether that's explicit or implied?

Gene Haas' outfit always seems ripe for an injection of cash, like Williams was a couple of seasons ago.

It seems like a no brainer to me, but I obviously don't have the insight.

From what I have read online Andretti has been bugging Gene Haas for years but he was not interested . Supposedly also spoke to Alpine and Alfa Romeo and they were not interested either . So his current path is get an 11th team approved .

500 million just to join the club is a bit insane. F1 has been around longer than most racing, if not the longest series ever. To me that doesn't make F1 immune to demise. It will take a decade of poor support from the fans around the world, but it can happen.

I miss some of the great series we've had and would actually get up and go see a CanAm race were it to happen as a new series. Not having a roaring sprint sports car race leaves a void. I'm talking open cockpit cars even if they run a halo (they should). My point in saying this is to say that more driver exposure and indeed, engine exposure is needed for fan excitement. How can you not like seeing driver's head and and arms plus big stacks sticking up for the intake?

We don't need any more sanitary racing with blinding impossible cornering speeds. We need a drivers' series where the cars are a handful like they used to be.

The way alpine is going,
a dollar could soon be a bit steep.

Interesting info about the local impact of the race to LV in this article....

https://news.yahoo.com/6-weeks-f1-track-negotiations-011611287.html

I take offense, as I ressembled your comment :(

Well, until I finished working there end of last week :D 3 days into my new F1 job now and I'm worth more than a dollar, but only just :D

Alpine is getting a full chapter in my book if I ever spill the beans ;)

Nice to see Aston Martin using a female test driver

https://youtu.be/gmtjLEmyjp0?feature=shared

Ricardo is out till Vegas, another opportunity for L Lawson to up his worth. Signing DR for next year was a mistake IMO. He's done, take him out of the oven and remove Lance too, they're both taking up space needed for the fresh young talent.

Finn

lance has great job security since his dad bought the team so Lance would have a seat.