I'm a "can't see the forrest for the trees" type of person ;)

The last two posters just lost their man cards.

Au contraire mon frère. I knew who she was because she was a Bond Girl in Tomorrow Never Dies. Now if I said I knew her from Crazy Rich Asians then that may be cause to lose the man card.

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LOL yeah I don't think Lewis would be much of an asset in the garage.

From the movie SHUMACHER, I got the impression
he was working with the mechanics on the car.
He also had a strong influence on the entire team,
not just the car.

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In the early 70's, the Ferrari cars were crap.
Lauda went to Ferrari as a driver in '74 IIRC and was
famous for almost getting fired for telling them
the car was crap.
He went to work with the mechanics and they fixed it,
mostly by removing weight and tuning suspension.
By the middle of '75 he was winning in the car.
He won the driver's championship in '75 and '77
and Ferrari won the constructors.
In 76 he took second to James Hunt after his burn injury
and his withdrawl
at the Japanese GP or he would have won the championship
three years in a row.
It was well detailed in the movie Rush
as well as other documentaries.

In '96, Ferrari hired Shumacher to drive
but their cars were again, crap.
They also hired Lauda as a team consultant.
A couple years later they were winning multiple
world championships and established a great dynasty.

In 2010, the Mercedes cars were crap.
They hired Schumacher as a driver in 2010 and Lauda
in 2012,

By 2014, Mercedes was winning
championships and established a great dynasty.
No coincidence as there's more to a winning
car than aerodynamics.

^^^^^

I remember one of Schumi's first years at Ferrari that he lost a half shaft during a race. Literally bouncing off down the track.

This gets me excited
I miss the days when F1 cars still sounded
like race cars
instead of honda civics.

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I was at the Montreal F1 the first year Shumi drove for Ferrari, the car literally fell apart...
He then transformed the team, he learned Italian, came in before everyone to the race shop and gave everyone 100%

The Charles/Ferrari reliability issues continue . Taking a 10 place grid penalty for this weekends race . Ouch !!!

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-set-for-saudi-arabian-gp-grid-penalty-after-bahrain-f1-engine-trouble/10443710/

That's not good ! ^^^^^^

To be taking grid penalties on the 2nd race of the season is ... not a good way to start the season. They're on to their 3rd ECU of their allotted 2 for the entire year?!

That sounds like a joke. Wow, did they have the 3 stooges company make the ECUs for them?

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a43326000/ukranian-watchdog-accuses-haas-of-breaking-sanctions-to-sell-machines-to-russian-arms-manufacturers/

https://formula1news.co.uk/haas-could-face-legal-action-after-being-accused-of-secretly-violating-russian-sanctions/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/american-company-accused-of-violating-sanctions-doing-business-with-russian-arms-industry

It's Italian and electrical. Whaddya expect? 😛

Maybe they hired Lucas to design and engineer it!

If this is found to be true it's a big deal in my opinion . I wonder what the rules/law is regarding product already under contract and in the pipeline before the sanctions ? Will be interesting to follow this story . Haas statement on the issue said they completely stopped shipments to Russia . We shall see .

Haas released statement .

https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/haas-f1-team-responds-to-damning-rumours-of-russian-affiliation-lm22

Martin Brundle analyzing whether Hammy should go to another team in an attempt to get an 8th WDC. Here's a thought: stay put and try to make it work. It reminds me of sports in the US when the pundits talk about this or that star and how they are owed a ring and need to change teams to get it. Loyalty? Blahahaha.

I wonder if they ever get tired of polishing and pandering. It will be refreshing when he does retire as the announcers/pundits won't incessantly talk about him as though he's the only guy on the grid.

I saw the video on Instagram and don't think you can watch it in the US unless you are on VPN.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/12833985/lewis-hamilton-martin-brundle-analyses-mercedes-drivers-options-including-possible-ferrari-move

As far as I know McLaren used to make ECUs for all, a separate branch of the company to be sure but that is amusing. Is that still the case ?
Since they were all the same either it's really bad luck, or maybe it's a Ferrari specific issue but then why not Carlos ?

Ferrari is a clusterF$#%. Dislike Horner or Toto as much as you like but they seem to run a cohesive team. I hope they give Fred Vasseur power, authority..and TIME to change Ferrari, like when Todt did it. There are already rumors about Leclerc going straight to the CEO to complain about reliability (WTH Charles?), Vasseur not having enough authority to change what he wants to change (CEO again), the team’s chief of design David Sanchez quit to go to a “British team”apparently, it's before race #2 and already the typical italian "gran casino" (Effing mess). I think more drivers were ruined by Ferrari than made at this point... I hope Leclerc doesn't become another Alesi... I would really like them to do well for the sport, for the fans, I like both drivers, but IMO it's gonna take an act of God!

I just read an article that states the two dead/defective ECU's can't be repaired . Which apparently can cause additional grid penalties in the future . And Sainz is saying he's concerned about reliability 😩 . I think Ferrari really needs some good luck this weekend .

Saudi practice, Ham is fastest.........
 

of the slow cars, Ten cars ahead and 9 below.

Even his assistant or valet or whatever has baled

It's tough being a Ham fan, I know.

Assuming everyone was showing real pace Alonso is right there behind Max . Should be an enjoyable qualifying session .

Russell is fifth, in the same slow car.

Bernie Collins is a qualified announcer whit her experience. It would be cool to chat with her for a dinner.
Sky sports sucks major league when it comes to sound levels. They had her microphone turned way down, or she damn near whispers as she talks.
She needs to learn to SPEAK UP and learn to talk like an announcer to do her new job.
FP3 is sounding better for her microphone. Her accent is better than Paul Diresta’s but still hard to make out without turning the volume way up.
Rant over.

Entertaining race congrats to the winner . Heck of a drive by Max . Alonso solid . K Mag snags a point . Logan Sargeant proving in only his second race he belongs . McLaren look lost . On to the next one 😁

I thought other than Max’s drive it was boring. Sad deal for Alonso, you have to wonder what the hell happened to McLaren they are just not even competitive, probably Karma after the Piastri deal 😉

The domination of the Redbull cars is confusing for me, how can they be sooo much better?

Ferrari has a lot of work to do still as does Mercedes…

And Ferrari looking like an also ran. The Red Bulls are the clearly superior cars on track. Russel stayed ahead of Hamilton at will.

Red Bull are dominant there is no doubt . I give Adrian Newey a lot of credit . He is an aero whisperer 😋 . Apparently his aero knowledge is that superior .

Piastri passing team mate Norris at the end must have felt like a knife in the heart . If pending upgrades from McLaren aren't spectacular this season is lost .

These featureless, sanitized, billiard-table smooth race tracks make it hard to watch. But the Saudi track has to be the worst with the 10-foot fences surrounding the track. Like racing inside a cage :rolleyes: 4 more rounds before we hit an actual road course!

They had 2/3 the race to penalize Alonso the second time but chose to after the podium. What a joke.

There was a penalty for Alonso **after** the race?! Totally agree that's ridiculous. F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of auto racing: the cars/teams/drivers/sponsors/facilites/equipment. But apparently not the race stewardship. That part's pretty JV.

First of, there should not even have been a safety car deployed, as Stroll parked his car out of harms way. Race control claimed their GPS data showed the car to be in a vulnerable position. Meanwhile, television images showed the car to be behind the barriers. And no communication with the track workers in that corner?

Even more Mickey Mouse: you can't inform participants of in-match penalties after the event has concluded. No other credible sport does that. Not FIFA, NHL, NFL, Premier League, MLB, NBA. Heck, not even NASCAR, and that's the WWF of motorsport (even moreso than Monster Trucks).

Apparently when Alonso came in for his pit stop they had to serve a 5 second penalty because he wasn't in his starting box at the start of the race . During a penalty you can't " work on the car " . One of the jack men positioned his jack and while doing that either he or the jack touched the car . That was considered working on the car 😋

You would think in 35 laps AFTER that happened they could have figured out if it was a penalty or not . But the officials decided after the race that it was a penalty and enforced a 10 second infraction . That dropped Alonso from third to fourth.

In my opinion this is mickey mouse horse $hit but these are the same officials that have banned drivers to ride a bike to study the course 😩 . This is the pinnacle of motorsports ?????

Alonso got his points back, FIA reversed second penalty. That's what I read just now

Yep what a cluster fu$&!!!

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1022526/1/fia-reverse-penalty-alonso-reclaims-lost-podium

What a bunch of hicks running this show. I cannot believe it. Fire whomever responsible and get someone in there who knows more. Sheesh.

Agreed - the Stroll SC also a bad call. My gosh. Indy car - take note of what NOT to do.

I quit watching F1. Last year I watched the 5 to 7 minute recaps post on YT. I mean that was everything that anyone needed to see. Generally, you don't want to miss an Indy Car race as it can't be captured in 7 minutes. NASCAR somewhere in between. I think next weekend at COTA the stock cars will be fun to watch for the whole race.

I’m not a big fan of the series but tube in to the road courses. Kimi and JB as well as JJ. 👍👍

Jeez, Hammy throwing shade at Russell is a bad look.

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1022516/1/hamilton-russell-5050-choice-usually-he-s-wrong-it-happened-work

That's not throwing shade that's just him taking strategy and setup. For sure starting on the hard didn't benefit him considering the safety car. Hard to say on setup but from what I know they're usually a little different to get better data.

Yes,
Trying to discern what she was saying was
frankly not worth the considerable effort it took.
It was easier just to hit the mute button.

SKY sports compresses their broadcast,
and making it low def to it can be streamed easier.
Makes for a low quality show IMO.

Hey, why did max park his car in the pit lane
after the race instead of in the 2nd place slot?
Why did max refuse to come to the interview
when it was his turn, causing them to go out of order?

I heard it was because he was being pissy.
Evidently he wanted RB to hold Perez back so Max
could catch up and pass him and win the race and
when that didn't happen he was butthurt.
He needs to stop listening to daddy.

His quote after the race: