Red Bull have announced that two body guards have been hired to protect Max Verstappen this weekend . Apparently there have been threats by fans . Sad to read that . Having fans is great . Having rabid fans that are nuts not so much .

Big milestone race for me, front row quali lock out, fastest lap, and a 1-2-3 race result would be just perfect!

FP3 had some interesting times . Albon 2nd fastest with Max at the top . Perez looked good . Aston Martin and Haas way off the pace . Qually should be a good one .

Milestone? Do tell please.

Wow, what a qualifying. Lots of possible penalties for the big names, but not P1&2!

And No Max is not P1, and you will never believe who has a lockout on the front row with P1 & P2.

It should be an interesting 1/2 a mile sprint to the first corner tomorrow.

Wow! I do wish Albon did better. Weird how his car changed so much from FP3 to qualifying

With that quali Danny Ric proved he still has it., for now.

And what was Lando doing? It was like they weren't interested in quali at all. Weird

I believe they were betting on track evolution but got caught out by events.
Interesting how the track actually devolved in the third session.

Best
Les

That makes sense, thanks

Lando/McLaren strategy in qually was stupid . In my opinion they are fast enough to set a top 10 time . Get that time set and then you can try and improve . Starting the race on the back row helps no one .

If you are straddled with tire allocation then shoot for a top 10 qually position and try to improve through the race . Starting 10th as an example is much better than 20th .

Impressive drive by Lewis. He kept the mediums alive, unlike George who wore his out.
Oh yeah, Max did his usual. Checo just tried too hard too soon.

Best
Les

Well, that was only a half snooze. Some good racing for 10th spot and the 20 million bonus. I still had time to flip over to Martinsville and not miss much. The read flag helped.

Perez, what can you say about the guy? Just a train wreck time after time. I remember the deal a few years back about rich kid, poor kid. Should the rich kid be able to buy his way in or should the poor kid with 'talent' get the ride? I think both got a ride, but the poor kid didn't turn out to be anything great. Actually the rich kid in the Red Bull might have had a better season given what he's done at Williams.

I was bummed when Kevin binned it and the subsequent red flag. LeClerc was one a one-stopper with fresh hards and he was starting to gain on Max who needed one more stop.

Oh well, that is a prime example of racing luck for Max.

Now everyone can start getting excited for Las Vegas!

One thing that is beginning to annoy me is how many times Sky cuts to a kid or fans acting silly in the crowd.

Now on the other hand I did see on Reddit that there was a pretty good fight in the stands of the stadium section that wasn't shown on Sky. ;)

Yea, I agree. I can't care less about a crowd shot of some kid or a fan dressed up like a driver, show the dang race. At least they are not cutting away constantly to show us the face of a driver's wife looking worried. Show me the cars, and relevant information.

Yeah holy ****, they were doing it constantly for this race, even when you had cars going side by side into a braking zone. Ludicrous.

Well, get used to it. With no less than 3 woman commentators the new promotion along with the Miami and Vegas circuses, they are making an appeal to entertainment like a ballgame. The spectators are shown a lot at ballgames.

I noticed Martin Brundle was relieved of his duties doing the pit walk. His doing or theirs, he was done with it. Actually the women (Danica in particular) made it interesting asking the Mercedes mechanic about all the hookups to the car while it sat on the grid. I didn't know that one set of tires was used just to maintain brake temps and then changed at one minute to the formation lap.

QUOTE=astrochex;12120143]Milestone? Do tell please.[/QUOTE]

Your a gent, seeing as you asked, I'll indulge myself :)

Mexico was Max's record beating 16th win in a season so a great way to celebrate a larger number for me

400th race working in F1, not a big number but to put it in context.....

It's taken 23yrs of my working life helping 11 teams and 33 drivers start a race 1228x

Started out in the V8 era and now onto my 4th era of engine with the 2nd era of V6 Hybrid

Experienced the bad, good and ugly over but also very lucky to have worked with many super talented people who I've shared a few successes with too

49 pole positions, 60 fastest laps, 75 wins, 147 podiums, 646 points finishes, 1075 race distance finishes or around a combined 204,000 miles of flat out racing

Wins at probably every circuit, including 2x Monaco wins with Benetton, Honda, Ferrari, Redbull and Alpha Tauri teams, Renault, Honda and Ferrari engine manufacturers and Berger, Button, Massa, Raikkonen, Alonso, Vettel, Verstappen, Gasly and Perez

Race wins are good but championships are better, 3x Constructor wins with Ferrari and Redbull, 3x Driver wins with Verstappen

Came close but not close enough many more times, missed out on 3x driver wins, lost at the last race, one by only 4 corners, Made the championship podium 5x 2nd, 5x 3rd places in Constructor and 4x 2nd, 6x 3rd in Driver

Not sure I'll still have the speed to reach 500 races but I'll keep doing what I'm doing until team's stop calling, then I'll know I'm too slow for F1 :(

In 1997 it started like this ....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1698684307.jpg

In 2023, I've got all ends of the grid covered so it looks like this....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1698685477.jpg

And this....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1698685520.jpg

And finally this....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1698685541.jpg

Thats supremely cool, Captain!

It is wonderful that you have enjoyed much success in your career. Many congratulations!