Yes and yes Legion. The deck is so stacked in favor of the front running teams that the mid pack teams have little chance of ever becoming competive.

Some of the "cost saving measures" are crippling the sport.
This series is largely about development of the cars before and especially during the season. Testing seems critical for development.

And with so many new young guns coming into the grid, more testing would go a long way to helping them to transition better.
And probably save money in terms of race cars wrecked.

Cheers Richard

I think this is down to Hammy not having Nico to bash. With Seb and Verstappen, he knows that Toto and Nikki cannot control them if he is upset and blames them for his poor performance. So he has to play nice.

Plus, I genuinely believe Hammy knows these other guys can beat him and again that he cannot control with team orders.

I do think the Rosberg/Hamilton dynamic was a special situation. We didn't see it with Kovaleinen or Button. Think of it this way: Imagine your best friend from grade school was you biggest rival in high school, college, and now in your professional life. You'd each know of buttons you could push with the other that no other person could even know existed. You'd be able to drive each other crazy to a level otherwise impossible. You may have good professionalism now, but it would probably be MUCH harder to maintain if you were competing against someone who knew EVERYTHING about you. It'd be pretty tempting to weaponize that knowledge, wouldn't it? And impossible not to once it's been done to you....

No, I think Rosberg and Hamilton are a unique pair. Hamilton probably is nicer to everyone else because no one else knows his levers like Rosberg. I do think eventually they will be best friends again, if only because of their wealth of shared experiences. I could see Hamilton smiling and admitting to Rosberg that he said or did something to shake him, and Rosberg smiling and admitting he did the same...

China was an Ok race. Not great. Not Bad. It just seems to be another in the long list of current races that don't generate any excitement from me.

I blame a lot of my current lack of enthusiasm for F1 on the current list of tracks. Most of the current tracks are boring. Flat as a board, two long straights to open up the top end and then a myriad of complex corners with those weird geometric designs on the inside and outside runoff areas. Fans situated in grandstands far from the track. Safe but uninspiring.

Seeing Honda struggle like this is hard to watch, too.

Dig up VES' first lap onboard on F1.com.... Damn, the kid can pass ;-)

Check out this video of Max commenting on his first lap

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iHykHHs9LKo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Alonso is becoming my favorite comedian (excerpts from radio in China)


"Remember to drink Fernando..."
"I don't need any f------ drinks! It's enough concentration to keep the car on the track, you know, forget the [censored] drinks!"


"OK Fernando, for reference Sainz is quickest on track..."
"I'm quickest on track through the corners!"