A car and team that benefitted greatly with 3 years of development by "The German" and "The Austrian" and before Lu even had to learn how the buttons on the steering wheel worked..

The British press consider Lewis the greatest ever driver. No doubt, he has great talent, but he had a car that was just a step above all the other cars. When George stepped in to Lewis's car when Lewis had Covid, it was like the team tried to keep him from winning. To put the wrong tires on the car, come on, when was the last time that happened? George would have walked away with his first win with that car.

And Lewis's Mercedes never almost broke down. It will be interesting to see how much longer he sticks around.

Add Alex Albon to the list of Hamilton replacement drivers that should have won the one race in which they drove his car. I'm still convinced Mercedes screwed that up for him as a means of hiding just how far ahead of the field the car was at that time. Albon very clearly demonstrated that anyone with F1 experience could win in that car.

I sense VER is “failing” now in that his car is not dominate, though I will give him his due on his skill. But take COTA, he drove NOR off the track at turn 1 even though he was behind because he knew he was beat. Stewards screwed that call. There is a video showing the times VER just pushed an opponent off to win. I don’t mind him winning just don’t like his whining when his bullying doesn’t work and he loses, like Saudi. Says he was fastest, not according to the results. He may go down with the other greats and in time we al might forget about his attitude.

And he drives for another dick, Horner. Maybe it’s the combination.

For sure, add Helmut MArko to that list too ;-)

Helmut deserves some slack, he earned his reputation the hard way

By surviving a motorsport era where only the bravest were fastest or dead

Fair point, but still I will (very) respectfully disagree on slack for Helmut. Others from that era (Stewart, Ickx) are true gentlemen to this day, Marko has been pretty nasty with a raft of good drivers that continued on to be great elsewhere and he's been talking $hit for years like "the crazy old right wing uncle you ignore at the thankgiving table because he's family".. (can't be bothered to dig but I recall Perez being inconsistent because he was "Mexican" and Hadjar's tears being "embarassing" just recently - will never like the guy)

No problem, don't forget he's Austrian too, they say it like it is which can appear abrupt to down right nasty

I'm in no way a Helmut fan, just trying to bring a different angle of perspective to the topic

You're right, and it's totally fair, I do not know any Austrians!

It's eerie, Youtube just fed me a great interview of Mark Webber's rivalry with Vettel in 2010 when he almost got the championship (high performance podcast).. The sort of stuff RB did to ensure Vettel would beat Webber is amazing - great stuff to listen to (he's not bitter, pretty matter of fact). Not sure that's all attributable to Marko per se but Vettel was his boy for sure.. I must have his bio somewhere (aussie grit)...

Ah yes. Austrian. I’m German. Born there. Raised by a German mom and American dad. Germans are infamously considered to be rather direct. However, Austrians are on a whole different level - to the point that even Germans consider them blunt, arrogant, and rude.

Which says a lot, considering most people worldwide say that about Germans.

I am in the same camp as Deschodt - not an admirer of Helmut.

Love the Racing Bulls Miami livery, have to buy one for my 1 43 collection :cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1746094060.jpg

^^^ Love how some teams are running special liveries for certain races. But how is that done, practically? The cars are painted, right? We hear of how a team is so proud that their paint department was able to mix up a paint that only weighs x kilos, compared to the y kilos the paint would weigh in the past. Some teams even leave large swaths of their cars unpainted, to save on weight. And while there are upgrades from race to race, most of the car is the same, in terms of bodywork. Would a team take last race's engine cowling and repaint it? Do they just paint over last weekend's livery? Isn't that more weight? Do they strip off the old paint without damaging the CF? Do they make new bodywork for every race? They have the time and money for that?

At least in Ferrari's case, the car is wrapped, and according to this article, the Miami wrap uses special material that is lighter and better for the environment.

I would assume most cars are wrapped these days? I'm not sure.

(I'll reserve judgement on whether this Ferrari 'Miami' livery is doing this car any favors, looks-wise.)

http://www.planetf1.com/news/scuderia-ferrari-unveil-unique-blue-accented-livery-for-miami-grand-prix



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1746128913.jpg

^^^ That livery is...terrible. It looks like bodywork from a different car (BMW Sauber) grafted on to a Ferrari. British American Racing's half-Lucky Strike/half-555 was clever. This just looks like a crashed car trying to be put back together to get in a last-ditch qualifying attempt at Indy.

Some of Bernie's ideas, none of them democratic, were good. One livery all year.

Musical liveries suck. Bad enough you can't see the helmets or numbers, now the primary color schemes have to change on a whim too?

Too much show, not enough go!

+44. That Ferrari livery is fugly. Racing Bulls looks nice. Don't know why they change liveries because those costs all add up under the cost cap.

The german publication Bild is saying Checo Perez has signed a contract with Cadillac F1 . Supposedly it will be announced on Saturday when Cadillac unveils their livery for 2026 . Will be interesting to see if true . He would be solid for a new team .

I saw one post that Max will miss press day in Miami because his wife is expected to deliver a baby. I guess that is a good enough excuse to keep the FIA from fining him.

This seems to be the worst keep secret in F1. Social media was tracking Checo's private jet as it was heading to Miami earlier in the week. One site I saw had what his pay was going to be. LOL.

I would not know but as luck would have it, Sam collins talked about this first minute of the FP1 coverage... Ferrari is using a Latex based sticker instead of paint, and it saves 14% vs the weight of paint. LOL
(ironically they left tools and a flashlight in Lando's footwell)