It would seem to me that bottoming out and wearing away the plank both are detracting performance factors. I think this part of the car's dimensions are self regulating. Where am I wrong on this? Anyway, a spot of body filler on a Penske car that got 3 crew chiefs fired and 0.12mm on a piece of wood is way too much minutia.

It has been said that companies with many employees have to expect pencils to be nicked and if they were that silly to try and stop that cold, no one would want to work for that kind of micro scrutiny. Is it any different to allow race teams to get away with minor infractions? If my rivet is concave and the other guy's is convex, should there even be a rule about rivets? If I have more orange peel in my paint thinking it's a better boundary layer than the smoother but flat (no gloss) paint, should they be bothered? If my valve stems have LH thread, who cares?

But it seems eventually it will get to that. I've been a race fan since the Indy 500 was on radio only and took 5 hours to run. I don't follow any racing much at all anymore. I do wish there was a dirt track within 30 minutes but that's not going to happen. When everyone has to run the exact same RR tire on dirt, racing is done. Karting got ruined when they allowed banging. When I raced karts if you banged someone else you were leaving the track airborne. That rule was self regulating when karts weren't surrounded by bodywork. At bit like open wheel cars of all kinds, but they are slowly becoming more protected like a damn stock car. Soon they will behave even worse.

I think Vettel was disqualified for that when he drove for Aston Martin. There wasn’t enough fuel to take a sample

Nice read on plank wear, McLaren in Las Vegas etc, https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-could-be-behind-mclarens-plank-wear-dsq-shock/ . Note that the scrutineers are upping their game when it comes to measuring plank wear.

Milt, the reason for the plank is to limit the performance gains from running lower. Lower translates to higher downforce and faster cornering. The teams have all accepted the regulations. They monitor the plank wear through their telemetry. I suspect the reason they were telling Lando to lift and coast was to avoid going beyond the 1mm wear limit. There are titanium strips built into the planks, hence the trails of sparks at high speeds. They are not just a piece of wood.
Don't forget, Ferrari made the same error earlier in the season. They paid the price. No points.

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Another school day. I now know about Kermit sipping tea.

This edition of LollipopMan is diabolical. F1 at Las Vegas has given us many gifts in 2025.

Adrian Newey to become team principal for Aston Martin for 2026 . That surprises me as I didn't think that was a role he wanted .

Making sure Christian Horner doesn't finagle his way into AM? Weird that he'd want that job.

Yeah, it was just a couple days ago they said they were in talks with Horney, glad they chose Newey and it can only be good for AM (and getting rid of Lance) :)

Good Sprint

Looking forward to quali, question; are they allowed to change the skid plank between the sprint and qualifying?

I can see a lot of cars with wear issues in the race.

I'm not a Ham fan in the slightest, but this is just hard to watch.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1764453845.jpg

Great 720 degree spin, and no crash into the barriers. I bet that was a real ride.

Happy to see Piastri back on form.

Apparently, Ferrari has (had?) stopped developing to current car to focus on the 2026 car. Its sad to watch both drivers struggle. Imagine what LeClerc could do with a better car.

I read an article the other day stating Charles has signed what the article called a " pre contract " with Aston Martin for 2026 . They stated that if Ferrari are not competitive after the first four races in 2026 he can opt out and go to AM . If that's remotely accurate I have to assume Lance would be replaced.

That seems to be the latest talking point; but during the middle of the season Ferrari put out many press releases detailing the latest breakthrough that was going to move the car up to the sharp end of the grid. New floor, revised suspension, yada yada.

The announcers stated Lance has been knocked out of more Q1s than all the other drivers. :eek:

Is McLaren taking pit strategy cues from Ferrari? How does not pitting (on lap 7) when everyone else does give you "more flexibility"? At the end of the race, I'd rather have track position (P1) than "flexibility".

My thinking: This race has a silly rule that no set of tires may go more than 25 laps. So, with a 57-lap race, you have to have at least 2 pit stops. Counting backwards, 57-25 = 32. Then, 32-25 = 7. So any time there is a full-course caution beyond lap 7, you pit. With Hulk crashing out on lap 7 and the resulting safety car requiring several laps to clear the mess, you pit. Because that means you only have to pit once more for the rest of the race (like the other 17 cars did). If you don't pit on Hulk's full-course yellow, then you have to pit 2 more times in the rest of the race. I'd rather have only one more pitstop to go than two.

If there are no other yellows, then you're cooked. If there's a yellow between laps 25-32, you're cooked. That's not flexibility. The other cars have flexibility. You don't have flexibility.

I don't understand whoever's on the radio with Norris or the TV pundits citing "flexibility.".