Modern Vespa

Great race, shame Verstappen could only piss, whinge and whine his way around the track .

Great drive by Piastri !
Successful defending of his position against LeClerc with DRS !

Well not.....*ALL* around. But mostly.

Stroll proving why daddy needs to try and buy him a title instead of merit lolol

I find the situation at Aston Martin very interesting.

Adrian Newey no doubt will make a huge difference to the team's performance but Stroll Jnr doesn't have the talent to make the best of a competitive car and Alonso can't race forever, so what happens when he retires and Papa Stroll realises that his son is never going to win a race ,nor a Championship ?

Sure you've got the Valkyrie in WEC to fall back if your drivers look step down but is Newey going to stay with the team if it no longer has Daddy Stroll's backing ?

My bad. Daddy Stroll's Money.

well Sergio sure got a raw deal. He was fighting for 2nd and I think he could have got there as Charles tires were done.

I looked numerous times at the replay and the way Carlos kinda glanced left and then they wrecked I think it was his fault even though FIA says it was a racing incident.

Carlos was extremely close to the wall.

Sergio had about 2 full car's widths (if not a lot more) to his left.

Sergio was also behind, and could see carlos' car a whole lot easier than carlos could see his. He chose to stay where he was.

And also now has a fairly impressive (albeit obscure) F1 record: He is the only driver to score points for two different constructors in his first two F1 races.

Lawrence isn't helping Lance win a championship, Lance is there to help Lawrence win a championship.

The dream to be a successful world champion is Lawrence's. It's clear that this is his project through all the press conferences, and interactions. Lance is just in the background while Lawrence is building his empire.

Mike Krack has also said that their door is always open for Max, and Lance's contract was signed very very late.

Sainz even confirmed at one point that "every team in the grid without a confirmed driver line up had offered him a contract".

People jumped on the fact that Red Bull and Mercedes had offered him a contract (likely a poor one year deal), but most skipped the fact that only Alonso was confirmed at Aston Martin at that point, so Lance's seat was offered to Carlos…

I am unconvinced of this. I think the phrase "every team on the grid without a confirmed driver" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It is far too vague of a statement to construe with such specificity about Lance's seat.

But there was a lot of talk of Lance going to WEC with the Valkyrie in 2025. Mike Krack kept referring to how they wanted to go for a Le Mans win.

This would have been the perfect exit for Lance. Chances are high that the Valkyrie would have been capable of winning Le Mans, he would have had this success on his record, and could have rejoined Aston in 2026 with the new regs.

Whereas I think McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and maybe Mercedes with push hard for 2025, surely it's a write off year for Aston? They're too far behind and it would be better to focus on restructuring and ensuring their new wind tunnel is calibrated properly etc for the new regulations.

Lawrence is helping Lance win a Championship because Lawrence is paying for it.

Just want to say that Lance will never win a race or a Championship no matter who designed it or which engine it has.

I really don't think Lance has any interest in F1 anymore… it's clear to see in every interview.

Also another curious thing is Lawrence bought into F1 for only $90 million (by comparison they want Andretti to pay $600 million purely as an entry fee and with no infrastructure).

Lawrence bought considerable wealth from the fashion industry but his personal wealth has rocketed since his entry into F1. He bought into Aston Martin when their share price was extremely low, and has built them both up.

Rather than collecting money from other avenues to funnel into F1, F1 is contributing massively to his net worth. This is his greatest ever business success.

Aston Martin Road Cars lost 216 Million Quid in the 6 months up to June 30th.

This is up on the loss of 142 Million Quid the year earlier.

Go Lawrence.

Andretti have opened a new 40,000 square foot facility at Silverstone.

I'm thinking that they will buy the next F1 team that's going cheap.

But the F1 side is now valued at between 2-3 billion USD as of the beginning of September when they took on new investors.

I'm not sure how much he poured into the infrastructure, but he's filthy rich just from the returns on the F1 side…

And he's heavily involved with the Factory side of things which is still losing millions.

He suggested that he deserves a Knighthood for what he's done.

I couldn't agree more.

If Lance isn't interested in F1 anymore why has he signed up for the long term ?

Have some community service, Max:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-punished-by-fia-over-press-conference-language.4FBhDI6THS9ueTkg8WrlIR

Yeah, that god-damn fucker better learn to keep his fucking mouth shut.

(Sorry, Guenther Steiner swiped my iPad there for a second. I distracted him with a nipple twist and swiped it back).

The rumours won't leave Ricciardo alone will they ?

Not until they actually fire him or put him in Checo's seat.

I'm thinking that Lawson will take the seat at V CRAP at the next race and Red Bull will resign Checco for 2025.

Yup, can see it coming, He certainly doesn't like overtaking on street circuit's also quite a bit of talk about George being looked at for Red Bull if Max go's to Mercedes.

I don't think George is a great catch for Red Bull, and it undermines everything that they're trying to do with their young driver program.

Personally, I think this is about Horner winding up Toto, as Toto keeps mentioning trying to sign Max.

If a team is set on hiring a driver, they do it privately - not publicly to the media.

Also, I'm very surprised at how well Franco is doing at Williams. Albon looked like a racing god against Logan, but Franco has been extremely close to Albon when he has no experience of the team / car. Williams have likely spent a fortune on Sainz, when Franco could have been an option for them (and I believe he's paying the team for his seat??).

"How many lifetime community services would Guenther Steiner have to serve for using the F-word?" --Alex Wurz, after Verstappen's penalty was announced.

Drivers at the bottom:

No Podiums
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) – 196 races, 0 podiums
Logan Sargeant (Williams) – 27 races, 0 podiums
Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) – 43 races, 0 podiums
Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) – 59 races, 0 podiums
Liam Lawson (AlphaTauri reserve) – 5 races, 0 podiums​
(GP Racing Stats)
​(Motor Sport Magazine)​
(GP Racing Stats).

Three Podiums or Fewer
Esteban Ocon (Alpine) – 3 podiums, 127 races
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) – 3 podiums, 143 races
Kevin Magnussen (Haas) – 1 podium, 151 races
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – 3 podiums, 127 races
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 3 podiums, 22 races
Alexander Albon (Williams) – 2 podiums, 80 races​ (GP Racing Stats)
​(GP Racing Stats)
​(Motor Sport Magazine).

Will Courtney ( Head of Strategy) is leaving Red Bull for McLaren.

Opsi.

Like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

I agree. I have a strange feeling that there are some people within that team who can see what's coming and don't want to be around when it does.

Actually, the more I think about it, after Daniel's dismissal I can see Liam Lawson heading straight to Red Bull to replace Checco and he'll end up at V CRAP for a year or so.

I also think that Red Bull have handled the Ricciardo situation terribly.

Everyone knew what they were doing but they said nothing. Doesn't anyone else find that a bit weird ?

I mean, that's the theme in a hundred different F1 news stories this week. So yes, other people find it weird, too.

Think back to the last time ( apart from George Russell signing to Mercedes Benz ) when everyone knew what was about to happen but no one actually said anything.

It's pretty obvious that everybody in the paddock knew what was afoot but there was nothing announced by the Media or the Team even after the race.

With nothing being said, he's gone from F1. How embarrassing. Even HE said nothing and he knew !

All stability went when the owner died. Newey made a point of saying he wants to be at a team where he answers to a single owner, how things were always done in the past. The last true owner operators are now only Aston Martin and Haas...

Agree with Ricciardo, and I don't even understand it from Red Bull's position either... Ricciardo has a massive fan following and they would have been better celebrating all his results, farewell stickers on the car etc and made it look like they publicly cared. Would have helped boost their public image more than what ultimately transpired.

I also saw a comment about how the denim livery was very nice, but running it at Singapore was quite strange. They theorised that the denim livery was done for Daniel in Texas and then bought forward a race weekend so he could still run it.

It's possible (though I will concede not especially likely) that there are larger things afoot. Christian Horner even said so (directly!) though I'm not putting much stock in anything he says.

Are you suggesting that Perez will retire at the end of 2024 and Ricciardo will replace him at Red Bull in return for giving up his seat at V CRAP ?

Is that what you're saying ?

Other people are saying that. Or, at least, something approximating that. But I think they're just guessing. Or, more precisely, I think they are wishing.

But I'm not saying that, no. Just that Christian Horner is suggesting that there are "larger things at play".

Ricciardo officially dropped

Yeah, that was pretty large.

Whilst I am beyond delighted that a Kiwi has an F1 seat, I fear he's on a hiding to nothing. I expect they will want him to immediately be faster than Yuki and be getting points to ensure they finish ahead of Haas in the Constructors Championship.

Picture this. You've just replaced the most popular driver in the F1 paddock and the team that put you there is scrutinising you in a way that no one else is.

Press and Public also.

So no pressure at all then.

You're not wrong, exactly. But I'd like to point out that F1 drivers are, by their nature, individuals that thrive on pressure. Well, most of them, anyway.

The other ones are Sergio Perez.