Modern Vespa

American driver Logan Sargeant got his first F1 point after Lewis and Charles were disqualified for wear on the bottom plank.

Probably due to the bumpy circuit and running low to help the downforce.

Glad that Logan finally got one, but disappointed that results of races are so much in the control of stewards and the governing bodies.

I watched the start, then had an unexpected visitor who stayed for an hour. When I turned the race back on, Max was in the lead, Charles was fading due to another bad call by Ferrari and Lewis was charging.

So I watched to the finish. I probably won't bother to watch the recording.

Bill

Well I nailed the result again

Just got back from Spa in Belgium. Gonna watch the race and then share a story.

Wouldn't say it was a bad call this time.

Charles and Lewis both decided on a one stop and committed to it pre-race. All the simulations showed that overtaking was tricky, and so track position was more important. It looked extremely marginal between a one stop and a two stop race, but ultimately the hard tyre didn't quite live up to expectations.

Lewis locked up badly and then had to immediately box after he'd past his two stop window, which looked like a horrible move at the time - but somehow luckily came good at the end! ... well until the DSQ!

I don't think Ferrari had the pace for a win here regardless of what they did. I think Carlos qualified and finished about where he should of.

If you listen to Hamiltons in car footage I swear you can hear the floorboard hitting the ground.

The Citroen 24 hour C1 / 2CV Race at Spa Francorchamp was interesting as it had to be curtailed at hour 18 when a Marshall who was dealing with a crashed vehicle was hit by another car that had rolled into the same sand trap then made contact with him.

He was in a pretty bad way and because these events have a procedure the event was halted and rightly so.

I counted 81 C1's. 31 Modified 2CV's and about 20 Unmodified 2CV's.

The Modified 2 CVs have BMW 850 Boxer engines fitted but retain the original 4 speed gearbox.

I believe the Yellow car below may have been the one that rolled as the roofline is stoved in and the axils bent.

Being Spa it rained and being a competitive series the C1's took a real beating.

Well, you got one out of three!

I think I actually wanted Perez to do well because I feel a bit sorry for him now that the knives are so obviously out but hey.

So, who do Red Bull already own whose going to fill that seat ?

My money is on Golden Boy and Alfa Tauri will waggle a contract in front of Lawson.

Seems like Ricciardo is already the odds-on favorite, even though he still struggles to perform. But hey, everybody loves him!

And yeah, I think Lawson has probably already been promised the soon-to-be-vacant Alfa Tauri seat.

Yeah he's got great optics and has a sense of fun that Red Bull seems to miss these days.

My feeling is that he's made some bad choices in the past and I think that's knocked his confidence, so like you I'm hoping for a return.

Anyone who doesn't nail Lawson's signature to a long term contract has got to have a screw missing and lets face it he's already got one rather large Size 9 in the door so that's a done deal.

How could you say No to a team you gave you a break ?

I think that is what everyone said about Perez when he was driving with Stroll a few years back. I like Riccardo, but don't think he will last with the Crimson Cows.

Well, let's look at it a different way: how long would Tsunoda last in the RB pressure cooker? That boy has no impulse control and maybe some anger management issues.

The argument can be made that Lawson is a better choice to fill the RB seat, and I can't say I disagree, exactly -- but Max's shadow is known to be a dangerous place for young drivers to stand.

Daniel would be ecstatic to be number two at this point in his career.

Well put, Spoilt bed wetter with a wealthy Daddy

Fair points. I think a bunch of drivers would like to drive the car, but Max's shadow, and Crimson Cow management...less so. I seem to recall Gasly had a brief stint with them in the past. I doubt he would recommend the seat to anyone short of Alonzo.

I wonder where Perez will end up. It's sad to see him go from #2 in the driver championship to no ride at all.

Gasly then Albon just in very recent memory. Both cracked in the RB pressure cooker.

Maybe to stop Red Bull losing the money to pay him off he goes back to Alfa Tauri until his contract runs out ?

I think Lawson deserves that seat more then Perez does.

Oh there's no question about that but it would make them look a little less like the intolerant bastards that they are.

Yes I know it's the top team and one driver isn't performing but it would be a more fair way of dealing with the issue.

As you can tell I flip flop on the issue.

Well, that was unexpected.

Ricciardo ahead of Perez in an inferior car.

Bottas in 9th.

"in an inferior car" is the understatement of the season.

And Max in P3!

Yes, but he's still going to win because of Ferrari being Ferrari.

If Ricciardo finishes higher than Perez I can see a seat swap happening.

Sadly, this. Sadly? This.

You know that everyone loves Riccardo and so no one's going to be upset with that decision because it makes sense.

Granted Perez might be a bit miffed but hey ho.

Knock Knock

I like Ricciardo and I really, really want him to succeed. But after watching him flounder at McLaren for what seemed like an eternity, I just... I feel like he's going to let us down the moment he sits in the RB20.

I hope I'm wrong.

I think that he was up against the team (and car) being focused around the established driver.

You could argue that a great driver could work around that but you know that some drivers prefer cars with a certain bias and it's hard to adapt.

This is also the reason that Perez has struggled against Verstappen in another bizarre twist of irony.

This feels a bit like Russell joining Mercedes Benz, pretty much everyone knew what was going to happen it was just a matter of it being announced.

Well. Checo screwed himself on the first turn of his home race.

It's heartbreaking, really.

Devastating both for him, and the huge crowd who turned up to watch him.

I didn't really expect the fans to take it out on the Monegasque, but in retrospect I guess I should have seen it coming.

I've been to a number of USA-Mexico football matches and they're a tough bunch. Checo's not going to get off easy either.

It's really odd. You kind of knew that he was going to do it but when he did it you got a kick out of knowing that he was going to do it.

To watch someone destroy their career on TV is a horrible thing to watch especially when it's just compounding.

Also why don't they hold all the USA races in the same month to save emissions ?

It would certainly add some drama.

If I had to guess, I would guess it's more due to scheduling and logistics than anything else.

If you could start in Miami then go to COTA, up to Las Vegas and then finish in Mexico you'd save a whole load of transport costs and C02.

Everything is going one way, not back and forth like a fiddlers elbow.

The FIA has the ability to decide the dates and the circuits if they wanted to hold an event would have to agree.

A cynic would suggest that that amount of attention on F1 couldn't be sustained over 4 weeks.

Just sayin.

Most of the time, the F1 cars are flown back to their factories between races.

They then have different hospitality units in each continent, which move a lot slower between races and take longer to setup - so sometimes gaps are preferable.

Mexico City is 900 miles from COTA, so is doable within a week - but the distance up to Las Vegas is longer, so I assume there's a different hospitality unit in Brazil while the North American trucks are heading to Vegas.

900 miles is doable in a day with two drivers.

Hospitality Units take 2 days to assemble.

Ideally they should also consider to do the hottest circuits in the coldest months and stuff like that.

In what month is Qatar bearable?

On the point of that - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Abu Dhabi are all very close together and yet they are at opposite ends of the calender.

And I would be quite happy to see every one of them dropped from the calendar.

But you know, money. It's always about money.

Yes which is why they still race at Monaco because it's really a race not a procession.