The moment I didnt have to get up to watch the only broadcast of the race, I sort of stopped watching. Now Im like oh I'll enjoy my sunday and watch it that night. But a few hours later I forget and open social. And then I don't bother watching them parade around the track. I think Ive watched 10x more videos on the aero design of the new cars than I have the actual racing!
Watching Lewis stick around for years after he's no longer any real threat (even more than now) will be enjoyable for those who were completely tired of hearing about him. I really don't think Max will ever permanently leave though. He might go, but he'll be back.
I hope Alonso keeps at this as long as he enjoys it and wins a championship before he retires.
I think Hamilton fancies himself as a hip-hop artist/fashion designer/Civil Rights leader, but deep down inside realizes his only currency, the only reason people pay him any attention, is his status as an F1 driver.
It's interesting to watch him interact with notable figures of American Black culture. He has literally nothing in common with them, he is physically tiny, and he carries himself like the lower middle class but non-chav white Briton that his mother was. I imagine that the LeBrons of the world go to meet him thinking he is Willy T Ribbs only to find out he is a sexually ambiguous manlet with the mannerisms of Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Wearing trash bags as clothes that even the homeless that live under the bridges in L.A. won't wear doesn't help. I'm surprised he hasn't done a throwback to DEVO or the Beastie Boys Intergalactic video.
He is now connected to Shakira? Who, like the Pussycat Doll is somewhat older than him, but now instead of being a very young man banging some prime(ish)pop star, to an almost 40 year old hitting tax defrauding over the hill pop stars (I would still hit it it, but I am no a knighted F1 world champion in excellent physical condition)
Maybe to distract Red Bull he should try his luck with Ginger Spice.
Willy T- That is a guy with talent and personality. Imagine a young Willy time-traveled to the present and dropped into an F1 post race interview with todays PR robots. Could be a Comedy Central special in if itself
I disagree. F1 was at it's best when McLaren, Williams, Benneton, Brabham ran the show. The less bullshit we get over incessant advertising of products and merchandise, the better. Plus it would help keep the insufferable influencer culture away.
But weren't they the "real manufacturers" of the cars? Unlike "brands" such as Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, and whoever (Ford, Audi, Cadillac?) shows up next.
THIS times a million. I've watched F1 since the mid 90's, which also happened to coincide with some of the best racing of any series ever, the CART/PPG Indycar Series. Chassis from Penske, Reynard, Lola, Eagle, later Swift. 800hp engines revving to 15k rpm from Ford, Honda, Toyota, and Mercedes. Drivers like Andretti, Zanardi, Tracy, Villeneuve, and Greg Moore duking it out on tight tracks like Mid Ohio and then super speedways like Michigan.
"Nigel Ernest James Mansell, CBE (/ˈmænsəl/; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series (1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over to CART, becoming the first person to win the CART title in his debut season, and making him the only person to hold both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship simultaneously."
Didn't the Swift win its debut CART Indy car race? Or was it the Reynard? The diversity of chassis and engine manufacturers back in that particular heyday staggers the memory.
That's my point exactly. The number of different package combinations (I didn't even mention Goodyear v. Firestone!) was insane. I believe the Swift did win on its debut but disappointed thereafter. It was a beautiful little thing.
When I started watching and attending F1 races, 80% of the competitors used the (Ford) Cosworth DFV V8. The racing was the best it's been in my memory, dare I say very much like that open wheel spec-series in the States!
I guess what bugs me is a team like "Aston Martin" which has nothing to do with the F1 cars, gets to run under the company's banner. Just feels wrong to me. Just like their Le Mans cars should be Aston Martin/Mercedes.
In that case the only "real" teams are Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine. F1 has always vacillated between bespoke and "customer" cars but I get your point. At least Aston road cars use MB engines and there's a familial relationship between Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.
Being complete and total bullshit has been an indispensable part of the Ass-ton "brand" since Victor Gauntlett let go in 1993. An XJS in drag with a jag motor or double Taurus engine, a bunch of mostly identical looking cars with automatic transmissions, a "Vantage" that ties with the Gen 1 SLK for Stubbiest Shitwagon in History, and the repugnant DBX.
The worst thing they ever did was lean on the James Bond thing hard enough to burn it out. Those of us who fancy a British GT car don't like the association and the people who DO like it are a liability.
James Bond is a total burnout also, so they make a good match. I'd say Aston died with the death of the Virage line. I do wonder if it would have done better had it not been launched into the teeth of the collapse of the exotic car market.
Finally, I can forgive the DB7, since it was a Hail Mary by a very small car manufacturer, doing the best they could with extremely limited funds. But it all just seemed to get worse, not better, after that. I've likely said it before, but no Aston of the modern era has even been a match for the comparable Corvette of its day.
I did really like the looks of the DB9 when it came out. Still think it holds up. What would have made it "more Aston"? Better interior and a real engine/transmisson?
For a few years Red Bull had Aston Martin as a sponsor on the rear wing. Pre Stroll ownership and pre Honda Engines. AM tied their horse to a Mecachrome engine in those days. I don't think they were running the Renault name on the valve covers.
It gets very convoluted and incestuous, yet we're supposed to see the Sauber as an Alfa Romeo for the next two seasons until it suddenly reappears as an Audi.
Even better was the sound. At COTA a few years ago they had a support race with those cars. Nobody raced of course but those cars looked and sounded so great. They're like a 3/4 scale race car compared to the current crop.
At the Saxon ring (I know Sachsenring) in MotoGP we saw Honda reveal that they're not only not competitive but entirely out of the running at a favored track with their top gun. Wreck after wreck with Rins breaking fibula and tibia (and maybe another one?) And Marquez breaking a finger on his fifth or so crash of the weekend.
KTM continues to look like the only manufacture that can pose a challenge to Ducati, but Binder's huge off and likely concussion hurt them overall.
It was great to see Jorge Martin come into his own and fight it out with Bagnaia at the front! Real racecraft shown by each of them and plenty of contact between them and other racers to keep things interesting.
MotoGP continues to provide the actual racing excitement you don't get out of F1.
I was pretty bearish on the whole sprint race every weekend concept when it was announced, but I've been enjoying them. It seems like a nightmare for the riders though - seems like so many more injuries this year than prior.
Re: Honda - it's even worse than that, Marc's only lost twice there in any category of the 14 times he's competed and both of those were in 125, but the best he could manage in the sprint was 11th. Plus of the 4 riders on Hondas on the grid there was only one that survived uninjured to compete in the feature race.
It's hard to see how the Marc/Honda relationship will continue much longer - he seems to have hit his limit on dealing with the bike and Honda isn't known to deal very well with riders who don't toe the corporate line on everything very well.
I've tried to have this discussion with friends: Is it that Honda has made a shit bike this year or is it that Marc has lost his touch (or is he pushing too hard trying to regain the magic he's been known for his whole career?) Marc has been carrying Honda for years making it normal for all non-Marc Honda riders to be much lower in the points. Looking back at past championship standings, Honda hasn't had a non-Marc rider in the top 5 since Pedrosa in 2017.
Despite what they or anyone might say, Honda had absolutely built a bike that Marc could win championships on. It worked out great for them as he single-handedly won them the constructors title in 2019 (Marc scored 420 of Honda's 426 points that year!) but Marc's injury had to have raised some serious doubts in the minds of the HRC higher-ups about whether that was a sustainable strategy. They've moved away from it being Marc's bike and in doing so, made one that no Honda riders on the grid can ride fast.
Honda needs a MASSIVE turnaround in 2024 otherwise Marc is absolutely walking away from the team. I'd like to see him retire and support his brother but there's no way that's going to happen. I also don't see him winning any championships again as I don't see other manufacturers being as willing to develop a bike just for him as Honda was. I think Marc's lost his mojo and is going to be a danger on the track until he realizes that the competition has finally caught up to him and that he's now a mid-field rider.
My opinion is that the bike isn't competitive and Marquez is pushing way too hard all the time just to keep it near the front. Hence all the crashes. The other Honda riders maybe aren't at the same talent level but they aren't losers, either. It's kind of sad that maybe the best Japanese bike was the Suzuki and it's gone now.
Not that you needed me to say this, but your first few paragraphs summed up why I loved watching F1. Schumacher execute the 4 stop fuel strategy on live TV is permanently etched into my brain.
I caught the first 15 or so minutes of the Canadian GP thanks to being broadcast on ABC. It’s the most F1 I’ve watched in years. All I can say is that Sky’s pre-race coverage is miles ahead of what NBC put out there.
For the MX guys, it broke my heart to see Roczen kicking his RMZ after swapping positions with Jett a few times. This is perhaps the first time we’ve seen the latter under real pressure this year. I still say that he can be beat if you can get the right rider out there. Who that rider is these days, I have no idea.
I think it's Chase Sexton once he's back from injury, to me this is the beginning of an era where if you don't have flawless technique, you're not in the top 10. I want Anderson to get back to racing soon, he's my favorite rider to watch because he's so fluid on the bike. Jett probably is too, but his style is such that it looks like he's riding really slow.
Isn't Sexton basically out because he has mono? I am starting to think the length of his injury is more of an excuse to not run/get injured prior to the "playoffs" or whatever they're calling them.
What absolutely kills me about this sport is all the secrecy surrounding contracts and silly season. Sexton to KTM has been all but confirmed. Will he be on an orange bike come playoffs? You can tell that he isn't jiving well with the CRF, and he's pretty much said as much.
Maybe that's why Jett seems to stay so upright on the CRF, maybe he could go even faster if he trusted the bike. I haven't ridden any modern Hondas, but the couple of early 00s CRs I tried felt awfully rigid and harsh compared to to Yamahas and Suzukis of the same era. Honda always has to do things a little strange. Who knows how much faster Sexton would be on a bike he trusts? To your point, the sport really needs a Penske or equivalent at the helm, Feld is really fumbling Supercross management. One thing I do like about the playoff thing is that it incentivizes riders to race outdoor who would normally skip it, in order to stack up points.
Great work, Jack. As Lewis continues to humble George and prove you wrong each week, the Wednesday Night Racing Thread slowly transcends into a saga of what you think of the guy. I don't know how much space is left on your dartboard of him, but keep shooting.
I'm still bullish on George in the long run, for what it's worth. And I have less animosity for Lewis than I do for the kid gloves treatment he's had for 20 years simply because his father is black. (Ironically, his dad was probably the only person in history to treat Lewis badly.)
As one who actually went to the Canadian GP I want to say that it looks just like on TV. I did enjoy DeVries and KMag clacking away in front of me. Checo's army wore big ass sombreros. There were Dutch fans dressed like red devils. Jack Daniels sponsored. The Fan Zone had a tattooed barber in short shorts, and yes you could get a real haircut. It rained on Saturday just like last year and took an hour to move 200 yards. The Casino is the ugliest building on the island. Beautiful women DON'T hang out there.
I was in section 46 just after the hairpin and have to say, watching the drivers (particularly Alonso, Bottas, and Hamilton) manage their oversteer after the bump on the exit of Turn 10 in the rain during Qualifying was fucking marvelous. The "spectacle" would benefit from lighter cars and skinnier tires.
The exit of the hairpin was our section the three years my friends and I attended ('96-'98). The first time I saw a car braking for the corner I thought to myself there's no way he's gonna make it. He did but several didn't, testing the limit.
DeVries and KMag was clown slap boxing. Nobody gets hurt and they both lock in the clown moniker. Still, I thought KMag got screwed though, both times. Run off the road and then not given a shot to make the corner.
Hard to believe DeVries is the same guy that drove the Williams last year.
Friggin' excellent, especially "The only way to beat it, and subsequently beat Hamilton, is to be a handsome white man in the twilight of his career who loves beautiful women, doesn't work too hard at racing, and doesn’t give a shit about much else, cf. Messrs. Button and Rosberg."
In a naked attempt to drive traffic to my own "Pathfinder Doorhandle" Substack account, here are my thoughts on last weekend's F1 and IndyCar broadcasts themselves:
"The only way to beat it, and subsequently beat Hamilton, is to be a handsome white man in the twilight of his career who loves beautiful women, doesn't work too hard at racing, and doesn’t give a shit about much else, cf. Messrs. Button and Rosberg."
I seem to remember Nico busting his ass to beat Hamilton. My thoughts when he retired were that he didn't want to contemplate having to work that hard ever again. He didn't think he had it in him to win another championship and decided to just go out on top.
I think he made up his mind after Brazil. Nico was lucky that race had 3 safety cars and 2 red flags or else Lewis was going to lap him twice in the same car.
Rosberg was lucky and certainly no match for Lewis as a racer but I guess a World Driver's Championship on his resume, a home in Monaco and a handsomer version of Leonardo DiCaprio looking back at him in the mirror was enough. What a quitter! 😅
There are always interesting dynamics with racing sons of racing fathers. Nico probably felt some pressure to match his father's record. He ended up having a few more wins and the same number of championships. Then he retired to have one of the best lives you could possibly have, including his Sky TV gig.
and let's not forget Button racing from last to first in the epic 2011 Canada GP.
The guy finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the points during 17 seasons, and was in the top 5 in five of them, with several mid-field finishes through his career. Not great, but respectable.
The point of F1 is to give you something to do at 730am on a Sunday. Liberty Media fucked that up when they moved start times to 9am EST.
New York is the whole world dontcha know.
The moment I didnt have to get up to watch the only broadcast of the race, I sort of stopped watching. Now Im like oh I'll enjoy my sunday and watch it that night. But a few hours later I forget and open social. And then I don't bother watching them parade around the track. I think Ive watched 10x more videos on the aero design of the new cars than I have the actual racing!
Same. The technical aspect, design changes, and other little things are what I fall into. I absolutely adore that part of it.
Watching Lewis stick around for years after he's no longer any real threat (even more than now) will be enjoyable for those who were completely tired of hearing about him. I really don't think Max will ever permanently leave though. He might go, but he'll be back.
I hope Alonso keeps at this as long as he enjoys it and wins a championship before he retires.
I think Hamilton fancies himself as a hip-hop artist/fashion designer/Civil Rights leader, but deep down inside realizes his only currency, the only reason people pay him any attention, is his status as an F1 driver.
It's interesting to watch him interact with notable figures of American Black culture. He has literally nothing in common with them, he is physically tiny, and he carries himself like the lower middle class but non-chav white Briton that his mother was. I imagine that the LeBrons of the world go to meet him thinking he is Willy T Ribbs only to find out he is a sexually ambiguous manlet with the mannerisms of Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Oooo. Harsh!
Jeez man you COOKED him
It's pretty weird how he handles himself though. The outfits are horrid. Dunno if he even knows what he's about.
How could he know who he is? He never got a chance to find out for himself.
There is lots to say about Angela Cullen here so go ahead and say it.
I'll start. What was up with having a white woman with bleached blond hair be a valet?
Passive aggressive show of power having a blonde white woman on a chain.
I think it was a Mommy sex thing to be honest. Lewis hasn't connected well with the ladies with the exception of the narcissist Pussycat Doll.
Wearing trash bags as clothes that even the homeless that live under the bridges in L.A. won't wear doesn't help. I'm surprised he hasn't done a throwback to DEVO or the Beastie Boys Intergalactic video.
He is now connected to Shakira? Who, like the Pussycat Doll is somewhat older than him, but now instead of being a very young man banging some prime(ish)pop star, to an almost 40 year old hitting tax defrauding over the hill pop stars (I would still hit it it, but I am no a knighted F1 world champion in excellent physical condition)
Maybe to distract Red Bull he should try his luck with Ginger Spice.
And I hear she's coming back.
Willy T- That is a guy with talent and personality. Imagine a young Willy time-traveled to the present and dropped into an F1 post race interview with todays PR robots. Could be a Comedy Central special in if itself
I still remember him saying that if McDonald's would cover his expenses he'd change his name to Willy T. McRibs
What a lad. I like him already.
The McRib is one of my favorites for some reason. Wish they carried them more often, but the current situation is best for my waistline.
I think we would continue to hear about Sir Lewis from the Sky commentators even if he was at the back of the grid in a Life L190.
Had to look up Life Racing Engines. That's one I'd never heard of!
I want real manufacturers fully involved again. If your name is on the car, you should be, to a greater extent, building the car. But that's just me.
I disagree. F1 was at it's best when McLaren, Williams, Benneton, Brabham ran the show. The less bullshit we get over incessant advertising of products and merchandise, the better. Plus it would help keep the insufferable influencer culture away.
"... McLaren, Williams, Benneton, Brabham...
But weren't they the "real manufacturers" of the cars? Unlike "brands" such as Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, and whoever (Ford, Audi, Cadillac?) shows up next.
What I'd really like to see would be the everyday race car constructors like Van Diemen build an F1 car, like the Swift Indycar or Radical SR9.
THIS times a million. I've watched F1 since the mid 90's, which also happened to coincide with some of the best racing of any series ever, the CART/PPG Indycar Series. Chassis from Penske, Reynard, Lola, Eagle, later Swift. 800hp engines revving to 15k rpm from Ford, Honda, Toyota, and Mercedes. Drivers like Andretti, Zanardi, Tracy, Villeneuve, and Greg Moore duking it out on tight tracks like Mid Ohio and then super speedways like Michigan.
You just beat me to that observation.
And don't forget the Galmer, ugly as sin but with an Indy 500 win to its credit, driven by Little Al.
And, of course:
"Nigel Ernest James Mansell, CBE (/ˈmænsəl/; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series (1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over to CART, becoming the first person to win the CART title in his debut season, and making him the only person to hold both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship simultaneously."
Amazing times in open wheel racing!
Didn't the Swift win its debut CART Indy car race? Or was it the Reynard? The diversity of chassis and engine manufacturers back in that particular heyday staggers the memory.
That's my point exactly. The number of different package combinations (I didn't even mention Goodyear v. Firestone!) was insane. I believe the Swift did win on its debut but disappointed thereafter. It was a beautiful little thing.
The tire situation crossed my mind. There was so much money involved during that era.
Garagiste.
When I started watching and attending F1 races, 80% of the competitors used the (Ford) Cosworth DFV V8. The racing was the best it's been in my memory, dare I say very much like that open wheel spec-series in the States!
I guess what bugs me is a team like "Aston Martin" which has nothing to do with the F1 cars, gets to run under the company's banner. Just feels wrong to me. Just like their Le Mans cars should be Aston Martin/Mercedes.
In that case the only "real" teams are Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine. F1 has always vacillated between bespoke and "customer" cars but I get your point. At least Aston road cars use MB engines and there's a familial relationship between Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.
Being complete and total bullshit has been an indispensable part of the Ass-ton "brand" since Victor Gauntlett let go in 1993. An XJS in drag with a jag motor or double Taurus engine, a bunch of mostly identical looking cars with automatic transmissions, a "Vantage" that ties with the Gen 1 SLK for Stubbiest Shitwagon in History, and the repugnant DBX.
The worst thing they ever did was lean on the James Bond thing hard enough to burn it out. Those of us who fancy a British GT car don't like the association and the people who DO like it are a liability.
James Bond is a total burnout also, so they make a good match. I'd say Aston died with the death of the Virage line. I do wonder if it would have done better had it not been launched into the teeth of the collapse of the exotic car market.
Finally, I can forgive the DB7, since it was a Hail Mary by a very small car manufacturer, doing the best they could with extremely limited funds. But it all just seemed to get worse, not better, after that. I've likely said it before, but no Aston of the modern era has even been a match for the comparable Corvette of its day.
I did really like the looks of the DB9 when it came out. Still think it holds up. What would have made it "more Aston"? Better interior and a real engine/transmisson?
It's gorgeous but totally generic to my eyes... probably the only modern Aston with which I'd bother.
For a few years Red Bull had Aston Martin as a sponsor on the rear wing. Pre Stroll ownership and pre Honda Engines. AM tied their horse to a Mecachrome engine in those days. I don't think they were running the Renault name on the valve covers.
It gets very convoluted and incestuous, yet we're supposed to see the Sauber as an Alfa Romeo for the next two seasons until it suddenly reappears as an Audi.
Even better was the sound. At COTA a few years ago they had a support race with those cars. Nobody raced of course but those cars looked and sounded so great. They're like a 3/4 scale race car compared to the current crop.
At the Saxon ring (I know Sachsenring) in MotoGP we saw Honda reveal that they're not only not competitive but entirely out of the running at a favored track with their top gun. Wreck after wreck with Rins breaking fibula and tibia (and maybe another one?) And Marquez breaking a finger on his fifth or so crash of the weekend.
KTM continues to look like the only manufacture that can pose a challenge to Ducati, but Binder's huge off and likely concussion hurt them overall.
It was great to see Jorge Martin come into his own and fight it out with Bagnaia at the front! Real racecraft shown by each of them and plenty of contact between them and other racers to keep things interesting.
Sunday’s MotoGP was the first time since 1969 that not one Japanese motorcycle made the top ten.
It's frankly odd to see the Japanese bike makers walk away from performance. In no sane world should a Beemer be the most powerful sportbike.
It sticks in my craw having owned a Kawasaki 500 two-stroke triple and a Honda CB900F.
Same here, with my two XS Elevens, a Super Blackbird, and a ZX14R!
I miss my 82 CB900F every day.
Mine was an 81.
Both of you may be amused by next week's feature here...
MotoGP continues to provide the actual racing excitement you don't get out of F1.
I was pretty bearish on the whole sprint race every weekend concept when it was announced, but I've been enjoying them. It seems like a nightmare for the riders though - seems like so many more injuries this year than prior.
Re: Honda - it's even worse than that, Marc's only lost twice there in any category of the 14 times he's competed and both of those were in 125, but the best he could manage in the sprint was 11th. Plus of the 4 riders on Hondas on the grid there was only one that survived uninjured to compete in the feature race.
It's hard to see how the Marc/Honda relationship will continue much longer - he seems to have hit his limit on dealing with the bike and Honda isn't known to deal very well with riders who don't toe the corporate line on everything very well.
I've tried to have this discussion with friends: Is it that Honda has made a shit bike this year or is it that Marc has lost his touch (or is he pushing too hard trying to regain the magic he's been known for his whole career?) Marc has been carrying Honda for years making it normal for all non-Marc Honda riders to be much lower in the points. Looking back at past championship standings, Honda hasn't had a non-Marc rider in the top 5 since Pedrosa in 2017.
Despite what they or anyone might say, Honda had absolutely built a bike that Marc could win championships on. It worked out great for them as he single-handedly won them the constructors title in 2019 (Marc scored 420 of Honda's 426 points that year!) but Marc's injury had to have raised some serious doubts in the minds of the HRC higher-ups about whether that was a sustainable strategy. They've moved away from it being Marc's bike and in doing so, made one that no Honda riders on the grid can ride fast.
Honda needs a MASSIVE turnaround in 2024 otherwise Marc is absolutely walking away from the team. I'd like to see him retire and support his brother but there's no way that's going to happen. I also don't see him winning any championships again as I don't see other manufacturers being as willing to develop a bike just for him as Honda was. I think Marc's lost his mojo and is going to be a danger on the track until he realizes that the competition has finally caught up to him and that he's now a mid-field rider.
My opinion is that the bike isn't competitive and Marquez is pushing way too hard all the time just to keep it near the front. Hence all the crashes. The other Honda riders maybe aren't at the same talent level but they aren't losers, either. It's kind of sad that maybe the best Japanese bike was the Suzuki and it's gone now.
Not that you needed me to say this, but your first few paragraphs summed up why I loved watching F1. Schumacher execute the 4 stop fuel strategy on live TV is permanently etched into my brain.
I caught the first 15 or so minutes of the Canadian GP thanks to being broadcast on ABC. It’s the most F1 I’ve watched in years. All I can say is that Sky’s pre-race coverage is miles ahead of what NBC put out there.
For the MX guys, it broke my heart to see Roczen kicking his RMZ after swapping positions with Jett a few times. This is perhaps the first time we’ve seen the latter under real pressure this year. I still say that he can be beat if you can get the right rider out there. Who that rider is these days, I have no idea.
I think it's Chase Sexton once he's back from injury, to me this is the beginning of an era where if you don't have flawless technique, you're not in the top 10. I want Anderson to get back to racing soon, he's my favorite rider to watch because he's so fluid on the bike. Jett probably is too, but his style is such that it looks like he's riding really slow.
Isn't Sexton basically out because he has mono? I am starting to think the length of his injury is more of an excuse to not run/get injured prior to the "playoffs" or whatever they're calling them.
What absolutely kills me about this sport is all the secrecy surrounding contracts and silly season. Sexton to KTM has been all but confirmed. Will he be on an orange bike come playoffs? You can tell that he isn't jiving well with the CRF, and he's pretty much said as much.
Maybe that's why Jett seems to stay so upright on the CRF, maybe he could go even faster if he trusted the bike. I haven't ridden any modern Hondas, but the couple of early 00s CRs I tried felt awfully rigid and harsh compared to to Yamahas and Suzukis of the same era. Honda always has to do things a little strange. Who knows how much faster Sexton would be on a bike he trusts? To your point, the sport really needs a Penske or equivalent at the helm, Feld is really fumbling Supercross management. One thing I do like about the playoff thing is that it incentivizes riders to race outdoor who would normally skip it, in order to stack up points.
Great work, Jack. As Lewis continues to humble George and prove you wrong each week, the Wednesday Night Racing Thread slowly transcends into a saga of what you think of the guy. I don't know how much space is left on your dartboard of him, but keep shooting.
I'm still bullish on George in the long run, for what it's worth. And I have less animosity for Lewis than I do for the kid gloves treatment he's had for 20 years simply because his father is black. (Ironically, his dad was probably the only person in history to treat Lewis badly.)
As one who actually went to the Canadian GP I want to say that it looks just like on TV. I did enjoy DeVries and KMag clacking away in front of me. Checo's army wore big ass sombreros. There were Dutch fans dressed like red devils. Jack Daniels sponsored. The Fan Zone had a tattooed barber in short shorts, and yes you could get a real haircut. It rained on Saturday just like last year and took an hour to move 200 yards. The Casino is the ugliest building on the island. Beautiful women DON'T hang out there.
Your faithful observer.
I was in section 46 just after the hairpin and have to say, watching the drivers (particularly Alonso, Bottas, and Hamilton) manage their oversteer after the bump on the exit of Turn 10 in the rain during Qualifying was fucking marvelous. The "spectacle" would benefit from lighter cars and skinnier tires.
The exit of the hairpin was our section the three years my friends and I attended ('96-'98). The first time I saw a car braking for the corner I thought to myself there's no way he's gonna make it. He did but several didn't, testing the limit.
wide tires ruined racing--my motto since maybe '75
Or ground effects. Potato potahto
bring back the days when the drivers were fat and the tires were skinny.
A quote from Froilán González.
This is all useful information!
I used to go in the 80s. Fall races. Snow flurries a couple of times. Only a couple of minutes, but snow.
DeVries and KMag was clown slap boxing. Nobody gets hurt and they both lock in the clown moniker. Still, I thought KMag got screwed though, both times. Run off the road and then not given a shot to make the corner.
Hard to believe DeVries is the same guy that drove the Williams last year.
Friggin' excellent, especially "The only way to beat it, and subsequently beat Hamilton, is to be a handsome white man in the twilight of his career who loves beautiful women, doesn't work too hard at racing, and doesn’t give a shit about much else, cf. Messrs. Button and Rosberg."
In a naked attempt to drive traffic to my own "Pathfinder Doorhandle" Substack account, here are my thoughts on last weekend's F1 and IndyCar broadcasts themselves:
https://open.substack.com/pub/bimmerfan739/p/antennas-vs-aficionados?r=e0lnc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
"The only way to beat it, and subsequently beat Hamilton, is to be a handsome white man in the twilight of his career who loves beautiful women, doesn't work too hard at racing, and doesn’t give a shit about much else, cf. Messrs. Button and Rosberg."
I seem to remember Nico busting his ass to beat Hamilton. My thoughts when he retired were that he didn't want to contemplate having to work that hard ever again. He didn't think he had it in him to win another championship and decided to just go out on top.
Probably more accurate but Jack's take is funnier so he wins!
I think he made up his mind after Brazil. Nico was lucky that race had 3 safety cars and 2 red flags or else Lewis was going to lap him twice in the same car.
Rosberg was lucky and certainly no match for Lewis as a racer but I guess a World Driver's Championship on his resume, a home in Monaco and a handsomer version of Leonardo DiCaprio looking back at him in the mirror was enough. What a quitter! 😅
There are always interesting dynamics with racing sons of racing fathers. Nico probably felt some pressure to match his father's record. He ended up having a few more wins and the same number of championships. Then he retired to have one of the best lives you could possibly have, including his Sky TV gig.
Many feel that the team would be looking out for #1, and he wasn't it and he knew it.
and let's not forget Button racing from last to first in the epic 2011 Canada GP.
The guy finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the points during 17 seasons, and was in the top 5 in five of them, with several mid-field finishes through his career. Not great, but respectable.
1955 rules for all motorsports. you couldn't keep me away
I was three but already a car nut. By the late '50s I was aware of racing and loving it.