Wednesday Racing Thread
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This weekend was spent trying to figure out everything my SR8 needs to be leak-free and well-behaved this weekend, which kept me and three crewmembers up until Australian qualifying and GP times both nights. So we got to see the restart mess live!
Thoughts, in no particular order:
Is it time to re-evaluate Lewis Hamilton? Seems like an odd question to ask after a weekend in which he got a podium and most “Driver Of The Day” kudos, but let’s face it: it took two strokes of bad luck for George Russell not to finish ahead of him yet again. Truthfully, Hamilton doesn’t have all that great a record against his co-drivers. In his rookie year, he precisely matched Fernando Alonso — but he had the uneqivocal support of the team, including Ron Dennis. Jenson Button beat him on points. Rosberg beat Lewis to a championship in the one year they really let him loose. And now Russell is taking him to school yet again. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas, the one teammate whom Hamilton could always exceed, is being publicly spanked by a Chinese pay driver to a degree that The Chosen One rarely if ever managed. Obviously Lewis is in the first rank of modern era drivers — but let’s be real; if you put Pastor Maldonado in the Mercedes from 2013 to today, he’d probably be a five-time WDC. The only way George doesn’t toast him in 2022 is if they keep giving the youngster the engines that blow up.
Will the Red Bull be reliable? The pace is impossible to ignore — but so are the various nagging issues from driveshaft to brakes. Max and Sergio have both been vocal on the radio about problems with the car. This is the downside of an Adrian Newey design; they’re all fast as hell but things occasionally get “optimized” right into misery.
Max aside, this has to be the most competitive season in years. Time and again last weekend, the top five or six cars were all from different constructors.
Look at the Williams go! Alex Albon was certainly pushing the Williams to the edge, as was demonstrated during the race, but when was the last time the team looked like they were a threat for a top-five finish?
As a non-F1 note: subscribers who will be at the Long Beach GP should drop me a line, because I might have something delightful to offer them.
as a founder i've got tickets to long beach but might hafta pass 'em to a friend if i can't make it
I missed the F1 race because I forgot about the whole Australia being in a totally different time zone thing. I did watch the Indy car race at TMS which honestly I found to be one of the most exciting motorsport races I've watched in a long time. I found the amount of clean passing and high level of racecraft to be a refreshing palate cleanser after I sat though last weekend's NASCAR race turned demolition derby at COTA.
A Note about Sir Lewis Hamilton: One of the most perplexing things I've observed about celebrities and professional athletes is their proclivity to declare themselves "humbled" when something good happens to them. Whether it's the actor taking an Oscar or the driver winning a world championship the word "humbled" always comes out of their mouths. I've alway wished I knew what its like to be "humbled" in such away. Here in the world of plebs "humbled" is an emotion often felt when things, despite ones best effort, don't work out. With that in mind, I find it refreshing and dare I say enjoyable to witness Hamilton being humbled in such a relatable way.