118 Comments
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Spaniel Felson's avatar

Sign up.

It's the right thing to do.

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Boom's avatar

The 'real mercedes' had some luck and some track characteristics on their side.

I don't think Leclerc has anywhere to go, maybe in the new formula for Audi, although I doubt it.

Logan Sargent has been very quietly impressive.

Money not being the major hurdle, I'd run the radical, even if just as a shakedown/practice wheel to wheel racing type deal.

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dejal's avatar

He also the best that Ferrari could stick in a seat that might be available. LC will be there until the end of his contract. Sainz is a different story. Sainz might be told that the party is over.

Leclerc would have to shoot his way out of town to the tune of paying millions to leave. Beyond what they would have paid him. Not just even money most likely paid to whomever he signed on with. Petulance wouldn't be enough for Ferrari to let him go.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Leclerc sends the right message to Ferrari buyers, anyway -- although the terrible $300 bracelets he's selling on Instagram probably aren't helping his image.

He could basically be the Jean Alesi of this decade.

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Scott A's avatar

300 dollars for a bracelet, that's just some ignorant bitch shit

I call that getting swindled and pimped shit

I call that getting tricked by a business

That bracelet is hella dope

And having the same one as six other people in this club is a hella don't

I apologize in advance for this

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Oh no you did not!

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

The man lives well.

Monegasque native, Ferrari driver, Armani model, Riva ambassador, Richard Mille piece unique giftee. He spends his free time driving his Pista Spyder around Monaco and taking his Riva Ribelle out on the Med with friends.

Meanwhile, Max spends his - and bear in mind they are practically neighbors! - sim racing and burping Daniil “Torpedo” Kvyat’s daughter with Kelly Piquet.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Yeah, I can afford to do it, I'm just prideful. I don't want my son to look at the results ten years from now and I think I was a Lieberman-tier driver.

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Boom's avatar

That would be incredibly thin skinned of you, and vain. If thats the best you can do, I'd look down on you TODAY.

I'm sure you son's opinion of you isn't swayed by a single race, run partially in jest.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

You're right -- it's not an admirable way for me to think.

I registered for the race.

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Scott A's avatar

#bullyingworks

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tinman93's avatar

Having a son about 10 years older than yours, I can promise you he will be monumentally uninterested in what you were doing 10 years ago if it didn’t directly impact his life.

As he should be.

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Luke Ibis's avatar

Pretty sure he knows you’re not. I don’t see Lieberman out doing lead-follow downhill MTB with whatever creature he calls son.

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Scott A's avatar

Your son is going to be too busy doing his own shit 10 years from now to look at your race results. Run the race.

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Joe's avatar

Based on what you have written in the past, I think your son knows how to evaluate all the cars in competition, and assess which ones stood a chance, and which ones did not. You bought the car, you might as well race it. No telling what you may learn. Perhaps even something to pass on to your son.

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Colin's avatar

I don’t believe that’s the way kids think.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Leclerc needs to leave Ferrari. They are adrift with the clash among Vasseur, Vigna (CEO), and Elkann. Too corporate. They would likely take him back if he left on good terms.

Hulk to Ferrari HAS been rumored.

Newey signed a new Red Bull contract. I believe RBR is the ONLY team to win titles across three different formulae in the modern era with periods of dominant performance.

I knew JB secretly enjoyed the Met Gala!

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Gianni's avatar

Wouldn’t it be great if Hulk took number 27 back to Ferrari.

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Shortest Circuit's avatar

So... nothing new with Ferrari. They were always like that. It's just they need to find a team boss that can sweet-talk The Board while running the F1 effort. Problem is the last guy that was able to do that is a managing director at F1 now.

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Andy's avatar

Sitting here waiting for my haircut, scissors only please. Just thinking about the crap race in Baku and here on cue is another article. You're better than Google news.

I'm going to the Canadian GP in a few weeks, but the show is getting a bit stale. Ticket prices are out of control even going back 4 or 5 years since we started going to COTA. I can drive to Montreal from Maine where I'm ensconced in the summer, but damn, it will still cost me and my son $4000 or so to do some grandstands and stay 3 nights.

Or I can see the Detroit GP for maybe $100 including transpo.

There better be a red flag or two.

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dejal's avatar

Back in the 1980s. The grandstand in turn 7. There were a couple of large trees behind the stands. A couple of years in a row I met up with a crew out of Boston. We had general admission seats. One year we climbed the trees even to the top of the stands and then grabbed onto the stand and got into the top row. 40 years younger than now (and pretty stupid).

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Scott A's avatar

Telling the stories of our stupidity in our youth keeps us young in spirit. I bet you had a blast

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dejal's avatar

Sainz has probably talked to Ric about cars not to his liking and not knowing exactly how to describe what's wrong with the car.

You mentioned about Hamilton: strategy, team leadership, or Schumacher-style thoughtfulness. He may have had those things years ago. It maybe a use it or lose it situation. If you don't have to use them for years on end, they will atrophy.

Danny Ric at the Met is cringe. Just watched some video clips. I love how the Lumpen (the help) and the photogs are all masked up. It seems like a very snotty thing for our "Betters" to do.

No mention of Vettel going to Goodwood with a couple of historic GP cars that will use CLEAN MAN-MADE Gasoline? Remember, "NO TAR SANDS!" "SAVE THE BEES!".

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Jack Baruth's avatar

"I love how the Lumpen (the help) and the photogs are all masked up. It seems like a very snotty thing for our "Betters" to do."

Ah, but they must LOVE IT. No chance of being upstaged by a gorgeous cater-waiter.

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dejal's avatar

Imagine thinking during your work shift that night. "I feel like a Gimp. I'm surprised we aren't wearing rubber hoods with zippers instead of masks that don't work".

I see those people and all I can think of is the late Karl Lagerfeld and "The Chocolate Room".

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Shortest Circuit's avatar

Kubrick tried to warn us with "Eyes Wide Shut", as it turns out...

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dejal's avatar

They don't even try to hide it anymore. The sycophants in the public are all green with envy.

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silentsod's avatar

You know I'm here to talk about different race series:

MotoAmerica's Superbike had an absolutely phenomenal start with reigning champion, Jake Gagne, and past champions Cam Beaubier and Josh Herrin going toe to toe and showcasing the different strengths of the bikes (Yamaha getting smoked on big straights with a 10MPH delta as expected). Races one and two were thrill rides from the word go and it is excellent to see such competitiveness at the top end (h/t to Cam Petersen and Mat Scholtz who are hanging in so far).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEVNPGnZCXE

The King of the Bagger series is entertaining to watch with domination from Kyle Wyman continuing but real rubbing and racing going on further down and the flat track guys backing these 600+lb bikes through corners.

https://youtu.be/3wNLJ8x7vec?t=108

In MotoGP - they completely screwed up my free trial to paid subscription roll over. There is no ability to refund a difference so they are refunding my entire subscription. We'll see if I need to sign back up when the refund goes through!

Great racing out at Jerez with KTM's riders showing outstanding starts and incredible speed. Bagnaia's patience paid off at the end and he clinched the top spot. There were incidents going into the first few turns and some injuries. Otherwise great racing, and I'm hopeful Yamaha puts something together to get their old champion back into competitive form because right now they are struggling in qualifying and races where Fabio is having to work his way through a bunch of the field just to make points.

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Dave Ryan's avatar

Absolutely with you; except “Baggers”. I find that completely idiotic.

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silentsod's avatar

I enjoy low brow humor and no surprise I like seeing those big ass custom bikes rip around the track. I think electronics are limited as well, if I read the regulations PDF correctly, which I find an added bonus.

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Dave Ryan's avatar

It’s akin to a 40 yard dash with guys in suits of armor.

Absurd.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Alternately, it's like watching people in family sedans race on the beach, which used to the whole idea behind NASCAR!

Baggers lead the market nowadays. It makes a sort of crude sense to race 'em.

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Dave Ryan's avatar

Except there were no real alternatives to the sedans back then (in the US). And they were stripped down as much as possible.

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David Florida's avatar

I'm not certain of the facts but I feel like the fairings and 'saddlebags' on KotB machines are not standard parts and probably lack Bluetooth connectivity, among other desired features... but I agree the class is ridiculous. At least, it will be until Ducati, Honda, KTM and Yamaha also have entries!

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Will's avatar

But it is hilarious to watch

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silentsod's avatar

It really is

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Dave Ryan's avatar

It makes me sad

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Will's avatar

MotoGP is lit. Sign up. Best racing series by far

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Dave Ryan's avatar

I assume “lit” means good.

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Will's avatar

Yessir

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Drunkonunleaded's avatar

I didn't know that bagger racing existed. Couldn't care less about them as street bikes, but something about watching guys race these things is fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

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Mr. Ed's avatar

Run the race. If they're butter-soft, I doubt you'll be DFL; worst case, you'll be next-to-DFL...

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Josh Howard's avatar

Oh they gonna break or push too hard and crash.

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Mr. Ed's avatar

🤣🤣🤣 ain't that the truth!

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JMcG's avatar

The Marlboro F1 cars and GP bikes were the best looking racing liveries after the demise of national colors. I’ll accept arguments for the John Player Specials and Yamaha’s Yellow, black, and white.

Bring back tobacco money!

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Jack Baruth's avatar

The Yamaha livery is an all-time great.

Sometimes when I drink too much I think about having an FJR1300 done in that scheme.

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Dave Ryan's avatar

My favorite is the L&M livery on the WSBK Ducati of Ben Bostrom in ‘01 and ‘02. That gorgeous Tamburini designed bike, blue frame and wheels, wow!

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Joshua Fromer's avatar

I’ve been a fan of Yuki since his F2 days. My prediction is he retains his seat at AT for 2024. He’ll most likely being paired with Liam Lawson with Nyck going to sports cars and Herta being left to wonder what if.

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burgersandbeer's avatar

How is your PR6 in the same class as cars likely to outpace you by 11+ seconds per lap?

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I'm glad you asked!

The PR6 is a development of the Prosport, which is a development of the Clubsport, which was very much a street-legal car. In Europe, it used to run in a walled garden of Radicals and similar vehicles.

Over here, it runs SCCA P2, which is a class for real built-from-the-ground-up race cars. The majority of P2 cars are converted formula cars with far less frontal area than my car, but there are also a few carbon monocoques that play the game. The class itself is an uneasy compilation of the old C and D Sports Racer classes.

Compared to a competitive P2 car, I'm heavier, much more brick-shaped, and a little unsophisticated suspension-wise. But even so I could get to within 4-5 seconds of the front-runners if I did what they do, namely: drop $25k on a proper George Dean racing engine. Instead, I have a $4,000 rebuild of a junkyard Hayabusa 1299.

Fifteen years ago, a couple of wealthy dudes with an ax to grind managed to get their PR6es to the front of the Runoffs -- but shortly afterwards the rules were changed to allow a broader variety of cars in, many of which are far faster.

To put it in perspective, a good Stohr with a George Dean or Rilltech is perhaps 2 seconds a lap behind an LMP3 car. The optimization in sports racers has been astounding.

Why'd I buy my little Radical in the first place? Because I got it for twelve grand including a trailer. What I didn't quite realize was that it would take that much again, and three solid years, to make it even close to right. But even so, I'm at a quarter of what a real competitive P2 car would cost. My Radical is worth half as much as my wife's Miata.

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burgersandbeer's avatar

I think you should enter. Sounds like a win is all but impossible, but finishing ahead of any of those cars would be hilarious.

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Scott A's avatar

Red bull dominating is going to get old but Still better than Mercedes’ dominating. I cant imagines toto obsequiousness to Hamilton if the same situation put russel in first and hamilton in Second. Checo seems to know his place and Red bull seems to be happy letting him get a few wins for being a good teammate.

Does it sound like the espn guys are calling him sean leclerc to anyone else? I’m sure it’s pronunciation issue of sharles instead of charles but i just hear sean.

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Gianni's avatar

I love it that a maker of sugary drinks beats zee mighty Grr-mans.

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Scott A's avatar

Austrians owning germans is nothing new

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Jack Baruth's avatar

"Red bull dominating is going to get old but Still better than Mercedes’ dominating."

For me, the primary difference is that Adrian Newey doesn't know how to build a reliable car. There's always a chance that the Red Bull will break or misbehave, compared to the hybrid era Mercedes which were basically Toyota Camry reliable.

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Scott A's avatar

That Mercedes can make a reliable f-1 car and not a reliable daily driver is hilarious to me. Yeah, “reliable” is context dependent. Im sure Lewis hamilton goes to bed on Sunday nights thinking “At least i have the most reliable car” sign me up for a couple Red Bull dnf to make this interesting.

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dejal's avatar

MB could be a bit conservative with the car because they had the engine. RB didn't have the engine for many years so they had to be on the edge with the car. I'm not sure who to attribute the drive shaft/gear box (or so we are told) this year to.

Reliable they still may be. But Baku 1 year ago, they were screaming that the bouncing was going to get someone killed. This year they are complaining there's not enough D/F which happened this year because last year they were screaming that the bouncing was going to get someone killed.

Could be worse. They could be Alpine.

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Joe's avatar

I remember way back when SpeedVision (or SPEED) used to cover F-1, and Steve Matchett was saying how, when Newey switched from Williams to McLaren, McLaren guys were complaining to Williams guys about the car always breaking. They asked Williams guys how they dealt with it. Williams guys told 'em they took Newey designs, and beefed everything up by 20%. Apparently McLaren guys did the same, which ended up working well.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I heard that as well! Funny how things stick in the memory.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

If you haven’t read his book, I highly recommend it.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I own it. He's an odd duck. Complete mess as a club racer.

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Dave Ryan's avatar

The Sky commentators pronounce Leclerc’s first name “Sharl”— which is probably close to the way he pronounces it.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard di Resta say “mee-jum”. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Context revealed it when he talked of changing from the soft to the mee-jum. Oh, medium.

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Scott A's avatar

I’m going to start calling him shuck

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Will's avatar

Wash rinse repeat. Never any racing, just dominating.

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Fat Baby Driver's avatar

Weekend after next I'll be driving in my local SCCA region time trials at MSR Houston. I took the last 2 years off from competitive events to focus on driving schools. I've gone from sloppy 1:59s to consistent 1:52s in a stock M235i in that time. I'll see if that's enough for T2.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Pretty dammed good; I turned a couple 1:49s there in a stock 944 Turbo once but I had fresh tires. Did a lot of 2:03s in a four-speed drum brake Neon, though!

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Fat Baby Driver's avatar

Thanks! Say, what subscription level do you need for some remote coaching? ;-) Here's a fun lap from the PCA event last month wherein I harass some much more expensive metal https://youtu.be/49vNHnI6tZ4?t=340

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Dave Ryan's avatar

Goodness gracious, that was a horribly boring F1 race. The most exciting thing was Ocon pitting through all those morons wandering in pit lane.

Silentsod is right: MotoGP!!!

Hell, MotoAmerica and WSBK too!

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Joe's avatar

I'm amused when I read/hear that people still follow F-1. I haven't since they first switched to the turbo/hybrid mess years ago.

Jack (or anyone reading this), I wanted to ask if you had any inside info on exactly what led to McLaren's downfall?

I know there was a "cheating scandal" triggered by Alonso when McLaren wouldn't give him preferential treatment over Hamilton - that Alonso really is a "team player."

Then, at some point Max Mosley's fetish was exposed, and it was hinted that Ron Dennis commissioned the uncovering of that. But from where I'm sitting as I type this, that all seems small potatoes.

I mean, without cheating, there'd be no F-1. So, I don't see that being the main reason. And if Ron and Max sparred one way or another, that also seems like sideline stuff. I can't escape the feeling that something much "bigger" happened behind the scenes, but what?

For a team to drop THAT far from the heights of the 1990s/early 2000s seems like a very big deal.

Has anyone heard anything?

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dejal's avatar

They lost their big sponsors. They lost Hamilton to MB. "Uncle" Ron decided to get into a dela with Honda with a size "0" car. The bodywork was a paper width from the engine. Honda got into the engine regs situation late and was always chasing where the other had already been.

Honda pointed at McLaren, M at H. With only one team that made it hard.

Alonso called the engine a GP2 engine. Was it in Spain, the car broke down, can't remember if the race, FPs or Qs. He ended up in the cheap seats sunning himself in someone's lawn chair.

In addition the money behind McLaren wasn't happy. Bring in Zak Brown. I consider Brown the Billy Martin of F1, without the dickish attitude. He dragged McLaren to respectability but can't close the deal to the front of the pack.

Early Zak days, they dump Honda for Renault. Zak had to shake the money tree in the Middle East. I also believe sold the property and leased it back.

They find out the car was a piece of crap. Meanwhile the GP2 engine which was a piece of crap goes to RB + AT. AT was told, yeah it's going to break. Yeah, you will take penalties for engine and battery replacements. Suck it up.

Renault gets dumped. MB comes in. The car all by itself is better than it had been in years. Danny Ric comes on board. In the dog and pony show of the driver lineup pre-season. He does his best Ivan Drago impression based on "I Must Break You". He was brought in to teach the "Kid", Lando Norris. 1st year Ric gets a win that was mostly a gift. Other than that is lost. 2nd year he's also lost and can't explain why he is slow nor what he needs. "Fanboys" say, "The car doesn't suit him". Zak pays him I believe $10,000,000 to go away. Danny Ric sign on with RB again to be their brand Ambassador and possible sim driver, and stand in driver.

Danny Ric goes to the Met Gala and takes Horderves from the help, who have to wear masks so the swells can think of them as sub-humans.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I don't know what else to add. You've covered it.

I'd argue that the root cause was the Ron Dennis ego and inability to consider a succession plan. He saw Bernie coasting along in his seventies and figured he'd be a fool to retire at sixty. But he should have.

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dejal's avatar

The only one team for the engine was the dumbest decision both side agreed to. It wasn't the old days anymore. If they had a 2nd team on board, they would have found out if it was the car, the engine or both by comparing their results to a completely different car and management of the team to get the most out everything.

Dennis, if the stars aligned like before was hoping that the exclusive use of the engine would result in the 2 entities past glory. He wanted it all for himself.

Ron Dennis sold his stake for £275m in 2017. The cars were blank with little to no sponsorship during his final years running the show. He was 70 at the time. Bernie is going to live to 193 years old. The rest us won't. Thief, fraud, cheat, ringmaster, whatever, he's unique.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Root cause was Ron’s stubbornness regarding the team’s sponsorship rate card, which led to a season with a car bereft of sponsors (or prize money from the prior year).

So they slid down the proverbial greasy pole.

Zak Brown got hired because of his considerable marketing nous. Look at the McLaren now - it looks like Ricky Bobby’s NASCAR.

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dejal's avatar

Brown gets a ton of shade, but I give me all the credit in the world to get them back to semi-respectable last year. He beat the bushes for sponsors. That take a lot of hard work. The purists think all it takes is love for the sport. It takes money and now takes the ability to spend it wisely.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

One thing that he did - which will manifest itself in painful fashion shortly - is cut the rate card for many sponsors if the team finishes below a certain treshold in the constructors championship.

I know this firsthand - a college friend of mine works for Brown-Forman and put executed the deal that put the Jack Daniels logo on the side of the nose. Educated guess that’s about ~$7 million a year (includes placement on drivers’ and mechanics suits’ as well as many Paddock Club tickets at key races) … but only if McLaren finishes 5th or better as a team.

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Joe's avatar

Though I'm replying in this spot, I want to thank everyone to chimed in. There are a few things I wanted to ... discuss further?

(1) "They lost their big sponsors." Okay, but why? The cheating scandal? Again, that seems difficult for me to accept. I'm not disputing they got some proprietary info, and such, but every team does it. Was it embarrassing? Yeah. But to lose "their big sponsors," as stated - seems a bit much to me. But I could be wrong.

(2) "The Ron Dennis ego and inability to consider a succession plan." I would very much agree with that. I don't know enough to say whether it was his ego, or simply lack of available people of a sufficient caliber. There's always poaching going on.

(3) I haven't seen this mentioned, but I've heard that their deal with Mercedes soured over the SLR. Could Mercedes have "poisoned" the sponsors' interest? And perhaps poached them later? Again, dunno.

All the other things mentioned, while perfectly valid, I feel were the fallout of whatever caused ... the fallout. For example, methinks LewisH left because he knew something we still don't. The real downfall started after that, but Lewis seemed to jump ship in oh-so-perfectly timed manner. Such timing is so rare, I have a difficult time believing he didn't have some "insider info", which we still don't. Things like that.

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John Lock's avatar

Drag Queen is now being used by the United States Navy to help recruiting. Why would anyone join the military these days to go die in a foreign war so we can be the world leading exporter of sodomy and degeneracy.

Who would want to be the elite of a nation like ours?

https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/01/us-navy-drag-queen-recruitment/

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Scott A's avatar

The bright side of sending our troons vs the russians is the casualties are going to be 99% troon but I’m not sure this is the place to bring it up

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John Lock's avatar

News cycle is so rapid these days

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Henry C.'s avatar

They won't be sending the troons to the front.

News is the ukies are press-ganging men over 60 now. Winning.

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JMcG's avatar

Navy SQUEALs.

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dejal's avatar

I read posts by the DQ (now known as Dairy Queen in my head) where the DQ comes across as someone with the IQ of 70 who can't spell half the words correctly. I know people abbreviate but what I saw was beyond that. They essentially got an idiot to do this.

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Spaniel Felson's avatar

I initially misread this as "drag RACING" and I was so, so confused.

Upon re-reading, I was not confused anymore. Just deeply sad.

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Will's avatar

Ricciardo has always sucked, got lucky one year. Lewis needs the best car and no completion to win, Max has the most skill, Checo is average, Alonso is legit, I apologize for not liking him sooner, Asian drivers are well, can’t say it, Russell is fine, Norris is a pay driver, stroll needs to be out of F1 any nascar driver would be better than him, MotoGP is still lit and F1 is the same as it ever was.

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Will's avatar

Leclerc is a wonderful qualifier but terrible racer, same as Bottas.

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unsafe release's avatar

Chuckie has outraced all of his teammates in F1, one of whom is a four time champion. His Sunday results for the last couple of seasons have been more indicative of poor team strategy calls, engine reliability, and tire degradation.

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Scott A's avatar

Say it!

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Will's avatar

I mean, you know.

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Scott A's avatar

This one i dont!

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Will's avatar

Common stereotype of Asian drivers

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Ice Age's avatar

What signal to cross eight lanes? Okay, here I go! Good luck, everybody!

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unsafe release's avatar

Asian drivers have historically suffered in F1 as the series is heavily Eurocentric. US drivers have experienced this as well. If you’re not in that clique, it’s very challenging to get into a top team and have a shot at winning races.

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Will's avatar

Might be right, but Kyle Larson is probably a better driver than all of F1 anyway. Same for Chase Elliot. Then again, Asian drivers have the backing of manufacturers and yet still nothing. Look at Takaaki Nakagami in MotoGP, I think he crashes almost every race.

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unsafe release's avatar

….and Kyle is part Asian 😁

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