I wrote this on Monday, so I didn't include the replacement of Nyck de Vries with Danny Ric... your humble author has no particular affection or esteem for Ricciardo but some of you may feel differently.
It says more about a Formula E championship driver in Nyck than it does about "old man" Danny Ric. Latest thing I saw was that Danny's pace would have put him on the front row during the tire test. When Horner called Marko to talk about how the test was going, Marko made the decision immediately.
I like Danny's swag but he's old school Nascar big talker kinda guy. Says a lot that a big talker who failed at two other teams absolutely punted a percieved up and comer. Then again... can we talk about how old Nyck actually is? And, who the hell spells Nick as Nyck? The DUTCH that's who.
"There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch." -Nigel Powers
The tire test business means nothing to me. 109 laps on a potentially faster compound. I don't have 109 laps in my Radical PR6 total. That's a LOT of time to get used to a car.
Tons. Not counting all the sim time he has. Which, other than posing for pics and race commenting, it isn't like he is doing anything else with his time.
I try not to put too much stock into the tire tests, but it is telling how quickly this all went down. It isn't this year that'll be drama filled for Red Bull, I'm starting to think it is next year. There may be more than chair shuffling afoot. Which, is kind of incredible given how blessed they've been with general talent and such over the past few years. But hey, winning and money will draw people in rather quickly.
I think people who don't cycle seriously don't have any idea just how difficult it is to simply finish a major Tour, let alone compete to win. To begin with, they're typically riding 100-150 miles a day for three weeks. That's the metabolic equivalent to running a marathon every day. Also, many of those miles are spent climbing real mountains in the Alps or Pyrenees and they're climbing those mountains at a pace that serious recreational cyclists would have a hard time replicating on flat ground.
I usually ride a couple of times a week in the hills, always less than 30 mi each ride. Recently I did approx 23 mi but much of it was climbing steep roads, and I've never slept so soundly afterward. I can't imagine doing more than about 50 mi a day with any meaningful elevation change. The most enjoyment I get out of riding so far is drafting my friends on steep downhills..
I've somehow survived two century rides this year; the second with 6500' of climbing; up some of the hills at 5-8 mph; on the flats I might have hit speeds that the pro peloton hits going up an 8% climb.
In my 20's several of us rode from Seattle to San Fran along the coast - something like 950 miles in 9 days; probably at a 16-18 mph pace (we had a lot of tail winds); and we stayed in motels so traveled light. Even that is way slower than the pro tour pace.
Then make drugs legal in the race and be done with it. Landis and the drinking of the 50 water bottles desperately trying to flush his system finally made me walk away.
Yes, I stuck it out all those years previously. I'm a simpleton.
I believed in Lance because they could never get the goods on him. I thought it was a witch hunt and a "He's from America" thing.
I used to love the Tour, but I've ignored it since Landis.
The ultimate "Irony" is Armstrong's cancer might be from juicing. But it was the cancer that gave him a bit of cover in order to get juiced after he came back. And simps like me going "So strong, so brave. He has a FOUNDATION to help sick people!!!!"
Everyone in cycling is trying to get an advantage over others, whether by training, technology, or in ways we define as illegal. It's the same for every competitive sport (sign-stealing in MLB, deflate-gate in the NFL, endless examples in motorsports).
I'd agree that cyclists are edging up to the doping line, and somebody's doing something. It appears to be part of the game. It's annoying when they only get caught years after the offense.
LeMond is a hero. He won the tour, of course, AND he stuck his neck out there when no one else (of his stature, anyway) would question the mighty, self-righteous, loser Armstrong.
You make comments like you just started watching F1 not that long ago.
The announcers are NOT anti-Russell, they're just find Sir more enchanting.
Again, I wouldn't jump to conclusions on Logan Sargent either - he doesn't have the benefit of having driven three different sub classes of car across multiple years in the top tier. Just last week you were of the opinion that Piastri was worthless.
Ehh... While I'm agnostic to Danny Ric, Nyck - Electric Go Karts driven very slowly champion seemed out of his depth in F1 the whole time he was there.
He isn't. You again SOUND like someone who has not seen his lower tier performances. Norris may continue to show him the way, but the difference isn't as much as, say Max vs. Sergio. Not even close.
"You again SOUND like someone who has not seen his lower tier performances."
That's fair, because I haven't. But I also know that performance outside F1 is not necessarily indicative of performance within F1 -- in both directions. Putting on my tinfoil hat for a moment, that's by design. Everything south of F1 now is a spec car with a long timeline where all the setup is well known and it's possible to optimize for many situations. You don't have to develop the car, you always know exactly how well you are performing because there is so much data.
When you get to F1 the whole game changes and all of a sudden you're also a volunteer engineer in addition to a driver. Lando has spoken openly about the McLaren not being easy to drive. I also suspect the Red Bull is not easy to drive, and that's why it looks like the best car when Sergio drives but the BEST CAR BY FAR when Max drives it.
For the record, the same thing happens at a much lower level when people leave Spec Miata and go racing in a class where the cars are more complex, operate at a faster tempo, or are simply less well understood.
Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
None of this is news to me. Your explanation doesn't necessarily apply directly to the Norris-Piastri dynamic.
For context on how special Lando is, look at how much he showed Daniel his rear wing when they were teammates in a dog of a car. In my eyes he is second ONLY to Max in terms of raw talent on he grid.
Considering that this was the first time Piastri has driven the updated spec hardware, and that practice was very much a mixed bag due to the changing conditions, he did remarkably well for his relative lack of experience. The gap at the end of Q3 wasn't large.
Ohh and I might know a thing or two about how much the spec series are spec, and how 'everyone knows' what the setup is. It's not as tilted as F1, but there is still a scale. For some homework, look up how many F3 and F2 champions happen to have driven for Prema in the last decade. If everyone knew how to make those cars fast on a given track, you'd see other teams feature more prominently.
And before you jump to the conclusion without looking it up that the team just 'finds' the best talent, note that Lance Stroll was one of those champions.
Time will tell, I suppose. I don't claim to be an open-wheel expert. I don't even claim to be a closed-wheel expert! Just a club racer in a car that barely has F3 pace.
Having had NO wheel to wheel experience, I don't know the nuances of the million things drivers have to learn, unlearn and adapt to as they go to different classes. But I have some eyes and ears on the engineering side, and could have worked in F1 myself, if I had sacrificed everything else in life. I have close friends who made different choices, so I get behind the scenes info from time to time.
This is another reason why Alonso is probably the best in a wide generation. He's immediately competitive at whatever he has touched so far.
His data at the 24 hrs of Lemans showed HOW MUCH faster he was over the ENTIRE stint than the regulars that had been driving and testing that car for years before he got involved.
Everyone’s talking about how quick the McLaren became overnight, but outside of Lando’s blindingly fast launch at the start, is it possible they just optimized their setup for a wet/dry race and the rest of the grid messed it up?
No. Before the weekend Mika Hakkinen made a comment to the effect of 'I expect Mclaren to be back where they belong very soon based on what I've seen', and I take his word at face value, cause one thing he's not, is a bullshitter.
Also, the Mclaren is now the car that most mimicks the Red Bull design philosophy more than any other on the grid.
Just one week ago I suggested the following course of action for Messrs. Marko and Horner:
“0-Dutch Cherub Nyck de Vries is sent back to Formula E or WEC with immediate effect
1-In the vacated AlphaTauri, the remaining ~13 races of the season are shared among (a) Danny Ric, (b) Liam Lawson, (c) Alex Palou; Danny Ric should be “race fit” and the most prepared, so let him have a go today, then Lawson, then have Palou finish up the season after he wins his second IndyCar title (Zak Brown can have a taste of his own medicine and lose Palou as a test driver)
2-The winner of the “shoutout” gets the second seat next to Yuki Tsunoda for 2024
3-At the end of this season, Helmut sends Checo back to Mexico where he can enjoy a lengthy, Tequila-fueled siesta
4-The second Red Bull seat will go to the final boss, the ultimate trickster, perhaps the only person who could hang with Max over the course of a title fight - Fernando, who would gladly leave the Strollercoaster for a final title tilt
5-When Fernando is ready to retire, he can slide right into either the Helmut Marko role (who is ~80 years old now) or the Christian Horner seat, who will by that time be ready to succeed Domenicali as the F1 CRH CEO; recall that Horner is a close Bernie ally, and that Bernie still exercises considerable FIA influence”
Steps 1,2,3 appear as if they are already in motion given that Dr. Marko defenestrated Nyckolaus yesterday after Horner called him up to relay Danny Ric’s impressive performance in the Silverstone tire (tyre?) test.
He is fundamentally a European ladder single seater driver who got stuck in Indycar because F1 is exclusive - only 20 seats.
It would be interesting to see if the best - by far - Indycar driver at present would merit a backmarker seat in F1. Crucially versus many of the other dreamers, he has the F3 and F2 experience (plus Super Formula is a nice to have, too).
Perez is safe through the Mexican GP. The “homophobic” chants (see:soccer) and bottles thrown at Horner would be off the charts. Although listening to Sky figure out what to do about that would be fantastic.
Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
MotoAmerica continues to deliver top-notch racing and entertainment! This time out at Laguna Seca, where I spent time 'crewing' as a reluctant teenager, we see the Superbike class' championship battle rage and an application of track limits come into play.
In race 1 an early crash put Cam P and Cam B out with Petersen's lowside taking out Beaubier just behind him in an unavoidable collateral hit. Gagne would proceed to wipe the field in race 1 with a 5 second gap to second place and a firm jump in the points standing. Herrin took second and his consistency continues to keep him a contender for the top spot.
Race 2 saw Beaubier come back strong on his back up bike, running a different chassis, and run impressively consistent and low track times on the newly resurfaced track. Gagne faded away into second after leading the race for most of the laps, and Herrin held off the others for a third place finish.
Race 3 proved the best of all with Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin duking it out. Gagne overcame a bike set up change and charged from far back in third place to overcome several seconds of deficit toward the end of the race. He greatly benefited from the sparring between Herrin and Beaubier, and managed to blitz into second place at the end leaving a solid gap between him and Herrin in third. However, he ran over track limits exiting 11 onto the front straight and the TWO SECOND penalty saw him relegated to third and it would have almost been fourth except for setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap and keeping Richie Escalante at bay.
Richie continues to show improvement and looks increasingly comfortable on the bike. I'm excited for him to work his way to the podium this year, it just seems like a matter of time.
Cam P's streak of misfortune continues and it is rough seeing such a friendly face consistently thwarted by technical issues or other events outside his control.
There were a lot of wrecks this year, including a nasty high side or two, and I was glad to see all the riders get away relatively Scot free. While I wasn't watching at the time, I understand there have been track fatalities on bikes in recent memory there.
Speaking of wrecks, one of the most surprising moments came in King of the Baggers where Tyler O'Hara and Kyle Wyman were duking it out and O'Hara lost the front going into 11 on the last lap. I thought to myself, "Kyle's wrapped it up" only to see Kyle's bike slide into frame a moment later! Gillum took first, Rispoli second, and O'Hara ended up 4th after getting his bike up and running!
I was there watching this and other than Superbikes, I don't remember the results of any of the other races! Me and a friend go every year and, in my defense, we treat the race weekend as a good reason to camp out on Fox Hill and drink the day away...something I don't usually do watching races at home!
I'm absolutely not a fan of big baggers but love the racing going on in KotB. It's brought in a crowd that's changed the demographic of Cannery Row but if their money keeps these races coming to Seca then I'm all for it!
Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
Nice, I think, God willing, Laguna will be where I take the kids and gramps to attend a Superbike weekend even if it's not the closest to my abode. Might be able to convince my sister and her husband to visit since they're in state but a few hours away.
We'll see! Best laid plans of mice and men and all.
I expect Seca to be around for a while. After the whole thing with the county kicking SCRAMP out, I was really worried. I was certain the county was posturing to try and shut the track down so they could sell development rights. With the money going into the track, though, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
Even though Laguna Seca may be sticking around, I'm not so sure about motorcycle racing's future in America...at least on the national level. I've been making the trip from Reno, NV to Monterey every year for the last 13 years (missing only one) and have seen the crowds dwindling. This year seemed like a pretty dismal turnout so I'm worried MotoAmerica won't generate enough ticket sales to be able to book Seca in the future.
I did notice the crowd was paltry in the stands along the front straight.
I do wonder what it is about the motorsport that isn't drawing people in. Not enough motorcyclists? I didn't watch at all until I started riding. Well, some Supercross as a kid but that was a long time ago.
Lack of motorcyclists is I'm sure a factor. I watched NASCAR as a kid, then didn't pay much attention to motorsports until my wife got me a track day in a spec miata for my birthday last year. I binged DTS over the winter and started watching F1 this year along with occasional IMSA and MX-5 Cup races. I haven't watched a minute of Moto GP even though everyone says it's awesome racing. I think knowing just enough about auto racing to know just how much better than me the top drivers are is part of the fun. My risk/reward calculus will never get me on a bike and definitely not push the limit on a track. Spinning a miata was a learning experience that was scary for a few seconds, losing a bike would be life altering.
" I'm worried MotoAmerica won't generate enough ticket sales to be able to book Seca in the future."
People book Seca for trackdays. It's something like $15k a day, maybe $50k for a weekend with parking. You don't need to sell that many tickets to make it work.
I thought the truck race was really entertaining - looking forward to seeing them in-person at Pocono shortly. By way of positive feedback, I thought Jamie Little did (does) an excellent job with her play-by-play duties. It felt like watching a race with someone who was knowledgeable and could relay the action casually and clearly, rather than someone who TELLS YOU SOMETHING AT ALL TIMES TO FILL THE SILENCE. Plus the broadcast seemed like they were having fun.
I do wish the cup race at Atlanta on Sunday night was able to run without the rain - it was excellent through stage 2.
I think the Danny Ric move was a great one, both for RBR, but even more so for the Drive to Survive producers. NDV sucked and was boring, so no loss there. Now we get what looks like a 3 way battle for the second Red Bull seat for 2024 between Perez, Ric, and Yuki. I think Perez is done for sure after his contract ends at the end of 24, but if doesn't get his head straight and get podiums behind Max the rest of the season, he's out for 24 too.
This obviously do or die for Ricciardo and Tsunoda too. If Ric doesn't crush Tsunoda by the end of the year, his chances to get a ride with a competitive team are done for good. A backmarker seat is probably his if he wants it though since he's super popular thanks to Netflix. We'll also find out if the AT is really a tractor Tsunoda's valiantly fighting or if he's just bad but Nyck was worse. Personally I don't think Tsunoda will ever be top team #1 driver material.
The bigger longer term question to me is what's Red Bull's post Max plan. He's under contract until 2028, and I think there's a very strong chance he retires when it's over. Do they go with trying to promote the next big star now or get another solid #2 for a few years. I'd love to see Alonso v Max, but I think that's pretty unlikely. Alonso has shown he's willing to be paid to be #2 at this point, but I bet that would change if he had a car capable of winning his 3rd WDC.
All in all, if you just ignore Max driving away in Formula 0.5, this is quite the entertaining and competitive season.
Nah, Montoya was ripped for being not good at NASCAR, and Larson and Elliot are in a different class. No one has ever tried, they’d probably need a year though, but if a season is lost, why not try them?
Elliott is unprofessional. He has missed SEVEN races this year due to breaking his leg (6) and then a race ban after an incident (1). If an F1 driver were forced to miss SIX races because he broke his leg while snowboarding he would be in breach of contract, and would effectively be told “fuck off and never come back.”
Juri Vips - who is NOT a native English speaker - got sent to Siberia for employing some, uh, non-brand safe language on a live stream. Why would Larson be treated otherwise?
IMDB summary of Brad Pitt's Untitled Formula One Racing Movie:
"Follows a Formula One driver who comes out of retirement to mentor and team with a younger driver."
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before......
IMDB summary of the 4.6/10 rated movie DRIVEN:
"A young hot shot driver is in the middle of a championship season and is coming apart at the seams. A former CART champion is called in to give him guidance."
Good thing Hollywood has long lost its reputation for originality, or I'd be genuinely let down.
It's Driven, except it's a Black young driver so unlike Kip Pardue's half-decent portrayal of Jimmy Bly this fellow will be prohibited from having any faults or negative qualities.
Hopefully there will be a Strong Woman who will solve all of the engineering problems that the old white men couldn’t figure out. Can’t leave out THE MESSAGE.
Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
Hey at least F1 was exciting this week, so there's that. MotoGP was too (as usual). EDIT THERE WAS NO MOTOGP, I watched a recording on my tv, i'm an idiot.
In other news Ferrari made an SUV, apparently their suspension is "next generation" or whatever and they sold out because they couldn't sell enough cars? Man MBA's ruin everything. What do we have left? I wish people actually understood brand equity. sigh.
Watching Hingorani wreck Thompson, I'm sitting here reflecting on how beautiful Mid-Ohio is with the sun setting behind the trees so that most of the backstraight is shaded, and I'm missing the hell out of my dad. We'd go up there to spectate in the 80s and he wouldn't think of leaving until the last engine had fallen silent for the day. Then we'd walk back to the car and eat sandwiches and sip cold drinks and watch the corner workers close down their stations while we waited for the traffic jam out of the infield to ease up. God, I loved it. Didn't matter what was running, CART, IMSA, even sixty Renault Le Cars, if I was watching with Dad.
way too long and diaphanous to try to discuss here--but i don't like mid-ohio. absolutely no reason; fine people, entertaining track. what's with me? without going into detail do any other drivers have a strange inexplicable emotional attraction/dislike for a particular track?
Awesome list. As a spectator I like most of those. I think Spa may be my favorite and for American tracks, I enjoy Road America. Interested in understanding the driver's perspective of why the former is in your top list and the latter is at the bottom.
And here I was just thinking about how much I enjoy Mid-Ohio as a track, and what a miserable pain in the arse it was to get there back when I was watching Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy tear it up.
I'm just curious how many of these were writing related vs your own cars or race teams. Also how many have you gotten to race on vs testing/track day/etc.
For someone that is very new to HPDE and lives east of the Mississippi, any thoughts on a top 3 list of tracks to drive? Or maybe a list of 3 to avoid! I want to learn and just get more comfortable being on track in general.
Might be already aware but there's a new track under construction about 50 mins west, called Flatrock. Supposed to be opening this month apparently, and looks to be a proper joint.
So, I sort of liked F1 during college when BAR Honda was a team, and when we moved to Japan I had every intention of going to a Japanese Grand Prix... except we had to get married and start making babies because my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the company I worked for went bankrupt barely more than a month in. In other words, I had a lot of other things going on that took my attention, so I didn't keep up with F1 until this year because of these columns. Last week I found out that RBR uses Honda engines so I decided to root for them, and then Verstappen is a winner, so that made the choice even easier, but this: "Max Verstappen... expressed annoyance and a general who-gives-a-shit attitude regarding the presence of Brad Pitt and Brad Pitt’s movie..."
Brad Pitt may or may not be a cool guy, but Max's attitude is the attitude I'd take if he were to walk into my office (I'd be especially annoyed if he made me do actual work, like the work my job entails). So I can relate to the current best professional F1 driver on a personal level.
Imagine being so secure in who you are, what you've accomplished, and what you are worth that the presence of a top-five bankable movie star in your immediate vicinity is an ANNOYANCE. Because he is doing a movie PRETENDING to be someone like you.
Know who else felt that way? Steve McQueen, who complained that acting was "phony" and that it was only worthwhile because it put him in a race car.
Not sure Newman felt the same way about acting as McQueen did but I certainly enjoyed many a race weekend watching PLN ply his "second" trade at one of your irrationally despised race tracks, where I'll be weekend after next.
smoking weed was like that great comedic actor on the madtv show on friday nights who played a kid in shorts--he'd say look what i can do and make a goofy little jump. aren't we being naughty! how sophomoric.
"making babies because my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the company I worked for went bankrupt"
I can kind of understand wanting your MiL to get to meet grandchildren and vice versa, but how does corporate bankruptcy cause procreation? Just more time for sex?
Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
More or less. Corporate bankruptcy was another nail in the coffin of my desire to see an F1 race in person while I lived in Japan. The babies were much more important in the end, it turns out.
EDIT: I could have edited my post so it was clearer.
.... and Albon beat the Ferraris to the finish. What just happened?
I’m 100% with you on promoting Yuki to RB. In fact, why not do it now? Give him half a season to figure the car/team out and then go nuts in ‘24. Nothing to lose with Max on his way to single-handedly capturing the drivers and constructors this season.
Additionally, demote Checo to AT as lead driver. AT also has nothing to lose at this stage.
If RIC smokes Yuki, then Yuki isn't RB material. RIC may not be either, but Yuki definitely wouldn't be. Checo is better than Yuki.
This is all a live audition for RB for RIC and Yuki. No idea if how much Honda has in Yuki, or even if they have any. But, when this all ends at the end of 2025, Honda and RBR are no more. Do a solid for Honda with Yuki means nothing in 2026 and beyond.
If Checo gets his head out of his behind then Checo isn't going anywhere.
I wrote this on Monday, so I didn't include the replacement of Nyck de Vries with Danny Ric... your humble author has no particular affection or esteem for Ricciardo but some of you may feel differently.
It says more about a Formula E championship driver in Nyck than it does about "old man" Danny Ric. Latest thing I saw was that Danny's pace would have put him on the front row during the tire test. When Horner called Marko to talk about how the test was going, Marko made the decision immediately.
I like Danny's swag but he's old school Nascar big talker kinda guy. Says a lot that a big talker who failed at two other teams absolutely punted a percieved up and comer. Then again... can we talk about how old Nyck actually is? And, who the hell spells Nick as Nyck? The DUTCH that's who.
"There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch." -Nigel Powers
The tire test business means nothing to me. 109 laps on a potentially faster compound. I don't have 109 laps in my Radical PR6 total. That's a LOT of time to get used to a car.
Tons. Not counting all the sim time he has. Which, other than posing for pics and race commenting, it isn't like he is doing anything else with his time.
I try not to put too much stock into the tire tests, but it is telling how quickly this all went down. It isn't this year that'll be drama filled for Red Bull, I'm starting to think it is next year. There may be more than chair shuffling afoot. Which, is kind of incredible given how blessed they've been with general talent and such over the past few years. But hey, winning and money will draw people in rather quickly.
**In walks Ford**
Frankly F1 just seems like a bad (but expensive) soap opera show; hence why most of us ignore everything about it.
I'm much more interesting in the Tour de France.
Best drugs wins! Also, if you can't ride in the mountains, you basically lose.
I think people who don't cycle seriously don't have any idea just how difficult it is to simply finish a major Tour, let alone compete to win. To begin with, they're typically riding 100-150 miles a day for three weeks. That's the metabolic equivalent to running a marathon every day. Also, many of those miles are spent climbing real mountains in the Alps or Pyrenees and they're climbing those mountains at a pace that serious recreational cyclists would have a hard time replicating on flat ground.
I usually ride a couple of times a week in the hills, always less than 30 mi each ride. Recently I did approx 23 mi but much of it was climbing steep roads, and I've never slept so soundly afterward. I can't imagine doing more than about 50 mi a day with any meaningful elevation change. The most enjoyment I get out of riding so far is drafting my friends on steep downhills..
I did 210 miles over two consecutive days, at about 24-26mph pace, when I was 27 years old. I couldn't stand the morning of the third day.
I've somehow survived two century rides this year; the second with 6500' of climbing; up some of the hills at 5-8 mph; on the flats I might have hit speeds that the pro peloton hits going up an 8% climb.
In my 20's several of us rode from Seattle to San Fran along the coast - something like 950 miles in 9 days; probably at a 16-18 mph pace (we had a lot of tail winds); and we stayed in motels so traveled light. Even that is way slower than the pro tour pace.
Then make drugs legal in the race and be done with it. Landis and the drinking of the 50 water bottles desperately trying to flush his system finally made me walk away.
Yes, I stuck it out all those years previously. I'm a simpleton.
What put me off was the way Greg LeMond was treated when he DARED to ask questions about The Chosen One Of Cycling, MR. SHERYL CROW.
I believed in Lance because they could never get the goods on him. I thought it was a witch hunt and a "He's from America" thing.
I used to love the Tour, but I've ignored it since Landis.
The ultimate "Irony" is Armstrong's cancer might be from juicing. But it was the cancer that gave him a bit of cover in order to get juiced after he came back. And simps like me going "So strong, so brave. He has a FOUNDATION to help sick people!!!!"
A lot of us were this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElXi7yDHyWo&t=6s
Is everyone in cycling still doping? My uneducated guess is "Yes"
Everyone in cycling is trying to get an advantage over others, whether by training, technology, or in ways we define as illegal. It's the same for every competitive sport (sign-stealing in MLB, deflate-gate in the NFL, endless examples in motorsports).
I'd agree that cyclists are edging up to the doping line, and somebody's doing something. It appears to be part of the game. It's annoying when they only get caught years after the offense.
I dunno that Lance is worthy of inflating Greg's tires, TBH.
Fuck Lance. Twice.
LeMond is a hero. He won the tour, of course, AND he stuck his neck out there when no one else (of his stature, anyway) would question the mighty, self-righteous, loser Armstrong.
Exactly.
And he beat both Hinault AND Fignon, which was a massive accomplishment. Whom did Mr. Crow beat, exactly?
I posted another youtube link from the same guy elsewhere in these comments. Here's your soap opera from 2 months ago after Baku.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt8cHlMckm4
You make comments like you just started watching F1 not that long ago.
The announcers are NOT anti-Russell, they're just find Sir more enchanting.
Again, I wouldn't jump to conclusions on Logan Sargent either - he doesn't have the benefit of having driven three different sub classes of car across multiple years in the top tier. Just last week you were of the opinion that Piastri was worthless.
Ehh... While I'm agnostic to Danny Ric, Nyck - Electric Go Karts driven very slowly champion seemed out of his depth in F1 the whole time he was there.
"Just last week you were of the opinion that Piastri was worthless."
Still of that opinion, actually. He looked softer than butter next to Lando.
He isn't. You again SOUND like someone who has not seen his lower tier performances. Norris may continue to show him the way, but the difference isn't as much as, say Max vs. Sergio. Not even close.
"You again SOUND like someone who has not seen his lower tier performances."
That's fair, because I haven't. But I also know that performance outside F1 is not necessarily indicative of performance within F1 -- in both directions. Putting on my tinfoil hat for a moment, that's by design. Everything south of F1 now is a spec car with a long timeline where all the setup is well known and it's possible to optimize for many situations. You don't have to develop the car, you always know exactly how well you are performing because there is so much data.
When you get to F1 the whole game changes and all of a sudden you're also a volunteer engineer in addition to a driver. Lando has spoken openly about the McLaren not being easy to drive. I also suspect the Red Bull is not easy to drive, and that's why it looks like the best car when Sergio drives but the BEST CAR BY FAR when Max drives it.
For the record, the same thing happens at a much lower level when people leave Spec Miata and go racing in a class where the cars are more complex, operate at a faster tempo, or are simply less well understood.
None of this is news to me. Your explanation doesn't necessarily apply directly to the Norris-Piastri dynamic.
For context on how special Lando is, look at how much he showed Daniel his rear wing when they were teammates in a dog of a car. In my eyes he is second ONLY to Max in terms of raw talent on he grid.
Considering that this was the first time Piastri has driven the updated spec hardware, and that practice was very much a mixed bag due to the changing conditions, he did remarkably well for his relative lack of experience. The gap at the end of Q3 wasn't large.
Ohh and I might know a thing or two about how much the spec series are spec, and how 'everyone knows' what the setup is. It's not as tilted as F1, but there is still a scale. For some homework, look up how many F3 and F2 champions happen to have driven for Prema in the last decade. If everyone knew how to make those cars fast on a given track, you'd see other teams feature more prominently.
And before you jump to the conclusion without looking it up that the team just 'finds' the best talent, note that Lance Stroll was one of those champions.
Time will tell, I suppose. I don't claim to be an open-wheel expert. I don't even claim to be a closed-wheel expert! Just a club racer in a car that barely has F3 pace.
Having had NO wheel to wheel experience, I don't know the nuances of the million things drivers have to learn, unlearn and adapt to as they go to different classes. But I have some eyes and ears on the engineering side, and could have worked in F1 myself, if I had sacrificed everything else in life. I have close friends who made different choices, so I get behind the scenes info from time to time.
Sebastien Bourdais would be the best example of fantastic driver floundering in F1 I can think of.
Exactly. He's miraculous in almost anything else.
This is another reason why Alonso is probably the best in a wide generation. He's immediately competitive at whatever he has touched so far.
His data at the 24 hrs of Lemans showed HOW MUCH faster he was over the ENTIRE stint than the regulars that had been driving and testing that car for years before he got involved.
MOTOGP is much the same. Lower classes are spec, the prototypes are something else entirely.
Everyone’s talking about how quick the McLaren became overnight, but outside of Lando’s blindingly fast launch at the start, is it possible they just optimized their setup for a wet/dry race and the rest of the grid messed it up?
No. Before the weekend Mika Hakkinen made a comment to the effect of 'I expect Mclaren to be back where they belong very soon based on what I've seen', and I take his word at face value, cause one thing he's not, is a bullshitter.
Also, the Mclaren is now the car that most mimicks the Red Bull design philosophy more than any other on the grid.
I’ve got tremendous respect for Mika. Will never forget his pass on Michael at Spa with a startled Zonta the meat in a Schumi/Hakkinen sandwich.
Besides, he's not someone that comes out of the woodwork just to whore himself like your typical has been.
Just one week ago I suggested the following course of action for Messrs. Marko and Horner:
“0-Dutch Cherub Nyck de Vries is sent back to Formula E or WEC with immediate effect
1-In the vacated AlphaTauri, the remaining ~13 races of the season are shared among (a) Danny Ric, (b) Liam Lawson, (c) Alex Palou; Danny Ric should be “race fit” and the most prepared, so let him have a go today, then Lawson, then have Palou finish up the season after he wins his second IndyCar title (Zak Brown can have a taste of his own medicine and lose Palou as a test driver)
2-The winner of the “shoutout” gets the second seat next to Yuki Tsunoda for 2024
3-At the end of this season, Helmut sends Checo back to Mexico where he can enjoy a lengthy, Tequila-fueled siesta
4-The second Red Bull seat will go to the final boss, the ultimate trickster, perhaps the only person who could hang with Max over the course of a title fight - Fernando, who would gladly leave the Strollercoaster for a final title tilt
5-When Fernando is ready to retire, he can slide right into either the Helmut Marko role (who is ~80 years old now) or the Christian Horner seat, who will by that time be ready to succeed Domenicali as the F1 CRH CEO; recall that Horner is a close Bernie ally, and that Bernie still exercises considerable FIA influence”
Steps 1,2,3 appear as if they are already in motion given that Dr. Marko defenestrated Nyckolaus yesterday after Horner called him up to relay Danny Ric’s impressive performance in the Silverstone tire (tyre?) test.
So you're suggesting an Indy Car driver to replace an F1 driver? You've come a long way sir plus the Indy Car driver would be better than you think.
He is fundamentally a European ladder single seater driver who got stuck in Indycar because F1 is exclusive - only 20 seats.
It would be interesting to see if the best - by far - Indycar driver at present would merit a backmarker seat in F1. Crucially versus many of the other dreamers, he has the F3 and F2 experience (plus Super Formula is a nice to have, too).
Agree.
That particular IndyCar driver, certainly.
I remember these comments of yours from last week. Bravo!
Defenestrated is a word not used often enough
Perez is safe through the Mexican GP. The “homophobic” chants (see:soccer) and bottles thrown at Horner would be off the charts. Although listening to Sky figure out what to do about that would be fantastic.
They're all cheering Let's Go Brandon!
Yuki in a Red Bull would certainly spice things up a bit. I’d love to see it though I fear it will never happen. Sad!
MotoAmerica continues to deliver top-notch racing and entertainment! This time out at Laguna Seca, where I spent time 'crewing' as a reluctant teenager, we see the Superbike class' championship battle rage and an application of track limits come into play.
In race 1 an early crash put Cam P and Cam B out with Petersen's lowside taking out Beaubier just behind him in an unavoidable collateral hit. Gagne would proceed to wipe the field in race 1 with a 5 second gap to second place and a firm jump in the points standing. Herrin took second and his consistency continues to keep him a contender for the top spot.
Race 2 saw Beaubier come back strong on his back up bike, running a different chassis, and run impressively consistent and low track times on the newly resurfaced track. Gagne faded away into second after leading the race for most of the laps, and Herrin held off the others for a third place finish.
Race 3 proved the best of all with Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin duking it out. Gagne overcame a bike set up change and charged from far back in third place to overcome several seconds of deficit toward the end of the race. He greatly benefited from the sparring between Herrin and Beaubier, and managed to blitz into second place at the end leaving a solid gap between him and Herrin in third. However, he ran over track limits exiting 11 onto the front straight and the TWO SECOND penalty saw him relegated to third and it would have almost been fourth except for setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap and keeping Richie Escalante at bay.
Richie continues to show improvement and looks increasingly comfortable on the bike. I'm excited for him to work his way to the podium this year, it just seems like a matter of time.
Cam P's streak of misfortune continues and it is rough seeing such a friendly face consistently thwarted by technical issues or other events outside his control.
There were a lot of wrecks this year, including a nasty high side or two, and I was glad to see all the riders get away relatively Scot free. While I wasn't watching at the time, I understand there have been track fatalities on bikes in recent memory there.
Speaking of wrecks, one of the most surprising moments came in King of the Baggers where Tyler O'Hara and Kyle Wyman were duking it out and O'Hara lost the front going into 11 on the last lap. I thought to myself, "Kyle's wrapped it up" only to see Kyle's bike slide into frame a moment later! Gillum took first, Rispoli second, and O'Hara ended up 4th after getting his bike up and running!
I was there watching this and other than Superbikes, I don't remember the results of any of the other races! Me and a friend go every year and, in my defense, we treat the race weekend as a good reason to camp out on Fox Hill and drink the day away...something I don't usually do watching races at home!
I'm absolutely not a fan of big baggers but love the racing going on in KotB. It's brought in a crowd that's changed the demographic of Cannery Row but if their money keeps these races coming to Seca then I'm all for it!
Nice, I think, God willing, Laguna will be where I take the kids and gramps to attend a Superbike weekend even if it's not the closest to my abode. Might be able to convince my sister and her husband to visit since they're in state but a few hours away.
We'll see! Best laid plans of mice and men and all.
I expect Seca to be around for a while. After the whole thing with the county kicking SCRAMP out, I was really worried. I was certain the county was posturing to try and shut the track down so they could sell development rights. With the money going into the track, though, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
Even though Laguna Seca may be sticking around, I'm not so sure about motorcycle racing's future in America...at least on the national level. I've been making the trip from Reno, NV to Monterey every year for the last 13 years (missing only one) and have seen the crowds dwindling. This year seemed like a pretty dismal turnout so I'm worried MotoAmerica won't generate enough ticket sales to be able to book Seca in the future.
I did notice the crowd was paltry in the stands along the front straight.
I do wonder what it is about the motorsport that isn't drawing people in. Not enough motorcyclists? I didn't watch at all until I started riding. Well, some Supercross as a kid but that was a long time ago.
Lack of motorcyclists is I'm sure a factor. I watched NASCAR as a kid, then didn't pay much attention to motorsports until my wife got me a track day in a spec miata for my birthday last year. I binged DTS over the winter and started watching F1 this year along with occasional IMSA and MX-5 Cup races. I haven't watched a minute of Moto GP even though everyone says it's awesome racing. I think knowing just enough about auto racing to know just how much better than me the top drivers are is part of the fun. My risk/reward calculus will never get me on a bike and definitely not push the limit on a track. Spinning a miata was a learning experience that was scary for a few seconds, losing a bike would be life altering.
" I'm worried MotoAmerica won't generate enough ticket sales to be able to book Seca in the future."
People book Seca for trackdays. It's something like $15k a day, maybe $50k for a weekend with parking. You don't need to sell that many tickets to make it work.
I hope you're right!
Good stuff until you mentioned the baggers.
Fores is killing it in Supersport (as he should vs all those kids and grandpa Hayes). Looks like another championship for the legend— Eraldo Ferracci.
On the one hand it's neat that Xavi shows up and wins on the other hand he is so dominant it's boring.
I also don't like the extended race format as a spectator: I went and did a chore and the race was still on!
When the “right bike” wins it’s never boring! And with Ferracci as team consultant; even better!
I thought the truck race was really entertaining - looking forward to seeing them in-person at Pocono shortly. By way of positive feedback, I thought Jamie Little did (does) an excellent job with her play-by-play duties. It felt like watching a race with someone who was knowledgeable and could relay the action casually and clearly, rather than someone who TELLS YOU SOMETHING AT ALL TIMES TO FILL THE SILENCE. Plus the broadcast seemed like they were having fun.
I do wish the cup race at Atlanta on Sunday night was able to run without the rain - it was excellent through stage 2.
I think the Danny Ric move was a great one, both for RBR, but even more so for the Drive to Survive producers. NDV sucked and was boring, so no loss there. Now we get what looks like a 3 way battle for the second Red Bull seat for 2024 between Perez, Ric, and Yuki. I think Perez is done for sure after his contract ends at the end of 24, but if doesn't get his head straight and get podiums behind Max the rest of the season, he's out for 24 too.
This obviously do or die for Ricciardo and Tsunoda too. If Ric doesn't crush Tsunoda by the end of the year, his chances to get a ride with a competitive team are done for good. A backmarker seat is probably his if he wants it though since he's super popular thanks to Netflix. We'll also find out if the AT is really a tractor Tsunoda's valiantly fighting or if he's just bad but Nyck was worse. Personally I don't think Tsunoda will ever be top team #1 driver material.
The bigger longer term question to me is what's Red Bull's post Max plan. He's under contract until 2028, and I think there's a very strong chance he retires when it's over. Do they go with trying to promote the next big star now or get another solid #2 for a few years. I'd love to see Alonso v Max, but I think that's pretty unlikely. Alonso has shown he's willing to be paid to be #2 at this point, but I bet that would change if he had a car capable of winning his 3rd WDC.
All in all, if you just ignore Max driving away in Formula 0.5, this is quite the entertaining and competitive season.
Nah should have poached Larson or Chase Elliot. Either of them could hump a car around a track better than Ricciardo.
Both super talented drivers but very difficult to successfully make the jump from NASCAR to F1, unlike the reverse like Montoya was able to do.
Mr Seven Times couldn’t even make it work going to IndyCar.
Nah, Montoya was ripped for being not good at NASCAR, and Larson and Elliot are in a different class. No one has ever tried, they’d probably need a year though, but if a season is lost, why not try them?
Juan Pablo not only competed in, but won races in Champcar, F1, NASCAR, and IndyCar as well as other series. Very few if any drivers can say that.
Neither of them will ever qualify for a superlicense.
Elliott is unprofessional, and Larson is sponsor cancer after his racism moment.
They’re both past champions of major racing series, they’d get in. What held Herta back was that he hasn’t won.
Elliott is unprofessional. He has missed SEVEN races this year due to breaking his leg (6) and then a race ban after an incident (1). If an F1 driver were forced to miss SIX races because he broke his leg while snowboarding he would be in breach of contract, and would effectively be told “fuck off and never come back.”
Juri Vips - who is NOT a native English speaker - got sent to Siberia for employing some, uh, non-brand safe language on a live stream. Why would Larson be treated otherwise?
I was curious if McLaren had picked up Tabasco sponsorship for Silverstone but I couldn't spot any stickers.
IMDB summary of Brad Pitt's Untitled Formula One Racing Movie:
"Follows a Formula One driver who comes out of retirement to mentor and team with a younger driver."
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before......
IMDB summary of the 4.6/10 rated movie DRIVEN:
"A young hot shot driver is in the middle of a championship season and is coming apart at the seams. A former CART champion is called in to give him guidance."
Good thing Hollywood has long lost its reputation for originality, or I'd be genuinely let down.
When I saw the Instagram post describing the movie my first action was to post it to my stories with "Wasn't this the plot of Driven?"
It's Driven, except it's a Black young driver so unlike Kip Pardue's half-decent portrayal of Jimmy Bly this fellow will be prohibited from having any faults or negative qualities.
hE cOuLDn'T wIN cUz RaYciSm bUT NeEd WHitE mAn tO HeLP.
Hopefully there will be a Strong Woman who will solve all of the engineering problems that the old white men couldn’t figure out. Can’t leave out THE MESSAGE.
He'll race better if she makes him wear stockings and a garter belt. It worked in Bull Durham.
I heard Phoebe Waller-Bridge is available.
Gina Gershon or bust.
At the end of the movie, the young kid rips off his mission impossible style mask to reveal it was dom toretto all along.
Family.
Hey at least F1 was exciting this week, so there's that. MotoGP was too (as usual). EDIT THERE WAS NO MOTOGP, I watched a recording on my tv, i'm an idiot.
In other news Ferrari made an SUV, apparently their suspension is "next generation" or whatever and they sold out because they couldn't sell enough cars? Man MBA's ruin everything. What do we have left? I wish people actually understood brand equity. sigh.
What was exciting about MotoGP this week?
Ah shit, it was a recording that popped up for me. MY BAD.
Sir, your lived experience is as valid as any other! :)
Watching Hingorani wreck Thompson, I'm sitting here reflecting on how beautiful Mid-Ohio is with the sun setting behind the trees so that most of the backstraight is shaded, and I'm missing the hell out of my dad. We'd go up there to spectate in the 80s and he wouldn't think of leaving until the last engine had fallen silent for the day. Then we'd walk back to the car and eat sandwiches and sip cold drinks and watch the corner workers close down their stations while we waited for the traffic jam out of the infield to ease up. God, I loved it. Didn't matter what was running, CART, IMSA, even sixty Renault Le Cars, if I was watching with Dad.
Well, you're invited to come sit there some evening with me and my son, and talk about your father.
way too long and diaphanous to try to discuss here--but i don't like mid-ohio. absolutely no reason; fine people, entertaining track. what's with me? without going into detail do any other drivers have a strange inexplicable emotional attraction/dislike for a particular track?
I have an inexplicable emotional dislike for Ohio in general.
I've driven 93 tracks around the world.
Favorites:
Nelson Ledges
MidO
Laguna Seca
Watkins Glen
Spa-Francorchamps
Sepang
Summit Shenandoah
NCM in all configs
Mont-Tremblant
NJMP Lightning
Summit Jefferson
Thunderhill West
Big Willow
Everything else is in the middle.
Irrationally despise:
Lime Rock!!!!!!! <-----
Road Atlanta
Road America
Atlanta Motorsports Park
COTA
High Plains Raceway
NJMP Thunderbolt
Awesome list. As a spectator I like most of those. I think Spa may be my favorite and for American tracks, I enjoy Road America. Interested in understanding the driver's perspective of why the former is in your top list and the latter is at the bottom.
And agree with Lime Rock. Almost a skid pad.
"nterested in understanding the driver's perspective of why the former is in your top list and the latter is at the bottom."
I had a lot of weird, bad luck at Road America -- and it's just MISERABLE to get to from central Ohio. Simple as that.
And here I was just thinking about how much I enjoy Mid-Ohio as a track, and what a miserable pain in the arse it was to get there back when I was watching Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy tear it up.
I'm just curious how many of these were writing related vs your own cars or race teams. Also how many have you gotten to race on vs testing/track day/etc.
Sadly I have full stats on that. Raced on 36. Paid my own way on 81.
For someone that is very new to HPDE and lives east of the Mississippi, any thoughts on a top 3 list of tracks to drive? Or maybe a list of 3 to avoid! I want to learn and just get more comfortable being on track in general.
How far east are we talking?
Knoxville Tennessee
Places like NCM, AMP, Barber, Road Atlanta, and maybe VIR are the closest to me.
Barber is fantastic in every way. Challenging but limited ability to impact walls, lots of elevation, outstanding tarmac and facilities.
Might be already aware but there's a new track under construction about 50 mins west, called Flatrock. Supposed to be opening this month apparently, and looks to be a proper joint.
So, I sort of liked F1 during college when BAR Honda was a team, and when we moved to Japan I had every intention of going to a Japanese Grand Prix... except we had to get married and start making babies because my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the company I worked for went bankrupt barely more than a month in. In other words, I had a lot of other things going on that took my attention, so I didn't keep up with F1 until this year because of these columns. Last week I found out that RBR uses Honda engines so I decided to root for them, and then Verstappen is a winner, so that made the choice even easier, but this: "Max Verstappen... expressed annoyance and a general who-gives-a-shit attitude regarding the presence of Brad Pitt and Brad Pitt’s movie..."
Brad Pitt may or may not be a cool guy, but Max's attitude is the attitude I'd take if he were to walk into my office (I'd be especially annoyed if he made me do actual work, like the work my job entails). So I can relate to the current best professional F1 driver on a personal level.
Love him or hate him, Verstappen was raised from birth to eat, sleep, and breathe racing and at some level, you gotta respect that.
Imagine being so secure in who you are, what you've accomplished, and what you are worth that the presence of a top-five bankable movie star in your immediate vicinity is an ANNOYANCE. Because he is doing a movie PRETENDING to be someone like you.
Know who else felt that way? Steve McQueen, who complained that acting was "phony" and that it was only worthwhile because it put him in a race car.
Not sure Newman felt the same way about acting as McQueen did but I certainly enjoyed many a race weekend watching PLN ply his "second" trade at one of your irrationally despised race tracks, where I'll be weekend after next.
Lime Rock?
Yes.
Great spectator track. Absolutely without interest for racing.
And Steve McQueen smoked weed with Denise McCluggage.
I'm against weed....but hell.
I ended up drinking pretty heavily with Denise. It was pre-legalization though so we had no real way to get high.
this story must appear in a future edition of ACF. this is non-negotiable.
smoking weed was like that great comedic actor on the madtv show on friday nights who played a kid in shorts--he'd say look what i can do and make a goofy little jump. aren't we being naughty! how sophomoric.
Michael McDonald is a silly, silly man who makes me laugh.
"making babies because my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the company I worked for went bankrupt"
I can kind of understand wanting your MiL to get to meet grandchildren and vice versa, but how does corporate bankruptcy cause procreation? Just more time for sex?
I suspect he means that he wanted to present a grandchild before it was too late.
More or less. Corporate bankruptcy was another nail in the coffin of my desire to see an F1 race in person while I lived in Japan. The babies were much more important in the end, it turns out.
EDIT: I could have edited my post so it was clearer.
.... and Albon beat the Ferraris to the finish. What just happened?
I’m 100% with you on promoting Yuki to RB. In fact, why not do it now? Give him half a season to figure the car/team out and then go nuts in ‘24. Nothing to lose with Max on his way to single-handedly capturing the drivers and constructors this season.
Additionally, demote Checo to AT as lead driver. AT also has nothing to lose at this stage.
If RIC smokes Yuki, then Yuki isn't RB material. RIC may not be either, but Yuki definitely wouldn't be. Checo is better than Yuki.
This is all a live audition for RB for RIC and Yuki. No idea if how much Honda has in Yuki, or even if they have any. But, when this all ends at the end of 2025, Honda and RBR are no more. Do a solid for Honda with Yuki means nothing in 2026 and beyond.
If Checo gets his head out of his behind then Checo isn't going anywhere.
Agree; “This is all a live audition for RIC and Yuki”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rntvmVny63c
A couple of months ago, you said you wouldn't drive an uncompetitive car, what changed?
Uh, I did say that and I'll stand by that and that's why I'm not going to Ferrari.