Haven't watched today, but saw Yuki in P20 for FP3, did he have a bad session, or more proof of the RBR just being a Max only car?

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Haven't watched today, but saw Yuki in P20 for FP3, did he have a bad session, or more proof of the RBR just being a Max only car?

He made it into Q3...only .88sec behind Max

Both Red Bulls went from suck to blow. The Racing Bulls were looking terrible as well. Looks like we're getting McLaren vs Mercedes with a possible LeClerc thrown in.

And someone really needs to turn Davide Valsecchi's microphone if they're going to keep him on the English broadcast. He's almost bearable when he's not 3x louder than the announcers AND the cars going by on track.

Both Mercedes were penalized one position for a pit lane penalty.
So that moves George and Kimi to third and fourth.
Yuki was right behind Max but that’s the good part. At least he made it through to Q3.
Looks like Lando, Max and Lewis will have some work to do tomorrow.

That was entertaining.

Glad to see George not penalized.

100% better race than Suzuka.
Well controlled by Oscar, and some real tire whispering from George.
Lots of odd electrical gremlins today. DRS, transponders, dash interference.

I am saddened to see this race was much better than Suzuka. While I love watching a good race, it's just depressing that with the current formula for years to come, I keep thinking it'll be the Tilkedromes that will feature the kind of racing everyone wants while the classic locations like Imola and Suzuka will be decided during qualifying.

What's with the chicken shit referee today? Lawson lightly taps two cars and get a 10 second time penalty (which are still dumb), yet Yuki tears a hole in Sainz's sidepod and gets nothing?

Here's a really cool news story that slipped under the radar:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/...ts-charity/10712746/

quote:

Michael Schumacher signs helmet to be auctioned for Jackie Stewart's charity

Schumacher's initials were among several signatures added to a helmet worn by Sir. Jackie Stewart, which will be auctioned off for a good cause

With help from his wife Corinna, seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher has signed a helmet for an upcoming charity auction with the initials 'MS,' per a report from the Daily Mail. There are several additional signatures on the helmet, including all of the other living F1 World Champions.

The helmet will be auctioned off to raise funds for Sir Jackie Stewart’s Race Against Dementia charity. Stewart's wife Helen was diagnosed with the disease in 2014. The organization is aiming to fund a new blood test trial that is currently being developed by the University of Cambridge.

The old-school white helmet, featuring a Royal Stewart tartan band around the top, was worn by the three-time world champion during his racing career. The helmet will be showcased Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix where the 85-year-old Stewart will do an exhibition run around the track in his 1973 title-winning Tyrrell 006, while wearing the helmet intended for auction.

Stewart told the Daily Mail: "It is wonderful that Michael could sign the helmet in this worthy cause – a disease for which there is no cure. His wife helped him, and it completed the set of every single champion still with us."

Schumacher, who last raced an F1 car during the 2012 season, ended his career as the winningest driver in the sport's history until Lewis Hamilton toppled his record a few years later. The German racing legend has been absent from the public eye since a tragic accident in December of 2013 while skiing that left him with a serious head injury.

quote:

Here's a really cool news story that slipped under the radar:

The demo by Jackie and the helmet signatures by all the living World Champions was really nice. Unfortunately the MS was "with help" from Michael's wife.

Seeing that car was a bittersweet memory.
The last time he drove that car as a Grand Prix driver was in the final practice at Watkins Glen in 1973.
About two hours earlier his teammate, Francois Cevert, was killed in a brutal accident in the final qualifying session.

I was at that race, working on a car that was racing in a support race in between those two sessions. I remember being on the grid waiting for GP qualifying to end in about ten minutes, and our race to start.

Those cars were really loud and the noise just suddenly stopped in an instant.
You could just feel something really bad had happened. That ended F1 qualifying, and after our race ended I went over to a corner hoping to see Stewart drive. The rumor even before the accident was he would retire after that final race.
Later he said he wanted to try to understand what had happened since that part of the track, the uphill esses, was a flat out series of corners.

You could see the passion in his driving, holding nothing back even though that session meant nothing for the race itself. After that, he announced his retirement and didn't race the next day.

Thank you for sharing. I've seen some videos with him about this event. It really had an impact upon him that cannot be underestimated.

He was a great advocate for safety. I'm sure Jim Clark's death was a significant impetus for his passion on the subject.

Norris sounds like his mental fragility and negativity may be his undoing.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Norris sounds like his mental fragility and negativity may be his undoing.

What happened?

That's the sensationalist media talking point of the day of course. I'm not sure about that, everyone is wired differently and he has always been hard on himself.

"Fragile" is a harsh term for someone being bold enough to give an honest assessment when they fuck up. Not directed at Chuck, but the talking points in general.

Yeah, McLaren definitely seems to have the strongest driver pairing on the grid.
Both are strong & fair drivers, and at least publicly, don't get defensive/abrasive over team orders. A 1/2 is a 1/2 no matter the order, especially this early in the season.

Here's a few shots of Jackie in his Tyrell 006 from Bahrain

^Those pictures and that opportunity are so great

Here is an article, specifically featuring a number of quotes from Lando. Watching the video of him saying them is a bit painful to watch. I'm in his corner and hope he has a breakout weekend this weekend.
LINK


Norris was unable to take the fight to his team-mate Oscar Piastri in qualifying at the Sakhir circuit, completing Q3 four tenths down on his team-mate despite the MCL39’s superior speed.

Lando Norris: Weak or honest?
Declaring he was “just not quick enough”, the Briton gave a blunt but dejected reply when asked what happened on his final lap in Q3.

“I mean, it was just every lap, honestly,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I’ve been off every lap this weekend, just not comfortable.

“And then no big complaints. The car is amazing. The car is as good as it has been the whole season, which is strong. Just, I’ve been off it all weekend.

“Don’t know why. Just clueless on track at the minute. So, I don’t know. I just need a big reset that’s all.”
Somewhat concerningly, the championship leader added: “I just don’t know how to approach it. I can’t figure it out.

“Every time I try something, it’s good for one session, and then it’s the wrong thing for the next session, because the winds change. I just can’t flow with the car. And when I can’t flow, I’m just not very quick.”
But while Norris’ response to the media could be seen as the Briton being brutally honest, Albers believes it showed weakness.

“What I notice, he doesn’t feel like it, I can understand that,” Albers told Viaplay. “And then you have to give a nice interview.

“You can see from his attitude that he is not as mentally strong as others. That strikes me very much so.”

His fellow pundit Giedo van der Garde agrees that Norris needs to be more upbeat, even on the difficult days.

“You can just say, ‘Listen, I made a mistake, I wasn’t quite there on top of it today. I should normally be third. The team is doing well and I look forward to tomorrow,'” van der Garde replied.

“This is completely downbeat, there is no confidence anymore.

“In Japan he did it, he has it in him and he is good enough. Sometimes it is that mentally it is not right with him in one way or another. He doesn’t know completely what he is doing.

“Then you have to say, ‘The beech underneath, we are going to get everything out of it and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’.

“Tomorrow is a completely different story.”

But, the former F1 driver added, “He sees his team-mate on and that hurts.”

As for Norris’ “tomorrow” in Bahrain, he fought back from his P6 start position to finish the Grand Prix on the podium in third place and held onto the lead in the Drivers’ standings where he is three points up on Piastri.

Norris team principal Andrea Stella has a different opinion of the Briton’s post-qualifying interviews, as he feels it speaks to Norris’ personality.

“As you say, Lando is often quite self-critical and transparent in a way, which is a stylistic aspect,” the Italian team boss told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“There are, I’m sure, drivers which are equally self-critical, but they keep it for themselves, and they put a little bit of a screen between them and the rest of the world. Lando doesn’t have this characteristic.

“He’s very naturally honest, I would say, and therefore, he becomes visible when he’s disappointed or when he’s self-questioning.”

He believes the onus is on McLaren to support the driver through his Q3 troubles.

He went on to say: “Lando is a very fast driver, a naturally fast driver with incredible race-craft, and even now that he’s been struggling to put together laps in Q3, actually during the weekend it shows this speed.

“So it’s more a phase, I think, when it comes to Q3 and putting together a lap that hasn’t worked very well recently. But this is a short phase.

“My approach is to first of all, look in the mirror, the team should look in the mirror and say, ‘What should we do better to make Lando more comfortable and put him in a position to use his incredible talent?’

“When you have to deal with drivers and team members, conversations and dialogue, it is always the most powerful tool, and the one on which we lean constantly.”

Mental strength vs realistic honesty about your performance.
I'd say it takes some mental effort to admit you just had an off race, but recovering to a P3 finish, even when you're not feeling 100% with the car/groove, I'm not writing Lando off anytime soon.

Agreed, sometimes watching him or Charles when they are down on a session or weekend and describing it is cringy, but somehow it has seemed to work to motivate or at least focus them.

I also wasn't wild about about the descriptions of similar interviews in the first couple weeks of Liam being characterized as him being "broken" and "despondent". I think he was just exasperated and knew his time for proving himself in MarkoLand was hours, not weeks or months and certainly not half a season.

F1 is covered so heavily by the British press. With all due respect to our members from across the pond, they seem to love sensationalizing everything. Sometimes feels like the Sky broadcast and podcast is the Enquirer, minus the aliens.

Any they definitely emphasize the Brit drivers with a bit more bias, but I'd expect similar from any commentator covering a driver from their country

I am glad that they don't spend more time on the Canadian driver

More in-show development of Antonelli etc would be nice.

With podiums being largely British, Australian this year Norris, Piastri, Hamilton (sprint) Piastri, with, of course Max and others in the mix I hadn't noticed the coverage to the level of bias, as there have been a lot of union jacks, or corner of flag union jacks, up there so far this season.