Red Bulls got an upgrade which made them competitive. Add that to Piastri completely losing it in that period letting Norris take a clear lead in the Championship and Verstappen has hunted them down. Today he was fortunate to see them both disqualified so he's in striking distance but Norris f*cked up the first turn today to show how much Verstappen is getting into his head. The last two races are at tracks that usually favour the McLarens but Verstappen has the skill to outgun them. As long as Norris avoids crashing he should still take the title...
I actually quite enjoy the FI coverage on Sky. There's a discussion to be had about whether football teams 'playing properly' is more or less boring than F1.
I used to really enjoy F1 and still have huge respect for the drivers and engineers. They are insanely good at their jobs which are very difficult. I’m glad it’s much safer than it used to be, but it’s lost something over the years. Where does this ‘playing properly’ trope come from.
Oh, aren't we hoity toity here! Along with our R's, I love watching F1 motor racing, past (with my Dad in the 1960's with Jim Clark, Graham Hill, then later Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell) and present (attended Canadian GP 1996-2007, now going again with my partner, Wendy, with a 3 day pass for excellent seating in GS 34 on the inside the hairpin where sun not in eyes, big screen to watch race elsewhere, old school FM radio for track commentary and ear protection and easy access to the Metro - $599 each,, can renew same seats each year in 3 week window after race). Two of my 5 daughters also love watching F1. My driver is up and coming Algerian/French young rookie driver, Isack Hadjar (one for the future) who races for the Junior Racing Bulls Red Ball team alongside RB dumped Kiwi, Liam Lawson, an excellent pairing. Hadjar is currently #9 in the world championship standings and likely to move up to the senior RB team alongside Max next season when the cars will radically change in engine specs. Normally after a Las Vegas race (where you could have been married by an Elvis styled Commissioner of Oaths) Lando Norris, with a 2nd finish would almost have had the championship in his grasp (with 2 races remaining), with teammate Piastri finishing behind him and Max winning, but after the race, which I stayed up to watch (midnight to 2:00am as a night race), both McLarens were disqualified due to car bottom plates (used to be wood, now metal, source of sparking you see when cars bottom out) being deemed by race scrutineers to be too low (making cars potentially faster). So now Max is on equal points with Piastri @ 366 with Norris 24 points higher at 390. So with 2 races to go, and an 8 pt Sprint Race, Max is in with a sniff, but realistically this is still Norris' championship (to lose?) as points awarded are 25 pts 1st, 17 pts 2nd and 15 pts 3rd. Certainly makes things more interesting now.
Me too, I really enjoy the coverage and can relate to the former F1 driver commentators (not quite Murray Walker level) Martin Brundle, Jensen Button, Anthony Davidson, the Indian guy, even a grungy Jacques Villeneuve thrown in for good measure sometimes and also the female former drivers are great and knowledgeable too.
Yes, definitely much safer now, no refueling, pretty hard to kill yourself these days with all of the excellent safety measures in place.
Let's have a countdown clock for each F1 race Kiwi. Definitely an F1 thread would be welcomed by me to discuss all this his good stuff.
