wood

Marquez took someone out? That can't be true. No way I can believe that! ; )

Aston Martin makes offer to poach Newey from F1 rival Red Bull https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/aston-martin-makes-offer-to-poach-newey-from-f1-rival-red-bull/10593041/

Yep. Just in right or left, maybe with Tuck in center.

Sit!

Now coming to a center field near you!

Welp, I'm ready to throw my money at it, whenever it happens ...

It's amazing they don't offer something (at least to my knowledge) for in-market fans to watch their team if their provider doesn't carry them.

That wasn't even close.

They've been chasing him for a long time, but apparently Newey has said a big factor in turning them down is that he didn't want to be so far from his current wife, because when he worked in IndyCar the long distance was a major factor in his marriage back then breaking up. I wonder if that's still a concern or not.

All of this, and yeah I thought that bold bit was pretty funny too.

Yeah re: Coulthard apparently he said back in 2003 that he expected Alonso to brake something like 10 meters later but the stewards reviewed the telemetry and found nothing to back that up. And even back then people were talking about how this stuff had been around for a long time, going back to Blundell-Barrichello 1995, Mansell-Senna 1992, etc. Yeah it definitely goes back a ways, which is what I've been saying, but not just for Alonso by a long shot. Stuff like this has been happening for much longer than I've been watching F1. These moves to throw people off are and were so common that Doornbos said he had no problem with Alonso's move. In other news, this article is a couple days old, but I only just saw it. Damon Hill has about as heavy of a British bias as you'll ever see, and has never seemed to care much for Fernando, but ... ‘Dastardly tricks’ v ‘racing’ – Damon Hill’s verdict on controversial Fernando Alonso penalty https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/damon-hill-gives-his-verdict-on-fernando-alonsos-penalty-at-the-australian-grand-prix/

Current silly season summary in one tweet. Boy, those French! They have a different word for everything. Translation: #AMuS The transfer market is at a standstill because the competition is waiting to see what happens at Red Bull. Max Verstappen is coveted by Mercedes and Aston Martin. Adrian Newey is coveted by Aston Martin and Ferrari, Mercedes seems less interested. Aston Martin hopes to offer an attractive + package for Max via the Honda engine and Adrian Newey. Flavio Briatore hopes to place Alonso at Red Bull. Sainz navigates between Mercedes, Red Bull and Aston Martin, but Audi is putting pressure. Sainz's decision should arrive around mid-April. AMuS also says Hulkenberg is "set" for Audi and Sainz was given an ultimatum to decide by mid-April.

F1, Anderstorp. 1973.

Sorry, I know this isn't old, but got damn. Nope.

In Australia, Alonso did hit the throttle again, but not enough to actually accelerate again. The speed trace shows the car decelerating all the way until Alonso accelerated hard again exiting the turn - minus a very small portion in the middle where the speed flattened for just a moment when he blipped the throttle momentarily. That merely reduced the rate of deceleration for a moment. It didn't actually accelerate the car. He wasn't speeding up and slowing down. He slowed, maintained a constant speed very briefly, then slowed again before accelerating out of the turn. Anyway, of course none of these instances is exactly the same, but they are all examples of erratic, 'potentially dangerous' driving (which could easily describe many things we see every session of every race weekend). Some of them were very unsporting, and some actually ended in contact between the offending driver and another. Another I forgot about was Lewis lifting in the middle of Raidillon with Vettel right on his gearbox, and the other one where Vettel drove into him, he said it was in retaliation for Lewis brake-checking him earlier. There are so many. They happen all the time. For most of these incidents, it's not really strange that they don't get investigated. What's strange is that out of all of them, this one is the only one that suddenly ticked the boxes in just such a way as to be penalized harshly - even though the stewards said themselves that he didn't cause the crash. Pretty much all of the others went without so much as an investigation, and the biggest penalty was half of what Alonso got in Oz. Palmer said George bears at minimum a portion of the responsibility for his crash, and (when he pointed out Alonso's flashing light at the same time George was apparently changing a setting) hinted that Russell didn't realize that Alonso had scrubbed off speed, and attempted to take the corner too hot. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was trying to change direction too quickly once he was in the gravel trap. Palmer also said that Russel turned in more severely than any other lap as per his steering trace.

1, x

He didn't swerve to miss Alonso. He lifted, lost the rear of the car and tried to counter it, which took him off track. Even the stewards said Alonso didn't cause George to go off. They penalized him for 'erratic' and 'potentially unsafe' driving. Whatever that is. Seems pretty nebulous. Esp for a 20s penalty. Jolyon Palmer rightly pointed out Alonso doing the same to Lewis just 3 races ago in Abu Dhabi. Alonso slowed in front of Lewis, 'playing DRS games' as Jolyon put it. Much more obvious slowing, farther from the corner, but Lewis didn't freak out and lose the car or run into Alonso. Not even noted or investigated iirc. Here's Palmer's analysis. Spot on imho. Reminded me of this. Also not noted or investigated iirc. People are bringing up many other examples of obvious erratic driving not even being investigated, including George blocking Lewis two different times in qualifying in Spain and Belgium, once causing a collision. He blocked Lewis and then lifted on the Kemmel straight with Lewis very close behind, after he'd already locked up and ruined his own lap. In Spain he just drove right into Lewis. He got a warning. There's KMag driving crazy AF just last race and many other examples of people backing up the field to help their teammate, people tactically slowing to disadvantage following cars that were much closer than George and at higher speeds, mid-corner, Lewis slowing the grid to back Rosberg up into Vettel, Max causing a collision with a brake-check and getting 10s, countless instances of people actually causing collisions or driving wildly and getting 5s or nothing at all, etc. And these are things we know about. There's a whole lot more that goes on.

So the little fucker in the wifebeater seems to be the one starting the shit, and then takes the bitchass blindside shot at VY. Is he the one that took the elbow (ie is he the club owner) from the big fucker in the white shirt who was apparently helping VY? What a fucking pussy. He's wagging his finger & pointing at VY for a bit and then appears to push or poke the bear, which is when VY had had enough. It was pretty funny watching VY hold off all four of those pussies until Bruh did his thing. I'm sure that's not a first for him.

Going out to the relays Friday. Question. I see GA tickets for sale, with row numbers. Where do they put GA folks at the Relays? None of the maps show GA.

Like the one time out on 6th this little pussy blindsided me and then ran and hid behind the bouncer of the club we were next in line to get into. I lost my shit but I couldn't get to him. Cop standing right there must've seen the guy hit me and run, because otherwise he'd have probably pepper-sprayed me immediately. He was just looking the other way like "I'll allow it". Never got to the guy. Still pisses me off 20 years later. People like that need some jail time with people you wouldn't dare hit when they aren't looking.

Yep. Giant gaping vagina.

One reason Max might want to leave is that with the new PU coming in 2026 and RBR having no experience building engines, he might want to jump to a works team. Rumor has it now that Horner wants Alonso and has been courting him for next year if Max leaves. Alonso would likely only go on a 1-year deal, because things are looking pretty good at Aston Martin with Honda coming onboard. If I'm Alonso, I'd either stay put or go to RBR. Mercedes would have some convincing to do imho.

BREAKING: Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff to miss the Japanese Grand Prix https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-to-miss-2024-japanese-grand-prix

It's pretty crazy.