Boring as hell. Announcers trying to make a race for 8th place sound exciting! I use to love F1 back when they had the V12's and V10's and had to take on FUEL and tires during pit stops.
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I'm not a lewis hamilton fan but if you think that last race of last season was legit you are in denial. F1 even admitted it was "human error". Your "Not a little." comment in false and a bald face lie.
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In what world should they NOT have waived through lapped traffic? That's par for the course there. And it wasn't Max who caused the safety car - Lafiti screwed up (because, y'know - he's another back-marker that probably doesn't belong out there).

Additionally, when Hamilton put both wheels off the track for a pass of Verstappen, the race stewards made him 'give up the gap' instead of actually surrender the position. Which is damn uncommon.

Hamilton, at WORST, broke even in that race. It's common practice for lapped cars to unlap themselves under the safety car. Had the race stewards NOT allowed it it would've been stranger than anything. And because they dicked up and didn't allow everyone to unlap as soon as the safety car came out, they had to make the 'amended' call to allow only the cars between Hamilton/Verstappen to unlap so that there was still a lap of racing left.

But again - standard procedure just lets everyone unlap at the safety car. It was the steward's decision not to let teams unlap initially that created a problem.

Hamilton got unlucky - he didn't get screwed.
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I'm just a drive to survive watcher so I'm as casual a F1 fan as can be but yeah while that was fucked up, they also helped him earlier in the race when they kept him in 1st even though he ran the curb to pass Verstappen. At the worst they just evened it out.
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I'm absolutely loving the midfield racing. Yes, Ferrari ran away with this one in a commanding fashion (damn they are fast, but how the hell does Leclerc not need a neck brace?! :-) ). Broadcast has had some really bad f* ups (e.g. too many replays in the last laps), but I love that there showing more midfield racing. I really hope they don't follow Indy broadcasts next year and throw up commercials. :-)
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The new wheels are going to take me a bit to get used to. They somehow made the cars look visually slower for me.
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Here is a double-murder suicide F1 related story from last year -> https://youtu.be/8JSYabGPBxQ
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A reminder of our standings after three races in 2022!

Any stand-out surprises for you? 👀#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/akLoGpoPVA

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 11, 2022

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The mid-pack teams really are interesting this year.

Even Williams has a point. And near as I can tell they don't actually finish races. Haas is managing to not embarrass itself but that's mostly just a product of not have Mezispin anymore. I am a little surprised by how completely ineffective Schumacher has been, though.

Alpine and McLaren are likely to have a heck of a fight for 4th this year. It may come down to Ricciardo vs. Alonso. And while I think Alonso's probably the better pure driver at this point, Ricciardo has 2-3 races every year where he's suddenly just awesome and that may be good enough.

AlphaTauri has an interesting paddock w/ Tsunoda and Gasly. I'm curious of Bottas can do anything for Alfa but with a noob teammate he's going to have some serious work to do.

In the end I think you end up:

Ferrari - Mercedes - Red Bull - McLaren - Alpine - AlphaTauri - Haas - Alfa - Aston Martin - Williams

But lord man, Aston and Williams are going to be so awful this year.
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Mick is not close to his dad in talent. Closer to his uncle Ralph

We spent a half dozen race weekends in Kerpen Germany at Michael and Ralphs home kart track while my son was racing. "Kart Klub Kerpen" on the outskirts of town. Mick is a good driver but never really impressed me too much. He went off to F2 because of his name. Same thing Haas is doing.

If you are ever bored look up Kerpen Germany. Michael built a race themed entertainment center there. Rental Karts, Arcade and a couple of restaurants that are darn near 5 stars. That is where our team would end up in the evening. Good times.
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Didn't he win the title in F2? Is that as team dependent as F1 is?

Though he wasn't nearly as dominant there as LeClerc was driving for the same team in 2017, so yeah - there does appear to be a talent gap.

I just didn't figure he was a 'get thoroughly outclassed by Magnussen as soon as you have an average teammate' sort of driver. I figured he'd be in the same sort of class. Give him a seat with a little bit of pace and on a good day he can get you a top 10.

I'm just not seeing that from him at all.
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Side note - how the hell does one even get into racing? I laugh with my wife about it but I'm only half joking - the 4 yr old is a born wheelman. We put him on a 12v that I slapped a 20v battery in and he'll powerslide that thing through turns. He just has exceptional spatial awareness and is incredibly comfortable driving things. Has been since we put him on those little scooter things.

I friend of ours is a mechanic for a race team that does open wheel dirt stuff in/around the midwest so I figure he's someone I can ask about it one of these days, but the boy really does seem naturally adept at driving stuff and loves to do it. I think he'd be pretty damn good at Kart races and stuff and would have a blast doing it.
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"Mezispin". Is he driving a tank this season?

Think we can expect podiums from 4-5 teams this year. Personally I'd like to see McClaren overtake Red Bull, or come even with them, they are about where Ferrari was last year. Pretty sure Red Bull will figure out their system failures soon but right now who knows if they'll finish a race. Meanwhile other teams are claiming their points. Also interested to see how the Mercedes "Patriots" deal with the potential drama now that it doesn't seem they're as invested getting Hamilton a Drivers Championship.
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Indycar had a good race yesterday in Long Beach. I know it's not F1 but the racing this season has been pretty good.
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Mentoring the next generations of Mazespins...





https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...es-2022-04-11/

Originally Posted by :
ROME, April 11 (Reuters) - Italy has seized properties worth some 105 million euros ($114.45 million) owned by Russian former Formula One driver Nikita Dmitrievich Mazepin and his oligarch father, two police sources told Reuters on Monday.

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