Great points. Doesn't change what I said being 100% accurate though.
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Everything is relative in sports or racing or...I dunno...chess.

Competitive endeavors are always about relativity. And despite the cars being giant shitty busses, the racing is as good as it's been for a very long time.

Give me some of the gains that have come from the cost caps and then the V-10s and smaller cars of the 2000 through 2005 era. That era had the most potential, even if Michael really did dominate it.

Too many bad/poor teams back then but now, even a team like Williams (which seemingly can't ever get anything right) has James Vowles. Alpine has a ton of money to catch up with. Sauber is going to be a works team for Audi soon.

Gimme that Cadillac Andretti squad, 1 more team (bring the grid to 24), ditch the hybrids and stop engineering races through intentional tire degradation. Let 'em rip.

F1 is as close as it's ever been to being truly incredible if they'd just get out of their own damn way.
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{sigh}

Ferrari gonna Ferrari.

Look like the best car all through practice. Look like they have a shot at pole through Q1 and Q2.

Then absolutely duff Q3.

4/5 on your home track after your upgrade package. Behind both McLarens.

That's just awful.
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Max is coated and Checo is a bit shit. I wonder who Red Bull will replace him with. Guess it’s Sainz or nothing.

I watched a replay of Quali so I missed whatever Oscar did to Magnussen, but he’s very impressive. I think he’s WDC material soon.
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What does Max Verstappen do after qualifying today? He heads to his motorhome to compete in the Nurburgring 24 hours on iracing.
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Perez absolutely sucking elephant ass out there.
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Looks like Indy will be rained out, probably postponed until Monday.
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He's just not very good. He's Albon in a better car. Maybe. Albon might be better. He's not one of the 10 best drivers on the grid.
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F2 but still insane.

man that is absolutely mental

pic.twitter.com/1ObnTcsrKD

— idris ���� (@formulavips) May 24, 2024

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Attaboy, Charles!

Boring race, but Ferrari managed to stay out of their own way at Monaco for a change. Was also nice to hear Sainz really concerned about team orders and maximizing LeClerc's chances at the front.

The red flag really did duff that whole race. A) It put Sainz back in P3 (which probably wouldn't have made a difference - 1 McLaren behind him or 2, LeClerc still had that race in his pocket) and B) it eliminated any pit stop strategy so it allowed LeClerc to back up the field.

Still - we have ourselves a fight for the constructors, fellas. It's fun to blame Magnussen for everything but I think that was on Checo; bad run up the hill into turn 3 and he made a late commitment because he knew he was in trouble with the 2 Haas cars coming up either side. Rather than pick one or the other to defend, he tried to hang the middle and defend against both, then just took Magnussen into the wall. After his P18 qualifying run, he really had nobody to blame but himself.

And now Ferrari is within a single race of passing Red Bull.

They've been remarkably consistent this year. 4/3, 3/7 (with Sainz out), 2/1, 4/3, 4/5 (only race without a podium), 3/5, 3/5, 1/3. 9 podiums through 8 rounds is awfully damn impressive. Their main drivers haven't had a finish worse than 5th all season and even their green rookie pulled a 7th at a tough track.

If Sergio is going to continue to show the form he showed in the 2nd half last season (3,4,8,Ret) over the rest of the season, Ferrari will get past Red Bull. Max can do a lot on his own, but he can't fend off two drivers who are routinely putting it 2nd through 5th. Especially if they can occasionally get a win, as Ferrari has now done twice.

Let's go, Red Devils!
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Very cool to see Leclerc get his first Monaco win. The top 10 finished in the same order they started...don't know if I've ever seen that.

And I don't know what is up with Alonso. It's kind of a replay of last year...did well through the first 5 or 6 races then fell off. IDK. I heard Aston is making a big push for Newey and Verstappen. Newey I'd like to see at Aston, and it would be hard to anyone to argue against getting Verstappen, but I know it would mean Alonso would be pushed out.
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Thanks for the update.
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My understanding is that Aston shot their shot with Newey and he said no. But things change when the checks get bigger, I suppose.

Alonso's issue is the same as it's always been - immense talent, but...uh...mercurial.

He'll just check out if things aren't going his way. And Aston's gone backwards a bit this year so he just gets frustrated and coasts. My memory is that he got held up a bit by traffic during one of his qualy runs in Q1 and then ended up duffing his other effort; nicked the wall.

He just never got a clean run in qualifying and it put him at the back of the grid so he just tuned out. He knew there wasn't anything to do from back there, really. So he just put his laps in. I mean, at least he didn't 'feel a vibration' and retire the car. He's done that before.

Ultimately I think it was just bad form and a little bad luck. Stroll's just not a very good driver so he did what he could. But Alonso really should've had that car starting around P8 and just didn't put the laps in.

And as Mercedes seems to have slotted themselves squarely back into the 4th best team spot, with VCARB gaining momentum as well, things aren't going to get easier for Aston. If Haas could get out of their own way, Aston would be in a world of hurt.
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It's looking like both the McLaren and the Ferrari upgrades are paying off. Constructors should actually be competitive for once.

Is it me or has Red Bull actually gotten worse since their last upgrade? Max hits the wall in Monaco, hits the bollard in Miami, etc.
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Hard to know about Ferrari's upgrades yet.

Ferrari's been good with slow corners for awhile now. It's why they've constantly been competitive in Monaco and why Sainz won Singapore.

We'll see what happens when they get to more 'normal' tracks with a variety of corners and some higher speeds/tire deg. I can't get past the mediocrity of Imola that easily. They really should've done better there if those upgrades were as advertised. I really wish they'd have had them ready one week sooner for an optimization run at Miami before they got to Imola. As it stands, we still don't really know.

McLaren, OTOH, is legit. Their upgrades have definitely worked.
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