Motorsports (non-NASCAR)

[Trip McNeely]

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433 ... a-1-season

Lewis going to Ferrari in 2025. I’m so excitttteedd

[tifosi77]

Nothing says "Very Serious WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER" quite like bringing on a (by then) 40-year old English knight (three syllables, hard 'k') the year before a massive rules overhaul.

Gonna be a fun year for Mercedes and Carlos Sainz.

[CBear3]

F1 is dead to me after the Andretti thing.

But if it weren't, the drama around when Lewis gets held out of certain team briefings to prevent him taking any info to Ferrari would be must see entertainment.

[tifosi77]

Yeah, I was ambivalent about the Andretti entry - I think the medical term is 'meh' - but the rejection provided by the commercial rights knobs kind of annoyed me.

"We can't have a 12th team because there's no room and it would be too much of a logistical trainwreck" -- unless you're a Hollywood film crew making a movie, then feel free to tag along.

"You'll get more benefit from F1 than F1 will get from you" -- Alpine has been in F1 for a few years now, and I honestly don't know what it is. Is it a Renault brand? Is it a completely separate thing? I have no idea.

"You won't be competitive" -- The bottom four teams are so far adrift that they are bagging point totals that are more befitting a mid-pack team in 1993 than a 20+-race season in 2023 where half the grid scores points. If scoring under 20 points is acceptably 'competitive', then I'm not sure what the fuss is wrt Andretti.

"A new team couldn't possibly come into the sport the year before a new technical package was introduced" -- Haas is still around and they had the same issue when they entered in 2014 or whatever. Besides, Andretti has been working towards a 2026 entry for months now; the fact that 2025 was still on the application is pretty much because the CRH took their sweet-ass-time evaluating things.

I'm not sure how much stock I put in the dueling claims about meeting invitations and spam emails and whatnot, but that has a very bush league feel about it, either way.

Just say "The 11 existing teams don't want to dilute their share of money pie", and stop with the performative snark.

[Shyster]

Agree on all of that. They could have just said "we're not sharing the money" and left it at that.

Rejecting the Andretti is especially galling when there are more races in the United States than in any other country, and they obviously view the US as a major market. Well, even a lot of Americans who don't know bupkis about F1 racing specifically or even open-wheel racing in general have probably heard the "Andretti" name somewhere along the line. "Andretti" would bring nothing to the sport, but Alpine does when that brand isn't even sold in the US? Eff off with that.

[CBear3]

The reference I saw was you will never hear Charles Leclerc mentioned in an Alan Jackson or Shania Twain song.

[tifosi77]

Laguna Seca Lawsuit: Homeowners Perplexed as Iconic Race Track Materializes Overnight

Imagine the shock if, after moving into your home, you discover that a popular and world-renowned race track had materialized overnight in your general vicinity. The horror. You’d rightfully be confused, possibly even enraged at such a happening, and keen to pursue a lawsuit. Believe it or not, this is exactly the phenomenon that unfolded recently. Based on our deepest reporting capabilities, we can find no evidence that WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca ever existed before 2023.

As expected, this sudden and unexpected conjuring has local residents incensed, as the noise and traffic from the venue came out of nowhere and was a shock to those who had moved into the area over the preceding handful of years. Naturally, residents have banded together to get rid of this nuisance that definitely has not been in the same location since 1957. The group, the Highway 68 Coalition, filed suit against Monterey County, which operates the fledgling track, on December 12, 2023, seeking to curtail racing at the venue.

The guy behind the Highway 68 Coalition apparently has a history of periodically riling up local residents (often targeting those in new developments) and filing legal claims against the circuit, often involving environmental infractions that may or may not be legit. He has a personal beef with Laguna Seca because his brother was struck and killed by a motorist leaving the circuit; apparently the family dog had gotten spooked by the car noise and the brother took off after it. This was in 1978, so he hasn't had what I'd call a sterling record of success in pursuing his claims. But he has been able to delay certain commercial developments by years.

[CBear3]

Christian Horner, wow

[dodint]

Ehhhh.

[tifosi77]

I haven't seen any substance to the allegations beyond 'incredibly controlling behavior', nothing about what that behavior was. Although I did get a kick that the Daily Mail headline calls him "Geri Halliwell's husband". lol

[CBear3]

Two unconfirmed reports I saw:
1) He was asked to step down amicably rather than have the investigation continue its course.
2) The allegation is more of the Brett Favre variety with a young female intern.

[Shyster]

From a watch website I follow, and as a curiosity, here is every watch-brand sponsorship for F1 in 2024.

Official F1 Timekeeper - Rolex
Red Bull - TAG Heuer
Mercedes - IWC Schaffhausen
Ferrari - Richard Mille
McLaren - also Richard Mille
Aston Martin - Girard-Perregaux
Alpine - H. Moser & Cie.
Visa Cash App RB - Tudor
Williams, Sauber, Haas - no watch sponsor

[CBear3]

...
Williams, Sauber, Haas - no watch sponsor

No need, they use a sundial to measure their laptimes.

[dodint]

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[meecrofilm]

Visa Cash App RB is just too much for me

[tifosi77]

VCARB makes it sound like a nutritional thing.

[CBear3]

Horner took advantage of and scorned the wrong woman it seems.
Also, after 3 practice sessions is there hope that RBR doesn't run away with things?

[Trip McNeely]

Horner took advantage of and scorned the wrong woman it seems.
Also, after 3 practice sessions is there hope that RBR doesn't run away with things?

Red Bull still has something to give imo but I think they don’t have their concept nailed down right now. Max also complaining of downshifting issues.

Ferrari seems to be the best threat to RBR so far. Mercedes was fast yesterday but they were running their car so insanely low that it was sparking the entire time and Russell’s plank caught on fire. They were slower in FP3 so they might have raised it a bit. But Ferrari Merc McLaren and AM look incredibly close especially in qualifying

The Horner stuff seems super weird. Marko seems to be getting off by this stuff. I’m thinking there’s a power struggle and somehow Maxs overbearing dad is involved. Either way, I welcome Red Bull having bad things happen to them.

[dodint]

Joss is a really shitty person.

Crime in Sports did an episode on him.

https://crime-in-sports.simplecast.com/ ... n-RqKYI_yh

[tifosi77]

The Jos the Boss era coincided with the growth of F1 on US TV, when we first started having a reliable schedule of live races on ESPN and whatnot. (early 90s - early 00s) When I would stay up all night to watch European rounds live instead of setting an alarm to get up early. It was the bridge period between the end of F1 as a gentlemen's sport and the start of the period where a singular figure at the head of a team was no longer the key to success. Chief designers started to become household names. They introduced mandatory refueling and made 'grands prix' into 'wee sprints'. Tobacco advertising went away. Combined team budgets started to climb north of $2bn.

Jos was kind of terrible, and a right s**t human. But he raced at an interesting time.

[tifosi77]

[Trip McNeely]

I’m excited for the race today. Curious to see how far max can win by. If it’s less than 10 seconds I’ll be happy. Hopefully their crazy lack of inlets will cause overheating in hot races

I think Ferrari has a good car underneath them. The tire deg seems wayyyy better and they seem very hooked up in most corners. I’m worried it’s become a little bit draggy however to fix the tire deg. They seemed a little slow down the straights considering they have the best engine. We will see soon I guess

[Trip McNeely]

Well, Red Bull is still a million miles ahead

I still blame TD39 for making the newey concept the only concept that works. **** you Toto

[tifosi77]

The official race highlight videos on F1's YT channel continue to be inadvertently hilarious. They show Max for the first 500m of racing, and then he doesn't appear again until the final 30s to show him crossing the finish line an entire timing sector ahead of P2.

[Trip McNeely]

The official race highlight videos on F1's YT channel continue to be inadvertently hilarious. They show Max for the first 500m of racing, and then he doesn't appear again until the final 30s to show him crossing the finish line an entire timing sector ahead of P2.

The FIA deserves so much blame for this dominance. With a cost cap, there shouldn’t be this absurdly restrictive bylaws. The only thing they should have really pushed are elements that create dirty air for following. Everything else should be opened to do what you want as long as the cost cap is obeyed. Now all we are seeing is one design that works and everyone else trying to copy it.

Of course Red Bull is always going to be ahead of the game. They have the best aero and that’s all that matters. Engines essentially don’t matter much and you can’t even improve on them.