OV9

Not a word I often associate with The Staph but respect.

I cannot imagine how nuts N24hr will be if/when Max enters.

He qualified 25 seconds faster than the next car in his category. And 15 seconds off P1 with 130hp less.
Look how much he loses out on the straight at the start

Everything crossed for a bit of rain right now for a Williams pole

Just needs one more red flag…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/ar ... 47p0z1r1po

£52m payout for Horner. I bet he'll be crying all the way home, onto his bed made of money and onto his Spice Girl wife.

It’s a tough life

The gp was dull. Lots of promise but most of the race was just queue of cars following each other not being able to get past. Tough weekend for the maclaren team. Bit of a worry that Max isn’t really that far behind in the drivers championship.

On tracks like that is seems you just need to trim it out for traction and top speed and not worry too much about cornering speed because no one can get past anywhere but the long straight anyway.

Maybe that’s where maclaren are lacking a bit? Obviously the car is great, but they’re always going for a good all rounder which is decent everywhere rather than having a particular strength where maybe sometimes they need to make a more compromised setup and the drivers learn how to make it work.

Saw someone doing the maths that said max no longer needs a McLaren dnf to theoretically win th driver’s championship

Whole ground effect era has been a bit weird now that the cars are all closer to each other. Cars going from nowhere to winning almost a second a lap faster than everyone else. Hard to follow what’s going on really. Also everyone trimming the car out has really killed all the racing at the exciting fast tracks. Spa - shite. Monza - shite. Baku - shite.

jamcg wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:37 pm Saw someone doing the maths that said max no longer needs a McLaren dnf to theoretically win th driver’s championship

did he ever? there’s 7 races left, 175 points up for grabs and he’s only 69 points behind. He needs the others to fuck up, but it’s still all to play for.

I haven't seen any benefits to the ground effect era cars in terms of the spectacle. The closeness is a function of the rules having not had significant changes for a while.

Rich B wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:03 pm

jamcg wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:37 pm Saw someone doing the maths that said max no longer needs a McLaren dnf to theoretically win th driver’s championship

did he ever? there’s 7 races left, 175 points up for grabs and he’s only 69 points behind. He needs the others to fuck up, but it’s still all to play for.

Most people seem to think that McLaren will be on top again at some tracks. How RB and McLaren compare at Singapore will be key.

duncs500 wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:35 pm

Rich B wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:03 pm

jamcg wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:37 pm Saw someone doing the maths that said max no longer needs a McLaren dnf to theoretically win th driver’s championship

did he ever? there’s 7 races left, 175 points up for grabs and he’s only 69 points behind. He needs the others to fuck up, but it’s still all to play for.

Most people seem to think that McLaren will be on top again at some tracks. How RB and McLaren compare at Singapore will be key.

Yeah, i was only responding to the “maths” element.

duncs500 wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:34 pm I haven't seen any benefits to the ground effect era cars in terms of the spectacle. The closeness is a function of the rules having not had significant changes for a while.

They do seem to be able to follow more closely, but it doesn’t really seem to help the overtakes, closeness of the field means it’s rare for any car to have a significant advantage anywhere and bigger cars make a dive bomb less likely.

integrale_evo wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:53 pm

duncs500 wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:34 pm I haven't seen any benefits to the ground effect era cars in terms of the spectacle. The closeness is a function of the rules having not had significant changes for a while.

They do seem to be able to follow more closely, but it doesn’t really seem to help the overtakes, closeness of the field means it’s rare for any car to have a significant advantage anywhere and bigger cars make a dive bomb less likely.

I think part of it is the tyres as well. I'm not sure they can follow much more closely but assuming that's true the tyre penalty for following closely is huge and by the time they are in a position to line up an overtake the tyres are cooked and they can't execute it. For sure the massive cars do not help, possibly not just their physical size, but that might also mean less clean air to work with (maybe minor, but all these things probably add up).

As an aside, I have been musing lately as to whether this is (on average) the best grid of drivers we've ever had? Most of the rookies are doing a job.

duncs500 wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 11:55 pm As an aside, I have been musing lately as to whether this is (on average) the best grid of drivers we've ever had? Most of the rookies are doing a job.

Devil's advocate: relative to a lot of other rookies?

It's my impression that there are a lot of new/recently new drivers vs. established, experienced ones

But that's just an impression without any research

Which is apparently how we do things these days...

But we’re supposed to be excited by more street circuits