Shame. S/M was the better strategy than M/H. Also seeing max suddenly push ahead when told he could showed they always had something in the bag. 14 wins of 19 with 2 races to go.
Ham third consecutive 2nd place.
Meanwhile D Ric got 7th by more than 10secs, doesn’t deserve it for that stupid move on poor Tsunoda but great drive after, again showing soft was clearly better option.
Really surprised Merc didn’t split strategies. Strategically naive I think. Hold George or Lewis on the Medium to lap 40ish then end on softs would have been the better play. (EDIT: all the pundits and Lewis and George all seem to concur, it seemed like an odd choice even live, shame as could have been closer)
Yeah in the end that was one of the dullest races of the season. Mercedes do seem to be slowly catching though but not fast enough for a win this season.
Still Brazil is normally one of the better races on the calendar.
Echo the above, boring boring boring. Merc have to hope for RB reliability issues to have a chance in last races but that seems unlikely. And if RB have any doubts, they'll just change components and he'll still be back in the lead by half distance.
No subs for me - I just download it off torrents a few hours later but if it's the same story next year I don't even think I'll bother with doing that.
@Kairu To quote the kids he's "Extra" and I love him for it. Certainly on the spectrum somewhere. He's almost everything that F1 isn't on the outside (showy, glamourous) but is what F1 is on the inside (nerdy, obsessive, etc.) and he just doesn't' give AF. Long live Ted!
Ted is probably the best thing about the Sky coverage. I actually don't bother watching most of the value added stuff anymore and would prefer if there was an option to just watch quali and the race for a smaller price.
Unfortunately it looks like thanks to Liberty extending the deal with them that we are stuck with Sky's high prices and over the top coverage until 2029. Kind of ridiculous really as sticking it behind a hugely expensive paywall is not the way to increase viewership. Perhaps they are thinking that Drive to Survive is going to do that for them but I can't see it working out like that. Although it is always interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff when there is a controversy and there's been a few of those recently at least.
Anyone read Matthew Syed's column on Horner in The Times yesterday? I don't have it, I don't subscribe to The Times, but it's getting a lot of traction on Twitter today.
Closest I found was excerpts on this Mercedes fan blog
@themightyant I've not got a subscription but I did read the article due to someone posting it on twitter. I thought it contained some fair comments really and sums up how a lot of F1 fans feel about how things finished last year and about the latest revelations to do with the budget cap.
I think there will always be this thing with F1 where a bit like pro-cycling, you never actually know if it is a level playing field and we will only likely find out years later if there was any cheating going on. It kind of taints the whole thing a little.
I like Matthew Syed, I liked him when he played Table Tennis and I like him now. His acerbic writing often gets to the heart of an issue, taking no prisoners. A shame it's stuck behind another paywall I don't have. This article definitely had me nodding along furiously.
I was genuinely incensed when Horner came out to the cost cap press conference and started playing the victim, trying to justify their overspending by pulling in Mental Health and other excuses. Disgusting.
@render Agree F1 has never been, and never will be, a completely level playing field but I like to think the sport avoids the sort of wholesale cheating that goes on in pro-cycling. But perhaps i'm deluding myself.
@render You can’t sub to F1 TV? In the Netherlands Viaplay has the rights to broadcast on tv, but it’s still possible to subscribe to F1 TV. I usually get it with a discount during preseason testing for €60 p/y. I cancelled my tv sport package because that was costing me more than double.
@Mr_B021 Unfortunately not in the UK. The deal that Sky has with F1 means they aren’t allowed to over F1TV Pro here so that means if you want to watch it live Sky are the only place to get it from.
"I think there will always be this thing with F1 where a bit like pro-cycling, you never actually know if it is a level playing field and we will only likely find out years later if there was any cheating going on."
"Agree F1 has never been, and never will be, a completely level playing field but I like to think the sport avoids the sort of wholesale cheating that goes on in pro-cycling"
Pro cycling has cleaned up its act. If you want to make comparisons, say something like 'cheating that went on in pro cycling twenty years ago'.
Regarding the article, something Brits fail to see about Merces and Dutch about Red Bull, is that both parties are terribly unsympathetic. If you want to make a comparison with pro cycling, I'd say that at least that sport is blessed with admirable personalities.
Pro cycling has cleaned up its act. If you want to make comparisons, say something like 'cheating that went on in pro cycling twenty years ago'.
You may be right. To be clear I DON'T follow pro-cycling at all anymore, in part because the rampant drug use made it hard to get excited about a winner. The sport may have cleared up it's act, but as an outsider to it now, that's not the impression that I think most have. My view is that they are all on a cocktail of drugs and flirting with the line of what is and isn't acceptable. Some may be clean, but I suspect the vast majority just haven't been caught yet. Time will tell as they now test old samples with new tests and retroactively change results. Something F1 seems reluctant to do
One thing that keeps bugging me is the leaks to the media. Red Bull, McLaren, Renault and Benetton we’re thrown under the bus of public opinion, but somehow the exact details of Ferarri’s 2019 super engine and it’s subsequent agreement with the FIA still have to surface (talking about cheating). I do hope with the new transparency stance of the FIA these things won’t happen in the future.
@Kidfried absolutely spot on. Both RB and Merc act as if they have some divine right to have succes in the sport. A lot can be said of Binotto but even when he criticises other teams he sounds incredible humble.
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