F1 2022 / 2023 / 2024 Motorsport Thread

[PaulJS]

Without wishing to reignite an old debate, this from Kimi R. exemplifies for me all that is wrong with F1 and why I have lost all interest in it:

You've got to love Kimi for not giving a hoot and telling it how it is

Cheers,

Paul

[Soporsche]

Its certainly a different environment now with corporate personalities, professionalism and athleticism. Sure some of the colour and personal interest has been lost with that evolution but there's still some personalities there (I may not like all of them). Lewis does his own thing love it or hate it, Kimi is interesting and amusingly forthright, Lando had some youthful exuberance, Danny Ricciardo is engaging and a bit of a prankster..
The racing can still be edgy, as per last weekend.

Accepting its definitely not the same without the Hunts, Stewarts, Moss, Hill (Snr), Senna etc.. along with the less corporate 'controlled' environment of the 60s, 70s and 80s

[Rockmastermike]

not just F1....the US Football teams accommodations have drastically changed over the years.

Len Dawson in the locker room of Super Bowl 1 vs today/modern locker rooms (And don't get me started on College/University facilities - it's like an "arms race" with recruiting. But that is another story)

[jtc]

Without wishing to reignite an old debate, this from Kimi R. exemplifies for me all that is wrong with F1 and why I have lost all interest in it:

33295408-0-image-m-24_1600336929072.jpg

You've got to love Kimi for not giving a hoot and telling it how it is

Cheers,

Paul

There's no F1 in this picture, just two drivers? Not sure what that's got to do with the actual sport we watch ...

[PaulJS]

Without wishing to reignite an old debate, this from Kimi R. exemplifies for me all that is wrong with F1 and why I have lost all interest in it:

33295408-0-image-m-24_1600336929072.jpg

You've got to love Kimi for not giving a hoot and telling it how it is

Cheers,

Paul

There's no F1 in this picture, just two drivers? Not sure what that's got to do with the actual sport we watch ...

I partially agree.

There is no F1 in the picture on the right.

The picture on the left is the very embodiment of what F1 should and used to be: drivers with personality and charisma who lived life on the edge, in and out of the cars, and were exciting individuals that red blooded males of all ages aspired to emulate.

F1 has become a sanitised shadow of it's former self where drivers say and do whatever is required by the sponsors with the fattest wallets ( wearing two baseball caps at once or remembering to swap them over mid interview -really?) or, with an inflated sense of their own importance and level of wisdom, hold forth on wider issues way outside the sport.

I am not interested in a driver who uses F1 to push political and social agendas while bleating about the fact that motor racing could be getting a bit dangerous. No **** Sherlock.

F1 drivers should be like the best rock stars - a celebration of the excesses of life, not po faced preachers pushing their message. We are all forced to suffer enough of this from politicians and self appointed worthies telling us how to live our lives.

Maybe I am wrong, perhaps we should look to the wisdom of minimally educated sports stars ( professional footballers are also guilty of this - thinking that being good at kicking a bag of wind around a field qualifies them to tell the rest of us what to do and think) and maybe I am just a completely unreconstructed, unwoke, unpolitically correct male of a certain demographic who uses this simple test:

Would I want to have a beer with this bloke?

Cheers,

Paul

[jtc]

red blooded males of all ages aspired to emulate

What about women? What qualifies a male to be red blooded? Should the sport limit itself to appeal to heterosexual beer-drinking white men? Are historic F1 cars better than modern ones, which smash lap records across the globe, yet at the same time are the most energy efficient and technically advanced ever?

What about qualities of modern F1 drivers that people wish to emulate? Should red blooded males not look to emulate their modern heroes - Sergio Perez for example, who works to help orphans? Or the numerous charities and foundations funded directly by the current crop of F1 drivers? Is F1 not a perfect platform to help show kids the positive effects they can have on global issues?

inflated sense of their own importance and level of wisdom, hold forth on wider issues way outside the sport

Hold forth? Your comparison is Lewis Hamilton, a guy who just recently wore a t-shirt promoting one of the many recent questionable US police behaviours, while celebrating a race win on international TV. Someone who has also spoken out about diversity, through experience of his own challenges as a black kid, and is pushing those agendas within the sport, the companies he works with and beyond. Is it one rule for him and another for any other driver in history? What about back when Jackie Stewart was pushing safety agendas and helped stop the escalating number of deaths at F1 races?

I am not interested in a driver who uses F1 to push political and social agendas

This seems contrary to above. Is it just you don't like Lewis Hamilton? Is bringing focus to racial issues political? I'd call it a social issue, not political. F1 (the sport) itself is a snake pit of politics.

a celebration of the excesses of life

In what sense? Drugs? Alcohol? Sex? How should excesses be celebrated? Why?

There is no F1 in the picture on the right

There is no F1 in either picture. There are two people with different personalities, both divisive in their time. There's no F1 car, no team kit no signage, no visible track or F1 logos. There's a beer in the left picture - something that's not possible to photograph at a modern F1 event due to advertising limitations, legal agreements by the sport and a general alcohol-free agenda. Nothing to do with the drivers...

Would I want to have a beer with this bloke?

James Hunt? Lewis Hamilton? Schumacher? Button? Massa? Vettel? Chandhuk? Alesi? Brundle? All of the above opinion seems to relate to personal traits of specific drivers, in various eras, to fit personal choice based on personal views, which is perfectly ok. Nothing to do with F1 though.

All I've read is anti-Lewis Hamilton rhetoric, which I personally find really tiring. Nothing really to do with F1, except maybe how it used to be better in the old days.

And yes, Lewis is wearing an overly brown and patterned outfit I'd never look at and think yep, that's how I want to dress. But that's his choice. I'm sure he's not the only F1 driver to have ever been into fashion...



Modern F1 has its racing problems, but hopefully that'll be fixed with new financial limits and scientifically led car design rules from '22! Sorry the above has ended up as a bit of a rant, but I am genuinely interested in if it's just a Lewis thing, a Mercedes dominance thing, or because the sport itself is increasingly safe yet record-breaking fast with mediocre racing...

[what-time-is-it]

Plenty of commitment from Kubica around the Nordschleife - the passenger is an Apex Taxi driver and normally a chatter box...but not on this lap.

[Soporsche]

You could just tell by the silence of the ring taxi driver that he was outside of his comfort zone.

[Thegreyman]

That is scary to watch the speed Kubica drove round the 'Ring. The concentration and skill required to do that is immense. The interior of the BMW reminded me a bit of my own car but that is where all similarities ended!

[what-time-is-it]

Honda to leave F1 at the end of '21 - it'll be interesting to see what Red Bull do now.

[EddieTheBeast]

Honda to leave F1 at the end of '21 - it'll be interesting to see what Red Bull do now.

It'll also be interesting to see when and how Honda make another come back after the end of 21!!

[what-time-is-it]

It wouldn't surprise me if Honda is taken over at some stage or merges with someone like Mazda - yes they are a big manufacturer but very nearly went bust in 2008. I suspect they'll concentrate on bikes and possibly Indycar, but may never return to F1.

[PaulJS]

red blooded males of all ages aspired to emulate

What about women? What qualifies a male to be red blooded? Should the sport limit itself to appeal to heterosexual beer-drinking white men? Are historic F1 cars better than modern ones, which smash lap records across the globe, yet at the same time are the most energy efficient and technically advanced ever?

What about qualities of modern F1 drivers that people wish to emulate? Should red blooded males not look to emulate their modern heroes - Sergio Perez for example, who works to help orphans? Or the numerous charities and foundations funded directly by the current crop of F1 drivers? Is F1 not a perfect platform to help show kids the positive effects they can have on global issues?

inflated sense of their own importance and level of wisdom, hold forth on wider issues way outside the sport

Hold forth? Your comparison is Lewis Hamilton, a guy who just recently wore a t-shirt promoting one of the many recent questionable US police behaviours, while celebrating a race win on international TV. Someone who has also spoken out about diversity, through experience of his own challenges as a black kid, and is pushing those agendas within the sport, the companies he works with and beyond. Is it one rule for him and another for any other driver in history? What about back when Jackie Stewart was pushing safety agendas and helped stop the escalating number of deaths at F1 races?

I am not interested in a driver who uses F1 to push political and social agendas

This seems contrary to above. Is it just you don't like Lewis Hamilton? Is bringing focus to racial issues political? I'd call it a social issue, not political. F1 (the sport) itself is a snake pit of politics.

a celebration of the excesses of life

In what sense? Drugs? Alcohol? Sex? How should excesses be celebrated? Why?

There is no F1 in the picture on the right

There is no F1 in either picture. There are two people with different personalities, both divisive in their time. There's no F1 car, no team kit no signage, no visible track or F1 logos. There's a beer in the left picture - something that's not possible to photograph at a modern F1 event due to advertising limitations, legal agreements by the sport and a general alcohol-free agenda. Nothing to do with the drivers...

Would I want to have a beer with this bloke?

James Hunt? Lewis Hamilton? Schumacher? Button? Massa? Vettel? Chandhuk? Alesi? Brundle? All of the above opinion seems to relate to personal traits of specific drivers, in various eras, to fit personal choice based on personal views, which is perfectly ok. Nothing to do with F1 though.

All I've read is anti-Lewis Hamilton rhetoric, which I personally find really tiring. Nothing really to do with F1, except maybe how it used to be better in the old days.

And yes, Lewis is wearing an overly brown and patterned outfit I'd never look at and think yep, that's how I want to dress. But that's his choice. I'm sure he's not the only F1 driver to have ever been into fashion...



Modern F1 has its racing problems, but hopefully that'll be fixed with new financial limits and scientifically led car design rules from '22! Sorry the above has ended up as a bit of a rant, but I am genuinely interested in if it's just a Lewis thing, a Mercedes dominance thing, or because the sport itself is increasingly safe yet record-breaking fast with mediocre racing...

I simply thought that Kimi R's post and observation was rather amusing and that, to coin a phrase, a picture paints a thousand words.

Cheers,
Paul

[what-time-is-it]

Plenty of commitment from Kubica around the Nordschleife - the passenger is an Apex Taxi driver and normally a chatter box...but not on this lap.

I watched the follow-up video to this earlier in the week - detailing the costs and repairs required.
Turns out Kubica did 30+ laps that day spending 6000+ euros in the process.

Top bloke!

[what-time-is-it]

Autosport reporting a Merc team member has Covid - first positive test in the paddock since Perez in July.