Audi and Porsche pulled out of WEC in the aftermath of Dieselgate - Audi was implicated and their WEC car’s ICE was a turbo-diesel, so the optics were terrible. Porsche I think had more to do with the financial hit that the VAG group took.

A clarification on Hamilton’s penalty:

I think it is that they’ve made a mistake when editing together the onboard and the graphics. On the one they put up on twitter, which I assume is the same one as you’re talking about (stupid aspect ratio aside), the clock stops on the start line after the grid.

He lifted before the start line, but that’s not the line used for lap timing (or where the chequered flag is waved for that matter).

I think that’s overselling it a bit, if you look at 1:40 you can see he’s stood right back against the barrier.

There is also footage from the rear facing camera on the car where you can see that the DRS flap initially opens normally and then at some point along the straight it pops to an even wider open position, which it is not supposed to do (I think you can just about see it happen on the trackside camera too). So absolutely…

While that’s probably true, they don’t run race compound tyres at these sorts of events (they’re not allowed to, under the rules restricting testing) so they may not be quite as temperature sensitive as the race ones are notorious for being.

It’s not often a motorsports news story makes me spontaneously burst into laughter but when I read that elsewhere I couldn’t help myself :)

Williams were running a 2019 spec wing and will have been evaluating the influence that has on airflow over the entire car - the front wing isn’t just about directly generating downforce but also about conditioning flows for the car’s other aero surfaces.

A very old one, endlessly debunked (usually reported as a US carrier and lighthouse of varying nationality):

It’s so great to see his racing career continue.

RaceFans have an even better way of visualising it that they use sometimes. This is from Silverstone 2018 FP3 (in fairness that was the session interrupted by Hartley’s suspension noping out, so times may not be entirely representative, on top of the usual free practice disclaimer):

Aha, here you go. At 1:34:

At 1:32 the front right corner of the Rebellion contacts the rear left of the Toyota. It is subtle, but it did happen.

Monaco doesn’t have a hairpin so tight that it is forbidden to even try to overtake there ;)

2017 British Touring Cars: Knockwoodhill

Michelin ruined the 2005 US Grand Prix, much as Pirelli ruined the 2013 British Grand Prix.

Also “whose choose” in the “misconceptions” letter.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1643878 Have fun!

Toyota: