I haven’t commented on here for a year maybe but I just wanted to say that your bit of prose has tears of laughter poring down my face. Thank you

After the Santander president passed away, his daughter pulled sponsorship to focus only on banking. I believe the old man was quite the fan of Fernando and was more than happy to back his career.

this is such an amazing gif!!

Hmm, wonder then which of Mercedes or Ferrari Sauber will go with for the engine deal. Leaning towards Ferrari. I mean if it weren’t for Sauber being so cash strapped, I can’t see why Maurizio & co would be opposed to having a current gen Ferrari engine in the back of the Sauber. I doubt this Sauber team have it in…

Isn’t Haas essentially the Ferrari B team in all but name? Also Alfa has a lot of problems but I can’t see what reason Sergio would have for entering another group brand in the sport when FCA are so clearly struggling overall. I think the best they can do is plonk a Ferrari unit in the back of the Sauber and do a Red…

Doesn’t Freddy Vasseur have a Renault Sport background? I do remember Cyril saying they have capacity to supply another team. Surely Sauber will take a current spec Renault engine any day of the week over whatever tripe Honda dish up. It would be nice to see Sauber Mercedes only for the prototype memories it’ll bring…

swooning

Dustin Brown vs Gael Monfils! Has this happened??? And if so, where can I find footage of this masterpiece

Excellent post!

Your final para had me thinking. I wonder what is harder on an engine. Full throttle for an event like the Indy 500? Or an entire Le Mans 24 race distance? I would imagine given the latter would be more taxing in that the distance covered is much longer and the stresses on the engine will vary massively for lap after…

To add to the point you make is the predicament Sauber are facing with their current year old spec Ferrari engines. Given the increased stresses on the cars this year Sauber engineers have pointed out their reasoning for the Honda deal as having to do with the pact that the engine is an integral stress bearing part of…

Meanwhile at Honda HQ

A few people have mentioned this but I wonder if in the coming years F1 writers will examine this whole debacle as one part of the colossal power struggle that took place between Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh & co. It was Ron who literally tore out all the work ol’ Marty Whitmarsh did and went in with his old…

You’re certainly right about the title sponsorship but what I think Zak must be thinking of is the loss of even lower tier sponsors, including brands that have been decade long partners. Case in point RBR having Exxon-Mobil, TAG Heuer, Esso.

Nissan is part of the Renault alliance. Doesn’t make sense for them to enter at this stage when Renault have a fully fledged factory effort targeting the front of the grid in a few years. I don’t even think it would make any sense to slap a Nissan badge on a Renault F1 engine the way Red Bull essentially have their…

I’m sure you must’ve read some of Brian Phillips’ excellent tennis masterpieces on the erstwhile Grantland. This is the closest I can come to these days. Really enjoyed reading your work this French Open.

Wow, I was just yesterday speaking to a friend about how the reputation of Honda in F1 will now be permanently sullied, whatever the glory of the dayglow Mclarens of old were. I mean if you think about it Honda in this millennium has been totally shambolic tbf (can’t make up my mind if the current Mclaren-Honda’s or…

There sure is a ton of money involved but at this point I think the worry is the near irreparable damage to the Mclaren brand through association with Honda could cost Mclaren in future sponsor earnings. Already the car looks as barren as a Manor in terms of big sponsorship deals and I’m not buying Ron’s hollow…

Such a great point. I think Sergio has grown a little big for his own boots. He’s gonna get chastened. While it’s true no real racer will willingly happily move aside, there has to be the case of seeing the bigger picture for a team like FI, where a rare podium could’ve been in the offing. Brundle was right, flash…

I just spat out my drink laughing at this comment! Excellent stuff