Ya know, a lot of these 90s cars I thought would age terribly, and somehow they did seem a bit terrible in the early 2000s, look pretty good now. Modern cars are hideous.

You’re making the assumption that Perez is that bad.

That’s the question, isn’t it? How good/bad is Perez? Two years ago I’d have said he was the equal of Norris, so has Max buried him that far mentally or is Max just that good?

I want to hate this car for being so expensive, and for the fact it’ll be bought by wealthy speculators who never drive it. It’s too awesome for me to hate.

I guess what I’m saying is: the “gap” in performance doesn’t look so huge if you take Max out of the RB. You look at races and qualifying minus Max and it doesn’t look like RB has a giant advantage. Hell, Max has been outqualified by the Merc.

I know, it’s nuts. It’s scary how composed and mature he’s become as well, he’s always been fast but now there’s this confidence and smoothness he didn’t have before. You get the impression he’s well within his limits while simultaneously blowing everyone away.

You still have to execute, he’s developed into a very shrewd driver that knows exactly when to push and when not to. He isn’t making mistakes anymore, the combination of his speed and maturity is incredible.

Agreed. I’m just not buying into the idea Perez is a second rate driver, the narrative around F1 at the moment seems to be that Perez isn’t good enough. I don’t think he’d be getting destroyed like this at any other team, I don’t think Hamilton would own him like this.

He’s a second a lap faster than Perez, even if he’s 0.5s a lap faster than Leclerc in Leclerc’s car, he wins races.

As an Alonso fan, and before that Mika, I’m familiar with the boredom that comes from dominance. While this RB is very dominant, as a team they’ve still got a ways to go to match what we witnessed from Merc in the V6 era. I guess what I’m saying is this isn’t new, it’s simply new fans complaining about an old problem.

I think we have to entertain the idea that Max is that good. What if the slip isn’t a conspiracy, it’s just Verstappen making sure no one thinks Perez is as good as him?

I’m not so sure. I think you put Max in the Ferrari or Merc and he still wins. Maybe not as many races, but definitely the drivers title.

Interesting. Nice thing about the GT4 version is you can do real international racing, so the price increase kinda seems worth it.

This is really tempting. Wonder what pricing will be, if it’s under $100k I could see this being an awesome deal. Even after the series goes bust, you’ve got a cool track day car.

So...brand new race car can’t compete with well developed race car? I’m shocked.

GR86 and keep the change. If I REALLY want to spend it all, I’m probably going 2024 Mustang GT for that 7500 RPM V8.

7500 rpm near 100 hp/l V8 for the price of an Integra? People will bitch, and the car has flaws, but it's cool this still exists in 2023.

I feel like the Ioniq 5 and 6 are the correct answers. They’re way, WAY more inspired than anything they compete with. I’d argue the guts alone to release such daring and polarizing designs makes them cool from the get go.

I....wait what? The hatch looks amazing.

And this points out a real problem with motoring journalists: many of them want everything sanitized.