Note that -until recently- most F1 teams barely made a profit (if at all). The installment of a budget cap along with the popularity boom has changed this. So I do understand the attitude of the teams that they are reluctant to lose some of that pie now. It should also not be overlooked that the FIA and FOM have been…

Jessica’s highest-level single seater race race experience is British F4, in which she ran at the back for about half a season almost a decade ago. Since then, her only single seater running has been in the W Series, where she was a midfielder. I get that we all would love to have a female F1 driver, but she’d be…

Chadwick aligned herself with Williams, and they never got her a decent seat in F3. PR-wise, she clearly had more value to them starring in the W Series. Her debut season in Indy NXT this year pretty much confirms that going up against not just female drivers is a different challenge.

She’s 28, she has no business being in F3 or F2. Good for her to get this Aston Martin run, though. That’s pretty cool.

In general, yes. The drop-off seems to be different for different drivers. There’s a theory that having kids accelerates your decline as a race car driver, which seems silly until you see that the two guys at the very top of motorsports who have extended their primes to levels we haven’t really seen before are Lewis…

The Bathurst 12H also starts in the dark every year.

Cool! Off-topic: Japan 2005 is the greatest F1 race I’ve ever seen. By, like, a lot. Just mentioning this on the off chance you’ve never seen it.

The Indy 500 draws a larger crowd than any NFL game. Doesn’t mean that Indycar is more popular than football.

He’s a beast, and him being this far out in front is actually masking that a bit. I still can’t believe he decided to spend his one weekend off between Miami and the Imola/Monaco/Barcelona triple-header doing the Nurburgring 24H on iRacing. What a lunatic, but it tells us a lot about his mindset and obsession with…

2012 is amazing. I did a full re-watch of the season last year and the first 10 races are ridiculously good. It does drop off quite a bit after that as McLaren and Red Bull got their shit together but it definitely holds up.

It’s not been 2 years of Red Bull dominance (yet). 2022 was a legit title fight until Leclerc crashed in Paul Ricard.

Yes, because it’s unheard of for a 17-20 year old driver to be a bit reckless.

Agreed with just about everything you said, but the next regulation change is planned for 2026, not 2025.

I get that everything would be different, but removing Red Bull from the results this year: Alonso would be leading Hamilton by about 30 points in a two-way title fight, with the Ferrari’s probably not close enough to challenge. Alonso (6), Hamilton (2), Sainz (1), Leclerc (3) and Norris (2) would have wins.

F1 cars don’t come anywhere close to the redline. They’re allowed a max. of 15,000 RPM, but don’t really go over 12,000.

One of the issues is that Verstappen doesn’t really have any glaring weaknesses anymore. He has elite speed, is a strong qualifier, an agressive racer who has also learned when to supress that agression, mentally tough and strong in all weather and track conditions. He also doesn’t seem to have the ocassional ‘off-week…

Agreed, the 2007 season has had a lasting impact on F1. There’s even an argument to be made that Mercedes wouldn’t have entered F1 as a works team if that season plays out differently, as their partnership with McLaren severely deteriorated over the Spygate scandal and resulting punishment.

Max’ dominance is the best thing that could’ve happened. Particularly since it looks more likely than not that it’ll last at least two more seasons. Helps to weed out the DTS audience so we can go back to normal.

Great, another one with an opinion who doesn’t understand that Liberty and the FIA are two separate things.