That’s not really what happened, though - Latifi got his superlicence by coming 2nd in F2 (beating his teammate in the process), which would have earned him enough points regardless of his previous career.

Yeah, this seems like a great move for her, to be honest. If she can’t succeed even in IndyLights (and I’d guess she’d be able to wrangle a second attempt if the first is mediocre?), then she doesn’t deserve a better series anyway. And if she can succeed in Lights, she has a path - a promise, even! - into Indycar. At…

I’d go with Ricciardo over Hulk, sure, but I don’t think Ricciardo is available. He’s talked about only being willing to drive in F1 if it’s in the right car (and about not driving outside F1 - I suspect he’s planning to retire, or at least take a possibly Hakkinenine sabbatical).

Ralf actually drove for the 2nd best team for several years, spent most of his career in one of the top 4, won 6 GPs and took 21 other podiums. He was never champion (his best was 4th), but he was also not ‘just a mid-tier driver’. His career trajectory was actually kind of similar to (and in results a bit superior…

For context, the cost of living is 55% higher in Miami than in Montreal. Miami itself (and hence the pool of local spectators) is 55% bigger than Montreal. Meanwhile, the number of seats available for spectators is 55% bigger in Montreal than in Miami. So really, it’s miraculous that tickets in Miami are so cheap!

My point was that it wasn’t that “they turned it into this ultra-expensive thing”, but rather that economics did that. It’s a sporting event in Miami, that made it ultra-expensive. And presumably more profitable for F1, since most of the profits get passed on in exchange for the rights. It’s not expensive just as a…

I think the big problem with the last decade (other than Ferrari continually messing up) was not just that the engine regs led to inequality, but that they led to inequality that was baked-in: it was really difficult to quickly improve those engines, in part because they could only tinker with them once a year.…

And while they’ve not impressed this year (again!), we still can’t discount the resources behind the Alpine and Aston Martin teams; with such new regs, and seemingly lots to be gained and lost with tinkering between races, let alone between seasons, it’s entirely possible either of them could step up. Plus McLaren are…

This is indeed one of the closest seasons in a long, long time. And last year was pretty great too. And in fact the year before that was good too, other than Mercedes not having a rival at the front (there was close competition from third place down, it’s just the #2 was too far from the #1).

Fucking Ferrari.

Historically, that’s not really been true. Better drivers are more likely to drive the best cars, on average, but it’s a long way from being the general rule, and always has been. The combination of locked-in contracts, sunk cost fallacies, personal favouritism, personal sponsor money, popularity (and hence team…

When things are popular, they cost money. I’m not sure why this is so weird for people. If you have an exclusive, unusual, popular event in Miami, with limited seating, the tickets will be expensive.

Sauber employees will be retained because it will still be Sauber, at least in the short term - Alfa were only ever a name on the car, so losing Alfa won’t effect personnel.

Sauber never normally need branding - they’re usually just Sauber (give or take an engine supplier name added on). They got some extra cash from giving Alfa naming rights, but presumably they accepted the Audi deal on terms that ensure that they don’t need that anymore. So they may well just be Sauber, since it’s an…

A strange comment - F1 has strong personalities, intense drama, some bad language, and actually quite a bit of passing (particularly if you skip certain circuits where you know there won’t be much). There were 74 overtakes in the race yesterday, and that’s not including overtakes at the start or in restarts (or…

FWIW, we had the first female winner of the Grand National just last year, so Kentucky may catch up soon.

Putting a 39-year-old woman, who is retired from motorsport, who hasn’t driven a car competitively for 10 years, who has never won a single race in at any competitive level, and whose career highlight was scoring four points in DTM in seven years of trying, into a modern F1 car would not be “serious” in any way.…

W series points don’t stack from year to year, because of this problem. It’s massively over-awarded relative to other series of its level (in order to give the drivers a leg-up), but opens up a loophole of racking up too many points there against limited opposition, which the FIA doesn’t want (it makes a mockery of…

Yes and no, as others have said. “Strength” in the usual way people think of it, in the sense of massive bench presses, not really. But in a broader sense, it takes a huge amount of strength - a common exercise drivers do is lifting heavy weights with their heads/necks alone. The G forces are insane - some turns go up…

That’s the most reasonable option; but it’s also possible that the meteorite might give random teenagers in the nearby farming town assorted superhuman abilities, and that some of these (superspeed perhaps, or flight (gets around weight restrictions!), or the ability to telepathically control machines) might be…