The Racing Thread

Went to Boston last week to hang out with the IT'S brother and he took us to the f1 arcade to watch the race. Only $30 for the door cover and it was unlimited racing from pre race to post race. Great time.
 
My wife and I saw the F1 experience at the Grand Prix Plaza in Vegas last Friday.
- The merch...oh, hell no. The biggest ripoff of the whole thing. Wildly overpriced (70 dollars for a HAT?!) and worst of all? Most of it was last year's merch! 2024 merchandise at wildly inflated prices, who wouldn't plunk down their CC to buy some of that?
- Sims were free that weekend, otherwise they were 30-40 dollars for 6 laps around the Vegas course. Auto-transmission only, on track red/green braking and acceleration cues, decent force feedback on the brakes, acceleration and deceleration, and a very faithful reconstruction of the track and surrounding hotels and whatnot. Worth the money? By Vegas' inflated standards, yes. Elsewhere...maybe?
- The F1X took about an hour to walk through. You could spend 2 hours there digging and digging into all of the displays. The pit wall interactive setup was really, really cool. F1TV only shows a fraction of the radio chatter, so when you see drivers complaining about their race engineers talking too much, that's because there is SOOOO much going on we never hear.
- The tire change portion was kind of "meh" and the cool down room portion was cringey as fuck. Horrible. Embarrasing for F1 to think that was a good idea in its current execution.
- History...holy shit, the history on display. The lobby has Alonso's F138 for the 2013 season. F1X has The Ferrari 156 from 1961, Andretti's Lotus 80 from 1979, Vettell's RB7 from 2011, and Alonso's AMR23 from 2023. The cars, not mockups, the actual cars. There are a number of reproduction uniforms and helmets on display (those are marked), but also actual, worn helmets and jerseys on display (also marked). Some of the helmets still have bug splatters and flecks of dirt on the unused tearoffs. Trophies, car parts, engines, well-done displays about iconic cars and how they changed the sport were available. The room was also well designed with the cars in the middle and a chronological history in displays running counterclockwise from the room's entrance. I spent most of my time in this room alone.
- You can design your own car livery and team. That was really well done, but the colors and sponsors were really weak. Cool feature as part of the experience, but it needs some depth and a better color palette. Sure, teal and cobalt go together and who doesn't want an all purple car with neon blue highlights?

Great history lesson, really cool interactive features for both the history and modern F1. The tire change room wasn't bad but it wasn't great. The cooldown room made my group of 3 wildly uncomfortable, so I hope that improves.

3.5 out of 5 Adrian Newey's, maybe 4 out of 5 Ross Brawn's. I'd go again though.
 
I understand that, without my agreement, Formula 1 have put out a press release this afternoon that I am completing the first lap at Baku in 2025. This is wrong and I have not signed to complete a lap at in Baku in 2025. I am not completing the first lap in this year's race.

0 out of 5 paddock cats.
 
I can't stand Lewis Hamilton's whiney ass, but I feel bad for him this week. His bulldog of 13 years, Roscoe crossed the rainbow bridge. For any dog or pet person, that's a traumatic event.

In happier news, Max Verstappen racing GT3 cars is going like you'd expect: He punks the entire field. Destroys them.

RIP Roscoe.
 
AWP said:
I can't stand Lewis Hamilton's whiney ass, but I feel bad for him this week. His bulldog of 13 years, Roscoe crossed the rainbow bridge. For any dog or pet person, that's a traumatic event.

In happier news, Max Verstappen racing GT3 cars is going like you'd expect: He punks the entire field. Destroys them.

RIP Roscoe.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you've seen some of the videos, but there are some great recent in car videos of Max owning the track; I'll put a couple below anyway -- it's difficult to find one without that annoying Max Verstappen song overpaying the video.

I may've enjoyed watching him run GT3 on the Ring more than F1.


 
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Blizzard said:
Max is growing on me with these side quests of his. Here's one more vid about him on the 'Ring:
Click to expand...

When I returned to F1 in 2022 I saw him as some entitled Dutch dickhead driving a Red Bull which is obnoxious enough in its own right. 2023 rolls around with some of his temper tantrums and I really didn't like the guy. He had the best car in the game so of course he'll put in superlative races and qualifying.

Last year though, I started seeing him as just a blunt, no BS guy off the track. On the track I watched him take an underperforming Red Bull to yet another WDC and was candid in his interviews about the car and team. Then the cursing incident occurred and Max iced the press after that one race. I saw a guy raising another man's child who by all accounts the 3 parents have a solid relationship for their daughter's sake. A man Max replaced in F1 and Max himself being the recipient of quite a bit of abuse as a child; Penelope is adored in the paddock.

And his personality remains unchanged.

On track he kept a tractor for much of 2025 and put in amazing laps and races. The dude is a generational talent and if he retired today I'd have to consider him one of the top 5 drivers of all time in F1. Personally, I'd love to see him go to another team, log another WDC, and then retire. Max could have won the 2023 WDC with the Merc or Ferrari, he is a phenomenal talent.
 
AWP said:
When I returned to F1 in 2022 I saw him as some entitled Dutch dickhead driving a Red Bull which is obnoxious enough in its own right. 2023 rolls around with some of his temper tantrums and I really didn't like the guy. He had the best car in the game so of course he'll put in superlative races and qualifying.

Last year though, I started seeing him as just a blunt, no BS guy off the track. On the track I watched him take an underperforming Red Bull to yet another WDC and was candid in his interviews about the car and team. Then the cursing incident occurred and Max iced the press after that one race. I saw a guy raising another man's child who by all accounts the 3 parents have a solid relationship for their daughter's sake. A man Max replaced in F1 and Max himself being the recipient of quite a bit of abuse as a child; Penelope is adored in the paddock.

And his personality remains unchanged.

On track he kept a tractor for much of 2025 and put in amazing laps and races. The dude is a generational talent and if he retired today I'd have to consider him one of the top 5 drivers of all time in F1. Personally, I'd love to see him go to another team, log another WDC, and then retire. Max could have won the 2023 WDC with the Merc or Ferrari, he is a phenomenal talent.
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I've had much the same view. You captured it well. I could never really put my finger on it, he's always been a phenomenal driver -- it's literally in his blood -- but there was also something there that made it hard to like him. Maybe he's changed/changing. Maybe I'm seeing him a bit differently now. 🤷 I've always liked him more than Hamilton though...that guy has always been a cunt, I don't care how good a driver he is.
 
After yesterday I put Lando in with the likes of Hamilton, Colapinto, and Stroll though to be fair two have talent and two do not.

If you watch Lando's in car views the incident (inchident) looks like good, hard racing. If you watch LeClerc's in car view Lando looks bad. If you watch the overhead, Lando looks like ass. You can see him brake late and move to gain position on Piastri. Good move. The problem I see is Lando forgets Verstappen is there, Lando's so focused on beating Piastri to the apex he ignores or forgets there are other cars on the track. You can see this in the way he taps Verstappen's rear and then jerks the wheel to the right. Piastri avoids a wreck through lightning reflexes and just a little bit of room to the wall; indeed, Piastri nearly hit the wall as a result.

I'm not the only one:
Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri Singapore GP collision has changed ground rules in F1 title battle, says Martin Brundle
Norris got up the inside of Piastri at Turn 3, but then made contact with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen ahead, with his reaction to that initial collision sending him right and into his team-mate, with the heavy wheel-to-wheel hit almost sending the Australian into the barrier.
Click to expand...

If you go back to Canada Lando did the same thing but on a straight: he focused on a gap that didn't exist and crashed his car. Lando has a track record of tunnel vision when passing other cars. Whereas in Canada Lando took responsibility, yesterday in Singapore he treated it as hard racing.

Where it gets infuriating is the team supports Lando's assertion nothing was wrong with the move, but 1 meter is a mile in this case because a meter's different in braking causes a massive, massive crash.

Minus qualifying, Lando is a good driver with a clear track. Put him in traffic and every pass is a roll of the dice.

Piastri has to stop being a little bitch. I'm all in on the lad, but his attitude over the last two races is dogshit. That said, his manager is Mark "Multi 21" Webber and after yesterday I think Papaya Rules is all but dead, now Multi 81 is the order of the day.

As an aside, I think if you watched it on F1TV you saw a case of the announcers being gagged by production and forced to take Lando's side. That was disgusting.
 
AWP said:
After yesterday I put Lando in with the likes of Hamilton, Colapinto, and Stroll though to be fair two have talent and two do not.

If you watch Lando's in car views the incident (inchident) looks like good, hard racing. If you watch LeClerc's in car view Lando looks bad. If you watch the overhead, Lando looks like ass. You can see him brake late and move to gain position on Piastri. Good move. The problem I see is Lando forgets Verstappen is there, Lando's so focused on beating Piastri to the apex he ignores or forgets there are other cars on the track. You can see this in the way he taps Verstappen's rear and then jerks the wheel to the right. Piastri avoids a wreck through lightning reflexes and just a little bit of room to the wall; indeed, Piastri nearly hit the wall as a result.

I'm not the only one:
Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri Singapore GP collision has changed ground rules in F1 title battle, says Martin Brundle


If you go back to Canada Lando did the same thing but on a straight: he focused on a gap that didn't exist and crashed his car. Lando has a track record of tunnel vision when passing other cars. Whereas in Canada Lando took responsibility, yesterday in Singapore he treated it as hard racing.

Where it gets infuriating is the team supports Lando's assertion nothing was wrong with the move, but 1 meter is a mile in this case because a meter's different in braking causes a massive, massive crash.

Minus qualifying, Lando is a good driver with a clear track. Put him in traffic and every pass is a roll of the dice.

Piastri has to stop being a little bitch. I'm all in on the lad, but his attitude over the last two races is dogshit. That said, his manager is Mark "Multi 21" Webber and after yesterday I think Papaya Rules is all but dead, now Multi 81 is the order of the day.

As an aside, I think if you watched it on F1TV you saw a case of the announcers being gagged by production and forced to take Lando's side. That was disgusting.
Click to expand...
It was a bone headed to be sure. Lando claims it was just racing, but it was an ill-timed, poorly executed, and forced move that didn't need to happen when it did. I won't be quite as hard on him as you overall, but agree wholeheartedly with your tunnel.vision assessment.

I would've loved to have heard Max's radio call after that. He's certainly willing to take risks, but they seem much more calculated, smarter...


 
Blizzard said:
It was a bone headed to be sure. Lando claims it was just racing, but it was an ill-timed, poorly executed, and forced move that didn't need to happen when it did. I won't be quite as hard on him as you overall, but agree wholeheartedly with your tunnel.vision assessment.

I would've loved to have heard Max's radio call after that. He's certainly willing to take risks, but they seem much more calculated, smarter...
Click to expand...

Max has the talent and experience to take those risks with a history of making them pay off and not end in a wreck. His level of car control is unmatched on track right now.
 
Did any of you catch the DTM championship race at Hockenheim over the weekend? Awesome final lap battle.
 
Blizzard said:
Did any of you catch the DTM championship race at Hockenheim over the weekend? Awesome final lap battle.
Click to expand...

No. Where can you watch them?

I'm where I don't follow anything outside of F1, but I'll also glance over other coverage. Except NASCAR. Fuck that series and the France family. Indy's kind of hit or miss and Porsche just pulled out of WEC while spinning up its own Formula E team. A current downside is pushing the F1 Academy because girlz are just as good as the guys? Stop. Abbie, Lia, Bianca, etc., a modern F1 car would snap your necks. Male F2 drivers have problems (Ollie Bearman in 2024) with the transition, so please stop embarrassing your Hello Kitty selves. I would watch them over Formula E though.

ETA: I just read about how bad Hamilton's brakes were in Singapore. Alonso had every right to be pissed.
 

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