1. Should Mercedes get royalties for Red Bull copying their Spain move?
We all know plagiarism when we see it.
2. Street courses are very cool.
After Baku, this felt a little sterile.
3. Valtteri Bottas’s beef with his own team is exciting.
That’s what’s going on, right? It just boiled over yesterday? Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, but my impression is the situation is:
- Bottas is on the outs with Mercedes but it isn’t finalized yet.
- Mercedes thinks Bottas isn’t good enough.
- Bottas is frustrated with Mercedes not setting him up for success.
- Bottas cusses out Mercedes on the radio yesterday.
I like it. In the words of that one rideshare passenger from Greek Row at the University of Texas: Can we just get a *little* bit of drama?
4. Why exactly is McLaren so beloved?
I understand that they’re beloved, but I don’t understand why. Is it an English-speaking-world thing I’m exposed to because I live in the U.S.? Is it a nostalgia thing, since they’re the team of Lauda and Senna? Is Lando Norris just especially likable? Why is that? Youth? Vigor? Potential? How does everyone feel about Daniel Ricciardo? Thank you in advance for your help with this.
@NIT Stu: A few responsive thoughts!
1. Nah. No royalties necessary. The real issue right now is just how “off their game” Mercedes have been. Silly mistakes left and right. Odd strategies. Failure to truly listen to the feedback their drivers are providing. We’re used to cold, clinical excellence from Mercedes and we just aren’t getting it this year. Perhaps they are struggling to deal with the stress and pressure that come from actually being in an honest-to-goodness title fight this year?
2. Agreed. Paul Ricard isn’t a great track. The blue and red abrasive strips aren’t easy on the eyes, either. Get excited for the Red Bull Ring this weekend. It’s a personal favourite and the setting is spectacular.
3. Yeah, the Bottas sitch ain’t good now and it’s unlikely to improve. Bottas’s one real job is to help get Lewis to the front, help slow down the Red Bulls, and then finish the race not too far behind Lewis. He’s a mercurial guy, though. Sometimes, he seems content to play the role of “bridesmaid.” At other times, he seems frustrated and fed up with the whole situation. Contrast Bottas with, say, Perez at Red Bull who plays a similar role for that team. Perez is an excellent, no-drama partner for Verstappen. He follows team orders well, and (at least in the past few races) has been good about taking opportunities handed to him. I’d look for Bottas to get dumped this season and replaced by George Russell for next year.
4. I’m a McLaren fan so I’m happy to respond. Like all great loves, my love for McLaren is complex and multi-faceted. Yes, it’s a history thing. (Senna is an amazing person; I highly recommend the 2010 documentary called, appropriately, “Senna.”) And does the lack of a language barrier also make fanhood easier? Sure. But what’s most attractive about the team (and I know this sounds like a strange reason to like a racing outfit) is its “culture.” The team is super positive, super humble (but in an appropriate way), super drama-free. Although they are one of the oldest and most successful teams in the sport, they have this sort of plucky upstart mentality. (They fell on hard times in the mid 2010’s and are only just now on the rebound.) They have the best digital strategy in all of F1, sponsors flock to them for how marketable/positive the whole operation is, and they just give off positive vibes. It’s a cliche, but McLaren seem to “take the work seriously but not themselves seriously.” It’s just very easy to like them. Plus, Norris is just so down-to-earth and unpolished-in-a-charming-way. And (despite my comment above in response to @JoshBathon) DannyRicc is so awesome too. They’re the best team and you should adopt them as your own. (For the record, there are several teams/drivers I appreciate. I think Ferrari’s lineup with Leclerc and Sainz is great. I’m a fan of Gasly and Tsunoda and Russell. It’s difficult to feel anything but love for Vettel and Raikkonen. All to say, the sport is just so likable and it features a ton of cool people.)
Your comments, as always, are helpful. What a knowledgeable pair of glasses you are.
@JoshBathon: I’m just seeing your comment now. And I’m incensed. Overhyped? Let’s take a look at the data, shall we?
– Norris sits in fourth in the drivers’ standings right now with 76 points. He’s ahead of Bottas (in a Mercedes) and both Ferraris. Ricciardo, on the other hand, is back in ninth with 34 points. He’s behind Gasly from AlphaTauri (ouch) and just four points ahead of Vettel from Aston Martin (also ouch).
– Norris has two podiums on the year and four additional top-five finishes. Ricciardo? Zero podiums. Zero top-five finishes.
– Norris is the only driver (the only one!) to finish in the points at every single Grand Prix this year. Nobody – not Hamilton, not Verstappen, not Leclerc, and certainly not Ricciardo – can say the same.
– Let’s dive even deeper into the data. Sound OK? At Bahrain, Norris beat Ricciardo by twenty seconds. At Imola? 28 seconds. At Portimao? 24 seconds. At Monaco, Ricciardo got lapped so there’s no official margin of victory to reference. (It was a lot.) At Paul Ricard? Eleven seconds.
– Formula 1 maintains an official Power Ranking throughout the season. How does it work? A six-judge panel assesses each driver after every Grand Prix and scores them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation. After seven races, Norris sits in second (SECOND!) in all of Formula 1! He’s behind only Verstappen. Who is he beating? Well Hamilton, Leclerc, Gasly, Sainz, Perez, Ocon, Russell, and Giovinazzi. Where is Ricciardo? He isn’t ranked.
Call Lando Norris annoying. Call him an aggressively online gamer/social media influencer. But don’t come in here and say he’s overhyped when he’s beating Ricciardo comprehensively.
I’m Mattia Binotto’s Glasses and I approve this message.
Yah but Lando seems like a Vegan. Danny Ric, on the other hand, is a fine piece of meat.
@JoshBathon: Oh, yes. The tried-and-true method of “well I can’t compete when it comes to the facts so I have to resort to strange, strained, ad hominem attacks.”
I know that the number one rule of the Internet is, “don’t feed the trolls.” However, against my better judgment, I state as follows:
1. As an initial matter, you toss out the word “vegan” as if it’s some sort of insult. (Methinks there’s a tinge of toxic masculinity embedded therein? As if being vegan is effeminate? Care to say more?) In fact, a properly balanced vegan diet offers numerous health benefits and also contributes to efforts to fight global climate change.
2. As a factual matter, Lando is not a vegan. He loves milk (which should endear him to this website) (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwhSLbcWEAc&ab_channel=SoLarF1Tyres) and his favorite meal is pizza con pollo (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOpb6hQBsmM&ab_channel=McLaren).
Wait Lando Norris likes milk? Why didn’t you lead with that?
Indeed! Milk is practically his favourite thing on earth.
Notably, Lando was a near-teetotaler for a long time. HOWEVER, in the video that dropped from McLaren today (which features Lando and Ricciardo enjoying snaxx from the UK and Australia), Lando reveals that he recently had a Moscow Mule and that it caused his “head to go down the toilet.”
Poor lad. We’ve all been there.
Well I’ll be. This is massive news. Thank you.
Lando probably wears Velcro sneakers. Not cause they’re cool—he wears them because he likes the taste.
Lando is just good at social media. Over hyped. @WhatsHisBucketsGlasses I’m talking to you.
Ricciardo is a king among men.