With Formula 1, I often don’t know what I’m talking about. So if you’re here to say, “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” well, you might be right. That said…
My impression is that Lando Norris has three main issues in the racecar:
- Passing Max Verstappen. (See: Yesterday.)
- Summoning the courage to compete when Max Verstappen is behind him. (See: Silverstone.)
- Starting races. (See: Just about every race this season.)
When he’s driving by himself, laying down laps, Lando Norris is great. When he’s in traffic against people not named Verstappen, I think he does alright? But when he gets to Verstappen’s bumper or Verstappen gets to his, Lando Norris becomes a vassal state, and when the lights go out, Norris looks like a fawn on a frozen lake.
We’ve talked before about Norris needing to get over his friendship with Verstappen. But what if the issue’s bigger than that? What if Lando Norris’s problem is that he’s a coward? This is how I’m thinking about it: Those three examples above are the most nerve-wracking challenges in F1 right now. In all three of those areas, Lando Norris stinks. The things Lando Norris is good at are very sim-adjacent. The things Lando Norris is bad at are the things that require some of what Sky Sports always calls bravery.
I hope I’m wrong, because the idea of Lando Norris is so appealing. But Lando Norris in reality is a gigantic bummer. And it’s not even like there’s an off-ramp to another prominent series. If you’re too soft for F1, it’s pretty much video games or nothing. Maybe Norris was giving Verstappen hell and we just didn’t see it on the broadcast, but the circumstantial evidence is against him, and even that wouldn’t excuse the starts.
How the George Russell disqualification shook out in the constructor standings:
- McLaren: +5 points
- Ferrari: +5 points
- Red Bull: +4 points
- Aston Martin: +2 points
- Alpine: +1 point
- RB: +1 point
- Mercedes: –18 points
Obviously, Russell might not have won had his car not been underweight. That’s the point of the rule. I’d think a lighter car would help with tire preservation, but at 1.5 kg, it’s hard to believe it helped in anything more than a very marginal way. Similarly, I don’t know that this would ultimately make any difference in the end-of-season standings. The gap between Mercedes and Ferrari for third would have been at 56 points. Instead, it’s at 79. Those are both large numbers, but Ferrari’s been slow, Red Bull’s had a one-car team, and Lando Norris has sworn fealty to the Verstappen crown. Mercedes isn’t in the worst place to make up ground with ten races left.
Other F1:
- The Carlos Sainz question has finally been answered. He’s going to Williams.
- The Sergio Pérez question has been answered again, and the answer is the same. He’s still the driver when they go to Holland. They’re saying he’s the driver for the rest of the season, but the question doesn’t seem like it’s about to disappear.
Does NASCAR Need More Cigarettes?
NASCAR returns at Richmond on August 11th. In the meantime…
We need a driver to smoke cigarettes. Nothing like cigarettes in close-ish proximity to gasoline.
Among current drivers, Martin Truex Jr. seems like the best cigs guy. Once his retirement is complete, though, is another driver ready to take over the mantle? I can’t think of one off the top of my head. Nobody is as much a man as Truex, and Daniel Suárez isn’t quite European. Three types of people smoke cigs: Manly men, delinquents, and Europeans. In addition to lacking Europeans and visible testosterone, I don’t know that NASCAR has any big-time bad boys right now? We’re really coming up empty here. Christopher Bell would be the funniest. Maybe Michael McDowell could do it, in a divorced dad way. (I know nothing about McDowell’s personal life. Really hope he isn’t a divorced dad. This is purely about vibes.)
What Is PREMA?
The Indianapolis Star ran a piece today on PREMA’s progress setting up their IndyCar shop in Fishers. I do not have a subscription to the Indianapolis Star, but my guess is that the takeaway is that PREMA is making progress setting up their IndyCar shop in Fishers. This, of course, provokes a question. What is PREMA?
I missed this back in April, but PREMA, which also goes by Prema (I don’t know the acronym and I will not learn it), is an Italian team that races in F2, F3, F4, and a few other series that do not subscribe to the F# naming system. Next year, they’re joining IndyCar.
As a big F1 development program, the risk here is that Prema starts trying to turn IndyCar into an F1 minor league.
As a big F1 development program, the risk here is that Prema drivers stink, then go to F1 and succeed, allowing us plenty of pro-IndyCar, pro-America fodder.
(New Zealanders don’t smoke cigs, do they?)
