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Some thoughts beyond the gut-punches:

- Giovinazzi was good today. As was Kimi. Great result from Alfa

- Solid drive from Latifi

- Stroll has been nowhere since his Mugello crash and covid

- Perez deserves a podium this year. Got completely screwed out of it by the team today

- Sainz beats Lando again. Lando's not having a great second half to the season, although some of that isn't his own fault (e.g. being delayed on lap 1 in Russia, retiring at the Nurburgring, being driven into by Stroll at Portimao). Perhaps it's the luck balancing out, but he's only 4 points ahead of Sainz now

Yeah I'm totally disinterested.

My hope is that the Hulk replaces him for the rest of the year and which would definitely put Vettel down to 14th in the points standings, beaten by a guy who did less than half the season.

I wonder if Liberty is checking if the market values of F1 are keeping it steady or decreasing for putting out a show where you know who is going to win right from the start

thought they were interested in a bit of entertainment, but you're only entertained if you work for Mercedes Benz

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Not sure if Kvyat has done enough to save his seat, but that was a cracking restart. Brilliant move on LeClerc.

Kvyat with a little slapass on Sainz

I don't know all the legal trappings in place but the Concorde Agreement or whatever it's called / morphed into now still gives ultimate power to the teams and when Liberty bought F1, they had to agree to let those conditions stay. Correct me if I'm wrong here of course but I think basically the situation is that Liberty can't do anything radical unless all teams agree. Same thing as it always was in F1. To be honest, I don't want a Brian France type scenario where the sport turns into WWE so maybe that's for the better?

https://wtf1.com/post/lapped-cars-were- ... -on-track/

I still have questions about Masi. Serious questions

and yet they still had one more lap under SC

I guess they realized they made a bonehead move

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it was a gamble that didnt pay out. I wouldnt put this one on the team.
Reverse the situation so Perez didn't pit but the guys right behind him did and they would have walked over him with fresher and faster tires.

And if they all pitted he likely would have held P3 at the restart.

I know its hip to hate on tRacing Point but in F1 you sometimes have to gamble and one day that gamble works and the other day it doesnt.

Kind of feel sorry for Albon. I mean, any driver would have jumped at the chance he was given (well I don't think he had a choice really). But he has been found out that either he just isn't up to it, or isn't ready for it. Two races after he was told the drive is in his hands he gets lapped by his team mate (out of the points), then bins it when running sixth (and later said that he actually felt it was a good race).

I don't think Red Bull will axe him for this season (avoid the merry go round that was the second car in the early years) but if he continues down the path he is going then I can certainly see Horner or Marko just subtly asking Perez or Hulkenburg if they are race fit sometime next year.

With Tsunoda all but a shoe in at Alpha Tauri and being Red Bull backed and if he doesn't do a Yuji Yie, I can't see Albon being around much longer if he continues to balls up his chances. That is unless they give Gasly the boot which is in the realms of possibility as Horner and Marko clearly don't like him. Will test out just how independent Alpha Tauri really are.

Sadly I think Albon just isn't up to it.

Albon was definitely rushed up, same as how Gasly was rushed up following Ricciardo's unexpected departure and it's only now we are seeing him get near to delivering the kind of performance on a consistent basis that would've been expected of him when he was first rushed to Red Bull. If I were them, I'd move Gasly back to Red Bull and put Albon back where he needs to be right now, ie. Alpha Tauri.

With how dodgy Racing Point have been found out this year I wouldn't be surprised to find out at the end of the season that either the Mugello shunt or COVID has had a lingering effect on Stroll and Racing Point have been trying to hide it. His form has been woeful since Mugello. Even for him.

That self spin for Albon did it for me. He'll join the Red Bull conveyor belt like the rest of 'em. He'll probably be in Formula E soon.

Also that Verstappen tyre failure is the highlight of the year - perfect karma after that radio thing.

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That seems harsh for Albon, given how he drove last year after being promoted to RedBull. Perhaps you mean in terms of handling pressure, but even then the job of a team is to make a rookie feel at home and help them develop their potential, rather than crushing them under pressure and discarding them like they did with Gasly last year.

Gasly is incensed this year, but you'd hear exactly the same comments about him back at RB. I just don't trust Red Bull enough to form an opinion on their non-Max drivers potential.

I hope albon gets replaced next race, he's just not good enough. And wtf are racing point going to do next year with stroll and vettel? the only good driver gets kicked out. Unbelievable actually, in any other business the manager would get fired for letting his best employer go. I'm not expecting much from Aston Martin racing unless vettel finds his mojo back

Must be nice to have a dad buy Aston Martin just so you can get a gig. I was lucky if I got five bucks to buy an Autosport magazine........

Another note in the file marked 'Michael Masi is fucking retarded' - cars were allowed to unlap themselves whilst marshals were on the racing surface.

Yeah you've got to give him the benefit of the doubt, surely there's no way he'd knowingly let that happen.



Albon's clearly underperforming, but I think calling him trash is unfair. No driver who's got to his level is trash. There's clearly something going on with that 2nd RBR seat which is making good drivers look bad, be it too much pressure from Marko & Horner/car set up for Verstappen/whatever. Gasly is the proof. And Verstappen's a once in a generation driver - expecting everyone to be as good as him (and before him, Vettel) has arguably led to the current state of the RBR junior driver program.

Apparently the message that lapped cars could unlap themselves was given 15 seconds after the snake had passed the scene of Russell's accident, where there were still marshals on the circuit, so unless Masi was not paying attention, he would have seen that the track was not yet clear.

EDIT: The Race has done a fuller write-up of what happened and when.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/the-unse ... ds-action/

EDIT 2: Another article focusing on Vettel's POV.

https://www.racefans.net/2020/11/02/ver ... -marshals/

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.