Messages

Haas door still seemingly open for Ricciardo, question is whether he wants to go through it

...and a terrible result for Merc allowed Ferrari to open a somewhat comfortable lead in the battle for second.  Says a lot about the reliability and strategic cock-ups of the red team that the silver guys were only 40 adrift before Singapore.

Must say I'm baffled that Hulk is reportedly Haas' top choice to replace Mick - who himself has been giving Magnussen a run for his money of late. Why not make a grab for de Vries or take a punt on one of the talented youngsters, anything but two guys whose best performances are years behind them.

Great performance by de Vries, the race director not so much....

Hope it's a great race for you, should certainly be a lively crowd! Perhaps a Lewis Hamilton hat for you....

Talking of Zandvoort, I see they've glued down some of the gravel to stop it being dragged across the track: https://www.racefans.net/2022/09/02/zandvoorts-fake-gravel-gets-early-thumbs-up-from-drivers/

Seems far too sensible for F1

Grid penalties begin in earnest:

Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, Ocon, Bottas, and Schumacher all with at least a 15 place grid drop for Spa

No, he said it's not true... aren't you convinced by that? lol

McLaren must be confident of getting Pastry on board for '23, be in a slight pickle if the contract ruling goes against them

Would be novel to have an actual new team in F1 but seems we're forever stuck with just 20 cars on the grid

Be an interesting working environment with Pastry given his rather public rejection of the team. Gasly sounds like he's planning on seeing out his contract to the end of '23 but you never know in F1, although does Alpine want to be all-French from a marketing perspective? Perhaps it isn't a factor or perhaps Zhou or Tsunoda (out of contract end of this year) would be a more useful fit.

Oh yes, Albon staying on at Williams: https://www.racefans.net/2022/08/03/albon-to-stay-at-williams-on-new-multi-year-deal/

Seems most likely, but what a mess Alpine has made of this

Yeah, so many races these days

Missed a few....
France:

Merc:
Hammy - 8 - One tiny error but got everything from car
Jack Russell - 6 - Behind Lewis, and an extra point off for dive-bombing Perez and then whining that he was largely alongside so had right of way in the corner

Red Bull:
Surger - 6 - Kind of slow
Max - 8 - Kind of fast

Ferrari:
'It is I' - 4 - Oops
Rally Guy's Son - 8 - Would've been interesting to see him in the mix on Sunday, but sadly the Ferraris keep blowing up

McLaren:
Ricky Hairdo - 6 - Still lacking that final bit of pace, hopefully will find it down the back of his sofa
Chuck Norris - 8 - Has all of his own pace and possibly a slice of someone else's....

Alpine:
Alonso - 9 - Why not
OffOn - 6 - Walloped Soda

Boris Johnson (aka Alpha Tory):
Greasy Peril - 5
Soda - X

A team called Aston Martin:
My Fault Again - 6
Speedy Stroller - 7

Williams:
Latifi - 5
Blur - 8

Alfauber:
Zhou - 5
Val - 6

Haas:
Magnum - 5
Not Massivespin - 5

I'd prefer an alternating China/Bahrain (or Singapore!) myself, the fewer of those the better