F1 2025 - Watchalong Thread #2

[Brazilianadventure]

Thread two

We are over halfway through the season. It looks like the WDC will either be Lando or Oscar. Hoping for a grandstand finish in Abu Dhabi.

It’s clear the problem with Ferrari is they don’t respect the drivers. John Elkann is under pressure.

Kimi, Seb and Fernando, all world champions tried. Michael
managed it because he had Jean Todt and Ross Brawn and others already driving change.

Its like this approach won from
2000 to 2005 so it must still work.

Lewis is writing reports to departments, I’ve never heard of a driver doing that. Lewis told Mercedes they had taken the wrong path and to their cost they ignored him.

Lewis has more motivation to get No 8 and has experience of Mercedes winning 7 driver and constructor titles from 2014 to 2020. They would be foolish to ignore him.

Ferrari are so far up their own arses it's unreal. They have the drivers to turn it around if they were willing to listen. They aren't though. They won't win again until they change at a fundamental level. They have to want to win more than they want to be right, and clearly they don't right now.
I understand why for Lewis it was worth trying, I do not understand why Charles has wasted so much of his career with them.

I read an article today that there was a correction and he only had 6 points and not 8...like they originally said....however im sure half the stuff that comes up on SM is made up so i could be wrong

I'm a Ferrari fan and have been since the days of Lauda. Charles explained in an interview last year why he was sticking with Ferrari. He was asked if he was upset that drivers he'd risen up the ladder with were either champions now or likely to become a champion before him. His response was that winning a championship for Ferrari was worth more than winning for any other team. I agree with him. However I can see that cracks are starting to show and I'm pretty sure he'd now accept a drive anywhere that stood a chance.
I think Elkann's comments were terrible. I wish the FIA would make a change to the rules that favoured Ferrari - it'd be good for business as well as making me happy!

Vegas race week. Not sure if I will watch live as it’s so early.

The BBC are reporting Filipe Massa has been given the go ahead to proceed with part of his case for compensation. However, they rejected the declaration element I.e. they won’t rule he should have won as they can’t rewrite the outcome of 2008.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/c4gpg757j2lo

I have some sympathy with Filipe as that manufactured crash was a very dark episode in F1 which is why its shocking that Flávio is now working at Alpine.

Im going to try to watch the race live because I want to see it without spoilers and I cant trust myself not to look at my phone or DS (who will definitely watch live) to keep a poker face! Im not getting up that early for qualifying though

I’m sleeping terribly at the moment so there’s a possibility that I may end up watching it live but the plan is not to! That’s what Sky Q is for. 😜I’m an old pro at avoiding the race result as I used to do voluntary work on Sundays so rarely got home in time to watch it live. I learnt the hard way never to look at my phone/watch or have the radio on in my car when driving home. Worked pretty well apart from the one time I walked in and switched the TV on to start playing the race recording and the screen flashed on with a shot of the top 3 on the sodding podium. Argh! So now I keep my eyes closed while switching the TV on (and sound off). 😂 And then there was the time some bloody man in the queue at the supermarket (was just buying some food on my way home from the voluntary work) was talking loudly to his mate about the race result. 😡So now all human interaction is also avoided.

The Massa go ahead is interesting. Assume it was decided on a “these poor lawyers are starving, they need to earn more money” basis. I do think he’s just humiliating himself and has been given some very bad advice along the way. Interesting how Mercedes wanted to go down the legal route after Abu Dhabi but it was Lewis who said no because he wanted to win the world champ on the track rather than in court. As for Briatore being back in F1, I think it’s shameful.

I agree about Massa. However, Bernie and Flávio are not exactly

Lewis showed real class in not taking the legal route after AD2021. He also behaved impeccably on the podium and in interviews. Keeping his emotions in check must have been so hard.

Great quali! Love a bit of rain, but bet the drivers didn't. Jenson was throughly enjoying himself 😁

Carlos on P3!

Will be an interesting race. Max wants to win the race, Lando wants to win the championship.

Thank you, I didn’t want to spoil quality as I caught most of it live.

There were some epic slides in the wet. Lando was really on it.

Carlos is exactly what Williams needed and they were what he needed. There is a lovely video of a fan asking him to apologise for saying he wouldn’t get a podium this year. He is young enough to have a shot at a world championship with Williams - that would be perfect.

Lance Stroll made a really bad decision not to stay on full wets. He was flying in Q2.

Lewis - there are no words. He just has to get to the end of the season. Reset over the winter and 🙏 for a good 2026 Ferrari car and engine.

I think they said the last 7 races had been won from pole....but i wonder if it would make a difference that MV is p2

One thing that I've noticed is that all the interviews afterwards are really carefully worded - tough, tricky, unfortunate feature a lot (im sure they are briefed first) but compared to eg tennis players or athletics where there are often pretty emotional post event interview, these are really "considered".
My DS seems way more upset and annoyed when OP does badly most races recently than OP himself! 🤣Im intrigued that they dont want to give anything away, instead of saying eg "im really gutted that didnt go the way I planned!"

@Fizbosshoes all the drivers have had a lot of media training over the years. It starts when they’re in carting so by the time they reach F1 they’re very savvy. They need to be. It’s not just about their own performance / how they come across but about the millions invested in sponsorship money for each team. Everyone has to be very careful not to say (or do) anything which could negatively affect sponsorship. And of course Drive to Survive has intensified the pressure plus the FIA’s own rules (such as penalising drivers if they use a swear word in a press conference etc).

F1 is new to me so I guess it feels like a contrast to some of the more raw emotion you get in other sports. It just seems a bit more considered, but also maybe they have a bit more time to prepare answers (apart from the top 3) who are generally likely to be happy with their performance. I always feel bad in other sports when someone is immediately interviewed after they have lost /been eliminated for a competition and you can see they are heartbroken and gutted but trying to put together a sensible and coherent answer

The F1 drivers don’t really have time to prepare answers as everyone apart from the top 3 goes straight into the media pen after the race ends. Which is why they’re all media trained from a young age. You do get the raw emotion on the team radio during races though. I’m guessing it’s the one of the few sports where what you’re saying to your team while you’re actually competing (!) might / can be transmitted to the world! As if they weren’t already under pressure.

I was hoping for some Lando bad luck and an Oscar resurgence but it was not to be. Sigh. As much as I’m not a Lando fan I do concede that he has been driving brilliantly in the back half of the season and deserves the WDC. In fact everyone drove fantastically in quali just to (mostly) keep it out of the wall.

Morning all,

Morning

Morning

Morning!

I’m enjoying today’s race. No major incidents (yet!) but nice racing!

DS is a big OP fan so im kind of rooting for him as well, but I enjoy following all of them. But it feels like Lando and Oscar are improving/dropping back in equal measure which seems disappointing in terms of competition. Ive been willing OP to get a podium the last few races to make DS less grumpy if nothing else

I think this weekend is Jenson’s interview to be the long term replacement for Martin Brundle. He has done a good job.

I don’t think Max has a chance of the championship but there is a strong chance he could come second!

Kimi did really well to help George and make up the penalty.

I hope Lando is OK on fuel.

Well Done Max.