[Multi21]

Sebastian Vettel has said he will not race in Sochi Russia if the race is still on for September. No word from the Holier Than Thou who professes to care about human rights.... or only certain members of society's human rights. As Bigs says, taking a knee or wearing a T Shirt cost you nothing. Seb is actually putting something on the line such as his paycheck and points haul in a championship season.

[JustBud]

Is it just me or are the new cars MUCH better looking than those they replaced? The Ferrari is gorgeous.

Of course the exception to me is the Mercedes, that god awful teal, silver and red combo is just hideous.

and to end, I really like the number 1 on Max's car........

[David993S]

Sebastian Vettel has said he will not race in Sochi Russia if the race is still on for September. No word from the Holier Than Thou who professes to care about human rights.... or only certain members of society's human rights. As Bigs says, taking a knee or wearing a T Shirt cost you nothing. Seb is actually putting something on the line such as his paycheck and points haul in a championship season.

F1 just announced it has cancelled the Russian GP for 2022. Glad they showed some backbone.

[Multi21]

They left themselves some wiggle room in their statement to see how it goes between now and September. It could come back.... They don't want to lose that $$$$.

[Multi21]

Looks like they've finalized it now with no chance of the race going on.

Italy in September is lovely. For me, it was great to see F1 at Mugello during Covid, one of the tracks used by Ferrari for testing and a traditional MotoGP track. That long fast straight and neck stretching 1st corner would fit in well.

[JustBud]

Their testing didn't go so well, but Alfa always has a stunning livery..... (Orlen should have just used the same red as the rest of the car)

[JustBud]

Getting closer......

[Designer]

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022 - 14:50

Max Verstappen signs with Red Bull for 5 year, €200-€250 million deal
Max Verstappen extended his contract with Red Bull Racing for another five years until 2028, the reigning Formula 1 and his sponsor announced on Twitter. Verstappen had one more year left on his contract. The extension is rumored to be the most lucrative contract in F1 history, and will make Verstappen the highest paid Dutch athlete ever.

Neither Red Bull nor Verstappen mentioned any amounts, but sources close to broadcaster NOS said that the 24-year-old racer is earning between 40 and 50 million euros per year at Red Bull Racing. According to the Telegraaf, Verstappen makes the highest amount ever awarded to a Dutch athlete.

"I love this team, and I am very happy to continue this amazing journey we are on for a long time," Verstappen wrote on Twitter. "We have accomplished so much together already, but we are definitely not done." He said it was an easy decision to remain with Red Bull for more racing seasons.

"To have Max signed through to the end of 2028 is a real statement of intent. Our immediate focus is on retaining Max's World Championship title, but this deal also shows he is part of the Team's long-term planning," said Christian Horner, leader of Red Bull Racing.

”With our Red Bull Powertrains division working on the new engine regulations for 2026, we wanted to make sure we had the best driver on the grid for that car.”

[JustBud]

[Multi21]

Bottas' laugh at the end, when he doesn't have to listen to Toto or anyone else at Mercedes after his last race with them tells you all you need to know on how he feels about the last lap situation. Karma is a byatch.

[Scott at Team Harco]

Bottas' laugh at the end, when he doesn't have to listen to Toto or anyone else at Mercedes after his last race with them tells you all you need to know on how he feels about the last lap situation. Karma is a byatch.

While all of that may be true, that clip at the end was from the race where Max and Lewis took each other out and Bottas won the race. Doesn't detract from the fact that Toto is a whiny bitch. Wouldn't it be great if Alfa and Mercedes were on-par with each other this year?

[Multi21]

Bottas' laugh at the end, when he doesn't have to listen to Toto or anyone else at Mercedes after his last race with them tells you all you need to know on how he feels about the last lap situation. Karma is a byatch.

While all of that may be true, that clip at the end was from the race where Max and Lewis took each other out and Bottas won the race. Doesn't detract from the fact that Toto is a whiny bitch. Wouldn't it be great if Alfa and Mercedes were on-par with each other this year?

My bad, thought it was after Abu Dhabi race. Regardless, telling body language immediately after seeing the footage.

[JustBud]

When GR inked the deal for Bottas's seat and Valterri announced that he was going to Alfa you could clearly see the weight removed from VB's shoulders.... I'm hoping Alfa's car gets up to cause some chaos in the Hamilton camp..... I'm sure Valterri would be smiling even bigger...... and I'm also hoping GR drives the Ham Sandwich to the deli.

[SeanR]

Boy Hass is having all sorts of issues. Now their car is stuck in Turkey due to a broken airplane.

[Multi21]

Kevin Magnessun is back to the HAAS team for 2022.... can't say I saw that one coming. It's a good measure of young Schumacher to see if Mick has what it takes against a veteran. Even though KM missed last year in F1, the new formula car should level out the playing field with Schumacher and give us a measure if he's ready to move up to a better team next year.

[SeanR]

[Multi21]

Just when you thought the come back of the day was Kevin Magnussen returning to race in F1, something else comes out of the abyss....

Lock up your women and children because Flavio Briatore, better known in the paddock as "Flava Flav" is coming back to F1 after being suspended for life! That's right, apparently "life time suspension" for race fixing only means 12 years in F1 years kind of like 1 human year means 7 in dog years.

Flavio heard the call from Steven on TRF for "more entertainment in my F1" and effective immediately, will be working on commercial and entertainment development in F1....

https://racingnews365.com/formula-1-...shgate-scandal

[JustBud]

35 seconds in Max gives his opinion on Mercedes pod less design in Bahrain.

Couldn't agree more Max, it looks like a Dyson and a hover craft had a drunken tryst.

[JustBud]

[Designer]

Busy weekend.

[JustBud]

New intro with a little smirk......

[Crisis]

A group of us at work have our own little F1 fantasy league going. Winner gets this:

[Multi21]

Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg back on the same grid. Hopefully they will produce off track entertainment as funny as this during a live interview:

[Multi21]

The irony is not lost on me of Hamilton fans crying that "it's the car". LOL

[Multi21]

[Scott at Team Harco]

Ferrari, Red Bull, Ferrari, Red Bull.

Good first day. Hope we have a lot more variety up front this year.

[Multi21]

[David993S]

Hoping for a Ferrari win today.

[Scott at Team Harco]

I wouldn't mind a spectacular DNF for Hammsandwich.

Then.. good finishes by RBR, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, Russell and AR (in that order?)

[Scott at Team Harco]

Crap!

Congrats to Ferrari. Haas and AR not bad.

[David993S]

The church bells are ringing in Maranello today ! I love it. I hope Ferrari's strength continues this season.
Unfortunate result for Red Bull, and damned if the Cry Baby's good luck doesn't continue.

[Crisis]

Wow. That escalated quickly in the last laps. My Red Bull F1 fantasy team sure took a shit kicking at the end.

[Scott at Team Harco]

Red Bull needs about 10 laps more reliability.

[SeanR]

That was a hell of a fun race to watch. My cigar lounge is hosting races every Sunday morning with 15 TV's with the sound cranked, mimosas, cigars and ipads with the F1 app on them so we get the entire experience. Got a season ticket for this so I'll be there almost every Sunday. If anyone is in the area come join us.

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Feel bad for McLaren, this was a total faceplant for them. Didn't like where the Mercs ended up finishing but that was all due to RB failures on 3 of the 4 RB engines failing. Not a good start for them. Haas sure looked good. Going to be a hell of a season.

[Multi21]

Fun race to watch and a great start to the season for Ferrari. Both RBR and Mercedes have some work to do to catch Ferrari but undoubtedly they will.

Loved KMag and HAAS and the double points finish for Alfa!

Shocking how "average" Lewis looks when he doesn't have a car that was 1 second faster than the 2nd fastest car on grid. He was on podium, but never passed a car on track that wasn't on fire or had a mechanical failure.

[Wade B]

If the qualifying and racing remain this good, here's to hoping that all of the teams struggle with that undertray all season!

[linderpat]

Another good finish to what was otherwise kind of a snoozer. Very happy to see the prancing horse at 1/2.

[Designer]

I thought it was a very good race. They can finally get closer to each other. This was no parade.
And the cars actually look pretty good.

[JustBud]

Oy vey, Mercedes FINALLY starts the season on the back foot instead of their usual sandbagging and BOTH RB's go boom!

Can Sir Lulu be any more lucky???

Happy for CLC&C Music Factory and the Scuderia..seems as they have legitimate pace and a good package (as well as the best looking car on the grid)

Feel bad for McLaren, where did their first practice pace go??? Nice to see HAAS up there too.

Lastly, I would love to see Bottas and HamSandwich going wheel to wheel all season long...... with VB coming out on top.... I know it's unlikely but it is a wish.

Oh yeah, here's my F1 hashtag for the year......#ABH (anybody but Hamilton)

[Multi21]

Yes, JBud, Hamilton has had a lucky horseshoe stuck up his ass since he entered F1 and possibly before. Can't believe how lucky he gets all the time.

The verdict is out and apparently the RB double DNF was caused by overheated fuel pumps. Fuel pumps in F1 are made by 1 company for all teams so there is no Honda pump and another Mercedes pump. With the new E-10 fuel regs, the pumps apparently got hot during low fuel loads and caused the engines to shut down. Gasley's issue in the sister car was not fuel pump related.

[Crisis]

Looks like the rule changes enacted by F1 for 2022 have worked to some degree. Though still not a pass-fest, the 2 laps of Leclerc & Max swapping positions was a marked improvement over what we typically see. It's really nice to not have every race simply a tossup between Lewis & Max. Should be a great year.

[linderpat]

Yes, JBud, Hamilton has had a lucky horseshoe stuck up his ass since he entered F1 and possibly before. Can't believe how lucky he gets all the time.

love him or hate him (or be utterly indifferent one way or the other), at some point it is more than luck. He is a great driver, one of the greatest of all time.

[SeanR]

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[Multi21]

Yes, JBud, Hamilton has had a lucky horseshoe stuck up his ass since he entered F1 and possibly before. Can't believe how lucky he gets all the time.

love him or hate him (or be utterly indifferent one way or the other), at some point it is more than luck. He is a great driver, one of the greatest of all time.

None of the "Greatest of all Time" get beat by average F1 drivers (Button, Rosberg) in the same car. Greatest of all time is a driver who has done more with less. I've seen Schumacher and Fernando Alonso do that since 1999. Hamilton is not in their category. He's had the benefit of not only the best car on grid, but the greatest, most dominant car in the history of F1 backed by a great team in MB. Last Sunday he got on podium by passing a car that was on fire and 2 that had mechanical failures hardly worthy of praise. He's above average in my book.

[Multi21]

BREAKING NEWS:

There has been a possible drone air strike at an oil refinery near the track in Saudi Arabia that is on fire. Details are slim right now, but FP2 looks like it may be delayed and entire weekend in jeopardy.

[Crisis]

FP2 was delayed a bit but still went ahead and was completed. F1 says that the race weekend will continue as scheduled. If no more attacks, that should be true.

[Multi21]

The FIA has introduced new protocols for this weekend's track activities. An RGP hit just off the track will be a local yellow. A direct hit by an RGP on track will be a Virtual Safety Car and a strike by anything larger than an RGP will be a "vigorously waved" double yellow flag.

[Multi21]

Getting back to this weekend's events.... there's some ominous rumblings that are getting out that are no longer rumors and are being reported by BBC Sport about "the consequences of not racing" and not being able to leave the Kingdom.... Tell me again why F1 should come back to Saudi Arabia after they are "allowed" to leave the country?" DTS will have a field day with this weekend.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/driver...-saudi-arabia/

[David993S]

The Saudi GP weekend is already a good one. The Cry Baby didn't make it out of Q1.
Probably a car issue, but the result is the same. And Russel made a good showing.

[SeanR]

Freaking love it.

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