2024 British Grand Prix

Mercs and Brits up front top 3 to start the race Sunday.
That does the heart good for a good home crowd pleaser.
 
Weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow.

Just last week one of Merc's top guys said "How could we be so dumb," when asked about their turnaround. Whatever it was must have been pretty stupid because whatever they have done is surely working. Maybe the weather played it's part, but it's no longer an open goal for Max.

Probably largely unnoticed is Hulk Quallied a quiet sixth. He had a great practice and was fast in every Q session. He's very solid on race day, so it would be really cool to see him move up. Hass has made a ton of progress, so I'de like to see them get a reward for that, and lord knows Hulk needs a podium. Wonder what Gunter has to say now?

The puzzling part is what has happened to Red Bull? It's not like it's a disaster, but they went from utterly dominant to scratching and clawing just to stay on the second row. You have to wonder how much Newey stepping back has hurt them, or if they have more in hand and just had a bad quali. When Q started no one would put money on anyone but Max on pole, so this was a pretty big surprise.

One thing to watch for is now Max has to go through three cars wheel to wheel, which is something we have rarely seen. Max is under the microscope after plowing Lando last week so he had better keep it clean or pretty much everyone will be eating him alive. Let's just hope last weekend was he last time we will see the 2021 version of Max.

On to Sergio, but at this point what can be said? We don't know what's in his contract, but you know Marko and Horner have got to be pretty close to being fed up. We all know that either Sergio is better than this, or maybe he's taken such a beating it's mess up his mind. Sergio had better pull his thumb out or Marko will ship him off to compete in Flutag or something.
 
A very British affair at F1’s home race so far for sure. Once again, those Mercs have come a long way the past month or so. I’d love to see Lewis break the drought with a win here.

I’m not sure there’s another circuit that showcases F1 cars as good as Silverstone. So many fast, badass corners that have survived through all the different reconfigurations through the years.
 
It rains in England and Checo goes out in Q1.

In other words, grass is green.
There’s no way they can actually keep that guy the next two years right? He’s quite literally only gotten even worse since his extension was announced. With the rest of the field catching up to Red Bull now they’re pretty much forfeiting the next WCC if he stays.
 
The puzzling part is what has happened to Red Bull? It's not like it's a disaster, but they went from utterly dominant to scratching and clawing just to stay on the second row. You have to wonder how much Newey stepping back has hurt them, or if they have more in hand and just had a bad quali. When Q started no one would put money on anyone but Max on pole, so this was a pretty big surprise.
Verstappen had floor damage after going off in Q1 when it started to sprinkle again as teams had just switched to slicks. I don’t know that result is entirely indicative of their real pace this weekend. Hopefully they can get it fixed and Max can put up a proper fight.

One thing is certain, though, and it’s that the other teams have definitely made a lot of progress in catching and matching Red Bull on pace. I’m starting to feel a bit disappointed we only have a season and a half left of these regs, just as we’ve gotten to the point where multiple teams can challenge for pole and victory on any given weekend.
 
Hopefully they can get it fixed and Max can put up a proper fight.
That's the last thing we need with Max already having an extra 81 points in hand. We need hm to sit it the gravel for three races and turn this back into a championship.

Seems like one trip off the track is damaging the floors on these cars. maybe for the next formula they can ban all the strakes and stuff under the car so dropping a wheel off doesn't tear up so much critical stuff.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ot...1&cvid=5f8a9a504d1d45449273f039bf1bb52a&ei=14

But, hey, we can be optimistic. Anything can happen on the start and now Max has to go through three of the toughest cars on the grid. If Max gets a poor result, that's only going to tighten the championship, which is kind of what we want. We could actually have a great race.
 
I predict the first lap is going to be vicious. Max is probably not going to give a damm who he shoves off.
 
Seems like one trip off the track is damaging the floors on these cars. maybe for the next formula they can ban all the strakes and stuff under the car so dropping a wheel off doesn't tear up so much critical stuff.
I disagree. A mistake should get proper punishment. The indestrucibility is what I did't like about the NextGen in NASCAR.
 
One thing is certain, though, and it’s that the other teams have definitely made a lot of progress in catching and matching Red Bull on pace. I’m starting to feel a bit disappointed we only have a season and a half left of these regs, just as we’ve gotten to the point where multiple teams can challenge for pole and victory on any given weekend.
I think the 2022 regulation accomplished exactly what they were supposed to. They brought the field a whole lot closer together and made it easier to pass. 2025 could be one hell of a season if no team has a clear advantage at the start.
 
No point in defending those on Verstappen’s part. Hopefully the rain arrives soon to throw a curveball. In the F3 feature this morning the Prema teammates opted to gamble for slicks during a safety car and drove up from 23rd and 24th to 1st and 2nd as the track dried out afterwards.
 
Why did Sauber pit Zhou twice now, what a dumb team. Everyone else knew the rain was coming.
 
Well-executed race from Mercedes and awesome drive from Lewis. He kept those softs in great shape while in full push towards the end. That was an incredible charge from Verstappen to hold off.

McLaren should be kicking themselves for a bit after bottling a home win like that. Either car very easily could’ve won.
 
Great to see Lewis finally break through. Championship drive for Max. Lando criminally unlucky.

Great drive for Hulk and fully validates Audi's choice.

The sad part of the weekend is Checo was fast all weekend right up until it counted and then he just didn't show up. You can fully expect the media to have a big two weeks speculating on who will replace him. Checo was never my favorite, but I still respect what he has done, and I also know he's better than this. It's just sad to see such a good driver get beaten down like that.

Really bad luck for Russel too, and Oscar got the short end on the switch to inters. Too many stories to go into other than to point out who got a break and who got the hose.

I guess if we have to take a week off this wasn't a bad way to go into that.

I don't think this race is going to change much in the championship. Max had a less than average race, but just like last week he got more lemonade out of it than his rivals. The gap was huge before, now it's bigger, and with one less race to catch him the championship is getting pretty close to out of reach for everyone else. I almost don't care as long as we keep getting races like today.
 
Having 5 race winning capable cars and drivers is such a great thing. Too bad we can’t delete the results of the first 5 races to make the title fight exciting.
Imagine how good it could be if Sergio could pull his thumb out. His collapses in form is baffling. How can you be brilliant for a few races and then suddenly turn into Pastor Maldonado? Like I said, I'm not a Checo fan, but I will probably cheer for him from here out. Christian and Marko are probably pretty close to having to make a hard choice, one that could bite them in the ass either way.

If it doesn't go Checo's way, it wouldn't kill us to see him in a good Indycar or WEC ride.
 
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