Maesknoll Red

Quite likely, but in the round an hour before, Littler had been exceptional.

Whatever happened to MvG and Littler last night, that was pub darts at best. Probably the worst PL night final ever.

A few weeks back I flew to Edinburgh for a meeting, had the meeting, had a few beers in Edinburgh and got the last flight back, planes on time, cheaper and so much quicker than the train, I really wouldn’t have fancied the return trip on a train in the same day.

Lots to agree with here, but 8 straight years of Mercedes winning the constructors, with 7 individual championships (only 1 year really competitive, Bottas never was) was dominance on almost the same scale, the extra race winners were usually down to mechanical failure, or driver error like Spain 2017 when Rosberg and Hamilton collided and gave Verstappen his first win. The change in rules in 2022 created the perfect storm, it put the technical rules of the car aerodynamics straight into the lap of the best F1 car aerodynamic engineer there has ever been, Red Bull and Honda had improved performance and reliability to an outstanding level and like him or not, Verstappen is one of the greatest drivers and he sits in that car. Verstappen and his father probably have a lot of sway within the team, probably too much and between them and the RB senior management, they don’t want two No1 drivers, not ideal for racing, but that is their prerogative, at least you rarely see team orders in RB, whilst it happens still in all the other teams. The budget cap - does it really help the bottom 5 teams, they are still the bottom 5, but as you say, it’s hampering development in the top 5 teams. I suspect for real change we’ll be waiting until 2026, it will be interesting to see if Hamilton still has what it takes when he sits in an improving Ferrari next year. The other moves will be interesting, where does Sainz end up, I think RB unlikely, he had run ins with Verstappen as a team mate before, Alonso wants to stay and there are half a dozen good youngsters in the driver programmes/F2. This last race could have been closer, if Sainz hadn’t been held up for so long behind Norris at the start, if others had kept 2 mediums and 1 hard (as Verstappen did) rather than 2 hards and 1 medium, what if Leclerc had a two stopper, the new tyre difference at the circuit was huge, hence why there was so much overtaking. There’s plenty going on behind Verstappen, plenty of interest there, Aston Martin had the biggest improvement in last years qualifying time of all the teams, Alonso is showing his class in a car that looked competitive a couple of years back, but has stumbled in development, what are Mercedes struggling so much, they say they have the aerodynamics right now, but still lose track time and feel they can’t load up the rear tyres. All fascinating stuff in the technical, strategic, political and driver capability world of F1.

Since 1980, there have only been 9 constructors having a world champion. Most consecutive titles in that period - Mercedes 7 - 2014 - 2020 - Total domination Second in the consecutive titles during that time, Ferrari - 5 - 2000 - 2004 Number of individual world champions by constructor since 1980: McLaren - 11 Mercedes - 7 Red Bull - 7 Williams - 7 Ferrari - 6 Renault - 2 Brabham - 2 Benetton - 2 Brawn - 1 Constructor titles in that timespan. Most consecutive Mercedes - 8 - 2014 2021 Ferrari - 11 Williams - 10 Mercedes - 8 McLaren - 7 Red Bull - 6 Renault - 2 Benetton - 1 Brawn - 1 F1 has always been dominated by certain teams / drivers.

Yes below. It's worth adding in that time (since 2010) only two teams have supplied the world champion, Mercedes and Red Bull 2010 - 19 2011 - 19 2012 - 20 2013 - 19 2014 - 19 2015 - 19 2016 - 21 2017 - 20 2018 - 21 2019 - 21 2020 - 21 2021 - 17 2022 - 22 2023 - 22 2024 - 24 planned.

Deducted 2 more points for breaching the rules again.

Its not changed much in the last 15 years, a couple of seasons where the figures make it look more interesting, but some of that was just down to circumstance (crashes / reliability, rather than driver ability or car improvements). Simple stats: Year / Different drivers winning / Different teams winning 2010 / 5 / 3 2011 / 5 / 3 2012 / 8 / 5 2013 / 5 / 4 2014 / 3 / 2 2015 / 3 / 2 2016 / 4 / 2 2017 / 5 / 3 2018 / 6 / 3 2019 / 5 / 3 2020 / 5 / 4 2021 / 6 / 4 2022 / 6 / 3 2023 / 3 / 2 20204 / 2 / 2 - So far. Which just goes to show, the last couple of seasons are producing - stats wise - the same results as 2014 /15 and not hugely dissimilar to many other years.

We obviously watch in a different way. I’m pleased that reliability has massively improved for all teams, I want to see 20 cars finishing. Likewise with accidents, don’t want to see any driver injured (or worse), in this cost cap era, car damage several times a season will hit the development budgets. Yes, at the moment RB are dominant, for some of us it was just the same when Hamilton and Mercedes had the hybrid sussed from the start and dominated for several years. Only one real spell of fight then and that was Hamilton -Rosberg, Bottas was much more Hamilton’s Perez. There are plenty of other classes of racing if you want to see the drivers in the same car, F1 always has been about teams developing the best car, finding ways to develop improvements and real innovation, match that with the best driver and you have your world champion. No matter your opinion of Verstappen, he really is a top driver, rarely makes mistakes and in totally in the zone. His dominance is a combination of his car and this probably being his time as the best driver in the world, that will change, other greats have lean spells, that’s if he stays around long enough, he has intimated he’ll finish with F1 in 2028. Strategy, I spend a lot of time analysing data at work , what these guys (and gals) do in real time to predict outcomes and change strategy is outstanding, this aspect of F1 is fascinating (to me and many others). As for the future, a change will come, 2026 when RB change engine supplier, when the car design changes, we might see another spell of dominance from another team, or if Adrian Newey is still with RB then, maybe it could be them - he is the F1 aerodynamic master and really understands these ground effect cars.

It’s not a dilemma for me, I’ll happily find another target for ridicule, best thing that could happen to Bristol football is for them to disappear.

Not popular with all the professionals though.

The last thing I would say Price has, is any class………..

And Ben Truman, foul tasting muck….. Saw Dr Feelgood and Eddie and the Hotrods there, the plastic palm trees were a bit odd, but the Tuesday night rock night was decent.

No idea, until we see some corroborated evidence I’ll keep an open mind. I would have expected one of the mainstream news agencies to have validated the leaked messages by now, if they are genuine. If Horner is the one in the messages, I have no idea why RB would be defending him and not at least sanctioning some disciplinary procedure. Which probably at his level would be dismissal. He would deserve whatever came his way. If the accusation is misguided or completely unfounded, then he should continue in his role. If the accusation was malicious, then the accuser should be dealt with, obviously with Horner continuing. Any of the outcomes are fine by me, if the truth is exposed and proven. I think this has a way too run and there will be much more than we know currently, to come out.

Maybe he is innocent and being subjected to a targeted campaign - I have no idea. And if he was sacked for gross misconduct then there would be no cost.