Formula One ( F1 )

Sorry if i opened a can of worms there. Was just musing to myself about sporting greatness and legacy, didn't mean to kick off a row. Personally I'm in no doubt that Hamilton is thee driver of his generation. And that he did it all without the privileges many of his peers have enjoyed is all the more remarkable. He's definitely something special as a driver and I always seem to find myself rooting for him, even though I think he comes across as a bit of a tit. Nothing specific... just something about the way he carries himself, as if his every waking moment is an instagram post.

Moving on...

I've actually started to get back into F1 this weird season. The midfield battles and are where it's at.

They’ve really improved the coverage these days. You get to see a lot more of the battles going on than you used to.

This is quite sad Williams have been around for my whole life.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-motor-f1-italy/team-sold-williams-family-to-leave-f1-after-italian-gp-idUKKBN25U1PR

Hardly surprising but still disappointing what they’ve become in recent years.

Unfortunately for Claire Williams, the slump started when she took over. I honestly don't think it was her fault particularly but there's been some odd decisions and the fact they've done the worst of any Mercedes engined team in modern F1 means that this was pretty inevitable. I think she was still only Deputy Team Principal which probably indicated that there was something a bit dysfunctional.

You've got to say though, unless the new owners attract some design talent and pour money in (or do a Racing Point), they're not going to do any better.

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Unfortunately for Claire Williams, the slump started when she took over.

Claire Williams was appointed deputy principal in early 2013. For the five years previously, Williams had finished 8th, 7th, 5th, 9th and 8th in the constructor's championship. While they finished 9th in 2013, they finished 3rd in 2014 and 2015 after her appointment, their best results for over 10 years, and 5th in 2016 and 2017. I don't think the data supports your assertion.

I read it as the rot was already there.

That's fair enough to 2015 but I don't think 16 and 17 are years to be terribly proud of. You can only beat the teams who are racing but outside the top 3-4 teams those years are probably a story of underperformance by lots of teams and Williams did have the best engine and were considerably worse than Force India who had the same engine (but obviously loads better than Manor).

Anyway as I said, I don't think she can be blamed for it.

That Renault engine has certainly gained some legs this year! Not something I would've expected to say a year ago

Seriously hope Sainz brings his engineer to Ferrari:

https://streamable.com/dt386f

Anything would be better than the current pair of empty vessels.

Not mine:

“Apparently Williams have lodged a protest against Ferrari for copying their 2019 car...”

I quite liked the ones saying that Vettel was planning on painting his new FW14B red and racing that instead.

Wouldn't normally wish misfortune on Hamilton, but I'd suddenly love to see some today.

Think it's a bit late in the day for that, even if they were to freeze development on that car I'm sure they'd still walk it!

On the flipside, a mechanical DNF for Vettel is honestly probably the best way to end this race.

Also, great to see McLaren doing so well. Probably a bittersweet result for Sainz given his team next year!

You may have got your wish! Heavy penalty just after a safety car restart could be very costly.

Having to take it within two laps of the restart is gonna put him dead last! I feel bad now*, but it'll be fun to see how many places he can claw back.

Worrying to hear Norris under investigation tho'.

*not really

Awesome from Gasly but Sainz has to feel robbed there. Not a great day to be Albon either.

I just watched the last 10 laps on canal+, thought the commentator was going to cry, he was going absolutely bat shit at the finish.

That was one of the best race ever!!

Or Bottas.

I think Bottas has looked worse than he deserves today (and I'm firmly in the camp that he's a second-rate number 2 driver). That Merc has the same issue the Vettel-era Red Bulls had in that it seems to be pretty useless in the pack as it's been set-up to lead from the front. Hamilton didn't really have any decent cars to pass aside from Perez and Kyvat, whereas Bottas was stuck behind a McLaren that honestly looked like the 2nd quickest car today.

Also, can we move to sprint races on Sat and use reverse grid for the feature race on Sunday now?

With the combination of Monza quali the past 2 years and today's mixed up race, surely there's never been a better time!

This would be great, last weeks race was so dull. Much more spiced up this week.