Formula 1

[Westheim]

You didn't ask for it, but here is the points table if Perez was deleted from the championship and everybody behind him moved up a spot in every event (including sprints and redistributing his two fastest laps)

Verstappen 416
Hamilton 212
Alonso 200
Sainz 173
Leclerc 154
Russell 135
Lando 129
Piastri 65
Stroll 63
Gasly 55
Ocon 50
Albon 34
Hülkenberg 12
Bottas 11
Tsunoda 9
Zhou 8
Magnussen 6
Lawson 5
Sargeant 1
De Vries 0
Ricciardo 0

Verstappen 416
Benz 347
Ferrari 289
Aston Martin 263
McLaren 194
Alpine 105
Williams 35
Alfa Romeo 19
Haas 18
Aloha Tauri 14

[low]

I root for Sargeant, being an American and a fan of Albon and the underdogs, but he has no business in F1. Too slow and too many crashes. I'd be surprised if he's not booted before the end of the year.

[Hageneezz]

Piastri was great. I hope Lando stays with McLaren and they get closer to Red Bull next year. I'd love to see a tight Championship between Max and Lando

[Westheim]

Four laps deleted throughout qualifying and bopped to last in Q3. Any comment, Lando?

Lando: "I'm so **** sometimes"

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[Westheim]

Q: How many safety cars can you have in a Sprint(tm)?
A: Yes.

[low]

Congrats to Max on his first championship.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by low

Congrats to Max on his first championship.

You don't even give him 2022?

[Jason Moyer]

He's deserved all 3, but because of all the poor officiating decisions in 2021 he finally had one go his way at the end of the last race (I almost just said "the last race" but they already made a poor ruling against him at the beginning of the race) people act like he didn't earn the first one. I think Hamilton is a GoAT who should he talked about in the same breath as Fangio/Clark/Stewart/Senna/Schumi but he had practically every advantage that year and didn't win the thing. If he had been properly penalized in Silverstone or not run out of talent in Baku the championship would have been effectively decided going into Abu Dhabi.

Anyway, I'm still enjoying McLaren's late season resurgence. I have a feeling they're going to put on a show today.

Oh, and the track limits stuff is so trash. If you're deleting this many times, maybe consider that the problem is the track or the way the track limits are being enforced instead of penalizing the drivers.

[Westheim]

Only Nick Heidfeld (13) and Stefan Johansson (12) have more career podiums without a W than Lando (11, tied with Chris Amon).

That's the sort of stat that makes you wonder whether you should cheer or sneer.

Ah, to heck with it. Third place for Landooo!!!

[Westheim]

Jenson Button has beef with McLaren over the picture below that they put out on The Internets yesterday after reaching 500 F1 podiums*, which depicts the drivers that got them a total of 448 of those podiums.

Button is noticeably absent along with his 26 McLaren podiums, which account for almost* half of the absent podiums. Bunch of one-and-done drivers in there, the only other multi-podium drivers not on the picture being Peter Revson, Jochen Mass (8 each), and Stefan Johansson (5).

Recent** single-podium drivers Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen, and Pedro de la Rosa are included, though.

*501 exactly for coming second and third in the race, but only if you include a customer McLaren entered by Penske for Mark Donohue in the 1971 Canadian GP that was driven to a third place and is technically not a podium credited to the team? I actually mulled over this for two hours now (because I am insane), and I have now put out a critical question to the poor social media sod via Instagram that will surely never get answered.

**If you want to count 2006 (de la Rosa) as "recent".

[Jason Moyer]

I hope they keep it up, the beginning of next year could be really interesting if McLaren are on form, especially with Mercedes seeming like they've sorted some things out. Could be 3 teams fighting at the front which would be fun.

[Westheim]

Unrelated, the Qatar GP was a very pleasant experience, from tire-murdering kerbs to a whole bunch of drivers being taken ill after the race, including Logan Sargeant (retired with heat stroke), Esteban Ocon (threw up in his helmet during the race), Alex Albon and Lance Stroll (could hardly climb out of their cars after the race and went to the medical center), Fernando Alonso (mild burns from an overheating seat), and then there was also Oscar Piastri lying on the ground in the cooldown room, which wasn't very cool either.

We definitely need more races in the middle of the desert.

[Hageneezz]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Unrelated, the Qatar GP was a very pleasant experience, from tire-murdering kerbs to a whole bunch of drivers being taken ill after the race, including Logan Sargeant (retired with heat stroke), Esteban Ocon (threw up in his helmet during the race), Alex Albon and Lance Stroll (could hardly climb out of their cars after the race and went to the medical center), Fernando Alonso (mild burns from an overheating seat), and then there was also Oscar Piastri lying on the ground in the cooldown room, which wasn't very cool either.



We definitely need more races in the middle of the desert.

Yeah, so exciting. But seriously, I think 1 desert race is enough. And please bring back the Malaysian GP

[Hageneezz]

Originally Posted by low

Congrats to Max on his first championship.

Your 3 times World Champion, MAX VERSTAPPEN!

[low]

I can't imagine being happy and/or proud about something gained through error or blatant cheating. Like, if my team won a World Series because they were banging on trash cans, or my favorite driver won an F1 title because the sporting director made a bad call, well, that would make me feel awkward, disappointed, and a little embarrassed. People are weird and certainly not shy about celebrating horse sh*t.

[Hageneezz]

Originally Posted by low

I can't imagine being happy and/or proud about something gained through error or blatant cheating. Like, if my team won a World Series because they were banging on trash cans, or my favorite driver won an F1 title because the sporting director made a bad call, well, that would make me feel awkward, disappointed, and a little embarrassed. People are weird and certainly not shy about celebrating horse sh*t.

Long live Max! Proud to be Dutch

[Jason Moyer]

I just noticed McLaren put Montoya on that podium image but not Button. I'd be pissed too.

I'm trying to identify everyone in that image without looking it up and there are like 3 I can't figure out. The older guy above Bruce/Denny/Carlos, the young kid near the bottom (Kevin?) and the guy in the bottom right who is wearing the same overalls as Montoya. I feel like I should know them and I'm drawing a blank. Took a minute to remember that Brundle drove for McLaren during their Peugeot days, shame he destroyed his legs because I think he would have been a WDC.

[Westheim]

I went through the bother of ID'ing all of them when the thing was posted. "Young kid" is Kevin Magnussen indeed (podium on debut, and the only one of his career as well )

Not gonna spoil the fun but the bottom right guy is *pretty obvious*.

The top one I was only able to identify by Michelin cap and with help from Wikipedia because you just never see him during broadcasts, f.e. littering the grid pre-race (he's still alive, though). He was one of I think three I couldn't sort out without help. That somehow included Brundle (but they only used Peugeot engines once, in 1994, so again, Wikipedia) and Denny Hulme below Bruce and Sainz.

[Westheim]

Updated Perezless standings, because right now the rumors are rampant that he might be kicked out despite finishing second to Dutch Max.

Verstappen 449
Hamilton 216
Alonso 209
Sainz 176
Leclerc 164
Russell 152
Lando 150
Piastri 91
Stroll 64
Gasly 55
Ocon 56
Albon 36
Bottas 15
Hülkenberg 12
Zhou 10
Tsunoda 9
Magnussen 6
Lawson 5
Sargeant 1
De Vries 0
Ricciardo 0

Verstappen 449
Benz 368
Ferrari 302
Aston Martin 273
McLaren 241
Alpine 111
Williams 37
Alfa Romeo 25
Haas 18
Aloha Tauri 14

[Jason Moyer]

The bottom right guy I couldn't figure out is Pedro De La Rosa. The older guy at the top I'm not sure of though. Watson?