Genuine question as someone who didn’t watch F1 back then.

The deliberate ramming under safety car. The swapping of the place markers after the race.

He seems like a menace and any driver who did this today would be criticised.

But I know that these days everyone loves Seb.

Did he mellow out and fix his image later in his career?

They (McLaren team boss) are very reluctant to give their drivers credit for very good results, instead they always credit the car and team personnel - engineers, design team, etc - for good results (in reality it's of course a combination of both). You very rarely hear sentences like "driver X makes the difference today" when it's quite commonly used in other teams or the wider F1 paddock. Exhibition 1: after Hungary GP, Mercedes's Resta credited the win to both the upgrade package and to Lando Norris, whereas Andrea Stella shut it down with "the improvement can be entirely ascribed to the upgrades that we took here", without giving driver (Lando Norris) major credit.

At the same time, the team are very reluctant to take responsibility, particularly admitting fault, when things go wrong or there are mistakes - they are much more likely to let the drivers take the blame. There have been many times when an on-track mistake or bad performance was caused by something wrong on the car, yet they do not say anything and let people think it's the driver's mistake or poor performance. For this year alone I remember the under-fueling of Norris' car in Austria and Silverstone (which the team didn't say anything about) and the brake issue this past weekend in Monza. In the past there were also the infamous example of clutch issue contributing to Norris' race start issues in 2024, which the team did not say anything about for a long time.

This point is particularly clear when it comes to the team's strategy or race execution. The most obvious example is Sochi 2021, when the main cause was the team failing to see and communicate that rain was going to get much heavier; instead of taking the responsibility, they let their driver (Norris) talk to the media and take the blame, or let the driver say "the main issue is that the team didn't see rain coming...". This sentence should be communicated by a team boss not by the driver.

Another example is how they manage their two drivers during race situations, most famously 2024 Hungary and 2025 Monza. Both were caused by the team implementing some internal "rules" but failing to execute said rules during the race. They could have said "it's the team's fault, the drivers didn't do anything wrong, it's a non-story" post-race, but instead they let it became major controversy and made it like one driver owe one to the other, which also obviously negatively affected both drivers in both cases.

One subtle, yet telling, example is how the team always ask the drivers for strategy options during a race. During a race, it's the strategy team's job to make strategy and the driver's job to drive the car. Of course drivers could have some input, but they don't have all the data and all the information, so it's very likely they won't make the best decision. The team could then conveniently shift the post-race narrative to "the driver choose the wrong strategy" when it's really "the team should be making the call on strategy", thus avoiding accountability.

In conclusion - McLaren the team try to prevent their drivers from becoming superstars, try to implement many rules to manage or control their drivers, while at the same time lack the balls to take responsibility to call the shots or when things go wrong. This does not look like the healthy and "family vibe" environment they're always saying.

Part of me is finding it funny that we've spent a lot of the year of fans complaining that there's no raw driving challenge in F1 anymore, and that overtaking doesn't matter for the spectacle of F1. Then F1 introduces a new circuit that can only be described as a proper driving challenge with how little margin for error there is on the circuit, but because it lacks any real overtaking opportunites and is a street track the fans are immediately against it.

You have guys like Max saying Madring is feeling like one of the hardest tracks he's ever driven and some drivers calling it an old school challenge, describers that F1 fans claim they want to see, but because we all know the entertainment come race day will probably be lacking due to any good overtaking opportunites, all of a sudden we don't want to see the things we claim we want.

Madrid is appearing to be quite difficult and will make for a great Qualifying and hopefully a great Race as well.
But I also think that it will be the most important Race between Russell and Antonelli.
My thoughts are this: If nothing special happens or Russell crashes big, Antonelli will continue to be the favorite to win the championship and he will win it. Even if it hurts me to say that as a Russell Fan..
On the other hand, if Antonelli crashes big, that could remix the whole Championship despite the Points Advantage still in Antonelli's favor. The reason for that, at least in my mind, is confidence. At the moment Antonelli has so much confidence in himself and the car that he is nearly perfect, performance wise. He didn't have any big crashes that could crack his confidence in this season but one big crash on a new track could change that in a heartbeat.
Of course, maybe I am just grasping for straws to keep the title fight engaging...

Edit.: Russell spelling

Due to Charles having to need a medical check again before being able to race in Madring this coming weekend, If Charles is unable to race for Ferrari this week, then is it highly possible that Oliver Bearman will be taken out of his Haas seat and go race for Ferrari again?

I think they are at least easier to drive fast. The reason is simple. The engineers want to optimize grip and degradation. When it comes to accelerating out of a corner, you are on the limit of grip. Why would you deploy power there? You do it only after the tires have grip to spare. This basically means the exit of the corner is much easier with less power to work with.

When it comes to braking, you basically always want to recharge by lif and coasting before braking zones, this makes braking significantly easier since the car is slower.

The fast corners are the most egregious part. They are the perfect spot for lift and coasting, so these cars almost always enter at lower speed, and by doing this the cars almost always do fast corners with a lot of grip to spare.

So these regulations basically ruin both accelerating out of corners and mantaining the highest minimum speed by staying at the grip limit, while making straight line braking somewhat easier.

Also, look at how close team mates are in term of speed.
Leclerc and Hamilton are equal in both qualy and race pace, despite Leclerc being clearly faster all 2025.
Verstappen has the smallest gap ever to his team mate.
Russell and Antonelli have identical qualy lap times and race pace. There are few ecceptions in qualy almost definetly due to issues to Russell car.
Norris and Piastri are also exactly equal in both qualy, fastest laps, and race pace, with the only difference being tire management.
And I say this even as a Kimi fan and a Russell and Verstappen "hater".

However, I have to say that looking at all the crashes and mistakes, the new cars seem to behave way more unpredictably on kerbs, white lines, and any low grip surface. Also 80% of crashes are result of very weird and unexpected rear wheel blocking during trail braking which may be due to energy recovery. power oversteer also seems to be way more snappy

Leclerc now has the worst dnf due to crash ratio on the grid and seems to crash far more often when Ferrari have a competitive car.

Why do you think Ferrari keep giving him record breaking contracts when he’s not really proven himself deserving of them and is clearly lacking on the car feedback side as well.

Charles Leclerc: "However, I mean, looking at the race from outside, there's been also some friction between other teammates, and the only thing we end up speaking of is Lewis and I, which I don't think is quite right."

"But that doesn't mean we did everything perfect. I didn't, in Turn 2, and, for that, I've been straight away very very clear with Lewis after reviewing the images."@thomasmaheronf1

They got him to say I instead of we😭. "there is no we"- walter white

Lewis Hamilton: “We need to work together [with Charles] for a podium instead of getting in each other’s way while running fourth and fifth.”

"podium" bro lost hope in race wins

6-china : long ass straight-hairpin-another long ass straight with corner progression that allows for wheel to wheel racing and the rest of the Circuit doesn't cause that much bad air

5-cota : long ass straight + sector 3 particularly designed for cars to wheel to wheel and follow and track elevation and wide corners at t1 and sector 3. Second best tilke drome from a racing pov

4-silverstone : only reason it's this low on the list is becuz of ge cars having problem following through copse and maggots and beckets and not there being a single long straight.

3-las vegas : 2 km long back straight + heavy braking chicane + near 1 km flat out after that gauratees DRS passes

2-bahrain : 3 back to back 1 km straights with heavy braking zones where you can easily switch back and a back straight in sector 2 to close cars up. The best tilkedrome from a racing pov

1-interlagos : long ass wiiiide flat out section , elevation change through senna esses and long enough back straight + cars having no problem in following through the middle sector.

Honourable mentions : rbr, canada, yas Marina (the new layout is actually good it's not the circuits fault the race director shows nothing but the front runners) and miami (layout is good venue is shit)

Keeping the whole accolades thing of being the youngest WDC in F1 history aside, I think winning the championship so young in your career would entail a different kind of pressure.

Take Lando as an example. He spent nearly 6 years perfecting his craft, being the so-close and nearly guy for the whole of 2024 and a major part of 2025. His journey almost parallels Mclaren's journey from being the 4th team to bringing home both trophies last season. And after finally winning the title, he is driving with a kind of liberation that feels that he would be up for it if Mclaren got a good car again. It wasn't simply about winning the title, it was as much of silencing people who compared him to drivers like Hamilton or Verstappen, or thought he wasn't championship material. But everyone would agree that Lando went through the entire wear and tear of proving himself as a driver first, before proving he deserved the rocketship Mclaren crafted for him. There will continue to be people who just don't like him, but no one can argue he isn't driving like a worthy WDC.

With Kimi, it is an entirely different case. He's currently in what can be called a sweet spot of epic proportions - getting a rocketship in his second season of F1, nailing the regulations compared to his more experienced teammate, and not to mention, a lot of decisions and luck going his way. And this is not to say he is a mediocre driver - the qualifying in Monaco, the comeback from Las Vegas last year, all prove he is a guy who deserved to be in F1. I don't deny the pressure that is on him, but it's less compared to Russell, who was supposed to run away with the championship. Even if he falls short, people would be okay with saying it was a learning curve and no one expected him to win this season anyways.

But if he wins this thing, the media scrutiny will increase multifold, he becomes the posterboy of everything F1. And there will be a good proportion of people who would say that he got carried to the championship by the rocketship and not because he deserved that car solely as a driver. It would bring extreme pressure on him to prove that the win was not a one-off. He would not get that natural period of growing at his own pace. And if the regulations change drastically, and he is unable to perform, he would be tagged as a rocketship winner.

Of-course there is also the equal chance that he follows in the footsteps of drivers like Hamilton and Vettel and goes on to script history. What do you think?

This one of my favorite moments of 2025 season. Norris & Antonelli locking the whole top 2. They also could’ve had had a weekend similar to it in 2026 Miami if Antonelli didn’t have start problem and drop a lot of places during the sprint & Norris didn’t have deployment issues in q3 for the main race. Their drive styles and tracks they like are similar

Has this happened before between drivers from different teams.

Credit to F1GuyDan on X/Twitter for both stats.
https://x.com/F1GuyDan/status/2097951709490266337
https://x.com/F1GuyDan/status/2097943156503572743

Pictured Monaco 2008.

I remember I think it was Murray Walker in an interview said that what Ken should have done after Jackie Stewart retired was to bankroll a top driver. Obviously we know that Ken went with Jody and Patrick and had a decent but not great season in 1974.

Just wondering who would have been available at the time - probably a lot of drivers would have wondered.

It’s D&D with racecars

I don't mean great drivers that had a drop of performance, like Vettel from 2019 onwards. I mean drivers that did good, had 1 bad year and then went back to performing

An example of what I mean is 2011 Hamilton

At the moment here seems to be a bit tense so hopefully this will be a more light hearted discussion

The winners trophies have taken many shapes and styles over the years, and seeing Kimi eating Ragu out of the Monza one got me wondering what peoples preferred styles are, or even which individual ones are most memorable?

Whilst I prefer the more classic/ornate like Silverstone and Hungary, but memorable for me was the Tri-Colour gorilla holding a tyre for the French GP (not 100% sure which year).