Was sad to hear of the extreme flooding at the Imola Race Track Area of Northern Italy last week.

It caused the Grand Prix to be cancelled, which is sad on one hand, but all the supplies being brought in for the race were diverted to help those most affected by the flooding, which was great I think.

Here is a link to an article detailing where F1 is donating 1 million dollars to the Imola area relief fund.

On to Monaco!

The Crown Jewel on the F1 calendar!  Would be AWESOME to go to this race if you knew a Crown Prince or something, as this race along the sea is known for the world's biggest yachts anchored and watching along the streets of Monaco with the Casino's in the background.  Really lavish place I would assume.

Regarding the race, while the pageantry is likely unmatched here; the race typically has been lackluster for awhile now.  With the onset of overall larger cars/tyres and better field-wide set up packages all mean that the ability to pass on the restrictive streets of Monaco while not impossible are remote at best when dealing with the best drivers in the world.  That creates A LOT of excitement on Saturday's qualifiying round, but honestly, if you're on Pole for Monaco and don't win, most times that's on the Pole position driver.

Still a great tradition, but not the best race of the year honestly.

Keeping this thread updated, Max Verstappen won the Monaco GP by almost 28 seconds, Alonzo finished second and Esteban Ocon finished third in an Alpine I will add.

Verstappen won again in Spain and the two Silver Arrows finished on the podium. This graphic shows just how dominate Max was in Spain:

Verstappen is just a machine right now.  Not going to catch him this year.

But the way Mercedes came back in Spain makes me think, they will challenge next season.

I "think" Red Bull will start incurring wind tunnel time restrictions now due to overspending last season.

That should help Merc and Astin Martin and maybe Alpine too.  I don't think Ferrari can get out of their own way at the moment.  Sad, but true.  I think they made a mistake getting rid of their former boss Matteo.  But the heat gets hot quick at Ferrari.

I lost a lot of Fantasy points the last 2 races as I didn't make changes I needed to last week especially.  Gotta up my game.  

Next race in 2 weeks in Montreal!  That would be an AWESOME race to go to!  Montreal is a beautiful city.  Been there before, but not for the race!  Gotta change that!

Max won again last week in Montreal, Canada.  Here are the top three, wash, rinse, and repeat:

1st Max Verstappen 1:33:58.348
2nd Fernando Alonzo +9.57
3rd Lewis Hamilton +14.168

On 6/25/2023 at 11:59 AM, theguru said:

Max won again last week in Montreal, Canada.  Here are the top three, wash, rinse, and repeat:

1st Max Verstappen 1:33:58.348
2nd Fernando Alonzo +9.57
3rd Lewis Hamilton +14.168

Thanks for updating @theguru!

It was a pretty good race.  Obviously if you need to pay attention to who wins this year in F1, well, it might now be your year to see a ton of competition, as Max Verstappen certainly "Could" run the table from here.

That is a really tough thing to do, but he is clearly the front runner by a significant margin.  

But the rest of the pack is pretty entertaining with Fernado Alonso and the Mercedes Team and Ferrari Team and Sergio Perez with Red Bull running pretty well and the next Tier down I think.

There is some good running below this too, but you have to want to see it I think.

Austria is this weekend; better known as the Red Bull Ring should be entertaining.  This track exemplifies what F1 is all about: 

1.  Wide race track to Turn 1 with only 2 available lanes in the turn IF both drivers are driving friendly.

2.  Topography - this track has alot of up and down with the left and right.  This causes your braking approach into the corners to be at a premium; meaning get that wrong and you are set up to get passed in the turns.

3.  Because of #2 - DRS (Drag Reduction System) tends to have an amplified effect for better racing.

So should be a GREAT race.  Watch the highlights from last year here:

You may have to go to the link for YouTube and type in Austrian Grand Prix 2022 Highlights.

Sorry, the link above is to the Sprint Race before the actual race on Sunday, which sets the starting grid for the actual race.  Below is highlights of the actual race:

 

F1 doesn't like sharing, lol. 

Max Verstappen dominated once again on the Red Bull Ring in Austria. 

Leclerc finished 2nd, Perez 3rd, Norris 4th, and Alonso 5th.

The British Grand Prix is up this weekend.

 

17 hours ago, theguru said:

Max Verstappen dominated once again on the Red Bull Ring in Austria. 

Leclerc finished 2nd, Perez 3rd, Norris 4th, and Alonso 5th.

The British Grand Prix is up this weekend.

 

Yeah, I have to admit, this one disappointed a bit for me.  Seemed like the biggest story was people going off the track and getting penalties for it.  That's not really what I was expecting.

Verstappen is a machine and unless his car breaks down unexpectedly I can see him running the table from here.  There was some good racing down below, but you really had to hunt for it in this one.  

Looking forward to Silverstone (British Grand Prix) as that is another staple on the F1 Calendar.  Cheers!!!!

4 hours ago, Purple88 said:

Yeah, I have to admit, this one disappointed a bit for me.  Seemed like the biggest story was people going off the track and getting penalties for it.  That's not really what I was expecting.

Verstappen is a machine and unless his car breaks down unexpectedly I can see him running the table from here.  There was some good racing down below, but you really had to hunt for it in this one.  

Looking forward to Silverstone (British Grand Prix) as that is another staple on the F1 Calendar.  Cheers!!!!

Max is my favorite driver so I am never sad about a win but I am disappointed in the lack of competitiveness this year. 

Max Verstappen wins the British Grand Prix.  Lando Norris finished second, Lewis Hamilton third.

So where did Brad Pitt finish?  ?

12 hours ago, nkypete said:

So where did Brad Pitt finish?  ?

He won something!  Here he is standing by Max. This photo is from a story by People Magazine. Pitt and Idris filmed with professional drivers including current World Champion Max Verstappen. DAN MULLAN/GETTY IMAGES.

Also from the People article.  This movie sounds like it is going to be cool because it has F1's blessing:

Pitt then went on to open up about the premise of the movie. “I would be a guy who raced in the 90s,” he said. “He has a horrible crash and kind of craps out and disappears and then is racing in other disciplines.”

“Then his friend, played by Javier Bardem, is the team owner. They’re the last place team, they’re 21, 22 on the grid, they’ve never scored a point and they have a young phenom played by Damson Idris and he brings me in as kind of a Hail Mary and hijinks ensure. 

According to BBC News, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is one of the producers of the untitled Apple Studios film. The flick is also being made in collaboration with F1, which has allowed them special access to racetracks and professional drivers. 

https://people.com/brad-pitt-formula-1-movie-british-grand-prix-7558408