28 minutes ago, theguru said:

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

I kind of loss track of Brad Pitt after the break-up with Angelina Jolie.

19 minutes ago, nkypete said:

I kind of loss track of Brad Pitt after the break-up with Angelina Jolie.

It happens, lol.

4 minutes ago, theguru said:

It happens, lol.

I feel bad that I wasn't there for her.

Great commentary in an F1 thread!!!

The British Grand Prix was a step up from Austria the week before.  And almost single hangedly by the McLaren drivers alone.  Next in line Brit hero Lando Norris really drove well and even out dragged the current King Max Verstappen to the first turn and led several laps before the Red Bull took over.

Also impressed with Norris teammate Oscar Piastri as he really deserved 3rd place in the race but due to poor luck (coming in the pits just before the last yellow flag).

Lots of interesting storylines:

1. Max rules F1 keeps rolling.  Will he lose again this season?  Unlikely

But the distance between 1st and second has come down which is good for the sport.

2. McLaren decided to participate in the 2023 F1 Season.  Congratulations!

I think they chose to go with the wrong strategy in the off season and are only now getting back to being competitive.

3.  Ferrari and Astin Martin looked like they were pulling a sled out there compared to the others.  Just didn't have it.

4.  Mercedes battles for 3rd and 6th I think, but Hamilton was fortunate to jump Piastri due to pit strategy.

 

2 Weeks to the Hungarian Grand Prix!!!

@Purple88 will get this one and lol:

21 hours ago, theguru said:

@Purple88 will get this one and lol:

I'm really laughing G!

This is good for racing I think.  Sorry for DyVries fans, as his car was a sled, but Red Bull shouldn't sit back and just take that.  Riccardo will get Perez going again.

Max wins the the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix in dominating fashion.  Max started 2nd, passed Hamilton in the first turn and never looked back.  Lando Norris finished 2nd and Sergio Perez 3rd. 

This was a good race!

Verstappen is just a machine right now.  And with his 33 second win (time between first and second place) just blew the doors off the field really.

Comments:

1.  Will Max Verstappen lose again this season?  Unless he gets unlucky in an opening lap crash or an unexpected equipment failure, I don't see it happening.  Red Bull broke an old F1 Record with 12 consecutive victories.  I think that gets extended for some time to come.  I think that is bad for racing, but really is what it is.

2.  So I kind of just cut Max off my watch list and act like the race's top spot is 2nd place.  If that's the case, the racing is pretty darn good.  

3.  Lando Norris is just an exceptional driver.  To beat the other Red Bull car is sensational considering the main Red Bull beat him by 33 seconds.  That is an eternity in F1 racing.  He came in second.

4.  Sergio Perez is the other Red Bull Driver and he ended up 3rd, but easily has the second best car.  He qualified 9th, which is a joke.  I know he is under alot of pressure since Daniel Ricardo was just rehired in the Little Brother Alpha Tauri Team.  Perez had his elbows out in this race and it showed by moving up the leaderboard.  But he burned his tires up too much and some helpful backmarkers helped Norris hold a 3 second lead that Perez couldn't trim down.  The pressure will not let up for Perez and will be interesting to see how it goes.  Most would be thrilled with 3rd place.  But I bet the main Red Bull boss Christian Horner is not.  He knows this is the second best car and by how much.  That's what he wants and expects.

5.  Mercedes just doesn't have a great car this year by their standards.  But they have 2 great drivers:  Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.  Hamilton drove the tires off the car to get the pole, which is an AMAZING accomplishment considering he beat Verstappen to do it.  But it showed into the first turn of the race that Merc is at best a Top 3 Teams car, but more like Top 4 or 5 I think.

6.  Ferrari has a good car probably 3rd, but they have 5th or 6th best team management.  Just make bone head strategy moves.

7.  Astin Martin is going in the wrong direction.  They started the year on fire, but since about 3 or 4 races ago have been headed downhill.  I really like Fernando Alonzo, but he is just out there turning laps right now and can't seem to race at the top like earlier in the year.  I think they really hit the car strategy perfect coming into the year, but others have caught and surpassed them on car upgrades.

8.  The rest:  Alpha Romero had a Stunning Qualifying Round with youngster Zhou qualifying 5th and Valteri Botas qualifying 8th.  That is an amazing accomplishment for a car that has been at the back most of the year.  But their race package was front center when they went from Top 10 to Bottom 10 in 1 lap with Zhou looking like a Wal-mart driver on the start and causing a wreck Turn 1 taking out both Alpine drivers.

Daniel Ricardo has a poor car at Alpha Tauri, but he is a real solid driver and got to 13th at the end, which is a solid day for a guy just back after a year or so off.

On to maybe my favorite race on the F1 circuit - Belgium Grand Prix at Spa.  Just an amazing course with elevation changes, sweeping and tight turns.  Not to mention, I would love to go to this one and drink Belgian Ale!!!  I look for Red Bull to blow everyone out of the water here.

On 7/24/2023 at 11:51 AM, Purple88 said:

This was a good race!

Verstappen is just a machine right now.  And with his 33 second win (time between first and second place) just blew the doors off the field really.

Comments:

1.  Will Max Verstappen lose again this season?  Unless he gets unlucky in an opening lap crash or an unexpected equipment failure, I don't see it happening.  Red Bull broke an old F1 Record with 12 consecutive victories.  I think that gets extended for some time to come.  I think that is bad for racing, but really is what it is.

2.  So I kind of just cut Max off my watch list and act like the race's top spot is 2nd place.  If that's the case, the racing is pretty darn good.  

3.  Lando Norris is just an exceptional driver.  To beat the other Red Bull car is sensational considering the main Red Bull beat him by 33 seconds.  That is an eternity in F1 racing.  He came in second.

4.  Sergio Perez is the other Red Bull Driver and he ended up 3rd, but easily has the second best car.  He qualified 9th, which is a joke.  I know he is under alot of pressure since Daniel Ricardo was just rehired in the Little Brother Alpha Tauri Team.  Perez had his elbows out in this race and it showed by moving up the leaderboard.  But he burned his tires up too much and some helpful backmarkers helped Norris hold a 3 second lead that Perez couldn't trim down.  The pressure will not let up for Perez and will be interesting to see how it goes.  Most would be thrilled with 3rd place.  But I bet the main Red Bull boss Christian Horner is not.  He knows this is the second best car and by how much.  That's what he wants and expects.

5.  Mercedes just doesn't have a great car this year by their standards.  But they have 2 great drivers:  Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.  Hamilton drove the tires off the car to get the pole, which is an AMAZING accomplishment considering he beat Verstappen to do it.  But it showed into the first turn of the race that Merc is at best a Top 3 Teams car, but more like Top 4 or 5 I think.

6.  Ferrari has a good car probably 3rd, but they have 5th or 6th best team management.  Just make bone head strategy moves.

7.  Astin Martin is going in the wrong direction.  They started the year on fire, but since about 3 or 4 races ago have been headed downhill.  I really like Fernando Alonzo, but he is just out there turning laps right now and can't seem to race at the top like earlier in the year.  I think they really hit the car strategy perfect coming into the year, but others have caught and surpassed them on car upgrades.

8.  The rest:  Alpha Romero had a Stunning Qualifying Round with youngster Zhou qualifying 5th and Valteri Botas qualifying 8th.  That is an amazing accomplishment for a car that has been at the back most of the year.  But their race package was front center when they went from Top 10 to Bottom 10 in 1 lap with Zhou looking like a Wal-mart driver on the start and causing a wreck Turn 1 taking out both Alpine drivers.

Daniel Ricardo has a poor car at Alpha Tauri, but he is a real solid driver and got to 13th at the end, which is a solid day for a guy just back after a year or so off.

On to maybe my favorite race on the F1 circuit - Belgium Grand Prix at Spa.  Just an amazing course with elevation changes, sweeping and tight turns.  Not to mention, I would love to go to this one and drink Belgian Ale!!!  I look for Red Bull to blow everyone out of the water here.

You should write articles on F1, your depth of knowledge is amazing. I don't have anything to add to all that other than I just saw this meme and chuckled. 

Caption from ESPN F1 on Facebook:  Max Verstappen when it looks like somebody else might win an F1 race...

That is funny stuff @theguru!  You know I was pulling for Max to beat Hamilton a few seasons ago because I thought Hamilton was winning too much.  Well, I've traded one dominant guy for another.  And that is on top of F1 implementing, what I see as, excellent competition upgrade criteria.  Drivers are able to follow/draft/use the front cars slipstream and pass better than the Turbo Hybrid era that preceded it.

I don't dislike Max, but I do like more than 1 guy or really 1 team winning EVERY race.  But there is also a part of me that says "Not My Problem".  It is up to the rest of the F1 teams to catch up to Red Bull.  I also think often just how much better a driver is Max V than the other drivers.  For example, if you put Verstappen in Lance Stoll's car, what would happen?  I have come to pontificate Max would be in the Top 5 about every race, but would not win most races but could get on the podium.  Its an interesting angle to consider.  But, put the best driver in the best car and Forget About It.  It means a 33 (almost 34) second victory on Sunday, where after the first turn or so he didn't even break a sweat.  I look for him to repeat that this week as Spa, which is really one of the top Red Bull tracks where they run really, really well!  

1 minute ago, Purple88 said:

That is funny stuff @theguru!  You know I was pulling for Max to beat Hamilton a few seasons ago because I thought Hamilton was winning too much.  Well, I've traded one dominant guy for another.  And that is on top of F1 implementing, what I see as, excellent competition upgrade criteria.  Drivers are able to follow/draft/use the front cars slipstream and pass better than the Turbo Hybrid era that preceded it.

I don't dislike Max, but I do like more than 1 guy or really 1 team winning EVERY race.  But there is also a part of me that says "Not My Problem".  It is up to the rest of the F1 teams to catch up to Red Bull.  I also think often just how much better a driver is Max V than the other drivers.  For example, if you put Verstappen in Lance Stoll's car, what would happen?  I have come to pontificate Max would be in the Top 5 about every race, but would not win most races but could get on the podium.  Its an interesting angle to consider.  But, put the best driver in the best car and Forget About It.  It means a 33 (almost 34) second victory on Sunday, where after the first turn or so he didn't even break a sweat.  I look for him to repeat that this week as Spa, which is really one of the top Red Bull tracks where they run really, really well!  

We are the same here.  When Hamilton was winning all the races I wasn't against him, but a little more parity would have been nice.  Max is the driver I "picked" as my favorite driver a few years ago before he was a champ but I am the same as you, Max wins too much and I would like to see things spread around a little.  It reminds me of Beechwood football in the 90s, I love Beechwood but at some point seeing someone else have some success would have been nice. 

One of my favorite parts of the track @Purple88

That is one of my favorite sections of any track anywhere.  Such a cool setting and challenging section of track, but really fun to watch.  Practice 1 and Qualifying 2 days away!

43 minutes ago, Purple88 said:

That is one of my favorite sections of any track anywhere.  Such a cool setting and challenging section of track, but really fun to watch.  Practice 1 and Qualifying 2 days away!

I agree, there is something about watching that stretch of track that gives you some idea of what it might be like.