Piastri's ranking in the team principals and drivers' polls Piastri's ranking in both the team principals and drivers' polls certainly raised my eyebrows. He was ranked 7th in the TP's poll, just ahead of both Russell and Albon - https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... oiL3e.html He was ranked 8th in the drivers' poll, above Russell who was not ranked in the top 10 and just behind Albon who was ranked 7th -https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... c8j7B.html The drivers and team principals were seemingly asked to vote for their "top" 10 drivers of the 2023 season. "Top" is a vague ..read more

Would Kubica have been quicker than Vettel in the SF70H and SF71H? As promised, here is my response to Hughes comment where he posted that he believed that Kubica would be faster than Vettel in the SF70H and SF71H. Firstly, I will stress that I don't believe that Kubica was ever as great a driver overall as the Hamilton's, Alonso's or Verstappen's of the world. I believe Kubica lacked the flexibility that those great drivers possess that enables them to perform consistently at a high level. While the performance of all drivers varies apace with varying handling traits, I believe Kubica's p ..read more

Just a quick note on Hamilton and the W14: Hughes specified at 17:40 of this podcast that it was the front tyres that the W14 was reluctant to switch on - iframe I believe this trait of the W14's may have especially penalised Hamilton. If Hamilton had a weakness in what I consider to be his prime years in F1, namely mid-2017-2020, it was that he occasionally struggled to get his front tyres switched on at low-grip/energy tracks. This was one of the very few areas of driving where Bottas could find an advantage over him, particularly in qualifying - https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ..read more

Piastri and the Pirellis On The-Race's recent podcast, their writers debated their top 10 driver lists for the 2023 F1 season -https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-p ... s-of-2023/. Overall, the writers ranked Piastri above George Russell and the Alpine drivers. I understand why they've ranked Piastri so high. It's reasonable to argue that Piastri's season was more impressive given that he was a rookie. Still, I would have listed Russell, and perhaps also the Alpine drivers, ahead of Piastri, as I believe they probably raced better seasons than him. In my opinion performance rather than ex ..read more

Marklar made this short post about Sainz and Leclerc on Autosport a few days back: Hard disagree. In my opinion they are the most mismatched team mates you can have which is horrible for any team. They have completely opposed driving styles. When the car is build to Leclerc's preferences (which is usually also the faster approach) he is miles quicker, when they try (which is completely natural) to tweak it to make it more comfortable for Sainz they are getting closer together, but the car also becomes slower in general. I think Ferrari would be better off without Sainz. Another issue is th ..read more

Would Verstappen and Leclerc have done a better job qualifying the W14? Delivering consistent qualifying performances in the W14 was naturally a very difficult task for both Mercedes drivers this season. The car was very difficult to balance at some tracks, notably tracks with a variety of corners, and its tyres were also often very difficult to massage into their optimum performance window. Moreover, both Hamilton and Russell are very quick qualifiers, among the very best on the grid. They were therefore more than capable of exposing when the other was having an off-day. Thus, it is not su ..read more

Here is an end of season interview with Hamilton reported on and analysed by Hughes and Benson - https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/hami ... interview/ + https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/67545618 There is some interesting stuff in both articles, but the following are the parts that stood out to me: Hamilton on his performances this season: “My racecraft and race pace I have been really happy with through the year, not a lot of mistakes, most of my race performances have been really good. "So that level I am happy with, building that up to the level it should be. But qualifying is still ..read more

A few random post season notes: - Hamilton's inconsistency in qualifying this season can be attributed to a car which often had a narrow set-up window, a car that rarely enabled him to drive as he would typically like, a teammate who is a very gifted qualifier, and perhaps his old weakness of occasionally not switching on his tyres. - Has age influenced Hamilton's qualifying inconsistency? It can't be ruled out. However, it should be noted that a decade ago when Hamilton was only in his late 20s, Hamilton was not an outright better qualifier than Nico Rosberg during their first two seasons a ..read more

Insightful post from Hughes - https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arti ... 6330310175 The difference in driving styles between drivers comes in the entry phase to slow corners. At medium-high speeds aerodynamics is dominant and there’s little or no variation. Speed into and through corners is all about the speed of rotation (ie from straight ahead to the steady-state cornering state where the initial steering lock has been removed). The faster rotation you can live with and control, the quicker you will be. Drivers have different ways of achieving this – and that impacts how they set up their ..read more

https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/kenny-o ... full-match iframe Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay: NJPW/AEW (2023) I don't follow or watch post 2000s pro wrestling. I only lurk on a few forums to find recommendations of 80s, 90s, and 00s matches from their archives and read analysis from a handful trusted contributors (JDW for anything 80s or 90s, Tim Cooke for Eddie and Rey's best bouts, Good Helmet for Lawler matches, etc). However, I recently had an urge to watch a handful modern matches to see how pro-wrestling has evolved in recent years. After a bit of research, I learned that the two recent ..read more