Open Wheel Racing 2021, anyone there to watch?

[Kepler]

Red Bull announced Lawson.

[Russell Jaslow]

Perez out. Presumably Lawson to replace him (not officially announced yet). Then presumably Hadjar to replace Lawson.

If this all happens with the replacements, what's the over/under in number of races before Red Bull swaps Lawson and Tsunoda? :-)

To answer my own question, I'm picking nine races, after Spain.

[Kepler]

Perez out. Presumably Lawson to replace him (not officially announced yet). Then presumably Hadjar to replace Lawson.

If this all happens with the replacements, what's the over/under in number of races before Red Bull swaps Lawson and Tsunoda? :-)

Alex Albon: I am the one who knocks.

[Russell Jaslow]

Perez out. Presumably Lawson to replace him (not officially announced yet). Then presumably Hadjar to replace Lawson.

If this all happens with the replacements, what's the over/under in number of races before Red Bull swaps Lawson and Tsunoda? :-)

[solovsfett]

It wasn’t the current RB car but the Red Bull X2010 prototype.

Got it. Thanks for the clarification!

[MichVandal]

Oof!!! Evidently the new INDYCAR design for 2027 is so lame the majority of team owners discussed together and told Penske they want something like Adrian Newey would design and pointed specifically to the current RB car.

penske is a dinosaur. I think he needs to step aside and give Zach Brown the reigns. Or at least allow his input to guide some of these decisions.

Not Zach. He needs to focus more on McLaren to get another championship as well as the drivers championship.

[Jimjamesak]

Oof!!! Evidently the new INDYCAR design for 2027 is so lame the majority of team owners discussed together and told Penske they want something like Adrian Newey would design and pointed specifically to the current RB car.

penske is a dinosaur. I think he needs to step aside and give Zach Brown the reigns. Or at least allow his input to guide some of these decisions.

It wasn’t the current RB car but the Red Bull X2010 prototype.

[solovsfett]

Oof!!! Evidently the new INDYCAR design for 2027 is so lame the majority of team owners discussed together and told Penske they want something like Adrian Newey would design and pointed specifically to the current RB car.

penske is a dinosaur. I think he needs to step aside and give Zach Brown the reigns. Or at least allow his input to guide some of these decisions.

[Spartanforlife4]

Well, Max made it a somewhat interesting final race taking out Piastri in the first turn.

Happy Lewis got one final great drive in with the Mercedes. If he hadn't gotten stuck behind Lawson for a few laps he might've even had a podium.

And congrats to McLaren for ending the Red Bull run.

What a disastrous season for Perez. Partly his own undoing in some races and some terrible luck in others.

[solovsfett]

Really sad for Michael Andretti: https://youtu.be/SHGVsJFYNug?si=C1FtT3kfx7Myoblv

[Russell Jaslow]

For you F1 fans, Lego has had several F1 themed sets in the past several years (including a really cool version of Senna's McLaren MP4/4). They have a bunch of F1 themed sets coming out in 2025. I have a few previous versions of some of their F1 sets (Aston Martin, AMG, and McLaren) but these look just a little more detailed than those. I am not super familiar with F1 at all (don't watch or follow) but I will probably get the Ferrari and Redbull ones for sure. Others maybe here and there.

Speaking of Lego, when I was at the Macau Grand Prix Museum, they had a life size Lego model of an F1 car. The thing was spectacular!

(They also had an F1 car, scaled down but still pretty large, made out of chocolate. Seriously.)

[Proud2baLaker]

For you F1 fans, Lego has had several F1 themed sets in the past several years (including a really cool version of Senna's McLaren MP4/4). They have a bunch of F1 themed sets coming out in 2025. I have a few previous versions of some of their F1 sets (Aston Martin, AMG, and McLaren) but these look just a little more detailed than those. I am not super familiar with F1 at all (don't watch or follow) but I will probably get the Ferrari and Redbull ones for sure. Others maybe here and there.

[MichVandal]

Totally agree on Senna. I haven’t seen a driver come close to him subsequent to his passing. Although recently it’s tough to see talent shine through because guys Donny have to fight the cars as much and the superstars aren’t placing Haas or Williams cars in the top 3 or 5 on their way up.

still, I trust Hakkinen, Schumey, Hamilton and Brundle when they Senna was the best.


as for Michael I can see him acting somewhat like a prima donna in that season because up until then everything had been handed to him (to be fair he won all the time so he did have a hell of a lot of talent) and then in Europe it’s a whole different animal.

When Michael stepped down at Andretti Global my gut instinct was “this has to be related to his F1 bid” he’s still young enough to have the fire burning but he’s moving aside to make the F1 dream happen.

I'm not so sure that it goes all the way back to '93. So few of the people who were there are in F1 or the FIA today that it would have to have been passed down from people to people. And that normally declines with time. The hesitation to deal with Mike may have been clouded by that, but all of the people who now don't like Mike probably learned by interacting with him.

Just can't see many people who were on the grid 31 years ago still around in a way that it would really matter other than warning everyone else he could be a handful.

[solovsfett]

As Solo mentions, a lot of the bad blood goes back to 93 when Michael signed to race at McLaren. That was HUGE news for F1, and then Michael proceeded to have less than a stellar performance. He made a lot of comments about not having to move to Europe to be successful. His wife was a prima donna, he thought he was super special and then the lack of results. He flew back and forth for races, meaning he never built up capital with the team, teammate, journalists, TV, etc.

Just look at what drivers like Lauda, Schummi, Hamilton have done to lift the team. They spend time at HQ with the 'boys', engineers, pit crews, etc, to get everyone playing above their skills. So much to be said for that just like it is here stateside in _______ (name your sport).

Senna is LOVED throughout the racing world (unless you were a Prost fan) and is a GOD in Brazil. He was the son of wealth, but raced like a common man with a big chip on his shoulder. What he could do in a car was other worldly. Dare I say, you could put him in the Haas and he would finish no lower than 5th in the Championship. In the rain, only Max is even close.

Totally agree on Senna. I haven’t seen a driver come close to him subsequent to his passing. Although recently it’s tough to see talent shine through because guys Donny have to fight the cars as much and the superstars aren’t placing Haas or Williams cars in the top 3 or 5 on their way up.

still, I trust Hakkinen, Schumey, Hamilton and Brundle when they Senna was the best.


as for Michael I can see him acting somewhat like a prima donna in that season because up until then everything had been handed to him (to be fair he won all the time so he did have a hell of a lot of talent) and then in Europe it’s a whole different animal.

When Michael stepped down at Andretti Global my gut instinct was “this has to be related to his F1 bid” he’s still young enough to have the fire burning but he’s moving aside to make the F1 dream happen.

[MichVandal]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-we-know-about-new-cadillac-f1-entry-without-andretti/





BTW, to bring a hockey connection into this, Mark Walter, the main investor and owner of the PWHL, is a key investor in this F1 project as well.

Since everyone here is a college hockey fan, we all know coaching leadership matters a LOT. Even with the same players, leaving Mike out does change things considerably.