Drones? Why?
Lando being smarter than the entire McLaren management team:
That’s the entire kerfuffle summarized in four (out of eleventy) radio messages. If they were racing - which the team said they were - Norris would’ve opted to pit first. As the higher-placed driver in the race, it would normally have been Piastri’s choice and he would’ve opted to pit first. The team opted to pit Norris first, knowing it would put him ahead of Piastri, and expecting Norris to give the place back without having Norris’ agreement to that plan.
Just pit Piastri first. 
They were so comfortable with the 1-2 that they were able to play out an entire season of Real Housewives on the radio.
Olympic soccer off to a good start
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USWNT or I guess properly, the USA Women’s Olympic team, is up 3-0 on Zambia. A lot of new faces on this squad.
My theory - formed yesterday after qualifying - is that Red Bull were running more downforce in the rain in order to get Max as far up the grid as possible given his grid penalty. That decision was likely to hurt them in the race in the dry.
That appears to be playing out.
Also, Perez further up the field than Verstappen has hurt Verstappen’s charge. It was so bad that they pitted Perez for a second time after only 22 laps (of 44) just to get him out of the way.
Someone needs to tell Horan that the game has started.
Yeah — Perez basically gave Russell a tow that helped him stay ahead of Verstappen. Gutsy call by Russell to do a one-stopper though.
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Russell was disqualified after the race for having an underweight car. Mercedes tried to fool the stewards by leaving some extra fluids in the car when it was weighed, but the stewards drained it and found it to be 1.5kg (about 3lbs) underweight.
There is no suggestion that Russell had any knowledge of this but, given how you could’ve thrown a blanket over the front 3 as they crossed the finish line and the minuscule tolerances of F1 cars, it’s entirely possible that Russell finishes 3rd with a properly-weighted car.
The DQ sucks for Russell, but it’s the right call.
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Interesting theory on Russell’s weight issue: at every other track, the cars take the checkered flag and then complete an additional lap to enjoy the adulation and to get back to the pits. Because Spa is twice as long as most tracks, they don’t do that, the cars are turned back into the pits from the “out” end.
Why does it matter? Because on the “in” lap, the drivers will typically drive over all over the track picking up the “marbles” (for the uninitiated, it’s bits of tire scrubbed off during the race) which will add weight back to the car. Russell do not get to do that.
Further, his one-stop strategy would’ve meant that he scrubbed off more of his tires than other runners, meaning they would weigh just a little less than they normally would at the end.
So Russell’s underweight car is possibly just the perfect storm of running the one-stop strategy at Spa.
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Excellent!
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No.
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This is not how it’s supposed to go.
Sadly, Guéhi looks destined for Newcastle or Liverpool before the season starts. The silver lining being that the fee is going to smash the above-mentioned record fee. Olise went to Bayern Munich for £50 million which, unusually in modern times, it is almost all cash up front; while Guéhi is likely to fetch +/- £70 million.
In other very un-Palace news, we have already replaced Olise (but not quite with like-quality) and we have also signed a decent center-back to be back-up/replacement to Guéhi. The club is +£20 million on transfer dealings this summer, so the sale of Guéhi would result in a transfer surplus of around £90 million.
Just feels weird.
Word of the Summer: Weird
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I just discovered that batshit crazy GOP senate candidate in Minnesota, Royce White, is also the batshit crazy ex-Rocket Royce White.
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You have to love an high school football coach who can talk up his opponent with a sense of humor.
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This doesn’t really fire me up. It seems like his teams constantly underperform.
The Premier League unveils its new offside system with commentary from the officials.