The Spanish GP this weekend rounds out (finally) the Can’t Overtake trifecta of Monza, Monaco and Barcelona. The intrigue this weekend is all about the enforcement change for the rules around “flexi wings”.
McLaren is believed to be the biggest beneficiary of this technology, whereby the wing material is given enough strength to maintain shape up to certain airflow speeds before it deforms in a prescribed manner. Effectively, the wing is forced open slightly when the car is going fast enough - ie on the straights - reducing drag.
The FIA has all season promised a change towards strict enforcement of wing flexibility, starting this weekend. The big question has been, with this particular jig up: what would be the impact to the stifling superiority of the McLaren?
Well, with the first practice session in the books, the fastest car on the track is…McLaren.
With qualifying completed in Barcelona, it seems that reports of McLaren’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. They posted an all-McLaren front row, with Piastri pulling out a monster lap for pole.
Verstappen is hanging onto the back of the McLarens…just…in P3, while his teammate is dead last on the grid.
I hate Red Bull, not for their success, but because the team is run by a rogue’s gallery of racists and sex pests. So watching them - as a team - be a clusterfuck is pleasing to me.
Every other team (not called Aston Martin) runs two drivers who are at least competitive with each other. Even Red Bull’s 2nd team - which shouldn’t be allowed but that’s another rant for another day - has two drivers who push each other. Yet for the big team they simply cannot get anyone good for the 2nd seat.
It has been this way for years - pre-dating Verstappen even - where getting moved into the other car at Red Bull is like getting a battlefield promotion from Vader while your predecessor writhes on the floor next to you.
Verstappen is only in touch in the drivers’ championship because the McLaren drivers keep taking points away from each other. McLaren has already disappeared over the horizon in the constructors’ race because 1-2 or 2-1 makes no difference there.
Red Bull is reaping the whirlwind of sowing all its seeds in Verstappen’s basket (how many mixed metaphors is that?!), so I couldn’t be happier for all of them now that it’s a strategy that bites chunks out of their bigoted asses every week.
When I worked at Aon, my boss - a huge United fan (born and bred in Notting Hill, London of course) - got to go on one of the sponsor’s packages to a European match as Aon was then the front-of-shirt sponsor.
He and his son got to ride the bus with the team and basically “hang out with the band” for the day. I tell myself that it’s not something I’d ever want to do, because fuck Utd, but…
The current fad of “inverting” one of the back four into a midfielder only works if you’re going to have a notable possession advantage. Without the ball, you end up having one of your center backs facing up against the opposing winger, which is a recipe for disaster.
The second one was a deflected shot, so nowhere near as pretty.
Inter’s formation is supposed to give them an extra man in midfield, but they have been unable to find a pass from the back to that midfield, so it’s moot.
PSG seems to be everywhere, which is a testament to their tactics over Inter’s. Hopefully Inter can figure out some shit over halftime oranges.
Because it’s still driving most of my waking thoughts, this easily is how the FA Cup final could’ve gone if Palace did not have a perfect game plan and execute it perfectly (and get a bit of luck).
Inter needed to have its shit together from the off, but they have been a defensive shambles.
Fifteen years ago today, as bankers prepared to sign some paperwork that would end the life of an entity that had been in existence since 1861, around 5,000 fans gathered in peaceful protest outside the banks’ offices in central London.
The action sparked a rethink of the rescue plan - previously discarded as being too hard to do - proposed by four businessmen from the area who also were lifelong fans. In a matter of hours the deal was struck, CPFC 2010 bought the team and the stadium from separate banks ending separate bankruptcies, and the rest is history.
The return of Mad Max. With the McLarens 1-2 but Max staying in touch in 3rd due to a bold tire strategy, a late safety car left Red Bull with two bad tire options for Verstappen: stay on old softs or switch to new hards.
The McLarens had new softs available and so it was curious when Red Bull called in Max, giving up track position, to put on the hard tire that every other team avoided like the plague.
Max was fuming over the radio at the choice. At the rolling restart he went sideways going onto the main straight, bumped with Leclerc as the Ferrari passed him in the straight and the bumped with Russell as the Mercedes tried to pass him at the first corner.
As the laps ticked down, Max was told to let Russell past (to avoid a time penalty for the turn 1 incident) but, instead, Max feigned letting Russell past and then sped up to spear the Mercedes as Russell simply turned in for the next corner.
Absolutely insane driving. The usually pedantic stewards took one look at the incident and slapped Verstappen with a 10-second penalty that dropped him back to 10th, losing a boat-load of points to the McLarens.
