I went back in the thread to find my previous car launch livery review posts, and found some interesting bits and pieces:
YUP! It’s not 5 years, but everyone has come round. Even Grosjean. Especially Grosjean.
Oops.
I’m always astounded that Ferrari keep fucking up “A RED CAR”. How do they do it? The Ferrari brand is so strong, all they need to do is PAINT THE CAR RED and everyone will love it.
It’s not that Red Bull have a boring livery, it’s just that I’m bored of it.
Yes, in this same post I’m complaining that I want Ferrari to be more boring and Red Bull to be less boring. Such is the life of an amateur critic.
Having caught all the episodes of Drive to Survive season 3, it’s a real weird one compared to the first two seasons, and that’s entirely down to covid lockdown. The first episode is a real downer, as it’s just “YAY FIRST RACE OF THE SEASON IN AUSTRALI… oh booh”.
Then 90% of the silly season was wrapped up BEFORE the first race, with only the Vettel to Aston Martin and Perez to Red Bull swaps to go.
And then the race paddock was SOOOO EMPTY. Normally it’s crazy busy, with all kinds of things going on, but in 2020 there were the drivers, the managers, and the Netflix crew. That’s it! Which means that nothing really felt candid or natural, as everyone always kept track of the Netflix cameras. There was nobody else to mug at or perform to except those cameras.
Previously there were all kinds of press and other characters too, and in 2020 there was just Will Buxton and the other official F1 media team. I think that’s why they got in Jennie Gow as another talking head, because otherwise it would REALLY be the Will Buxton show. There’s nothing wrong with WIll Buxton, but he is providing a LOT of glue to hold the show together this season.
Still a good show, but really up against it in terms of storytelling and good vibes in season 3.
So my guess is Bottas replaces him at Alfa Romeo, George Russell moves over to his seat at Mercedes, and Williams take on a new Mercedes young driver to keep them busy until Hamilton retires and Russell takes the number one driver position there.
For the Williams seat my bet is Nyck de Vries, who made the most of the chance Mercedes gave him in Formula E by winning the world championship there, and helping Mercedes win the constructors title too.
I remember an exchange from probably 3 or 4 years ago when the team wanted Kimi to let Vettel pass him. But they were being coy about it on the radio. Is it technically against the rules to say “let your teammate pass”?
Anyway, Kimi’s response was something like, “Fucking what do you want me to do? Just say it.”
Team orders haven’t been banned in F1 for the last 10 years. The FIA tried banning team orders for a while, but everyone just used pre-arranged codes anyway.
