Running 2023 Motorsports thread

None of these arguments or the ones near them are wrong. On the other hand, there have been any number of bad world championships over the years. The Timo Glock one was the only one of Lewis Hamilton's championships that was decided with fewer than two full races remaining in the season. Sebastian Vettel won the last nine races of 2013. Ferrari won 15 of 17 races in 2002. Sometimes you just get a year full of stinkers, which is bound to happen when teams are building their car mostly from scratch so there's few common parts or technologies to tie the field to each other. As far as the individual races, I didn't watch Spain flag to flag but that race is generally terrible every year, and I saw actual passes in the highlights so something must have gone right.

The thing I've found curious about the last couple weeks is that Checo Perez has been dog crap for the last two weeks in a row and it hasn't really affected anyone but him. I think Mercedes is kind of figuring it out but probably not enough to beat anyone. George Russell's consistency in what is suddenly a second-rate car is worth some kudos.

If there are any things I could change about the series as currently constructed, I'd 1. figure out a way to make the cars less reliable. IIRC, Spain was at least the second race this season, maybe more, with no DNFs. For a time at the beginning of 2022, Red Bull's Death Star at least had some thermal exhaust port issues, and by Imola last year they'd basically gotten it fixed. I also think the time penalties for contact and their frequent application has led to more conservative driving across the board. If improving "the show" is of any consideration to the FIA (and I doubt it is), it wouldn't hurt if the cars were a little more prone to hit each other and/or the walls. As ridiculous as it might sound, when you have a race in Monaco in the rain and the only two cars to DNF were Kevin "Suck My Balls!" Magnussen and Lance (Daddy's Money) Stroll, maybe the status quo is too stable?

 

That Detroit layout was so shitastic I convinced myself I liked it by race end. So bad, it's good, like "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls".

 

According to my Twitter timeline, Roman Grosjean makes some of the NASCAR field-filled of yore seem like A.J. Foyt. Also I can’t tell if Will Power is just a loud mouth punk or a guy with an anger management issue who’d really punch Grosjean. I’m thinking the former, because he refused to take his helmet off yesterday. Had he, I’m convinced Dixon would’ve destroyed him.

 

For the motorheads among us. I ran up on this, watched it while wearing headphones. I kept grunting and making involuntarily noises of surprise and disbelief until I looked up and caught my wife staring at me intently, with "What in the hell are you watching" plain to read on her face. I had just gotten past the dragster, for those who actually do watch this.

This is amazing, jaw-dropping video for any car person. This family has the right attitude, and obviously enough money to be able to do just as they wish. I don't recall his occupation ever being mentioned, but there's a photo of him filling a syringe while he was in the Army. I suspect that he was a doctor.

Simply staggering video. The man who owns them is a classic car guy, an old Ford hot rodder who obviously did well in his career.

She's an interesting Youtube auto host. If you like this video, find the one with the guy in Colorado who stuffs current Honda and Acura engines into classic Minis, because that was another one that blew me away. She's as big a car guy as any of us, maybe a bit more than most. I loved it that she gets in the car with her hair down, but when it cuts to the outdoor bits she's braided it before driving. That's sort of a forced choice with convertibles you flog hard, either cutting it short or braiding it, otherwise you wind up with your hair in rats. Car nut.

 

Huge crowd at Road America on Sunday. Pretty good race too.

 

TSN up here marooned Road America to its streaming service that nobody pays for but we got every minute of the dreadful weekend in Montreal.

 

Watching Martin Brundle's Grid Walk in Montreal and the race is so low on star power he has time to wave to the fans twice.

He found Jacques Villeneuve at the end, and after about 10 hair colors, Jacques appears to have opted for the middle-aged man's "I give up" shave. I laugh because one of our high school hockey teams in northern Minnesota has a kid on it named Jacques Villeneuve. I really hope it wasn't an accident.

 

Cannot claim to be a hardcore American muscle car sort. But to me, I'm certain I would prefer shifting the 289 over the 427. I'm not especially tall, but I'm sort of lanky and reaching forward for that short-throw shifter is much easier and much more conducive for driving, to me, over that crazy shifter that would feel literally under my armpit in the 427. I say all this as one of those stubborn sorts who will not have a daily driver that isn't a manual transmission (yeah, get off my lawn, etc.) ... to the point where I usually have to sit on my right hand to avoid shifting in slushbox vehicles.

Thanks for sharing.

 

I watched the movie Air last night. Matt Damon is Sonny Vaccaro trying to sign MJ with Nike.
In one scene, he's at his desk on the phone, and there is a model Shelby Cobra sitting on the desk. I thought that was a nice nod to Ford vs. Ferrari.

 

I've been watching replays of F1 and CART races from the 1990s. Everything about the sport, to me, was better then. It just was. The same can be said for NASCAR and NHRA, too. That's not just old guy nostalgia/reminiscence.
The cars were all sexier by design and livery.
The racing was better.
The drivers were more entertaining on and off the track. (I won't say they were "better drivers" but they might have been.)
The sponsors were better.
The tracks were better.

 

The extent to which mainstream corporations have abandoned motorsports sponsorship is scary. Of course it mirrors media writ large.

I watch a Cup or IndyCar race, and I couldn't tell you what half these sponsor companies do/sell. 3CHI? Something something about CBD or mj. Bitnile?