I absolutely don't want to see the budget scrapped and I hope that any breaches or overspending is severely punished. It's about time they had one and forced teams to be cleverer and more efficient with their dev, help balance things out for those that don't have Mary Poppins bags for pockets
IMO other teams should have the same reaction to this as Alfa [iirc] had to calls for raising the minimum weight bc teams were struggling. And that is/was - well we managed it, not our fault if you can't... If other teams can stick to the cap, not their fault/problem if RBR [or others] can't.
As a (long-time) RBR fan, the tears here give me great comfort. Not that the tears are limited to here - reading some of the race reports, you'd think the only cars on the track were the two Mercs!
This is one of the odd things about sport - they seem to bring about such hatred and tribalism, it's a bit pathetic. I don't really enjoy seeing anyone lose and get upset, I'd rather we had a different winner every week if we could. I like RBR as a team, I very much dislike Whinger Spice and Helmet, as they play the political game like Ferrari used to. At the same time, I like Merc, I don't like Toto very much because he's a whinger too. As far as the race reports go, they always focus on something new happening - Ferrari and RBR being quick this year is accepted, so more column inches will be dedicated to another team catching up. Last year it was Merc and RBR duking it out, and excitement at Ferrari making progress and getting in on the action (when they could).
That's weird (in my mind) I've always supported the athlete, driver, rider etc etc in whatever sport I follow and it makes no odds what equipment they're using to get the win. I can see where if you own a particular car, bike, shotgun, discus or whatever you might have an affinity with that team / brand or if the person you support endorses kit you want or already own, but for me it should always be about the man before the machine.
I think of F1 really as a team sport, not as an individual sport, so I suppose our difference in view stems entirely from that point forwards. It's not so much the brand as the team that's the important part to me (i.e., it's Brackley rather than Merc, or Enstone rather than Alpine)
I think it's the same as any sport really. There will be teams you like and don't, "players" you like and don't. I'm a McLaren fan, there was a time that I didn't like Ferrari, mostly for their influence over the FIA, but that has waned. I now have growing dislike for Asteal Martin, a team I used to like as force India for their plucky overachieving underdog status. As for drivers I don't like Hamilton as an individual, he's quick for the toys to come out and his "second coming of Jesus" act a little tiresome. Didn't like him when he was at McLaren either. I don't like Max for his arrogance and petulance, there was a point at the beginning of last year, maybe the year before where he seemed to have turned a page and had a mature outlook, but then returned to form. Conversely I didn't like button until later in his career, but am now quite the fan.
One of the big examples of that for me is seb... Vettel at Red Bull - colossal bellend Vettel at Ferrari - bit of a bellend Vettel at Strolling Martin - seems like a decent guy
I don't know who said it first but, you can always tell when a racer's career is about to end, they stop being an ass hole. It might have been Colin Edwards, but it's true. Once they're not constantly throwing 100% at going 0.05 faster each lap racing drivers are usually pretty decent people underneath. Except Nelson Piquet, both of them.
Whinger Spice is moaning about the budget cap and how it will mean some teams will miss races unless it is raised. Translation: we blew our development budget for a strong start to the season, banking on lobbying for an increase, and won't have anything left to keep up as Ferrari/Merc/McLaren continue to improve. Those early DNFs could really come back to bite Max. #whatashameNOT In other news, it's Monaco week, meaning I can switch it off for a couple or three weeks.
I admit I don't keep up with F1 much anymore but Monaco did always seem a weekend of Scalextric and for a chance for the drivers to hang about on their yachts.
I think the broad perception of drivers being a nob is based around 1. are they currently dominant and 2. are they beating a British driver. The rehabilitation of Alonso as the devil incarnate vs Lewis to some mythological hero against Seb was perhaps the most obvious one. British drivers are, of course, exempt from the nob scale, as most global F1 media coverage comes out of the UK. It extends from the drivers to the teams as well, because a bit of whinging to the media is not okay, but getting the race director fired because you didn't like their decision is apparently fine and dandy? Seems daft to me to think that teams, when competing for the title, don't all engage in exactly the same tricks (god knows we've seen the tools up Ferrari's sleeve in the past!)
I agree with you to an extent on that part, although I feel like Alonso was villified more because he was busy acting like an entitled knob and unable to deal with a rookie who was nearly as quick as him, and treated as an equal in the team. Otherwise, spot on. Vettel is a classic case - while he was dominant, wagging that finger every weekend, I found him insufferable (as I do anyone who gloats), but off-track he seems like a fantastic bloke (since the very earliest days he was in F1), and very down-to-earth.
When the race director fixes the championship against you, I'd say it's entirely justified to bully him out of the sport. Whether incompetence, weakness or corruption doesn't matter, the fact that it happened is enough. I'm still surprised Mercedes didn't drag it through CAS, it would have hurt the FIA far more than it hurt them to have those radio messages played through a court room. As for the other whinging. If a team's not whinging about something that disadvantages them, it's because they're cheating. It's perfectly normal and doesn't bother me, even Whinger Spice now. Red Bull had the biggest budget in F1, so the cap's hurting them the most, of course he's going to bellyache.
I don't think there's much point trying to litigate the final lap, but it should be stated that other opinions are available! However, two wrongs do not make a right, and getting a referee sacked via behind the scenes pressure because you don't like their decisions falls very strongly into the "wrong" camp. We've had other contentious final-race deciders in the past, but toys have not escaped the pram at such velocity as in this case! Do you know where the definitive team budget info comes from? They've been scattered over the web for years but I've never known the original source (and whether you can get data stripped of PU spending, which of course is much more influential these days.
