Formula 1 racing chatter!

[formulanone]

Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari in 2025...looks like Carlos Sainz will be a free agent after this season.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/68169534

The silly season starts early!

[Rothman]

Aw.  No more "Smooth Operator."

[02 Park Ave]

Will ESPN be replaying the Australian Grand Prix any time this week?  I didn't stay up for it but I understand that it was quite the race.  I haven't found it on any schedule.

[1995hoo]

Leclerc's exchange with his engineer this weekend was outstanding:

Leclerc: "Is there a leakage?"

Engineer: "A leakage of what?"

Leclerc: "I have the seat full of water! Like, full of water!"

Engineer: "Must be the water."

Leclerc: "Let's add that to the words of wisdom."

(As the TV commentators suggested, presumably the engineer meant a leak in the drink bottle system.)

[Rothman]

Leclerc's exchange with his engineer this weekend was outstanding:

Leclerc: "Is there a leakage?"

Engineer: "A leakage of what?"

Leclerc: "I have the seat full of water! Like, full of water!"

Engineer: "Must be the water."

Leclerc: "Let's add that to the words of wisdom."

(As the TV commentators suggested, presumably the engineer meant a leak in the drink bottle system.)

TikTok's had a lot of fun with this.

[1995hoo]

Leclerc's exchange with his engineer this weekend was outstanding:

Leclerc: "Is there a leakage?"

Engineer: "A leakage of what?"

Leclerc: "I have the seat full of water! Like, full of water!"

Engineer: "Must be the water."

Leclerc: "Let's add that to the words of wisdom."

(As the TV commentators suggested, presumably the engineer meant a leak in the drink bottle system.)

TikTok's had a lot of fun with this.

I filmed it and sent it to our hockey ticket partners because there's a fellow who sits in our section—as seen below, he goes to Nats games as well—whose schtick is to dress up in faux Naval dress whites (but with shorts instead) and to call himself "Captain Obvious" while holding up signs that say things like, "I have a beard." (It's essentially a ploy to get himself on TV.) I told our ticket partners that I was surprised to learn that he took a job as a Ferrari race engineer.

[formulanone]

Leclerc's exchange with his engineer this weekend was outstanding:

Leclerc: "Is there a leakage?"

Engineer: "A leakage of what?"

Leclerc: "I have the seat full of water! Like, full of water!"

Engineer: "Must be the water."

Leclerc: "Let's add that to the words of wisdom."

(As the TV commentators suggested, presumably the engineer meant a leak in the drink bottle system.)

TikTok's had a lot of fun with this.

Maybe something good will come out of the new naughty-word ban.

Apparently Ferrari also doesn't think their 100-race winner knows what the DRS button does, either.

Changing jobs is weird.

[NWI_Irish96]

F1 just announced that in 2026 they are moving Monaco off Indy 500 weekend and putting Montreal there.

This likely puts the F1 race at exactly the same time as the Indy 500 as opposed to finishing a few hours before.

[SEWIGuy]

F1 just announced that in 2026 they are moving Monaco off Indy 500 weekend and putting Montreal there.

This likely puts the F1 race at exactly the same time as the Indy 500 as opposed to finishing a few hours before.

Yeah, I don't understand why F1 is doing this. It's not going to help them ratings wise to go up agaisnt Indy in the United States.

Interestingly, the Indy 500 was part of the F1 season from 1950-60.

[Max Rockatansky]

That's lame, I always enjoyed the Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and Coke 600 racing binge.

The problem now with Monaco isn't so much the course but rather the cars are too damn big.

[NWI_Irish96]

F1 just announced that in 2026 they are moving Monaco off Indy 500 weekend and putting Montreal there.

This likely puts the F1 race at exactly the same time as the Indy 500 as opposed to finishing a few hours before.

Yeah, I don't understand why F1 is doing this. It's not going to help them ratings wise to go up agaisnt Indy in the United States.

Interestingly, the Indy 500 was part of the F1 season from 1950-60.

I'm going to miss watching Monaco from the tailgate party before heading into IMS for the 500. I know F1 doesn't ever race on Saturdays (unless it's late night like Vegas) but if there was ever a time to make an exception, this would be it. Would open the possibility for an F1 driver doing both races.

[formulanone]

This is a stupid move from the FIA and for Liberty Media: All it does is decrease the amount of fans whom might have chosen both the trip to Montreal and Indy, and it definitely reduces the total number of viewers.

It's akin to holding the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals matches on the same nights...there's a reason they don't do it.

Would open the possibility for an F1 driver doing both races.

Not sure if it's still in the Sporting Regulations, but for many years, you were not allowed to compete in an officially-sanctioned race within 24 hours of a Grand Prix, under the guise of safety reasons. They exercised that at the Italian GP in 1968, when Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti for competing in the USAC Hoosier 100 Champ Car race the day before, having qualified on Friday (back when that was a thing) and the GP race on Sunday.

[SP Cook]

Indy will crush F1, but understand that F1 in the USA in terms of TV is the same model as Australian football or cricket or such.  The material is produced, in English, for the home market and all costs are covered.  Toss it up in the USA and whatever they make is bonus. They know the 500 will obliterate the Canadian GP, but 99.9% of F1 decisions are about Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia.  This move saves them two Transatlantic flights. 

[SEWIGuy]

Indy will crush F1, but understand that F1 in the USA in terms of TV is the same model as Australian football or cricket or such.  The material is produced, in English, for the home market and all costs are covered.  Toss it up in the USA and whatever they make is bonus. They know the 500 will obliterate the Canadian GP, but 99.9% of F1 decisions are about Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia.  This move saves them two Transatlantic flights. 

They could have easily saved the flights by adjusting the schedule. This was done intentionally by F1.

[SP Cook]

They could have easily saved the flights by adjusting the schedule. This was done intentionally by F1.

How?  Canada is in North America, Spain and Monaco are in Europe.  Canada was held between Spain and Monaco.  Due to weather, there are very limited slots to put Canada.

Current schedule is Asia-Pacific for 3 races, 2 in the Middle East, "Miami" (parking lot of Dolphins football stadium, not very near to Miami), 3 in Europe, Montreal, 7 in Europe, 1 in Asia, 4 in the Americas, and finishing with 2 in the Middle East. 

New schedule is 3 in Asia-Pacific, 2 in North America, 10 in Europe, 1 in Asia, 4 in the Americas, and 2 in the Middle East. 

Unless there is a tunnel from Europe to Canada, or unless there is a weather control machine that could make adding Montreal to the second Americas trip (late October to late November) you cannot adjust the schedule in any way.  This is all about "carbon footprint" according to the F1 management group.

F1 is not stupid enough to take on the Indy 500 if it cared about the US market.  It doesn't.  This is a European decision made with the European market in mind.  99.9# of F1 decisions are about Europe, the Middle East and east Asia, where it makes it money.  They no more care if the Canadian GP is opposite the Indy 500 than the people running the Ashes care if they are on the same time as Alabama-Auburn.

[formulanone]

They could have easily saved the flights by adjusting the schedule. This was done intentionally by F1.

How?  Canada is in North America, Spain and Monaco are in Europe.  Canada was held between Spain and Monaco.  Due to weather, there are very limited slots to put Canada.

Current schedule is Asia-Pacific for 3 races, 2 in the Middle East, "Miami" (parking lot of Dolphins football stadium, not very near to Miami), 3 in Europe, Montreal, 7 in Europe, 1 in Asia, 4 in the Americas, and finishing with 2 in the Middle East. 

New schedule is 3 in Asia-Pacific, 2 in North America, 10 in Europe, 1 in Asia, 4 in the Americas, and 2 in the Middle East. 

Unless there is a tunnel from Europe to Canada, or unless there is a weather control machine that could make adding Montreal to the second Americas trip (late October to late November) you cannot adjust the schedule in any way.  This is all about "carbon footprint" according to the F1 management group.

They ran it in October throughout 1967-1981; switched to Canada to June in 1982 (though by then, Detroit supplanted Watkins Glen for June). It still rains about 40% of the time.

Having the Miami race fly out and back to The Continent is wasteful; there's probably more carbon emissions via the cargo planes than the entirety of the competitors' output during the entire race meeting.

F1 is not stupid enough to take on the Indy 500 if it cared about the US market.  It doesn't. 

If anything, they've been trying to breech the US market on and off since the 1980s (with limited success until the last 5-10 years). Since commercial rights holders Liberty Media are based out of the US, there would otherwise be no reason for that Miami race, which would otherwise be snapped up by another Middle Eastern race. There's 24 races and now 3 in America; that puts the 2pm EST race in a prime-time slot for Europe but late-night in the Middle East. Can't have that both ways, other than to understand that scheduling is best for those +/- of GMT.

There's greed, and then there's flying closer to the sun...they're going to lose more viewers than gain any live viewers over this. Not millions of eyes, but as a pointless gesture, this is a little more than taking over a weekend when the 24 Hours of Le Mans is held. That's the sort of promises it wants to make to promoters as well.

On the other hand, Monaco gets its way and being the fixture for which all of the other stars revolve (to the point where is gets its own exemptions in the regulations), perhaps that's what changed some of the scheduling.

[SEWIGuy]

They could have easily saved the flights by adjusting the schedule. This was done intentionally by F1.

How?  Canada is in North America, Spain and Monaco are in Europe.  Canada was held between Spain and Monaco.  Due to weather, there are very limited slots to put Canada.

For 2026, there are three weeks between the race in Miami (May 3) and the one in Montreal (May 24). Then they have two weeks off before Monaco (June 7).

They could easily move the Montreal race up a week to May 17.

F1 is not stupid enough to take on the Indy 500 if it cared about the US market.  It doesn't.  This is a European decision made with the European market in mind.  99.9# of F1 decisions are about Europe, the Middle East and east Asia, where it makes it money.  They no more care if the Canadian GP is opposite the Indy 500 than the people running the Ashes care if they are on the same time as Alabama-Auburn.

Sorry, you're just wrong about this. They do care about the US market and they do know they are taking on Indy head to head.

[1995hoo]

I'm going to miss watching Monaco from the tailgate party before heading into IMS for the 500. I know F1 doesn't ever race on Saturdays (unless it's late night like Vegas) but if there was ever a time to make an exception, this would be it. Would open the possibility for an F1 driver doing both races.

F1 did stage three races on Saturday last year. One was Vegas, as you note. The other two, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, were held on Saturday to avoid a conflict with the beginning of Ramadan. The race in Jeddah was moved to Saturday, March 9, because Ramadan began on March 10. The FIA moved the Bahrain race the weekend before to Saturday as well to avoid having a compressed shorter week between races. So they clearly CAN race on Saturday. They just don't WANT to.

Having Montreal as the next race after Miami makes eminent sense in terms of not having them schlep everything over and back just for one event. But the three-week gap between those two events seems like overkill. As SEWIGuy says, why not have Canada the weekend before, May 17?

[SEWIGuy]

Having Montreal as the next race after Miami makes eminent sense in terms of not having them schlep everything over and back just for one event. But the three-week gap between those two events seems like overkill. As SEWIGuy says, why not have Canada the weekend before, May 17?

Not only does it seem like overkill, but don't you think that with three weeks off the teams are going to head back to Europe anyway?

[7/8]

May 17 in Montreal runs the risk of being very cold. May 17, 2023 was between 1.3-9.6 Celsius, very cold for F1!

Even May 24 in Montreal could be cool, May 24, 2025 was between 6.6-11.4 Celsius.

I of course agree with everyone else that having it the same weekend as the Indy 500 is frustrating, but I'll probably watch F1 live, then download an ad-free SkySports version of the 500 in the evening, so not a big problem for me.

[SP Cook]

Sorry, you're just wrong about this. They do care about the US market and they do know they are taking on Indy head to head.

Well, math is power.

F1 US TV rights are $90M up from zero 4 years ago.  This for an average of 1.1M viewers, which is very low.

Each F1 team, 10 this year, 11 next year, is budgeted for $135M per year.  F1 teams make money, and the series makes money.  Because of what they are paid elsewhere.

[SEWIGuy]

Sorry, you're just wrong about this. They do care about the US market and they do know they are taking on Indy head to head.

Well, math is power.

F1 US TV rights are $90M up from zero 4 years ago.  This for an average of 1.1M viewers, which is very low.

Each F1 team, 10 this year, 11 next year, is budgeted for $135M per year.  F1 teams make money, and the series makes money.  Because of what they are paid elsewhere.

Now you are shifting the goalposts. I never said that Europe isn't a more important audience. You claimed that they don't care about the U.S. market - which is false. They do care. They've gone from one race in the United States just a few years ago, to three today. They are trying to more than double their U.S. rights deal for next season.

Again, they know exactly what they are doing putting it up against Indy. It was obviously intentional.

[ET21]

That's lame, I always enjoyed the Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and Coke 600 racing binge.

This, loved the all day racing on TV

[mgk920]

That's lame, I always enjoyed the Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and Coke 600 racing binge.

This, loved the all day racing on TV

 

Mike