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Filtering by Tag: Mclaren-Honda
Reflections on the current state of Motorsports
August 17, 2017 Eric Graciano
JT – After several weeks off, the blog is back. Given the number of interesting motorsports stories that have made news over the last month, we're going to focus on the racing world/industry in general in this installment.
We begin with last week's admission by Liberty Media that not a single current F1 team has opted to buy shares which the sport's new owner set aside for them. Liberty made 19 million shares of common stock available over a six month period but there were no takers. That's obviously not a positive development for Liberty Media and something of a "no confidence vote" by the teams. Do you agree?
SJ – I don't know enough about the "ins and outs" of it to really gauge what's going on but at face value it tells me that none of the teams have enough faith in the business if they're not willing to buy into it, or maybe the deal just wasn't attractive enough.
When Champ Car did this (1998 CART/Champcar goes public on NYSE) it was different because at the time the teams were given X-amount of shares when the series did its IPO. A few of the team owners were smart enough to cash out after a short period. They all did very well and the rest used the stock to help keep their teams alive and eventually ran out of money when the series started to decline.
JT – As the embarrassing lack of performance by Honda and McLaren continues, it was recently revealed that the deal struck by Sauber F1's ex-team principal Monisha Kaltenborn to run Honda power units in 2018 was canceled. Apparently, Sauber's team owners called off any Sauber-Honda link following Kaltenborn's departure from the team.
The reversal leaves McLaren as the only Honda-powered team. That casts further uncertainty into McLaren's future with the Japanese manufacturer and the paddock as a whole. It's perhaps likely McLaren will continue with Honda but not certain. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso has said Honda must show improvement this year and real potential for 2018 if he is to remain with McLaren.
SJ – Again, it's difficult to comment without knowing more details. You can be sure there's more than meets the eye to this whole situation. It seems odd to me that an announcement was made by Sauber or Honda or jointly – it's hard to say who announced it – but with that possibility now gone, it's hard to know what to make of this. The dominoes will have to fall at some point for the teams and drivers.
But it looks difficult for anyone at the top end of the driver market to move much in the current situation. If Alonso were to leave McLaren, where would he go? I doubt neither Mercedes or Ferrari have a seat open for him, Red Bull is already full. In my opinion it would be better to stay patient one more year with McLaren as I still believe they will eventually get it right rather than go with any of the options that are left of which only Renault would make any sense. If McLaren were to ditch Honda and go with a different engine I think Hungary already showed that they will be a serious contender almost right away. Both Red Bull drivers are probably frustrated with their results and the reliability from their car, but they are both under contract, and again, where would they go. There are only two obvious teams for anyone who wants to move and the chances a seat will open in either of them are very small in my opinion.
JT – Mercedes would seem to be pretty set with their drivers currently. Valtteri Bottas may be on a one year contract but he's done pretty darn well this year, winning in Russia and Austria and finishing on the podium regularly.
SJ – Yes, I don't see any reason why they would want to change. I think Bottas has done a phenomenal job. He's certainly keeping Lewis on his toes and there seems to be good harmony in the team. The love fest is still going on between the team and the drivers, which Lewis showed by doing the honorable thing in Hungary last weekend in letting Bottas by in the last corner which was agreed at some point in the middle of the race. I can't for a moment think he would have done the same for Rosberg. That's 3 points left on the table which could very well mean win or loose the championship at the end of the season.
JT – At the halfway point of the 2017 season, the Drivers championship battle between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton has tightened with just a single point separating the pair. Ferrari and Mercedes are likewise locked in battle for the Manufacturers championship. What do you make of the contest?
SJ – As usual, the media is saying Ferrari is "finished" after one bad race. There's a "crisis" and on and on. They've had one bad race (Silverstone) effectively. I don't think the championship fight is over by any means which Ferrari also showed by totally dominating the Hungarian GP from qualifying to the race.
I've been saying since the first race of the season that thanks to Vettel doing extensive testing of Pirelli's new tires for this year, Ferrari clearly had an early advantage. The team knew more about the tires than anyone else. It's hard to believe they would not have learned things that others wouldn't by being the only team with a regular driver doing all of the running.
Now that we're halfway through the season it looks like Mercedes has caught up and understand their car and the tires much better than they did at the beginning of the season. But that doesn't mean the battle is over by any means. I suspect it will go down to the wire.
JT – A related subject in the overall picture of Formula One and other series now across racing is the unprecedented number of drivers who are effectively paying to race at the professional level. In June, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the following regarding Valtteri Bottas.
"Today the revenue model for some of the teams, for most of the teams, is also actually to generate income," he said. "Even if we look at a Red Bull or a Mercedes, I would rather have a driver with some sponsorship than not. Even Valtteri for example, part of his value proposition for this year was that he came with a sponsor and clearly we would rather have the money than not."
If one of the two drivers in what has been F1's top team in recent years is bringing money with him to the team, what does that say about F1 and professional racing in general?
SJ – I'm not sure the money Bottas brought was tied to him getting the drive. I think it's more that he just happened to have a sponsor who wanted to be involved and that's obviously a bonus for the team no matter how you look at it.
But yes, things have changed in general. Outside of Formula One, even the drivers who are getting paid, the money they're getting is almost equivalent to what drivers were getting paid in the 1980s with the exception of the guys up at the very top end in F1, who get paid ridiculous amounts. So the contrast between the very few guys at the top and the back end where so many drivers now have to bring financial backing of some sort is huge.
The fundamental problem in general for pretty much every level of racing is that technology has taken over. Everything is driven by technology. Every racing series is driven by the engineering side instead of the drivers and the sporting side. The cars are far too expensive to run. All of the electronics, all of the aerodynamic development, all of the extra stuff which has become part of the cars today makes them massively more expensive to operate. Then we have all the various methods of simulation which effectively have replaced on track testing, this again is driving up the costs as all this equipment is constantly evolving, and anything involving R&D is never cheap.
Not only are they more expensive as a whole, components are more expensive and the cars require three to four times the amount of people to run compared to what they used to. In the end, there's nothing left over due to the costs. The money's got to come from somewhere. Teams are operating more and more in survival mode, and as such they have to rely more and more on drivers bringing money.
There's no real sponsorship in F1 anymore, not at the level it used to be at least, nowhere close. The dynamic has shifted for a number of reasons, one of them being the introduction of pay TV which means there are significantly fewer eyeballs than there used to be. On the flip side the series is making more money because of the pay per view but the overall number of viewers is obviously a lot less.
Sponsors obviously look at eyeballs as one of the main gauges for engagement. If the number of people watching is small, the rate card (for advertising) goes down of course. Hence the constant arguing now about what the distribution of money from F1 is for each team because that is now the main source of income for many of the teams. This never used to be mentioned before, as each team had a reasonable level of sponsorship and the F1 money was almost like the icing on the cake. In addition we have all the social media and other disruptive technologies pulling people in all sorts of directions and there is no longer a fixed medium to get your information or entertainment from.
I don't envy Liberty trying to find the right way forward, I don't think there's anyone today that has the complete vision to see where this is heading and what the end result will be. There is no doubt a number of very competent people capable to put their foot down and say, "Stop. Let's rethink the whole thing." But what is the answer? There are so many moving parts to every aspect of this, every person you speak to have their own view of how to go forward, each manufacturer have their ideas ( biased to suit their own agenda of course), the teams have their views (even more biased), The FIA another one, and on and on it goes. No wonder the Strategy Group can barely agree on where to have their next meeting let alone agree on anything constructive.
JT – As we've discussed previously, another contributor to the muddle racing is in is a strange kind of political correctness.
SJ – Yes I agree, now it's permeating racing just as it is in every other aspect of life it seems.
I think we're at the point where we can't defend this whole argument that racing has to lead the technology for the road car industry. In fact, right now it's the exact opposite. The road car industry is actually far more advanced today in many ways than the racing industry, especially in the electronics/powertrain side.
Race cars are made to go fast as they always have been. Nowadays the main emphasis seems to be that road cars are supposed to save the planet, whether that's valid or not but that's the argument. Racing and road cars ought to be heading in two completely separate directions, if there is anything to be learned from Racing that could benefit the road car industry, great, but I don't think the focus should be on that.
Hybrid technology isn't particularly good for a race car. And the race cars and series using it aren't inventing anything, they are in fact forced to use it by the rules. So even if a team wanted to develop a different concept or technology they wouldn't be able to. They're basically borrowing the technology from the road car industry to apply to a race car.
The whole concept with this technology – the philosophy of what race cars are meant to be now - is going completely in the wrong direction in my opinion. This insanely complicated and expensive hybrid technology really doesn't benefit anyone in racing. The development of the technology for road cars is already as advanced if not more than what we see in the F1 or LMP1 cars. So there's really no gain. Then you can look at the whole aerodynamic thing on top of it – useless for a road car.
Part of the problem is the PR the manufacturers produce. Their PR departments have an agenda and of course there's the political side and that's another agenda. There are all of these marketing efforts and the racing is just the tiny little bit at the bottom of it. Everything has to conform to all of the non-racing agendas.
From a PR point of view it may be great to talk about these amazing power unit that produce virtually zero emissions, the carbon footprint is almost nothing and so on. But all it is, at the end of the day is just that, a PR exercise. I asked someone just for fun to walk over to the parking lot at the British GP where the teams park all their transporters, there were 350 Diesel trucks there to service the 20 cars that were racing on Sunday afternoon. The top teams are using 9 trucks just to carry the Hospitality units and the equipment, which these days are essentially there to feed the journalists and team members as virtually no one else have access to the paddock area. I know this may be an irrelevant argument, but nevertheless it's a sign of the general hypocrisy surrounding this subject.
The money being spent is crazy and that's not sustainable. The ACO/WEC still seem insistent on having P1 and having some sort of hybrid formula for privateers. That makes even less sense than having the manufacturers do it. Why should a privateer want to run a hybrid car? There's zero benefit to it unless it's an open formula where that is one option of many others. But as it is, the rules are very strict and that is basically the only option which means that everyone will spend a lot of money for nothing as they will all run the same spec engine in the end.
On top of it, I was talking to a couple of the drivers in the P1 factory teams and they hate the cars. They're just an engineering exercise. You have to memorize all of the hybrid system stuff instead of just driving the car fast and hard. You're like an airline pilot on a passenger jet. You're just constantly going through checklists.
In Formula One, the top teams employ 250 designers and engineers to design a car, this does not include the engine, there's a massive amount of complexity, and costs obviously. There's no real innovation in F1 at any level anymore, they're not allowed to innovate anymore because the rules are so strict. So it's just an endless refinement of what already exists, with all the teams, designers and engineers pigeon-holed into a tiny little box in which they can work.
It's about optimizing every half-percent you can rather than coming up with something really new that while not completely developed, still gives you an advantage. That's how the pioneering days of F1 used to be. We had Colin Chapman advancing winged F1 cars, six-wheelers (from Tyrell) and other new things and ideas tried.
Obviously, it's harder to find really new ideas as the technology is far more advanced today but racing should always have a measure of that. And it shouldn't have to get to the point where it is now when a top F1 team employs over 2,000 people in total.
In a few more years, we'll have some form of self-driving cars and where does that leave racing? Again that's where road car technology and racing should go in totally different directions. The essence of racing should always be cars that are fast and spectacular to watch, driven by these exceptionally talented young guys that are putting it on the line.
I'm sure if you let all the clever engineers loose and give them some more freedom there will be a number of new and fresh ideas instead of them working within the narrow box they're forced to work in now, just optimizing technologies that are already here. The entertainment side of racing comes more naturally when you make cars fast and challenging to drive, that everyone can immediately appreciate rather than having to explain what the technology is all about and a bunch of artificial rules to make the racing more exciting, like DRS and some guy in a blue FIA shirt sitting in a control tower watching a TV monitor determining when a driver has gone too far outside the track limit instead of the driver simply being out of the race because he either pushed to hard or screwed up somehow and simply went off.
Anyone, even a layman with no knowledge of racing, can appreciate the effort and skill of a driver wrestling a car to make it perform as well as possible at the limit. But a car that does almost everything for a driver, that's stuck to the road on a track with so much run off area that is virtually impossible to hit anything if you try too hard and go off, that any driver with a small amount of skill can jump in and get within half a second of a three-times world champion - that doesn't excite people. It doesn't have the same appeal.
It's now also been confirmed that the Halo head protection will be mandated. It was an inevitable decision in my opinion, once the knowledge is there and it's for safety there's no turning back. It's a knee jerk reaction to something that should have never happened in the first place if any level of common sense had been applied at Suzuka when Jules Bianchi had his accident. But it happened, it was a freak accident and will in most likelihood never ever happen again, halo or no halo.
The reality is that the only fatal accidents in F1 since the early 1980's have all been a freak accident of some sort, as such it's impossible to predict what will happen next time. In general terms though, I could probably mention at least 10 sports, maybe even more that are far more dangerous and have more serious injuries and fatalities per participant than motor racing and F1 in particular today. The general perception that racing drivers are these dare devils risking their lives every time they step in a car is more or less just a myth today, there is zero bravery or bravado involved in being a fast driver today and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's made that observation. Fans are not stupid, they want to see their favorites wrestling their machines on the ragged edge, that's what motor racing has and should always be about. Like all sports, it's the heroes that make the fans come and watch, not the boffin in the back of the garage, or in the case of football or any other sport, the coordination trainer in the back of the changing room.
Ironically, the only level of motor racing where the danger is still a concern that's on the back of anyone's mind is probably Indycar, and the drivers there probably get less credit for what they do than pretty much any other series out there. When you watch the pack racing at some of the ovals it really makes you appreciate what these guys do.
This is a very touchy subject of course, but I am convinced that every single driver worth his salt would still be out there if the tracks where more punishing if you made a mistake, the cars were far more difficult to drive, with much higher top speeds and less grip.
All drivers in the past, even those that complained the most about the safety, still kept racing and lost friends almost every weekend, for virtually no money. Today, we have a situation where other people are deciding what is safe for us. So instead we now have drivers racing cars that are ridiculously easy to drive in comparison, almost totally safe and make $40M a year. This is of no fault of the drivers but merely a reflection of society in general today.
JT – That kind of challenge – the kind which makes racing appealing broadly could return. As we've discussed many times, aerodynamics have had a very corrosive effect on racing. But the possibility exists that technology applied to other aspects of vehicle performance could restore the spectacle, correct?
SJ – Yes, it will take a while but I'm convinced that with a shift of development focused on better tire and power plant technology in particular, better suspension technology and better materials - all these factors – you could gain back amazing performance. The performance lost by eliminating a large portion of the aerodynamics could be found through these other areas to produce cars capable of amazing speeds and lap times. If they are worried about the lap times being much slower by taking away a good portion of the downforce, don't forget that every modern F1 track today is built the way they are simply to slow the cars down, hence we have a bunch of Go Kart tracks on big parking lot tracks with 1st and 2nd gear corners and chicanes with only the odd high speed section that are still not very challenging for a modern F1 car. We could easily solve that problem by going back to a layout with more high speed and flowing corners, where a combination of great car control and big balls will determine the lap time. If your cornering speed is maybe 2/3 of what it currently is, but the driver has 1200-1300HP that he's balancing on the edge in a 4th or 5th gear corner anyone can certainly appreciate that.
They would be spectacular to watch and they would weed out the really good drivers from those who don't have the same level of talent. You might see the rise again of all the really fast guys who disappear these days before they even get to F2 in many cases. Any average driver can be quick today in an aero car.
This is a complex subject of course and everyone has their own views on how it should be done. There's no strict formula but that's where I think we should head. I don't want to sound like some old nostalgic yearning for the "good old days" because that's not the case at all, but I really believe it's time for a complete recalibration on nearly every level of motor racing, certainly in single seaters and prototype cars. Aerodynamics was a great idea when it was first invented, but I think everyone except maybe the engineers agree that it's ruining the racing at every level, at an astronomical cost to everyone involved. We need to be clever and come up with a better alternative.
JT – IndyCar and sports car racing have made news as well lately in both separate and related ways. IndyCar debuted their new universal aero kit to positive reviews from teams and drivers. Juan Pablo Montoya and Oriol Servia did the first test of the new oval kit at Indianapolis and were comfortable going fast almost immediately.
On the sports car side, the long awaited announcement was made that Team Penske would field Acura-powered DPis in IMSA. Another announcement which came as something of a surprise was made when Mazda revealed that it would end its relationship with Speed Source and withdraw from IMSA competition for the remainder of the 2017 season. In 2018, famed sports car team Joest will become the Mazda factory team.
The announcements add some momentum on the American sports car side for the DPi prototype formula and show the way for coming years in IndyCar.
SJ – Estethically the new car certainly looks a lot better than the previous ones, it would have been nearly impossible to design one that could look any worse though. I guess this also fixes the disparity between the Chevy and Honda aero but what a pointless exercise the manufacturer aero kits were.
As we've discussed before, the total cost of this very bad experiment must have been somewhere in the range of 30 million dollars cumulatively. Imagine if they had spent that money of marketing instead. They already had and still have a Championship with the best racing out there, but sadly it seems they are still incapable of getting the message out there to the general masses. IndyCar can fiddle with the cars till they're blue in the face but it won't matter if there's only a relative handful of people watching. The die hard fans are always going to have a point of view and they'll also turn up no matter what. Consider for a moment the reception of the new car design compared to the first test Alonso did for the Indy 500 this year, where more than 2,5 million were watching the live stream online. This should tell you everything, and if the penny hasn't dropped that maybe it's not new car designs we need, but instead a much bigger focus on the drivers, who are the heroes that people want to watch. The value of Fernando Alonso racing at Indy this year is probably the best marketing IndyCar has had for the last 20 years.
The racing is still the best in the world as far as I'm concerned. The formula works as it is – in fact, it's one of the few that works in all of auto racing. Stop tinkering with something that works and try to market it to the biggest audience you can. That would help teams attract more sponsors which would allow them to hire more high profile drivers. If I were Indycar I would do everything possible to lure Alonso over to the series for 2018. Look at what happened when Mansell moved from F1 to Indycar in the 90's, in one year it catapulted the series and it was actually a minor threat to F1 until the split came which of course killed it immediately. If Alonso would come over to Indycar, he would soon be followed by other F1 guys who are equally frustrated by the current cars in F1 and the lack of real racing and real race tracks.
With the sports car end of things, the DPi is a great concept which I think any manufacturer could embrace. With both Penske and Joest now joining it will give IMSA a huge boost without a doubt. It would be great if the ACO would accept it too, if they did you could have a global prototype formula that could be affordable enough for both manufacturers and privateers with privateers able to buy the same cars the factory teams used. It would be brilliant and you'd have a natural feeder system.
JT – Porsche confirmed what most expected at the end of last week when they formally announced that they would be leaving the World Endurance Championship at the end of the season. This obviously is a significant blow to the WEC and could spell the end of the LMP1 Hybrid category for now. The question hanging in the air is whether Toyota will return for 2018. It's hard to see any incentive for their continuing.
SJ – I can't see the WEC surviving. If Toyota follows Porsche what is there? What they should do is a pan-American/European championship of some kind. They should create some kind of hybrid series that brings IMSA and the ELMS together, spanning both continents.
And get rid of the LMP1 and LMP2 categories. Simplify it and make it one category. You don't need both. Teams that are serious will hire the best drivers they can and for drivers that will pay to drive there will always be a team that will take them. And this will be at a reasonably affordable level unlike the P1 Hybrid class.
Look at Le Mans this year. The race was almost won by an LMP2 car at almost exactly 100 times less than the budget of the P1 teams – 100 times less! That should tell you something. Sports car racing has to be much more reasonable in terms of the costs. Look at the LMP3 class.
They're fantastic cars and you can run them for a full season for about $700-800,000. The grids are full. And if you unrestricted the engines or put different engines in them they could be 10 seconds per lap quicker than a GT car in no time. The cars could handle that easily. It's do-able if they try.
JT – The other racing force looming on the horizon is Formula E. Manufacturers from Audi, Renault and BMW to now Mercedes and Porsche are jumping into the series. This despite the fact that recent reports in a number of financial publications reveal that Formula has a total net loss of $110.5 million currently.
SJ – Formula E definitely has momentum. With the latest announcement from Mercedes and Porsche not only joining but also pulling out of the other major series they were competing in before this, following Audi's decision to do the same earlier in the year, it definitely looks like the series is set to grow significantly in the next 3-5 years. I think the budgets will probably triple in the next three years, maybe even more. You know that the manufacturers are going to spend a fortune coming into the series. Once they're committed to any series all bets are off and the technology will improve drastically in the next three to four years.
The battery specifications are fixed which is kind of strange because that's the only thing you can gain significant performance from. But there are some interesting developments in the drivetrains otherwise.
Obviously, there are a number of reasons why the racing format is the way it is now in Formula E but having been to a few races now, the racing is tight with plenty of action. The cars are relatively slow but there are some tough battles on track and because the tracks are small so it doesn't look that slow. It's possibly the only series in the world where not one driver is bringing any money to race, every driver on the grid gets paid and the level of the drivers is very high.
It is extraordinary how far the series has come in just a few years. Alejandro Agag and his team have done an amazing job so far to get it where it is today, and they have great momentum now. In a way, Formula E is everything that Formula 1 is trying to be right now, in terms of being with the times and doing the right thing for the environment etc. Maybe this is the opportunity F1 need, to leave Formula E, the Manufacturers and the FIA with the political agenda to save the planet and instead go back to basics with brutally fast, noisy and spectacular cars and tracks, not worrying so much about the political side of things. Wouldn't that be something!
tags Stefan Johansson, Formula 1, Formula E, Indy 500, Indycar, james hunt, Niki Lauda, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Juan Pablo Montoya, LMP1, LMP2, LMP3, WEC, Racing, Mercedes AMG Petronas, Ferrari, Scuderia Ferrari, Eric Graciano, Porsche, Nigel Mansell, Fernando Alonso, Mclaren-Honda, Vettel, Sebastian Vettel, CART, F1
F1 Chinese GP, Fernando Alonso gears up for Indy 500 & the Grand Prix of Long Beach
April 12, 2017 Eric Graciano
- #SJblog 84 -
JT – We haven't had a chance to chat since before the 2017 Formula One season begin with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in late March. As always, the first race of the season offered opportunity for those willing seize it.
Ferrari did just that, showing pace on par with Mercedes and taking the initiative with pit strategy during the race. Sebastian Vettel got away from the grid well, just behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. He then trailed Hamilton closely, forcing the Mercedes driver to use his tires hard. Hamilton pitted on lap 17 but Vettel remained on track until Lap 22.
Hamilton emerged from the pits behind Max Verstappen and was unable to pass the Red Bull Racing driver despite being on newer tires. The delay allowed Vettel to build a gap which saw him emerge from the pits well clear of Hamilton and he remained in front until the checkered flag.
The result was a widely applauded surprise and a hopeful sign for the championship. Ferrari has certainly closed most of the performance gap to Mercedes. However, on-track passing was at a premium throughout the field. Very few passes were made even during the opening laps. What did you think of the Australian Grand Prix?
SJ – Ferrari has certainly improved significantly over the winter and they proved it. Mercedes didn't get their strategy quite right and they paid for it.
More than that, Ferrari's pace doesn't seem to be a flash in the pan. They were quick in pre-season testing and they backed up the promise from the tests by being right on the pace when they arrived in Melbourne. If anything, it looks like their tire management may be the best in the field at the moment, at least with Vettel.
That goes back to a conversation we had in the blog last year. At the time I said I'd bet that Ferrari would gain an advantage from Vettel's willingness to be an integral part of all the tire testing Pirelli did in preparation for the new tire rule for 2017. He was the only driver to put aside the time to do that. I said at the time that I guarantee this would pay dividends for him going into 2017 and it certainly looks like it has.
I can't understand why no other driver was willing to do that. If there's one simple way to gain an advantage, it's in understanding the tires and even better if you can have an influence on how they are built. That was one of the main reasons why Michael Schumacher was so successful. He spent every day he could pounding around Fiorano when Ferrari was using Bridgestone and they came out with a tire absolutely tailor-made for his driving style. Hardly anyone else could make the tire work but it suited him perfectly.
Every tire company always develop a kind of philosophy on how they build their tires for a certain type of car or series and if you can have an influence on that philosophy – if you can affect and learn the nuances of the construction they use – it makes a huge difference. You gain just that little bit more confidence in being able attack a fraction harder on corner entry. That affects the performance through the whole corner, the way you set the car up and everything. It might be minuscule gains but that can be all the difference you need to win.
Good for Vettel and shame on everybody else for not committing to that testing.
JT – Mercedes and Ferrari were again the main story at last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. This time Mercedes gained the upper hand with Lewis Hamilton dominating the weekend, earning pole position and leading from the start without ever being challenged. Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel had to fight his way to a second place finish. The race began on a damp track with nearly all of the field on wet weather tires. Vettel gambled, pitting for slicks on Lap 2 during a virtual safety car period. Leaders Hamilton, Valterri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen remained on track. They reaped a reward on Lap 5 when Sauber's Antonio Giovanazzi crashed exiting the final corner, bringing out a safety car.
The leaders then pitted and emerged in front of Vettel. Mired in sixth place Vettel worked for several laps to pass Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Then he tracked down and passed Ricciardo, going outside the Red Bull Racing driver in Turn 6. Verstappen fell to Vettel's charge on lap 28 after locking up entering Turn 14.
Vettel's climb back to second provided some drama as did the performance of the Red Bulls on supersoft Pirellis early on. There was more passing at Shanghai - mostly on its long straights with DRS enabling some competitors to blow by those ahead. But the most interesting passing was pulled off in the corners. What did you think of the Chinese Grand Prix?
SJ – The race showed again that there isn't much between Mercedes and Ferrari. So far the battle between the two is shaping up to be pretty good. Hopefully Raikkonen and Bottas will step it up and be able to challenge for wins too as we get further into the season.
No one really challenged Lewis at any point in China. There was more passing than we saw in Melbourne and it's interesting because most of the really good passes were almost all two-lane overtakes. That's something we touched on before the season began. I mentioned that one possibility resulting from the increased grip of the 2017 cars might be the capability to run more than one line through corners.
That seems to be what happened at Shanghai. In the double right-hander that follows the start/finish line there was passing on the outside and the same in Turn 6. The pass that Vettel made on Ricciardo was spectacular and good fun to watch.
But that can only happen at a track where you have extremely long corners, where you're loading up the car for a long period of time. You're not going to be able to do that in a traditional corner or a 90-degree corner. At the next race at Bahrain there just aren't the type of corners that will encourage that kind of passing because one corner follows another pretty quickly. It's unlikely.
JT – What do you think of the performance of Valterri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen so far?
SJ – Bottas made a mistake in China, no question. But in fairness anyone can do that at some stage, they were tricky circumstances. He's on the pace or very close it seems, the only difference is that Ferrari is much closer this year, hence the split on grid positions instead of the usual Mercedes 1-2. He certainly did a good job in Melbourne. I'm sure he'll improve as the season goes on. I don't think he'll beat Lewis but I think he'll be very close.
It's harder to say how Kimi will do. It seems difficult for him to have everything come together at once in recent years. He's quick and then when it really matters there's always some little thing that trips him up, sometimes it's just bad luck but it seems to happen to him more than it does with Vettel for sure. Time will tell.
JT – While Ferrari and Mercedes top the field, Red Bull Racing falls into a gap some distance behind them but well ahead of the rest of the teams. What do you make of their situation?
SJ – It's a bit disappointing - for them at least. I think everyone expected more from Red Bull with the changes in the rules. They've obviously missed the mark somewhere. They clearly don't have the speed or downforce to match the Ferrari or the Mercedes on a consistent basis at least. I don't think the Renault engine is that far behind now but they seem to be lacking some performance in their overall package.
Ricciardo and Verstappen are very close in terms of speed and they're pushing but the car's just not there yet. However, with the crazy development curve in F1 I am sure they will eventually be on the same pace as the Mercedes and Ferrari. The Spanish GP seems to be the first race where all the big updates show up, so let's see what happens after that.
JT – Meanwhile the best of the rest of the teams are anywhere from 1 to 1.5 seconds off the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari, and the gap expands quickly as you go further into the field. If you're not racing with Mercedes, Ferrari or possibly Red Bull, you're miles off the pace.
SJ – That was to be expected. Every time you have a significant rules change the teams without big resources are going to fall further back than they were before the changes took place.
The way F1 is today it's very difficult to come up with a great and different idea. The development on these cars pretty much comes down to cubic dollars, the more you spend the faster you will go. Every now and then someone gets lucky and get it right straight out of the box, but in the big picture it will take the mid-fielders and the back-markers probably another year or two before they're able to claw back some time to the front runners. Then the gap will be around a second between those teams and the leaders. This happens every time we have a major rule change.
JT – With rules stability costs should also fall a bit. This time around however one wonders whether the mid-field and back-marking teams can hang on financially until the situation stabilizes? There is work going on behind the scenes by the Liberty Media group to try to get teams to agree to reduce costs and spread F1 resources more equitably but will it actually happen?
SJ – There's been a lot of talk for a while now about cost reduction and how the money will be distributed among the teams going forward. I don't think anyone really know how to go about the cost reduction issue at the moment, mainly because there are so many opinions on how to do this and to a large degree it comes back to what I've been saying for some time now. If you try to accomplish this in a democratic way, there will never be a good solution, a well thought out plan has to come from the top down and if the teams want to play they will have to follow these rules. As it is currently the teams can't even decide where to have their meetings let alone come forward with any meaningful proposal on how to accomplish any form of cost reduction.
The distribution of funds is another can of worms that could cause some serious problems going forward. I am sure the teams that are benefiting the most will not be willing to give up those benefits freely. This may end up being one of the biggest challenges for the new owners to untangle.
JT – McLaren continues to have a pretty disastrous start to their 2017 season, having failed to finish with either car at Australia or China. Honda's underdeveloped power unit is the biggest issue for them and it's costing Fernando Alonso as he languishes in another uncompetitive car for yet another year.
The upside is that there's a silver lining for IndyCar and its fans. It was announced today that Alonso will skip the Monaco Grand Prix this year, choosing instead to drive one of Andretti Autosport's Hondas in the 101st running of the Indy 500. This is big news for IndyCar and should be a massive boon for them.
SJ – Yes, this is the best thing that could happen to IndyCar in my opinion. It's funny, you and I have been talking about this in the blog over the last couple years – that IndyCar really needed to try and get one of the top guys in Formula One to come over and we always mentioned Alonso as a perfect example.
This is really great news and I personally can't wait to see him go around the Speedway, I'm very excited.
It's worked out that he's the driver most likely to want to do this because he's in an uncompetitive car again. It's marketing gold and a huge shot in the arm for IndyCar.
JT – That news must have been filtering through the paddock at the Grand Prix of Long Beach last weekend. It was another great event with some good racing, some foul luck for front-runners like Ryan Hunter Reay and Alexander Rossi, and another big dose of frustration for Scott Dixon.
On the other hand, James Hinchcliffe managed to pull off a win for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, one of the smaller teams in the series. He was followed home by Sebastian Bourdais in second place – the winner of the season-opener in St. Petersburg for Dale Coyne Racing - another of the series' smallest outfits. Meanwhile Team Penske's Josef Newgarden finished third.
Scott finished fourth and it was obvious that he could have topped the podium if the team's strategy had been different. They switched to a three-stop pit strategy during the race.
SJ - Scott really should have won, again. He was far quicker than anyone else most of the weekend, just as he was at St. Petersburg. The team chose to go to a three-stop strategy because of the way they thought the yellow flag was going to fall early in the race. The yellow never came and it screwed his strategy completely.
But as frustrating as IndyCar can be with their closed-pit rule during cautions, the racing is still very exciting and I still claim it's the best racing out there of any major Championship, certainly better than anything else in single seater racing. The first two races show that almost everyone in the series has a chance of winning and the gap between the top teams and the smaller ones is very tight. It was frustrating for Scott to be on the wrong end of the stick again but that stuff usually evens out over the season.
JT – You raced in the Grand Prix of Long Beach in CART from 1993-1996. What are your memories of racing there?
SJ – I always enjoyed racing at Long Beach. The first race I did there, I think I qualified on the second row. But it didn't turn out to be a particularly fond memory in the race because Mario Andretti put me into the wall at the hairpin before I even got to the start-finish line!
They waved the green flag, we hit each other coming out of the hairpin and it was over before I even got to the flag!
But Long Beach is a great event and it seems to get bigger each year, the crowd is great and the atmosphere is terrific.
JT – Scuderia Corsa has a good finish in Saturday's IMSA Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach. Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan drove their Ferrari 488 GT3 to third place.
SJ – Everybody did a great job. Christina did a great job starting the race and had a good stint. Balzan was very spectacular in his stint and showed some really good race craft. He passed a lot of cars toward the end of the race. He was driving hard and it was a good finish. And the team did their usual brilliant job on the strategy, we gained something like 5 places with the pit strategy we used. We have one of the best teams out there on the scoring stand.
JT – In other news it appears that Felix Rosenqvist will make his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year with DragonSpeed Racing in their LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson. He'll share the car with Ben Hanley and Henrik Hedman.
SJ – Yes, he tested the car for the first time this week in England and he really liked it. It will be a great experience for him to do Le Mans also. It's a track every driver should experience, along with the Indianapolis Speedway. They are both iconic race tracks and still as difficult and dangerous to master as they have ever been.
tags f1top3, F1, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman, LMP2, DragonSpeed, Racing, Australian GP, Chinese GP, Formula 1, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, Scuderia Ferrari, Michael Schumacher, Bridgestone, Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber, Antonio Giovanazzi, DRS, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, Mclaren-Honda, F1isBack, F12017, Indycar, James Hinchcliffe, St. Petersburg, Team Penske, Josef Newgarden, Dale Coyne, Sebastian Bourdais, CART, Long Beach GP, Scuderia Corsa, IMSA, Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan, Ferrari 488 GT3
Nico Rosberg retirement, I meet an old friend at Adelaide & Felix Rosenqvist finishes 2nd at the Macau Grand Prix
JT – It has been a couple weeks since the last blog and a lot has happened. Nico Rosberg was crowned F1 world champion at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. Then late last week Rosberg shocked everyone with the announcement that he is retiring from F1. Meanwhile, Audi finished 1-2 in their final race in prototype competition at the Six Hours of Bahrain. And the Macau Grand Prix was a topsy-turvy event with plenty of carnage, controversy and a smattering of competitive racing.
While much of this played out you were Down Under, having been invited to the Adelaide Motorsport Festival to drive the No. 28 Ferrari F156/85 you piloted for Scuderia Ferrari during the 1985 F1 season (scoring two 2nd place finishes).
Given that Rosberg's news is so unexpected, let's begin there. Then we'll reflect on your experience in Australia. What are your thoughts on Nico's retirement?
SJ – It is obviously a shock announcement and a major surprise to everyone. It's also likely a testament to how intense the situation at Mercedes has been all along. You can sympathize with him, having to go through that again is a major thing to consider.
Still, I would have thought that now having one title in the bag it would have been a lot easier to carry that momentum forward. But more than any other influence, I think it's an acknowledgement of just how hard he had to work and how much it took out of him to win this title.
JT – In addition, I think we all recognize the maturity and guts it took for Nico Rosberg to make this decision.
"We said we'd be champions back then, now we both are! Congratulations Nico, you did everything a champion needed to do. Well deserved." - Lewis Hamilton
SJ – Yes, that's my next point. You really have to admire the strength of character it takes to make that decision at this stage of his career. You might say it's early in his career but we can't forget that Nico and so many of these guys started racing at a pretty high level in their early teens. (Rosberg mentioned that he has been racing for 25 years in comments on his retirement.)
So this has been pretty much all that Nico has been involved with his whole life. Since he was a little kid he's been racing – and on a very intense level. So it may be a bit easier to understand his perspective when you think of that. However, I also think he might get the itch again after being away for a year or so, which we saw with a number of the guys who retired at an early stage in their careers. It's an enormous hole to fill when you have been used to the intensity and focus every minute of your life pretty much for most of your life. I'll be very surprised if we don't see him back in some form of racing after a year or two.
JT – Nico always seems to have been a bit underrated. If we look at his time at Mercedes GP alone, realize who his two teammates have been – Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
Source: F1 Fanatic
SJ – Exactly, it isn't as if he hasn't been tested. Look back to what he did while Michael was in the team. He made Michael look pretty average overall. Looking back now, Nico is probably the toughest teammate Michael ever had, certainly a lot more competitive than Eddie Irvine or Rubens Barrichello ever were.
I'd say most people have underestimated how good Nico really is. Let's not forget that Lewis is already the second most winning driver in F1 history, and to be basically on even par with him every weekend is definitely not something that just any driver would be capable of doing. I also feel that maybe this was Nico's way of finally sticking it to Lewis as he won't be there to defend the title. In 2016 he was the best driver in the world, he rose to the occasion and had a string of very strong races midseason which effectively built the foundation for the Championship, when Lewis then retired in Malaysia all he had to do was drive intelligently without getting into it with Lewis every race like he was forced to do every time before that. It took him two years to figure out how to deal with that, starting with that race in 2014 in Bahrain where Lewis sort of moved the goal post and showed what he was prepared to do to win, team mate or not. I think it caught Nico by surprise and you could tell after that in both 2014 and 2015 he was not comfortable going to the length he had to do to either defend or attack against Lewis, and as such, we saw some moves that weren't going to stick and Lewis generally seemed to come out on top. 2016 was different however, he changed his strategy and it worked out. I can sympathize 100% that it must have been difficult if it doesn't come natural to you.
JT – Rosberg's decision really is unexpected but as you mention, this has probably been brewing for some time. In published comments last week, his father Keke Rosberg may have alluded to Nico's decision, saying "He has a lot of seasons behind him and I'm sure that, especially, the last three seasons have taken a high toll."
"They've been very hard seasons, because you're fighting for the championship for three years in a row, constantly." Keke said. "It's much tougher than trying to finish sixth. I don't know how much it's taken out of him."
SJ – I am sure it was not a rash decision but something that's been on his mind for a while. I know his father Keke quite well. He's an incredibly smart guy and has a very strong character. He's very firm in his beliefs and if you take that into account, that could give insight into Nico's logic.
JT – Everything is speculation at this point but the show goes on in F1. With Rosberg vacating his seat at Mercedes GP you would expect there to be a major amount of scrambling by top drivers to perhaps fill the vacancy. Of course, Mercedes has its own bench to draw from as well.
SJ – There will be a lot of action right now from every quarter, no doubt. I would imagine there are some guys, maybe like Nico Hulkenberg, who are having second thoughts about their decisions for next year. By the same token, they couldn't have known what would happen. No one did, except Nico.
I am sure there a lot of the top guys reading their contracts with a fine comb right now to find out if there's any way they can wiggle out of their existing deals. But more than anything the biggest dilemma is really for Mercedes to fill the gap from Rosberg, there is no one obvious to replace him with that is not already under contract, and I would imagine it would be problematic for them to put any of their Junior drivers in the car as it's a huge step with enormous pressure. I feel for the Management at Mercedes too, they've had to deal with the constant battles and conflicts between these two guys in the past three year, and now they're stuck in a situation where there is no obvious candidate to take Nico's seat. Both Toto and Niki have certainly had their work cut out dealing with all this and when you weigh up all the circumstances I think they have done a great job in managing the situation.
JT - Returning to Australia, on the Friday before the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, you drove the Ferrari F156/85through the streets of Adelaide among the public which must have been a blast. Then on Saturday you ran the car around a portion of the Victoria Park street circuit which played host to the Australian Grand Prix from 1985 to 1995 – one of the tracks you raced it on. That must have been a great deal of fun too.
Did you enjoy driving the Ferrari again?
SJ – Yes, it was a great weekend – only there could you do something like that. It was Adelaide just how I remembered it from all those years past. It was a lot of fun and quite emotional to drive the old car actually.
I last drove that car up the hill at Goodwood a few years ago but that doesn't really count as you can't really lean on the car there as you do on a real race track. Apart from that my last drive in it was 30 years ago! It started to feel familiar after a few laps. It was kind of emotional when I started pushing it a bit and getting into the performance window of the car a little. Lots of memories… It was great using a manual gearbox and going through the gears and everything. By the end of day two I was getting some small blisters in my right hand from the gearshift which is how it used to be back in the day. They didn't have it cranked up to full power but it was still enough to get a good feel for it.
JT – As usual we begin with Formula One, however let's rewind to the penultimate race of 2016, the Brazilian GP – a race held amid off-and-on rain showers. It was notable mostly for the stop-start nature of the racing, a few on-track incidents and lucky escapes, and Max Verstappen's drive.
He was widely lauded for his march through the field in the wet after good fortune in not wrecking somehow when his Red Bull spun on the on pit straight early in the race. During the last safety car period Red Bull Racing pitted Verstappen to fit extreme wet tires, changing from the intermediate wets he had been running on. He made a succession of passes, going from 14th to 3rd in the final 15 laps.
It was certainly an impressive drive though his cause was aided by having newer tires than any of those he passed. As you mention, there was also another key advantage for him.
SJ – There's no question, he drove a fantastic race. His car control is amazing and he absolutely deserved the podium finish, but the thing I absolutely cannot understand is why no one else drove on the wet racing line? That's racing in the rain-101.
In every category I've ever raced whether that's sports cars, Indy Cars or F1 and all the way down to Karting, if it's raining hard you never drive on the dry racing line. It's full of rubber and it's always way more slippery. I just don't get why everyone else was on the regular line – it's fundamental.
Verstappen was passing guys like they were standing still and you'd think the penny would drop and they would all start doing what he was doing. It boggles my mind. I don't understand what the rest of them were doing.
Toto Wolff said what he did "defied physics". It didn't really defy physics. Verstappen had much more grip out there off the regular line – simple as that. There's always more grip on the outside line in the rain. He was carrying more speed than anyone else and you would expect that the other drivers would have thought, "Hmm… maybe I should try that." But in the end, it was a very impressive drive by Verstappen in extremely difficult conditions. His race craft is already up there with any of them and he showed an incredible amount of car control especially on that save he did where everyone else ended up smacking the wall.
Among all this everyone also seemed to forget what Lewis did, he had the entire field completely covered and drove an incredible race in very difficult conditions. The situation for him was far worse than any other driver in the field as he basically had no option but to win in order to keep the championship alive, so the pressure on him was immense.
The race management was also odd. I've certainly been in races where conditions were way worse and these are supposed to be the best drivers in the world. You'd think they should be able to handle it. If it's gotten to the point where the cars are un-drivable in that kind of weather then maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board, at least with the tires.
If there is a problem with the wet tires, the testing ban probably accounts for a large part of that. There's no doubt that if there was still competition between tire suppliers in F1 none of this would happen. Wet or dry, the tires would be way better.
JT – The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was interesting chiefly as the deciding race for the 2016 championship. What drama there was stemmed from Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, and their duel for the title. The race marked the last outing for Jenson Button and Felipe Massa but they were largely overshadowed by the title fight.
Rosberg prevailed in the championship, finishing second to Lewis Hamilton in the race. Sebastian Vettel came home 3rd. One big talking point afterward was Hamilton's attempt to back Rosberg up, slowing his pace so much that Rosberg would be vulnerable to those behind. Hamilton has drawn both criticism and support for his tactics.
Meanwhile Rosberg held his nerve, passing Max Verstappen to reclaim 2nd position on lap 20 after his first pit stop. He also fended off Sebastian Vettel in the waning laps.
Though Hamilton said prior to the race that he wouldn't slow his pace if he led Rosberg during the grand prix, he did exactly that. I don't think anyone was particularly surprised by his decision apart from Rosberg perhaps, and it's debatable whether he should or shouldn't have done that. But his comments in response to team orders seemed a bit petulant.
What did you think of the race and Hamilton's conduct?
SJ – It certainly got a bit exciting when Lewis started backing Nico up to the rest of them. Any little mishap and the race could have gone pear-shaped for Nico or for both of them. So the last portion of the race was very exciting and in many ways the scenario that most people probably was hoping for in a weird way.
Lewis' tactics were to be expected despite the strict orders from the team. In the heat of the battle you can react in many different ways. It seems that in all sports today it's gotten to the point where the moral side of things is almost irrelevant. Winning at any cost is the course of action most often. What was interesting to me was the parallel between this championship and the one in 1984 where Prost and Lauda had a similar situation. They were team mates at McLaren and if Prost won I think Niki had to finish 2nd to clinch the title.
I don't recall one single person ever mention or speculate about Prost backing up Lauda into the pack, the term "backing up" didn't even exist. No one thought of doing that, Prost basically disappeared into the distance and Lauda as it were had a big dice with me for most of the race for 4th place. I eventually got a slow puncture and had to pit, and then Lauda managed to pass Senna for 3rd and then inherited 2nd when Mansell spun towards the end of the race. I honestly don't think it ever entered anyone's mind, that Prost backing Lauda into the pack was even an option.
As it were, it all worked out ok and I think Nico very deservedly won the championship. He rose to the occasion more than once this year and did an excellent job overall.
JT – Rosberg's title clinch also made history and positive headlines for F1. He and his father Keke (1982 World Champion) are just the second father-son pairing, along with Graham Hill and Damon Hill, to win the F1 driver's championship. It's a warm and welcome story for a series that has had so many negatives recently. In addition, you've known Keke for a long time so it's a nice thing to see from that perspective as well.
SJ – Yes, for sure. As I mentioned earlier, Keke's a very old friend of mine – since we were teenagers when we first got to know each other. I'm really happy for him and I'm sure it must be an incredible feeling to see his son repeat what he was able to do.
JT – On the other hand, much of the talk following the Abu Dhabi GP tends toward how glad fans are that 2016 is over. There's a natural tendency to look toward the future of course and the new style of F1 cars next season. But 2016 was widely seen as a boring season with a lack of competition on-track and leadership off-track that doesn't seem to know what to do next. In fact, F1's principals still seem to have difficulty acknowledging that there are big problems.
SJ – Yes and this has been a trend for some time now. You really can't control the domination of one team because everyone is and should be doing their best to win consistently. But any time you have one team being dominant for a number of seasons it's generally not a good thing.
Drawing by Giorgio Piola for Motorsport.com
Unfortunately I'm not sure if next year and going forward is going to be any better. I think the outcome of the races may change somewhat with the new cars but I think the racing won't be any better with the new rules package they've chosen. The cars will be much faster, but only in the corners, which will make it even more difficult to pass than it is already.
We've gone over the issue of having all of this downforce and how that kills the racing several times already. This is true across most all categories of racing today, and especially in single seater formulas where the front aero is critical to how the car will perform.
JT – It's not easy to say with certainty what the pecking order will be next season in F1 given the new format for the cars. What do you expect?
SJ – I don't think Mercedes will have the advantage that they've had over the last couple years. They'll be at the front no doubt but I think Red Bull will be very strong, Ferrari will hopefully improve and I am certain that McLaren will catch up and close the gap to the front teams. As usual we can probably count on one of the mid-pack teams getting their cars somewhat right and they'll be there fourth or fifth in the points. That includes Williams and Force India, maybe Sauber.
Every season one of these teams seems to hit the right combination whether they know it or not beforehand. They go out on a limb between seasons and try to do something clever. Usually it doesn't work and they lose all the momentum they had and fall back to the back of the pack. But every now and then they hit on something good or they carry the momentum they've managed to build over a few seasons of rule stability.
JT – I guess Haas F1 could be considered among the mid-pack teams now. Though their performance suffered from mid-season forward, you'd have to say that 2016 was pretty impressive for Haas given that it was their first year in F1.
SJ – Very much so, I think everyone will agree it was unexpectedly good for them. They did particularly well at the beginning of the season. As I've always said, the early races are the easiest ones to score big points in. The fact that they were able to do that with a brand new team was very impressive.
And the way they came into F1 was very intelligent. They made use of available resources allowed by the rules from an already established team and why wouldn't they? Why would you employ a huge group of people and spend an enormous amount on development if you can purchase intelligence that already exists from someone else. That's something you'd want to leverage as much as possible in my opinion.
Ferrari struggled this year but they're still a top-three team so making use of their technology and expertise made a lot of sense.
JT – In off-track news, Zak Brown has been appointed executive director at McLaren while long time McLaren Group chairman and CEO Ron Dennis has been dismissed. Presumably Brown's role will be to exercise his considerable marketing expertise (Brown is the founder and CEO of JMI, the world's largest motorsport marketing agency) to bring sponsorship and financial resources to McLaren – something the team/Group have fallen behind with in recent years.
You know Zak well and have raced with him for his United Autosports team. I imagine he'll be working hard in this capacity while Eric Boullier continues as Racing Director for McLaren. How do you see it?
SJ – Yes, I assume that's what he'll be doing and I'm sure he'll do a terrific job. The momentum for the team and the car next year seems to be going in the right direction. With the new rules there's a better opportunity for McLaren to get the car right or "right-er" than it has been, assuming that Honda make similar improvements as well.
JT – Bernie Ecclestone recently floated the idea of having Formula One chop the length of its races in half, effectively going to a format where there would be two sprint races per weekend. This is something IndyCar has already done with varying degrees of success. It's hard to tell what Bernie's real reasoning is but what do you think of this idea?
SJ – The correct answer is somewhere out there. The problem is that the teams don't seem to be able to agree to change the things that aren't working, whether it's the way races are run or the technical regulations or the format of the points system, whatever. They always seem to want to come up with their own answers rather than looking at other successful series and simply copy what's good and what works. So inevitably, we end up with some odd experiments from time to time.
I actually think that NASCAR's Chase format isn't a bad way to go. It makes the racing pretty exciting towards the end of the season. Certainly it engages fans right up to the end of the year and ensures that the championship isn't over until the last race. Of course, everyone in F1 says it isn't fair. But of all the systems out there I think it's the one which retains the most excitement over a whole season and keeps building momentum up to the last race.
It may be worth trying a different format at one or two races to see what the reaction is. I think the idea of two sprint races over the course of the weekend would be great at places like Monaco and Singapore for example.
JT – The 2016 Grand Prix of Macau was a pretty fraught event. There was some good racing here and there but there were also a lot of wrecks and lengthy delays caused by them. That interrupted the racing to a great degree and made the individual races less enjoyable. There were also incidents in the F3 race but Felix Rosenqvist drove well to finish second behind Antonio Felix da Costa. Is the Macau GP outgrowing itself?
SJ – I saw the F3 final. I didn't see the GT race. Felix did really well but yes, these are the usual issues at Macau. The track is seriously dangerous and accident-inducing but at the same time it's one of the best tracks in the world for the same reasons. I hold Macau as one of the top 5 tracks in the world, maybe even higher. It's an awesome and very challenging and difficult track to do well on. Felix did a great job again and had it not been for the exact reasons you just mentioned he would have most certainly qualified much closer to the front which then would have made life much easier to get to the front than what was the case now. To work your way up to 2nd from 8th is extremely difficult there.
JT – The finish of the FIA GT World Cup race at Macau was bizarre. Porsche factory driver Earl Bamber passed Audi factory driver Laurens Vanthoor cleanly after a restart on Lap 5. Vanthoor then clipped curbing, hit an Armco barrier and wound up on his roof.
The race was immediately red-flagged. Bamber was leading when the race was stopped but Vanthoor was awarded the win as per FIA rules that revert to the running order on the previous lap. In most series, the driver causing a red flag is excluded from the results. It's seems illogical that Vanthoor would be awarded the win for a race he failed to complete after crashing while in 2nd place. What are your thoughts?
SJ – Yes, I can't understand that one. I saw Bamber at an event after that and he was understandably unhappy.
JT – Early testing of the new global LMP2 cars has shown them to be significantly faster than their predecessors. Rumors are already circulating that the FIA/ACO may step in to slow them down, fearing that gentlemen drivers will not be able to handle them properly. The speed of the new P2 cars has also rekindled ongoing concerns about the FIA driver rating system.
Wouldn't it be sensible to simplify the ratings system and have just two categories? The Pro category would include anyone who makes their living racing professionally. The Am category would include everyone else. Or how about just doing away with the highly abused ratings system altogether? If gentlemen drivers choose to race in categories where Pro drivers compete shouldn't they accept that the results? They didn't seem to have a problem with this in the past.
SJ – Yeah, that's how it used to be and it was just a process of natural selection. Teams that weren't as eager to win took on drivers who could pay a bit. And teams that wanted to win put the extra effort in to find a way to pay professional drivers to drive for them.
That was simple and it worked. It was a natural and I think fair way to go about it. You're never going to have a fair system with driver ratings. As we've seen far too many examples of already, some drivers have made getting downgraded to Silver status into an art form.
JT – Following up on the new LMP2 machines, why slow them down? In fact, wouldn't it be reasonable to shed the LMP1 class? P2 could be the premier class using the DPi formula that IMSA will use. That way you have the potential to attract manufacturers while having a limited number of platforms and a chance of controlling costs. Done right, it could lead to large, competitive prototype fields. They might not be as fast as current P1 hybrids but the racing should be much more competitive.
SJ – I keep saying that and I think many people agree. But the ACO and FIA don't seem to agree with anything IMSA proposes, and vice versa. In WEC, seemingly they really only care about LMP1. It's clear that both the ACO and the series need the big manufacturers involved and have them spending very serious money not only on the cars but also on the activation around the Le Mans race and the series events.
But maybe they could shift the manufacturers to GTE instead. I think they'd have a lot more participation from a lot more manufacturers. If you take off the restrictors and open up the GTE cars the lap times could improve by 10 seconds almost immediately - even more after another year or two. By then they are down to what they seem to consider the ideal lap time around Le Mans, somewhere in the 3.30's range. I personally can't see any new manufacturer wanting to step into the LMP1 category right now, the commitment is huge and the chances of succeeding against either of the two that's left (Porsche and Toyota) will take several years.
tags f1top3, Nico Rosberg, World Champion, F1 World Championship, Retirement, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Petronas, Toto Wolff, Bernie Ecclestone, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari F156/85, Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, F1, #F1TOP3, Keke Rosberg, Graham Hill, Damon Hill, Ron Dennis, Mclaren-Honda, McLaren, F1 2017, Force India, Haas F1, Zak Brown, JMI, Motorsports, Motorsport.com, NASCAR, Felix Rosenqvist, F3, Macau GP, LMP2, LMP1, FIA GT World Cup, Formula E, Earl Bamber, Vanthoor, Eric Graciano


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Q: Selecting an element in Jquery based on an absolute position? I use Selenium Webdriver for testing and want to test the creation of a new time slot in the calendar. As a calendar I use the Jquery week calendar:
https://github.com/themouette/jquery-week-calendar
The challenge is, that the calendar has only a DOM element per day (the column) and not per time slot (the rows). The jquery plugin calculates based on the absolute position of the click the corresponding time slot.
So, how can I simulate this in Selenium? I would need something like
page.execute_script("$('absolute position').trigger('click')")

But the Jquery functions offset and position only work for existing elements, not to find an element. Is there any possibility?

A: You have to select a candidate-collection of elements - maybe based on a class all the elements have or on position in the DOM.
The do a loop over all of them, test the position of each element - and click only if you found your target.
$('#day5 .item').each(function(){
    var $this = $(this);
    if($this.position().top < 400) {
        $this.click();
    }
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Ao Shin: the Storm Dragon, aims push the limits of what's technically and creatively possible in League of Legends.
Riot have posted a "champion sneak peak" into Ao Shin: the Storm Dragon, a champion due to enter the League of Legends some time in the future. Additionally, four new "pool party" skins for Lee Sin, Graves, Leona and Renekton have just been released, to join the previously released pool party Ziggs.
Riot says that the League of Legends community has been asking for a dragon champion for some time, "but we knew we couldn't just do any dragon." With Ao Shin, the team aims push the limits of what's technically and creatively possible in League of Legends. "One of the challenges we're looking forward to tackling is how to capture his unique anatomy and movement in a way that brings a new dimension to the champion pool." said Riot poster Sixtwo. "We're really excited about the ways this champion will move across the battlefield."
Pool Party Graves - 1350 RP. On sale for 975 for the next two weeks.


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Breaking down Patriots' big rushing night vs. Bills
Mike Dussault
The Patriots ran over the Bills on Monday night to the tune of 222 rushing yards on 46 attempts, while attempting just three passes. New England leaned into their jumbo package, featuring Michael Onwenu as a third tackle and fullback Jakob Johnson leading the way, not to mention some key blocks delivered by the always-willing wide receiver and tight end groups. On a gusty Buffalo night, the Patriots identified their plan and stuck with it, as they locked down their 35th winning season in franchise history with the victory.
Their approach was clear from the start of the contest when New England came out and ran the ball 10-straight times. It was power football at its finest, as New England exerted their will over the Bills defense, leaving the Mac Jones to attempt just three passes, the fewest since 1974. According to Next Gen Stats, their 94 percent run rate was the highest rate in the NFL in over 20 years.
"I think it was the whole team," said Bill Belichick on Monday morning when asked about the performances of the running backs. "The offensive line did a good job. They used Micah [Hyde] as a sixth lineman quite a bit. The tight ends and, obviously, the receivers were heavily involved in the running game, blocking for us or crack blocking on some of the perimeter plays, things like that. All the backs ran well; Rhamondre, Damien, and Brandon [Bolden] gave us a couple big runs there as well, especially the two-point play. He had another third-down conversion on a trap play. Those guys were productive. They ran hard. They ran with good pad level. They got some extra yards after contact."
Damien Harris' 64-yard touchdown was the key offensive play of the game, as Harris rushed for 111 yards on 10 carries and scored New England's only touchdown of the game. When he sustained a hamstring injury late in the first half, Rhamondre Stevenson took over the bulk of the carries, setting a career-high with 24. Although his final 3.3 yards-per-attempt average might not jump off the page, situationally Stevenson was the hammer that helped close the game out with a methodical third-quarter drive that ate up over eight minutes of clock, getting the Patriots into the fourth quarter where the Bills were forced to go against the wind in the final frame.
Harris' final carry of the game came on the first play of the third-quarter drive, as he got things rolling with an impressive 22-yard run. Stevenson then took over, with eight carries on the important drive, including gains of 11, 10 and six yards that helped set up Nick Folk's 34-yard field goal.
The #Patriots adjusted to inclement weather and ran the ball on 94% of their plays, the highest run rate in a game in this millennium.
Rhamondre Stevenson and Damien Harris led the Patriots backfield and both finished with more rushing yards than expected.#NEvsBUF | #GoPats pic.twitter.com/drecVMw0Sz
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) December 7, 2021
According to Next Gen Stats, the Patriots had Mac Jones under center on 93 percent of the snaps and used the jumbo package 61 percent of the time with condensed formations that averaged just 17.0 yards wide, the tightest average formation in the NFL since 2016 by over a full yard. And they just kept going to the well, at one point running the ball on 32 consecutive plays, the longest stretch of rushes over the last 40 seasons of football.
It was old-school power football at its most pure and, in classic Belichickian Patriots fashion, there was no concern for stats, appearances or playing time. It was all about getting a huge win over a divisional foe on the road. As always, the Patriots did what needed to be done and it came against one of the more highly regarded defenses in the NFL. Coming in, the Bills defense ranked 5th in rushing yards, having allowed over 100 rushing yards just three times. They also came in at 4th in rushing defense DVOA.
NFL Notes: Plenty of good, not great in 2021
Patriots Mailbag: Post-Buffalo, Pre-Bye Edition
AFC Playoff Picture: Pats all alone at the top
Damien Harris (64-yd TD run)
Harris reached a top speed of 21.01 mph, the fastest speed by a Patriots running back in the NGS era. Harris is also responsible for 2nd, 3rd & 4th-fastest marks.
🔹+61 Rush Yards Over Expected (Patriots 5-yr high)#StatThat | Powered by @awscloud pic.twitter.com/Om452BtceK
Overall, it was an unconventional evening for the Patriots but they adapted and once again executed the gameplan that the coaches thought would give them the best chance to win and because of it, there is plenty to digest from the performance. It's also a good sign moving into December and January that the rushing attack is looking potent.
"Obviously, it's satisfying to win and beat a good team like Buffalo in Buffalo," said Belichick. "That's over with, and it's time to turn the page and move onto Indianapolis. That's what we'll do, but I thought the team played well, not perfect, and, again, against a good team. Buffalo certainly gives you some problems in all three phases of the game."
Patriots path forward goes through AFC East
A season-ending loss to the Bills shows the Patriots must renew their focus on the divisional opponents this offseason.
What can Patriots learn from previous Bills battles?
Taking a look at the Patriots and Bills first two matchups of the 2021 season and what will carry over into the playoff game.
Breaking down Mac Jones' big game vs. Jacksonville
Jones threw three more touchdowns, setting a Patriots rookie record, in a big win over the Jaguars.
Breaking down Patriots critical-down struggles vs. Bills
Taking a closer at the third and fourth downs that defined the key Patriots-Bills AFC East contest.
How the Patriots can get back on track
After a disappointing loss to the Colts, here are the areas the Patriots must fix if they're to make a playoff run.
Breaking down Kendrick Bourne's emergence for Pats offense
The free agent addition is continuing to stack success every week as he's carved out an important role in the Patriots offense.
It's all starting to click for the Patriots defense
Coming off a four-interception performance, the Patriots defense is rounding into their complementary form.
Breaking down Patriots' offensive outburst vs. Browns
Here are the three key elements that stood out from the Patriots impressive offensive performance against the Browns.
Patriots defense priming to lead a playoff push
The Patriots defense is coming on strong in recent weeks, leading the way for New England's surge in the standings.
Breaking down Pats' position in AFC
After getting back to 4-4, the Patriots are firmly planted in the middle of a competitive conference without much clarity as they round the season's halfway point.
Patriots seeing progress in key problem areas
After their first home win of the season, the Patriots' new-look team is starting to get some of their biggest issues fixed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
REFILE-US STOCKS-Wall Street bides its time, awaiting news from trade front
Published Thu, Dec 5 20192:45 PM EST
Stephen Culp
(Fixes typo in first sentence.)
* Nike rises on Goldman Sachs upgrade
* Kroger drops following earnings miss
* Sage sinks as depression drug fails trial
* Indexes: Dow up 0.03%, S&P 500 up 0.05%, Nasdaq off 0.03%
NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Wall Street was largely unchanged on Thursday as market participants stayed on the sidelines, awaiting further developments in the hoped-for interim trade deal between the United States and China.
The S&P 500 and the Dow were slightly higher and the Nasdaq nominally lower, their losses held in check by a rise in tech stocks.
Markets have been whipsawed in recent days as conflicting reports on whether the world's two largest economies would be able to arrive at a "phase one" agreement prior to Dec. 15, when a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports is scheduled to take effect.
"We're on hold until we see what happens on the trade front," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. "People are trying to get a read on what's going to happen with the trade talks and the next relevant deadline is Dec 15."
Market participants appeared to show little heed to the drama unfolding in Washington as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
"What impacts investor psychology is uncertainty, and I don't think there's any uncertainty as to how (the impeachment proceedings) will play out," Carlson added.
"At the end of the day, whether there's an impeachment or not isn't going to stop a money manager from deciding whether or not he'll by Intel."
The articles of impeachment stem from a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to carry out two investigations that would benefit him politically.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.89 points, or 0.06%, to 27,667.67, the S&P 500 gained 2.02 points, or 0.06%, to 3,114.78 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.35 points, or -0%, to 8,566.32.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500 seven were trading in the red.
Materials stocks were the biggest winners, while consumer staples suffered the largest percentage drop.
Nike Inc gained 1.8% following Goldman Sachs' upgrade of the sportswear maker's stock to "buy" from "neutral."
Kroger Co shares fell 3.5% after the supermarket chain missed Wall Street earnings estimates, hurt by stiff competition from Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc .
Online craft retailer Etsy dipped 2.7% on the heels of a downgrade to "underweight" by Morgan Stanley.
SecureWorks Corp jumped 22.8%, on course for its best day ever, after the cyber security firm posted a surprise third-quarter profit.
Sage Therapeutics Inc tumbled 59.1% after its depression drug failed in a late-stage study.
On the economic front, a shrinking trade deficit, a drop in jobless claims and a rebound in factory orders suggested a still-robust, if slowing, U.S. economy.
Investors now look to Friday's employment report from the U.S. Labor Department, which is expected to show an increase of 180,000 nonfarm payrolls in November.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.02-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 53 new lows. (Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York Editing by Matthew Lewis)
US: Trading


A group of cadets of the National Cadet Corps began their journey in Kolkata a few weeks ago. Next month, Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will receive them here. This is a story of how a group of young men and women are fighting to slow down the spread of AIDS. Nalin Mehta reports.


Good news for bibliophiles, technophobes and cynics: digital paper is a reality and the "paperless" hospital might never be.
This article in the Guardian describes the "Librié" a new product from Sony, Phillips and E-Ink.
Digital paper is already used for in store displays that can be refreshed by wireless links.
However, Siemens has developed paper thin displays that could replace conventional labels. Walking down the isle of the supermarket could soon be like strolling around Piccadilly Circus as the labels of goods present us with changing, alluring images and displays.
And, don't we already have e-books on PDAs and displays that respond to digital signals? Oh, and where do those digital signals come from? Computers?
Though I love gadgets, it's difficult to see what more digital paper offers. It may be yet another solution looking for a problem. Suggestions for healthcare applications on white pulp or (better) in the "Comments" section below, please.


Is Melatonin Fast Dissolve Right For You?
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Have a comment or question about Melatonin Fast Dissolve Review?


text:
'The Sleep of Reason': Swamp Thing and the Intertextual Reader
Michael Bradshaw
Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition
M J A Green
Manchester University Press
Bradshaw, M. (2013). 'The Sleep of Reason': Swamp Thing and the Intertextual Reader. In M. J. A. Green (Ed.), Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition (pp. 121-139). Manchester University Press.
Bradshaw, Michael. / 'The Sleep of Reason': Swamp Thing and the Intertextual Reader. Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition. editor / M J A Green. Manchester University Press, 2013. pp. 121-139
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author = "Michael Bradshaw",
editor = "Green, {M J A}",
booktitle = "Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition",
publisher = "Manchester University Press",
Bradshaw, M 2013, 'The Sleep of Reason': Swamp Thing and the Intertextual Reader. in MJA Green (ed.), Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition. Manchester University Press, pp. 121-139.
'The Sleep of Reason': Swamp Thing and the Intertextual Reader. / Bradshaw, Michael.
Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition. ed. / M J A Green. Manchester University Press, 2013. p. 121-139.
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Bradshaw M. 'The Sleep of Reason': Swamp Thing and the Intertextual Reader. In Green MJA, editor, Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition. Manchester University Press. 2013. p. 121-139


text:
Tag Archives: Marriage
April 2, 2012 · 8:22 pm
DMX Gets Real On Couples Therapy [Ep. 1]
DMX Gets Real On Couples Therapy [Ep. 1], posted with vodpod
Filed under Entertainment, Hip-Hop, Reality Show, Relationships, Video
Tagged as CHILD SUPPORT, DMX, DMX Gets Real On Couples Therapy [Ep. 1], Jenn Berman, Lighting, Linda Hogan, Marriage, Reality television, VH1
Kim Kardashian Talks About Her Divorce On Live w/ Kelly
Filed under Entertainment, Interview, Talk Show, Video
Tagged as DIVORCE, Kelly Ripa, Kim, Kim Kardashian, Kim Kardashian Talks About Her Divorce On Live w/ Kelly, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kourtney Kardashian, Kris Humphries, Marriage, Morning, Reality TV, Star, Television
Kim Kardashian Files For Divorce!
Oh So Shocking Like We didn't Expect This…….!
After 72 days of marriage Kim Kardashian has filed to divorce NBA star Kris Humphries according to documents which list the separation as October 31st. The checks cleared, this marriage is over buddy!
Filed under Entertainment, News, Relationships
Tagged as DIVORCE, Kim Kardashian, Kim Kardashian Files For Divorce!, Kim Kardashina, Kris Humphries, Laura Wasser, Marriage, National Basketball Association, NBA, Publicity Stunt, Reality Stars, Relationship
Is Diddy & J. Lo Dating Again?
According To Mediatakeout:
I knew soon as Diddy got news that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony was getting a divorce, he would be somewhere trying to get that old thing back. According to one of the many MTO snitches, Jennifer Lopez reached out to Diddy last year when her marriage began to crumble. Diddy was in shock because the two have not spoken in years, and out of nowhere she is calling and texting. She kept in contact for months and on two occasions the two physically met. Last week, Diddy and JLo was spotted out on a date at Phillipe Chows. Diddy entered the restaurant and went to the private area and JLo followed 20 minutes later. I guess this means Cassie and Kim Porter can have a seat because JLo and her ass is back in town.
Tagged as ben affleck, cassie, DIVORCE, Is Diddy & J. Lo Dating Again?, Jennifer Lopez, marc anthony, Marriage, Relationships, sean combs
Chrissy Proposes To Jim Jones On 'Love & Hiphop"!
[Video] Jim Jones Reacts To Chrissy's Proposal …, posted with vodpod
Jim Jones' long time girlfriend proposes to him in front of a crowd of people on, "Love & Hip Hop."
Tagged as ARTS, Arts and Entertainment, business, Chrissy, Chrissy Proposes To Jim Jones, Fabolous, Hip-Hop, Jim Jones, Marriage, Mashonda, Media Production, Music, New York City, Proposes, Video, vodpod
April 12, 2011 · 11:39 pm
Trailer: Mandy Moore Stars In "Love, Wedding, Marriage"
Nuevo-Love Wedding Marriage (Kellan Lutz): Trailer, posted with vodpod
Tagged as business, Calvin Klein, Kellan Lutz, Love Wedding Marriage, Mandy Moore, Marriage, Marriage Counselor, Marriage", Movie ', Relationships, Trailer, Trailer: Mandy Moore Stars In "Love, Video, vodpod, Wedding
April 3, 2011 · 11:33 pm
AshleyMadison.Com: A Place For Aspiring Cheaters!
AshleyMadison.Com: A Place For Aspiring Cheaters!, posted with vodpod
Filed under Entertainment, News, Scandal, Video
Tagged as Adultery, Ashley Madison, AshleyMadison.com, AshleyMadison.Com: A Place For Aspiring Cheaters!, business, Business Services, Cheater, Cheating, Couples, Escort, Intenet Dating, Marriage, Noel Biderman, ReelzChannel, Under Cover, Video, vodpod
Lamar Odom Talks To Playboy Magazine About His Marriage To Khloe Kardashian!
Playboy magazine did a pretty candid interview with basketball star Lamar Odom on his marriage to Khloe Kardashian. Check out some excerpts from the interview below:
On whether it was true that he withheld sex until they were married: "I tried to. I didn't know why I wanted to wait. We came together and knew what we wanted from each other really early, and everything we did felt good, from a hug to a kiss. Then there was a time when I just tried to be a gentleman about the whole situation. I was accepted by her family. She stayed at my place and vice versa. I thought, We're going to step back for a second. Keep it classy."
On accusations their love is fake, and their marriage is a "PR stunt": "That's just how gossip works, you know? You can't stop it. Because at the time, with us being so successful—me in basketball and her show doing so well—it was too big. It was too huge. It caught people off guard. It looked as though we had too much to gain. That let me know, damn, it's a big deal. Even the wedding was big. The list of her family friends was crazy. Those were her people showing up, showing their love. For some people that was too much to even think about. And it was quick. I guess that just added to the speculation—'Why can't they wait?'I didn't want to wait."
On what would happen if a sex tape of Odom and Khloé leaked: "When people see us in person, they see Khloé's not small. I'm not small. People see us and are probably like, Damn, I wonder how that looks. We wouldn't have anything to be ashamed about, but no, that's not going down."
On adjusting to the dynamics of the Kardashian family: "People have the wrong idea. They're a really strong family and fun to be around…I'm perfect for that. I come from a big family. I've always been on a team. I understand. The circus is what makes it tick and keeps it going."
Filed under Entertainment, Interview, Relationships, Sports
Tagged as Interview., khloe kardashian, Khole Kardashian, LAKERS, Lamar Odom, Lamar Odom Talks To Playboy Magazine About His Marriage To Khloe Kardashian, Los Angeles, Magazine, Marriage, MARRIED, Playboy, Playboy Magazine, Talks
Tiny Confirms Upcoming Marriage To T.I.P
Yo Raps: Several years and a few kids later, Tameka "Tiny" Cottle and incarcerated rapper T.I. are set to tie the knot, says the former Xscape singer.
In an interview with XXL Mag, Tiny spoke candidly about the couple's upcoming nuptials, saying they could be jumping the broom within the next few months.
"Sometime [next] year, but we can't really give a date yet because we have to find out exactly when Tip is coming home," Tiny revealed. "We'll have to just plan around that, but I envision a fairy tale wedding. [As far as music together,] well, we did one song and we just never really got back in the studio, but I can't say that you won't hear anything in the future. I don't want to give it out yet, I want to hold it to make sure we go in that direction. We have several things that we're talking about doing together, so we'll see how that works out."
Rumors of wedding bells have clouded this hip hop couple since it was announced that T.I. would be spending a year and a day in jail in connection with gun charges.
Tiny also recently gave fans an update on her husband-to-be's condition behind bars.
"I talk to him about a little of everything, just things going on," she told Allhiphop. "He hears things and we talk about it. He wants me to stay out the way, me being out of harm's way. I know it's a lot of crazy things going on so I try to stay in as much as possible because I don't have him here. So I come out only when it's necessary. I stay out the way…He's doing good. He's passing the time by working out and just doing things they do inside, you know," she stated. He's playing handball and things like that. I go see him every Sunday, sometimes on Mondays. We talk everyday. He gets emails, working out and doing things like that so he's busy in there. He has a full schedule."
Filed under Entertainment Business Politics Sports Technology Travel
Tagged as Confirms, Marriage, T.I.P, Tiny, To, Upcoming
Are Bisexual Women Good Marriage Material?
OK… we all know that most men will have fun with bisexual women…but are somewhat hesitant about marrying them. Can you trust them if they are on the hunt for women while married to you? There are definite perks but what if she becomes the talk of the town at your kid's school or PTA meeting or your neighborhood supermarket?
Hell No! It's true that Men are curious about Bi-Sexual women because it is a chance to gain a new experience. But when it becomes time to settle down, a bisexual woman isn't the idea wife. I can't see taking her home to meet mama.
John:
Yea! Bisexual women can be marriage material. A confident man can marry a bisexual woman and be just as happy. Bisexual women are just as capable of being monogamous as heterosexual women. A lot of dudes are just insecure within themselves.
Timmy:
I was dating a bi-chic for a minute and she wanted to get married and have kids. Its 3 things that restrained me from busting off a load in her 1). I knew I wasn't going to marry herł). Child Support 3). Afraid that my off-springs would be bisexual as well. Overall it was just too much at stake.
Pedro:
A lot of men don't marry bisexual women because they feel she's unstable. Before a man gets married he wants to be sure. Men hate to be uncertain about a woman. That's one reason it takes us forever to commit. However once we are sure it won't be a problem. Marrying a bi-sexual leaves an error of uncertainty. But I'm sure if they have an honest relationship it can be just good as any other bond.
Sonny:
It's just too much competition. Not only would you have to worry about men… but women too
Kenyon:
You notice you don't see a lot of older Brothers running around talking about threesomes and bisexual females. That's because men grow out of the phase. When I was younger… I admit I fantasized about being with 2 females…and think most young boys do. However, after doing it once or twice reality kicks in and you realize it's a fantasy and that's all.
WHAT'S YA VIEW ON THIS TOPIC???
Tagged as ?, Are, Bisexual, Good, Marriage, Material, Women
November 4, 2009 · 11:34 am
Beanie Sigel & 50 Cent Appear On Power 99, Talks About Marriage w/ The Kendra G. & Beans Signs To G-Unit….
Why do we feel like 50 Cent is somewhere smiling over this sequence of events we're sure he didn't orchestrate in promotion of his new album? Check out the latest update in Roc-a-gate 2009 as Beanie Sigel and 50 Cent appear on Power 99 radio station to answer Jay-Z's answer. In this episode Beanie says nobody gave him two Bentley's he was paying nearly $5,100 a month to maintain them, being stopped from signing a $800,000 deal with 50 Cent and how Jay-Z should let up on Dame Dash since he has taken everything from him. Beanie ends that interview saying he's not going to stop interviews until Jay-Z responds.
Best part of the interview – 50 Cent says "yeah, uh huh" every time Beanie says anything. It's crazy how 50 manages to find somebody who needs just a little nudge to go nuts for every album cycle, and then……….
Tagged as &, ..., 50, 99, About, Appear, Beanie, Cent, G-Unit, Marriage, on, Power, Sigel, Signs, Talks, To