Spinning a yarn about a couple of drivers from McLaren. The most adorable race and session recaps you'll ever see. Like what I do here? Leave me a tip!
With the 2026 F1 season getting started this week, new regs, new cars, and new race suits for the boys in papaya, I figured Yarndo and Yarnscar could also use some new threads.
(Hehehe, get it? "Threads"? Because they're made of yarn...yeah ok...)
This post serves as the lopenerlaunch for the new race suits for the season, designed to look (approximately) like the ones worn by Yarndo and Yarnscar's real-life, human counterparts. It will also serve as the new pinned post/FAQ for this blog.
Yarndo and Yarnscar are amigurumi crochet representations of McLaren F1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. They were originally created for the 2025 WCC celebration art contest on the official McLaren Discord server.
You can read more about how they were made, see their 2025 race suits, and see the pictures taken as the entry to the art contest here.
After creating these cute little guys and seeing how much joy they brought to people on Discord, I knew I had to do more. So I started taking pictures to show the results from race weekends. I originally just posted them to my personal IG and shared them in Discord, but I had more thoughts than just the pictures. So I started this blog to dump out my thoughts about each session, and that turned into the session recaps and, eventually, the really thorough writeups I did for preseason testing back in February. You can see highlights from 2025, including Lando's birthday, how I developed the visual language of this blog, and the WDC here!
Some important tags on this blog:
Session report - Results from every session in a race weekend
Technical questions - Answers to asks about technical aspects of F1
The Adventures of Yarndo and Yarnscar - All posts with pictures of Yarndo and Yarnscar!
F1 Preseason 2026 - All the posts about the preseason, including the shakedown in Barcelona, testing in Bahrain, and answers to some questions pertaining to things happening in the preseason
Smol Papaya - Reblogged content of art from other creators depicting Oscar and Lando as similarly small and adorable as Yarndo and Yarnscar. I'd like to think of it as a movement
FAQ
Have questions about Yarndo and Yarnscar, me, or about the content on this blog in general? Send me an ask!
Before Lando and Oscar headed off to enjoy their summer vacation, McLaren had just a little more work for them to do ahead of the mandatory two-week F1 August shutdown. Coming off the Hungarian Grand Prix, the pair headed to Portimão in Portugal for an MCL60 test alongside McLaren reserve driver, Leo Fornaroli as part of the Testing of Previous Cars program.
Quick Stats and Facts from Portimão
The test was held across two days early this week with each driver taking turns in the team's 2023 car for fairly equal running. Here's the breakdown:
Lando: 49 laps (225 km)
Oscar: 55 laps (256 km)
Leo: 47 laps (217 km)
This was Oscar's and Leo's first times around this circuit. Lando has done laps here before, last having raced at the circuit in the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2021. His first test in F1 machinery was also at this circuit in 2017 when he drove the MP4-26, McLaren's 2009 entry.
F1 will be returning to Portimão for a grand prix in 2027, and there's a slight chance that the circuit may hold a race at the end of the season to replace the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which are expected to be canceled. However, it's looking more likely that F1 will return to Imola for its finale, as Portimão wants to focus on preparations for their return to the race calendar next season.
What is Testing of Previous Cars?
Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) is a program that was created to replace the unlimited testing that teams were once allowed to do prior to the cost cap era. Teams are now heavily restricted as to how much on-track test time they get with their current cars, limited mostly to sanctioned preseason testing, a handful of filming days, and Pirelli tire tests. This had the effect of also limiting the amount of on-track time that test, reserve, and development drivers got behind the wheel of modern F1 machinery outside of FP1 rookie sessions, of which only four are mandated per season. Thus, TPC creates opportunities for these drivers to get more laps in and for a team's primary drivers to shake off the cobwebs, familiarize themselves with new circuits, or work with up-and-coming trackside personnel, who also benefit from the experience these tests provide.
TPC also lets drivers in a shared reserve pool familiarize themselves with teams and equipment that they don't regularly work with. For example, though Valtteri Bottas was the reserve driver for Mercedes last season, he also did a TPC session with McLaren in the MCL60 due to an agreement among Mercedes, Williams, and McLaren to share their reserve drivers.
There are some rules to this program, including that the cars being driven must be at least two years old, the configuration of the cars must be one that was run in a grand prix (no testing new setups or parts!), only one car can be run (no matter how many drivers are participating in the test), the circuits that the tests are run on can't be hosting a grand prix in the next 60 days, and any current (non-reserve) driver cannot put up more than 1000 km of running in TPC across a season.
A bit more about testing this season
This is the fifth TPC this season with previous tests being held in Barcelona, Silverstone, Austin, and Monza. This is also the first TPC that Lando and Oscar have participated in this season.
Previous tests have seen Leo putting in quite a lot of time behind the wheel at all of these circuits and McLaren's test and simulator driver, Will Stevens, joining him in Monza last month.
The choice of Portimão for Lando and Oscar's first MCL60 test this season makes a lot of sense considering its return to the F1 calendar next year and gives the drivers a bit of a head start under real-world conditions on the circuit instead of just on the simulator. While the MCL60 is a rather different car to the current MCL40, they still have enough in common to provide useful experience, particularly to someone like Oscar or Leo who has never done laps around the circuit. For Lando, it provides a helpful refresher, as it's been five years since he's last driven there. The hands-on knowledge will also add value as they practice the circuit on the simulator for future grands prix being held there.
Read more about the testing this week and all three drivers' thoughts about the experience.
Kyle is Lando's number one/lead mechanic, and was a brilliant choice for team representative for a win that was built significantly on the hard work of all of the mechanics on Lando's side of the garage who have battled the gremlins and pieces falling off all season just as hard, if not harder than Lando himself.
Kyle has been with Lando's team since 2019, initially as the rear end mechanic, though it was previously mentioned that he was already with the team prior to that. Lando has a uniquely close working relationship with his garage team and will occasionally stay behind after races to help clean and take apart his car.
Congratulations to Lando's whole team for this win. While every victory is a group effort, this one feels especially so.
McLaren go 1-2 at the start - Oscar got a great start and surged ahead of Leclerc off the line. Through turns 2 and 3, Lando ran a bit wide, opening the door for Oscar to pass him for the lead. Behind, Leclerc dropped to P5, the only driver having started on used soft tires. Verstappen and Hamilton improved to P3 and P4, respectively. Antonelli improved to P6 as Russell had a slow getaway with the car going into anti-stall that dropped him clear back to P19, forcing him to pick his way back through the field on a circuit notoriously difficult for overtaking.
Great day for tire strategy enthusiasts - The knife's edge for a one-stop versus a two stop is often a question at this circuit. Watching the mini-sector times as Lando chased Oscar at the front and listening for hints of tire degradation over the radio in the first portion of the race was a bit of fun trying to guess which direction one or both drivers might go. Having started on the mediums, the option for either stood open. Drivers starting on the softs tipped their hands that they were already committed to a two-stop. Hamilton visited the pits on lap 14, followed by Leclerc, both bolting on hards. Meanwhile, discussions over the radio at McLaren indicated that the strategy was on the bubble, with Oscar choosing to pit on lap 17, also fitting hards, defending against the undercut, and most likely locking him in for a two-stop. Lando pit a lap later for the same tire, keeping both cars on even strategy. Lando's stop was slower than Oscar's, and he comes out of the pit just behind his teammate with the pair running P3 and P4 with neither Antonelli nor Hadjar in front having pitted. Both McLarens cleared Hadjar within the next lap and worked on building a gap for the presumptive 1-2, as Antonelli stayed out, appearing to be on a one-stop strategy. The call to Oscar on the radio suggested a push to make that call painful for him. Antonelli finally pit on lap 23, fitting hard tires, and coming out in P6. This timing places him on the bubble for being able to go to the end on this tire, and his battle through dirty air may force the two-stop.
Meanwhile, George Russell - Having had a rough start to the race, Russell had picked his way back to P7 by the time his teammate came out of the pit, holding on with his intial medium tires as his teammate swapped to hards. Much like Lando in 2025, he has little to lose from taking a split strategy to his teammate. By lap 27, the degradation was clearly visible in telemetry, and he was called into the pit, fitting hards in a rather slow stop and exiting into P9, which quickly improved to P8 as he passed Bortoleto on fading, 28-lap-old soft tires. Which, speaking of the softs locking into a two-stop, maybe not! The Audi driver pit the same lap onto hard tires, which could feasibly have taken him to the end of the race.
Hard tires inconsistent but still the choice - Both Ferrari drivers and Oscar were all reporting difficulties and inconsistencies with the hard tires, with wear being perhaps more than expected on the compound. Hamilton boxed on lap 31 and fitted another set of hards, needing the durability and perhaps willing to sacrifice some comfort for it. Lando hadn't been complaining much about the tires, but once Hamilton pitted, Lando started making the case to let him pit first, insisting he had better pace than Oscar and could pull a massive gap with new rubber. With Oscar in the lead, however, McLaren pitted him first, putting Lando in front but with the expectation he would still need to pit but giving him a chance to show pace in clean air, build a gap, and set him up for a tire offset at the end. However, he began to lap backmarkers, placing him intermittently in dirty air. Once he cleared them, his pace picked back up.
Sainz impedes Oscar, contact made - As Oscar was lapping Sainz, the Williams did not let him past under the expected blue flag procedure, an incident for which Sainz would receive a 5-second penalty. Oscar's front right made contact with Sainz's left rear. No damage appeared to be sustained to Oscar's car, but it held him up enough to build the exit gap for Lando to pit and come out ahead of his teammate. Following Lando's second pit stop, the pair ran P3 and P4, with Lando holding a six-lap tire delta over Oscar. Verstappen and Antonelli raced ahead in first and second on significantly older hard tires with an expected second stop ahead for both. Oscar continued to sound frustrated on the radio, getting a bit snippy on the radio with his race engineer when being provided with a strategy update. Lando continued to build a gap to Oscar as he chased down Antonelli, who was running at the front on fading hard tires. Lando got by the Mercedes on track and immediately put forward a nearly 3-second gap. Oscar's driving became visibly less smooth than usual, a typical halmark of Oscar's races when something shakes him up, though he slowly made gains on Antonelli once Lando got past, setting himself up to retake P2 if he could hold off Hamilton, who was gaining from behind.
Blue flag system broken - The in-car system that typically warns lapped cars to give way to the race leaders was found to be malfunctioning, and Lando was warned of this over the radio as he approached more backmarkers and was told to use caution while overtaking them. The flags were only being manually waved by trackside marshalls. This could explain Sainz's earlier unawareness of Oscar's approach, as most drivers primarily rely on the digital system.
Lando builds his promised gap - Earlier in the race, when he was asking to be pit first and put into clear air, Lando promised he could build a 10-second gap in clear air. When Antonelli finaly pit a second time on lap 54, he had built nearly a 9-second gap to the Mercedes. When Oscar inherited P2, Lando's gap was extended to 12 seconds. As he had been building that gap, however, he'd had several snaps on his steering that his engineer cautioned him about, finally putting his foot down once Antonelli had pitted, telling Lando he'd proven himself and to stop pushing as hard. His gap shrank under a VSC, but he rapidly pulled it back out in the final phase of the race, extending it beyond 10 seconds once again.
Oscar's gearbox gives out - From what looked like a sure podium, Oscar's gearbox failed suddenly, and he had to pull off the track, bringing out a VSC while the car was recovered. From such a spectacular race for Oscar to that point, this hurts especially bad. Lando boxed for soft tires along with several other cars, retaining the lead. Antonelli had been told that he was in position to finish P2 when he came out of the pits into P6 on his lap 54 stop with the rationale of having a large tire delta. With the cars in front of him on fresh softs, however, this would prove more difficult. Hamilton was among the cars pitting for softs and came out ahead of Antonelli, though he had to cede the position, as Antonelli had crossed the white line first as Hamilton was exiting. Lando, seemingly sensing bad luck looming, asked his team to monitor his tires for punctures, having gone over some debris as he picked his way through the backmarkers again. While he seems to have escaped this, he received a warning from his race engineer that he'd received a second strike for track limits followed shortly by a caution to avoid the exit curbs, hypothesizing that it's what could have caused the failure on Oscar's car.
Hamilton loses the podium on penalty - Despite avoiding a penalty by letting Antonelli by following his pit exit and battling the Mercedes on track for third, Hamilton received a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, functionally nullifying his chances at P3, even with an overtake, as there would not be enough time left to build enough of a gap to overcome the penalty.
Lando repeats for the first time - Up until now, all of Lando's wins have been at different circuits. Not only does today mark back-to-back wins at Hungary for Lando, it marks his first repeat win at the same track and his first win as world champion.
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I want to be ecstatic about Lando's well-deserved win, but I'm truly gutted by what could have been. McLaren looked poised for a long-awaited 1-2, which would have been a full repeat of last year. Hopefully the team can get to the bottom of what happened with Oscar's car, with the working theory at the moment being that going over the curbs may have gradually shook something out of place. If that's the case, the fragility exists in both cars, and Lando was shortly cautioned after Oscar's retirement to avoid curbs for the rest of the race, just in case.
Today has shown that McLaren's upgrades are working spectacularly, with more to come in Zandvoort following the break. I've been saying all season that, while the team has had a slow start, their ability to develop the car is virtually unparalleled, and my trust has been in that all along. To that end, the team tend to learn and adjust from failures nearly as well and don't tend to have repeats of the exact same problems. Thus, I trust that there is something still to take from Oscar's gearbox issue that will build further robustness into the MCL40 and its successors in this generation.
A few caveats, however: Hungaroring tends to suit Lando's driving style in particular and the MCL40 as a whole. Oscar traditionally goes well here, as well, with this being the site of his first win in 2024. Further, McLaren's closest competitors exercised some questionable strategy on a circuit that is particularly strategy sensitive. This all could have helped McLaren overperform a bit, and I'm keeping my expectations tempered for Zandvoort. A podium seems possible there on pace, but the winds across the circuit there may play havoc with the MCL40's sensitive aero.
Additionally, as of the last race in Belgium, McLaren finally have access to a power unit simulation tool that gives them an even better understanding of how deployment may work around different circuits. It would appear that the benefits of this were reaped immediately, as (despite the results), McLaren performed much better in Belgium, even without the upgrades. Zandvoort's further upgrades look particularly promising in this light.
On a final note, commentary about favoritism within McLaren based on their strategy or on Oscar's misfortune today is a near certainty to appear in some places. I urge everyone to fully engage your common sense and keep your strategist hats on when reading these things. These kinds of things pop up anytime Lando and Oscar are racing each other, as they drive clicks and engagement and don't care about reality. The McLaren drivers always fight each other hard on track, and the team applied a consistent, standard strategy that maximized track position, as they should have done.
Full Results
Formula 1 Race Live Blog | Formula 1 Race recap
McLaren Race recap
Questions? Comments? Corrections? Drop them in the comments so we can keep the conversation all in one place!
F1TV commentary repeated at least twice today that Oscar's car was not running the upgrades and Lando's was, and I feel the need to state that this is INCORRECT. Both cars were fitted with the upgrades ahead of FP3 after Oscar's car ran with the old spec floor on Friday for comparison testing purposes.
Here's the screenshot from the FP3 commentary in the McLaren app (which I forever recommend for any McLaren fan, particularly if you enjoy this blog) that confirms that both cars have received the upgrades.
*(Oscar will start P4 P3 following a 3-place grid drop penalty for Hamilton for impeding Oscar on his second push lap in Q3 and a 3-place grid drop penalty for Antonelli for not sufficiently slowing under a yellow flag.)
The big story of Q1 is that Fernando Alonso made it into Q2 for the first time this season following Aston Martin's significant upgrades. Lando went top in Q1, but take that with a grain of salt, as Ferrari, who have gone incredibly quickly all weekend, did their Q1 on medium tires.
Q2 saw Alonso land in P16 again, as expected, though he briefly sat in P10 as he largely used Q2 for additional practice. Lando went top once again, briefly holding the best time in all three sectors. Both McLarens cleanly made it through to Q3.
Q3 was chaotic as always with Lando ultimately taking pole, Antonelli and Hamilton under investigation for possible penalties, and the issues with Russell's car appearing to persist. Owing to possible penalties, the starting grid may look a little different from the qualifying results. Updates will be shared should this happen.
Behind the cut: More detailed highlights and results from each session
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Q1
Ferrari start out early on mediums - Ferrari were the first of the top four teams out on track, and their selection of medium tires for their Q1 run shows confidence in their pace and suggests they may be considering the soft tire as a race tire and want to conserve a fresh set, if possible. They also may be worried about lockups and flat spots and want to have an extra soft in reserve for later in the session, given that the circuit has been a bit tricky in that regard.
First round to Lando - Following the first set of times, Lando went top, and Oscar settled in at P6, just barely holding on through the final turn. Winds were a bit stronger than FP3, with a headwind into turn 1. This could spell difficulty for McLaren in later sessions, as the car is probably among the most sensitive to winds when it comes to impact on performance and handling.
McLarens, Hamilton, and Hadjar stay in for round two - Both Mercedes, Verstappen, and Leclerc headed out for a second lap looking to improve their times, though all of them were good enough to make it to Q2 on their first lap times. The midfield and backmarkers of course all went for a second go with Hulkenberg improving into the top 10 and Alonso making it to Q2, landing in P16.
Q2
Glorified practice for Alonso - With no expectation of being able to make it to Q3, Alonso used three sets of tires to make it to Q2 and then went out on used softs right away to get in some extra laps and gather additional data on the upgraded Aston Martin. For the second round of flying laps, however, Alonso led off with a time that was good enough to settle into P10 briefly.
Hadjar goes for a spin - The junior Red Bull driver becomes the first to go entirely off track in quali, but he manages to keep it out of the barriers and bring the car back onto the track. The yellow flag caused Bortoleto to have to abort his first flying attempt.
McLarens do first attempt on used softs - Lando and Oscar headed out on the same soft tires they used in Q1 and got straight to it with their outlaps being their only warm-up lap before putting in bankers. Lando narrowly avoided having his first flying lap interrupted by the yellow flag from Hadjar's spin. After the first round, they landed P4 and P8.
Lando all purple - On his second attempt, Lando finally found a purple sector 3 going best in all three sectors for the first time after mastering the first two sectors for a good portion of the weekend. Leclerc's lap pulled the sector 3 best time away, but it was nice to see, if just for a little while. Oscar also put in a great lap, briefly holding the best time in sector 1 before his teammate pulled it away. Lando went top again in Q2, and Oscar landed in (his beloved? beloathed?) P5.
Track limits plague Antonelli - With his first time in Q2 being deleted for track limits, the pressure was on for Antonelli to set a time on his second flying lap, putting in a time good enough for P8 in the session and achieving the goal of advancing to Q3. Track limits have been a struggle for the junior Mercedes driver all season, with his team and his father both scolding him to clean up his driving.
Q3
Hulkenberg the one Q3 surprise - The Audi driver took the final Q3 slot and was the first out in Q3 on a used soft tire, having run out of fresh tires, as Audi likely were not expecting to make it to Q3. Hadjar headed out right after, also on used softs, though he had a fresh soft set remaining.
Lando pipped by Hamilton on first attempt - Lando went top briefly on an imperfect lap where he needed to correct multiple times on the final sector. Hamilton came across the line shortly after with a run just a tenth quicker, which is probably about what Lando lost from his mistakes. Leclerc finished the first round a tenth back from Lando, rounding out the top three halfway through Q3.
Verstappen spins, Russell stops, Lando pole - The final flying laps were chaos with Verstappen going for a spin, causing Antonelli to have to lift on his flying lap, which had been looking promising. He didn't bail the lap, but landed in P4. He ended the session under investigation for a yellow flag infringement, but it seemed pretty clear that he improved. Russell also lifted, though his lap wasn't looking like as much of an improvement on his first try. Lando got lucky and missed all of the yellow flags and managed to improve just enough to take P1 from Hamilton. This is Lando's first pole as world champion. Oscar was less lucky and caught the yellow flags from Verstappen's spin in addition to getting impeded by Hamilton, for which the Ferrari driver is under investigation and commentators expect may earn him a penalty. On his in-lap, Russell was told to stop his car on track in the first sector. The Mercedes driver looked angry as he exited the car, suggesting that he may have had problems on his final flying lap and that the issues with his car persist despite Mercedes' claims that they'd found a fix.
Official Recaps
Formula 1 Quali Liveblog | Formula 1 Quali Recap
McLaren Saturday recap
As always, the links above provide a different and/or broader view of the session than my above reporting, which pulls out things I specifically notice and it not at all meant to be comprehensive.
Have questions, comments, or other thoughts? Drop them in the comments! (Please do not send asks about things directly related to sessions, as it's easier and more helpful to keep all of the conversation in one place.)
The Franco Colapinto Show - FP3 started slowly with only Colapinto heading out in the first minutes, likely looking to make up for his limited running on Friday. With little else to look at, he also got the coverage to himself as the broadcast followed him around the track. This showed that windy conditions has blown more dust onto the track, something that has contributed to the particularly low grip so far this weekend. The next cars to trickle out also had drivers behind the wheel who missed out on some practice yesterday, Stroll having suffered a suspension failure and missed FP2 and Bottas sitting out FP1 for a rookie session. Hulkenberg was the first car out that got a full day's running on Friday, and those four cars pretty much had the track to themselves for almost the first 15 minutes of the session. This is pretty normal for FP3, as most teams tend to wait for those first few cars to lay down some rubber and for conditions to creep closer to what they may be in qualifying.
Oscar gets the upgrade - After running on Friday with the previously-raced floor on his car for comparison purposes to the upgraded floor McLaren brought to Hungary, he's running in FP3 with the new floor fitted. His first flying lap on the softs was reasonably quick, an improvement on his best time yesterday, but as one of the first flying laps from a top team, it only stayed top briefly. A few minutes later, Lando came out on softs and bettered his teammate's time (and his own P3 time from Friday) by over eight tenths. Shortly after Lando completed his lap, the session was red flagged so Perez's Cadillac could be recovered following issues with his rear brakes that left the car disabled and the brakes potentially on fire.
Mixing it up at the top - It took until over halfway through the session for at least one car from each team to set a representative time. The McLaren upgrades appear to be effective, as Lando and Oscar hovered around the top of the timing with Ferrari and Red Bull closely challenging. Hadjar frequently slotted in between the two McLarens with a few hundredths on either side, and Hamilton bested Lando's initial time by a mere nine thousandths. Mercedes appeared to remain adrift as Antonelli continued to struggle with grip and had his initial attempts deleted for track limits before putting together a lap that was good enough for P2 with two-thirds of the session gone. Russell put in a respectable initial time that looked competitive but ultimately still sat that annoyingly consistent half a second back from the first time his teammate could make stick.
Lindblad misses out - Racing Bulls broke curfew last night to remedy a PU issue on Lawson's car only for the same issue to appear on Lindblad's car ahead of the session today. His car remained on stands as the team worked on his car, and the rookie missed out on important laps ahead of qualifying. He ultimately made it out for just six laps at the end of the session
Welcome back, Alonso - Speaking of upgrades that are working, Alonso put in a time good enough for P11 at one point in the session as the teams began their qualifying sims around the Hungaroring. There's been much talk about Aston Martin's extensive upgrades this weekend, and it would appear that the two-time world champion and is making the most of them. His time was ultimately good enough for P17, 0.08 off of Bearman's P16 time. Could we see Alonso in Q2 for the first time this season?
Lando battles Ferrari, Antonelli for the top time - Tenths were quickly shed from the top times as Antonelli, Hamilton, and Lando took turns setting the quickest times with Leclerc hovering not too far behind. Oscar ended up running wide at the chicane, having locked up on a slippery bit of track and not setting a time on his second attempt during quali sims. As circuit conditions demanded a double-cool for tires, there wasn't time for another full attempt, with the team opting for a partial lap for data and setup purposes before pitting to load up on fuel for launch practice. Russell brought up the rear of the top three teams, a tenth off Oscar. The Red Bulls lurked close behind, and with their performance through the session could still conceivably also challenge for a spot in the first two rows.
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McLaren fans ought to feel encouraged by Lando's performance in this session and keep their fingers crossed that winds stay relatively calm heading into qualifying. Based on the forecast, it ought to stay about the same, possibly picking up just a tick. It seems that the McLaren's aero is particularly wind sensitive, and performance in qualifying may hinge on that.
With overtaking opportunities at Hungaroring being rather limited, qualifying position is nearly as important here as it is in Monaco. Hopefully Oscar can break up with P5, and we'll see both McLarens in the first two rows. (A front row lockout would be lovely, but with how strong the other teams look, I'm not holding out hope for that just yet.)
Full Results
Formula 1 FP3 Liveblog | Formula 1 FP3 Recap
McLaren Saturday recap
As always, the links above provide a different and/or broader view of the session than my above reporting, which pulls out things I specifically notice and it not at all meant to be comprehensive.
Have questions, comments, or other thoughts? Drop them in the comments! (Please do not send asks about things directly related to sessions, as it's easier and more helpful to keep all of the conversation in one place.)
Disclaimer: I use the McLaren app for their live commentary, the F1 app for their live timing and track map, and I watch the session on F1TV. I do not have access to in depth telemetry or more detailed information, so this is me compiling the information I have and doing some guesswork.
Important information from FP1: Oscar did not drive, his car being driven by Leo instead. In FP1 his car tested their new rear wing, which will not be run this weekend. McLaren reported that the wing functioned as suspected, which is positive. Lando's car was fitted with an upgraded floor, which will be run this weekend.
Important information about the track:
- This is a track that usually has very high track evolution. During FP2, this evolution was very slow due to winds.
- Turn 1 and turn 12 have been resurfaced. This seems to have created a small bump in turn 1 that has caught some drivers off guard, worsening problems with lock ups during breaking.
- Wind makes a big difference on this track, something we witnessed especially during Q3 in 2025.
- This track is known as "Monaco without walls", this is because the track is very narrow, which makes overtaking difficult. Qualifying is therefore more important.
- This track has a long run down to T1, almost half a kilometre, so a lot can happen on an opening lap of a race.
What happened during Free Practice 2:
Oscar's car goes back to the old rear wing. He runs with flo-vis on it during the beginning of the session. My guess is that they want to see the difference between the aero of the wings on this track, to have better data comparisons.
Lando continues on with the new floor, while Oscar drives with the
old floor. This is to give McLaren comparison data. Because of this, we should expect Lando to have an advantage during this session.
It becomes clear that T1 continues to be an issue, with people locking their tyres. We had more dramatic lock-ups in FP1, but the issue still persists. McLaren seems to handle this well, I did not notice any major lock-ups in this corner during the session.
T11 seems to be an issue for multiple drivers, with people going wide and therefore going off track. We also see many drivers taking too much curb in the chicane, leading to track limits.
T14, the final corner, also had many drivers going wide and struggling for grip. We get to see multiple onboards where drivers struggle with their cars, losing time.
In general, drivers struggle a lot with grip and car balance. This is not a McLaren specific issue. This seems to have a lot to do with the winds.
Both Lando and Oscar had troubles with getting a clean lap due to the lack of grip. Lando had his first clean run on his soft tyres, while Oscar stayed out longer on the mediums to get a clean lap.
We got a red flag this session due to Franco going off and hitting a barrier. Both Lando and Oscar were on push-laps when this happened. Lando had improved on his first run on the softs, putting in two purple sectors before having to abort due to the flag, and Oscar was on his first run on the softs, ~0,1 seconds slower than Lando in the first sector, before having to abort his lap.
It takes Oscar a few laps on the softs (including the aborted lap) to get a clean run. Therefore the tyres are more used, which could have affected his lap time.
They both did high-fuel runs, Lando doing more laps than Oscar due to Oscar going longer on their first medium-tyre stint, leaving him less time for the high-fuel. Lando lapped mostly between 1.24.0-1.24.8 at first, and later laps being in the low 1.25's. Oscar lapped between 1.25.0-1.26.0.
During the final 5 minutes, Lando changed back to the used soft tyres. He followed behind Kimi for a little (got a nice little gravel shower for it, too), gathering data on cooling when close behind another car, but backed off before the end of the session to try a final push lap (which of course was slower due to the used tyres)
Oscar said during practice that the car is very, very difficult to drive.
MJ's personal thoughts:
I had a few thoughts during this session, and as I mentioned before, this is me doing guesswork.
It seems that McLaren has used these first two practice sessions to gather as much data as possible, while also allowing the drivers to get used to the track. They seem to have been less concerned about running the proper upgrades on both cars.
From what little I can tell from the live timings and the track map, it seems like McLaren, compared to the other teams, is faster in the corners and slower on the straights.
I think Lando and Oscar might have different strategies in how they handle T1. Oscar seems to go faster on the straight before the turn, while Lando is faster going out of T1. I don't have detailed enough telemetry to make sure this is correct, but it's a guess I'm making due to how their sectors looked on the track map. This could also be them practicing the turn for different purposes. During a long run, going faster out of the turn might be preferable, but for the first lap, arriving at the turn first could be the better approach.
The struggle with lock-ups seems to be both track-specific and car specific. In FP1, we saw some dramatic lock-ups, that commentators speculated were due to car troubles. It seems to be a common issue on this track, but some cars seem to be affected more than others.
From previous years, we know Oscar prefers a high-grip track, while Lando is often faster on low grip tracks. Therefore I'm not surprised Oscar is struggling a little bit extra today, especially since he missed one practice session. These are not his preferred conditions to be driving in. That being said, I don't think any push-lap time from the McLaren drivers are representative today. Lando's had to abort what would have been his fastest lap due to a red flag, and Oscar is not driving with the upgraded floor, so I'm expecting better times for both during FP3.
Only one Aston Martin this session - Following Stroll's suspension failure in FP1, the team were not able to get his car ready in time for FP2 leaving Alonso to be the only car gathering data on the extensive upgrade package. This undoubtedly leaves Aston Marton on the back foot this weekend.
Whole house off balance - Turns 11-14 remain slippery as they were in FP2, owing to dust on the rarely-used circuit. Combine this with increased wind and decreased temperatures, conditions are quite different to FP1, so setups that had worked earlier today seemed to be causing problems for just about everyone. Several times were dropped for track limits as drivers were sliding all over the place, locking up, and running wide. When asked if he wanted to try another push lap after running wide, Oscar described the lack of grip as "insane." Oscar was running without the benefit of experiencing the slippery conditions in FP1 while Leo Fornaroli drove his car. Antonelli, who also missed out FP1 while Mercedes reserve driver Fred Vesti took a turn in his car, expressed surprise at the lack of grip, seemingly baffled why he kept locking up and fighting the rear, nearly spinning out twice.
Lando puts some laps together - Lando was the first driver to set a time on soft tires this session, going purple in the first two sectors but was two tenths off Hamilton's third sector time that had been set on mediums. Lando had run wide on his flying laps in FP1, so it would make sense that he'd be cautious through sector 3. He improved his first two sector times on his second flying lap but had to abort in sector three owing to a red flag.
Colapino hits the wall - This brought out the second red flag of the day. With the low grip levels and cars sliding and spinning, it's a surprise that this is the first contact with the wall at the final corner, which has been particularly tricky all day due to dusty conditions, and it's been made tricker this session due to a strong tailwind. The lockup he experienced that ultimately led to the crash was able to scrub off some speed, making the impact less severe than it could have been, and the car appeared to sustain rear wing damage. Colapinto had sat out FP1 as Alpine's reserve driver took a turn at the wheel, so this crash robs him of further running time to get used to this particularly difficult track.
Ferrari look strong - As the Ferraris were able to put in times on the soft tires once Colapinto's car was recovered, they went top ahead of Lando's soft tire lap time. Lando held on to the top time in sector two, while Hamilton mastered sector 3, and Leclerc initally held the best time in sector 1 before he was bested by his teammate there on a subsequent lap. The Scuderia were expected to run well here, and they appear to be meeting expectations. Leclerc took pole at this circuit last year, though Lando's victory showed how much strategy can make a difference at the Hungaroring.
Mercedes appear adrift - Between Antonelli's struggles with grip and balance, which seemed more severe than what most othe drivers were experiencing, and Russell having a tricky session where he couldn't find grip and pace at the same time, Mercedes were not putting in anything like the performance we've come to expect from them. They weren't expected to dominate here, and they do tend to go more slowly on Fridays as a matter of course, but this seems underwhelming even taking that into account.
Oscar playing catchup - With track conditions proving tricker than perhaps expected, sitting out FP1 seems to have placed the five drivers who ceded their cars to reserve drivers at a disadvantage. Oscar sat well adrift of Lando for most of the session. A similar divide was seen among the other teams that had drivers sit out, with Antonelli sitting outside the top 10 this session and Colapinto finding the wall. Bearman sat a bit behind Ocon, which has become a rare sight this season. Bottas was the only one of the five to sit ahead of his teammate.
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Watching this on my phone without my usual onboard audio and having to forego monitoring the McLaren app in real time had me feel like I was half blind this session. I was also battling with my phone signal dropping out because of course I'm in the middle of nowhere. I also wound up taking a blank photo in advance and editing in the results on my phone, which isn't ideal, but we do our best while trying to be safe, and it was safest for Yarndo and Yarnscar to remain cozy in their traveling case.
Full Results
As for me, I hope to never repeat this experience, as I'm a bit queasy now. FP3 and Quali will be brought to you from yet another hotel room, but at least I'll be stationary.
***Quick note now that the McLaren Friday Report is available*** It appears Leo and Oscar both ran with the old floor installed on the car while Lando ran with the upgraded floor so that the team could gather comparative data and confirm the new floor is working as it ought to. This would account for at least some of the performance difference between Lando and Oscar this session and would seem to confirm that the new floor is working as intended. FP3 should see both cars running the full raft of upgrades as the team prepares for qualifying.
Formula 1 FP2 Liveblog | Formula 1 FP2 Recap
McLaren Friday recap
As always, the links above provide a different and/or broader view of the session than my above reporting, which pulls out things I specifically notice and it not at all meant to be comprehensive.
Have questions, comments, or other thoughts? Drop them in the comments! (Please do not send asks about things directly related to sessions, as it's easier and more helpful to keep all of the conversation in one place.)
Top speed (at speed trap): 327 kph (fastest overall)
Leo (driving Oscar's car)
P16 - 1:21.890 (+2.815)
29 laps
Top speed (at speed trap): 322 kph
Testing in progress - Commentators remarked that this session was reminiscent of pre-season testing, between Aston Martin debuting their long-awaited upgrades that nearly amount to an entirely new car, McLaren rolling out an upgrade package as well as having reserve driver Leo Fornaroli do some testing with the rotating rear wing the team are developing, and Ferrari coating their rear wing in flo vis to test the performance of a center winglet that looks very much like the cascading winglet McLaren used in Monaco. Mercedes and Red Bull also brought a few small performance upgrades meant to assist with downforce and overall package stability.
McLaren's experimental wing performs "as expected" - After delaying testing the their take on the rotating wing concept in Austria, McLaren were finally able to fit the wing to Oscar's car, driven by Leo Fornaroli this session, to test. The Italian reserve driver set respectable times in his first trip out in the session, staying within a few tenths of Lando's time. Leo is an F2 champion and a particularly talented driver whom I would compare somewhat to Oscar in his early career. Leo participates pretty substantially in testing and development activities for McLaren, demonstrating the trust and confidence they have in his skills. The team reported after Leo's first run that the wing was performing how they expected. During his second run, Leo himself radioed that the wing was performing well.
Tricky turn 14 - Several drivers struggled through the final turn of the circuit, sliding around and fighting for control coming out of the turn onto the straight. Hungaroring is infrequently used, so the track is a bit on the dusty side, and things aren't particularly rubbered in yet. This is a spot to keep an eye on throughout the weekend to see how much of the struggle is related to track evolution and how much is related to the cars themselves. Nailing the exit on turn 14 is key to getting maximum speed on the long straight into turn 1, so a mistake here can ruin two laps, not just one.
Red Flag - The rear suspension in Stroll's Aston Martin appeared to fail around turn 2, sending him into a spin and bringing out a red flag while the car was recovered. The newly upgraded Aston Martin reportedly does not have many spare parts, a challenge that some may recall the team also experienced at the beginning of the season, bringing into question what kind of difficulties the team may have repairing the damage. The stoppage interrupted the beginning of running on soft tires for a number of teams and lasted about six minutes. Just as teams got out and began to attempt flying laps again, Sainz had a major lockup into turn 1, bringing out a yellow flag that interrupted several of those attempts once again.
Lando runs a quiet session - We didn't hear much from Lando this session, as he ran a pretty typical FP1 program with no major happenings on his end. Uneventful is what we want from Lando's car, though. He bailed on a few flying laps after running wide, experiencing the same dusty track as everyone else, and a couple of his other attempts were aborted by flags, resulting in him not really getting a chance to set a representative time before needing to switch to the high-fuel and continuous portion of his program. So his P11 standing for the session is likely nothing to worry about and a more typical return to form and demonstration of the car's upgrades ought to be on display in FP2.
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I will literally be on the road for FP2 (not driving, just crammed into the back seat amongst the luggage), so I'll be watching the race and doing any recapping from my phone. I kinda want to try to photograph Yarndo and Yarnscar in the car, but there literally might not even be room. So the next recap is going to be as much of a surprise for me as it will be for you. It will almost certainly be shorter, and I'm taking a contingency photo that I will edit results onto (instead of the usual handwritten results) if my other idea isn't practical.
As one more quick note, I came across this series of images of McLaren's new rear wing in action, and figured I'd share it here, as it was a bit hard to spot on the broadcast and on Leo's onboard. Interestingly, it retains the central actuator in contrast to Ferrari's dual side actuator design. This is technically a simpler solution with one fewer element that can break or malfunction, but as Ferrari's addition of the central winglet this weekend shows, there may be some other performance advantages to their design choice.
Full Results
Formula 1 FP1 Liveblog | Formula 1 FP1 Recap
As always, the links above provide a different and/or broader view of the session than my above reporting, which pulls out things I specifically notice and it not at all meant to be comprehensive.
McLaren Friday recap
Have questions, comments, or other thoughts? Drop them in the comments! (Please do not send asks about things directly related to sessions, as it's easier and more helpful to keep all of the conversation in one place.)
No other race weekend do I regret more having to be on the road for than this one this season. While overtaking is limited at the 4.381 km Hungaroring, also sometimes referred to as "Monaco Without Walls," there's a lot going on heading up to this last race before the summer break and we all go insane for a month.
A short, relatively low-speed, high-downforce circuit, the Hungaroring hosted its first grand prix in 1986, which was the first F1 grand prix held behind the so-called "Iron Curtain." Saturday marks the perhaps the second-most important qualifying session of the season after Monaco, as while overtaking is more possible here than it is in Monte Carlo, it's still a pretty tall order. The four straight mode zones and turn 1 are pretty much the only major opportunities. That might sound like a lot, but overtaking on straights is already iffy with this generation of cars, and despite its short length, the Hungaroring manages to pack in an entire 14 turns, a number of which can torpedo not just a driver's current lap if they put a wheel wrong, but their subsequent lap as well.
The race is 306.63 km over 70 laps. Despite being a permanent circuit, track evolution is high and almost comparable to a street circuit, as it is used infrequently compared to most other permanent circuits on the calendar. This means that lap times will dramatically fall throughout the practice sessions, no one will be in a hurry to go out in FP3, and Q3 will almost certainly wind up being a one-lap shootout unless something amazing about the tires gets revealed in practice.
Hit the jump for weather, tires, and some headlines.
Weather
Once again, there is enough chance of rain this weekend that we might finally see our first wet race of the season. The weekend also looks like a return to warmer summer conditions after the almost chilly reprieve in Spa.
Friday will be pleasant and dry with lows in the mid-teens and highs in the mid-20s Celsius. There is some chance of rain in the evening after the sessions have concluded that could wash away some rubber from the track. Winds will be from the NNW at 15-20 kph, gusting to 30-35 kph.
Things will warm up Saturday, with lows still in the mid teens but highs climbing to the high 20s to low 30s. There will be little cloud cover, which lends itself to warmer track temperatures. There is no chance of rain at all on Saturday, and winds will be from the SW at 5-10 kph, gusting to 20 kph.
Models vary for rain chances on race day, with some showing a chance of rain during the race, but most current models show it moving in well after the race has concluded. However, the overall weather pattern that will be bringing the rain will made the day rather humid. Temperatures will have lows is the low to mid teens and highs in the upper 20s to lower 30s. Cloud cover will be about the same as on Saturday, also lending to track temperatures that could reach 50 degrees or more. Winds will be from the SSW at 17-20 kph, gusting to 36 kph.
Tires
Perhaps to no one's surprise, "Monaco Without Walls" will have the same tire compounds as Monaco itself. The three softest compounds will be uses, as the circuit demands as much grip as possible.
Headlines
Rookies in FP1 - Five rookies will be on track Friday during FP1, replacing a regular driver for the session in one of the four mandatory rookie sessions teams are required to run each season. McLaren, Cadillac, Haas, Mercedes, and Alpine will all have rookies in the car this weekend.
Long-awaited upgrades - The biggest upgrade news comes from Aston Martin who are essentially bringing an entirely new car to Hungary. While other teams have gradually introduced upgrades, Aston has opted to roll out one large update to what, after some additional changes in Zandvoort after the break, will fully amount to a B-spec car. The team have lagged behind as they've introduced virtually no upgrades while every other team have already taken several steps forward in their development. McLaren will also be bringing long-awaited upgrades with the high-downforce portion of their second major upgrade package being introduced this weekend. The second portion of upgrades will also be introduced in Zandvoort.
Heeeey Macarena - Red Bull have reportedly remedied the closure delay issue on their rear wing that caused Verstappen to crash and will be testing the update with an eye toward keeping it on the car for the race. McLaren report being ready to test their version of the rotating wing after its debut in Barcelona was delayed, though they are not planning to fit the wing to the cars for Sunday. Ferrari appear to be experimenting with a central winglet tower similar to what McLaren used in Monaco, which they can get away with here because their rear wing actuators are on the sides instead of the middle. (Recall that active aero was not used in Monaco, and several teams, including McLaren, replaced the actuator with a fixed component designed to eke out just a little more downforce.)
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Not sure if this is under your purview since this is a mcl page, but I've gotta ask, what the heck is going on in Mercedes? Is George just incredibly lucky or is Mercedes extremely evil?
Yes, this blog is MCL focused, but as a George fan and a Kimi fan (but not really a Mercedes fan), as well, believe me...I wish I knew what was going on at Mercedes.
At first, I was willing to entirely chock it up to a combination of bad luck and to Kimi adapting to the car more quickly than George. These things are common in F1, and George was still performing well enough despite that early in the season. I try not to look for or immediately suspect team interference or any other kind of nefarious dealings in cases like these, particularly because a teammate championship battle, as McLaren fans would easily recall, makes that a really easy and nasty spiral to get into.
But even I'm starting to look at Mercedes a bit sideways over this.
First of all, you really can't even start to compare this to the rivalry at McLaren last year simply on the basis that Mercedes manages its drivers in a much more conventional first and second driver model. Last season, George was rather clearly the first driver. This season? It's anyone's guess because it really doesn't seem like it most of the time. And while that's the team's call to make, and it doesn't necessarily point to anything that rises to the level of sabotage, if Kimi is, in fact, been internally designated as first driver, that would basically explain and confirm what looks like the deprioritization of George.
Mercedes really seem to be fumbling with figuring out why George's car isn't behaving like his teammate's and, increasingly, isn't even behaving like the other Mercedes-powered cars. They're additionally fumbling with the messaging around what they're doing to address the problem, meandering from ignoring it to denying it to blaming it on George's driving, to finally admitting that there's an issue, but bizarrely insisting that all of the Mercedes-powered cars have the same issue. This would again imply that George has some kind of skill or adaptation deficit to not just Kimi, but to both McLaren drivers and both Alpine drivers.
If those cars are experiencing the same charge and deployment problems, for none of the other five cars with a Mercedes PU behind the seat to be having the same catastrophic failures to charge and failures to deploy as one of the most consistent drivers on the grid and the only driver to complete every racing lap last season feels deeply unusual.
However, I still prefer to apply Hanlon's razor to situations like this unless I have solid evidence to the contrary--never attribute malice to anything that can adequately be explained by incompetence or stupidity. George has been telling the team all season something isn't right with the car, and he's been largely dismissed because "the other car is fine." This is a failure on the part of either George's side of the garage, the team as a whole, or a combination of both to consider the data from their best sensor on the car: the driver. Red Bull, shockingly, disregarded Max in a similar way in the past few races because Isack wasn't having the same problems with his car as Max was reporting with his, and it led to Max crashing twice because his rear wing wasn't behaving properly. For the time being, what is happening at Mercedes appears to be that, just at a much larger scale.
He doesn't often get the same credit for it as Max, but George is also highly attuned to the cars he drives, is highly technical, and highly strategic, all whilst going 300+ kph. Their teams disregard their feedback at their own peril. Mercedes' foot-dragging on addressing or even acknowledging the problems with George's car could easily cede their sizeable lead in the Constructors' to Ferrari and, should the issues in George's car prove a bellwether for problems lurking in Kimi's car, could cost Kimi his WDC lead, as well.
With Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull all rapidly closing the development gap, if Mercedes doesn't shift course and figure out the problem within the next couple of races, we could easily see a much more crowded battle for both championships at the back half of the season.
All of this is just a lot of words to say that I have no idea what's happening at Mercedes, and it doesn't seem to amount to evil yet, but it does certainly feel incompetent, and they're acting awful shady about it which doesn't exactly help.
If it does turn out to be something evil, though, I'll start distributing pitchforks.
Same anon from the ai question! So with the 60/40 split, what exactly does that mean? Like 40% of the engines output is from the battery? Idk lol I know nothing about cars.
Also, you answered an ask awhile ago about the wheel to wheel racing, and how drs was kinda detrimental to that, so will going to the 60/40 split kinda be similar or better in terms of wheel to wheel?
Thanks so much, you are literally my favorite person on this app! ❤️
Yes, 60/40 split would be 60% internal combustion and 40% battery. The article I linked in my last answer explains all the particulars. At the moment, the split is meant to be 50/50, but in reality it's not exactly that. The split in the previous regulation set, by comparison, was about 80/20. Basically, the jump in reliance on battery was too large for the relatively short development timeline F1 works on, and they're working to correct back to a more moderate and gradual split that would have probably made this season a lot less painful had they just thought for a moment and done that in the first place. But what do I know? I just turn race recaps into art projects.
I don't ever recall saying DRS was detrimental to wheel-to-wheel racing, but if I did, I'm willing to say I was at least partly mistaken. DRS trains, where a lot of the midfield got bunched up within a second of each other, and all of them had the same speed advantage in the straights could make the midfield a bit boring sometimes, but overall, much like the current overtake mode (when it works as designed) can make things a bit exciting as you watch the intervals decrease in the timing and count down to when the trailing driver really gets into the hunt for the position ahead.
Things that have affected wheel-to-wheel racing in recent years, however, include the size of the cars and the increase of street circuits on the calendar, which, while many of them have many long straights, they're not always ideal for extended battles and exciting overtakes, as many are narrow, and the corners are not shaped for overtaking.
As my resident f1 professor, are the regulations going to change next year? From what I’ve gathered, (which may be totally wrong), the fans hate them, the teams hate them, and the drivers hate them. I know that they’d probably not go back to the old era stuff, but would there be changes made?
Also I heard AI is being involved with the driving, is that true??????
This regulations set, I believe, is meant to be in effect through the end of the 2029 season. However, the FIA may make slight changes year to year or even within a season to adjust for various unexpected/unintended consequences, close loopholes, improve safety, etc.
Already, across 2027 and 2028, the power allocation between battery and internal combustion will transition toward a 60/40 split in favor of the internal combustion engine by 2028. (For the more technical details, this article explains it pretty well.) This is meant to improve some of the power issues that drivers have complained about that particularly make qualifying unfun for everyone.
When the regulations set changes, likely in 2030, current credible rumors suggest a return to V8 engines with less of a focus on hybrid technology now that the sport has successfully transitioned to using entirely sustainable fuels.
As for teams using AI, the answer is yes, most teams use AI, but it's probably not the kind of AI that you're thinking.
Thanks to marketing and a media zeitgeist, most people associate AI with generative content theft machines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc. This is almost certainly NOT the kind of AI the teams are using. (Outside of many of these being sponsors of various teams and those teams using them in pre-agreed/contracted marketing ways.) They're likely using other types of AI/neural networks that are designed to quickly analyze huge sets of data and are more comparable to the kinds of AI used in research contexts. These types of AI are (generally) not fraught with the same kinds of ethical and environmental concerns as generative AI.
From a certain point of view, the learning algorithms that manage the battery deployment in the cars is a type of specialized artificial intelligence, and that could be an example of AI being used in driving. This is actually a pretty good example of a compact, locally-run machine learning model that sits kind of on the border of "very complicated algorithm" and "artificial intelligence." Whether you define it as AI or not, however, is a bit beside the point, as the end result in either case is unpredictable behavior that ought not occur in systems that are functionally life-critical.
Similar software has run on cars for multiple recent generations and in itself is not the problem, but the current regulations create an operating environment that takes more autonomy away from drivers and how they operate their cars than anything that has come previously, and in part, that's due to the elimination of the MGU-H which helped to moderate the massive power drop-offs when the battery needed to charge.
To that end, to bring my answer full circle, the slated power split shift towards 60/40 ought to help address this issue by design because there will be less reliance on the battery to provide enough power, meaning that the overall system should be more error tolerant.
(Please forgive any excessive typos and some extra over-simplification of things, I'm on my phone, and I've been day drinking next to a lake all afternoon! This is an interesting question, though, and this is my idea of fun.)
