I watch races on F1TV because fuck Sky, but I also now lowkey want to rewatch on the ESPN Sky feed and listen to them have to praise Max and/or make themselves sound stupid by continuing to claim Lando is a contender. My hockey team doesn’t play today, I have plenty of time to be petty. 😘
I actually did it, with many thoughts...
Pre-show:
Extended justification of the Stroll red flag in qualifying and talking up Lando starting on pole again. They mentioned Max's 2016 drive and that it's a good place to pass, but definitely framed it as an opportunity for Lando to pick up major points.
Since Lando won the sprint and Max got a penalty the championship gap has narrowed (they didn't mention Lando bottling another start and winning on team orders).
I was fascinated by the WDC segments framing it as Max vs Lando, followed by them showing the full standings with Charles closer to Lando than Lando is to Max. Between that and no one talking about Charles as a contender post-Monaco I'm starting to think the Brits actually hate Charles but know shitting on him would go poorly.
"You can't let your ambition out-weigh your talent" because "this might just be your one chance" from a promo thing with Eddie Redmayne. Which again with the benefit of hindsight is just dunking on Lando.
Very little WCC discussion even though that's a much closer competition (and also impacts how teams will look in the new 2026 regs since it affects wind tunnel time).
Interesting interview with Carlos: he still doesn't understand Mercedes/Red Bull not signing him and if Ferrari is fighting for championships next year he thinks he deserves some credit. Also was very clear he's committed to Williams for the next two years but will then be exploring his options, which I assume means he thinks Lewis will retire and he can take that seat back.
Naomi finally pointed out that all the red/yellow flags in quali meant drivers probably didn't qualify where they should have and we'd see a lot of people finishing very different than where they started.
"We don't really have any concerns" - Will Joseph. Whoops.
The teams' staff all look exhausted. Doing an early qualifying and then same-day racing at the end of a triple header on a sprint weekend... I'd be amazed if everyone was operating at 100%. Definite safety issue.
Race time!
At the start of the (first) formation lap they finally got around to talking about how bad Lando is at starts. Also said the VCARB drivers have nothing to lose which I found odd since Liam doesn't have a 2025 seat and everyone expects them to drop Yuki when Honda moves to Aston in 2026.
Crofty immediately called the aborted start after Lance went off and beached himself. He and Karun both thought it took a weirdly long time for race control to make that call (I agree).
ESPN goes to commercial (even on replays) so I missed a lot of the aborted start discussion. I came back as they pointed out Checo got 5 seconds for his grid box infringement in Mexico and running a red light is worse so should be at least 10 seconds.
They started talking about how much closer the championship would be if you took away the first 5 races when Max was so dominant. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS.
Thank god we're finally starting.
Lap 1: They are shocked there are no crashes.
Lap 2: "it was just so easy" for Max to pass Lewis because Lewis has no confidence in the car. At this point Max was P17 to P10.
Lap 3-4: commercial break.
Lap 5: got back just in time for Max to pass Pierre. Start replay, they said it was brilliant for both Max and George but also said Lando was about to catch George and maybe retake the lead.
Lap 7: Crofty starts praying for Oscar to hold up Max.
Lap 9: Crofty resumes prayers rather than discussing the penalty Bearman just got.
Lap 10: Max goes flying by Oscar. Karun does call it impressive.
Lap 11: they call out the McLaren pit wall for not warning Oscar that Max keeps passing people at T1. And then Karun says Marko must be on the phone to VCARB to have Liam let Max by.
Also Lap 11: "that was a very compliant move" as Max gets by Liam allegedly with no defense attempt. MAX JUST HAD AN EASY PASS ON OSCAR ONE LAP AGO. Liam not defending like Charles doesn't mean he's under RB orders, it means he's a rookie in a tractor in the wet with one of the all-time greats behind him.
Lap 14: Max is in P6 and they are discussing how he has newer tires since he didn't make Q3 and that is giving him better grip. No mention of everyone else who didn't make Q2 or Q3 and has the same advantage but are stuck in the back.
Lap 16: Lando complains about being too slow on the straights to overtake. Karun says he's surprised DRS hasn't been enabled yet.
Lap 17: Heavier rain incoming, Crofty points out a red flag is likely.
Laps 18-20: Commercial again.
Lap 22: This Charles/Max battle is just as impressive the second time around. I get why Ferrari pitted Charles out of the Yuki not-DRS train but he was driving well enough to podium if they'd made different calls.
Lap 23-24: ANOTHER COMMERCIAL WHAT THE FUCK. Bring back my Lestappen on-track flirting.
Lap 25: Back just in time to see Charles pit. Lando wants to box to overtake.
Lap 26: Lando wants to box because it's raining.
Lap 27: Will tells Lando he can't box to overtake because of traffic. Nico beaches.
Lap 28: VSC called, pit stops, George says it's red flag conditions and the VSC ends.
Lap 29. George and Lando both pit as the VSC is ending and come out behind Esteban, Max, and Pierre. Checo, Yuki, and Liam are flying on the wets, everyone on the inters is saying it's undrivable. (Including probably the people on new inters.)
Lap 30: Lando passes George just before the safety car is called. They finally mention how well Esteban is driving up in P1.
Lap 31: Discussion of how race control doesn't want a red flag due to the time needed for the restart procedure, followed by footage of Franco's pit stop for new inters. Accidental foreshadowing.
Lap 32: Crofty decides to add Charles to the list of drivers under investigation for the aborted start infringement. Ted says it's not full-wet conditions so everyone should be getting back on inters and Bernie agrees just in time to cut to Franco crashing on his new inters. VERY lucky he was no where near the pack because anyone close behind him wouldn't have had time to react with how wet the track was. Anyway we finally get a red flag.
Red flag: Crofty says "I think McLaren made a strategy error" with pitting Norris when they did due to the VSC ending and red flag probability. Karun agrees. Ted says it was a matter of keeping the car on the road, which I assume is alluding to Lando complaining about the tires. Bernie complains about drivers asking for a red flag rather than switching to wets and says McLaren was actually correct to pit Lando for new inters when they did? I'm not following her logic but I'm also not a former McLaren employee.
Still red flag: Bernie says Mercedes tire pressure infringement should be a DQ based on last year's plank issue.
Still still red flag: Karun accuses George of stealing Lewis's scooter. Poor George is getting investigated for bad start procedure, tire pressure shenanigans, and theft.
Lap 33 (behind SC): Carlos's "hellooo?" radio about his tires was even funnier the second time. Ferrari radio never disappoints. Also Ollie and Zhou both went off before the SC even came in.
Lap 34: Lando goes off on the restart and George goes ahead.
Lap 35: Karun is surprised they only did one lap behind the SC. Me too!
Lap 36 & 38: Ollie goes off twice. Track conditions appear to still be shit.
Lap 39: Will tells Lando he needs to manage his tires and pass on track. Safety car deployed due to Carlos shunting.
Lap 40: Holy shit, I missed this the first time: Carlos took his steering wheel out, so the marshals thought they were good to start recovering the car, and then he PUT THE WHEEL BACK IN AND DROVE OFF. The marshals were literally touching the car when he started moving. And he was only able to drive himself to the run-off area anyway?? Huge risk for no reason. Wow.
Lap 43: SC in, Max immediately passes Esteban and Lando goes off (again) and rejoins in P7.
Lap 45: Karun says Lando went off because George was too slow in front of him so Lando locked up. Oscar is told to swap positions.
Lap 48: Karun is massively impressed with the Alpines' pace. No mention of Max setting a new fastest lap. Lando goes wide but it's Oscar behind, who clearly isn't going to bother passing him as he'll just have to switch back.
Lap 49: Karun notices Max's last lap was 1.7 seconds faster than Lando.
Lap 55: "Lawson is much less compliant with Perez than he was with Max Verstappen" and "He practically waved Max through" NO HE DIDN'T FUCK YOU KARUN.
Lap 57: Max is 9 seconds up. Ted is proud of Fernando for catching back up to Zhou.
Lap 60: Max is 10 seconds up. Karun calls this a masterclass. Rare good take. Crofty says that's why it's frustrating he's belligerent and won't change his driving. Bad take.
Lap 62: Will tells Lando to hurry up. Lando says he can't. Crofty wants to know why they don't let Oscar pass Lando since Oscar has a 10 second penalty and needs to pull a gap. Bernie says the radio was actually a coded reminder to Lando that he's under investigation and needs to pull his own gap.
Lap 64: Crofty says Max just broke Michael's record for consecutive days leading the WDC.
Lap 65: Karun admits Max hasn't had the fastest car since April or May.
Lap 66: Crofty admits Max is probably winning his 4th WDC. He sounds bummed.
Lap 68-69: Karun: "this is the infuriating thing about those moments of road rage" because Max has more talent than most F1 drivers so it's frustrating when he's aggressive. Crofty eventually redirects to announce him winning by 19.4 seconds.
So overall they started the broadcast pitching it as Lando's day to have a WDC-defining drive and gain 26 points on Max. They came around to admiring Max's driving but found many opportunities to complain about him, and talked more about mistakes from the McLaren pit wall than Lando's errors. I am very glad this is not my usual broadcast.
Also this was an incredibly unsafe race and it's mind-boggling that the stewards basically waved off the aborted start infringement and Carlos almost running over some marshals. I have no idea if it's bias or stupidity or both, but it feels like we're heading towards someone getting seriously hurt.
