[volkman10]

McLAREN Formula 1 Team announce multi-year contract extension with Oscar Piastri

Oscar joined the team in 2023 on a multi-year deal, which was quickly extended later that year to run until 2026.

[RM Motorsports]

The newest instalment of the Alpine soap opera is arguably its most surprising yet - Team Principal Oliver Oakes resigns after only 10 months.

Renault / Alpine Team Principals 2020 - 2025

Cyril Abiteboul
Marcin Budkowski
Alain Prost
Laurent Rossi
Otmar Szafnauer
Bruno Famin
Oliver Oakes

Alpine have also dropped Jack Doohan and installed Franco Colapinto on a five-race agreement that will start with next weekend's Imola GP.

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It's absolutely galling that Flavio is allowed back in the paddock, let alone a leadership position in the garage. The FIA would rather muzzle drivers and fret over dress codes instead of keeping cretinous characters like Briatore at arms length.

Fact he's weaseled his way back in tells you all need to know about how much Renault bosses have washed their hands of the F1 project. A lot of the pre-DTS era fans fear that Flavio could be angling to have his old operation again, an ostensibly privateer outfit. Love to see how Liberty and FOM spin how a Flavio owned/managed team adds to the prestige of the sport.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by volkman10

McLAREN Formula 1 Team announce multi-year contract extension with Oscar Piastri

Oscar joined the team in 2023 on a multi-year deal, which was quickly extended later that year to run until 2026.

He will be their champion before Lando, for certain.

Originally Posted by ads11

It's absolutely galling that Flavio is allowed back in the paddock, let alone a leadership position in the garage. The FIA would rather muzzle drivers and fret over dress codes instead of keeping cretinous characters like Briatore at arms length.

He seriously looks, sounds, and behaves like a comic "dirty old man". Really surprised that he is back.

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Originally Posted by mayankk

He seriously looks, sounds, and behaves like a comic "dirty old man".

Because he is one. Simple as that. I'm not saying the new post Bernie F1 hasn't had it's share of sketchy characters. We still get the occasional appearance by the Mazepins in the paddock. Gene Haas still gets to plaster his name on a team despite flogging CNC machines to Russia despite the post invasion sanctions. You've got good old wife beating Jos Verstappen. And those are just the big names I can immediately think of. There's no way to insulate a big money high profile business from all the unsavoury characters entirely.

Thing is though, Flavio is a dinosaur. I'm going to love seeing how they deal with him when they have a new fan base that post DTS has lots more women (an entirely welcome thing for the sport as a whole). They won't know that Flavio was one of the Berlusconi esque Bunga Bunga Party men of the paddock back in the day. Eventually you'll have him utter some regressive tripe in a press conference and the powers that be are going to have a field day dealing with that fallout.

[suhaas307]

Stumbled upon an interesting stat:

In 27 Seasons, the driver who won 4 of the first 6 races became champion 26 times. Only Nikki Lauda in 1976 failed. Oscar Piastri has won 4 out of the 6 races this year.

(Nikki Lauda failed to secure the title in 1976 presumably because of his shunt?)

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Stumbled upon an interesting stat:

In 27 Seasons, the driver who won 4 of the first 6 races became champion 26 times. Only Nikki Lauda in 1976 failed. Oscar Piastri has won 4 out of the 6 races this year.

(Nikki Lauda failed to secure the title in 1976 presumably because of his shunt?)

Seems like a WhatsApp university stat

If one goes back in history and looks at first 6 races
2021 - Lewis won 3, Max won 2 (Max champion)
2013 - Seb won 2, Alonso won 2 (Seb champion)
2012 - Seb won 1 (Seb champion)
2010 - Mark won 2, Seb won 1 (Seb champion)
... so on (I'm sure there are a lot more if we go till 1976)

I must quote our dear old Paaji's famous quote ""Stats are like mini skirts. What they reveal is good....".

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Seems like a WhatsApp university stat

If one goes back in history and looks at first 6 races
2021 - Lewis won 3, Max won 2 (Max champion)
2013 - Seb won 2, Alonso won 2 (Seb champion)
2012 - Seb won 1 (Seb champion)
2010 - Mark won 2, Seb won 1 (Seb champion)
... so on (I'm sure there are a lot more if we go till 1976)

I must quote our dear old Paaji's famous quote ""Stats are like mini skirts. What they reveal is good....".

Actually, it's an Instagram university stat.

I read it wrong the first time too, but it made sense later when I read it again. Give it another read:

Allow me to break it down -

Whenever a driver has won 4 out of the first 6 races of the Season, he has ended up with the title.

Don't look at the first 6 races of every season in isolation. Look at the results. If a driver won 4 out of the first 6, he probably won that title.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Stumbled upon an interesting stat:

In 27 Seasons, the driver who won 4 of the first 6 races became champion 26 times. Only Nikki Lauda in 1976 failed. Oscar Piastri has won 4 out of the 6 races this year.

(Nikki Lauda failed to secure the title in 1976 presumably because of his shunt?)

How did 1976 get into this frame???

or do they mean that in only 27 seasons out of 75, a driver won 4 out of the first 6 races, and in 26 of those......etc.(???)

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by mayankk

How did 1976 get into this frame???

or do they mean that in only 27 seasons out of 75, a driver won 4 out of the first 6 races, and in 26 of those......etc.(???)

Yea I guess so.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Actually, it's an Instagram university stat.

I read it wrong the first time too, but it made sense later when I read it again. Give it another read:

Allow me to break it down -

Whenever a driver has won 4 out of the first 6 races of the Season, he has ended up with the title.

Don't look at the first 6 races of every season in isolation. Look at the results. If a driver won 4 out of the first 6, he probably won that title.

Calling @Thad to do an English language / grammar validation

Jokes apart; another way to read the same is a driver / car that is good enough to win the first bunch of races is probably good enough to win the championship. Reference it to any driver going back in history (Max -> Lewis -> Vettel -> Alonso -> Schumi -> etc.); that will always hold true.

1976 is standing out only probably because Nikki Lauda had that massive accident which caused him to miss a few races and give up the lead to James Hunt; as detailed in the excellent movie Rush (2013).

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by mayankk

How did 1976 get into this frame???

or do they mean that in only 27 seasons out of 75, a driver won 4 out of the first 6 races, and in 26 of those......etc.(???)

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Jokes apart; another way to read the same is a driver / car that is good enough to win the first bunch of races is probably good enough to win the championship. Reference it to any driver going back in history (Max -> Lewis -> Vettel -> Alonso -> Schumi -> etc.); that will always hold true.

1976 is standing out only probably because Nikki Lauda had that massive accident which caused him to miss a few races and give up the lead to James Hunt; as detailed in the excellent movie Rush (2013).

Apologies.

Allow me to rephrase that again:

Since 1977, every time a driver has won 4 out of the first 6 opening races of a season, he has gone on to win the drivers title. And this has happened 26 times since 1977.

In 1976, Nikki won the first 4 out of 6 races, but couldn’t secure the driver’s title because of that huge shunt at the Nurburgring.

[Thalla]

Perez is reportedly in talks with Alpine to make his F1 comeback in 2026. You can expect anything from Alpine.

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Originally Posted by Thalla

Perez is reportedly in talks with Alpine to make his F1 comeback in 2026. You can expect anything from Alpine.

Nothing would surprise me at this point. I've heard some outrageous tales on Twitter already about the ensuing fiasco.

Well liked TP Oliver Oakes resigns - I figure it's because he backs giving Doohan more time.

Meanwhile his brother gets arrested as the head of a racing firm that seems to be a vehicle for *drumroll* the Mazepins!!

Something along the lines of money laundering or financial fraud from what I recall.

All this while Oliver Oakes is last sighted in Dubai, no word if he's essentially been forced out because of his brother's indiscretions but heavily implied as much by Fleet Street.

Bin Sulayem should care less about potty mouthed drivers bringing F1 into disrepute when there's shenanigans like this occurring in the paddock.

Why doesn't it surprise me that the return of sleazy Flavio would coincide with such hijinks.

Alpine are such a mess right now. Part of me wonders if the rebranding was a silver lining because it isn't the parent Renault name getting dragged in the mud.

Every day Oscar's infamous tweet denying a drive for Alpine looks to be a stunning bit of good judgement from Webber and co.

Is Sergio that desperate to jump onto the burning ship Alpine?! He's navigated choppy waters before with the erstwhile Force India, surely he's too old to put up with this again, especially when rumours had him tapped to be one of the Cadillac drivers. Surely he's happy to sit out this Alpine drama till Cadillac hits the track.

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Apologies.

Allow me to rephrase that again:

Since 1977, every time a driver has won 4 out of the first 6 opening races of a season, he has gone on to win the drivers title. And this has happened 26 times since 1977.

In 1976, Nikki won the first 4 out of 6 races, but couldn’t secure the driver’s title because of that huge shunt at the Nurburgring.

Prior to the current scoring system, IIRC only the top 6 drivers at a race scored points in the pattern of 10-6-4-3-2-1. Thus the stat held considering fewer number of points and also races in a season.

In current times, with more races and higher number of drivers scoring more points in each race, it would get tougher to match the stat. Last year, Max dominated the start of the season but Norris was able to pull back in the latter part of the season, before Max achieved it.

Max is back to his winning ways at Imola with an excellent overtake around the outside of Piastri into Turn 1. Amazing to see how far back he came from under braking - he almost lost P2 to Russell just few meters before that.

This year looks like McLaren may just bungle up due to both their drivers competing among themselves and losing the championship to Max. Interesting season ahead, the difference between the top 3 is just 22 points.

[volkman10]

Verstappen storms to victory in thrilling Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Verstappen brilliantly out-braked his McLaren rival Piastri and swept around the outside of him at the first corner – emerging from the Tamburello chicane with the lead.
From there, Verstappen never looked back, managing Virtual Safety Car and full Safety Car periods to lead home Lando Norris and Piastri, bagging his and Red Bull’s second win of the season in the team’s 400th Grand Prix.