In the round-up: Lando Norris says Max Verstappen sets such a high standard that finishing second to him can feel like an achievement.
In brief
Norris attended the FIA Gala on Friday where McLaren were officially crowned constructors’ champions. He praised Max Verstappen, who beat him to the drivers’ title by 63 points.
“First of all, congratulations to Max,” said Norris. “What he did this year was incredible. I’m the first person to acknowledge such things when I’m the one going up against him. It was a tough season, of course. I tried to put up my best and give the best battle that I could, but this year was not enough.
“At the same time, sometimes I’m happy to finish second to Max, because I think it’s a quite an achievement to do a lot better than that.
“So a wonderful year for myself. A lot of achievements. A lot of improvements from myself — but I also know that I need to step it up and do more than I did this year, so I’m excited to look forward to next year and try to do the same.”
Prior to speaking footage was shown of Verstappen’s Brazilian Grand Prix victory, where he benefited from a red flag after being unable to pit during a Virtual Safety Car period. Footage of Norris talking about the timing of the red flag was played afterwards.
“I just want to retract my comment back there where I said it was ‘all luck, no talent’,” said Norris. “You know how the media change things.”
More changes to FIA’s “misconduct” rule
The FIA revealed it has approved further changes to the “misconduct” clause of the International Sporting Code.“In alignment with the United Against Online Abuse campaign and the FIA president’s commitment to protecting all those involved in motorsport against online toxicity, this change to the ISC will contribute to create a more responsible and respectful environment not only among competitors but also with officials and volunteers,” it said.
Piastri pleased with second season
Oscar Piastri said he was particularly encouraged by his form in the middle part of his second season in Formula 1. The McLaren driver scored his first two grand prix victories this year.
“The obvious highlights were Budapest and Baku but my drives in Monaco, Monza and Spa come close behind,” Piastri wrote in his column for Auto Action. “The middle part of the season was really strong for me and those results give me a lot of confidence.
“I feel my driving is in a good place. After two seasons in F1, there is plenty more to come and I’m really excited for the future.”
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'All of a sudden, there would be new camera angles and booming audio, stats along the side of the screen and picture-in-picture instant replays. Hill stresses that last point. 'Hours would pass, dynasties would rise and fall, and finally the replay would be there,' he says, shaking his head. Now, he leans towards me and snaps. 'The replay has to be there like that.''
Juncos Hollinger adds Phillips and Edwards to leadership team (Racer)
'Juncos Hollinger Racing has added veteran race car designer and engineer Will Phillips to its IndyCar series program as its new head of trackside engineering, which follows the recent acquisition of David Brown as JHR’s new technical director.'
'excerpt'
The integral role of the F1 driver's headrest (Mercedes via YouTube)
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
People’s replies are nuts.
This is the second bottle he’s gifted us.
We’re still getting our bonus.
It’s not a bribe.
I’m looking forward to trying it. pic.twitter.com/Z65IOoPbpe
— Daz (@daz0790) December 13, 2024
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Comment of the day
How much notice do you take of F1 team’s sponsors?
It’s interesting seeing the full team names, and realising how few of the ‘title sponsors’ I actually notice while being an F1 fan. I’d completely forgotten Oracle from the Red Bull name, and Moneygram from Haas. I remembered Aramco and Aston Martin, but only when I read the list just now, and needed Google to tell me that ‘Scuderia Ferrari HP’ has been a thing since Miami 2024.
The only ones I clearly and obvious associate are Mercedes and Petronas, BWT and Alpine, and Kick and Sauber. Oh, and Visa Cash App etc and Toro Racing Tauri, but I only remember that because it’s such a silly name.
I’m sure ‘title sponsors’ used to be more obvious in the old days.
Neil (@Neilosjames)
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Max Jacobson, Steph90, John White and Reiter!
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
15th December 2024, 0:33
It’s a good story, but you already ran it a couple of times this year.
An Sionnach
15th December 2024, 0:33
Yes, the media…
Good on you, Lando. Max was astounding in Brazil. If the cars have the same relative pace next season, I think you’ll be in pole position, will lead off the line and sail into the distance enough times to be world champion. You’ve got the pace and the talent. All you need to give is total commitment. Don’t worry what we will think of you and what you will think of yourself. Greatness is forgivable.
An Sionnach
15th December 2024, 0:38
I like the Christmas jumper and I can see why Pérez is such a popular guy. He might need something to steady the nerves next year so perhaps most of this is for himself?
Jay
15th December 2024, 0:50
‘Online toxicity’. I find it interesting that a lot of commenters dislike everything about MBS except his willingness to censor people. You know he’s trying to censor YOU from criticizing HIM, under the guise of protecting the poor drivers. Even further, he’ll probably stop the drivers/teams from criticizing him. Same trap every time.
Opposing views aren’t toxic, they’re just opinions. I say, criticize everyone. Even me!
S
15th December 2024, 5:10
Much of the ‘toxicity’ this change attempts to address isn’t just opposing opinions, though.
There’s criticism (which can also be productive) and then there’s abuse. Nobody likes abuse, or the abuser.
Tristan
15th December 2024, 6:26
I’m honestly scared. To this end from this day forward I’m giving myself a new rule.
Positive comments only. It’s not worth it.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 6:29
You should be scared. MBS is a terrifying man. You don’t want to make his list.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th December 2024, 6:18
Of course, he retracted his post-race remark only to say it again after some future race & claiming that the media changed his wording, even though they actually didn’t.
Some camera angles may have changed in 2017, but some remained unchanged.
I’ve generally had an easier time remembering title sponsors, & Oracle, Moneygram, & especially Aramco certainly aren’t ones I’ve forgotten, nor HP given the blue-color shade presence it brought.
Simon
15th December 2024, 16:16
Word. Salad.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 17:17
You really should be banned at this point. If you’re going to stalk someone at least do it well. 75% of the time your reply to Jere is “word salad.” The other 25% is pointing out a minor typo.
BTW, word salad? All three sentences worth?
Tristan
15th December 2024, 6:22
Love the video about the headrest, who knew they had different stiffness of foam?
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 6:33
You’ve never held foam you could bend and foam that is incredibly stiff? Then there’s memory foam of different resistance levels. Foam is an incredibly dynamic substance that is used in endless applications.
SteveP
15th December 2024, 9:13
Foam is a structural arrangement, created in different materials.
The behaviour of a specific foam is due to the specific properties of the material used and the bubble size.
Not that the video gave people clue 1 about any material beyond the hand-wavy “memory foam” reference.
Anyone who has been shopping for a bed or sofa will be familiar with the range variants.
What it did do is highlight the impossibility of the tosh from at least one commenter round here about drivers banging their heads on the halo
mantresx (@mantresx)
16th December 2024, 5:15
Colapinto himself did say he hit his head on the halo in the vegas crash. I assume it wasn’t too bad but there’s gotta be something to it, no?
Mr B.
16th December 2024, 21:54
Watch the Colapinto onboard on YouTube.
Go to settings and slow down the playback speed to 0.25 and watch it.
I did this because I found it hard to believe the other comment on this site about hitting his head on the Halo, it just didn’t seem possible. It certainly happened though.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
15th December 2024, 18:50
You misconstrued Tristan’s comment- clear enough?
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 23:40
Did I call him an “id•io•t” though?
The singular of that noun is not allowed…
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 6:27
Piastri is pleased with his second season? He takes the opposite of the Norris approach. I hope, internally, he isn’t happy with that season. Steady is the best you could say of his season. If it weren’t for all the focus on Norris throwing away points and Perez’s master class sucking up all the oxygen, he’d have come in for some real stick. The worrying thing about Oscar is that pace was the only real problem and drivers don’t get faster. Every great driver in F1 was blazing fast as a rookie and their raw speed never got better. They just got more refined.
HAL
15th December 2024, 10:13
I agree that Piastri was behind in terms of pace and he needs to improve next season.. There were very good moments for Piastri, but also some clear area of improvement.
But I disagree with your statement about “driver don’t get faster”. Norris was behind Sainz in his first 2 seasons at MacLaren ; I don’t think he would be now.
Oscar still has point to prove, it remains to be seen if he can be a great driver. But so far, so good.
MichaelN
15th December 2024, 11:54
We won’t ever know, I guess, but given that Sainz was very close to Leclerc over their four year period, Norris might not find him as easy a teammate as Piastri has been.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 17:30
Norris’ raw pace was there. It’s why Sainz was only tying a rookie in quali head to head despite more track knowledge, knowing how to set the car up better and being a fast driver himself. Norris was making up for the lack of those things through pure pace.
Another important thing to note is that some drivers’ pace is transformed with a great car. Lewis has never had exceptional pace in average cars, but his ceiling in a great car is remarkable.
XM
16th December 2024, 5:38
Exactly this. I’ve never liked Lewis for many, many years, but I still can appreciate that if you put him in a tier 1 car, this man performs magical things and deserves full respect from anyone for his achievements. Most recently he showcased that by taking 4th with such a deficit to George in AD24.
SPArtacus
16th December 2024, 13:06
Yup. He was just eating into Norris relentlessly. Some of it was that it appeared running hard-medium was the better strategy in terms of tire performance, but a lot of it was just Hamilton operating at happy Hamilton mode, which is magic. Alonso and Hamilton are sort of yin and yang. Alonso’s purest magic is being able to drive the worst machinery way past where any other driver could while Hamilton’s magic is wizard tier in a car that is hooked up. Ironically, Max 95% of both. A sort of perfect combo. It’s a shame so few can appreciate all three. They get hung up on trying to argue their favorite is perfect and their favorite’s rival is lucky, overrated, being favored when they do well and their favorite sabotaged when they don’t.
MichaelN
15th December 2024, 11:54
Indeed, Piastri hasn’t been very impressive season. He has had the same car as Norris mostly (I recall one or two races where he was missing an update), and since it’s fair to criticize Norris for wasting opportunities, it’s worth noting that Piastri did worse. I get that he’s thrilled to have won a race and contributed to the WCC; that’s all fair enough. But he needs to make big steps if he wants to challenge for a WDC. Even challenge Norris! Never mind some of the other top tier drivers at other teams.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 17:32
It’s especially fair when I didn’t really see media or fans redressing their own predictions about Oscar “catching Norris fast.” It seems people don’t like to point out their mistake. Who knew?
MichaelN
15th December 2024, 19:52
I suppose the timing matters; Piastri did get significantly better at managing his race pace throughout 2023. So at some point it was true that he was closing the gap. But aside from a few exceptions, it’s been a fairly steady gap between the two all throughout 2024.
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
15th December 2024, 13:58
Taken out of context and with “quite” and “a lot” expurged, the Norris quote in the title could easily be understood to mean that he is happy not to achieve anything…
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 17:34
It’s one of the more bizarrely worded sentences I’ve seen lately.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 23:43
Would I? Or would you just know all about being a bitter, paranoid twerp?
SteveR (@stever)
15th December 2024, 15:11
I think F1 TV coverage is awful. The camera zooms in to more than fill the frame with the car, then keeps the same zoom through corners so we have no idea how fast the cars are going. The amazing cornering speed of these machines is not shown; until you attend a race you’ll have no idea how fast they are. The constant full face close ups of people in the pits makes me close my eyes until I think it’s past. No, TV coverage could be way better than it is.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 17:37
Been saying the same forever. It’s the worst. They did a good job capturing the speed in the early 2000s with wide shots and far fewer zooms. Now, they make the cars look as if they’re truly just cruising around. What a disservice to the drivers and sport it is. It’s also baffling. Billions per year go into the sport, but they somehow forget to make the racing look good?
Edvaldo
15th December 2024, 16:06
Who read this might think we’re still in 2023.
Norris had everything at his disposal to race Max this year, but he came up short. He’s happy because he has beaten slower cars? Wasn’t he the one who said it’s meaningless to win like Hamilton and Vettel did because they were racing just one or two drivers? He was racing just one or two drivers and he LOST. And here he is saying he’s happy.
He’ll never race Max as hard as he should when deep down he’s just another fan.
He’s fast and talented, but i can’t disagree when i see people saying he doesn’t have that killer instinct.
SPArtacus
15th December 2024, 17:43
I kind of feel bad for Norris. He doesn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed, which would be a big deal, but he almost seems sensitive. Not a great pairing. I initially jumped on the bandwagon mocking him for that statement, but not anymore. I give him a pass for it because we all said one or five stupid things when we were in our early 20s and lacked wisdom and/or context.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th December 2024, 18:26
The changes to the ISC regulation about misconduct, for anyone wondering:
– Article 12.2.1.k – “Any misconduct, including but not limited towards [long list of FIA officials]” has been struck out. All that is left is “Any misconduct”, which is too vague to be actionable, otherwise every single other word in the regulations is redundant.
– Article 12.2.1p – “The possession and/or use of Pyrotechnics Products at FIA Competitions by the Participants and attendees unless authorised in writing by the FIA” added.
That’s it.
If anyone can explain how removing the regulation that prohibits misconduct towards FIA officials, removes all specifics of what misconduct is (apart from prohibiting fireworks under most circumstances) helps protect anyone at all, messages on a blog comment please.