Round-up: Sainz sees proof of progress, Vowles on Verstappen and more

31 comments on “Round-up: Sainz sees proof of progress, Vowles on Verstappen and more”

1. 

   Alex
   19th April 2025, 2:56

   Vowles has all the reasons for not liking Max as it was Max that finished the Mercedes dinasty and Vowles ended up in a smaller team after that. The sad part dor him is that his old boss loves Max and would do anything to have Verstappen and his “downsides” in silver outfit.
   1. 

      M2X
      19th April 2025, 10:16

      The telling thing is that Vowles makes an insinuation and doesn’t back that up with further explanation.
   2. 

      Ferdi
      19th April 2025, 10:28

      He comes across as one of the leading characters of the poisonous and toxic culture Mercedes had in 2021-2022. His departure led to a steep improvement of that internal culture. Coincidence? Maybe.
      1. 

         SteveP
         19th April 2025, 11:06

         He comes across as one of the leading characters of the poisonous and toxic culture

         Does the term “transference” mean anything to you?
   3. 

      moi
      19th April 2025, 11:21

      There’s a reason why chinless budget Toto is at Williams and not a top team anymore.

      See? really easy to phrase an opinion as a fact without providing any backup to it.
      1. 

         spoutnik (@spoutnik)
         19th April 2025, 12:11

         Quite a lame comment on physical appearance actually.
2. 

   HW Small
   19th April 2025, 4:08

   Re the piracy, I know a few people who claim to do this. Given what Sky are charging for sports (£45 per month if you want uhd, £36 otherwise which is a lot if you only watch F1) it is not surprising if it is rife.

   (Whatever ‘service’ they are using has a quirk where it goes dead for everything when boxing matches are being shown from one specific country.)
3. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   19th April 2025, 6:37

   COTD: Different matter because he was massively underperforming below the car potential & minimum expectations, unlike Max, so Max leaving as soon as after this season would require something properly drastic to happen.
   I reiterate once again that if he were to leave prematurely, it’d realistically happen after next season at the very earliest due to the upcoming technical regulation changes.

   Daily Mail: I’m surprised he even cares.

   RaceFans tweet: Yet again getting penalized for a genuine error even though penalizing should only ever happen when the act of causing red-flagging (or yellows, for that matter) is deliberate & no one other than Michael Schumacher has ever done so in circuit racing.
   1. 

      S Arkazam
      19th April 2025, 7:42

      ‘Intention’ should be left out of (sporting) rules as much as possible, as it is difficult to assess.

      Though maybe one day they can introduce brain implants to overcome that problem.
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         19th April 2025, 8:13

         Intention is also very easy to assess for the stewards already via data, but also by asking the relevant driver afterwards.
         1. 

            Jere (@jerejj)
            19th April 2025, 8:14

            Besides, no one even ‘intends’ in the first place anyway due to possible crash damage implications for the team.
         2. 

            S Arkazam
            19th April 2025, 15:33

            Intention is also very easy to assess

            NO!
            Still a(n educated) guess,
            unless you have a full confession from a non-lying culprit,
            or those brain implants I refered to above.
      2. 

         Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
         19th April 2025, 9:01

         I agree. I like this rule whether it is caused intentionally or not – you are still preventing your opponents from setting times and gaining an advantage through your or your team’s error/unreliability. There are different degrees of ‘intent’ anyway. It’s one thing to do what Schumacher did and intentionally park it in the middle of the road, but what about driving at 110% when you’re on provisional pole knowing that if you crash you guarantee your position anyway?

         Far too many suspicious incidents occurring at Monaco in recent years and other incidents where drivers have benefitted from their own mistakes. I don’t buy the argument that drivers won’t push flat out if they fear a severe penalty from causing a red. They are wired to fight for every last millisecond and every last position, and there is always some risk if you crash because if you damage the wrong part of the car you can suffer a grid penalty anyway.
         1. 

            SteveP
            19th April 2025, 11:13

            what about driving at 110%

            Totally impossible.
            1. 

               Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
               19th April 2025, 16:27

               Not really meant to be literal. But if you do want to make it literal, then call it driving at 110% of your ability – meaning over your ability to control the car, hence leading to a crash which you might benefit from.
   2. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      19th April 2025, 8:17

      I failed to notice the Motor article reference the first time around & it couldn’t be more false, especially after what Horner said following the Chinese GP, not to mention no such references have come from the relevant team even otherwise.
      All in all, simply impossible to abandon anyway due to all the investment, time, & effort put into the project, nor would getting to continue with Honda be easy due to their exclusive deal with Aston Martin.
      This whole recurring theme in F1 of claiming stuff without concrete evidence has always been annoying.
4. 

   Yes (@come-on-kubica)
   19th April 2025, 7:13

   It would be better use of police time to focus on other things than piracy. Probably better off for the consumer if this continues to happen as it will lower prices ironically. Who in the real world cares about the value of f1 and its tv deals.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      19th April 2025, 7:33

      If people don’t want to pay, like me, they can just not watch live. It’s quite easy. Radio is free, and there’ll be highlights on YouTube within an hour of the finish.
      1. 

         MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
         19th April 2025, 10:25

         Exactly. I’m doing the same thing. 10 minutes of highlights afterwards – works great.
         No piracy and no ridiculously overblown rates to pay either.

         If I want it live or in the background, some of the watchalongs on YT are pretty good.
5. 

   Roy Beedrill
   19th April 2025, 7:30

   I wish UK police could care about things like CSE just as much as they do about people not willing to pay Sky.
6. 

   bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
   19th April 2025, 8:05

   Rumours Red Bull are concerned about the development of their 2026 power unit and may seek a way to continue using Honda power.

   I think I’d do better doing a 5 min PowerPoint presentation explaining Syria over the past few years than Red Bull’s engines.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      19th April 2025, 9:28

      The engines are so prescribed if shouldn’t be too difficult for Red Bull to recycle what is essentially 12 year old tech. These “rumours” seem to be based on nothing other than that it is their first go.

      Plus the idea that Stroll didn’t put in ironclad exclusivity guarantees with Honda seems silly. Whatever one thinks of the guy, he’s no dummy.
      1. 

         JeroenJ
         19th April 2025, 14:26

         If I remember correctly, engine manufacturers are obliged to offer engines to multiple teams (if there is interest from teams).
7. 

   PeteB (@peteb)
   19th April 2025, 11:07

   Piracy will always exist as long as a rip-off monopoly exists. Music piracy was rife until streaming became a possibility and now it’s almost completely gone. It’s not a war that can be won by the police and it’s be a complete waste of money to try.

   You can spend millions trying to shut down a few people who are facilitating it but there are hundreds ready to step into their shoes and take over in an instant.

   Piracy has been “normalised” for years and it will continue to be the case. The market has already shown multiple times that they’d rather pay an acceptable amount for entertainment rather than get it in power quality for free but they aren’t willing to be ripped off.
   1. 

      SteveP
      19th April 2025, 11:28

      Piracy will always exist as long as a rip-off monopoly exists. Music piracy was rife until streaming became a possibility and now it’s almost completely gone.

      Mostly because the streaming services offer low prices for the content and, if you check the comments from various recording artists, they apparently have this habit of failing to pass on the royalties except as an anonymised block payment to the large record companies.
   2. 

      S
      19th April 2025, 11:59

      Piracy will always exist as long as a rip-off monopoly exists.

      Piracy will always exist as long as humans exist – regardless of what price is being asked.
      Music piracy is worse now than it ever was – however in many cases it is leveraged as marketing for another product (a loss leader system).

      The two big problems with such piracy are that reduced sales volumes directly translate to higher cost per unit, and that those remaining ‘honest’ buyers are having to cover the cost of the dishonest ones.
      Or, put another way – F1 costs more to access because so many people are not paying for it.

      And then there’s greed. Theft is a bigger show of selfish greed and dishonesty than overcharging will ever be.
      1. 

         M2X
         19th April 2025, 18:23

         Media and software piracy will always be fed supply side.
         When pirating provides a better user experience than a streaming service does, people will pirate.
         Since the Netflix, Youtube, Spotify peak, streaming services have become a worse user experience and ontop of that more expensive.
         It’s no wonder people are drawn to piracy again.

         The majority of people can easily pay for the services provided but no longer think that the service provided is worth it.

         Especially now that companies are deteriorating the concept of ownership, you can expect alot more piracy to happen.
         1. 

            S
            20th April 2025, 7:17

            Media and software piracy will always be fed supply side.

            Huh?
            People/companies create media (supply/supplier) then other people steal it (demand/consumer). This is not in any way the fault of the supplier.

            The majority of people can easily pay for the services provided but no longer think that the service provided is worth it.

            Well, that makes theft totally okay then…

            The only time thieves won’t steal is when they truly can’t get it for free.
            The moral compass is the most influential factor here – not the price or quality.

            Especially now that companies are deteriorating the concept of ownership, you can expect alot more piracy to happen.

            Not sure what you mean.
            Consumers have never owned any of the media we’ve consumed, regardless of how it was distributed. Pirating a live stream or TV broadcast is exactly the same as copying CD’s or DVD’s. So is stealing a car or illegally squatting in someone else’s house, for that matter.
8. 

   PeteB (@peteb)
   19th April 2025, 11:08

   *lower not power
9. 

   spoutnik (@spoutnik)
   19th April 2025, 12:27

   About piracy, FOM has been asking to some broadcasters that were to renew their contract to implement anti-piracy features that are also absolutely over the top.

   Client and server-side watermarking, jailbreak detection, code obfuscation, active vpn proxy detection, encryption keys rotation, geoblocking, credentials refresh every few minutes, limited streaming quality on less secure drms or forbidden on non-hardware decryption modules, actively taking part in anti-piracy private forums, you name it.

   An absolute engineering and financial nightmare for any broadcaster.
   1. 

      S
      19th April 2025, 14:54

      An absolute engineering and financial nightmare for any broadcaster.

      Not as long as they are interested in getting sufficient returns on their own investment in the F1 broadcast.

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