Lots of red mist with Max. I can’t believe his car survived that drop without more damage.
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I guess we’ll either see Max grow or… not. He should probably give up his job as a sim racer too and focus on his hobby as F1 driver.
Was he super tired or something from doing the sim race? I’ll have to check the news on this one.
Ugh. Sky could NOT stop mentioning “how tired/cranky he must be” from sim racing all night and that’s why he was shouting on the radio.
He simmed all night the other week and won the F1 race the next day.
He’s mad because the car is getting further off the pace and from what it sounds like, the team isn’t listening to his feedback regarding updates and the updates aren’t working. Plus his teammate is useless so he’s fighting one-handed all the time. You can tell from his radio that he thinks he has to rescue the result because the team got him jumped in the pit stops, Perez isn’t helping, and the updates to the car are doing nothing. So Max is driving over the limit now to try and stay in the fight. When he does that, he gets red-misty. The move against Hamilton was clumsy, but as Lewis said, just a racing incident.
I would agree he needs to just shut up and drive in these situations, but every driver has their own way of working. Obviously GP was pretty fed up with the attitude on the radio but it seems they have a good understanding of each other and I think they both know that in the heat of the race both can say some things to annoy the other and they let it slide when the weekend is over.
Also remember that the broadcast shows whatever radio message they want. Of course they play all the dramatic stuff back for the public.
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That doesn’t mean he was at optimal performance though. IMO the chips are down for Max and he needs to focus all of his off track efforts towards F1. He’s already “fast enough” on track in terms of his actual driving, but if he’s not able to access that consistently and have better emotional regulation it will hold him back. (OK we can make a case that his emotional regulation is not great to start, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt)
Fatigue has been studied in detail in aviation and the effects are well known. Maybe Max is superhuman or something, but it just seems prudent to me that if he his staying up all night playing sims and messing his circadian rhythm in some way on top of the travel and timezone changes he’s going to screw himself.
Yeah I know, most drivers in the past probably didn’t give a damn about fatigue but it’s a new world now. Thinking back to when Schumacher came along with fitness that was on a new level compared to his peers.
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Hold him back from what? Winning another 3 consecutive World Championships?
I am being a bit pedantic on purpose, but I would imagine that Red Bull, possibly the biggest name in global extreme sports, would make sure their trainers and athletes have a good grasp on the science of energy and recovery and sleep as well. If it really became an issue and was costing Max performance, I’m sure someone would say something and try and get him to not do the 24 hour races or whatever.
He’s one of the most naturally gifted drivers to ever sit in an F1 car, so in some ways he is a bit superhuman in that respect. Of course we should all get a good night’s sleep before trying to perform at our peak in any sport, but also we need to balance work/life to have a healthy mindset and outlook. If Max wants to sim race late into the night to help him relax and stay loose, that could be something too, but it’s a balancing act.
There’s a bit of bias here though. If he sims late at night and wins, the sims wot won it. If he sims and has a bad weekend, it’s the sims that caused it. I remember when Lewis got criticised for his lifestyle affecting him. Making music etc… not focusing on F1… then he smashed in 6 world championships.
I am a bit cautious with studies as well. Everyone is very specific.
I suspect that if Max had to focus entirely on F1 he’d quit. Same with Lewis. McLaren lost Newey because he didn’t fit the culture there.
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Just watched this race with a friend who was thinking of coming back to F1 and yeah, there’s no one for rooting anymore in his opinion 
He will come back in 2030
“I don’t want to sound too critical but”
and proceeds to be critical
Didn’t have this one on my F1 bingo card…
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Can’t tell if this is a bad sign or not… Seidl was respected and good at his job but is gone before the team really becomes Audi.
I like Binotto though.
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If I recall correctly some reported that Seidl and Hoffman were fighting for the lead of the project
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I like Binotto too. I’m not sure if he has the personality to make Ferrari really work, but he might be able to make Audi work with the less politics and drama you’d expect from a German owned team.
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Well Verstappen has been told to stop sim racing on race weekends so that’s that.
Anyone else notice red bulls gradual pace decline has come right after Newey announced he was leaving. I assume Red Bull would have pulled him from most active development at that point but who knows.
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I wonder given Maxs talent and status whether he says, nah. I imagine he can write his own ticket and do whatever he wants and people will throw money at him.
I guess the car is the thing and f1 is unique in that way but I also imagine he has other forms to explore/conquer/become legend in.
Also he only did it because one of the team couldn’t do it. Crofty won in the end I guess /jk
Was Seidl working with the Audi portion or the Sauber portion? Because Sauber has done sweet fuck all since he was hired. Also the fact that McLaren has improved drastically since he left might make some eyebrows rise.
“Nevertheless, we have agreed that he will no longer run sim races this late in future"
Not an outright agreement to not sim during the weekend.
Ocon finally confirmed at Haas on a multi-year deal from 2025.
Good luck Ollie, hope you brought elbow pads.
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