Bortoleto and Lawson are winning the battle of attrition so far.

Oscar is hauling ass right now. Really making up time.

Lando is crumbling under the pressure. I wish he'd get his **** together.

Wtf Colapinto

Double points for Kick Sauber !!!

Sex Panther said:

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Got it, thanks

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Yeah so that automatically doesn't happen when the caution comes out and it screwed a couple of cars at the wrong part of the track.

By any chance is there anyone from Vegas or planning to go to the Grand Prix Plaza anytime soon? They have an F1 merch store and it happens to be the only place on earth with F1 Academy merch, and of course they don't ship. If anyone has a trip planned anytime this summer lmk in case you can do a consignment

jorgerr96 said:

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By any chance is there anyone from Vegas or planning to go to the Grand Prix Plaza anytime soon? They have an F1 merch store and it happens to be the only place on earth with F1 Academy merch, and of course they don't ship. If anyone has a trip planned anytime this summer lmk in case you can do a consignment

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ugh

I would love an F1 Academy shirt

RACE 🇬🇧 WEEK

Silverstone, we're on our way! 🤩#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/sG4p8acHPd

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2025

I was just there earlier this month. Dang.

I will be there - looking forward to it.

I'll be there in 3 weeks

Also, if you set a lap record in the karting thing, they give you a driver jersey.

Enjoying my new Alonso jersey.

Through three seasons of Drive to Survive - couple of questions for the knowledgable fans.

How long do these driver contracts last? Are they not guaranteed? It seems like most of these teams just play musical chairs with the 25 drivers or so every year. Also what does a contract look like? Assuming these guys make insane money - although I'm guessing a lot of that is based on things off the track like merch and sponsorships.

And do most fans root for a driver, or a team? I get Ferarri is like the Yankees or Man U, so most fans probably love them regardless. But do other fans just root for whoever Carlos Sainz is currently with? Or are they McLaren die hards no matter who is driving?

So far my favorite driver is probably Daniel Ricciardo, but looks like he doesn't even race anymore. I may just root for the little Japanese Red Bull guy.

See you at Silverstone, Arvid 👋

The Red Bull Junior Team driver will be at the wheel of Yuki's car for First Practice, this weekend 🇬🇧#F1 || #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/zCWq52sQl5

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 2, 2025

Beginning of the end for Yuki?

Sex Panther said:

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Through three seasons of Drive to Survive - couple of questions for the knowledgable fans.

How long do these driver contracts last? Are they not guaranteed? It seems like most of these teams just play musical chairs with the 25 drivers or so every year. Also what does a contract look like? Assuming these guys make insane money - although I'm guessing a lot of that is based on things off the track like merch and sponsorships.

And do most fans root for a driver, or a team? I get Ferarri is like the Yankees or Man U, so most fans probably love them regardless. But do other fans just root for whoever Carlos Sainz is currently with? Or are they McLaren die hards no matter who is driving?

So far my favorite driver is probably Daniel Ricciardo, but looks like he doesn't even race anymore. I may just root for the little Japanese Red Bull guy.

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Driver contracts vary quite a bit. On the upper end, you contracts like Max's that go out a long ways (currently until 2028). However, they put lots of stipulations and clauses in there to protect driver and constructor in case things go south (i.e. Max and Red Bull this year). On the other end, you have what you see at Alpine this year. Jack Doohan was a trial basis type of contract that ended fairly quickly with Colapinto getting brought in. Even Colapinto is near the end of a short contract, and Alpine may renew him or go in another direction. The upper end drivers make 8 figures a year between salary and deals.

I'll give my example on rooting. We were die-hard Lewis Hamilton fans and in turn were Mercedes fans from 2019 (when we first started watching) until 2024. Now that Lewis is with Ferrari, our loyalties are all over the place, although my wife seems to root for McLaren now (mostly Lando). We do like some specific drivers, like Albon and Sainz.

Twisted Helix said:

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Beginning of the end for Yuki?

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Mother ****er!

I feel like driver and team nationality play a lot into it as well. The Dutch GP is filled with orange in support for Max and Monza/Imola is a sea of red. I've really only been an avid fan for the past 4-5 years and it's been quite hard for me to pick a team but I'm really enjoying seeing McLaren excel. I'm a fan of Zak Brown, OP and Lando. I'm not sure I have a huge allegiance to a team yet. Don't think it will ever get to the point of where I'm ride or die like I am with the Ags.

In NASCAR I root more seriously for drivers/manufacturers/teams, or maybe more specifically take pleasure in actively rooting against other drivers/teams.

I used to root more for individual drivers in F1 back when they all didn't really like each other, but now that they're all seemingly butt buddies it's hard to really root for any 1 over the other. Lately I more just enjoy the races (when they're good) and the business element of all things F1.

Hoping McLaren has a major dust up this year so Oscar and Lando can form a public rivalry

I feel like nationality is more common with the countries that care less about single seater/motorsport in general. Dutch GP for example only exists because of Max, that GP was inexistent for like 30 years.

You can say the same thing about Mexico. The US market was terrible before Netflix, it was so cheap to get COTA tickets day of and you would spend like $60 to park on someone's grass for the whole weekend in 2019. whats funny is i feel a lot of the newer fans, who happen to be women, ignored Logan Sargeant the one US driver we had and just became McLaren fans instead lol

stateoftexas/tailgatetimer let me know when you head to Vegas and if you can grab some of that F1A stuff for me please. will obviously pay for it and shipping and a fee you'd like for your time

If you're looking for a series where drivers don't seem to like each other as much i'd recommend F2 this year lol. It seems a lot of them on top truly dislike each other and Alex Dunne (the guy that got P4 on fp1 last week) being a terrorist doesn't help

jorgerr96 said:

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stateoftexas/tailgatetimer let me know when you head to Vegas and if you can grab some of that F1A stuff for me please. will obviously pay for it and shipping and a fee you'd like for your time

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Same here! I will pay for a 2XL F1A shirt!

There are a lot of social media posts about Mercedes pursuing Max for next year. Starting to feel like it is going to happen. I guess there are buyout and/or opt out clauses that would allow Max out of his current deal which ends in 2028, I think.

Red Bull will be in bad (worse) shape if that happens. Newey and Wheatley are already gone. Would Horner survive?

Supposedly the clause that Max can use is if he isn't Top 3 in the WDC before the second half of the season.
Red Bull doesn't seem to have a brilliant pool of upcoming drivers either, the RBJT doesn't feel as strong as before. Arvid will probably head to F1, besides him I like Tramnitz and McLaughlin but I'm not as excited for the junior team as I was in other years like 2021.

Will be very interesting to see how that shakes out. Red Bull definitely seems to be slipping.

Curious where George lands.

I saw a tiktok clip of a podcast a few minutes ago where one of the podcasters speculated that he was so chill about the wreck because it helped him with the clause about not being in the top 3.

Oh dude, that's another level of conspiracy that I had not considered.

right, i feel like he also is at peace and has accepted that the WDC is just not happening for him this year anymore. unless a McLaren civil war started and they took each other out more often lol

Yeah, I can definitely see that as well.

Random thoughts...

What the heck is going on with Yuki and Red Bull? I dont think anyone expected him to win a race, but good gosh man...why cant you finish in the points (or just get out of Q3 with regularity)? He has 7 whole points for Red Bull this year, while Lawson, in the Racing Bull, has outscored him this season. Is this a Red Bull issue or driver issue? Looking back, should they have just stayed with Lawson? On a side note, Max has 155 of 162 team points.

Will Max leave? It sounds like Russell is close to re-signing with Merc. I wouldn't think they'd want to lose Kimi (he has a bright future). But Max is Max, and I can't imagine Merc passes on him.

On a slightly related note, Russell is a cry-baby. I want to like him, but he gets on my nerves.

Who wins the second half of the season...Lando or Piastri? I really like both of those guys, so I'm happy for either, but super sad for the one who doesnt win it all. I find myself rooting for Lando, but Piastri is such a good driver, it's hard to be upset if he wins.

I wish Lewis was having more success in the Ferrari. It would have made things more fun this season. The team is in 2nd in the constructors, but Lewis is 6th in points. Hoping Ferrari can make things interesting the 2nd half of the season.

Happy for Williams. Last year they improved, and finished 9th. This year they're sitting in 5th. James Vowles seems like the real deal.

Good article about the red Bull situation:
PALMER: Why is Max Verstappen the only driver able to get results for Red Bull and what can the team do about it?

I think Max does go to Mercedes and they drop Russell.

Piastri will beat Norris comfortably, is my prediction.

Yeah I wish Lewis was doing better too. It seems that the car is getting better at least. With Charles being so consistent, I think Ferrari can take P2 in the constructors.