Cricket
England M tour of India, 2nd-4th Tests
Ha!
Take that, Bazballers!
I'll bet the 3rd test left them speechless!
Formula 1
Hamilton To Ferrari
Apparently Hamilton wanted a 3-year contract with Mercedes and Mercedes wanted a 1-year contract, so they compromised and went for a 2-year contract with an exit clause at the end of the 1st year.
It must've been a liberal exit clause because Hamilton triggered it before any track running.
This kicks Silly Season into chaos, with a vacant Mercedes seat and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari out of a seat.
Everyone who has a shot at the Mercedes seat:
- Carlos Sainz: the obvious answer, a driver swap, except he's linked with Audi (currently Sauber) for 2026, so spending a 2025 at Sauber is better than spending it at Mercedes
- Esteban Ocon: out of contract for 2025, a former Mercedes Academy driver, and his contract is still managed by Mercedes, but he looks happy at Alpine
- Alex Albon: hot prospect driving with Williams, who have previously acted as a B-team for Mercedes (allowing Mercedes to snipe Valtteri Bottas, and helping develop George Russell until a Mercedes seat opened up for him), but Albon is a Red Bull Academy driver (rivals) and has a contract with Williams till the end of 2025
- Mick Schumacher: signed as Mercedes's Reserve Driver after he lost a race seat going into 2023, with Mercedes saying "The Schumacher name belongs with Mercedes", but there's a reason he lost his seat at the end of 2022 and he will need to prove himself in WEC-Hypercar at Alpine
- Frederik Vesti: part of the Mercedes Academy, and placed a close 2nd in Formula 2 in 2023, but there's a hotter prospect for Mercedes...
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli: hottest young prospect, part of the Mercedes Academy, hailed as the next Max Verstappen, winning every series as a rookie, and has skipped F3 to race in F2 in 2024, but may not be mature enough by 2025
Kick Sauber
Sauber is based in Switzerland.
Stake is a gambling platform.
Advertising of gambling platforms is banned in Switzerland.
Having a title sponsor counts as advertising.
Bye-bye first half of "Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber".
Will be interesting to see what they do about the Stake logos on the car and overalls when they go race in other countries where it is illegal to advertise gambling companies.
Car reveals
A lot of the field has gone for less paint on their car for weight saving reasons, making the cars less distinguishable from each other.
Liveries
I love the Ferrari livery with cleverly hidden bare carbon fibre.
I love the Williams livery but they might quietly replace dark blue with bare carbon fibre.
I like the Mercedes, McLaren, Aston Martin, and Haas liveries, which have pleasingly-placed bare carbon fibre.
I like the colours on the Sauber, but the design looks terrible.
I like the colours and the design on the Alpine, but the difference between their blue and pink liveries is unnoticeable.
The Red Bull is same as always, and the V-CARB looks horrible but is the only light-coloured car on the grid.
Cars
Mercedes are giving me hope.
Red Bull did not upgrade their car last year and brought massive upgrades for this car.
Their design looks similar to the previous Mercedes design that they couldn't make work... and if Red Bull makes it work I am going to be very annoyed.
They do seem to be dominant anyway, and I will probably create a "Formula 1.5" where I ignore Red Bull.
Stay tuned.
Formula E
Hyderabad E-Prix
Last year's Hyderabad E-Prix was a success in racing terms, but it was a disaster operationally.
Communications between the FE Management and the Race Promoter was terrible, and there were lots of delays in construction, yada yada.
If you're an Indian like I am, you're unfazed by this, but the Formula E Management decided they did not want this headache next year.