#Budget Tyres

[ityres]

Are Budget Tyres Worth It? Here’s What You Need to Know!

When it comes to replacing tyres, many drivers wonder if buying budget tyres online are a smart choice or just a compromise on safety. The truth is, not all budget tyres are the same. Some offer great durability, wet grip, and fuel efficiency, making them a cost-effective alternative to premium brands.

But how do you choose the right ones? Look for tyres with good EU label ratings, positive customer reviews, and compatibility with your vehicle type. Many modern budget tyres now come with advanced tread technology that improves performance without the hefty price tag.

Have you ever tried budget tyres? How was your experience? Let’s discuss! 🚗💨

[ecotyresuk]

Which Type of Dunlop Tyres Are Best to Buy? 

When we are going to buy tyres, their type matters a lot. So that the tyres can handle every situation well, different types of tyres are made using different types of technology and materials. When we choose a tyre according to all our conditions, be it road conditions, weather or our driving style, it not only performs well but also remains valid for its working period. So, if you are also interested in knowing all this then read this page here we have also mentioned the weather-wise tyres under Dunlop, so get ready to select the best Tyres Southampton. 

[centraltyreswalsall]

Are Directional Car Tyres More Effective When Rotating Tyres?

People had to take some positive measures which affected their performance and go with it over the period. there is a wide range of options for tyres that affect the performance of the vehicle. In this blog, we have a wide range of selections of Budgets Tyres Walsall to move further for the basic performance of the vehicle.

[technicallyweepingmentality]

I don't even wake up everyday anymore

It's all just, constant amalgams, the same day over and over

I don't sleep so why say I woke up?

[ginebikes]

The Fastest Electric Bike {LATEST MODEL} 2023

The unconventional vehicle, "Made in Germany" (Berlin) uses a speed control, which at first glance appears to be conventional pedalling. However, this is not the case: only the speed of the Pi1 is regulated by pedaling slower or faster - for the inventor, Stefan Gulas, somehow "quite logical".

Main features: Gulas Pi1 or eROCKIT

128kg weight

38 hp

100 Nm torque

up to 115 km/h

Top speed and requires a well-stocked wallet (the price is around €25,000 depending on the equipment).

SHOP NOW: https://www.ginebikes.com/

[killa-trav]

Oliver Bearman: No lunch, hug from Lewis and a bad back - my F1 Debut

Ferrari's 18-year-old might not have realised his dream had his parents decided on a carpet for Christmas over buying their eldest child a go-kart when he was six

The first grand prix video game that Oliver Bearman played on his Xbox in his Chelmsford home was F1 2012, for which the advertisers’ tagline read: “Be the Driver. Live the Life. Go Compete”. When he was choosing which driver to adopt as his in-game persona, Bearman would alternate. “I used to always pick Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton,” he says. “They were the home heroes.”

Last weekend on the helter-skelter street circuit in Jeddah, he was given a more three-dimensional experience of Hamilton’s racing. As one of Ferrari’s reserve drivers, the 18-year-old was catapulted from the F2 meeting in which he had secured pole position to compete in his first Formula 1 race, with Carlos Sainz struck down by an appendicitis. He became the youngest British driver to race in a grand prix and the third youngest of any nationality.

In the closing stages, he found himself pursued by Hamilton and Lando Norris, both on fresher tyres and expected to gain ground quickly on Bearman’s Ferrari. Remarkably, the teenager held them off, finishing in seventh place, and the first person to greet him as he strode unsteadily out of his car was Hamilton, the seven-times world champion.

“I can’t really remember what he said,” Bearman says. “He shook my hand, gave me a hug, which was a great moment. I’ve grown up watching these guys and to have shared a track with them was just an honour. To have recognition from Lewis, one of the greatest in our sport, was a very proud moment.”

What Bearman had just done would have seemed, to most teenagers, like stepping directly through the screen and into one of those video games. Be the driver? Tick. Go compete? Tick. Live the life? Well, he did for one weekend, even if he was back that night, after the race, in the budget Ibis hotel where all the F2 drivers had been billeted.

This week he returned to a dose of relative normality at his flat in Modena, from where he spoke to The Times. He is based at the Ferrari Driver Academy and walking into the company factory on Tuesday, he glanced at the big screens around the building that are usually showing footage of Sainz and Charles Leclerc in action. Bearman had to pause momentarily when he looked up to see his own image.

Over the past couple of days he has been testing near Venice with his F2 team, Prema, beginning preparations for his next race in Australia, for which he flies out on Saturday. As Sainz is expected to have recovered, Bearman should be back in his F2 car in Melbourne, but last weekend demonstrated the need to be ready for anything and Bearman, with composure beyond his years, showed that he was more than equal to the task.

May the G-force be with you

When he eventually made it back to his hotel room, the first thing he did, naturally, was to watch the entire race back. “The race finished about 10pm, you have about 1½ hours of media and then you’re into a debrief with the team,” he says. “By the time I got back to the hotel, it was 1am, and by the time I got to sleep it was half two, because I had to watch the race. We had a flight at 11am, so I slept for five hours, which didn’t help because I needed some recovery. But I had to watch the race. I’ve watched it maybe five times now.”

How did it feel watching it back? “The first time I was like, ‘Ah, I missed a bit of lap time there, I should have overtaken there,’ ” he says. “But now I’m really happy with what I achieved. I don’t think I could have asked much more of myself, considering the circumstances.”

The next morning he had breakfast with his F2 team and realised how gingerly he was walking, having experienced the G-force — up to about 5G — of an F1 car for the first time, in a race almost twice the length of his usual outings, with over 50 laps and about 1hr 40min of time on the track. His seat had been swiftly installed in Sainz’s car and the indentations in his headrest gave an indication of how he had been jolted around.

“Most of the pain was from my lower back,” he says. “The neck is a given, but Jeddah is one of the most difficult tracks. Even the straights, they twist quite a bit, which doesn’t look much, but when you repeat it 50 times, there’s no rest. With my back, I’m quite tall [6ft 2in], F1 cars are very tight and not built for comfort. Everything was very last minute. When I made the seat, I didn’t think I’d be having to use it.”

Bearman was struck by the physical differences from F2. “We don’t have as much downforce or G-force in F2, so the strain is much less,” he says. “But we don’t have power steering in F2, so the steering work is super-heavy. When I’ve finished an F2 race, my arms are usually tired, but apart from that I’m fine. In F1, the steering is very light, but it’s everything else. You’re just getting thrown around. Muscles you don’t feel like you’re engaging, they’re aching the next day.

“And it’s exhausting; you lose a lot of water, I couldn’t believe how sweaty I was. The race is so long. Every time you cross the finish line, the dash pops up with how many laps [there are] to go. I could have sworn that number stayed frozen for a couple of laps. When I got to 25 laps, I was like, ‘Wow, we’re only halfway!’ It was a big challenge. But I really enjoyed it.”

'I realised this is really happening'

Ever since he sat behind the wheel of his first go-kart, a Christmas present at the age of six, Bearman has displayed a relish for the challenges of racing, with an exceptional ability to learn quickly. It is only 3½ years since he moved from karting to racing cars and his progress has been swift. His prowess in karting led to a Formula 4 opportunity in 2021 with the same Van Amersfoort Racing team with whom Max Verstappen had driven, and his results were spectacular. The next season he drove in Formula 3, the next in Formula 2, finishing sixth last year in the drivers’ standings.

But the step he was being asked to take on Friday, shortly after ordering chicken and rice for lunch in his Jeddah hotel, was something else altogether. After securing pole position for the F2 race, he had enjoyed a relaxing morning and was ready to eat alongside his father, David, his manager, Chris Harfield, Jamie Smith, his former kart mechanic, and other members of his team.

“I was feeling really chilled, I’d been in the gym and we didn’t have to be on the track until 3pm,” he says. “And then I got the call.” That came from Frédéric Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal. “I could guess what was about to be said,” Bearman says. “Something just clicked and I was, like, ‘Right, this is it.’ They said we had to be at the track in half an hour. My food didn’t even come out. I skipped lunch completely and went straight to the track.”

Within three hours he would be in the final practice session, with qualifying to come that evening. “When I got to the track, the news hadn’t been announced, so no one was taking any notice of me,” he says. “By the time I was walking to the car, everyone knew, and I was shocked at the amount of people gathering. That was very nerve-racking; I’m not used to that attention. And I got nervous when I saw some of the big stars. But that all made me realise: this is really happening.”

From kart track to street circuit

On the fastest street circuit in the F1 calendar, despite less than an hour of practising in the car, Bearman drove admirably in qualifying, coming 11th and only missing out on the final ten-car session by finishing 0.036sec behind Hamilton. For the first few laps of the race the next day, he achieved the aim of keeping out of trouble before the chance to exhibit his native racing instincts presented itself.

On the 11th lap, shortly after a safety car interlude, Bearman found himself behind the RB-Honda of Yuki Tsunoda. He dummied to pass on the right, prompting Tsunoda to cover his tracks, only to duck inside and pass on the left.

“It was a nice overtake, I was happy with that one, I’ve watched it back quite a few times,” Bearman says. “A lot of your racecraft comes from karting; I remember from eight, nine years old, racing bumper to bumper for the entire race. Those dummy moves are perfect, especially in karting without wing mirrors. It still works if you time it well.”

From an early age, Bearman had developed a passion for cars, inherited from his father. David had raced at club level and Bearman would go along to the track whenever possible. He developed a knack for identifying the makes and models of cars. “I’d have been able to name every single car on the road,” he says. “I was a bit of a nerd with that. At home, I had a bunch of model cars. A lot of kids have their thing, mine was model cars. I had a Bentley, a Ferrari, a jeep. I had my own little world there. Once I’d got my first kart, I just couldn’t wait to go racing.”

Perfect Christmas present for a boy racer

That first kart, bought in Christmas 2011, might not have come his way if his parents — David and his mum, Terri — had opted instead to buy the new carpet that was sorely needed at the family home. “We had some old lino that I absolutely hated,” David says. “We were either getting the carpet for Christmas or the go-kart. We scraped together the £1,500 for the go-kart and knew it was worth it the first time he jumped in; he just had a beaming smile all over his face.”

Once Bearman had given some early glimpses of his talent, at the age of eight he was entered into the British Championships, which meant long weekends on the road up and down the country for father and son. Bearman was often the youngest in his race, experiences that would prove formative. “One race, at Buckmore Park, I was up against some 12-year-olds and they just looked huge compared to me,” he says. “I remember the nerves. It was a rolling start and I got spun round before the race even started. They saw I was a novice and said, ‘Let’s get rid of this guy.’ But I loved those weekends and I learnt a lot.”

The problem was that the better Bearman became, the greater the cost involved in financing the hobby. His father knew from his own attempts to compete in motorsport how prohibitive the costs could be and realised he needed to be prepared. He had started an insurance broking firm in east London with his sister and brother and realised that the business needed to bring in more money if he was going to be able to support his son’s hobby, with two other children as well, Thomas, now 14, another budding racer, and Amalie, now 12.

In Ollie’s early teens, the next competitive step would have been to start travelling around Europe to compete in the FIA Karting Championship, but that was not a viable option. “You get the best karters in Europe, but the problem for us was twofold,” David says. “One, it’s very expensive, and we couldn’t afford it. Two, you’re taking the kids out of education, some of them at ten or 11. Yes, we were supporting him in sport but we didn’t know it was potentially a career. There are no guarantees in life and his education was really important.”

The insurance business, Aventum, has grown considerably, is now housed in smart offices in the City and has been one of Ollie’s primary sponsors. “We’ve had to keep upping our game and attracting more sponsors,” David says. “If you look at Ollie’s F2 car, every little bit is covered in sponsorship. I don’t own our business, we’re all shareholders; we can’t blow money just because it’s Ollie, there has to be a genuine return.

“But people look at this sport and think it’s for the elite only. Anyone can do it if you work hard enough and have the right mindset. Ollie is the proof of that.”

Passed GCSEs and a failed driving test

It was when Ollie’s success in F4 attracted the attention of Ferrari that the possibility of a career in the sport became tangible. He had just completed his GCSEs, with glowing results, at King Edward’s, a grammar school in Chelmsford, and a place at the Ferrari Driver Academy was an exciting prospect, but he had only just turned 16 and the idea of moving abroad without his family was daunting. “At the start, I missed my family and I tried to get home as much as possible to see them, it was tough and I was lonely,” Ollie says. “Now I still miss them, but I’ve got lots of friends here and I’ve grown up a bit.”

Learning the language was another challenge into which Bearman threw himself. A little more than two years later, he has picked up Italian to the extent that even his spoken English now comes with something of a lilt. “My friends do make fun of me for sounding a bit international,” he says. “Latin was compulsory at my school and I remember thinking, ‘I’m never going to need this,’ but it’s come in handy.”

On his returns to Essex, he now has the luxury of being able to drive on English roads, having passed his driving test 18 months ago. While he had already been identified by Ferrari as a future world champion, it was not something that impressed his driving examiner. “I failed my test the first time, which was really embarrassing. I asked [the examiner] if he liked F1, he said he hated it, and he failed me because he reckoned I didn’t stop at a stop sign. It was so difficult for me, things like how they want you to feed the [steering] wheel, it’s counterintuitive for me. I had to put a lot of thinking into that. I only took one lesson, I thought it would be easy. I found out the hard way that it wasn’t.”

He spends three or four days per month in England now and every time he returns home he hopes that he is still recognised by his dogs, Freddie, an English bull terrier, and Ruby, a Boston terrier. “I can’t Facetime them like I can my family,” he says. “But they always seem excited to see me.”

He still misses his family, but he knows that he is in the right place to continue his exhilarating progress towards one of those coveted regular seats in F1. “I’ve been making sacrifices all my life,” he says. “When I was younger, it was little things like birthday parties when I was away karting on weekends. My schoolmates would laugh when I said in year three that I wanted to be an F1 driver. Now I miss out on seeing family and friends. But I’d do it again in a heartbeat and I’ll keep doing it to make my dream a reality.”

BY JOHN WESTERBY FOR THE TIMES

[riftclaw]

So I blew a tyre on Sunday and while I was able to cover repairs, that money came straight out of the food budget. I've gotta make it to the 21st, so I'm taking commissions again to try and cover that. I've added a shaded illustration option and a character design option, if either of those are of interest.

Check out my ko-fi below for pricing and orders:

Any reshares are super appreciated. Thank you for reading.

[chussyracing]

What has been happening in the world of motorsports?

I probably forgot a lot of stuff since I took too much time to post it, but the roundup is under the cut. All mistakes are my own!

Drivers and teams

All teams will have a shared launch event in London for next year, all drivers are confirmed to take part in it and there should be famous names like Madonna and Justin Bieber (who is funnily enough blacklisted from Ferrari after repainting his against their rules hehe) also Max already stated he would rather be sick that week than be included

Update there is slight backleash from fans because it sold out very quickly and then tickets already get resold for much higher price

Also Ferrari already announced their own launch event in Maranello and all Italian fans (or fans physically in Italy) that buy tickets to their museums can be entered into the giveaway for tickets to get there

In 2025 VCARB should be named Racing Bulls

They should also be using some parts from RB20 (I think suspension?) on for Las Vegas which should speed them up

Dan Fallowes left Aston Martin’s position of technical director after Brazil

Also Aston Martin scored a new partnership with Puma for 2025

According to FIA’s newest controls Red Bull didn’t use the front bib to alter the ride height between quali and races so there was no cheating from their side

Antonio Fuoco will do a junior FP1 session for Ferrari in Abu Dhabi in Carlos’ car after Ollie can no longer be considered as junior (he drove 3 races and the rules specifically state no more than two to be considered junior)

Nico, Este and Carlos has been cleared from their teams to do Abu Dhabi post season tests for their new teams

The same cannot be said about Lewis but the date when he will go to Maranello for the first time has been set already, as have been the details of him driving f1-75 since only old spec is allowed outside of texting and filming days

To nobody’s surprised Alpine will use Mercedes PUs from 2026 onwards (it should be a 5-year deal as of now and since it ramps up the value of the team I expect them to start looking for a buyer after 2026)

Inaki Rueda (yes, THE race strat head from Ferrari that we made petitions against) joined Audi under Binotto (he replaces Zehnder who will move into a different position in the team)

Red Bull accused certain teams that acquired their engineers and mechanics over the years from cheating with tyres by inserting a small amount of water in them to help cool them down and Pirelli responded that they found no evidence for this so far (also red bull thinks so because they were the ones who tried to find a way to cheat with this but weren’t successful SO FAR)

James Vowles mentioned how after all the heavy crashes, with only 3 races to go and a small budget, it will be difficult to bring parts to Las Vegas which caused a few ill-minded articles about no Williams in Vegas BUT the truth is they might bring in old specs and with no spare parts but they will be there

Merc is preparing a special goodbye livery for Lewis for Abu Dhabi (and you can be a part of it if you sign up on their website and get chosen)

Audi (or Stake because it will be funnier what I say next) is selling a stake in the team to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund

Recent interviews with Toto (a motorsport podcast and the new motorsport book) show him as a pretty big loser because he spoke about Lewis mentioning that Sainz Sr told him about the move in Abu Dhabi 2023 and he texted Fred who left him on read and he also said that Lewis saved him some trouble hinting that they would need to get rid of him because of… *checks notes* lack of cognitive sharpness since everyone has shelf life??

Williams will add more yellow color to their Vegas livery for Keeper sponsorship

Silly season

Sauber confirm both Valtteri and Guanyu are out of the team at the end of the season and their 2025 driver line up is Nico and Gabriel Bortoleto (who untied the relationship with McLaren where he was on loan)

There are growing speculations (almost confirmed tbh) that Val could become Mercedes’ reserve driver

There are also MANY speculations about Franco: Horner visited Williams’ motorhome and they rumoredly offered to buy him for 10m and Williams said no unless they come up with a bigger check (Briatore is also looking at the possibilities of hiring him which would put Jack Doohan aside after he signed the deal with them for next year)

There are rumors Checo could get replaced next year, there are ones he will keep the seat and that he will bring more sponsorship money (choose your fighter)

What happened in the sport recently

Toto Wolff was missing from Brazilian GP

To celebrate Senna, Brazil had special pole award with Brazilian colors, special top 3 caps for the podium in yellow and green and with “Senna” at the back and Lewis drove Senna’s McLaren as the honorary citizen of Brazil

McLaren said the WDC was never their priority, and they always went for the constructor’s title after Brazil where they made Oscar let Lando in front twice in the same weekend (el oh el)

Little hats off to Fernando (it’s not really news but he deserves it), his back pain was so bad in Brazil he couldn’t even get out of the car afterwards, yet he decided to finish the race for the mechanics that worked to get the car repaired for the race after he crashed it in qualifying the same day

Women in motorsport and juniors

Alex Powell became Italian F4 rookie champ for 2024 I thought that is very neat

Rafaela Ferreira becomes another confirmed member of F1 Academy’s 2025 line up and will be driving for VCARB (she is the first female race winner of the Brazilian F4 Championship)

The 2024 F1 Academy champ (so most likely Abbi Pulling) will get a fully funded GB3 seat with Rodin for 2025 and 20 paid days of testing in the car before the season

Callum Voisin will stay with Rodin in F3 for 2025

There is rumor (which I wouldn’t believe so far) that Briatore is interested in Franco Colapinto and would like to set Jack Doohan’s contract aside for him

Dino will be racing for DAMS in F2 for the rest of the season to replace Juan Manuel Correa (yes but also nooooo)

With Jack confirmed for Alpine 2025 (for now at least) there are speculations of Paul Aron possibly becoming their reserve driver since the current TP of Alpine was also his boss in Hitech

Max Esterson will finish the season for Trident in F2

There is a RUMOUR for now that Roman Staněk could have a deal with Invicta in F2 for a full season seat next year (please and thank you)

Thomas Bearman (yes, Ollie’s baby brother) became first confirmed British F4 driver for 2025 (he will be racing with Hitech since he already had two races with them)

Chloe Grant is leaving the world of single seaters but wants to explore other racing options

Hailie Deegan will be driving Indy NXT in 2025 with HMD Motorsports

Richard Verschoor is switching to MP Motorsport after leaving Trident, meaning Denis Hauger is out of F2 for the rest of the season (he will move to Andretti in Indy though)

Nikola Tsolov (my arch nemesis) became the newest part of Red Bull junior academy

Roman Bilinski will be Rodin’s F3 driver in 2025

Nikola Tsolov will be Campos’ F3 driver in 2025

Nicola Lacorte will be DAMS’ F3 driver in 2025

Fia, rules and future of the sport

Honda got fined 600k for engine budget cap breach (incorrectly filled out documentation) and Alpine got fined 400k for engine budget cap breach (late submission of the documentation)

GPDA made an Instagram account and put up a joint statement/an open letter to Bey Sulayem mentioning swearing, jewelry and underwear rules and urging the president to change his tone when talking to and about the drivers and be transparent about the use of money they get from all the financial fines as it is unclear as it stands now

FUNNILY enough, Sulayem who is biggest voice calling for lack of politic gestures and speech from all sport figures in F1 congratulated Trump publicly on his elections campaign

Domenicali said to be ready for the news very soon which should be linked to the rotating calendar for European races he couldn’t stop talking about for a year now (after Monaco extended its contract it could be Spa and Zandvoort and also potentially Monza and Imola)

Oh, also he said that Argentina is among the candidates who would like to get added to the calendar

Race director Niels Wittich was fired from his role unexpectedly (according to him, he only got told on Tuesday morning) and he will be replaced by Rui Maques from Las Vegas on

Paolo Basarri also left the role of FIA compliance officer (and yes, he was most likely fired as well)

Monaco will stay on the calendar at least till 2031 after extending their deal, the date will be moved back to the start of June starting from 2026 (happy pride to all the non-straight non-cis chirlies out there we stay winning) so it will no longer clash with Indy 500 and the new deal includes higher hosting fees (of course)

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei leaves his position in the lead at the end of the year but will continue as an adviser (they are apparently restructuring so let’s see how it goes)

Drivers will have cooling sets for extreme heat races from 2025 onwards (when FIA proclaims the race as extremely warm one that is)

The rookie sprint got a green light from all teams but they will need some preparations to make that happen so they will aim to have it ready for 2026

Also there should be gender neutral wording in the FIA rules starting with 2026 onwards

Ohh and! If a car cannot start the race, the grid should now be brought closer

Other series

Arthur Leclerc’s team Scuderia Baldini won the Italian GT championship

Kinda not my playing ground but: Norman Nato will be driving for WEC Jota Sport team (they partnered with Cadillac tho, also he will be teammates with Jenson Button)

Joseph Loake drove Aston at Silverstone as his prize for winning Autosport Young Driver of the Year (and apparently his time was pretty good?)

Jak Crawford became Andretti’s reserve driver for Formula E

REMINDER MACAU GP THIS WEEKEND (before I forget :))

Another thing I am not really following but I just learned Nascar works in playoff system until 4 people stay (Joey Logano won for those who wanna know!! Also, the guy with most points ended up p5 WHAT)

Logan Sargeant did a seat fit with Meyer Shank Racing Honda and will be testing with them next week as well

Seb is in talks with WEC next year with Porsche (probably for Le Mans only tho)

Robert Schwartzman will leave Ferrari WEC at the end of the season and go to Prema in IndyCar, meaning we will also need a new reserve driver with Ollie in F1 and Arthur with his own race weekends

Toyota Gazoo Racing won WEC constructor title, Jota won the hypercar title

Enzo Fittipaldi will be doing IndyCar testing for McLaren (so random)

Non-sport news

With Lewis leaving, Mercedes put up a vacant position for Marketing Operations Driver Clothing Executive

Ferrari partnered with IBM on a multi-year basis starting in 2025

Oh, they also partnered with Chivas Regal whiskey (so I suppose this is what the leaked Charles by the piano pic is all about)

Williams also scored new deals with Zoox/Robotaxi

F1 Fantasy will feature a new mini league for Las Vegas only

Car fucker fun fact of the day: Bugatti W16 mistral set a new open roof speed record of 453.91 kmph

Las Vegas is apparently struggling to sell out the tickets for the race so there are many exclusive offers and sales (also apparently, they are giving away a lot of ticket packages to influencers)

Ferrari partnered with Gladiator movie producers so the main actor (Paul or Pedro I forgot I am sorry) went to Austin with them and on the other hand Charles and Carlos went to the premiere

Daniel and Max played padel which is something I would normally not mention on my blog even at the gunpoint but apparently a 13-year-old kiddo beat them (which makes it funnier that they did good when max was partnered with Charles that one time so I am automatically ranking him highly above most other drivers and you cannot stop me)

Carlos was at Maranello this week and the Scuderia clubs (are they still called that?) threw a little goodbye party for him with cake and a little plaque

McLaren will have a little fashion show with Abercrombie in Las Vegas

Speaking of Vegas, they partnered with Snoopy and made a special edition merch only available in shops there

Kit Kat became F1’s official partner (which is sus when they have publicly been Checo’s sponsor for years now)

Wait ok this rumor is so funny I need to add it: apparently there are rumors at Norwegian gossip websites that their princess could be dating Franco

Max was on some charity sim racing and apparently his car made fun of Lando, so people got into a lot of discourse

Ollie will be at Autosport Internation Show at NEC in January

Damon Hill is leaving Sky Sport after 13 years with the team

Yeah help, did you see Pierre has told kids in a podcast that him and Charles got asked for a threesome/polyam by some fan once????????

[mcgnussen]

Have you seen the news about Guenther? I wonder what it will mean for Haas going forward? I'm honestly a bit worried about Kevin now. What do you think?

i have seen it and i have some thoughts 👀

i think it was the right call. haas has basically struggled with the same problem during all their years in f1 and guenther has not been able to fix this issue in 8 years. the car has always been hard on the tyres and it's been a problem since day 1 basically. sometimes you need new blood and i think komatsu will do a good job. while i don't love that the rumours say it's because gene doesn't want to spend more money then i also don't think haas is maximising what they got. they have a healthy budget now and yet the same problems that have been there from the start are still there. changes needed to be made.

i don't have high hopes for the car this year. while the new spec they will use this year is better for the tyres, it's also considerably slower. of course, i hope they have found a miracle fix during the winter break but i seriously doubt it.

regarding kevin then my belief since the summer has been that kevin will retire from f1 this year unless he has a top 5 car. i think kevin's retirement from f1 is even more likely now. in 2024, it will have been ten years since his f1 debut. he has talked about how it's hard to be away from his daughters. he's not even interested in indycar anymore because it will take him away from them too often. i think k-mag will retire from f1 on his own terms in 2024 and go back to racing sports cars. and i will be super sad but also happy that laura and agnes get to have their dad at home more often. i really hope he will continue to support girls in motorsports and coach young talent! ❤️

[aquitainequeen]

Aside from news on how things possibly stand for a Shadow and Bone/Six Of Crows renewal (basically no news is good news, keep going with the campaign!) there's also a short interview with Eric Heisserer, which sheds some interesting light indeed on the writing and making of Season Two, and it explains a lot of things:

Here are the questions posed for Eric's interview: 

"I'd like to know if there's a way to liberate the pre-written scripts if Netflix doesn't plan on using them" - Christian Thalmann (creator of the Fjerdan language)

"In my view, 'The Crows' have the potential to revitalize the Grishaverse. Unlike "Shadow and Bone", this new show could rely less on elaborate visual effects and offer a fresh narrative angle. Heist-themed shows are currently in high demand, adding to its appeal. Am I mistaken in thinking that our focus should primarily be on 'The Crows'? The likelihood of 'Shadow and Bone' returning seems slim, but I've always believed that 'The Crows' had a greater change of success." - Joleen

"If/when the spinoff is back (finger crossed) was there anything he had planned that would completely surprised, for good reasons obviously, the audience? And we should hold our breath for that twist/turn??" - Rti

"What are the difficulties you mentioned about filming S2 in that Reddit comment? Don't want to sound negative, but what went wrong?!" - Mitra

"How long was the sizzle reel ready to go but he had to keep it secret?" - Discord Team

"I would love to know his perspective on the impact of streaming on storytelling. Would we have had to launch a campaign like this 10-15 years ago for a show like this? What are the main points when it comes to streaming models and telling unique, diverse stories?" - Acorn_Bri

Eric's Responses: 

1) "There is a way to liberate the Crows scripts from Netflix, yes, and in fact that would be part of the buyout for another streamer when acquiring the rights to Leigh's novels. It would be a package deal." 

2) "The focus on the Crows is helpful in two ways -- first, those scripts were written, which lets us get a running start at production, and second, just from casual analysis of book sales, it's far more popular worldwide than other Grishaverse titles. So it will be a bigger draw for viewers. The trap though is the cost. It's more grounded than S&B, sure, but the Ice Court is a unique location that either requires a really costly set build, or set extensions and VFX work to make it look authentic, which means nearly every shot of the heist once our crew gets there could be a VFX shot. My guess is the budget would be on par with S2 of S&B.

3) "Yes, there is a surprise or two in the Crows spinoff season, but overall it's as close to the novel as we could make it. And Leigh's novel is such an amazing story with natural cliffhangers that work as episode "out" moments, etc. I think the biggest move we made was to feature every single Crow's backstory to go with their episode. So that was fun/sad/exciting." 

4) S2 kept throwing challenges at us, and it started long before we got to production. Like months earlier, when we learned the location we needed for the Little Palace in S1 was closed to us due to the pandemic. So right there we lost out on a ton of S&S scenes, because it wouldn't be a match. But we also had written a compelling side arc for Ivan and Fedyor in S2, these two Grisha trapped on either side of the civil war. Each of them played a big role in the story, but Simon (Ivan) had a feature film that overlapped with our schedule and couldn't move, which meant we lost him. So Daegan worked to revise the season keeping Fedyor and leaving Ivan like dead from the end of S1. He was Kirigan's right-hand man for the season. But poor Julian caught COVID just when we were to shoot out most of his scenes, and after tyring to ake the schedule work, we had to come to the brutal truth that there wasn't a way to keep Fedyor in the story. Our only option was to bring him in at like episode 8, which would've been too little, too late. 

COVID continued to be a monster all through production, requiring us to juggle schedules and miss out on days, and it was madness for the cast, who had to pivot with almost no notice whenever someone was ill and quarantined. This isn't unique to our show of course---it happened with everyone. It's just the challenge. 

Beyond that, we had been given the go to write a special standalone story: The Demon in the Wood. This would have been released on its own around Christmas, like a BBC special but for Netflix, and would help bridge seasons 1 and 2 by showing a little of what Kirigan was doing before we seem him in S2, and also provide more character context, etc. Christina Strain wrote that and did great work adapting Leigh's short story. But it never went the distance. 

There was a lot more to S2 as well, scenes and side stories and little interactions that were lost due to budget or time restrictions. Again, not unique to our show, but agonizing all the same, since what you get is not what we had written, or in some cases even shot. I'm incredibly proud of the cast and the team, and Daegan did the heaviest lifting while I was off finishing the Crows writing room. But we had a lot more thrown at us." 

5) That sizzle reel was put together four months before the second season dropped. 

6) Streaming is a challenge to serialized storytelling in that it looks at 'content' often with a different agenda and uses metrics that can take a creative issue and exacerbate it. Like in broadcast, if viewership and thus ad revenue has slightly declined, the show will ned to find a way to make their 22 or 13 episodes on a proportionally smaller budget. What is not done is reduce episode order. But if a streaming series underperforms or doesn't meet expectations, an the streamer doesn't cancel it outright, the go-to budget reduction idea is to reduce episode order for the next season. When you just have 8 episodes and continue to deal with notes to compress, pace up, or omit for what you'd scripted for a longer season, reducing further to six or four episodes is exhausting. 

This happens due to a slide in autonomy from what the showrunner position has been. What the chatter on the picket lines revealed to us is that most showrunners today don't get to see their own show's budget, and thus don't get the freedom to make budgetary decisions that could better protect the story they're telling. More and more, showrunners not at a legacy network aren't the final say or at times even involved in hiring key roles. I don't have any ideas that aren't already in contract language, I just see how the job on this side has gotten harder and there isn't much of a way for us to make it easier for each other like we could with having writers on set or in post production, because the streaming model has made that impossible." 

[charlesandmartine]

Sunday 24th November 2024

It was a gorgeous start to the day. Sunrise was around 5.40, and the sun took over right from the very start as it dominated the clear blue skies. The parakeets, cockatoos, and butcher bird resumed their squawking and returned from the direction to which they went at sunset. Their concophony sounding very much like car tyres squealing around a racetrack, persisting in bursts of several minutes, its decrescendo dying to a steady conversational mutter and then as though on mass they remember something they meant to say, it all starts up again. Dawn is such a fascinating time of day here, wherever you are in this fantastic country. The birdsong is unbelievable.

We set off after breakfast for the lake. This was to be a bit of a sortout day, because tomorrow we make a four and a half hour dash to the coast at Townsville where upon we check in the Ford to Europcar and pick up a smaller SUV from Mr Avis. It looks like there's going to be a bit of a penalty to pay on the mileage we've covered. We are over budget by a bit of a margin!

Before our lakeside visit, we travelled to the edge of town on Flinders to take a look at the local cemetery. Gloomy subject but interesting. Rumour has it that the original cemetery was across the road from where it is now and had been moved in the late 1800s. Apparently, there are no council records to confirm, although, from memory, the council offices had burned down at some stage, no doubt destroying said info. To add a little intrigue, there's one remaining grave in the old position. It is of a Jewish 22 year old lady, Jeanette Tolano, who died giving birth in 1883. Interestingly, that is Jewish year 5644. It is said that the solitary grave was not moved due to religious reasons. People were dying to get to the new cemetery by the mid-1880s and it is still in use today. There were 2 graves that stole my attention and were of accidental killing. George Galton was a fireman on the down 11 train travelling from Hughenden to Richmond when near midnight on 1st December 1938, there was a head-on collision with a light train and van in what was to become known as the Moselle Railway Collision. The inquest notes say there was no evidence of alcohol and the signals were working correctly, according to a witness. Very sad events, the three dead were both drivers and George, our fireman. These are the problems associated with single track and why tokens were introduced in the UK. So, after cheering ourselves thus, we set off for the lake. Man made, the lake was built in 2018, funded mainly by the Australian Government Building Better Regions scheme, and covers 59 acres. Clearly, this is still a new venture, but they have created a terrific amenity, and the naturalisation process is well under way with fish, wildlife, and birds abundant. We walked its perimeter, amused by a boat owner who bothered to load his craft onto a body of water, which is not, after all, Lake Windermere!

A brief respite back in the house, cleaning the Ford and doing some sorting for an early push to Townsville. Then, back to the lake, enveloped in warmth to watch the sun go down and enjoy this wonderful experience with a glass of Coopers Pale Ale and nibbles. Perfect, why can't we do this st home! Then we found ourselves talking to a young couple who had just got engaged and were planning their honeymoon for 2026 in Scotland. Congratulations all round.

We have liked Hughenden, but I wouldn't say it's been the best outback town we've stayed in. Sadly, as we approach Townsville, we shall officially leave the Outback in favour of the more civilised but perhaps more predictable East Coast. Everyone is warning us that we will be leaving the temperatures behind in favour of the more temperate coastal areas. Perhaps more people, too?

ps. As we have travelled through Northern Territories and now Queensland, we have had problems buying alcohol because of the strict rules limiting licensing hours and ID. Then we found certain everyday items are locked away in supermarkets. Deodorants are restricted because people get high by sniffing them, which I thought was their purpose!!

pps. Later, we watched 'Last Cab to Darwin' on Netflix. It's a slit your wrists film about a terminally ill taxi driver who is offered assisted dying. The thing is, apart from the main theme, he is driving through all the places we have just been.

[f0point5]

if they want to continue the qatar gp they should just build a bubble around it for environment issues since the have so much budget to buy the race like the paddock design is pretty cool but what’s the use if the main event (race) is shit

They can have it later in the year so it’s not completely undriveable but the track has other issues. Like the tyre issues. Idk I think either add India, or Malaysia, somewhere interesting, or bring back one of the many European races that got cut to make way for this.

They do have a stunning paddock though I was really impressed by that.

But again, throwing money at it isn’t what makes an exciting race.

[ginebikes]

Are you eagerly waiting for your bike accessories to arrive? Do you wonder what's inside the box? Well, we got you covered! In this article, we will take a closer look at the latest upgrades and accessories that just arrived in our office.

More Info: https://www.ginebikes.com/

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)”

I am honestly glad we are getting more movies in the Monsterverse. The movies have been amazing or anything but they have been thoroughly entertaining. After Godzilla vs Kong, we are getting a team-up movie with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Does this continue to be entertaining, or is this finally the entry that bores you?

You came to this movie for big monsters fighting and in this aspect, the movie succeeds. There are a great many fight scenes in this movie, especially with Kong. I love the way Kong fights and how you can clearly see how he is strategizing and planning compared to Godzilla's ferocious animalistic style. They also created a new villain for Kong with "The Scar King". I love the design of him and his more agile style of fighting. The movie builds up to an epic 3rd act brawl and it is insanely entertaining and worth watching for it alone.

The CGI is pretty good considering that this is the cheapest MonsterVerse movie so far. Hollow Earth looks great and Kong looks phenomenal. Godzilla has a new pink design for story reasons and it looks fine. There are some visually great-looking shots by returning cinematographer, Ben Seresin, that capture the mystical nature of Hollow Earth and the Titans. Kong is the main lead in this film and he is the stand-out star. There are many scenes with just Kong and other apes that go on for 10 minutes long with no dialogue or humans and they work so well. Just through Kong's facial expression and body language, you can perfectly understand the emotion and the story that is being conveyed. It is impressive. In terms of human characters, Trapper played by Dan Stevens is a fun newcomer. He has excellent chemistry with returning character Bernie played by Brian Tyree Henry.

Unfortunately, the story concerning the human characters is still incredibly dumb. There are many questionable and stupid things such as why they only brought one armed soldier for a mission or why even a conspiracy podcaster is even involved in the mission. The human characters are still not interesting or engaging enough to care about. They tried to incorporate the mother-and-daughter relationship plot element again with returning characters Dr. Ilene (Rebecca Hall) and Jia (Kaylee Hottle) but it doesn't work well because they don't explore it enough. For the most part, Ilene is again the exposition character. It's a shame as Godzilla Minus One shows that you can do big monsters and engaging human characters in a movie.

The pacing drops off significantly around the second act where it just has a bunch of humans talking and exposition dumps. Additionally, Godzilla is barely in this movie despite being the first in the title. Every fight scene concerning Godzilla barely lasts a minute in the first 2 acts. It is understandable to show how powerful Godzilla is but it would have been nice to see the fights last a bit longer. On that note, while the fights are indeed entertaining, they are not as well choreographed as the ones in Godzilla vs Kong. Junkie XL returns to score the music for this movie but it definitely lacks the impact that Junkie usually does. The music score is a bit forgettable.

Overall, I came to see giant monsters fight and I got exactly that. This feels like a very high-budget B movie and honestly, that is completely fine. Godzilla x Kong is another entertaining movie in the MonsterVerse and I hope more is made in this cinematic universe. The possibilities are endless!

For more reviews like this visit:

https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

[lord-leclerc]

OMG this became so long, I'm sorry 🤣

I feel like this year is tricky and will continue to be so because so much is going on internally.

Starting with a TP change, it is huge and I think people overlook that if Fred goes in too hard by trashing Ferrari to the media and throwing too many out at once, the higher ups might play games to muffle him and protect the Ferrariname. Personally that's what it seemed like from his comments on Spain- he's treading carefully now because he went in deep already, now he's moving more carefully. However, he's also made it clear that he's going for a championship asap with Charles. Nonetheless, Fred is not Ferrari- he can make an impression, but not the whole impact- there is a lot if work that needs to be done and politics to be sorted through before they can get there. The good thing is that Charles reallyyyy appreciates Fred as a TP, so he might stick around for a bit longer in this case.

The problems with the car are varied, but one big thing is that the data they have is not matched to the performance. So we cannot loudly scream incompetence because there is clearly something severly wrong that will take time to solve, so performance is going to hindered by that until atleast the data can start to correlate.

As for Charles, he's feeling it, but I think it will be okay and we cannot overly pity him. He realistically (unfortunately) has the best seat he can have for the next two seasons atleast. RB would only take him to get rid of the competition by making him second driver, and Merc is full unless Lewis wants to fuck around for fun and retire. Idk about others, but I would rather watch him pull miracles from a rebuilding Ferrari team than always be second to Max in the same equipment but restrained bc it's Max's team and he has seniority. That being said, it would be smart for him to renew his contract in 1-2 year increments so he can jump ship if need be lol.

Moral of this ridiculously long ass post(sorry again!), it's painful now, but there is potential. Yes - Ferrari have a shit car and are restructuring, but those can be settled slowly in through the year. Yes- Ferrari have changed TP multiple times, but this time, it's Fred who is experienced AND has a close relationship with Charles, you cannot say that existed with other TPs. There is potential that Charles and Fred can be a strong force in Ferrari. It sucks to watch Charles suffer, but he'll bounce back because he's likd that. This is the same man who still believed in the wdc last year after France, he's not going to give up easy.

oooh, don't be sorry at all! im loving these discussions.

exactly. that's the thing. fred only became the tp this year and any kind of change would come gradually. you can't just expect the car or the team or the management to magically start working wonders suddenly. whatever change happens, it will be slow and steady and we will notice it little by little as the season continues. fred and charles are obviously well acquainted and i think fred would know what kind of talent charles possesses, having seen him in his rookie year with alfa romeo. so if he wants to go for the wdc with charles, then surely it must mean something. and charles has stated that he trusts fred and hes willing to do it for them.

as for the car, it is not only lacking pace but also the tyre management is not very good. and you're right, the data is not matching with the performance because maybe the things they require exceeds the budget cap. we all know ferrari is the most successful team logistically speaking and they would have the best sorts of database but the main problem is the budget cap. it is one of the greatest teams in f1 so it surely has the largest amount of funds of all the teams but because of the budget cap, atp its mostly making the best out of the limited resources and that's what ferrari is lacking- efficiency. the budget cap having introduced in 2021, well, we all know how that season went. so i think they're not still used to not spending however much they like to get their resources and tools. now they just dont know how to get all the best equipments in limited money. other teams however already had less budget as compared to ferrari before the cost cap, so it wasn't really a problem for them.

see that's what im saying, ferrari, as much pain as it causes, is better than him going to alpine or alfa romeo. and he wouldn't go to rb imo, atleast not as long as max is there. and yes, that's what im saying, watching him or get achievements in that car, or him evolving with ferrari(like last season until ferrari happened) is certainly quite very more thrilling than watching him win in any other team so yes, he should stay for a season or two, see how it evolves but beyond that(when the team is not performing) is just stupidness. honestly i would say the same for lando, 1-2 seasons maximum because he's got good talent tbh. getting p3 in spain in that tractor of a car was quite an achievment tbh. imagine him going to rbr, perhaps he could go even faster than max.

yes, i totally agree with you. seeing him here is painful, but watching him go to some underdog and suffering there would be even more painful. fred believes in charles and vice versa. this was not the case with binotto-he held charles accountable every chance he got and charles never got the support he deserved. change comes gradually and eventually maybe they'll figure it out(though it is not any less painful)but tbh, im glad he is where he is rn, where he could also get some good support system.

what i also like about fred is though he wants to win with charles, he does not ask carlos to sacrifice anything unlike last year because that's just plain rude. it'd be a different story if charles was p2 or leading maybe but they are both practically at the same place in the wdc. so yea, this is what i like about him as a tp too that the other driver doesn't feel hes sacrificing too much.

anyway, im sorry too abt this long ass reply😭but im loving these little(not so little) discussions