#Charles did have OPINIONS on that rear wing

[lucithornz]

See what if I took Choscar in Baku and made it angsty.

Still horny, but also angsty. What then?

[charles-leclerc-official]

wait what? win’s aren’t on table for max at the moment? how did we get here? i genuinely thought it was just a setup choice that made redbull so slow in monza (worst top speed, no special rear wing etc) but do we think they are going to be 4th fastest everywhere else? because i still think they have a high speed advantage over ferrari atleast.

damn that is insane stuff

Anon, they have been here for a bit now, and the pace they can find is becoming track dependent. Yes Max with the right setup in what in my opinion is the 4th fastest car (maybe tied for 3rd with Merc) can pull off a podium in the right conditions. But they've been in this spot for a few GP now, with no signs of improvement.

I would very much like to see another Max win this season, but realistically where the car is that's a big question mark at the moment. I am sure of the car is close Max can do it, but the car is just falling off a cliff and it has been really since Austria(or there abouts).

The other thing to remember is that Red Bull are contending with the cost cap, I think that has affected 1. Checo and which parts if any he gets, and 2. track specific elements.

And no, with the upgrades Ferrari are ahead of them on top speeds, it's not close there.

The last 3 GPs the top speed of the SF-24 has been ahead or tied with Red Bull, and at Monza it was clearly ahead.

Here is the fastest laps from Charles and Max at Monza during the race. Max was on new mediums while Charles was on his old hards that he wasn't pushing on. And Max was not achieving the same top speeds. (also you can see the difference in braking because they were on different strategies) but this really just highlights the difference between the two cars on speed at the moment.

Qualifying it's also clear that the SF-24 was achieving better top speeds, and Max had a tow from Checo. What we are concerned about here in this comparison is not even the actual lap times, it's that top speed.

Spa qualifying was the closest they've been recently. And then the race pace was worse for Red Bull.

Zandvoort qualifying they were close here, but on that long straight again the Red Bull falls behind

I think one thing these show is Max's precision on a lap being what carried him higher in qualifying rather than the top speeds of the car itself. He's been saying the speed wasn't there for a while and no one has taken him seriously and now it's glaringly obvious. The thing that masked it was Max's skill, but the car has fallen to such a point Max can't even cover for the lack of pace in the car.

Are they going to stay the 4th fastest, remains to be seen. Given the team haven't made any steps towards improvement I have a hard time saying they for sure will turn it around. But the decline has been there for a while.

[starryknights44]

f1 race tier list 2024 edition

Ok. So, I am going to be making an F1 tier list of the races I've watched so far this year. Let me know your opinions, but dont be mean. I am just a girl. 

We will be skipping Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Australia because I only want to do races I've personally watched. But I will be watching the race highlights while I'm writing this. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Starting off with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. 

Fun fact because why not: I did not actually see this race just heard it live (I couldn't log into ESPN) 

Here is an actual fact now: Suzuka was completed in the '60s as a permanent race track, but it didn't have its first GP until 1987, and Lewis Hamilton holds the lap record with a 1:30.983

Completed in 2019. 

5 red lights. 

First lap crash between Daniel Riccardo and Alex Albon 

⋆˙⟡Safety car ⋆˙⟡ 

Looks to be Danny's fault 

⋆˙⟡ Red flag ⋆˙⟡ 

Restart  on lap 3 

French cival war as per  

 Lap 5 good overtake from the inside by George Russell, even better from Yuki on lap 13 going around the outside of the Alpine into turn 7 (I think)

 A good case of team orders from Mercedes. George taking p5 from Lewis on lap 14. 

A pitline straight drag race from Lando and Lewis into the first corner. Lando takes the longer line and comes out ahead.

Mercedes once again proved its falloff during a race last year. Well, except for the cold, apparently…

Lap 18 Red Bull and its early season dominance. Love them, but I'm glad that stopped much more exciting. Dare I say they should have listened to Checo. But I'm not a boss, just a girl. 

Lap 19, looking at the Lewis and Carlos battel, something apparent throughout all the season, but that's not what I meant to bring up. I just wanted a moment of silence for the old Ferrari livery before all the little stupid blue stickers covered it and its drivers. 

…..

Ok, that's enough. On to the next laps  

Lap 23 is a huge pitlane battle between K-mag, Botass, Mr. Freedom (Logan) Yuki, and Stroll. With Ocon getting the jump of the century (not actually, let me know what is your jump of the century)

Mine might be that guy to that one judge  

And Yuki getting out ahead, but Kevin coming in first; not hard when you're pitting against a Sauber and a Haas. 

In lap 26, they just showed an overtake from the Ferrari's back cam. Wow, I miss the old rear-wing 

Ferrari a message for you. 

Do better. 

Lewis can't be seen in that car. 

At 444 words before writing this, its a sign 

From who, idk but a sign nonetheless

Oh, and Charles went wide and lost a place 

Lap 34. Yuki Tsunoda, my goat. 

Logan Sargeant off track 

OH MY GOD, MY SHAYLA, OH MY SHAYLA

Lap 44. Ferrari V Mclaren, another common theme throughout the season.

Lap 46. Ferrari V Self, common again. Ferrari, I love you (I say while screaming into my pillow, crying about all the loss)  

George Russell last lap overtake on Oscar to take p7. 

Wowowo Max Verstappen p1 and Checo p2 

*insert Dutch national anthem* 

And Carlos Sainz p3 

The rest as follows 

Lec 

Nor 

Alo

Rus

Pia

Ham

Tsu

Hul

Str

Bot

Oco

Gas 

Sar

Zho, Ric, and Alb all out. 

Pretty good. Tbh dont remember it all too well. But I'll rate it. 

Overtakes:6/10

Excitement:4/10

Track: 8/10

Overall: 18/30 or 60%

I will put it in B tier 

Let me know what else I should grade on. 

ooh, and I'll also keep track of safety cars and red flags. let me know your Japanese GP highlights.

Thanks for listening to me yap or reading it, I mean.

xoxo, myself

[underatedwords]

notes from testing day 2

a slightly more chaotic day today but the reliability of the cars is still very impressive as there were no major issues. the wind was more gusty today which unsettled the cars slightly. the bumpiness of turn 8 also impacted the drivers a lot today, and which line they could take through there.

a red flag was called after a drain cover came loose and was run over by both lewis and charles. the session was ended more than an hour early so the afternoon session started an hour early to make up for lost time. however, it meant that all those who were driving only in the morning lost nearly two hours of their total testing time. (charles had half an hour in the afternoon to check the floor installation)

lewis was in the car all day for mercedes, who spent a lot of time testing their new, and perhaps controversial, front wing. lewis was suffering somewhat with understeer, especially when he was pushing resulting in few slides and lock ups. the rear end has much more grip than it did this time last year but they are still having to run the car very low.

ferrari looked quite good today. despite having to replace the floor after it was damaged by the drain cover, carlos was able to put in a lot of laps and finished with the fastest time of the session. however, he was the only one in the top 4 on the C4 soft tyres.

oscar spent the morning session focusing on long race runs. conversely, lando did a lot of push laps on the C3 mediums. about halfway through the afternoon, mclaren had an issue towards the back of the car, that required them to take off the engine cover. although it was likely an unscheduled change, the team remained calm and quietly confident. mclaren have not brought any C4 soft tyres to testing so, even when they push, there will always be a tyre deficit.

redbull suffered with overheating brakes very early on in the session but resolved quickly and perez spent most of the morning focused on long runs. perez' car appeared to completely lose power at one point and he made good use of the downward slope to get back to the pits and, again, the issue was resolved quickly. ominous rumours in the paddock that redbull are looking to bring updates within the first 4 races.

sauber had a solid day today. they are looking very stable in the high speed corners but less so in the low speed.

alpine also didn't bring any C4 soft tyres with them. esteban had a huge lock up at T1 , likely due to a "long pedal" and nearly ended up in the gravel.

yuki did a few laps on the sifts but didnt push too hard to set a good time. daniel however, did push a bit harder on the softs in the ladt hour of the day. the general opinion of paddock is that vcarb have made a hig improvement and should be towards the front of the midfield.

lance had a very solid afternoon, completing some good long runs and looking relatively fast and stable during his push laps.

haas' new team principal, ayao komatsu has a good feeling about the car so far and thinks they've made improvements on their main struggles - tyre deg. and a lack of race pace.

williams' steering wheel has been updated so that the display is integrated with the steering wheel. logan had a big lock-up through T10 and lost the rear massively. they later had an issue with the front left wheel hub that limited their running.

the session had an extra 10 minutes so the VSC, safety car and red flag systems could be checked. the drivers also practised the rolling start procedure and we had our first lot of close running of the season.

[f1]

Ocon plays down rear-wing issues in Montreal but says Alpine 'need to review' why they finished P8

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly left this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix disappointed for differing reasons. While Ocon was frustrated not to finish higher, Gasly was left ruing his poor luck that saw him unable to use the “potential” in Alpine's package. Ocon started the race from sixth on the grid, but a fast start meant he jumped ahead of Nico Hulkenberg into fifth in the early stages – before gaining a place when George Russell crashed into the barrier. READ MORE: Magnussen and De Vries offer differing opinions on bizarre Montreal run-off moment However, after pitting for the hards in his first stop, he lost track position to the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, as well as the Red Bull of Sergio Perez – with all three drivers staying out. And, after pitting for the second time, he ended up behind the one-stopping Alex Albon. Ocon then attempted to make his way past Albon in the closing stages of the race, but to no avail, with the Alpine racer forced to settle for eighth. And while he was happy to be back in the points, he was disappointed to not finish higher. Asked if he was pleased with the result, Ocon replied: “Pleased? No. Probably not. Happy to be in the points again, but we were fourth before all the rounds of stops. So, we need to review what happened, why we lost to all the other cars after the stops. This feature is currently not available because you need to provide consent to functional cookies. Please update your cookie preferences 2023 Canadian Grand Prix: Norris and Ocon, and Stroll and Bottas battle to the finish line “We ended up unfortunately behind Alex. It was good racing, but you can’t pass them. Doesn’t matter what car you have; their straight-line speed is really dangerous. We can’t try and do any moves. “It was good racing also with Lando [Norris] at the end. The consequence is we ended up behind, so we lost some points. So, we need to see what happens and come back from that.” READ MORE: Perez left ‘very concerned’ by lack of pace in Canada as he falls further off the championship lead TV cameras, as well as Lando Norris, noticed that the rear wing on Ocon’s A523 was oscillating quite hard, with the stewards also noting this issue. Asked after the race whether there was anything wrong, Ocon responded: “No. Carbon deflects massively. “We see it with planes, we see it with Formula 1 cars, with front wings in general, and our rear wing has been moving since the beginning of the year. This feature is currently not available because you need to provide consent to functional cookies. Please update your cookie preferences Ocon confused after dropping from P4 to a P8 finish in Canada “We need to see if that was a bit more than usual, to see if we were losing some downforce from that. But I don’t think there were any issues with that.” Team mate Gasly was the only driver to start the race on the soft tyre, from 15th on the grid, in an attempt to make up places in the opening stages. And, while he did gain a couple of spots, he found himself stuck in DRS trains all race long. READ MORE: 6 Winners and 5 Losers from the Canadian Grand Prix — Who made all the right moves in Montreal? “Clearly wasn’t our weekend in terms of luck, so we boxed the lap before the Safety Car," said Gasly. "We lost around five seconds in the first box and it just put us straight at the back of the queue. “I must say it was very easy to find the way back in the DRS train. Very difficult to pass, and all the time you lose from being at the back is extremely difficult to recover. So, I think we are back in 12th. “Just frustrating because we showed some good pace. We had some good speed from what the team were telling me, we were matching the pace from the Ferraris. “And there was clearly more potential, but we’ve got to start to the front. The quali and what happened in qualifying [on Saturday] penalised us massively for the race.” via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[twinkodium]

While I agree with many of these I need to add a few things (not to create drama or anything, I love when fans can discuss stuff in a civil way and exchanging opinions).

Oscar’s attitude and behaviour I assume were different to papaya rules before the summer break because he wasn’t out of the title fight either. And imagine, telling one of your drivers who you just won over from another team to slow down and give places back to his teammate. Like they did in Australia, when nothing was on the line yet and I’m sure it left a bitter taste a give up his podium to Lando (who was faster anyways and could’ve overtaken him but he asked for the safer option FAIRLY). I hate team orders but they necessarily in a way to tell the drivers what they expect of them, racing but not crashing both cars that they didn’t so far. Monza was unfortunately in many ways, Lando had a poor exit after turn 2, was sliding so much Oscar and Charles gained on him and he went for the move because he’s a racing driver. And he was allowed to race with Lando.

I love how Lando was shutting the interviewers down for not asking about the wdc. He’s so done with it already, he can’t change how Max performs he can only focus on himself and control his approach going into the final rounds.

On times in quali. Lando wasn’t on a great lap (white one of the shared graphics - Oscar’s white coloured lap is his cool down, he was crossing the line way earlier he has time for a cool down), he was 2 tenths down alone in the second sector compared to Oscar and his own benchmark. Hence the abortion. He couldn’t beat Oscar, the lap fell apart in the second sector, he was sliding so much.

Oscar had indeed upgrades both in Mexico and Austin, but a floor change can give so much advantage and pace if it’s developed correctly which McLaren didn’t know so far, that’s why only one of them got it to test it out (in Zandvoort last year he got the upgrades first and crashed the rear wing in fp2 so and he doesn’t crash often, for safety reasons it’s acceptable to give them to Lando). Lando is more experienced and has more insight to tell the team where to improve and while Oscar is intelligent himself and have engineering background in a way he lacks a little bit still but his feedbacks just as useful as Lando’s (confirmed by many team members, Lando and Andrea over and over again).

I expect McLaren to mess up this front row lockout as well. While Lando needs points especially if max stuck behind Charles I don’t think he wants to win because Oscar slowed down and gave him the position. Everyone is shitting on the team for letting them race but do anyone think about what if Lando wants that too? He wants to beat everyone including his teammate on pure pace not because they use team orders. He wants to race fair and square, making the fans proud and all in all himself as well. He’ll not be satisfied with a giving win and podiums. That’s not the man he is. He needs Oscar help to take points away from Max yes, but for that has to beat Oscar too and be ahead of him with PACE. And just imagine him winning a championship because his teammate slowed down for him to gain points on his rival. It’ll leave him unsatisfied, people would start shitting on him and calling him undeserved of winning.

McLaren wasn’t ready to manage teo fast drivers and made so many poor decisions. Hopefully, they’ll learn and grow up for the job, otherwise it’ll be a big problem going forward because none of the drivers will get slower in the next couple of years, especially if the car is this fast.

My take on a certain part of the McLaren fandom:

Every tag I open I see parasocial behavior.

Let's just touch grass and stop it. It prevents people from enjoying the sport without cringing (and, moreover, be happy for a team's success).

Why do I have to mute stupid tags (anti...) and block people in order to appreciate F1 in peace? Why do people do not understand that this is an highly mechanical/engineering sport and not only a driving sport? Why do you not understand that drivers are humans too?

But mostly, why does it seem so difficult to root for an entire TEAM?

Like, can't we JUST collectively appreciate everything that happened today? Just for once.

Like:

1. Oscar's sprint pole was a significant milestone for him and his career. (And i would love to see him win the sprint). Although he's still a rookie, he's developing into a really good driver (just needs one or two more years to settle down). Also, he has been maturing a lot since the start of the season and you can see that in the way he speaks about the whole "papaya rules" situation (still hate it, no team orders please... Just tell him to not crash both cars.) now compared to before the summer break. (please Oscar, do not let Mark Webber's delusions get into your brain. Thanks.) Also, nice helmet. Love it.

2. Lando finally looks serene and at ease without succumbing to anxiety for other's expectations. (He also seems to not be willing to give a f*ck about WDC, good for him). I'm also really happy that he's back to eating/drinking before races and can finally enjoy driving again. (Noticed him eating an energy bar before the race in Mexico)

I also noticed that he, just like Oscar, matured A LOT this year, especially after the summer break. (Speaking of the elephant in the room: Despite the team's apparent indifference, I still think that WDC can be achieved if he chooses to. Even if they're not interested in helping him due to different priorities or contract clauses)

And no, he is definitely a First Driver. If you think otherwise you are just living in a delusion, sorry. Telemetry, just like Math, is not an opinion.

Like, look at the last qualy time he did (and aborted) before pitting.

(the green lap records are the last sectors performances set by the driver. Look at them. Just look.)

And yes, if he gets the points he deserves a WDC, if he wants to. He IS a really good driver.

Mentality is a concept as old (and toxic) as Helmut Marko. Please, don't be like him.

3. We are finally seeing what the upgrades were for... Especially after whatever Austin was. (And yes guys, BOTH of the drivers have had the upgrades since Austin. Oscar just got 6 upgrades out of 7 at that time... Not none. Sorry to burst your bubble.)

And no, the upgrades DIDN'T actually upgraded the car's overall performances in Austin, you can clearly see that from the data. They purposely sacrificed it for the next races. See this:

https://f1i.com/news/521800-mclaren-explains-decision-to-delay-updated-floor-in-austin.html

Also they took risks with the floor too in Mexico. And no, they didn't give it to Norris because they hate Piastri. They give it to him mainly because he is more experienced and can provide useful data during practice while Oscar still needs to improve this skill.

4. Also, the team has done a great job in finding a way to change the banned rear wing without compromising performance and exceeding the spending cap. Love it. (also they made a new beam wing configuration specifically for Interlagos and it, apparently, works really well!)

I'm still not convinced that we currently have the best car on the grid (Ferrari looks really solid anywhere) but it's already better than the rocky start we got in US.

Not gonna lie, the moment they sprayed the WHOLE side of the car with the flow-vis in Austin i was like "goddammit, no improvements"... So I'm relieved that it wasn't the case (better sacrifice a race than discard the upgrades package entirely like Ferrari did in Silverstone).

WCC wise, I just hope that today they don't do something silly risking two MCL38 in a multi21. (And that we get some good strategies... Hopefully... Ok, I think I need to start pray some ancient god for that.)

And what If they multi21? Well, it would be really entertaining, but I don't think Lando wants to risk points/DNF for that. It's just not his style. (Mentality again? Go to bed grandpa... And take your medicines)

Let's be healthy fans, guys. Not parasocial delulus. We can rant about McLaren shenanigans TOGETHER.

Like, YES, i'm still convinced that the strategy team/management team is doing a real poor job this year. Both in managing the races and managing the drivers. (Including Bortoleto's contract clauses...)

And last (and least?), I loved the Google chromed livery aesthetically... HATED it aerodynamically. You won't be missed. Sorry Google, I had to say it.

Thank you for reading my rant. Love y'all (even if you don't agree with me)!

[slow-button-off]

Ferrari upgrade chat

I got a couple of asks along the lines of these two so I'm just answering all of them collectively here.

No, the upgrades were definitely not just brought in to make Carlos more comfortable. They definitely also were supposed to make/ making the car faster.

And I would argue that they also did make the car a little bit faster. Which I can't prove because I don't have any data that I can compare.

Also just for the record this is me trying to explain what I think happened this doesn't mean that I am right on the money. As much as I would love to I sadly do not have access to all of the Ferrari data nor do they keep me up-to-date with what they are doing. But this is what makes sense to my brain.

So I think that there are multiple things at play (and they all have one thing in common..).

Upgrades for Carlos

Upgrades are never ever put on a car if they don't make the car faster in theory. That doesn't happen.

We have to remember that we are in the first year of new regs and especially at the beginning of new regs there are many different ways in which cars can be upgraded because there is still so much to learn about these cars. And that means that you can take these upgrades into different directions.

Developing an upgrade that makes the car faster but also changes the balance in one particular way is a perfectly normal option. And I would assume that Ferrari were looking into multiple different upgrade avenues and just decided to go with the option that changes the balance more towards something that Carlos likes. They just kept Carlos preferences in mind.

Ferrari vs RB upgrades

One thing is that while Ferrari have brought all the different rear wings in the whole world RB have brought more upgrades to the car itself. The first big (and most likely problematic) upgrade that Ferrari brought was the floor in France.

When comparing the upgrades and increase in pace between RB and Ferrari we have to keep two things in mind: the RB was more understeery at the start of the season and Max was unhappy and the Ferrari was more oversteery and Carlos was unhappy.

So RB developed upgrades to make their car faster but those upgrades also played into what Max likes. So the car is now faster AND Max is more comfortable in the car and that to me means that Max in his RB is now faster than just the pace that the upgrades themselves brought.

Ferrari brought upgrades that they tweaked to help Carlos. Which brought him closer to Charles in quali, but we are not seeing the same situation that we are seeing with RB. Because the faster driver now feels less comfortable in the car (the man has been complaining a lot about the set up) the car got faster but the faster driver isn't able to extract everything out of the car the same way that Max in his RB can.

I have a really hard time putting this into words.

The RB got faster + Max more comfortable = faster+ an extra bit of pace. The Ferrari got faster +Charles less comfortable = just the car got faster + no extra bit of pace.

Why is everything a bit shit?

I don't know lol!

My assumption and it has essentially been supported by what Mattia said, is that they don't understand their car that well anymore.

I think that they changed the characteristics of the F1-75 (we have all seen the increased understeer) and they now don't understand how to set up the car anymore. Charles had a lot of setup changes going on in FP3 in Zandvoort.

It feels to me like the change of characteristics changed their setup windows and they now don't understand those nor the tyres fully.

This is a bit focused on Charles just because I keep more up-to-date with his opinions on the car.

We had France where we had the new floor and a twitchy car for Charles.

Hungary Charles was unhappy with the tyres throughout all the FP sessions and they had issues with the softs in quali and then the tyres were mostly ok in the race but the hards did not work at all.

Spa Carlos was eating the tyres like crazy and Charles was going somewhat slow to manage his tyres because of the early stop.

Zandvoort there were millions of setup changes in FP and then none of the tyres were working that well but again the hards were the worst. And Carlos had deg an overheating issues with his tyres and Charles also had a not super low amount of deg.

So they are on one hand having a hard time with getting the tyres to work but then also have a lot of deg. Which is a slightly strange combination tbh.

So imo the upgrades either significantly reduced or changed their setup window and they haven't fully figured that out yet.

The TD might've also reduced the setup window a little bit more but it's definitely not the only issue.

The fact that all of this is happening during a triple header really sucks because there is such little time to figure out what is happening and why.

But it should be something that they can fix.

[greatworldwar2]

• Jean Moulin

Jean Pierre Moulin was a French civil servant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II.

Jean Moulin was born at 6 Rue d'Alsace in Béziers, Hérault on June 20th, 1899, son of Antoine-Émile Moulin and Blanche Élisabeth Pègue. He was the grandson of an insurgent of 1851. His father was a lay teacher at the Université Populaire and a Freemason at the lodge Action Sociale. Jean Pierre Moulin was baptised on August 6th, 1899 in the church of Saint-Vincentin in Saint-Andiol (Bouches-du-Rhône), the village his parents came from. He spent an uneventful childhood in the company of his sister, Laure, and his brother Joseph. Joseph died after an illness in 1907. At Lycée Henri IV in Béziers, Jean was an average student. In 1917, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of Montpellier, where he was not a brilliant student. However, thanks to the influence of his father, he was appointed as attaché to the cabinet of the prefect of Hérault. Moulin was mobilised in April 1918 as part of the age class of 1919, the last class to be mobilised in France. He was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Regiment of Montpellier. At the beginning of September, after an accelerated training, he headed with his regiment to the front in the Vosges, where he was posted in the village of Socourt. His regiment was preparing to go to the front lines as part of the attack planned by Foch for November 13th, but the Armistice was signed on November 11th.

Although Moulin did not fight directly on the front lines, he nevertheless was in a position to observe the horrors of war. He saw its aftermath on the battle fields, the devastation of villages and the state of prisoners of war. He helped to bury the war dead in the area around Metz. While still enlisted after the War, he was posted successively to Seine-et-Oise, Verdun and Chalon-sur-Saône. He worked as a carpenter, a digger and later a telephonist for the 7th and 9th Engineer Regiments. He was de-mobilised in November and, on November 4th, 1919, immediately resumed his post as attache at the prefecture of Hérault. After World War I, Moulin resumed his studies of law. His position as attache allowed him to finance his university studies as well as providing a useful apprenticeship in politics and government. He obtained his law degree in July 1921, He then entered the prefectural administration as chief of staff to the deputy of Savoie in 1922 and then sous-préfet of Albertville from 1925 to 1930. After his proposal of marriage was rejected by Jeanette Auran, Moulin, aged 27, married a 19-year-old professional singer, Marguerite Cerruti, in the town of Betton-Bettonet in September 1926. The marriage did not last long. Cerruti quickly became bored with the marriage, and Moulin responded by offering her further singing lessons in Paris, where she disappeared for two days. Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Châteaulin, Brittany in 1930, but he also drew political cartoons for the newspaper Le Rire under the pseudonym Romanin. In 1932, Pierre Cot, a Radical Socialist politician, named Moulin his second in command or chef adjoint when he was serving as Foreign Minister under Paul Doumer's presidency. In 1933, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Thonon-les-Bains, parallel to his function of head of Cot's cabinet of in the Air Ministry under President Albert Lebrun. In 1936, he was once more named chief of cabinet of Cot's Air Ministry of the Popular Front. In that capacity, Moulin was involved in Cot's efforts to assist the Second Spanish Republic by sending it planes and pilots.

He became France's youngest préfet in the Aveyron département, based in the commune of Rodez, in January 1937. It has been claimed that during the Spanish Civil War, Moulin assisted with the shipment of arms from the Soviet Union to Spain. A more commonly-accepted version of events is that he used his position in the French air ministry to deliver planes to the Spanish Republican forces. In January 1939, Moulin was appointed prefect of the Eure-et-Loir department. He was based in Chartres. After war against Germany was declared, he asked multiple times to be demoted because " his place is not at the rear, at the head of a rural departement". Against the opinion of the Minister of the Interior, he asked to be transferred to the military school of Issy-Les-Moulineaux, near Paris. The minister forced him to return to Chartres, where he had trouble ensuring the safety of the population. When the Germans got close to Chartres, he wrote to his parents, "If the Germans who are able to do anything make me say dishonorable words, you already know, it is not the truth". He was arrested by the Germans on June 17th, 1940, as he refused to sign a false declaration that three Senegalese tirailleurs had committed atrocities, killing civilians in La Taye. In fact, those civilians had been killed by German bombings. Beaten and imprisoned because he refused to comply, Moulin attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a piece of broken glass. That left him with a scar he would often hide with a scarf, which is the image of Jean Moulin remembered today. He was found by a guard and taken to hospital for treatment. Because he was a Radical, he was dismissed by the Vichy regime, led by Marshal Philippe Pétain on November 2nd, 1940, along with all other left-wing préfets. He then began writing his diary, First Battle, in which he relates his resistance against the Nazis in Chartres, which was later published at the Liberation and prefaced by de Gaulle.

Having decided not to collaborate, Moulin left Chartres for Saint-Andiol, Bouches-du-Rhône, to study and join the French Resistance, and he decided to negotiate with Free France. He started to use the name Joseph Jean Mercier and went to Marseille, where he met other resistants, including Henri Frenay and Antoine Sachs. Moulin reached London in September 1941 after travelling through Spain and Portugal, and he was received in October by De Gaulle, who wrote about Moulin, "A great man. Great in every way". Moulin summarised the state of the French Resistance to de Gaulle. Part of the Resistance considered him too ambitious, but de Gaulle had confidence in his network and skills. He gave Moulin the assignment of co-ordinating and unifying the various Resistance groups, a hard mission that would take time and effort to accomplish. On January 1st, 1942, Moulin parachuted into the Alpilles and met with the leaders of the resistance groups, under the codenames Rex and Max. He succeeded to the extent that the first three of these resistance leaders and their groups came together to form the United Resistance Movement ( Mouvements Unis de la Résistance, MUR) in January 1943. The next month, Moulin returned to London, accompanied by Charles Delestraint, who led the new Armée secrète, which grouped the MUR's military wings together. Moulin left London on March 21st, 1943, with orders to form the Conseil national de la Résistance (CNR), a difficult task since the five resistance movements involved, besides the three already in the MUR, wanted to retain their independence. The first meeting of the CNR took place in Paris on May 27th, 1943. Some historians consider Moulin one of the most important figures in the French Resistance because of his actions in unifying and organizing the various resistance groups, which had previously been operating in an independent and uncoordinated manner. He was also instrumental in obtaining the cooperation of the Communist resistance groups, who had been reluctant to accept De Gaulle as their leader, because Moulin was known as a left-wing republican.

On June 21st, 1943, he was arrested at a meeting with fellow Resistance leaders in the home of Frédéric Dugoujon in Caluire-et-Cuire, a suburb of Lyon. He was, along with the other Resistance leaders, sent to Montluc Prison in Lyon in which he was detained until the beginning of July. Tortured daily in Lyon by Klaus Barbie, the head of the Gestapo there, and later more briefly in Paris, Moulin never revealed anything to his captors. According to witnesses, Moulin and his men had their fingernails removed using hot needles as spatulas. In addition, his fingers were placed on the door frames and the doors were closed again and again until his knuckles were broken. They then tightened the handcuffs until they penetrated his skin and broke the bones in his wrists. Because he still refused to speak, they beat him until his face was unrecognizable and he fell into a coma. Afterwards, Barbie ordered Moulin to be placed in an office and to be shown to all members of the Resistance not to collaborate with the Nazis. The last time he was seen alive, he was still in a coma and his head was yellow, swollen and wrapped in bandages, according to the description given by Christian Pineau, fellow prisoner and another member of the Resistance. He is believed to have died near Metz on a train headed for Germany. He was reported to have died on July 8th, 1943 at the age of 44. There has been much research, speculation, judicial scrutiny and media coverage of who betrayed Jean Moulin and the circumstances of his death. Klaus Barbie alleged that suicide was the cause, and Moulin biographer Patrick Marnham supports that explanation. René Hardy was caught and released by the Gestapo, who had followed him to the meeting at the doctor's house. There have been many suppositions in the postwar years that Moulin was Communist. No hard evidence has ever backed up that claim.

Ashes that were presumed to be those of Jean Moulin were buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and later transferred to the Pantheon on December 19th, 1964. France's French education curriculum commemorates Moulin as a symbol of the French resistance and a model of civic virtue, moral rectitude and patriotism. As of 2015, Jean Moulin was the fifth most popular name for a French school, and as of 2016 his is the third most popular French street name of which 98 percent are male. In 1967, the Centre national Jean-Moulin de Bordeaux was created in Bordeaux. Its archives contain documents on the Second World War and the Resistance. The Centre provides pedagogical supports and research material on the involvement of Jean Moulin in the Resistance. In 1993, commemorative French 2, 100 and 500 franc coins were issued, showing a partial image of Moulin against the Croix de Lorraine and using a fedora-and-scarf photograph, which is well recognised in France.

[formula-one-thoughts]

Styrian Grand Prix Race Weekend Review

Whilst I think we can agree any racing is good racing, there is an argument to be made that qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix was more exciting than the race itself. One of the most rain-drenched sessions I’ve ever seen, all of the drivers exhibited incredible skill. I honestly expected far more chaos and crashes than we saw, but was grateful that we were treated to some spectacular displays of driving with only one red flag punctuating the session.  The Racing Points did NOT seem to enjoy the rain, but someone who did was George Russell, who managed to pull off a spectacular P12, and then was promoted to P11 following Charles Leclerc’s grid penalty. It was Williams’ first appearance in Q2 since Brazil 2018, and it was wonderful to see George display the talent he so clearly has (despite his race not going quite so well). The Uno reverse card came out at Ferrari, with this time Vettel pushing Leclerc out of Q3, the German only able to manage P10 at the end of the day. The battle for pole was primarily between the two drivers who have gained the strongest reputations for commanding a rainy track: Hamilton and Verstappen. But while Max put in a brilliant performance, demonstrating great control as he saved his car from a nasty accident after sliding through the final corner (the kind of thing we first saw in Brazil 2016), it was Lewis’s day. He put in a completely commanding final lap that cemented him as back in the game after a disappointing last weekend, the gap between him and Verstappen a mind-blowing and unheard of 1.2 seconds! Sainz, Ocon and Gasly also impressed, qualifying P3, P5 and P7 respectively.

Due to the wet qualifying, everyone had a free choice of tyres come race day, with most drivers electing to begin on the softs. Almost instantly it was all over for Ferrari, an ill-judged move from Leclerc taking their weekend from bad to worse. It goes back to the saying that you can’t win a race on the first lap, but you can easily lose one. His attempt to go down the inside of Vettel was completely unnecessary, and both drivers paid the price (Leclerc did apologise profusely and accept all the blame). With their car not even looking ‘best of the rest’ and this being their second race ending collision in four races, you get the feeling Sainz might be feeling a little less than happy about his upcoming move to the Scuderia. The incident necessitated a safety car for a couple of laps whilst the remains of Vettel’s rear wing were cleared off the track.

The majority of the race was not super eventful, with only one further retirement – Esteban Ocon. Hamilton pulled away from Verstappen and the trio of Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas in turn pulled away from those behind them. The midfield was closely bunched together for much of the race with lots of good battles, Perez in particular making his mark with a remarkable drive where he was up to 5thfrom 17thby lap 49 (having also pitted), pulling out fastest laps all over the place. Stroll was not able to make quite the same impact, struggling to pass Ricciardo for most of the race. Sainz’s race was rather ruined by a botched pit stop that put him out at the back of the group that included Norris, Ricciardo and Stroll, but he did manage to set fastest lap (and set a new lap record), giving McLaren their first consecutive fastest laps since 2011.

It really started to heat up on lap 67, with Bottas finally catching Verstappen, who was struggling with older tyres and some front wing damage. It looked like the Finn had got him, but Verstappen pulled off an insane move to regain the position, if only for 1 lap. It really showed Max’s passion that despite knowing Valterri was in the faster car and would eventually pass him he still put up an amazing fight, providing the fans with the entertainment we wanted. In my opinion, this drive, fight, and unwillingness to give up are the qualities of a future world champion. Perez finally caught Albon, but suffered damage that seriously compromised his speed, causing him to drop back. Lando Norris has come alive at the end of both races so far, and it’s great to see. Over the final 2 laps he went from 8thto 5th, capitalising upon Stroll and Ricciardo’s battle that saw both cars go off-track, and then passing the ailing car of Perez on the penultimate corner. The Mexican was soon caught by his teammate and the Renault, and the trio crossed the line three abreast, Perez just clinging on to 6thwith only a second separating Norris in 5thand Ricciardo in 8th. It was a Mercedes 1-2, with Hamilton putting in a totally dominant performance to win the race.

One of the most powerful moments of the weekend came during the podium celebration, when Stephanie Travers, Mercedes’ Trackside Fluid Engineer, accepted their constructor’s trophy. She is one of only NINE women ever to stand on an F1 podium, and the only woman of colour. I want to talk about gender diversity in the sport more in another post, but the importance of Stephanie standing up there alongside the drivers cannot be understated. Representation is so important, and the fact that women and young people of colour could see someone who looked like them on that podium says there is a place for them in the sport. I would read Lewis’s Instagram post if you want to find out more about Stephanie, and I think he was certainly instrumental in selecting her to join him for the champagne. Other teams should take note; although this is only a start, it was a display of genuine (rather than just performative) allyship.

Ferrari need to get their act together for Hungary this weekend; if they don’t show any improvement then I can’t see them having much of a chance of success for the rest of the year. Apart from Sainz’s pit stop it was a great weekend for McLaren, who stand 3rdin the constructors championship, with Norris maintaining 3rdin the drivers (with over half the points he managed to get all of last year). Toto Wolff has said he expects Red Bull to be a threat at the Hungaroring, but he has been known to make these kind of comments only for the Mercedes to appear stronger than ever, so we shall have to wait and see. Verstappen was narrowly beaten by Hamilton for the win last year, but managed to secure his first pole position, and has performed steadily there over the years. However, this is arguably the track where Hamilton has seen the most success – he has won 7 out of his 13 races there, and could be set to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of most race wins at the same circuit. Whatever happens, I can’t wait for more racing.

[thriftthatisviolet]

Words on *that* incident (Long read)

Ok, I think yall know what I want to speak about rn, but if you don't, its the Leclerc-Verstappen incident in the race.

Just incase you live in the UK or another place where the race is really late, here's a tldr; I think what Charles did was dangerous, BUT (oh boy, here it comes) I don't think that some of the hate he's getting is, mature, to put it best.

I've been on every form of social media where opinions are discussed, and I think that I have gathered enough evidence to fully confirm that some people don't know how to remain sensible on the internet.

It's strange, you know? The way the people act on the internet, knowing that these are real people "expressing their opinions", and also knowing that some (most, actually) of these people are GROWN ADULTS.

It seems like these people don't know what r e s p e c t, is! All sportsmen and women have respect for eachother, incuding F1 drivers. Each and every pair of Rivals and teammates have high respect for eachother.

You know, we wouldn't have had Senna V Prost if they hadn't had a bit of respect for eachother. If they didn't, then they'd probably hate going up against eachother. There wouldn't even be a rivalry! If they hadn't had respect for eachother, then I bet my 10 bags of Supreme cheese Doritos and 900+ litres of Mountain Dew that whenever Prost realised that Senna was on his rear wing, he wouldn't even bother fighting with him since he would think that there'd be another crash between them.

No, that's obviously not how it went down. We get all these fantastic, historical races to look back on for when we grow grey and old. And now, lots of fans have been hyping up the Max and Charles rivalry, a rivalry that a new generation can witness and tell to our 6 year old grand children.

But that can't happen if they don't have respect for one another. The whole point of a rivalry is to prove that you are better than then your rival. You obviously wouldn't want to prove yourself to a s*** driver, would you. So, obviously, if you want to prove that your a future F1 champion, you gotta label a talented and strong driver as your rival.

And how can you do that is you don't think that there good? Obviously, you would think that your better, and that's normal. But you'd obviously still think that your rival is a strong driver...no?

Now, like I said earlier, I've been on many sites where opinions are regularly shared like Youtube, Tumblr (of course!), Twitter, Insta, Reddit and countless blog and news sites. And on nearly every single one of them I find MULTIPLE comments berating and disrespecting many drivers. And they're more simmilar than you think.

Some include-

Calling Seb "Spintell"

Calling Lewis a "Crybaby" (yes I've seen that photoshop of him)

Labeling Max as- " Crashstappen"

Most recently, Hating on Charles for being the "Golden boy of Ferrari" (Lecry, Grosjean of the year, Glorified midfielder) (That last one's actually true..)

Gasly. Need I say more?

Teasing Stroll, a decent midfield driver, and calling him a "Un-talented pay driver", even when he is pretty good and that a lot of succesful and strong drivers are pay drivers.

And the list goes onnnn and onnnn-

Do you e v e r hear any of the drivers call eachother any of these? No, I dont think so. Remember Baku 2017? The Lewis and Seb incident? They might've been a bit mad at eachother then , but do you ever see them sending eachother death stares or flipping the bird at one and other when they (think) that the camera isn't looking at them? NO!

Another instance with Seb and our main chatting point, Charles, is Singapore and Russia. The press, F1 "fans" and journalist are chewing up a team issue, and bellowing out nonsense headlines that aren't even true. Why the hell would Helmut Marko and Christian Horner be warning Ferrari? They'd probably be rubbing their hands in sheer delight with what was happening.

Anyways, while the press spreads rumours about how Seb and Charles secretly loath each other, and how they silently wish that the other would just burn in hell (over exaggeration , both of them seem have common sense outside the car, and instead of having all those hateful thoughts, those two are gleefully answering fan questions, playing rugby, dorkily making some origami 'Kokoni' cranes and happily chatting to one another after a tough race for both of them. Doesn't sound like hate does it? If I put it correctly, it should sound like a word that I've been saying for a little bit now.

Going back to the topic at hand, I think it's utter bull crap to be calling some of the only 20 most talented, popular and fantastic drivers offensive nicknames, hating on them and DISRESPECTING them is not, at all, mature.

Max and Charles are definetley stars of the future, and they're handing out samples of a brand new chocolate bar called "Suprise mother heckers it's the new generation" to us for many races now. But I don't think that many people might be enjoying this brand new flavour of chocolate.

Anyways, I still think that Charles might need a penalty (not like it'll do anything, think he finished like 10 secs off Ricciardo, I think?) I don't really think many people picked up on it but Charles was shown the black and orange flag, I believe. But that's deffinetley not enough. He litteraly kept going after his front wing had been shattered to pieces, creating a safety hazard. It was a great drive from him after, but still, a very dangerous and avoidable start (still love him tho).

Max, did not deserve any what happened to him this race. Today was very unfortunate for him.

So, take this as a lesson boys and girls, men and woman, or any other genders. pLeaSe, for the love of the God you beleive in, be responsible on the net, share opinions lightly, respect those who respect eachother and remember-

You're not alone on here

Warm regards,

Thrift

[myxcenterxstage]

v: This Royal Throne of Kings //  v: Diamond In The Rough

Author’s note: Why two verse names?? Well, surprise, surprise, amigos! Not only is Priscilla getting a spotlight in this verse, BUT SO ARE HER UNCLE THOMAS AND UNCLE CHARLES!

Author’s note II: TLDR; This also works as a fantasy / medieval / fairytale /disney AU! Priscilla’s story is like a combo of the Little Princess & Cinderella at her Uncle Henry’s residence... and meanwhile, (oblivious to what Pris is going through) Uncle Thomas & Uncle Charles are in another castle as Royal Advisors (to the king, crown prince and his brothers).

Author’s note III: This is the first time we get to see almost ALL of Priscilla’s family in one big verse, like wow! All it’s missing is cousin Emmett, and it’s everyone!

This was the House of Kimbleton, the children of Baronet Phillip and his wife Cecelia:

Henry, the eldest son, proud and imperious.

Charles, the second son, scholarly and restless.

Josephine, their only daughter, brave and compassionate.

Thomas, their youngest son, noble and principled.

There was a fourth son, the twin brother of Thomas, however, his name is never mentioned at the perennial grief of his untimely passing.

The Kimbleton children grew up and eventually dispersed. Henry succeeds his father as family Patriarch and parliament. Josephine - while still betrothed to a Duke in an arranged marriage - had eloped with a promising young Doctor. Charles and Thomas had both been called to arms - the former to the Army, and the latter the Navy.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle… This precious stone set in the silver sea… -- King Richard, Shakespeare

Once upon a time, there were two brothers, and while they both bared the same resemblances and shared the same blood, they could not be more different from the other. Their names were Charles, the older brother, and Thomas, the younger.

And then this is when the narrator got lazy and decided to just bullet point the rest of their story:

Shortly after their brother Henry was married, Charles was set in an arranged marriage to an heiress. When they were married, Charles fell in love with his wife more than ever when they were courting and was a dutiful and faithful husband. Tragically she passed away a year later while still in her first trimester. After his wife’s passing, Charles refused any consideration of remarrying and focused his life around the sciences and wanderlust.

Later Charles entered the army and quickly rose in the ranks to be a Major General and accomplished Natural Historian.

Because during this time the Kimbleton family was in such upheaval with Thomas Sister Josephine’s elopement, Thomas wasn’t in any arranged marriages and had an unsuccessful love life.

(Tired of his mother’s pestering he should find a wife jkjk) Years later, Thomas entered the navy and equally became a medaled Rear Admiral and master strategist.

A war had emerged with a neighboring kingdom requiring both Land and Sea strength, so the King summoned the two brothers to join his highest ranking officers, and eventually earned the King’s closest trust.

After the war, the King brought the two brothers back to his court as trusted advisors.

Eventually, the King assigned the two brothers the position of Royal Advisors to the King’s young sons.

*insert drama here*

When I hear a command I obey But I know of a place Where no one can stand in my way On the wing of my fancy, I can fly anywhere and the world will open its arms to me

I'm a young Egyptian Princess or an Heiress I'm the greatest Prima Donna in Paris I'm a girl men go mad for love's a game I can play, with a cool and confident kind of air

In my daydreams, I can be whatever I want to be...

-- In my own little corner, Rodgers & Hammerstein (modified)

Once upon a time, in the House of Kimbleton, there was a beautiful maiden named Josephine. Josephine was raised as any of the nobles of the high court, but her heart was pure as gold. She cared not for the dainties and fanciful things which she was well acquainted with. She wanted to help others, to stand up for those who could not stand up for themselves, and aid those who could not aid themselves. And she did so. And in doing so she met the young doctor, Raleigh Duncan, who shared the same ambitions. Josephine and Raleigh fell in love. However, when Raleigh asked Baronet Phillip for Josephine’s hand in marriage, he was harshly declined, as Josephine’s father did not approve his only daughter to marry a commoner when the family had greater plans for her to marry a Duke.

Josephine was horrified. In indignation to never marry for convenience when she had true love already in her arms, she and Raleigh eloped to the countryside to be married under a peach tree.

And what a scandal was caused! Josephine’s father was outraged, and her mother did her best to keep the disgrace as hushed as possible from society. What made matters worse, was when Philip shortly after fell ill to fatal sickness. This arose Josephine’s eldest brother, Henry, to grew a dark bitterness in his heart towards his sister’s rebellion, wrongfully blaming her for the strain on their father’s health.

Josephine’s other brothers were too busy over land and sea to weigh many opinions, and Cecelia desperately tried to pacify the situation, but to none avail. Josephine’s father and Henry chose to disinherit her from the will.

When Philip untimely passed away, it was was the first time in years the House of Kimbleton has assembled again. The first time in years Cecelia and her sons were able to see Josephine again. Josephine arrived with both her husband Raleigh, and their infant daughter, Priscilla.

Years passed. Henry had become the new Patriarch, Charles now a Major General and renowned Naturalist, and Thomas a Rear Admiral and heralded strategist. Meanwhile, little Priscilla was growing up to be a bright and happy young girl by her loving parents, who were aiding all in need as best they could. But unfortunately, Josephine and Raleigh’s stories were cut short with their sudden disappearance. And little Priscilla was left to fend for herself in the world. But how could she? She was but a child. So when attempts at contacting her father’s side of the family were unsuccessful, she was brought under the custody of her grandmother, Cecelia.

After losing both her husband and daughter, Cecelia saw that little Priscilla was a diamond in the rough of this drama. Priscilla was raised as her grandmother had raised her mother - to be poised and sophisticated. Like a little princess. (Not that it was an easy task, mind you, given the young child was a countryside wildflower and had an untamable free spirit).

If only those years could have lasted longer. When Cecelia departed this world to join her husband, she left in her will that Priscilla should continue to be raised by her Henry - Cecelia’s only son who had offspring of his own. Pity Cecelia could not see her son’s smoldering bitterness towards his sister bled into his impression of his own niece.

When young Priscilla arrived at her Uncle Henry’s residence, she quickly came to realize that she was unwelcome. What was formerly thought as aloofness from Uncle Henry turned to intimidation. And even though Cecelia endowed Priscilla with the Kimbleton surname to give her an identity, Henry instructed that Priscilla was to be treated “...as the bastard child and charity case that she was.”

Life had changed overnight from the privilege and love her Grandmother had given, to the cold punishment of servitude from her Uncle. Priscilla slept in a tiny guest room at the furthest end of the house near the servants quarters, instructed separately from her cousins (Henry’s children, who also remained aloof), and not permitted to dine with them. She was at her cousins’ beck and call, even when they already had ladies in waiting. Ironic that when they had a houseful of flunkies and servants that Priscilla was declassed to such ranks, even against what was in her late Grandmother’s will.

Fortunately, things were not so terribly miserable for Priscilla. She found her due deserved respect and tender care from the household staff and her tutors. At least whenever Henry and his family left for holidays and Priscilla was left behind, the staff insisted that ‘Miss Priscilla Kimbleton’ be treated as the ’lady of the manor’ that she was. They knew what Henry was doing was wrong, even though they had to stand by silently and watch.

Not that Priscilla minded. As she adjusted from her bucolic life in the country to the life of nobility with her Grandmother, so she would adjust to this new lifestyle. She had her imagination, where she could be anyone, and anyplace. And someday, hopefully, someday, she would be able to escape and live the life that she always wanted to discover...

[grandpxnews-blog]

Magnussen admits Leclerc clash mistake

New Post has been published on https://grandpx.news/magnussen-admits-leclerc-clash-mistake/

Magnussen admits Leclerc clash mistake

Kevin Magnussen says the “really bad” mirrors on F1 cars are forcing drivers to fight “blind” in some race battles.

The Danish driver escaped penalty at the Japanese Grand Prix when he clashed with Charles Leclerc’s Sauber.

Later on, FIA F1 race director Charlie Whiting admitted the lack of a penalty was wrong and Magnussen should have been penalised for moving across too late.

The Dane accepted he had been wrong in that fight.

But he justified that the current mirror positions made it impossible for him to see Leclerc before it was too late.

Speaking about Whiting’s late admission, Magnussen said: “I obviously knew about his opinion from the press thing that he did,”

“I have to say I think he was right to change his opinion because it was too late that I moved over.

“But the problem is that you can’t see the guy behind you until he moves. Then you can see him. That’s a problem that we need to fix altogether.”

Ever since the new aerodynamic rules came to the series, poor rear visibility has become a common complaint. The problem got bigger since the introduction of wider rear wings in 2017.

“You’ve got the rear wing so when the guy’s right behind you, you don’t see,” Magnussen added.

“As soon as he moves out, that’s when he becomes visible. So you can’t do anything but react when you see.

“These cars are really bad. You can only see [a car behind] when he’s at an angle so either in a corner or offset.

“Right behind you, you’re blind.”

Some drivers had suggested using rear-facing cameras instead of the mirrors as an alternate option.

The 2019 regulations have adjusted the rear wing positions. So, the situation may improve in the next season, Magnussen added.

“The rear wing will be higher so it should be better,” he said.

[tortuga-aak]

A giant Australian publisher scrapped a book on China's influence out of fear for Beijing's wrath

Thomson Reuters

An Australian publisher has shelved a book on China's influence in Australia, out of fear of reprisal from Beijing.

The publisher wanted to avoid "Beijing's agents of influence" commencing complex and legal action.

There has been an uptick in warnings on China's influence in Australian business, politics, security, and universities.

The author, a public ethics professor, says the "shadow Beijing casts" could put Western democracy at risk.

A large independent publisher has shelved a book on China's soft power in Australia, because it is concerned about reprisals from Beijing or its “agents of influence.”

Allen & Unwin told Clive Hamilton, the author of the upcoming "Silent Invasion: How China is Turning Australia into a Puppet State," that his book was an "extremely significant" title but could open the company to "possible action by Beijing,” which could take a range of forms, including complex and expensive legal action.

The publishing company, in a statement to Business Insider, said it had chosen to delay publication.

“After extensive legal advice we decided to delay publication of Clive's book "Silent Invasion" until certain matters currently before the courts have been decided,” a spokesperson said. “Clive was unwilling to delay publication and requested the return of his rights, as he is entitled to do. We continue to wish him the best of luck with the book."

Hamilton, a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, said the decision was worrying and "if it spreads, and other publishers are afraid of publishing criticism of Chinese government then Western democracy is in trouble."

"I think the key message is that the shadow Beijing casts is now enough to spook even a reputable publisher in Australia. They didn't have to do anything, just the fear of what they might do was enough for the publisher to pull the plug from the book," Hamilton told Business Insider.

Hamilton has published eight previous titles with Allen & Unwin and said "Silent Invasion" looked in detail at the level of China's influence in Australian institutions, including politics, media, universities, and social and cultural organizations. Hamilton said the book also explores how public thinking and the attitudes of opinion makers have been subtly influenced to shift the country "more and more into China's orbit."

In an email seen by Business Insider, Allen & Unwin CEO Robert Gorman told Hamilton the company had been advised to delay the scheduled publication, but did not specify when exactly this decision would be revisited.

Instead, Gorman said there was a "very high chance of a vexatious defamation action" from "a ‘whale’ or a small Beijing agent mentioned in the book."

Hamilton, who received the email on November 8, said the irony of the situation "did my head in for a few days."

"How can Beijing suppress a book that exposes Beijing's influence in Australia? It kind of adds a new layer of meaning and significance to the book," Hamilton said.

There was fear of a defamation case from "agents of influence"

In Gorman's email to Hamilton, Allen & Unwin outlined how two ongoing defamation court cases — thought to be those brought by Australian citizen Chau Chak Wing against Fairfax Media and ABC over media reports from earlier this year — impacted their decision to delay the book's release.

"The advice we received was that the risk of such an attack was likely to lessen considerably once the current defamation cases by the ‘whales’ against media companies had been through the courts," wrote Gorman.

Allen & Unwin also said it was an "obvious target" for legal action by "Beijing's agents of influence." According to Hamilton, agents of influence work in a variety of areas in Australia.

"There are wealthy businesspeople; they're talking about political donors, they're worried about opinion-makers and political leaders — usually ex-political leaders — who basically argue strongly in favor of Beijing's view," Hamilton said.

Publishers have controversially censored material in China this year

Other notable publishers have recently censored material to avoid running afoul of Chinese authorities.

In August, Cambridge University Press (CUP) came under fire for blocking access to more than 300 articles at the request of Beijing authorities. Some of the articles touched on locally controversial topics including Tibet, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre.

An international outcry forced CUP to reverse its decision.

And earlier this month, the Financial Times discovered Springer Nature, publisher of Nature and Scientific American magazines, had withdrawn more than 1,000 sensitive articles.

Self-censorship of books in China is common, but the decision by Allen & Unwin appears to be the first time a publisher has self-censored material about the Chinese Communist Party in its home country.

Warnings of China's influence have been growing

In 2012, Huawei was blocked from tendering for Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) due to cybersecurity concerns. The Attorney General’s department made the decision based on advice from the national security agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO).

Then, in 2015, the federal government blocked the sale of a giant landholder, S. Kidman and Co., to a Chinese company, Shanghai Pengxin, on national-interest grounds. Some of the land owned by the cattle-rearing company was defense-sensitive, being close to the Woomera weapons testing range in South Australia.

The company was later sold to a consortium led by Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, with a one-third minority stake controlled by another Chinese company, Shanghai CRED, but the defense-sensitive assets were excluded from the sale.

Last year, an Australian senator was found to have financial ties to a Chinese business that had close links to the country's Communist Party and earlier this year, Australia's top spy warned universities to be wary of foreign interference.

And on Tuesday, Attorney General George Brandis confirmed the completion of a review examining new laws that will ban foreign political donations and include a register for foreign agents, who will have to declare whether they are working for a foreign power.

Hamilton said the Communist Party has used its secretive United Front Work Department to influence and control organizations and thinking in other countries.

"Those groups have been mobilized as a highly effective way of influencing our perceptions of China in the political domain, the business community, and more broadly in the media in Australia," said Hamilton. "It really is a very extensive influence campaign that's been highly effective."

Hamilton is now looking for another publisher.

NOW WATCH: Watch Paul Manafort — Trump's former campaign chairman — surrender to the FBI

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[steliosagapitos]

   The royal Château de Chambord at Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France, is one of the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture which blends traditional French medieval forms with classical Renaissance structures. The building, which was never completed, was constructed by King Francis I of France.

Chambord is the largest château in the Loire Valley; it was built to serve as a hunting lodge for Francis I, who maintained his royal residences at the châteaux of Blois and Amboise. The original design of the Château de Chambord is attributed, though with some doubt, to Domenico da Cortona; Leonardo da Vinci may also have been involved.

Chambord was altered considerably during the twenty-eight years of its construction (1519–1547), during which it was overseen on-site by Pierre Nepveu. With the château nearing completion, Francis showed off his enormous symbol of wealth and power by hosting his old archrival, Emperor Charles V, at Chambord.

In 1792, in the wake of the French Revolution, some of the furnishings were sold and timber removed. For a time the building was left abandoned, though in the 19th century some attempts were made at restoration. During the Second World War, art works from the collections of the Louvre and the Château de Compiègne were moved to the Château de Chambord. The château is now open to the public, receiving 700,000 visitors in 2007. Flooding in June 2016 damaged the grounds but not the château itself.

Châteaux in the 16th-century departed from castle architecture; while they were off-shoots of castles, with features commonly associated with them, they did not have serious defenses. Extensive gardens and water features, such as a moat, were common amongst châteaux from this period. Chambord is no exception to this pattern. The layout is reminiscent of a typical castle with a keep, corner towers, and defended by a moat. Built in Renaissance style, the internal layout is an early example of the French and Italian style of grouping rooms into self-contained suites, a departure from the medieval style of corridor rooms. The massive château is composed of a central keep with four immense bastion towers at the corners. The keep also forms part of the front wall of a larger compound with two more large towers. Bases for a possible further two towers are found at the rear, but these were never developed, and remain the same height as the wall. The château features 440 rooms, 282 fireplaces, and 84 staircases. Four rectangular vaulted hallways on each floor form a cross-shape.

The château was never intended to provide any form of defense from enemies; consequently the walls, towers and partial moat are decorative, and even at the time were an anachronism. Some elements of the architecture – open windows, loggia, and a vast outdoor area at the top – borrowed from the Italian Renaissance architecture – are less practical in cold and damp northern France.

The elaborately developed roof line. It should be noted that the keep's façade is asymmetrical, with the exception of the Northwest façade, latterly revised, when the two wings were added to the château.

The roofscape of Chambord contrasts with the masses of its masonry and has often been compared with the skyline of a town: it shows eleven kinds of towers and three types of chimneys, without symmetry, framed at the corners by the massive towers. The design parallels are north Italian and Leonardesque. Writer Henry James remarked "the towers, cupolas, the gables, the lanterns, the chimneys, look more like the spires of a city than the salient points of a single building."

The double-spiral staircase

One of the architectural highlights is the spectacular open double spiral staircase that is the centerpiece of the château. The two spirals ascend the three floors without ever meeting, illuminated from above by a sort of light house at the highest point of the château. There are suggestions that Leonardo da Vinci may have designed the staircase, but this has not been confirmed. Writer John Evelyn said of the staircase "it is devised with four (sic) entries or ascents, which cross one another, so that though four persons meet, they never come in sight, but by small loopholes, till they land. It consists of 274 steps (as I remember), and is an extraordinary work, but of far greater expense than use or beauty."

The château also features 128 meters of façade, more than 800 sculpted columns and an elaborately decorated roof. When Francis I commissioned the construction of Chambord, he wanted it to look like the skyline of Constantinople.

The château is surrounded by a 52.5‑km² (13,000‑acre) wooded park and game reserve maintained with red deer, enclosed by a 31‑kilometer (20‑mile) wall. The king's plan to divert the Loire to surround the château came about only in a novel; Amadis of Gaul, which Francis had translated. In the novel the château is referred to as the Palace of Firm Isle.

Chambord's towers are atypical of French contemporary design in that they lack turrets and spires. In the opinion of author Tanaka, who suggests Leonardo da Vinci influenced the château's design, they are closer in design to minarets of 15th-century Milan.

The design and architecture of the château inspired William Henry Crossland for his design of what is known as the Founder's building at Royal Holloway, University of London. The Founder's building features very similar towers and layout but was built using red bricks.

    Who designed the Château de Chambord is a matter of controversy. The original design is attributed, though with several doubts, to Domenico da Cortona, whose wooden model for the design survived long enough to be drawn by André Félibien in the 17th century. In the drawings of the model, the main staircase of the keep is shown with two straight, parallel flights of steps separated by a passage and is located in one of the arms of the cross. According to Jean Guillaume, this Italian design was later replaced with the centrally located spiral staircase, which is similar to that at Blois, and a design more compatible with the French preference for spectacular grand staircases. However, "at the same time the result was also a triumph of the centralized layout—itself a wholly Italian element." In 1913 Marcel Reymond suggested that Leonardo da Vinci, a guest of Francis at Clos Lucé near Amboise, was responsible for the original design, which reflects Leonardo's plans for a château at Romorantin for the King's mother, and his interests in central planning and double spiral staircases; the discussion has not yet concluded, although most scholars now agree that Leonardo was at least responsible for the design of the central staircase.

Archeological findings by Jean-Sylvain Caillou & Dominic Hofbauer have established that the lack of symmetry of some facades derives from an original design, abandoned shortly after the construction began, and which ground plan was organized around the central staircase following a central gyratory symmetry. Such a rotative design has no equivalent in architecture at this period of history, and appears reminiscent of Leonardo Da Vinci's works on hydraulic turbines, or the helicopter. Had it been respected, it is believed that this unique building could have featured the quadruple spiral open staircase, strangely described by John Evelyn and Andrea Palladio although it was never built.

Regardless of who designed the château, on 6 September 1519 Francis Pombriant was ordered to begin construction of the Château de Chambord. The work was interrupted by the Italian War of 1521–1526, and work was slowed by dwindling royal funds[17] and difficulties in laying the structure's foundations. By 1524, the walls were barely above ground level. Building resumed in September 1526, at which point 1,800 workers were employed building the château. At the time of the death of King Francis I in 1547, the work had cost 444,070 livres.

    The château was built to act as a hunting lodge for King Francis I; however, the king spent barely seven weeks there in total, that time consisting of short hunting visits. As the château had been constructed with the purpose of short stays, it was not practical to live in on a longer-term basis. The massive rooms, open windows and high ceilings meant heating was impractical. Similarly, as the château was not surrounded by a village or estate, there was no immediate source of food other than game. This meant that all food had to be brought with the group, typically numbering up to 2,000 people at a time.

As a result of all the above, the château was completely unfurnished during this period. All furniture, wall coverings, eating implements and so forth were brought specifically for each hunting trip, a major logistical exercise. It is for this reason that much furniture from the era was built to be disassembled to facilitate transportation. After Francis died of a heart attack in 1547, the château was not used for almost a century.

For more than 80 years after the death of King Francis I, French kings abandoned the château, allowing it to fall into decay. Finally, in 1639 King Louis XIII gave it to his brother, Gaston d'Orléans, who saved the château from ruin by carrying out much restoration work.

King Louis XIV had the great keep restored and furnished the royal apartments. The king then added a 1,200-horse stable, enabling him to use the château as a hunting lodge and a place to entertain a few weeks each year. Nonetheless, Louis XIV abandoned the château in 1685.

From 1725 to 1733, Stanislas Leszczyński (Stanislas I), the deposed King of Poland and father-in-law of King Louis XV, lived at Chambord. In 1745, as a reward for valour, the king gave the château to Maurice de Saxe, Marshal of France who installed his military regiment there.[19] Maurice de Saxe died in 1750 and once again the colossal château sat empty for many years.

[tortuga-aak]

A giant Australian publisher scrapped a book on China's influence out of fear for Beijing's wrath

Thomson Reuters

An Australian publisher has shelved a book on China's influence in Australia, out of fear of reprisal from Beijing.

The publisher wanted to avoid "Beijing's agents of influence" commencing complex and legal action.

There has been an uptick in warnings on China's influence in Australian business, politics, security, and universities.

The author, a public ethics professor, says the "shadow Beijing casts" could put Western democracy at risk.

A large independent publisher has shelved a book on China's soft power in Australia, because it is concerned about reprisals from Beijing or its “agents of influence.”

Allen & Unwin told Clive Hamilton, the author of the upcoming "Silent Invasion: How China is Turning Australia into a Puppet State," that his book was an "extremely significant" title but could open the company to "possible action by Beijing,” which could take a range of forms, including complex and expensive legal action.

The publishing company, in a statement to Business Insider, said it had chosen to delay publication.

“After extensive legal advice we decided to delay publication of Clive's book "Silent Invasion" until certain matters currently before the courts have been decided,” a spokesperson said. “Clive was unwilling to delay publication and requested the return of his rights, as he is entitled to do. We continue to wish him the best of luck with the book."

Hamilton, a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, said the decision was worrying and "if it spreads, and other publishers are afraid of publishing criticism of Chinese government then Western democracy is in trouble."

"I think the key message is that the shadow Beijing casts is now enough to spook even a reputable publisher in Australia. They didn't have to do anything, just the fear of what they might do was enough for the publisher to pull the plug from the book," Hamilton told Business Insider.

Hamilton has published eight previous titles with Allen & Unwin and said "Silent Invasion" looked in detail at the level of China's influence in Australian institutions, including politics, media, universities, and social and cultural organizations. Hamilton said the book also explores how public thinking and the attitudes of opinion makers have been subtly influenced to shift the country "more and more into China's orbit."

In an email seen by Business Insider, Allen & Unwin CEO Robert Gorman told Hamilton the company had been advised to delay the scheduled publication, but did not specify when exactly this decision would be revisited.

Instead, Gorman said there was a "very high chance of a vexatious defamation action" from "a ‘whale’ or a small Beijing agent mentioned in the book."

Hamilton, who received the email on November 8, said the irony of the situation "did my head in for a few days."

"How can Beijing suppress a book that exposes Beijing's influence in Australia? It kind of adds a new layer of meaning and significance to the book," Hamilton said.

There was fear of a defamation case from "agents of influence"

In Gorman's email to Hamilton, Allen & Unwin outlined how two ongoing defamation court cases — thought to be those brought by Australian citizen Chau Chak Wing against Fairfax Media and ABC over media reports from earlier this year — impacted their decision to delay the book's release.

"The advice we received was that the risk of such an attack was likely to lessen considerably once the current defamation cases by the ‘whales’ against media companies had been through the courts," wrote Gorman.

Allen & Unwin also said it was an "obvious target" for legal action by "Beijing's agents of influence." According to Hamilton, agents of influence work in a variety of areas in Australia.

"There are wealthy businesspeople; they're talking about political donors, they're worried about opinion-makers and political leaders — usually ex-political leaders — who basically argue strongly in favor of Beijing's view," Hamilton said.

Publishers have controversially censored material in China this year

Other notable publishers have recently censored material to avoid running afoul of Chinese authorities.

In August, Cambridge University Press (CUP) came under fire for blocking access to more than 300 articles at the request of Beijing authorities. Some of the articles touched on locally controversial topics including Tibet, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre.

An international outcry forced CUP to reverse its decision.

And earlier this month, the Financial Times discovered Springer Nature, publisher of Nature and Scientific American magazines, had withdrawn more than 1,000 sensitive articles.

Self-censorship of books in China is common, but the decision by Allen & Unwin appears to be the first time a publisher has self-censored material about the Chinese Communist Party in its home country.

Warnings of China's influence have been growing

In 2012, Huawei was blocked from tendering for Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) due to cybersecurity concerns. The Attorney General’s department made the decision based on advice from the national security agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO).

Then, in 2015, the federal government blocked the sale of a giant landholder, S. Kidman and Co., to a Chinese company, Shanghai Pengxin, on national-interest grounds. Some of the land owned by the cattle-rearing company was defense-sensitive, being close to the Woomera weapons testing range in South Australia.

The company was later sold to a consortium led by Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, with a one-third minority stake controlled by another Chinese company, Shanghai CRED, but the defense-sensitive assets were excluded from the sale.

Last year, an Australian senator was found to have financial ties to a Chinese business that had close links to the country's Communist Party and earlier this year, Australia's top spy warned universities to be wary of foreign interference.

And on Tuesday, Attorney General George Brandis confirmed the completion of a review examining new laws that will ban foreign political donations and include a register for foreign agents, who will have to declare whether they are working for a foreign power.

Hamilton said the Communist Party has used its secretive United Front Work Department to influence and control organizations and thinking in other countries.

"Those groups have been mobilized as a highly effective way of influencing our perceptions of China in the political domain, the business community, and more broadly in the media in Australia," said Hamilton. "It really is a very extensive influence campaign that's been highly effective."

Hamilton is now looking for another publisher.

NOW WATCH: The Secret Service may have been 'impaired' the day JFK was assassinated

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