#it makes me so angry that we could have this level of safety in f1

[twosdays-trash]

I have beef with the FIA and the lack of safety they promote within F1.

While Formula 1 is considered the safest its been ever with its current safety measures put in place for drivers, i feel its also one of the most toxic environments for drivers at the same time

Motorsports are a feeding ground for people who are willing to do whatever they can to race and win, f1 isnt the exclusive with this "i will race regardless" mentality (looking at you motoGP), and they certainly wont be the last. But i feel that due to the large amount of fans and media that comes with f1 it is very important to be more open and push for driver safety in both physical and mental aspects.

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I mostly wanna focus on three different things in this: the medical/safety procedures in the case of an accident, the physical health of the drivers, and mental health of the drivers.

This is not an attack on the medical/safety staff that are taking care of the drivers, they are doing wonders and are amazing. I'm criticizing the FIA for the procedures that should be updated or changed in order to ensure greater safety on and off the track.

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1 - the medical/safety procedures in the case of an accident

In the case of an accident in f1 i have noticed that it takes medical and safety Marshalls a long time to get to the scene of the accident due to the location of the safety cars. With the medical cars being exclusively located in the pitlane it takes the cars around 5 minutes, give or take, depending on length of track, location of the crash, and if its the 1st lap, to get to the accident.

In these high speed situations, especially in f1 where they dont have spotters, its incredibly dangerous to let drivers continue to drive full speed for long after a crash. Due to these long periods of time between when a flag is waved and when medical personnel can get to the scene of an accident it is also incredibly dangerous. In many situations that amount of time can greatly increase the chance of injury and heighten the probability of injuries becoming worse like physical wounds, bad concussions, and other cars hitting the already crashed out driver(s).

At one of the practice sessions durring the Indy500 in 2015 James Hinchcliffe crashed into the barrier and was pierced by the car through his leg to his abdomen and was losing a lot of blood. Due to the ability of the safety team to get there in 30 seconds, cut him out, and get him to the hospital so quickly absolutely saved his life.

Compared to an accident that occurs on the opening lap, with the safety car on track, and Marshalls around the track, it still took 2 (two) minutes for anyone to get to max after his massive crash at Silverstone 2021. That is far too long, especially with the caliber and how much speed and G force he encountered during the crash it should have been far more urgent.

Now you might say, "oh but thats only one example in indycar!" Well, Typically the time between the safety car coming to a halt in the crash and the marshals getting to the car it takes between 15-30 seconds regardless on whether its a race or practice/qualifying. 15 TO 30 SECONDS. This speed of arrival also happens regardless of the severity of a crash, seeing as a crash is a crash and is handled as such. This video details how many marshalls are in each car, what they do, and also shows how quickly they arrive at the scene of a crash.

When comparing crashes in terms similarity of the accident in f1 and indy i typically turn to the Fernando Alonso's and Simon Pagenaud's crashes where they flipped over. I find that for as similar as they are the difference in immediate medical attention is wildly different.

Both crashes are incredibly similar seeing as they both hit gravel and did multiple barrel roles the aid afterwards was very different. While Pagenaud needed assistance to be released from his car and Alonso, they both landed against the wall along with landing in similar spots on the track despite the two different locations (and years [Australia 2016 VS Mid Ohio 2023]). Yet it took medical staff half the time to reach Pagenaud compared to Alonso.

When watching these clips I've also noticed the amount of time/what flags are waved in the occurrence of these accidents. With Pagenaud it was an immediate red flag within seconds, where as Alonso was a had a yellow flag that was announced ~40 seconds after and at the same time the marshalls got to him.

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2 - physical health of the Drivers

both sports have incredible care of their drivers and make sure to care for their drivers in the case of an accident, i feel that the mentality and enforcement of post-crash or post-injury care is far too lax in F1.

In f1 i find that the mentality is that of a toxic marriage. Sort of.

They take the "in sickness and in health" very seriously and will drive regardless of the state of their own body. And while its a good mentality to be willing to do as much as you possibly can, there is a limit to what they can and should be doing.

Starting with the OGs, Niki Lauda racing with literal fresh burn wounds and (a separate time) with broken ribs. Mark Webber racing with pins in his broken shin. Lance driving with his broken wrists and toes. Max driving with his concussion (2021). Alex driving 2 days after coming out of a coma from appendicitis. Carlos driving days after the surgery of his appendicitis. QATAR 2023 AS A WHOLE. I can go on and on about different times and instances where drivers are not healed or well enough to drive, yet no one thinks to stop them???

Yes they are adults and they can do what they want as long as their doctors clear them, but there should be a limit, right?

f1 is all about pushing the limit, but should that limit be the physical health and well being of the people driving the cars?

how many possible concussions and injuries get ignored simply because a crash was "small" and didn't set of the G-Force monitor?

And i dont know if its the difference in American VS European culture that allows the drivers in Indycar to seek out help and understand their limits, but its truly amazing seeing how well drivers take care of themselves in Indycar compared to f1.

Not to say f1 drivers dont take care of themselves, they just dont allow themselves to be injured/ill even if they are.

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3 - driver mental health

The stress of the drivers in both series are intense, but wildly different.

Ive found that diet culture is very different in f1 and indycar. Again maybe its the difference of USA vs Europe but i think the main thing is how important weight is in f1 compared to indycar.

Every gram, ounce, and pound is critical in an f1 car and by extension: the driver. Thats why the drivers are always so thin, have lean muscles and are on super strict diets.

Ive brought this up with my family, but when looking at drivers in f1, especially the taller ones like Ocon, its incredibly disconcerting and scary to see men who should be at least 200 pounds being 140. It's even more scary when you hear George Russell talking about how he needs to lose weight in order to get faster.

Its horrifying listening to interviews where drivers talk about weight or food in terms with getting faster. The interview that makes me just absolutely distraught is the one of Nico Rosberg talking about how he "won the championship" becusse he lost weight to gain seconds. He stopped doing things he loved (biking) because he needed to lose muscle weight. He took as much weight as he could off his helmet to get lighter.

Then there is Alex Albon talking about the goal is to lose the most amount of weight possible while still being functional enough to do the race. While he isnt saying it as something bad, comparing it to a boxer losing weight before match, its still insane that they cannot eat/drink as much as they want without "costing" the team time and money.

Its almost on par with models and their diets.

Where as in Indycar many of the drivers talk about going to get burgers, getting beer, eating hearty foods and just gaining muscle without fear or worry is amazing. Not to mention it also seems more normalized for the drivers to talk out and be more open on if they are struggling or generally not having a good time.

Maybe indycar just have more available drivers at hand that they can sub in if needed, but they are also racers and want to drive as soon and as much as possible. Yet in indy they lack that mindset of complete disregard of ones self, for some reason.

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This probably isnt gonna be the last you hear of me on this topic, but i just wanted to put this out there. If theres anything ive missed or didnt cover well enough/incorrectly lmk and ill edit it or make a new post ^^

[sunrizef1]

Hi, anon who asked for a bigger robbery than AD21 here. I won't respond to everything because there's a lot… 50/50 decisions(like the penalty) are frustrating but you have to move on. They aren't corruption or horrible mistakes as he implied. He'd have a point if it was similar to the offside called vs Tottenham, but at the same time he'd still be a hypocrite because he celebrated AD21. 🤷‍♂️ And… the quote from Gary Neville proves the point. Gary strongly questioned the decision, while VVD happily celebrated the corrupt result. I doubt he didn't know the F1 rules, there were plenty of footballer/non-F1 celebs who knew and understood. Sure I don't agree with the constant trolling but the more I see that tweet, the more ridiculous VVD becomes. Because Max did nothing in that race to deserve to win it, he was handed it. Lewis completely dominated that race, you don't need to be an F1 pundit to see that, yet he tweets 'WHAT A BOSS'. I'll copy Gary Neville's tweet to give an example of what he should have tweeted: "As at Dutchman, that ending was an absolute disgrace. But congrats to Max for a good season."

Yes, there are many less mainstream sports I don't watch (especially American) so there could be robberies on that level I'm unaware of (which is why I asked). I saw the other examples, but I still think AD21 is on another level. It was engineered corruption, no accident. We watched in real time as rules were broken to make sure Max won(safety car procedure) and as easily as possible (only cars between Max + Lewis unlapped) in the final laps of the final race, to end the championship, so nothing could be done viably to fix the result. They knew what they were doing, the rules, and that they'd get away with it with only a slap on the wrist. I guess to call something 'the biggest robbery' depends on a few factors such as: the popularity of the sport, the circumstances and details of the corruption, the importance of the game. Out of the ones mentioned, maybe the Kim Yuna one(no, I haven't heard of it before) comes close. It might be considered the biggest robbery in Korea but I don't know much about ice skating to say. Most of the football example mentioned are down to the other team cheating, such as the Hand of God. Plus there was no VAR 40 years ago, so you can give the refs the benefit of the doubt for missing it. I do agree that there've been gross VAR errors recently - but the only thing that could be compared in football terms is if 2 false penalties was given in the additional time of a champions league final, to the losing team to make them win.

Finally on a different note, the offside vs Tottenham was really bad. In a fair world, maybe they could have sued PGMOL because the apology wasn't enough. I remember being so angry because Liverpool were in contention for the title iirc 😬 The only thing that makes it better is that it didn't cost them positions in the table.

Oh my god I'm so sorry, I just saw this, idk why tumblr didn't notify me

I'm drained so I don't have much of a response and I can't really process most of that so I hope the tone wasn't argumentative because I don't want to argue and you presented a lot of fair points that I can't argue with

(I also don't remember my original response)

But about the “move on” thing, I think he does, generally move on. When he was talking about it, it was a post-game interview and he hasn't mentioned it since which I think is fair. Emotions high and everything. Especially considering he might not play the next Euros. At least not starting and captaining. (+it was his first)

The tweet, again, idrc about what he said 🤷‍♀️. I think anything pro-max for him in that scenario is a fair thing for him to say and I regularly cheer against him. I think it might have been a bit backhanded considering the relationship between him and max for him to tweet what Gary said. I wouldn't really want my friends saying that about my achievements but that might just be me.

I just thought about it for a few seconds and I can understand where you're coming from. If harry kane had tweeted “great win @/tottenham” when they unfairly beat Liverpool i think I'd be annoyed for a few seconds but, in the end, he belongs to Tottenham so I'd understand why he'd say that.

I think it'd be more of a “shut up harry” and then I'd move on. But at the same time, I dislike harry Kane anyway while LH hive don't really have another reason to hate virg.

About other sports robberies, its all up to opinion. I will always care more about football than formula one. That's just me. Football is my life and f1 is something I invest time in but it hasn't been as long-standing as football. I've never cried about an f1 race but I've cried over 16 football games in the last year alone lol.

But the thing about no var is true, even if the England ones were ref mistakes.

But also, your point about the other teams cheating in the football games is a good point because shouldn't anger be directed at the fia and not max? I feel like this anger would be warranted if virg had tweeted “great race today @/fia” lmao

Idk if this makes sense again, I'm tired 😭

Feel free to correct me btw, I have no idea what I'm saying

(and I think that the Tottenham points wouldve helped us down the line even if they didn't matter in the moment. That game also ended our unbeaten streak that I think would've helped confidence a lot if we'd still had it. Also there was two false reds in that game lol)

I appreciate you presenting fair, well-thought-out points and not just yelling at me though 🙃🤞

[formulatrash]

I think Alan jones is right 🤷‍♀️ Daniel sounds like some rookie, why was he so rattled by the replays? None of the other drivers said anything about it why the hell is he having a tantrum? It obviously got to him bc he had a terrible restart and got eaten up by the pack behind him, I know we love babying the drivers but thats weak. And whether we like it or not people want to see that stuff

I debated whether to post this because to me you’re very wrong but actually I think it’s good to think about these things. And to try to see it from your perspective, maybe because so many people seem to think this way.

It’s really difficult, as someone who’s sort of - oh, this is wank but like - speaking from inside racing, cus I watched the Bahrain GP from a media centre surrounded by team personnel, not to get incredibly angry at this. So I’ve sat on it for like a week to calm down and think how to discuss this properly because it would be too easy to get emotional. I do get there is a gap in perception, here.

Just because other drivers didn’t speak up about it doesn’t mean that they felt unaffected by the footage being replayed over and over. Attitudes like Alan Jones’ are what makes them suppress things they have every right to speak out on, professionally. They absolutely should have the right to agree whether footage of their or their peers bodies being mangled and broken is used again and again or at the very least, we should all accord them the respect to listen to their opinions about it and invite them to talk about it more. 

When Grand Prix racing was first on TV they’d show drivers burning to death in their cars while the race carried on around them; we obviously don’t think that’s right anymore, both the callousness to the drivers’ lives and to broadcast someone dying violently for the sake of sport but at the time, it was viewed as part of the character. The TV camera doesn’t have any inherent ethics, it’s just a lens but what we choose to frame in it is important. 

The viewer has a passive role in what you’re shown; you can’t select it. If it’s on the broadcast, there’s an inherent assumption that it’s ok to be on the broadcast, that this is a good or interesting thing to see. I don’t know if Liberty being an American company, where crashes are replayed a lot, lot more is a factor here but it felt very unlike modern F1 to replay it so many times.

The way that we portray the drivers and the role we give them in being able to decide that and consent to it (or to terms that they broadly agree to) should be empathetic. Because then it doesn’t come across as cheap repetition, that encourages every armchair FIA safety expert to come out with their own nonsense version of events - I understand car safety structures a lot better than twitteruser471 who reckons if Romain was a better driver he would have simply been able to not be on fire and I would never attempt to hazard a guess about what happened in a crash without proper information and data.

People are curious about things - I think it would have been best to have shown it once, after it was clear Romain was ok and then to work on preparing analysis, have a statement and timeline of events and what we know happened with it ready for the end of the Grand Prix. Knowing what happened lets people process something, endless speculation is a route to panic and well, literally trauma. 

The drivers are filmed as part of competing in F1 but the idea that that gives the broadcasters the right to show whatever they like without needing to justify it is wrong and part of the culture that gets bandied about that they should be willing to endure anything to be in the sport. Yes, being an F1 driver is a privilege but that shouldn’t come parcelled with signing away the right of FOM to traumatise your mum.

Let’s be clear on one thing: Romain survived that crash but until the FIA investigation is concluded, we don’t know whether that was because you could have expected him to or a total fluke. Safety systems such as the halo did their job but the crash itself was unexpected, unprecedented, none of the systems on the car were designed to work in those circumstances, they just - thank god - managed to add up into a series of tiny bits of luck that did. What you see in that accident isn’t someone dying but a few millimetres of change it it could be; it is a deadly-high-speed impact, it is a deadly hot fire, it is the absolute limits of what the survival cell and halo can bear and try to protect the driver inside.

That can seem difficult to understand because he got out. But getting out and it being fine are very different things. Every crash is dangerous, freak things can happen at relatively low speeds and without anything apparently dramatic - like Billy Monger and Jamie Caroline’s British F4 crash. 

Romain’s crash is a deadly one. What you are watching on the replay is a tiny, sliver-thin chance that a man lived or at least, wasn’t horribly, critically wounded. I’m not saying that to be dramatic or to over-exaggerate it: a 53g crash through an Armco barrier, with a fuel fire, just is that serious.

Lewis has spoken often about just how dangerous F1 is - and how little people realise it still is - and Lando and a couple of the others have spoken about how scared their families are when they go racing. Replaying something so, so, so close to being deadly to the point of, as Daniel identified, amusement, is tasteless to the people that worry about them - including themselves - and reductive of the risks.

I guess if you don’t know anyone who races cars you could view it as a video game perspective. It’s ok, Romain got out, we passed that level and now it doesn’t matter. For a lot of people, though, what you see every time is all the ways he doesn’t. Because that was an unbelievably close one - Romain himself has talked about believing he was accepting death as he sat in the burning cockpit.

The interview, afterwards, that most got to me was Guenther Steiner. He’s a hard man, who’s been in racing a long time and is performatively aggressive, unsympathetic, in many ways the stereotype of what a brutally pragmatic team boss has to be. He stood there on Sky last Thursday shaking and stutteringly incoherent, five days after the accident, not able to look at the footage - because he nearly lost his driver. 

Every single one of Romain’s team was watching that footage as it was forcibly looped over the screens in the paddock and pit lane. Yes, you are glad he got out - of course, that’s the most important thing - but knowing that he did doesn’t make replaying that and seeing how small the margin by which he did really was any less upsetting.

If watching the crash means nothing to you, it doesn’t mean that the people who are affected by it are weak. Everyone has a different understanding of things - you can not care what you’re watching or even think that it would be acceptable to watch a driver die but for the vast majority of people in the sport, neither of those things are considered ok.

[glittering-snowfall]

On Elsa and “Out of Character” behavior.

Sometimes I see arguments between different groups of people in the Frozen fandom - with some people criticizing Elsa’s actions in F2 by calling them out of character and other people defending them by saying her actions are in-character. But here’s the thing - I think both groups are a little misguided. One side just wants to use anything to tear the movie down, but the other side just wants to defend the film when sometimes the people who critique it have valid issues.

First of all, I don’t agree with people who try to paint Elsa as OOC in F2 by saying that her actions make her less “refined” than in the first film. This idea of Elsa’s “refinement” feels more like stereotypical headcanon than canon.

In F1, Elsa feels liberation when standing in the free air, without the weight of queenship weighing upon her. Thus, in F2, her choice to stay in the Forest could parallel that if written well.

The trouble is, for some reason, F2 decides to write a narrative where Elsa’s own desires and sense of self are not the catalyst for her journey to explore herself. Her mother’s Voice is the catalyst, so instead of telling a story where Elsa drives herself forward, the film tells a story where Elsa is led by larger forces beyond her control. This becomes worse when we factor in the origin of Elsa’s powers. They’re “a gift” for her mother’s action and while we’re supposed to see that in a positive light, I just don’t.It feels like Elsa being forced on a path in life before she was even born - a path that doesn’t come from her but instead comes from her mother. The destiny narrative makes Elsa a pawn - and I know I’m not “supposed” to read the film that way, but there is textual evidence to support my perspective. The fact her powers are tied to her mother rescuing her father and not to Elsa herself. The fact that the spirits decided these things for Elsa because how could Elsa decide while still in the womb?

When people use superficial reasons like Elsa’s “refinement” to call her OOC, they sometimes criticize Anna being queen and treat that as OOC for Anna - but I’ve personally always liked Queen Anna. I feel the role suits Anna and that she makes a capable leader, making tough decisions in difficult times across both F1...

and F2.

So I don’t think the superficial readings of either sister being OOC are true.

But here’s the thing - I DO think that Elsa comes across as somewhat OOC in F2 compared to F1, just not in a way that the superficial readings ever get across. Let me explain.

In F1, we see over and over again that Elsa is deeply and sensitively attuned to Anna’s emotions.

When Anna is in pain, Elsa feels it. She doesn’t want to hurt Anna - either physically OR emotionally.

And when she does hurt Anna emotionally, it breaks Elsa’s heart. F1 makes clear over and over that Elsa doesn’t want to do this - makes clear over and over that Elsa understands the terrible emotional pain Anna undergoes because Elsa has felt a pain akin to it.

Look at the look in Elsa’s eyes in the screencap where Anna is walking away. You can see such anguish in Elsa’s eyes, such regret. If Elsa felt like she safely could, she’d reach out in a heartbeat.

Over and over, the first film stresses that Elsa understands Anna’s emotional pain, that it hurts her more than anything to hurt Anna emotionally even as Elsa feels like she has to do that because of how she has been raised.

And then comes F2 and Elsa’s connection to Anna’s emotions... lessens to some degree.

It’s still there in this moment. Elsa clearly hates doing this.

But we don’t get to pause on Elsa’s emotions. We don’t get to linger with them.

The next time we see Elsa is here:

When I first saw this moment in the theater, it felt... abrupt. This was the scene that was in all the trailers, and when you watch the trailers, you think something will lead up to this.

And then the film just cuts directly to this moment. It just... happens, with only the conversation from before as build-up - only conversational exposition.

We don’t get to pause to breathe with Elsa, to have the full weight of her reflection after sending Anna and Olaf away. She must have reflected on that as she made her way to the Dark Sea and it must have hurt... but we don’t get to... see it.

We don’t get to see an incredibly crucial emotional moment that could show Elsa reflecting on Anna’s pain and Elsa’s own pain.

We just cut to this and focus on Elsa being... Awesome.

And then we get Show Yourself, and Show Yourself is all about Elsa’s joy and validation... and in the process, Elsa reflecting on Anna’s pain gets pushed to the wayside.

Now, in the past, I’ve gotten angry at Elsa for this - because it felt acutely OOC to me for Elsa to... lose sight of Anna’s pain in such a way.

And when I got angry, anti-Elsa people jumped on my anger and tried to use it to justify their agenda - and I don’t want that.

You see, anti-Elsa people try to frame this as, “Well, Elsa is just Like That. She pushed Anna away for her safety before and now she’s doing it again.” Anti-Elsa people treat Elsa like she’s just... naturally callous.

My point is not theirs. My point is that Elsa (at least, the Elsa we see in F1) is NOT “Like That.”

In F1, we see over and over that Elsa is not naturally callous. We see so much how Elsa connects with Anna on an emotional level.

From my perspective, the anti-Elsa sentiment is just as shallow as the people who throw around the word “refinement.”

But in F2, Anna kind of gets... dropped from Elsa’s journey. The focus becomes Show Yourself, and then Elsa freezes.

I know that I struggle with these scenes because I feel for Anna so much, because I agree with Anna’s perspective and her desire to protect Elsa, because I disagree with Elsa’s choice to go on alone. (Again, my disagreeing doesn’t mean I’m saying that Elsa is a bad person the way anti-Elsa folks do. I know that Elsa loves Anna and wants to protect her. I just... wish the two characters could have resolved the matter in a different way, through communication and through love. And I’m not saying the conflict of Elsa’s decision and Anna and Olaf’s anger was bad. It’s actually a really intriguing scene where the characters all kind of right and kind of wrong. There’s depth there... but my problem is the film doesn’t really explore that depth later on. We don’t get the sisters talking together about the emotional crises that drive them.

We don’t get... anyone... talking together that much. Elsa and Anna seem on different wavelengths, Anna and Kristoff seem on different wavelengths. Miscommunication is a plot device. And I know you’re going to tell me that it’s supposed to be mature, that it’s supposed to reflect the characters’ trauma - and it does reflect that trauma incredibly well, but...

I just want to see the broken people I saw forming a family being able to communicate in a positive way for more than the last several minutes at the end. I don’t care about the maturity of miscommunication that translates into surface-level scenes. There’s as much maturity in a family healing together than in reopening wounds for drama’s sake.

So maybe, my use of the term “OOC” is wrong. Maybe it’s not OOC for Elsa to go on alone (because she wants to protect those she loves dearly), but the rushed nature of the following scenes don’t allow the emotional impact of that particularly complex scene to land. Instead of letting us feel its full weight, the film moves to other things.

I’ve praised the slow, brooding pace of F2 before, but at times the pacing can still be rushed. So maybe it’s not a characterization problem but a pacing problem.

Still, I... I can’t shake the feeling that F2 presupposes that Anna is in the wrong - and I just disagree with that presupposition.

The film frames Anna as though she has to learn something. She gets the chance to reflect on her life in aching and beautiful clarity in The Next Right Thing. The film has her apologize directly to Kristoff for leaving him behind because she was just “so desperate to protect” Elsa. And because of that, the term “codependency” gets thrown around - often by anti-Elsa folks who have weaponized the term.

Here’s the thing though. Anna has an incredibly understandable and rational position in F2. She doesn’t knw what is going on. All she knows is Arendelle could be in danger, her sister has been hearing this voice and hasn’t told her, her sister could be in danger, and Pabbie has further entrusted her with keeping Elsa safe.

Not wanting your only surviving family to die when they are put in a position where they are forced to do incredibly dangerous things is not codependency.  “I don't want to stop you from being whatever you need to be. I just don't want you dying, trying to be everything for everyone else too. Don't do this alone,” is actually an incredibly clear-sighted perspective.

I don’t know. When Elsa is forced into extremes in F2, it’s often framed as heroic - and oftentimes, it is heroic. Seeking the truth about Runeard at the expense of her own life is an incredibly noble, compassionate, and heroic thing for Elsa to do. When Anna goes to extremes to protect Elsa, it’s framed as... desperation. Even though I just want to desperately cry to the screen sometimes, “But Anna is in the right, Anna is in the right, Anna is in the right...” 

Maybe my mind has been exhausted by different factions in the fandom trying to place blame. maybe fandom in general is too focused on judging characters and so that hurts the discourse because we have people judging and condemning Anna as a character and judging and condemning Elsa.

Maybe Frozen 2 means to be broadly humanistic, with the characters all being partly right and partly wrong, so we can empathize and love them all. If so, that’s beautiful.

But I don’t like the presupposition that Anna is “too desperate” and I don’t like how that’s beaten home for her in such a torturous way. Maybe I just empathize with Anna too much and I see my pain in her pain across F2 and so the film just hurts to watch.

Maybe it’s because I wanted to see this family talking together openly instead of going on individual journeys of self-discovery.

I know I’m speaking from a personal place here - because the bond the sisters have (especially in F1) means the world to me and is among the most beautiful connections I have seen in fiction, so I’m sensitive about it.

But I needed to get these thoughts out.  

[alfalfatauri]

The 2020 pit uniforms ranked

Haas: Get used to this critique because so many teams have fallen victim to the Black Pit Uniform Disorder (BPUD). Listen to me: it looks sexy on your drivers because you put them in big loud cars with flashing lights. It looks terrifying on you because it makes you blend in and it makes you into hazards. The tepid red accents aren’t enough to save it (or you). Looks ugly, too. 3/10.

Renault: call it the childhood trauma of watching fifi and the flowertots but colour scheme makes them look like angry wasps. We’ve established how I feel about black on a pit crew, but at least they’ve got some yellow looking out for them. Not a lot to say about the fit of the uniform tbh. It’s okay, makes me think of sports day at school where you got assigned a tracksuit that sort of was nearly the right size. 6/10.

Williams: once again with the black pit uniform! So many missed opportunities here. We could have had vibrant blue overalls, could have come to play with the best of them. The saving grace of this team is the stripe of blue perfectly framing their asses and waists. 4/10.

Mercedes: someone PLEASE explain to me why some of them are in that godforsaken mint green? It’s truly truly horrific. If this is what Williams would have done if they embraced the blue, I don’t want it, take it back! Seeing the black uniforms on the rest of them almost makes me want to sigh in relief. But no! Not even any hints of colour among the black this time. If you ignore the mint monsters they look great, but they look invisible. 4/10.

Alpha Romeo: oh I do NOT like the white and red. It should work, on paper it should work. On track very much does not. Looking at the 2020 Alpha Romeo pit crew feels like watching grainy 90s race footage. It doesn’t feel safe, it doesn’t look comfortable, it seems like it smells like mothballs. At least it isn’t black though. 3/10.

Alpha Tauri: How I wish I could turn my brain off and just think with my heart, because she’s telling me ‘ooh black and white sexy skeleton crew’. The Alpha Tauri pit crew could 100% beat you in a fight without breaking a sweat. They eat glass for breakfast and ask for seconds. You don’t mess with the Alpha Tauri pit crew. Unless you are a driver in low visibility in which case their sexy skeleton suits become a terrible bit of foreshadowing. 9/10 for sexy cool points. The white is probably bright enough to give them a 5/10 if I factor in safety concerns.

Racing Point: BIRGHT PINK BABEY!!!! Finally a team that’s listening to me! Give these men some colour!! They look dumb, they look hot, they look kind. Racing Point’s pit crew is the himbo of the grid. Checo could run over their feet and the crew would apologise. My only note is perhaps could stand to be a little tighter around the midsection and the ass and maybe skip the white highlights for a different colour idk. 9/10.

McLaren: I’ll warn you in advance this is where my bias jumps out. By all accounts the frankly terrible tailoring and the alarming see through visors should cost them several points. However. Who am I to argue with the bright orange and blue combo? The dissolving blue geometric pattern up the legs was… a choice. Not one I would have made but at least we can tell what side of the car they’re standing on based on what leg we can see I guess. They look like they want to talk to me about financial security and whether I’ve considered saving for retirement. I know they would treat me well, I would trust them with my money. They’re hot bankers who go biking on weekends. 8/10.

Ferrari: there’s so much room for this to be a top scoring team. The red! Stunning, so vibrant, @Haas take notes. Unfortch for Ferrari, they committed to the clown show on every level and made the fit of their overalls simply the worst I’ve ever seen on an F1 team. Truly despicable. Lucky for them, red is a sexy colour and it tricks me into thinking they’re competent. On leg and glutes day a  7/10.

Red Bull: I want to make a critical distinction between black and navy. They are nothing alike. Having said that… navy is still dark enough for me to worry about road safety. Luckily for Red Bull pit team, they work for a company obnoxious enough to plaster their very large very bright logo on the front and back of the overalls, so it cancels out the navy. The pops of yellow, the red stripes framing their waists and their hips thighs calves?? Hot. Hot. So sexy I’d let the right Red Bull engineer [redacted]. 9/10.

(inspired by @ki-ki-ay, enabled by the usual suspects)

[holbyconfessional]

Casualty S32 Episodes 8-14

Finally got caught up.  Since this is SO historical now, I’m going to put the whole lot under a cut, save dashboards!!!

Casualty S32 Episode 8

I found the COTW here pretty heartbreaking, the elderly couple with the woman dying from COPD.

Connie finally confirms to Ethan that the patient she's been discussing with him is herself.  And then proceeds to blackmail him about his role in Scott Ellison's death, in order to force him to perform an off-the-books emergency embolectomy to save her arm.  Great leadership skills!

Alicia passed her driving test, despite being a shockingly awful driver, already responsible for several accidents.  Nice.

Casualty S32 Episode 9

Nosy and unpleasant Louise has discovered Sanosi.  It gives her an excuse to be rude and aggressive to Dylan, lots.  But, don't forget folks, we're supposed to like Louise because she always does the 'right thing' in the end - in this case, spiriting Sanosi off Dylan's boat, just in time to save the day as Connie goes barrelling in, expecting to find something.

Lily is jealous of Iain and Sam's easy relationship.  She can't see that Sam is 'a lad' and Iain is so much a lad that he barely hit puberty, and frankly, she's never going to get the grown up relationship she wants from him.

A return of the transgender morgue worker, which was good - I like her.   And most of all, I loved the chat between her and Max, where he tells her all about Zoe, and how she left because she was afraid of happiness, and how he thinks about what his life with her would have been like every day.  It broke my heart a little.  You don't get chemistry like theirs every day, and I wish she hadn't left - him or the country!

Casualty S32 Episode 10

Elle and Marty.  Here is where I amuse myself with my outraged old lady rant...  Now, I'm not a single mother of three boys, but I'm pretty sure if I was, I wouldn't be having men over to shag in my house unless I was sure that a) it was a solid relationship, and b) they had met my kids in a low stress environment.  I don't deny the fact that Elle has a right to a life, including a love life, outside her role as a mother, BUT, as a mother, her kids need to come first when managing such a life, and part of that means setting an example.  In this day and age where kids learn WAY too much of their sexual knowledge from porn, I'm not sure it pays as a parent to model anything like a promiscuous lifestyle, and for her kids to come in and find a complete stranger in bed with their mother... Well... You see where I'm coming from.  On the flip side, I may not be an Elle fan, but anything that highlights any sort of relationship chances for us older women, in whatever orientation, then I say, you go, girl!

But, also in the story.  I don't know how old Blake is supposed to be, but isn't he a bit old for the 'if Mum gets a partner, I'm afraid she won't love me any more' thing?  I don't know that much about teenaged boys, but it didn't ring entirely true for me.  Going with the chilli powder being nothing more than a practical joke would have sat with me better.

Dylan. I feel really awful for him right now, as someone who doesn't forge relationships easily, he was clearly really attached to Sanosi.  Of course, he did the right thing, he's perfectly right that Sanosi could never have the life that he dreams of when always on the run and in hiding, and it was perfectly valid that Sanosi wouldn't be able to see that, and would only see how Dylan had let him down.  With Dylan's own history of OCD and mental health problems, I will be interested to see where this development drives him.  I am always happy for more Dylan on the screen.

Connie. Right, so her tumour is malignant.  Worst possible news.  And she's still burying her head.  I'm all for not rushing storylines, but I think we need to move on this one, folks.  I love Connie, and like Dylan, I am happy for her to have screen time, but dragging this storyline out much more risks losing its momentum, and for it to just become boring.   IMO!

COTW, I'm still not sure why the girl was put into care.  As a mother, if there is any risk that your partner might in any way hurt your child, don't you ditch the partner and keep the child, rather than ditching the kid??!!  I know that jury was out as to whether partner hit mother, but surely all the more reason?  Incidentally, I do appreciate how hard it is for some people to escape from domestic violence, but the mother didn't seem like an utterly downtrodden victim to me.  Comments welcome from folk who may know far more about it than I do, and no offence meant if I've shown ignorance.

Casualty S32 Episode 11

So, there's a new F1 called Rash, who pukes when he gets nervous and makes lots of mistakes.  

Lily and Iain's relationship is a little strained after her jealousy toward Sam, and Lily wants to apply for the project in Hong Kong, but after Iain comes back round and stops giving her the cold shoulder, she self sabotages her presentation so she doesn't have to make a decision.   Everything I've just said is wrong on so many levels.  I think the way Iain treats Lily is pretty vile.  He has a right to be angry over the ketchup/Sam incident, but not to give her the cold shoulder every time she doesn't behave according to his doctrine.  He's just a spoiled little brat.  And as for self sabotaging for a man, well, need I say more about the stupidness?!!  Still, good for her for finally making the right decision, even in the face of Iain's grand and embarrassing karaoke gesture!

COTW continues the theme of unhealthy relationships, with the love triangle of man leaving partner for her best friend.  Wake up, best friend, like that dude was ever going to be trustworthy!  Proven by his about face at the end.  Good for the woman to turn him away in favour of supporting her friend.  Who is still her friend, despite the attempt to run off with her man?  I'm all for sisterly support, but even I think that might be going a bit far...

Casualty S32 Episode 12

'I know what you did'!  Perhaps a wee bit childish of Max, but pretty serious overreaction from Ethan!  I hope this Scott Ellison guilt won't be everlasting, because although in reality, I'm sure it will stay with him forever, as a viewer, it's a bit like flogging a dead dog...

I was intially pleased when it was announced Sam was to return to Casualty.  And happy to see her for her first couple of episodes.  But tonight has helped to remind me just how annoying she could be.  I mean, she threw Iain's phone out of a moving ambulance window!!  In WHAT UNIVERSE could she possibly imagine that this behaviour might be acceptable??!!!  Phones aren't 50p, and people rely on them (rightly or wrongly) to live their entire lives!  I can't even begin to articulate how disgusting I think her behaviour was.  And Iain more or less let her get away with it.  Euch.

Slightly different COTW in the former abuse victim ambushing then manipulating the paedophile into holding up a store.  I think the storyline was all kinds of uncomfortable, from witnessing the psychological damage to the victims, shown in the evidence of Ocean's self harm, and the fact that she feels the only think open to her now is to mount a personal vendetta on abusers, by deliberately seeking them out through chat rooms, and attempting to force their arrests through other means.  I think the fact that she didn't seem to understand the gravity of what she had done, in terms of the safety of innocent bystanders (collateral damage?) spoke volumes to the degree of psychological trauma that she had experienced. And that is not even mentioning the presence of the paedophile himself, a father to two young children.

The other COTW was the homeless man, who had been picked up for a one night stand by someone of some seeming privilege.  I'm not sure what this story was designed to highlight - perhaps a seasonal reminder that homeless people are rarely homeless by choice, but rather caught in a cycle that try as they may, they're unable to break.  Perhaps this could have been a more powerful story if it hadn't been chosen to play against the far more hardhitting paedophile case.

Casualty S32 Episode 13

It's about time we got some closure on the Robyn/Glen storyline.  I rather enjoyed the huge flashback/fill in the gap section of this episode, I'm not saying I was ever a massive Glen fan, but it was an interesting and refreshing change.  I felt a little bad for him at how badly people treated him - on the one hand, I know he walked out on Robyn at the altar, which is an unbelievably shitty thing to do (he should have done it before 'the day' ;-)), and I really dislike people's propensity to 'know' what's best for other people - by and large, folk should have the right to make up their own mind; but regardless of all that, I think it's safe to say his heart was in the right place, and there was of course a little more to it than your average jilting.

Robyn 'He's here to hold his daughter.  Who was here to hold me through all of this?'  Selfish, selfish person, surrounded by family and friends, support on every side - Charlie and Duffy giving her and her daughter a home, everyone rushing round to be there for her at every turn.  I shake my head at her.

On the plus side, lots of 'Dee Dee' in the flashback, which was a winner. I like the mention of his past drunken reveal to Zsa Zsa about his crazy family.  Do we know much about his crazy family?  Has it been covered before?  I'm dredging my memories, but coming up blank.  If anyone does have any recollections, do tell me...

One thought I do have about this episode, which is likely highly controversial - as a non-religious person, why is Robyn getting Charlotte christened?  I could understand (although not really agree) if Robyn was a churchgoer herself, but why do it since she's not?  To cover bases?  I think that's rather missing the point of religion, no?  (This taken from E12, where Max says he doesn't know why she's doing it as she's not religious and neither is he...)  Now, I could continue talking about my opinions on this for some time, but I don't want to get soap boxy, so I shall desist.  Plus side of this part for me?  Yay, Lexy!

Casualty S32 Episode 14

So, last episode wasn't merely closure for the Robyn/Glen storyline.   Because Glen is back.  As a porter.  Short or long term, I wonder?   After all, we know his tumour hasn't been cured, although it's at bay.   Ah, well, we'll see.  Still, lots of chances to see people be unnecessarily mean to him.

Thank goodness Connie has finally started her chemo.  Ethan in charge of the ED, fairly unsurprising that he should initially make a hash of it, only to save the day!  I liked that he took Connie there, then went and collected her afterward, though.

COTWs, young boy looking after younger brother suffering from CO poisoning.  I really hoped they could stay together.

Priest with a tattoo trying to remove it because he thinks his new congregation won't like it.  Is that a thing?  I thought priests only felt guilty in the eyes of their god?  After all, if he was comfortable enough to get the tattoo in the first place, why on earth would other peoples opinion matter that much??!!

[formulatrash]

What do you think of Dan Ticktum? While he did some shit in the past, I’d be inclined to forgive what he did as a literal child and to me he does seem like he’s actually changed a bunch and grown just judging by what we saw in F2 in the last year. A lot of what people get angry about seems like confirmation bias to me (it’s Dicktum so let’s interpret what he says in the worst way possible). Since you’re always reasonable I’m just really interested in what you think abou the ‘Ticktum situation’

I have like 5 asks similar to this so lets answer one.

One of the things about Ticktum is that his youthful error was not, y’know, doing something a bit daft. It wasn’t making a mistake that happened to carry a heavy punishment, he - behind the safety car - overtook ten other cars in order to deliberately use his car as a weapon against another driver. That’s not a normal young driver error, it’s a really shocking incident and so when people give it some weight, that’s why.

Does it mean he can’t learn? Absolutely not. If he’d been an adult at the time it would have been a lifetime ban from competition but the agreement was two years of license suspension, of which he served one before returning as a Red Bull funded athlete.

I think there is a reasonable argument for saying that was the right thing - Red Bull’s funding is their own prerogative but to completely stall a young driver’s career also isn’t especially fair. Although, as I said, if he had been an adult he would have never been issued a race license again so I do also see why other people have reservations about him returning to racing, especially at a high level and in powerful machinery.

So what I’m saying is: it’s ok that he is racing but the sheer severity of the incident is why it still gets brought up, it was a very shocking one and not something to be written off as just making an immature mistake. Does that mean it should be held over Dan forever? No - but the reason people don’t forget it is because it was extreme.

Dan’s done some great racing since he returned - he was very strong in his rookie year of Euro F3, he has two Macau wins which is non-trivial. On his day, he can put together a very strong performance.

Unfortunately, when it’s not his day he seems to struggle to contain his emotions about things - from radio rants to repeatedly accusing his own teams of disadvantaging him to his teammate. He ran his mouth off a lot about Mick Schumacher in F3 and continued in F3 Asia, when results didn’t come. To some extent, Red Bull don’t care about that but when he did it in Super Formula that was the last straw - the results they might have waited on but Mugen is Honda’s team and SF is their home series and you have to be political, as everything in motorsport.

When he’s not having a go on social media or the radio, Ticktum is actually very reasonable and funny. He’s a bit naive and definitely not on the scale of socially aware that the average Tumblr user is but that’s kind of most of them - the focus on racing doesn’t leave a lot of space for personal or educational growth.

He had a tricky year in F2 - the current chassis is plagued with mechanical issues and very few teams are getting it to work properly, to the point you can barely judge talent in the series at the moment, unfortunately. About half the grid aren’t of the standard to be there and about half the rest of them are in cars with mysterious malfunctions and spare parts crises. Ticktum lost a win due to a fuel leak and Carlin aren’t a bad team, absolutely know what they’re doing, the chassis is just not working out for the short-staffed (and particularly this year) F2 teams.

(I don’t say that to take away from the drivers who’ve put in exceptional results this year but it is very hard to benchmark anyone when you know they are in wildly differing cars - Jack Aitken is a good driver, for instance - rivalled George Russell in GP3 - but you wouldn’t know it a lot of the time)

Ticktum’s problems, more than results, are his inability to play the politics of the racing scene. There have been drivers - JEV, I think I’ve said, was never very good at this, wearing his heart far too bloodied on his sleeve - who have made it to F1 despite this but I don’t know if that’s likely for Ticktum. He has an unfortunate reputation of taking things out on his team which, unless you are also achieving genuinely extraordinary results doesn’t bode well for a career.

Good management, coaching and PR training and support could help him - and he’s driving for Prema next year in a €2 million F2 seat so you’d hope he will also invest in that because his career will stall as frequently as a Dallara F2 2018 otherwise.

Should add that I don’t think he is especially hard done by, many drivers careers have been ended much earlier over far less. A lot of people never reach single seaters let alone have the funding for several international series.

[formulatrash]

This may seem a strange and intrusive question but I’ve wondered it since Spa. Obviously it is rare to lose a driver nowadays, so Anthoine’s death must have sent shockwaves through the whole paddock. How does a tragedy like that affect the paddock for the various people in it?

I’m going to put this under a ‘read more’ because it is a sensitive topic, obviously and has distressing themes. 

So I wasn’t actually in that paddock the day it happened, I was at Silverstone for WEC. We were watching the F2 in the media centre during the ...qualifying session or ELMS race, I forget which and we saw it happen on the live feed and you just know.

My immediate instinct was that I had to go find JEV, who was driving ELMS there but that was before we even knew what had happened. Watching it live, you knew it was a big, bad one before the cameras had even cut - if you’re used to seeing motorsport crashes then you know what a ‘safe’ one looks like and what’s going to be a terrible one. It was the second one I’d seen at Spa (I was there when Pietro Fittipaldi crashed at WEC) and there’s this blood-running-cold moment when you know it’s bad. 

The longer it goes on, the worse it is. When the race was black flagged, we knew it was going to be at absolute best life-changing but you don’t imagine there’ll be a death on track, these days.

Everyone in a paddock understands the danger. Motorsport is incredibly dangerous - although there haven’t been regular deaths during Grand Prix weekends for a few decades, there have been horrible maulings and injuries in other categories. I love Le Mans but I am always scared, there because it is a dangerous track (it’s not a Grade A course and can’t be) and they go so fast, even faster during the night when it’s cool. 

It is, undeniably, a part of what makes it thrilling. What makes it so impressive, the chances that they can take and make work - it’s part of the skill, that separates me being technically able to drive round a circuit without anything going wrong and the kind of technical poetry that’s a perfect qualifying lap.

But you don’t think about it most of the time. Unless you’re keen for the blood lust - in which case, get out of paddocks and indeed society - you trust the safety systems, you trust the way the circuits are built, you trust the drivers’ skills. 

I think about it sometimes like this: I do really dangerous things, which other people would not - the art of getting into an out of trouble is pretty key if you’re going to do any documentary journalism, which is my favourite bit, outside of paddocks. A lot of people think I must be oblivious to the risks and just lucky but I’m not, I’m fully aware of the risks and often just lucky. Sometimes you have a close thing and have to spend awhile thinking ‘god, but by a few millimetres or seconds or whatever, that was it’ and then you move on and don’t think about it because you can’t calculate risk on that micro level, only on whether you feel able to handle whatever you’re undertaking.

It’s kind of the same for the drivers, for the people sending the cars out of the garage - you’re aware a freak accident can happen. You know that fires and major crashes and disasters do occur and you hope there won’t be one, each time. It’s not necessarily reassurance that, usually, nothing does happen because that doesn’t alter the risks for next time, just means they’ve been mitigated for that instance but it is always reassuring to see the cars come home - and deeply unnerving for them to not. 

I texted my friends in F2 and the F1 paddock, just to say I was thinking of them. It’s not the time to dig and any journalist who tries to beat the official announcement, to eagerly become the bearer of grim news as though it isn’t a terrible burden, has something deeply wrong with them. 

Afterwards, it was shellshock. I was glad I was around motorsport people - I felt like we shouldn’t race the next day, even in Silverstone. I felt like we shouldn’t be running - I was incredibly worried about JEV, on his way to Spa to do the Canal+ F1 coverage because I knew even two years ago this would have been something he just could not deal with. 

It was a sombre race day. WEC is generally quite chill but there was a real sadness over the paddock, even from such a distance - everyone knows each other. In the industry, everyone still talks about it because it’s a chilling moment, especially in a junior category. Is it right that we do this? Is it possible to reconcile that risk? Is this something you want on your conscience?

Like I say, I wasn’t there. But the way it works is that you collectively grieve - emotions run high, people who might not normally comfort each other will. It’s frustrating that it’s tragedy that brings people together more than triumph but in that moment it’s easy to see petty rivalry as what it is.

People in motorsport aren’t used to being afraid of the sport. Sometimes it makes me nervous or angry - Paris Season 5, in Formula E, I was really upset with cars being left on track while others were sliding on hailstones. You do question the safety, sometimes. But seeing it just... fail is a shock. 

There’s both the love for the person injured - Anthoine Hubert was very, very highly thought of and everyone liked him - and the outrage, the confusion at what just occurred, the desire to demand it’s looked into and examined, no matter how painful the truth might turn out to be. 

(no one in motorsport does this by rewatching accidents; it’s by scrutinising the governing body’s response - whatever Reddit thinks)

Idk, I hope that answers your question or gives some insight or something.