re: 2026 Formula 1 (F1) Season Thread

The only driver I have an irrational dislike of is Esteban Ocon and I think Bearman might finish him off this season.

Swear down I don’t even think Stroll wants to be in F1.

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I don't really understand the dislike of any driver.

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It’s easy to dislike some drivers just as it easy to like some of them

Also note, I'm running a poll right now on the site. Last race someone mentioned that it would be better to lock the predictions after qualy so the predictions would be far more informed seeing the actual performance of each team at that particular track. I have my reasons for believing that locking the prediction lists before the weekend start is best for most players, but I said I would put it to a vote. I adjusted it to lock the predictions after Day 1 instead of Day 2. The poll will be open all April until a few days before the next race, or until all 29 active players have voted. To change the rule to lock after Day 1, a simple majority vote would be 15 votes, but I am making it slightly harder, and I am requiring 17 votes to change the rule. Please put in your vote as soon as you can. The faster we settle this the longer we have to prepare for a possible change in the rules.




Edit: For the first time ever, I used AI to code the polling function with admin form. I used Claude Sonnet 4.6 (free tier) for those curious. I did the initial functional design with 24 prompts. After that I used a mix of manual and AI coding to tweak it out for better usability and to fix some minor bugs. I must say it was fantastic. It saved me many hours of manual coding. While it certainly helped that I knew what I was doing (it helps to make better prompts), a non-coder could really accomplish great things with AI with some motivation and practice.

Or give the teams 2 yrs to develop a NA V10 and tell the FIA to shove their net zero where the sun don't shine and allow refueling

We already have FE... we don't need a 2nd one

F1 should be the pinnacle of motorsport... currently, it is not

Man, just googled F1 News to see if anything has popped up and everyone is going all in on Verstappen walking away end of this year... Gonna be hard for him to put those worms back in the can.

I hope he does. He has said for the last few years the new regs would be shite and miserable to drive and it looks like he was right. He doesn't need the money. Do what makes you happy and go manage his own team in the GT circuit.

I said earlier I wouldn't be surprised to see him walk away if he can't get a too seat. A sabbatical year isn't unheard of in F1 and Merc would have to make a decision to unload George or Mclaren one of their two more than capable drivers.

Lewis could leave and Max could take that spot. Ferrari probably has their eyes on killing one more legacy.

Imagine being an Apple TV exec and signing off on the licensing of F1 under these new regs.

I wonder if F1 is feeling pressure from sponsors yet.

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Have ant ratings been made public?

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No and it sounds like Apple never will tell the numbers… sounds like it’s the same thing they did when they paid for MLS that faltered.

Not sure how the ratings matter in a lot of cases. Obviously some sponsors want American viewership numbers high with others probably more worried about demographic than total number.