I’m loving it. This is F1. Dominate your ass off, Max, I’ll watch every race. Force the others to catch up. Be better drivers, build better cars. I think his dominance has as much to do with Newey as it does with him. Each champions in their own right, but put them together and they are magical. I think Checo can do better but the car suits Max more than him. I cannot imagine how Checo is dealing with the mental aspects of his job right now.
Sure, sure, I get that. There are more races in the year, now, too. I don't have enough historical perspective to compare Fittipaldi to Verstappen, really. That fact was just to say more about the dominance of last season. Because, comparing Fittipaldi or Schumacher from years past to today is hard, for sure. But, Red Bull, in this current year, is beating the shit out of Ferrari. And Mercedes. And Aston Martin. Those are historic automakers. Red Bull figured out the aero (or Newey did), and the other teams aren't even close. So, I certainly give props to how the Auto was developed, and the crew. It's a team effort for sure. But, Max is kicking ass and taking advantage of what the team has given him. Dude is good.
Yeah, I'm sure Daniel Ricciardo would love to move on up to RB, even if people are saying he's lost it.
I think the combination of having a robot (Max) behind the wheel of a car that was built by another robot (Newey) is ultimately a combination that's just currently too overpowerful for any other team, let alone an individual driver to overcome on this iteration of the car. Maybe in '26 the field might catch up, but even then it's doubtful. Barring some major shakeup that sees either Max and/or Adrian leaving RedBull, it looks like we're in for another 5-10 years of dominance like we were in with Mercedes just before Drive to Survive brought a bunch of new fans in.
Max is a world champion. Full stop. The car helps, but I don’t see other drivers doing what he has so far. The way he works with the car to save tires is just insane. It’s just the planets aligning and who knows when the others will catch up. I hope the Honey Badger gets a ride in Red Bull, but man, Alonso is still kicking ass.
How are you guys watching the F1 races? I’m using the F1 app on my Apple TV and it is hands down the best way I’ve ever watched a sporting series. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Live races, immediate replays, interviews, tech analysis, alternative commentary (I prefer Sky vs the F1 core team), data feeds, per driver camera/audio feeds. It’s phenomenal.
I'm still one of the dozen or so people in America that still has cable, so I watch the Sky broadcast that is shown on ESPN/ESPN2. And while that's good enough, a friend of mine has an "illegal firestick" that gives him all of the premium F1 specific channels for free, so he just likes to sit and cycle through all of the driver direct channels as the race goes on. I tried watching it with him once and it was fine for a few laps, but unless you knew exactly which drivers were actually in a battle, it became pretty boring quickly.
I still think Netflix is doing a great job with the series. Everyone has an opinion about how it sucks, but I find it highly entertaining.
Oh, absolutely! That was kind of a point I was trying to make - Verstappen's dominance would make it boring with all the drama removed. But, Netflix editing & commentary made it interesting.
I wish they'd release episodes during the season... it'd not be as well edited, obviously, but I'd still love to get more of a view of the behind-the-scenes drama going on.