MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2022

Well, guys, that actually went way better than I expected.

In F1, I live by the saying, "New track, new troubles." I expected Miami to be no exception. After F1 has had several seriously lackluster visits to the US in the past few years, I was dreading what Miami was going to look like. I assumed that if Texas was bad, Miami was only going to be worse.

But thank God, that was not the case. It was actually a pretty great weekend.

The track around the Hard Rock Stadium made an amazing venue and it was packed full of passionate fans wearing pastel colors and tropical shirts. It was lovely to look at. Definitely a party atmosphere. Even the fake marina, which I thought would be too extra, was actually pretty sweet.

Miami did a great job. I can hardly believe I'm hearing myself say it.

Of course, there's still a few things I'd like to improve. For example, the practice sessions were packed with incidents, but the race itself was pretty boring until the last few laps. It seemed like there was no real passing happening on track, but the track had me terrified the whole time that someone, surely, was going to have a terrible crash. It did remind me of a Jeddah type of layout, which, last year, generated some of the worst crashes at any track we've gone to.

Also, the poor boys on the podium looked like they were going to pass out. Racing in Florida during the day is just too hot. They are pro athletes, but they're still mortal and should not be subjected to that kind of dangerous temperatures.

Lastly, the part that I've probably yelled the most about this weekend was that Carlos Sainz decided to take off his shirt in the cool down room on live television and that just seemed completely unprofessional to me. I still don't like that the cool down room is back. Can't we just let them have a moment after they've been through such an ordeal? Why do we have to stick more cameras in their face?

Other drama included Lil Schumacher hitting Seb in the race and Max stopping inches from wall, saving his car from a smashup, Lando's basketball helmet, and Daniel's Ace Ventura helmet.

I loved that Max was on the top step of the podium and Charles in second. That's how I hoped my home country would treat these two starts. I also loved that they had Dan Marino, himself, present Max with the trophy.

Here are my notes:

Free Practice 1

• first time ever in Miami

• 40% chance of rain for this session

• Literally no runoff area here and this is the first time I’ve seen the track and my first impression is that this is interesting and difficult and new and potentially really dangerous

• Maxy brushes the wall in the first ten minutes

• Lots of people slipping around and trying to figure the track out

• Ocon already getting an unsafe release into George Russell

• Mick Schumacher and Daniel Ricciardo pit lane incident too but investigated after the race

• Hard hit for Bottas in the barrier at turn 7 and first RED FLAG of the weekend and I have a v bad feeling about this

• Sainz has a big spin again and compromises his session ans doesn’t go into the wall by sheer luck

• Albon put his williams in p2 near the end of the session, incredible

• Top three are Charles George and Max so three teams in the running

• Yuki being super disrespectful this session

• Lando has a basketball helmet and he just wins at helmets

• Daniel has an ace ventura theme helmet

Free Practice 2

• They changed Maxy’s gearbox in a precautionary action because is the. Rush with the wall but that is nonsense

• There has been a whole. Introvert this weekend where they are ordering Hamilton not to wear jewelry because none of the other drivers are allowed to so he showed up to a press conference with like every piece of jewelry he owns and now he is like refusing to take off the jewelry in the car so they are maybe gonna have to inspect the car for discrepancies because the driver is part of the car and if the car is overweight then it could be disqualified from this

• Carlos Sainz goes too fast and hits the wall and RED FLAG to clean it up and everyone is like ok Sainz is having a terrible time

• They’re talking to Mario Andretti in the commentary box!

• Huge sound issues in this session on F1 tv where it is cutting out every few minutes

• NOOO as soon as they change Max’s gearbox and send him out, his steering fails and his back right brake starts on FIRE and they have to have him go straight back into the box and it’s so upsetting, this is not good for Maxy

• A bizarre incident where when Max lost power and steering, Lance got mad at Max for slowing on the line but there was nothing Max could do and Lance drove around Max dangerously and they investigated the incident but no further action

• This pit lane exit is getting majorly in peoples way

• George Russell blocked Seb when he was coming out of the pits

• Sudden red flag for Nicholas Latifi who surprisingly didn’t crash but stopped at a logical place after realizing his wheel wasn’t on straight

• Kevin has a spin at Turn 7 like Bottas

Free Practice 3

• Ocon has a RED FLAG crash at turn 14, same as Carlos

• A lot of colorful commentary by Juan Pablo Montoya

• Lots of black and white flags for crossing the line at the pit exit

• With a minute left, Max has a VERY NEAR crash in the problem chicane but thank God he is somehow able to stop in time before hitting the wall

• Some impeding and possible ignoring of race directors instructions at end

Qualifying

• they couldn’t fix Ocon’s car in time for qualifying so he won’t take part in quali!

• Out in Q1: Kevin, Zhou, Albon, Latifi, and Ocon who did not take part

• Out in Q2: Alonso, Russell, Vettel, Ricciardo and Lil Schu

• Alonso accused Sainz of impeding and then under investigation and no further investigation

• Little error by Max on his last lap so he starts third

• Charles on pole!! Sainz in second, Max third

Race

• the pre race of Martin Brundle was classic stress and SO many celebrities but the national anthem was awesome so that’s amazing

• Both Aston martins starting from the pit lane because the fuel was too cold so that’s weird

• Charles retains the lead and Max gets past Sainz to second place and Lewis falls back to 8th at the start with Bottas retaining 5th

• Hamilton accused Alonso of hitting him on the first lap lol

• Hamilton gets back past Alonso and Gasly to sixth so where he started by lap 6

• 7/57 team tells Zhou he has to retire

• 9/57 MAX PASSES CHARLES for the lead!! Red Bull has much more speed

• 13/57 Charles has a lock up around a corner because of the tire wear

• 16/57 Alonso has a slow pit stop

• 20/57 PEREZ INSISTING HE IS LOSING POWER

• Okay they appear to have fixed Perez’s power

• Kevin is having some shenanigans

• 25/57 Charles reports the car is so difficult to drive

• Charles pits soon after reporting that

• 27/57 Maxy pits and has a nice fast stop

• Sainz has a 5.4 second stop!!

• Perez pits the same time and now they are gonna be close

• 40/57 Alonso locks up and accidentally HITS the side of Gasly but they both continue and the stewards notice it

• 41/57 LANDO AND GASLY COLLIDE and it’s a full safety car. Gasly was slowing and had adventures for 3 corners and didn’t see Lando going past and hits him and Lando does dramatic spins and is out of the race

• Full safety car means a total reset for this pretty quiet race so far

• Alonso gets a five second time penalty for causing a collision

• Only Perez pits under the safety car and Max, Charles and Sainz dont pit ahead of him so Sergio can be fast

• Gasly pits at end of safety car with a problem after the contact with Alonso AND Lando

• Magnussen and Stroll collision after restart but only caused a yellow and they keep going

• This post safety car restart is WILD and you just don’t know where to look

• Perez almost passed Sainz but locked up

• OH NO LIL SCHU HIT SEB and both of their races are basically over, seb retires and Mick continues in last

• The stewards putting out super confusing investigation notices with the wrong drivers and they have to issue several corrections and it’s just confusion

• MAX WINSSSSSS and then Charles in second who was just in his tail! Sainz in third, Perez in fourth who almost got Sainz, and then Russell in front of Hamilton which I love and then Bottas right behind

• All three drivers look SO tired after this race and it was super physical and they all need tons of water

• Max gets his own little jeep take him over to the podium

• They have Dan Marino, himself, give Max the trophy! Right about the statue of Dan Marino. They also give them football helmets AND hats to wear.

IMOLA GRAND PRIX 2022

Imola was a wild card because, A) it was one of three "experimental format" weekends we had this year (which we've had the last year or two), and B) it was raining on and off all weekend, and C), it was the first race of the year in Europe.

It was another Max win! But it was a terrible weekend for Ferrari. Sainz crashed in qualifying and on the first lap of the race and had a DNF for the second race in a row. Charles did everything right but lost the sprint to Max and didn't get a good start in the race, then had a little spin near the end of the race while trying to maximize his opportunity to pass Perez. He finished in the points, but not on the podium. It was awful to think how mad he must have been at himself.

Also of note is that there were FIVE red flags this qualifying cause everyone kept getting on the paint at the same corner and because it was wet, it just sent everyone into the gravel or wall.

Also, Hamilton got lapped by Max in this race which I loved. And Nico Rosberg's commentary was totally roasting Hamilton's performance in 14th compared to George Russell, who was in the top 5.

So here's how the season has been so far: Charles wins, Max DNFs. Max wins, Charles in second. Charles wins, Max DNFs. Max wins, Charles finished in the top 6. They keep trading off.

Here are my notes from the weekend:

Free Practice 1

• it’s an experimental weekend again

• It’s raining and has been raining all day!!

• Red flag when they thought Lando was beached but he was fine and they immediately restarted

• Bottas goes into the gravel and is like inches from hitting the wall but avoids it

Qualifying

• RED FLAG in Q1 when Alex Albon’s rear right tire is on fire and has a small but significant explosion and he somehow manages to get it back to the pit

• Out in Q1: Albon, ocon, Latifi, Gasly, Tsunoda

• Hamilton was ALMOST out in Q1 but made it in by the skin of his teeth. If Ocon had gone out then he would have improved and gotten Hamilton

• RAIN IS COMING in q2 so everyone has like one times lap

• RED FLAG for SAINZ into the wall again and this has happened a few times now

• By the time Carlos car is cleaned up, it’s raining so no one goes out in Q2 cause they won’t be able to beat their times, until Seb and a couple others goes out which we love

• DRAMA as the camera catch an unfriendly exchange between Hamilton and Toto in the back of the garage with toto yelling at him

• Out in Q2: Russell, little Schu, Hamilton, Zhou, Stroll

• First time both Mercedes’ have been out in Q2 since like 2012!

• RED FLAG for Kevin going almost into the wall but he kept it out of it and even brought it back to the garage and everyone was impressed that Kevin thought to throw some acceleration on as he was going into the gravel so he wouldn’t get beached

• ANOTHER RED FLAG for Bottas pulling over

• THE FIFTH RED FLAG of the session for Lando in the barrier in the same spot as everyone else and the session is over and won’t be restarted with 30seconds left

• Max on pole!! Then Charles, then Lando even though he crashed, then Kevin and Alonso

Free practice 2

• nothing to report here

Sprint

• Charles passes max for the lead and the crowd ROARS

• Pierre hits Zhou and Zhou hits the wall and it pulls SAFETY CAR

• Kevin and Perez under investigation for weaving on the straight

• Black and white flag for Kevin for weaving on the straight

• Alonso has a scary moment almost flying into the gravel but saves it

• Alonso has a black and white flag for weaving on the straights

• ON LIKE THE SECOND TO LAST LAP MAX passes Charles for the lead!!

• MAX WINS the sprint, then Charles and Perez!! Hamilton down in 14th hahaha and Russell in 11th

Race

• RAIN!! The track is wet! Ahhh!

• The tifosi are there un impressive force

• Max has a great start and Perez gets into second and Lando into third as Charles falls back in the wet track and doesn’t get away

• Bottas hits Ricciardo who hits Sainz and SAINZ MADE IT TWO CORNERS BEFORE HE IS IN THE GRAVEL BEACHED AGAIN and his race is over!! Brutal in front of the tifosi. Daniel also went through the gravel but is able to keep going but Carlos is beached and it’s over

• Nervy restart but okay

• Alonso has damage and the side pod just broke off all by itself just like in testing and Alonso has to retire

• 8/63 Charles gets past Lando for third and the tifosi roars

• Some very stressful racing of George trying to pass Kevin and then Bottas also getting past Kevin

• Charles has track limits at two corners

• 16/63 Max reports more sliding

• Daniel pits for slicks and is the first of the field to do so

• Bottas has a terrible pit stop

• OCON HITS HAMILTON in the PITS lane and I LOVE it, even though it was not a bad hit and so Hamilton is now in 14th while George is in fifth

• Drivers being told the rain is moving away, rather than before they said rain expected

• Ocon gets a five second penalty for hitting Hamilton in the unsafe release

• Still no DRS in this race and it’s a little damp but there’s no reason not to have it

• Hahaha Nico points out that George is doing great in 5th and Hamilton is in 14th

• Quick yellow for Mick Schumacher getting in a little spin but fortunately keeps going only in last

• Little Schu has a black and white flag for track limits

• 30/63 Perez has an off going straight through the corner but still keeps ahead of Charles

• 35/63 DRS finally enabled

• MAX LAPS HAMILTON HAHAHAHAH THIS IS THE BEST

• Every lap Hamilton tries to get past Pierre but he just can’t and it’s a huge joke

• Nico Rosberg just roasted Hamilton’s performance and it’s great

• Pierre is just totally keeping Hamilton behind and it’s amazing

• 50/63 Charles pits for the second time to get new tires and he’s the only one who has done that so then they also put Perez so he can stay on fast tires too

• LESS THAN TEN LAPS LEFT, CHARLES SPINS AND TAPS THE WALL because he was trying to get towards Perez into second BUT HE NEARLY CRASHED and it only took off part of the wing and they could have left him out but they pitted him and now he’s back in 8th instead of third

• Bottas on 5th is right behind George Russell in 4th and may get him with a few laps let

• MAX WINSSSSSS

• Perez in second!!

• Lando on third!

• Charles was able to get up to finish in 6th

• George finished in fourth but Bottas sent a message and nearly passed him

• Hamilton finished 13th hahaha

• Oh woah COOLDOWN ROOM for the first time in forever! Perez Max and Lando talking about Charles spin which they show

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2022

Weekend overview is as follows: Charles won again! And Max had a second DNF.

There's only been 3 races so far, Max has won one of them, and the other two he has had to DNF for mechanical issues. I am so upset for him.

But the good news is that, of the 3 races, 2/3 have been won by Charles.

Other major stories from the weekend include: scooter Seb, Seb later being reprimanded for using the scooter, and the best wipe out of a marshal I've ever seen.

Other on track stories include: Alex Albon had a great race for Williams and actually got him a point. Charles and Max did great racing while Max's car was working.

Okay, let's dive deeper into these HILARIOUS and ICONIC Free Practice moments of Seb riding a moped around the track with his helmet perched on his head and later getting reprimanded by the stewards for unauthorized use of scooter. By far my favorite thing I've seen in a long time.

Here is a video so we can always remember these important scenes of Scooter Seb:

My other favorite television moment was when the marshal had the best wipe out ever during Free Practice 2. I loved it so much that I got videos of both the international and F1 TV commentary and they're both amazing.

Nothing can compete with that footage, but here are the rest of my notes.

Free Practice 1

- they made the Alpine cars much less pink and focused on the blue more which is much better

- Someone impeded Hamilton or Hamilton impeded someone, I’m not sure

- Seb is back for the first time! First race of 2022

- Sergio loses a front wing end plate and they have a super short red flag

- Red flag for Seb’s car smoking and it was another situation where he grabbed his own fire extinguisher and did everything him self and helped the marshals wheel it away. Classic Seb

- Hilarious footage of Seb riding back on the moped alone with his helmet up on top of his head and waving at everybody and that’s the seb they love

Free Practice 2

- risk of rain for this session

- Potential for Porsche to take over the Red Bull power trains and collaborate with Red Bull

- SEB GOT CALLED TO THE STEWARDS FOR UNAUTHORIZED USE OF A SCOOTER HAHAHAHAHH best day ever

- Red flag so someone can go get Lance Stroll’s piece of body work

- HAHAH THE MARSHAL WIPES OUT when running back with ten minutes left of the session and it’s the FUNNIEST thing because he really wiped out badly and then the crowd cheered. It’s with 9:37 minutes left of the session

- Now a discussion that Hamilton has been breaking the rules about wearing jewelry in the car and no one ever said anything about it when he was number one but now that he’s midfield at best they bring it up and I love it

- Charles has a LOT of porpoising

Free Practice 3

- this underwear meeting discussion is hilarious

- HA Seb got a 5000 euro fine for the scooter incident hahahahah

- Aw Oscar Piastri is in the commentary box!

- They didn’t put a new part on Charles car because they didn’t also have the new part for Sainz so they are waiting til next race when they can have it equally…

- Yellow flag for Hamilton in gravel and brushing the wall

- Red flag for Seb going in gravel and hitting the wall, but he’s okay. Goodness Seb, what a year HES having so far

- Mick Schumacher slowed down to a stop to see if Seb was okay in his crash as he was going by, WHAT A SWEETHEART

- Lots of spinning for everyone, no one is happy

- Red flag with three minutes left for Lance Stroll crashing so now both Aston Martin’s crashed this session and it could not have gone worse for them

- Kevin apparently had tummy issues earlier in the day

- Lando has a power unit issue but still finishes top of the session

Qualifying

- They may not get Seb’s car repaired before the end of Q1

- HUGE CRASH of STUPIDITY between Latifi and Stroll and it’s like how many times has Latifi already crashed this year. Truly any necessary incident which is representative of how dangerous stupidity can be

- They just get Seb out in time to be in Q1 because they have extra time to work on the car

- out in Q1: Albon, mag, Vettel, Latifi and stroll

- Stewards noted that Perez may not have slowed enough for the yellow flags

- Max may have impeded Hamilton on a fast lap a little bit

- There’s a rainbow over Melbourne!

- Out in Q2: Gasly, Bottas, Tsunoda, Zhou and Lil Schu

- This is the first time Bottas has not made it to Q3 in like 100 races

- It is SO SUNNY because of the delays and how they scheduled it later in the day and everyone gets on the radio at the end of Q2 complaining they can’t see and it’s super dangerous

- Max has a piece of tape on his helmet as a little visor

- Red flag for Alonso crashing on a really good lap

- The red flag ruined Sainz’s lap and we think Charles lap still counts though

- CHARLES ON POLE!! Then Max in second and Perez

- Sainz got unlucky and made a mistake so he’s starting ninth hahahah

Race

- this had over 400,000 people weekend attendance and is the largest sporting event in Australian history

- Worried about reliability issues for Red Bull and last minute changes for Max

- 2/58 SAINZ SPINS AND BEACHES HIS CAR IN THE GRAVEL and his race is over on lap 2. Apparently his hard tires just were awful starting. SCARY when he went into the gravel because he just overdid it trying to get ahead as he was dropping back and went straight across traffic as he spun into the gravel

- 10/58 Sergio passes Hamilton into third!! WOOOO

- 11/58 Seb into the gravel from not braking early enough but he keeps going so that’s good

- 12/58 Max reports front left graining

- 17/58 Kevin was trying to get past Yuki and has a scary off track excursion in the same place as Carlos but handles it way better

- 19/58 Max pits first and a good stop

- 20/58 Sergio is really struggling with its tires and Hamilton is catching

- 24/58 SAFETY CAR FOR SEB WHO CRASHED AGAIN after the worst weekend of his life and now he’s back on the scooter like earlier in the weekend

- George benefited from the safety car and managed to pit at the same time and pop up into third

- Yuki was driving erratically under the safety car and almost caused Lil Schu to crash into him

- Charles has a problem on restart and Max NEARLY gets past him but Charles retains the lead

- This is a wild restart with everyone all bunched up

- 36/58 Perez gets past George for third

- 39/58 NOOOOOOO MAXY’S CAR OVERHEATED AND STARTED ON FIRE AND HE HAD TO PULL OVER AND RETIRE NOOOOOOOOOOOOO 2 DNFS in the first 3 races

- Stroll pushes Bottas off track but no further action

- 5 second time penalty for Stroll for weaving on the straight

- A couple of excursions into the grass for Perez and Schumacher but they’re ok

- Charles trying to plan his run for fastest lap but Ferrari says no not to do it even though Martin says Charles is right to be thinking about that

- Typical Hamilton complaining on the radio

- Concern that they haven’t pitted Albon yet who has had a great race but pits on the last lap

- CHARLES WINS! This is his fourth win!!!! WOOOOOO

- Sergio in second and Russell in third! Hamilton is only fourth hahaha

- Charles also got fastest lap after Ferrari almost lost it for him by telling him not to and when they told him he got fastest lap, he said "I wanted to do it :)"

- Alex Albon actually got 10th even after the pit stop so one point for him in the Williams! Latifi is like last so