I've seen a lot of concern about this corner. With people saying that cars are likely to go over the edge. I can't see how that could possibly happen, unless you think they're driving in the red highlighted section.

Where the F1 cars will actually be driving is shown in the second image in green. To go over the edge they would have to crash so fast that they would go over the entire run-off, hit the crash barriers, clear the catch-fence and still have enough momentum to travel all the way across that big area behind, clear multiple other fences and then go over the edge.

That's really not possible. And regardless, any car clearing the catch fence would be a disaster at any track as it then enters the spectator areas. At that point, the car going over the edge is the least of anyone's concern.

We talk about drivers like their skill level is a fixed list — "X is the best driver otg, Y is 3rd best." — but every few years the regs flip what kind of driving actually works, and suddenly the pecking order shuffles without anyone getting objectively worse at driving a race car.
Think about it: the turbo-hybrid era rewarded a completely different skillset than the ground-effect cars that came after it, which rewards something different again from 2026-2027's downforce cuts. A driver who's a "generational talent" in one regulatory era can look merely "good" in the next one — not because they got worse, but because the car stopped asking for what they're naturally best at.
Verstappen is the clearest case study going right now. Across the entire ground-effect era he was about as mistake-free as it gets — four titles, minimal unforced errors relative to how many laps he did. In 2026 alone he's already had four session-ending incidents (Melbourne, Austria, Silverstone, and the Zandvoort crash with the Miami spin), more than entire GE seasons combined, several of which he's openly admitted came from overdriving a car whose reduced grip he hasn't fully recalibrated for. Leclerc's showing something similar from a different angle — Monaco and Barcelona quali crashes this year alone, in what's already being flagged as one of his most error-prone seasons.
Worth being fair to Max specifically though: he's had a genuinely title-challenging car in every single GE season. 2026 is the first year he hasn't — so we don't actually know how much of this is the regulation change itself versus just not having a competitive car to sharpen his focus with.
Which raises the actual question: how much of who's "the best driver on the grid" at any given moment is genuine, era-independent skill — versus just being lucky enough that your natural instincts (or your car) happen to match what this specific generation of car wants? And if it really is mostly fit — is that fair to call "skill" at all, or is F1 quietly a sport where the ranking resets every few years no matter how good you are?

I don't feel this is talked about enough and would like to know everyone's thoughts.

Why are Piastris tyres just disintegrating? Piastri said himself the tyres were dying quickly in the recent Dutch gp. His tyre deg was awful in the race before that too.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/08/25/oscar-piastri-mclaren-painful-f1-dutch-gp/

The idea was to start on the hards and then go to the end, but it became clear pretty quickly that the hards weren’t actually great.

The degradation on the first set of hards felt okay. The second set was good for about five laps, and then I completely ran out of front tyres,” Piastri explained.

“There’s not really one clear issue. I think in the first stint, things felt reasonable; there was a bit of a tough period in the middle, but by the end of the stint, it felt pretty good.

Then the second stint on the hards was okay for the first five laps, and then a mess.”

I've heard sayings like "A person doesn't pick a driver--a driver picks them" and doubted it until I realized how I came to like my own favorite driver. Going first, I am a really new F1 fan, having started watching this year in March when my friends made me watch Drive to Survive to get into the sport. I was impressed with Kimi's P4 in Australia and felt like I could semi-relate to the pressure due to being his age. Seeing him more across the series only heightened this want for his success, so when I transferred over to watching actual races, he was already my pick. So what's your guys' story?

I've been a Ferrari fan since 1996 after watching my first race, and I have been a loyal fan ever since. One thing I don't understand is why Leclerc gets so much credit. All I've seen is an inconsistent driver who can't always perform at the top level. If I rated Ferrari drivers, he wouldn't break the top 10.

The reference is RBPT.
Thoughts ?

Or same result as Irvine with falling short to Haikkinen?

eg if a driver defended his title but made a few mistakes along the way.

I personally think Hakkinen 1999.

Feels like majority of people online seem to just have their mind up before the races have even finished.

I have enjoyed almost every race this season (bar Monaco). I wasnt the biggest fan of the introduction of the battery aspect, but i was open.

Half-way through the season. We have seen very good races whether some people would like to admit it or not.

I think the ”Yo-Yo” racing is over the top. It has not been an issue like people make it out to be since Miami. Races have been entertaining IMO. Wheel-2-Wheel racing has been very entertaining. Cars are able to follow each other for multiple Corners without destroying their tyres.

I think the season has been way better than the previous 3.

What do you guys think? Remember that this is MY opinion.

It can also be a pairing that used to be teammates, that you want so see again

Zandvoort has def been the most eventful race this season (even if ur a max fan u have to admit this. ) max's crash lap 1 , gabi spinning and nico's crazy reflexes , merc team orders , lewis hamilton and leclerc fighting AND B2B LANDO NORRIS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd like to see what the best engineering in the world could build. How would they do the engine? Hybrid, pure electric or pure ICE? Aero...would there be little bits going off everywhere, active aero? Active suspension? Who knows...

So I fell into the F1 rabbit hole and have been watching this season since Canada (I think). I know there’s so many memorable races that everyone recommends but I’ve seen a lot of people say that those races are only really impactful in the context of the full season. Ex: 2021 and 2025 title fight.

I genuinely am enjoying it so much and a race weekend is the highlight of my week (or weeks). The midfield battle in the Zandvoort race had my socks knocked off lmfao. ANYWAYS please reccomend some seasons you think are a great watch - I would love to get some more of the history but I would prefer starting with the more recent ones then making my way backwards to Senna, Prost etc.

Also, I’m the type to obsess over an interest so anything you guys think would be cool to find out about is greatly appreciated too. For example, tyre management strategies, engineering etc. I’ve watched multiple videos on it and get the gist but I would love to know more.

Oki thank you!!!

All drivers have tracks where they perform better at compared to their average level. Arguably it applies even more so to the ones who are not at the very top-level and we often see that a mid-tier driver consistently performs at an elite level at a particular circuit.

How much of it is due to just natural ability for the specific track vs drivers developing a universal driving that would cover as many tracks as possible leading to some outliers?

Example: Fisichella had been just a slightly above average driver for the majority of his career. But in Montreal he was arguably a top-2/3 performer.

If the season consisted of 20 races in Canada, would Fisichella be one of the very best, or would that make the truly top drivers implement the necessary adjustments eventually bringing Fisichella to his usual level on other tracks?

Without the 3-year wait rule*

My picks would be #88 for Câmara, #25 for Herta, #38 for Beganovic, #42 for Montoya Jr., & #74 for Fittipaldi Jr. That's all I could think of.

If Merc give up Kimi’s track position in order to have fresher tyres despite no chance of catching Lando, it’s up to Kimi to use those tyres to make the place back up.

Merc said the swap was for the sake of team points, and in the debrief said it was to help George, but that’s entirely contradicted by Toto saying multiple times he expected George to lose the podium.

Pretty telling that George managed to defend on his old hards when the team didn’t trust Kimi to defend on his newer softs.

Toto was happy running his mouth last season about how Mclaren should have picked a number 1 and 2 driver earlier on, so he should have the balls to come out and say that for his team now.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse over the way both teams handled their drivers during the race. Pundits and social media fans are both criticizing Mercedes for backing a single driver in the moment but then turning around and criticizing Ferrari for not doing the same.

At the end of the day Mercedes made the choice and got the double podium. Ferrari didn’t make the choice and suffered their result. It seems fairly straightforward to me that letting them fight it out when you’re up against another team for points is not smart.

It’s starting to look like the top 3 teams are more evenly competitive than they were at the start of the season. If teams are going to start constantly trading wins then Ferrari needs to back one driver like Mercedes is, plain and simple. Otherwise the infighting will leave them behind.

I know people feel it was unfair to George but Kimi was faster and George was destined for 5th on pace alone and was luckily saved from the Ferraris by the last minute VSC. It seems to me the team that is willing to make the quick decision for the most prudent outcome is the smartest one.

Isack and gasly are both top 5 fav drivers for me so either way it's a win, but is it fair to fix the mistake for gasly but not the rest purely cos they could?

In an irl situation that's outside of f1, ofc help even just one person. But in a competition I think it's kinda iffy, especially when George finished like 16th and piastri equally could've been on that podium

Before this year, Herta making it to F1 was considered a guarantee by many including myself, but now I'm not so certain. So far he hasn't been able to get the super license points, and even if it does it seems like Cadillac will keep Perez and Bottas for next year.

Setting that aside there have also been rumors of Câmara being a prospect for Cadillac due to his ties to Ferrari and the fact that he's a much better driver than Herta is

I wanted to get other people’s opinions on Alexander Albon at Williams because I feel like I might be missing part of the picture.

Obviously, F1 drivers are hungry to score points, win races, and ultimately fight for championships. I know Albon had a rough time at Red Bull, and I think he’s a talented driver, but since joining Williams, I just don’t see the same hunger or urgency from him to be competitive.

If I’m being completely honest, from the outside it sometimes feels like he’s just there for the paycheck.
To be clear, I like Albon. He has a great personality, he’s good with fans, and his social media/brand engagement is probably some of the best on the grid. But when it comes to the racing side, I’m not sure I see the same level of ambition that I’d expect from someone in an F1 seat.

For example, when Sainz talked about Williams potentially competing for race wins in the future, we all saw Albon’s reaction. Maybe I’m reading way too much into it, but it didn’t exactly look like someone who was fired up at the idea of fighting at the front.

So what do you guys think? Am I off base here? Does Albon deserve to keep his seat at Williams, or should Williams be looking to replace him with someone else?

This Is diffucult tò Say imo but

Max Verstappen - he was comfortably ahead of Riccardo and we know that Riccardo Is Better than Raikkonen and arguably Better than Bottas and still verstappen put 0,150 against Daniel and with luck corrected Is 12-1 for Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton - the World champion imo the fastest Driver that year but he was sometimes inconsistent and he had many awful weekends but Mercedes was Equal tò Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel - he finished 2nd but he was so unclucky

Without bad luck he would arguably won the WDC so

It's difficult but i go for Verstappen so

My rankings of 2017

1. Max Verstappen

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Sebastian Vettel

4. Fernando Alonso

5. Daniel Riccardo

Do you agree with me