F1 accidentally making timing data available at the start of a secret test and only shutting it down at lunchtime is peak F1.

I bet FIFA feel pretty stupid right now.

There are odd days I miss my years working on Sky Darts. Then I thought “I could have just spent 4 hours making a Ryan Searle promo” and I calmed down.

Had a disgusting reply to this which led to me blocking someone here for the first time. Once again your perceived dislike for a team, or love of another driver should not be a factor in how you feel about this. I’m sick of the online discourse around a bloody sport.

Whilst F1 news is full of rumours and angry comments about a certain race engineer going to Aston Martin, the same man (one of the nicest and most private people I’ve ever met) has been through every dad and husband’s worst nightmare. I have spoken before about the toll the F1 life takes on

Love it when the realities of broadcast workflows gets in the way of censorship. Willing to bet that’s now the most viewed segment in 60 minutes history.

MBS is the person most likely to give Trump a peace award next isn’t he?

Bloody woke fonts.

So farewell then Helmut. No one will miss him on a personal level, and many will be relieved he’s gone to put it mildly. The question is will Austria now replace him with a racer? Or corporate the team into the ground?

One more F1 post for the year: I had the pleasure of working with the Sky F1 team again this year, and thought today’s show was great. I cannot emphasise enough how a relatively small team is put so much effort into so much TV. Easy to sit on your sofa and criticise but it’s hard and they CARE.

Spent the last couple of hours putting the tree up and playing Christmas songs. Love F1 and my job, but by god I’m glad it’s over. Spare a thought for teams now having to pivot to launches and testing before the short Christmas break. It does not stop…

A different type of championship won by a different type of driver. Well done Lando.

Why is there no Ted’s notebook from Quali? It’s not on now, and I don’t have one either recorded or available to watch. Seems odd.

We’ve reached peak English protest. Did they think the monarchy would (cough) crumble as well?

I’m not sure people have grasped how much F1 will change next year. Having had the opportunity to speak to someone who’s driven a 2026 car in the sim, it’s going to be seriously different. My main takeaways - more variety from track to track, and many different strategies for deployment on laps

Starting a sweep on how many times broadcasters spell “Arvid Lindblad” wrong in graphics. #F1

Absolutely world class trolling putting Hannah up on the podium. Not the slightest doubt in that. Absolutely the best thing about close ends of seasons #F1

It’s an unfortunate side effect of working hard at street tracks to bring the cameras closer, that when we move to an open track like Qatar the cars look like they’re moving at half speed… #F1threads

Just Pirelli causally lobbing a hand grenade into the title fight

I know it’s vaguely exciting and all that but dear god I am not ready for another F1 race this weekend. Like it’s a bit depressing that at this point in the season you just want it to be over, and there’s another media day tomorrow. Make it stop.

Chuckles inwardly at all the Horner rumours surfacing just before Newey is announced as Team Principal at AM F1. Top level shithousery all round.

In the post-Vegas F1 update no one asked for, it’s a glorious sunny day on the Strip, much brighter and warmer than it’s been all week. Also the hotel we’re in is much busier than it was over the weekend with check-in’s. Fair to say the shine has come off this race.

75% chance Lando breaks this.

This is my second year in Vegas for the F1. Anecdotally for a race day it seems a lot quieter. The expense of Vegas snd the inconvenience of getting a round a town split in two by a race track has meant the novelty of the event has worn off I think.

Literally all these stats are nonsense.

And what could be more fan engaging than that? Also I’d rather teams just said “we’ve decided to take all the paint off the car so it goes quicker”

I was out yesterday so had to watch the F1 sprint/quali highlights on YouTube. I understand their need to get them out fast, but I would have taken an edit that made a bit of sense even if that took a bit longer. Sad to see what these have become. Sorry to have to say it.

Interlagos to Las Vegas? Say what you like about F1 these days but that sounds pretty good to me. Excited to be out there again this year.

Thoughts and prayers with the highlights editors #F1

I’ve seen some speculation online that a prospective sale of ITV broadcast/ITVX to Sky means that F1 highlights could move from C4 to ITV free to air. Firstly - that deal runs to the end of 2026 so next year won’t change.

Ron’s first day at Facebook is going great @apiln.bsky.social

It feels like we’ve not moved on from the first year of the Cost Cap. The teams now have entire departments in place to manage it and are in constant contact with the FIA. The days of the RBR overspend are behind us, but everyone wants to believe it can happen again. It can’t.

It would be most interesting to see where these “rumours” actually came from. Maybe next year they will be ignored? Nah.

Took my little brother to Glastonbury. He didn't tell me/my parents it was mock GCSE exams week. School tried to suspend him. My mum argued it was a more cultural experience than the carting event they'd let his classmate attend the same week. Suspension cancelled. The classmate was Lewis Hamilton

Strong 2007 vibes about this championship. McLaren should throw their weight behind Piastri* *they won’t because of stupid rules

Just got to say that drone shot on the formation lap and start was very very good #F1

Papaya Rules my arse

Oh dear god McLaren are doing their best to ruin this sport. Make it stop. #F1

Gentle reminder that the reaction to any sport or media moving to a different platform leads to 10,000 tweets saying “well I’m not paying for that”. Spoiler alert: they do. Why do you think sports rights are worth billions?

Yep.

Pour one out for the RB team this weekend…

Regards F1 US rights it might be relevant that Eddie Cue from Apple is speaking at Autosport Business Exchange tonight on F1 related things. I think my instinct about an F1TV deal were spot on but I guess we’ll know soon enough.

I dunno. If this was a proper multi-year contract (as opposed to its one year with an optional 2 year extension say) wouldn’t they have been shouting about it? I get the feeling this is being spun. #f1

Just a reminder you could have read this on Reddit 6 days ago

People are acting as if Apple paying a modest increase in fees means F1 will ditch F1TV in the US. I doubt it. Why do I think that? The premise is that Sky’s contract in the UK means no F1TV there (as with other countries) but Sky pay SO MUCH more than Apple will be paying. I just don’t see it.

Classic Bernie stitch-up

This is because the sport is not run by younger people. We forget F1 bought in some smart people who did get it when Liberty took over. The media rights side of the business won that battle. DTS’ success has led to a lot of that power shift. Far too much of F1 now lives in the shadow of it.

Nando is 100% right about the coverage and 100% wrong about team radio given how much drivers use it just to game the racing and how much it adds to the coverage. I will say I think ends of races are the worst time for a lot of drama especially when you’ve essentially not shown the leaders all race.

Papaya Rules is the stupidest thing in F1. And now it’s been shown to be stupid can we please move on from it?

Whodathought the precedent McLaren set in Monza would turn around and bite them? I mean other than everyone.