Formula 1 2026 - Chinese Grand Prix

Sprint races: 

I'm listening to sprint qualifying and the sprint race on replay because I have the time. I still don't get what they're meant to add to the season. I understand people like seeing more racing, but if it's the same sort of racing as the longer race, what's the sporting aim? I understand the financial gain, more people attending on Saturday but for its sporting aim, I don't understand. 

It also adds financial risks for the smaller teams. I know Audi aren't a smaller team but I dread to think how much putting Perez's car back together cost. Now imagine if that was Haas or Williams. 

By the way, do we think engine vibrations are why Perez's car fell apart? 

Discussing Williams, I love Sainz jnr so much. He understands that engineers respond better to gentle encouragement than shouting. 

Main race: 

Concerning McLaren - has there been a worse start to a constructor's title defence? There being two different problems leading to the cars being out might actually be worse than there just being a single problem hitting both because that's two problems they need to understand, fix and prevent from reoccurring. 

Audi have a better excuse for cars that don't start given they are new to this F1 engine making business, and at least they now have a 50% average start rate, rather than McLaren's 25%. 

For once, it's not Ferrari whose strategy is ruined by the timing of the safety car. It had to happen one day. I suspect Vasseur would prefer it if they didn't keep racing each other but it's definitely adding to the glory of Ferrari as a concept. And I love Leclerc's radio message saying how much he enjoyed the racing.  Fun still has a place in F1.

Not saying they have form but when I saw a Haas and an Alpine hitting each other, I presumed Ocon and Gasly.  I was wrong, but only partly ;)

That Red Bull is a problem that even Verstappen cannot overcome.  BBC Radio said that he only had 4 DNFs in 4 years before this, which underscores the importance of having a solid car if you want to win the driver's World title.

Truly, nothing says F1 like those moments where they have to use "normal" tech on advanced technology, like gaffer tape, or this time, clippers to tidy up Ocon's bodywork.

The Shanghai circuit really is hard on tyres.  My Mum, not an F1 fan and watching under sufferance, even she was going "look at that tire wear!"

I am very happy for Colapinto - my occasional snarky comments about his performance in last year's Alpine was never directed at him personally, just at how badly Alpine handled swapping him in for Jack Doohan, so I'm happy for him to finally get some points.

Kimi Antonelli, he's so cute!!

via GIPHY

(GIF is Clawhauser, a leopard from Zootropolis, going 'so cuuuuuute'. It is an accurate visual representation of my reaction to Kimi Antonelli.) 

I, and Toto and Bono, could all have done without the lock up towards the end. There's nothing like a little mistake to liven things up. 

(I am sharing the following links so that everyone can see them (and for cheering up purposes if I ever need them) 

https://www.tumblr.com/ef-1/811141285720326144/kimi-antonelli-i-am-about-to-cry-to-be-honest 

 

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/they-helped-me-to-achieve-this-dream-emotional-antonelli-hails-mercedes-as.6uMgvW0qCCkUdPKQJzkuyh ) 

He's so adorable. 

New regulations - 2 and a bit races in: 

It is too soon to decide whether the new regs are good or bad. 

So why am I talking about it? Mostly because this is the first break the F1 season has had. 

The reason these regs were introduced was to improve racing. It was necessary. The last set of cars were too broad and the tracks were too narrow to allow over taking. The circuits can't be broadened, so the cars had to narrow. 

Similarly, there was no way to defend from DRS overtakes (the DRS button killed joy). The new system at least allows some way of defending. 

As a viewer/listener, the first two races this year have been more interesting than most races last year. 

When the drivers and team owners are interviewed, the ones whose cars were not so good with the last set of regulations but are good now like it, the ones whose cars were good and now they're not hate it. What a surprise! 

I'm more interested in the views of say Haas who were middling before and are middling now. Their views are less likely to be tainted by the effect of relative results.

Formula 1 2026 - Australian Grand Prix

Yes, I know this is late. 

The racing: I can sort of, in a theoretical way, understand the people whinging about all the new buttons. It is not pure car goes vroom racing. But, unlike the last set of regs, there was more overtaking and more ability to fight against overtakes. I am mostly in favour so far. 

This may be slightly biased by Ferrari not having produced a lemon this time. 

The race itself: Oscar Piastri got got by the hometown race curse. And how! 

(I am legitimately intrigued by whether there is actually a home race curse. I'm presuming the way to look at it would be % Did Not Finish in home races vs all other races. Note to self - put that on the to-do list.) 

Also cursed - Hulk and this year's Aston Martin. 

I am not sure if Leclerc and Hamilton having to contend with Ferrari's strategy team counts as a curse. 

Hadjar's race lasted long enough that his engine going doesn't count as a curse. I think the new warning flashing lights on broken cars are a good idea. 

I already had the greatest of respect for Cadillac's attempts to do it all from scratch, but I only just realised Audi have their own engine, they're not just using a Mercedes. Bonne chance both of them. 

The result supports my theory that Mercedes were sandbagging in testing. 

I am once again astounded by how credulous BBC radio commentary can be - two ticks after "never trust the drivers" they're believing both Piastri and Verstappen's not-mea-culpas about their respective crashes.

The Most Wonderful Time of the F1 Year

The week before the first race is always the best time of the Formula 1 year for fans, because it's the last time that all the fans have hope that their teams do well (whatever well means for each team).

That is even more true when there is a change in engine regulations because there is the potential that this time, your team will get it right and the new regulations will lead to an era of glory.

Why we still believe this every year, I do not know, when every year the following apply:

1) At least two teams, normally Red Bull and Mercedes, are sand-bagging and not showing how fast they can actually go.

2) Ferrari flatter to deceive by doing well in testing, and the car will then underperform in the actual season.

3) At least one team turn up with a carn't not a car - so far this seems to have happened with Williams and Aston Martin, neither of which were the teams I was expecting that to happen to.

And yet, it is such an exciting time because there is the potential that this time, this time Ferrari might not have screwed up. I don't know why I keep hoping Ferrari will not screw it up in the face of so much evidence.

Star Wars - A Review of the Sequel Trilogy

A summary of my review: Well that didn't work 

Spoilers for all of the Star Wars films dotted throughout 

You will notice that that summary is very similar to what I said about Rise of Skywalker. 

Many of my complaints are very similar. 

The main problem is lack of coherence. There's no one artistic vision bringing everything together. 

I'll give an example: 

The prequel trilogy is "the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker" 

The original trilogy is "farm boy uncovers the mystery of his family, meets a scoundrel and a princess, and saves the galaxy" 

The sequel trilogy might be "man escapes servitude, joins the Resistance, and ?", or "woman runs into resistance plan, turns out to be a Force user, trains as a Jedi, turns out to be the Emperor's granddaughter and ?" or "..." Actually no, Poe has no character arc. 

(I remain convinced that Poe was supposed to be killed off in the first film but everyone was so in love with Oscar Isaac that they kept the character alive. The reason for my belief is that, after the first film, there are no Poe-specific character parts. Everything he does could have been done by another character.) 

There is no overarching theme to the series. 

I think that's because there was no one visionary in charge. George Lucas; far, far away from perfect, but he definitely had a plan. I'm not even sure who the Lucas-equivalent would have been for this because Disney were there for money and none of JJ Abrams's films have ever been anything but derivative schlock. 

The lack of one clear vision is most apparent in the way there were so many interesting things that they lightly touched on and then just dropped. Not in a "we chose to drop it" way but in a "we have no idea where the other person who wrote that bit was going with it" way. 

Like Phasma, who could have been interesting (on behalf of L, who really wanted them to do something with her), or Finn, and what it is to choose freedom (which they keep touching on and then doing nothing with), or DJ, who chooses neutrality and what that means in this sort of situation. 

Because they made these films a direct follow on from the original trilogy and JJ Abrams's endless daddy issues, the sequel trilogy suffered from the same thing a raft of follow on films to films made in the late 70s and 80s suffered from - destroying the legacy of those original characters by making them terrible fathers. The other big example is Indiana Jones, where Indy, having had a terrible father, turns into a worse one. Now I get the whole, generational trauma spreads downwards thing, but I don't need my heroes getting dragged into that. 

While I can maybe believe it for Indiana Jones, who even in Raiders of the Lost Ark is "man who makes really poor decisions in his personal life", I don't believe it of Luke. Or rather, I can imagine him being terrible at leading the Jedi, or training other Jedi, but I can't see him being useless in this way. 

Because they didn't seem to know where half the characters were going, you have to rely on people liking the way the characters interact. The Force Awakens gave them a good start in this. I liked all three of the new lead characters.  The problem is that after The Force Awakens there were very few scenes with our leading trio together, or indeed combinations of them together, so we don't get to have that feeling either. 

On the other side, while Phasma gets nothing to do, Adam Driver and Domhnall Gleeson ring every bit of character out of what they get given. 

I was legitimately surprised to find out Adam Driver was 32 when The Force Awakens was filmed because he is so good at whiny teenage boy. We have all known boys like that so it's easy for the audience to fill in the gaps - and really hard for us to believe he'll suddenly convert to the side of good like the trilogy obviously wants us to believe he can, and hope that he will. 

Hux is such a gloriously cowardly space spiv. If you ask me to name my favourite part of the sequel trilogy, it would be the Rey and Kylo vs the Imperial guards fight scene towards the end of The Last Jedi. Partly it's the staging, but really it's the bit at the end where Hux could have killed Ren and is too scared to do it. It's a marvellous bit of business. 

I'd still love to know where Rian Johnson was going to take it next because while The Last Jedi wasn't necessarily good, it was the most interesting of the films. Possibly because although it does have moments of being weighed down by being a Star Wars film, it is the one that comes closest to wearing it well. 

I think that's the problem - JJ Abrams is a huge Star Wars fan and it shows. He wants to have a redemption arc because the original did. He also wants characters with Daddy Issues because ... (waving at every other piece of media he has ever had anything to do with). He's built these half-characters made from bits of existing characters to carry out his story, but then given them away for one film. In that film, they change, and they no longer fit the shape of the intended story, and rather than change the story, he's squished the characters to try and fit and it doesn't work.

Duchess of Malfi 2000 - Theatre Review

Part of L’s attempts to introduce the mad scientist to culture.

Spoilers throughout.

The details of the production can be found here - The Duchess of Malfi | Almeida Theatre

It was a modern dress production featuring a stark set design with tiling, heavy use of black and white, and a video screen to highlight key messages. I really liked the set design - it was clean and effective without overwhelming the acting. L was less kind, wanting to know “if the 90s had called, and asked for their Avant Guarde ideas back”.

I didn’t like the climactic fight scene. I understand the message they were trying to convey, ‘blood begets blood’ and so on, but there is a fine line between “over the top” and “silly” and the end fight fell over that line. My main thought after a tragic finale shouldn’t be “how on Earth do the costume department handle matinees?”

Which is unfortunate, because the acting was good. My favourite bit of business was Antonio telling Delio about one of the later children, and Delio said “congratulations” and his body language said “you do it to yourself, you do.”

L did think the villainous brothers were a bit underdone, and we both noticed the play lost steam after the Duchess was murdered. However, that might be a structural flaw in Webster’s script rather than this specific production; as this is the only version I’ve seen, I have no point of comparison. [L here, it is the play, Act 5 is famously a mess]

If you want to see what actual theatre critics thought, there are links here -
What's On Stage
The Guardian
Time Out London
Londonist
City AM

The Londonist article has the best pictures of the set and cast, even if it’s the least positive review.

It was a good way to dip my toes into theatre that isn’t Shakespeare.

Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece - exhibition review

"Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece" was an experimental exhibition at the National Gallery that ran in winter 2019/2020. Full details can be found here. 

It was centred around the Virgin of the Rocks. Reading that article, do I find it hilarious that the National Gallery exhibition said nothing about the Louvre version generally being regarded as the “more made by Leonardo” one? Of course I do. 

L took me following previous Leonardo-related adventures. 

The exhibition had four distinct parts. 

The first put the Virgin on the Rocks in context. Lots of stuff about the why and the background, interestingly presented in some mirrored cubes in multiple languages. 

The second, and least successful to my mind, was the “Studio” section, which I think was supposed to be about the how. The problem for me, was that it seemed to reflect mid-Victorian views on what an artist’s garret was supposed to be like, rather than a renaissance studio. I’ve always imagined Leonardo’s studio as a massive, bustling space full of students and materials, rather than the dark quiet empty space presented here (I have no idea if this is actually true, but still.) 

I really liked the third section, which was all about shadows and how they look. Like most people, I dabble in drawing, and I find shadows and a sense of depth to the objects I draw to be the most difficult thing (don’t worry, no terrible sketches will be shown). I found this section to be really good at showing (not telling) how light and objects interact. 

The final section was the painting itself. The curators did a very good job of keeping the crowds down here and letting the audience sit peacefully and enjoy looking at the painting. The CGI used to simulate the altarpiece the painting may originally have sat in was a little distracting, but once you’d got used to the rotation of potential altar pieces, it was also quite soothing. 

Overall, I’d say it was an interesting experiment in setting an exhibition around a single painting, but with some flaws.

Film Review - Star Wars IX - The Rise of Skywalker

A summary of my review: Well that film didn't work 

Spoilers for all of the Star Wars films dotted throughout 

I have some sympathy for the people who had to try to pull this together, because The Force Awakens was a pallid retread of A New Hope, then Rian Johnson pulled The Last Jedi in a completely different direction (don't get me wrong, I think the Last Jedi is the best of the sequel trilogy but it's a terrible Star Wars film) and they then had to make a film to try to wrap up the story. 

Unfortunately, it felt like none of the different parts of the film fitted together. 

I'll use the title as an example. The Rise of Skywalker - excellent strong title. 

Utterly meaningless within the context of the film. 

Name me one Skywalker who rises in this film? By the end of it, they're all dead. (Yes, I know my genre conventions, if there is no body, they're coming back, if there is a body, they might still come back, if there's a body and they're the Master, check behind the door, but for the purposes of the film, they're dead.) Fine, Rey calls herself Skywalker (and Luke and Leia would support her in that) but there is no rise, there's just her giving things up in the desert. 

Killing Kylo Ren is the easy narrative option. It feels cheap. The harder, more interesting option, would feature good guys trying to figure out where he fits in a better new world, surrounded by people he tried to kill and whose friends and relatives he succeeded in killing. 

There's a few other parts like that, where you can feel them choosing the easy way out rather than trying something and I think that's the weight of being Star Wars. See also, mysteriously reappearing Palpatine. 

There's also the lengths Hollywood will go to, to not show Finn and Rey kissing. I see you and what you're up to, Disney. 

From a purely stylistic point of view, I'd re-cut the cavalry charge scene. I think I know what they're trying to do, but the way it intercuts with the rest of the space battle takes away from them both. 

There's a serious emotional disconnect between what's going on on the screen and me in this film. 

An example, they blow up Kijimi and no one cares (this isn't hyperbole. The planet blowing up doesn't even make it into the summary of the film - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Rise_of_Skywalker). It's not lack of time spent with the planet and its people; we never see Alderaan in A New Hope, but we feel when it is destroyed. That connection is completely missing here. 

Because of that lack of connection, which I blame on them setting up three main characters then never letting them interact with each other much after the first film (I have a theory about the why of that in my sequel trilogy summary post that I am in the middle of writing), all the emotional weight of the film has to be carried by Chewbacca and C3PO. Despite my love for the characters, this is not a good sign. 

(I am a fully paid up member of the "Chewie should have got a medal at the end of A New Hope" campaign and the bad thing that happens to him is why I stopped reading the Star Wars EU novels, while nothing in the new trilogy got to me as well as that moment where C3PO, knowing the risks, decides that the Rebellion needs him to find out what that text means.) 

It's not that there aren't bits that I love. 

Evil once again sounding British and sudden unexpected Richard E. Grant. 

I like both the Hux reveal and his reasoning. I know people complained that it was a bit thin but he is completely the sort of person who would betray a cause just so someone he hated didn't win. Also, a non-Sith who can hide his feelings from a Sith through hate alone. That's going some! 

I love Lando. 

Adam Driver's mega-watt smile. There's reams to be written about the sequel trilogy being unbalanced by Kylo Ren, but oh the five-to-ten minutes of Ben Solo that we did get ... (I am a simple creature and I like a good pseudo-sword fight). 

And there's these occasional hints of a much darker version of the film underneath, and that's a much more intriguing film. It fits in with DJ in The Last Jedi. Examples include Poe being a Spice runner.

There is also no way you will ever convince me that the vision of Han that Kylo sees isn't Luke pretending to be Han, not Han himself. Like, it makes no sense for it to be Han, Han is not a Force user and it's hard even for Force users to do that. But Luke, making one final bid to save Rey, that works, and it make him a much more manipulative character than the rest of the film is willing to let him be. 

There's so much interesting potential wasted. 

Rise of Skywalker doesn't work as itself, it doesn't really work as a Star Wars film, it's a damp squib of an ending to the series and collapses under the weight of being Star Wars.

Budapest by Day

Once I realised where the hotel was relative to Buda Castle, I had an idea. (People who know me are now playing the beginning of Beethoven's fifth in their head) 

I start work at 8.30. If I got up early enough, I could do a quick tour of the outside of the castle and come back down in time to start work. 

It also gave me the opportunity to travel in a funicular carriage - an unexpected delight!  

I got the first funicular up to the castle in the morning, which meant I saw sunrise over Buda Castle.  

It was a proper "all-timer" of a memory. 

One thing that got me is I knew who the statue was without looking. Now I'm sure it's because the statue is the same as - or really similar to - the statue in the Heldenplatz, but I didn't need to see the plaque to know that's Prinz Eugen. 

(Having looked this up while writing this post, I've discovered that the first funicular now leaves at 8. I'd like to believe I would have gone up the stairs if there had been no funicular. I would have missed out on something spectacular if I hadn't.) 

I did an hour wander around the outside of the castle. Map of the castle so you can sort of place the next few photos. 

And yes, it was quite foggy. 

The next three photos are from Buda castle facing Pest. 

They move from left to right.

   

View directly across the Kettenbrücke from the castle. You can also see several of the big fancy hotels.

 

Two photos of the Matthias Church.  

I acknowledge the church overall is impressive, but I do love that style of roof excessively. I blame the Stefansdom. 

And finally the Fisherman's Bastion.  

It's such a delightfully different structure to find in the middle of a castle complex. 

As you can see in that last picture, people were starting to appear at the Castle District which was a good sign that I needed to get back down to the hotel to start work on time. Which I did.

Top 10 Films of 2025 - Now With Explanations

I saw 14 films in the cinema in 2025. 

It was an odd year, because none of the 14 are actively bad. I would say 9-14 suffered from not doing anything interesting with their premises. I would actively recommend films 1-3 to everyone, 4-5 to some people and 6-8 if you're feeling in the mood for that particular genre of film. 

As usual, I am also naming a film I saw for the first time last year but that was not released in the last year. In May I was in Brussels for work and was lucky enough to meet up with nwhyte who blogs at From The Heart of Europe.  He recommended the Comic Art Museum (https://www.comicscenter.net/en/home), which was completely worth it. 

There I saw 'Gertie the Dinosaur'. I am linking to the Wikipedia page because there is a full-length version of it on there - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertie_the_Dinosaur 

She's just so charmingly silly. 

For films released this year, I am applying my usual 4 criteria: 

a – did the film do what it set out to do? 

b – did it use its resources to its best ability? A £250,000 film is not going to have as good explosions as a £25,000,000 film, or it shouldn’t, and if it does, there’s something wrong with the £25,000,000 film. Basically, it's a technical merit score relative to budget. 

c – Intellectual satisfaction – does the film’s plot pull some really stupid move at the last moment? Does the plot rely on characters being more stupid than they are? 

d – Does this work as a whole? Did it work for me? I am aware that this is the most subjective of subjective criteria! 

(As a note, film 13 is that low down because I could see the leading actress's wig tape. You are a Hollywood film, you can afford someone to check that.) 

1 - Flow 

It's another one of Zilbalodis's nightmare Edens. And it's so good. It's horrific and beautiful and wonderful, and I nearly shouted "Capybara, get out of there" twice in the cinema. 

2 - Mickey 17 

I want to put a content warning on this - it is disgusting and horrid in parts. It needs to be for the story to work. 

It is a satire on modern consumerism and politics and rather obvious - we are in a time that requires obvious. On the other hand, it has the Creepers, Nasha and young Pattinson once again showing that he can act. 

3 - Superman 

You want to know when I fell for this version of Superman? Because I can tell you. "He's not even a good dog, but he's out there alone and he's probably scared." 

That's my vision of Superman too. 

I was always going to enjoy it because James Gunn writes stories that work for me but I didn't expect to enjoy it so much. I enjoyed liking Superman and Lois, and Perry. I did not expect to love Mr. Terrific as much as I did. 

4 - F1 

I am the target audience for this. And I loved it. I suspect that if you were not the target audience, you would find this was insipid. 

On the other hand, being an F1 nerd means I spotted all the things they got wrong. Like every single one of the stunts Sonny Hayes pulls is already against the rules, and in at least two cases, I watched the race where the rule was created. 

5 - Roofman 

I saw Roofman with D. It is not the heavy-on-the-comedy comedy drama the adverts promised. It is much better. It's about a weak man, trying to do his best, in a less than ideal world. Channing Tatum is very good in it. Kirsten Dunst is even better. 

6 - Nosferatu 

Not even kidding when I said this was the most frustrating film in 2025. 

The music, scenery, cinematography and Aaron Taylor Johnson are all outstanding. 

The script, the leads, and the use of both sinister Gypsies and fridged women in the year of our Lord 2025 are not. 

The direction seems to think there are five different films. They do not interlock well. 

7 - Predator: Badlands 

Not quite sure what to feel about Predator being an action comedy rather than a horror. But it was enjoyable fighting and explosions nonsense when I needed it. 

There's a lot to be said about how it explicitly positions the androids as robots not their own beings despite Thia and Tessa. Then again, I was worried about Bud so I think the film did what it intended to. Plus, you know, the universal truth - mothers are worse! 

8 - The Phoenician Scheme 

Arguments can be made that this ought to be a couple of positions higher, but I don't think a series of really nicely mounted set pieces can count as a good film, and it does coast on Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera and Benicio Del Toro's charisma and talent. 

9 - Thunderbolts/New Avengers 

Am I being a bit mean, given I liked it? Possibly. Am I marking it down because I was once again Kurylenko-blocked by a Marvel film? Yes. 

On the other hand, this was very much like rice cakes. I like rice cakes. They fill a gap. But they're not the basis of a solid diet. 

10 - Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning 

Not its fault that it didn't live up to Dead Reckoning. But it really didn't. And one glorious returning character does not make up for that.

Formula 1 2025 - Turnip or Triumph

2025 was a mixed year for F1. 

The drivers title was close, the constructors was not. There was some racing, even between the title contenders, but most races weren't close. There were some excellent results (podiums for Hulkenberg, Sainz, Antonelli and Hadjar) and some appalling ones (Ferrari, repeatedly Ferrari). 

In my 2025 F1 round up, I thought I'd highlight three triumphs and three utter disasters from the year. 

I will begin with the triumphs. 

   

Max Verstappen - His driving this season will gain him more kudos than the driving in at least two of his World Title winning seasons. 

Whoever designed that McLaren - Zak Brown has been curiously reluctant to mention Rob Marshall and Neil Houldey when talking about the car so I felt they deserved some praise now that I've found their names. The car won the Constructors title with 6 races (and 3 sprint races) to go. That's good work. And they did it without any flagrant, 'all-our-competitors-have-complained', engineering widgets. 

Isack Hadjar - After a deeply unpromising start at the Australian Grand Prix (Did Not Start due to accident on formation lap), he ended up being second best of the rookies, despite being in Red Bull Scuderia B. Red Bull main had better not mess him up next year. 

I am also going to give a bonus triumph here, please imagine a laurel wreath with a little heart on it, to Anthony Hamilton for supporting Hadjar when his own team didn't. While maybe basic human decency should be the minimum expected, in a world sadly short of it sometimes, it should be celebrated. 

Now to the turnips - the actively bad things about this season:

   

That Ferrari: I do actually like the noble turnip as a vegetable but I have no better way of describing that car. It is appalling. It is beneath Ferrari as a team and has broken the spirit of two drivers who deserve better. 

Helmut Marko: For providing zero meaningful support for drivers for either team whose surname was not Verstappen. Your comments, particularly about Hadjar, were unhelpful. 

Alpine in general: The car was horrid, but that isn't why they're here. Gasly mostly learnt to manage the car by the end of the season. Colapinto didn't. 

Given that poor Jack Doohan got replaced after 6 races for getting nowhere with the car, I remain confused why Colapinto didn't, unless it was the money from his sponsors and the patronage of Flavio Briatore. 

Briatore himself earns the poison turnip - dear F1, I love you. I love you because of your engineers who have never found a rule they didn't try to find a loophole in, your drivers and your unceasing nonsense. Why have you let Briatore back in? He doesn't deserve it. 

(All pictures come from OpenClipart-Vectors at Pixabay. The turnip is from here OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay and the laurel wreath is from here OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay)