Formula 1 2025 - United States Grand Prix

The racing at the Grand Prix supports my belief that the US Grand Prix is the best of the US races.

Is it also the only one on a purpose-built track? Yes.

Do I think there's a correlation there? Yes!

The DRS button still kills joy, but hey at least Ferrari came up with a strategy that got one of the cars into the mix to be overtaken by DRS rather than skill.

(Yes, I am bitter)

Leclerc did some excellent defensive driving, and totally deserved driver of the day.

While I understand why the press are focussing on the remarkable gains Verstappen has made in the last couple of races, I'm not sure it's as bad for Piastri as they are painting it. At a circuit that he just did not gel with, he still got 10 points. It's vanishingly unlikely that the rest of the races are going to be that bad for him.

Book Review - The Periodic Table: A Field Guide to the Elements by Gail Dixon and Paul Parsons

 The only reason this isn't 5 stars is entirely a me-problem, and I'm trying to be reasonable.

I wanted more science to go along with the pictures.  A couple of elements had two pages of text and I think I would have liked more elements to have got that.

The pictures are amazing and I really like the inclusion of the crystal structure space for each of the solid elements.

LibraryThing Suggestions

1 - Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

2 - Science in Seconds: 200 Key Concepts Explained in an Instant (Knowledge in a Flash) by Hazel Muir

3 - Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

4 - The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore W. Gray

5 - Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh

6 - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

7 - The Planets by Brian Cox

8 - Seven Elements that Changed the World: An Adventure of Ingenuity and Discovery by John Browne

9 - Stars and Planets by Jay M. Pasachoff

10 - The Secret Life of the Periodic Table by Ben Still

Not read any of them, but I want to.

Film review - Gemini Man

A mid-level spy film, an interesting sci-fi film and a mediocre action film had a baby.

As did Superman and Lex Luthor.

No, really.

It's a frustrating film because it comes so close to being better but it's also solid for what it is.

You have the conflicted agent working against a conspiracy - and Will Smith can do that easily (and does).

You've got the international espionage angle - it works.

You've got the everyday setting film that turns out to be sci fi and I like that style of sci fi.

I'm going to go through the three films that don't quite mesh together in increasing order of goodness.

Let's begin with the action film part, which is the bit that doesn't really work. I can understand a director choosing this film to try new technology, and unlike say, Cats, where you're there going 'why are you using tech that isn't quite there yet for an adaptation of this beloved piece from another medium?', this at least uses the tech that isn't quite there yet for an original story so the high frame rate not quite working doesn't ruin anything.

Why am I putting the technical detail in the action film section? Because it was in the action scenes where I noticed it. If I notice you are doing something technically different, my escape into the film is damaged.

I understand that, for the film to work (and probably to get the budget to make it), it needed action scenes. But they don't work and there's too much time spent on them, which means that some of the quieter character scenes that the film needs either aren't there, or are too short.

The middling spy film - it does what a lot of Hollywood films do. Get a bunch of British actors to play morally grey. They're cheap and they can do American accents. I'm fine with this, it gives Benedict Wong and Ralph Brown money. All good.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is stuck with the most obvious "oh hell, we haven't got a single woman in this film, stick one in" role I have seen for some time. She does very well in a horribly under-written role. I am not exaggerating about how obviously Zakarewski was added in to give the film a female character. There's one scene where she's being searched for bugs, and the way it is shot is totally just an excuse to get Mary Elizabeth Winstead in her underwear. It would have been filmed completely differently if the character had been male and it's so frustrating. I had hoped we'd moved beyond that.

There's travel and subterfuge in Budapest and you know what, it's middling.

The science fiction bit is the bit that works the best. I think it is, at least in part, because they don't try and explain the how, and just go with the why. Clive Owen is very good in his short screen time, because you can understand a younger Verris meeting Henry Brogan for the first time and seeing his belief that you can bend someone to being a superman by how you bring them up supported by evidence, and how he moved from that to cloning and every idea he's had since. (It's very Lex Luthor and Superman and Superboy/Kon-El)

And of course it ends up in child soldiers, because children are more malleable and aren't as aware of right and wrong, and isn't interesting the Verris starts to turn against Junior when he becomes old enough to develop his own set of ideals.

Junior is why the film has to use the fancy special effects and Will Smith is an excellent choice because the animators have lots of footage of a younger him to help mould how Junior looks. Will Smith is an excellent choice anyway because he sells Junior as well as Henry Brogan - he plays them differently enough that you could probably pick them apart even without the special effects. And the scene where he talks about his father!!! (Plus, as I said, the way it's obviously that story that made Verris choose him as the DNA donor for Junior.)

When the film does slow down for the emotional scenes, it works well. I almost want Ang Lee to have the chance to re-do it and pace it more like the original Day of the Jackal. Or make it a mini-series. There's so much potential in this that they can't get into because of time constraints.

It's not a good film, don't get me wrong, the bits don't fit together and its under-written, but there's potential there.

Formula 1 2025 - Singapore Grand Prix

 I actually managed to watch about half of this live. Right to the point where someone said, "this race is boring, let's go walk the dog." In fairness, the dog walk was more interesting than the race.

I then saw the end on Sky but also listened to the whole thing afterwards on BBC Sounds. It's really interesting that Sky F1 didn't fall for "pit to beat Verstappen" gambit but Sam Bird on BBC did (Harry Benjamin didn't).

Alonso has previous in the "whinging because he can't get past people" stakes - see Petrov. I am so very much team Hadjar anyway, and always team "anything that annoys Alonso" so I am on Hadjar's side in this.

Someone tell Sam Bird that I go off people quickly, particularly when you are mean to Tsunoda.

I do not blame Leclerc going off on one. Please can we get him a car that works. And Hamilton a car that actually, you know, brakes when he presses the brake.

McLaren section:
Crashing into a teammate is never good, nor is losing an end plate, but given the lack of overtaking opportunities at Singapore, it's not a bad place to do it.

Hey! for once McLaren's pit gremlins happened to Piastri

I'm not surprised that it's getting tasty down in McLaren-land because fighting for the title made Rubens Barrichello, the nicest man in motorsport (TM), angry, of course there will be McLaren on McLaren violence.

Saints Ahoy - Game 29 and the 2024 Season to Date

Yes, I am writing this post to try and distract myself from their match against Hull KR in the 2025 play-offs. (No, I have no idea how we got past Leeds.) 

This game, the last of the 2024 regular season, was a narrow loss to Leigh (https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/09/20/saints-suffer-narrow-defeat-to-leigh/), 18-12. Now we had a try chalked off, but Leigh were the better team for the whole game and all of Saints actual points were scored in the 10 minutes that Leigh were down to 12 men because of yellow card to Leutele for attempted Welsby murder. 

Because it was all in that 10 minutes, the "who played together when Saints scored" matrix chart is ... uninformative.  

So, instead, let's look at the season up to the end of game 29. 

When do Saints score?  

Who scores for Saints?  

Who is present when Saints score?  

Saints reached the 200 point scoring moments in this game (vs 160 point-conceding moments), so it's a good time to see if there's any players present for more point-scoring moments than point-conceding moments (or vice versa). Percival is one of the players with the greatest differences, he is present for a lot fewer point-conceding moments, but that is because he got substituted at around minute 50. Hurrell and Dodd are also present for relatively fewer point-conceding moments. 

Delaney is the player present for relatively more point-conceding moments, as does Whitley. That I can't explain. There's two clear teams, the most often together (a full match day 17 - Welsby, Blake, Whitley, Bennison, Batchelor, Dodd, Percival, Bell, Hurrell, Mata'utia, Sironen, Lomax, Mbye, Clark, Makinson, Delaney and Lees) and the less often together (12 - Royle, Whitby, Vaughan, Wingfield, Walmsley, Robertson, Burns, Paasi, Knowles, Davies, Stephens and Ritson). 

Oddly, only 10 players are not in the central blob, when you look at the network graph. Looking the point-conceding moments 

This was the third time Saints and Leigh played this season. Leigh 3 are about mid-way up the chart.  

When do the point-conceding moments occur?  

That these aren't in a normal curve makes me happier that the point-scoring moments truly are normally distributed rather than it being some artefact. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

The who is present together when Saints concede matrix now looks like this:  

The equivalent network graph looks like this Again, the matrix and the network graph don't quite match.

Formula 1 2025 - Azerbaijan Grand Prix

 Sadly I missed the live Baku Chaos Bonanza because I was hitting people with swords.

As the BBC radio commentators said, it's an odd race where there's either chaos in qualifying or the race, never both and this was a year where it was all in the qualifying - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/c5yv3y3q8dvo

The race itself was dull, and the only good news was the Sainz jnr podium. But that was very good news.

It's interesting that there was another poor (re)start from Norris. At some point, they're going to have to do something about that. Matters were not helped by him yet again being the victim of a McLaren pitstop going wrong.

The only comment I have about Ferrari is that someone needs to tell them that 3rd in Constructors is not good enough.

Then, of course, there's that titillating possibility that this is the second race in a Verstappen come back. If Verstappen wins the title this year ...

Film Review - Big Trouble in Little China

 Spoilers below

Another Mockingbird Cinema (https://mockingbirdcinema.com/MockingbirdCinema.dll/Home) special.

I went with D. When we go to the cinema, we aim for silly films. Big Trouble in Little China definitely brings that.

It's dashed hard to write about because it's such a delightful confection. You don't want to press too hard in case it breaks the spell. While I understand people who go "you can't want films to make sense and love Big Trouble in Little China" but within itself, it's consistent and makes sense. That's all I ask for.

'Big Trouble in Little China' also does something clever, with a lead character who is so totally not the hero. It's not that Jack Burton doesn't try, or isn't brave, but that man is not the hero. (By the by, Wang Chi is a most excellent fiancé and were I to be kidnapped by ancient incorporeal wizards, I would like to be rescued by him)

A lot of films would tweak that start to make Jack Burton be the big damn hero at the end, but this doesn't. One knife throw aside, he spends the end fight unable to help.

He's also an excellent character to explain the plot to because he's an outsider so there's very little "as you know, Bob" going on, because Jack knows Jack.

It's a little gem of a film and I recommend seeing it if you get the chance.

Formula 1 2025 - Italian Grand Prix

Power units and other disasters 

We're starting to reach the power unit grid penalty part of the season, with various drivers sent to the back of the grid. I am wondering if whatever happened to Hulkenberg's car was also a part reaching its limit. 

There was actual racing 

But it was noticeable that most of the racing occurred before the DRS buttons were turned on. Maybe they'll get rid of them. (The DRS button continues to kill joy.) 

Red Bull 

Verstappen's performance in front adds evidence to the theory that this car was designed with the assumption it would be at the front, and it can't handle not being there. 

Aston Martin 

That muttering sound really is Alonso saying "next year I will have a Newey car so I will put up with this nonsense". 

Ferrari 

Every single race there's a mid-race disagreement between the drivers and the pit wall. Do they not have pre-race meetings?! Do the drivers not listen?! Do the team lie to them?! 

McLaren 

Loving Jenny Gow's simile - "the McLaren mechanics are walking around like expectant fathers." 

Other than Norris apparently being cursed (seriously, why do the pit stop problems always happen to him), I am not sure what else McLaren could have done. It was a problem the team created. Sure, racing is racing, but an unholy mechanical error isn't racing, and a swap seems only fair. 

Verstappen trolling does not help anything or anyone. Ever!

Formula 1 2025 - Dutch Grand Prix - A delayed accidental live blog experiment

For reasons, I couldn't watch the Grand Prix live, and some how remained unspoiled other than something happened to Norris, something happened to both Ferraris and good things happened for Hadjar. (Same reason is likely to prevent me watching the Italian Grand Prix live.) 

Therefore, you will be getting my delayed thoughts as I finally get to listen to it. Before the start: of course Red Bull are trying something tricksy with tyres. 

Lap 1 - Norris's starts have happened again 

Lap 9 - We have racing and overtaking!!!! Although I am intrigued by BBC radio saying Norris has more racing ability than Piastri. I want to know what evidence they are basing this on. I know they're the British Broadcasting Corporation but still .... 

Lap 12 - I like how Abi Pulling explains why the tyres are affected by the corners 

Lap 13 - Happy 19th Kimi (the younger) 

Lap 17 - ah, high tech F1, where the team principals still stick their arms out to check how heavy the rain is. 

Lap 19 - rain starting, cold temperature, of course Alonso goes onto hards. (I know, that's what he's got to switch to but ...) Why are they all switching to hards in these conditions?!!!! 

Lap 22 - Ah, the great Ferrari driver vs his own strategy team mid-race argument occurs. Truly, my favourite part of the race. (Level of sarcasm, high) 

Lap 23 - oh, how I hate being a Ferrari fan! (The double stack was what I expected McLaren to do from when they asked Norris to get closer. Given the effect of dirty air is that much worse at Zandvoort, it's the only reason you'd want them to get closer). Once again, the pitstop gremlins have hit Norris. How are the safety cars always just at the wrong point for Leclerc? Do Ferrari need to perform some sort of arcane ritual to stop this happening?! 

Lap 25ish - Norris, you're a whinge-pot. Stop whining at your race engineer.

Lap 31 - George, stop being a snitch! 

Lap 33 - Because I knew something terrible will happen to Leclerc (but not what and when) I spent most of him vs Russell racing on lap 33 wincing. 

Lap 34 - obvs. watching via radio, but if that incident was anything like how the radio described it, why did Sainz jnr get the penalty? 

Lap 38 - Again, thanks to Abi Pulling for the explanation of the Alonso outburst. I believe the sound we're not quite hearing is Alonso muttering "next year I have a Newey car" under his breath. 

Roughly lap 47, definitely in the mid-race doldrums - interview with Hamilton where he says that he had no problem with Ferrari's strategy. I mean, bless him for trying to hide that. 

Lap 54 - What do you mean it wasn't even Leclerc's own accident?!!! What is it with this race's Mercedes on Ferrari violence?!! Separately, Norris's rear left exchange goes wrong at the pitstop. And further Ferrari tyre/strategy complaints from the drivers. Which given that he's already out ... what is that supposed to achieve Charles? 

Lap 55 - Unexpected potential points for Sauber! 

Lap 56 - Further evidence for my theory that that second Red Bull is cursed. 

Lap 60 - It never rains but it pours for Antonelli. On the other hand, if you hire rookies, you have to expect and tolerate a certain amount of mistakes. (Looking at you Alpine, looking at you so hard) 

Lap 66 - Engine failure. An engine failure got Norris!!!! When was the last time a McLaren had an engine go boom?! (Updated - oil leak, my apologies to the engine) 

Lap 67 - Interesting stat, Hadjar would be the first French driver to get a podium since Grosjean! 

Lap 72 - Bearman! In the points!! In sixth!!! And Ocon! Double points for Haas!! 

Post race comments: 

Ferrari: Given I was expecting it to have been Ferrari happening to themselves, I was actually alright with there being two accidents. Leclerc was being either really nice about the incident, or Ferrari have finally broken him. 

Hadjar: Is the reason I like Hadjar at least 3/4 because he has equations on his helmet.  

Given how terribly badly parts of Red Bull main treated him after the Australian Grand Prix, they can keep their hands off him now. Definitely until that second car is exorcised.

Saints Ahoy - Game 28 and the 2024 Season to Date

Two points specifically about game 28. 

The first is about the diagrams. 

You will notice that this is game 28. In a 12 team league, the most games you should get is 22. Even counting Saints's two Challenge Cup games, that would be 24. Super League has 27 games in the regular season. 

How do you get from 22 to 27? 

To fill these "gaps" they have Magic Weekend, the Rivals round and a couple of seemingly random loop fixtures. Mysteriously, this means that we have to play our best/worst rivals more often - Saints got 2 extra games against Wigan in 2024 :( 

In 2024, one of Saints's loop fixtures was versus Castleford, which is why you'll suddenly see Castleford 3 in the figures. I'm putting this explanation in this post because it's the first time one of the teams will be referred to as [team name] 3. 

The second is about an odd tradition Saints have. For the last home game of the season, if a dearly beloved forward is retiring, and we've already won the match, we let them kick a conversion towards the end of the game. I suspected Mata'utia was going, but him getting given the kick to take was when I knew for sure. (Yes - this is often how we find these things out) 

It makes me sad, because I like him. He's an excellent forward, gives his all, and seems to care. I ask for very little and demand only two out of those three. 

(For what he did next - https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/former-st-helens-man-sione-matautia-agrees-deal-to-play-alongside-his-brother-in-2025-98888/ Awesome as Sione Mata'utia is, his big brother is amongst the best of people - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/61464889) 

Now onto game 28: 

The who was on the pitch when Saints scored figure looks really good. You can see the replacements coming on and off.  

Who played together when Saints scored in game 28. Knowles's crossing point with several players is much paler than expected given where he is in the diagram. 

Network graph from the same game:  

On to the diagrams for the 2024 season. 

First of all, when do Saints score?  

Who scores for Saints?  

Of the top 3, Percival and Bennison are kickers so should be up there. While Makinson can kick, he's there mostly because of his tries. Oh, we are going to miss him! 

Who is present when Saints score?  

What does the matrix diagram of players who play together when Saint score look like after game 28?  

The thing that interests me about the matrix as it stands now is that for each section, the player most often involved with the others (and therefore the darkest line) is at the top left of their section, but the darkest section over all goes at the bottom right and the sections get lighter as you move up and left. 

That pretty much matches the network diagram, but not exactly:  

The player in the matrix but not in the network graph is Whitby. 

If we swap over to look at when Saints concede - here are the teams that have scored against Saints.  

There have been 28 games but only 25 teams feature on this chart because Saints kept 3 teams to 0 point-scoring moments. 

When do Saints concede?  

I can't really see a pattern to the times. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

Who plays together when Saints concede?  

The equivalent network graph looks like this:

Sword Fighting Films - The Prisoner of Zenda

This entry is a bit easier to write, because there are no bad versions of the Prisoner of Zenda. 

There is definitely a best version. 

The best version is the black and white 1937 version with Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks jnr, Raymond Massey and David Niven. 

If, like me, your tastes tend sword-fight-wards, it's one of the greatest films you'll ever see. 

Why do I say this? 

1 - The way it adapts the book. It is such a good adaptation. It digs out all the best parts of the book and dispenses with most of the opening section which is … not good. 

2 - The lighting and set design. Everything looks so good. 

3 - The acting. Ronald Colman does such a good job as both Rudolf Rassendyll and Prince Rudolf. As Rassendyll, he is a good man but tempted, ever so tempted. He makes it believable that Rassendyll might turn on the Prince. (He's also good as the Prince who learns to be better. You believe he will become better for this.) 

You believe C. Aubrey Smith and David Niven when their characters say they know Rassendyll is a good man, probably better than the King, but that if he does betray the King, they will be the first people he has to kill. 

Raymond Massey's take on the line "God save the King" when a Rudolf turns up at the coronation is one of the funniest things you will ever hear. He's so marvellous as Black Michael. (He's Raymond Massey, he's always marvellous) 

And then you have Douglas Fairbanks jnr as Prince Rupert of Hentzau. He's just so perfectly charmingly villainous. There's a reason some part of you cheers when he escapes most consequences. When he leans against a doorway early on he is absolute smouldering desire. In a film with perfect casting, he is the most perfect. 

Prince Rupert can easily overwhelm a film but that's where Ronald Colman's ability to convey decency is so vital (in much the same way as James Cagney gets all the glory for Angels with Dirty Faces, but that film wouldn't work if Pat O'Brien couldn't do decency that well). It also has the best swordfight in Hollywood films (some people suggest the long fight in Scaramouche is better. These people are wrong.)

   

The Stewart Granger, James Mason, Robert Douglas and Robert Coote version from 1952 is often derided as being nothing but a colour remake, and it's true that it's not as good, although their Princess Flavia (Deborah Kerr) is stronger. 

There aren't as many other versions of this as there are of several other entries in this series. I'm not sure why. I think it's because it's harder to bend the story to other ways of telling it … although I do like that love makes the good people better and the bad people worse. It's very much set in a time, place and cultural setting. Which makes my choice of something different quite amusing. 

For my something different, I am going with a Doctor Who episode, the Androids of Tara which runs the plot straight into a Doctor Who episode, with added bonus android doubles. It takes that silly premise and runs with it.  

My favourite character is Lamia who is mostly original to the Doctor Who episode (she is the stand in for Antoinette de Mauban but gets more oomph and stuff to do) and I still don't quite forgive it for what they do to her but it does feature Peter Jeffrey as not-Rupert and he is marvellous avuncular evil, which sadly the trailer does not feature enough of. 

It also has the Fourth Doctor pointing out how ridiculous the whole thing is, and swordfighting, where they steal chunks of the Colman fight. 

Given the recent upswing in sword-fighting films, I live in hope we might get a new film for this as well.

How I make those Gephi diagrams

Written for @shauna@social.coop on Mastodon 

Please don't read any further if you want to maintain the belief I know what I'm doing 

I was original entranced by this post - https://gephi.org/users/quick-start/ 

So I downloaded Gephi and then looked for some data to interrogate. Initially, I wanted to look at how the players at Euro 2012 were interconnected - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/finalised-diagram/ 

It's pretty much been the same process ever since, with some learnings that have been incorporated in the oh my goodness 13 years! 

Information source - I use the Wikipedia squad pages. 

This is why you'll occasionally see notes about "delayed because of" and a warning that the data is taken from Wikipedia so may not be accurate. The club team a player plays for is the one most likely to be wrong, especially for competitions that are between seasons. (The strange places I've ended up at on Wikipedia because of edit wars about which club someone plays for.) 

It is, to an extent, worse for the rugby union ones because players move at the end of the season, not the start of the next. 

Because I do the input (and the removals when teams are out) by hand, I go through the national teams starting with group A and move downwards. This is why, if there is a delay in the teams in group A naming their squads, it causes a huge knock on effect. (The time Italy delayed their squad announcement till ~ 7 pm on the night of the deadline for a game show caused significant cursing because they were the first team in group A and I couldn't start till they did.) 

The larger the event and the bigger the squads obviously, the longer it takes. If you can python (I can't, one day I will learn etc), James Ashford wrote a really nice post on how to do all of this with Python - https://james.ashford.phd/2023/08/25/analysing-the-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup-with-graph-theory/ 

Me, I manually add things into Gephi. Sometimes this means I notice things (like the number of Zambian players playing in the Kazakh Women's League, or that there is a Saudi Women's League - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2023/07/22/womens-world-cup-2023-group-stage-network-diagrams/) 

I use the player as the source and the national or club team as the target. I've experimented with using both directed and undirected links, and it doesn't make much of a difference. 

There are other layouts, but I like the way force atlas looks. (Force atlas works okay with this size data set. For significantly larger ones, Yifan Hu is easier) 

I start with the pre-set values, increasing the repulsion strength if the teams crash into each other.  

I like to add each player individually, because one of the things I enjoy is seeing the shape and positions change with each addition, but I'm sure making more links at the same time would make it go quicker. 

For the colour and the size of the circles, I keep it really simple and stick to number of degrees. For size, I set minimum at 10 and maximum at 50. I find it's large enough to see the small changes with each player and clear enough when I've made a mistake and not attached a player to the right national team. Or the Wiki page is wrong and hasn't taken off the players that didn't make it to the final squad. Or France have decided to only pick 25 players when they could have picked 26 for who knows what reason. 

I also like it for the rugby union one (where there is unlimited replacements for squad injuries) because it creates a subtle gradation for each injured player. 

Colour is slightly more complicated. I like to try and use either the tournament colours or the colours of the host country flag but it's not possible to change the Gephi pre-sets (or at least not as far as I can find out) so sometimes I have to go with nearest to those. I know to not complain about free software but it's the reason I keep looking to see if there's a way to do something similar in R. 

I keep link width at 1. 

For closest to the centre, I use the zoom function, and the degree function to get the number of players. 

When teams get knocked out, I remove the players manually, hence why I try to keep the teams in order when I add them. Again, you get some fun shape and pattern changes that way.

Formula 1 2025 - Hungarian Grand Prix

Before I start with the wailing of all Ferrari fans, that was a good race. There was overtaking, and defending, and tyre strategy sneak. I approve. Particularly of Fernando Alonso single-handedly causing more frustration than 10 other men. 

Now, onto things I don't approve of, other than Nico Hulkenberg's bad luck and the on-going curse on the second Red Bull car, holy heck, Ferrari, please can you get your act together.  

If it's not producing a car so impossible you've made a 7-time World Champion think he can't drive well, it's causing the other driver to have an outburst of "I told you so" at 210 km per hour. 

It's frustrating as fans, and I can't imagine how frustrating it is for the drivers. 

I hate my team sometimes. 

It's not the losing, it's the way of losing.

Formula 1 2025 - Belgian Grand Prix

I can see why some people hate the rolling starts but Belgium, even more than many other circuits, is not somewhere where we want to risk people's safety. Andrew Benson's explanation on BBC radio was excellent. 

The rain break also led to some excellent BBC radio waffle. 

I liked FIA's way of avoiding the race finishing with a time out by saying it hadn't started properly.

Tsunoda not having Max's upgrades may suddenly explain his results, and the results of every number 2 driver in the Red Bull team. I was right to suspect the Red Bull garage worked like this:  

I do wonder if Piastri rewatched the video of Verstappen's overtake of him in the sprint race to figure out how to get past Norris, depending of course whether Norris had battery issues or not, and being on the wetter side of the grid.  

As these are supposed to be Ferrari-centric write-ups, I ought to say something about them, especially as one driver got a podium, and the other got driver of the day. It was an excellent defensive performance from Leclerc and an excellent aggressive drive from Hamilton. Could we maybe get them a decent car?!

Withdrawals from the 2025 Tour de France

Sadly, this year, I haven't been able to watch any of the Tour. 

However, I did find the time to do the withdrawal stats. 

Looking at the Kaplan Meier chart:  While I was compiling the chart, I did start to wonder whether this was an exceptionally kind year in terms of attrition (if you're not Jasper Philipsen or Filippo Ganna). I will try and borrow a copy of Prism to get the numbers but the comparison itself makes it clear that there was less attrition than normal but not by much.  

I don't know whether that's because the first "week" this year was 10 days long, because the 14th of July fell on a Monday (very necessary Casablanca clip here - https://youtu.be/HM-E2H1ChJM?si=Sadu7MugvhdwDhXC).  

23 teams took part in the race. The withdrawals seem reasonably balanced. 

6 teams had 2 riders withdraw - Soudal QuickStep, Total Energies, Lotto, Alpecin-Deceunnick, Ineos Grenadiers and XDS Astana. 

5 teams had no one withdraw - Arkea - B&B Hotels, Israel Premier Tech, Picnic Post NL, Tudor and Visma - Lease A Bike. 

(I know it's because sponsorship is hard to find, but do the team names need to be that long). 

Because they withdrawals are evenly spread, in the Kaplan Meier diagram split by teams, there's no sudden drops. It looks very like a plait.  

Further evidence of it being an unusually non-attritional race, despite them having a stage with a sprint finish up the Ventoux - https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/tour-de-france/highlights-tour-de-france-stage-16-2025, is that no one stage stands out as having more withdrawals. Looking at withdrawals by type by week: Ignoring that week 1 was 10 days ... the really interesting things are: 

1 - No over the time limit withdrawals at all 

2 - The pattern is almost symmetrical 

The number of withdrawals by type is pretty even, 48% were mid-stage abandonments, 52% were did not starts. Since Did Not Start withdrawals are mostly "help, the damage has caught up with me" withdrawals, that pattern makes sense.

Euro 2025 - Network Graph for the Final

The figures are obviously very simple now that there are only two teams.  

The same graph, but labelled:  

Gotham FC are the club team closest to the middle. 

Barcelona, unsurprisingly, have the most players left, with 10. The teams with the next most players remaining are Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City with 6. 

Manchester City, Arsenal and Gotham FC are guaranteed to have a player on the winning side. 

The community view gives less information when we're down to two teams so I haven't shared that. 

It's a final to look forward to.

Some equally scattershot thoughts about Fantastic Four, the new one

(Mild spoilers for Thunderbolts and from that to Fantastic Four)

I have more skin in this game than I did for Superman (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/superman-the-new-one-some-scattergun-thoughts-about-comics-history-and-culture/). The coterie of comics fans I was in at high school were very much Marvel (and later 2000AD).

Fantastic Four was C's comic of choice - mine was X-Men (I am filled with trepidation about what Marvel will do to them because while the Fox films haven't been perfect, several of them have come pretty damn near).

I'm intrigued by the retro-futurism of the trailer for the new Fantastic Four, and amused by sudden unexpected Mark Gattiss appearing as I-can't-believe-it's-not Ed Sullivan.

There's a sinister uncurrent in the trailer, even before Galactus and the Silver Surfer turn up, that would have made it clear that it wasn't going end well, even before the bad guys do arrive. Also, Ben Grimm is somewhere where he is happy and beloved and they seem to be determined he will never get that for long *.

Given what we get in the Thunderbolts end credits teaser, I presume the end of Fantastic Four has them slingshotted over into our universe, which at least has precedent in the comics.

Part of me wants it to be "them slingshotted following abject failure to beat Galactus." but I don't think Marvel will go there, no one likes to see their heroes lose. Although they did go there for the Avengers: Infinity War cliffhanger.

What I think is more likely is that Reed Richards is going to have to make a choice, save the world and potentially doom the family, and luckily they end up over in MCU-main-verse.

But that leads to the question of why would they give that away in another film? Or am I just putting too much thought into it?

* Ben Grimm is my favourite in ways that words cannot explain.

Euro 2025 - Semifinals Network Graphs

As suggested (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2025/07/14/euro-2025-quarterfinal-network-diagrams/), the sheer number of Spanish and Italian players playing for Barcelona and Italy respectively did distort the graph. 

It's also distorting the semifinal graphs which are much narrower and elongated than usual. There is a pleasing simplicity to the community view, with each country being its own community. Unsurprisingly, the largest of the paler red circles reflects the club teams with the most representatives left, Barcelona with 10, Bayern Munich with 9 and Juventus with 8. 

Germany are the national team closest to the centre, because of Italy pulling them up. For the same reason, Bayern Munich are the club team closest to the centre. 

I have seen all of the semi-finalists except England play (and I am banned from watching them lest I be an ill omen).  I am guessing that Spain will beat Germany but that German team have a certain admirable determination about them.

Film Review - Ad Astra

This film was so bad that I have made a new graphic for it.  

This is going to be reserved for the real clunkers. I have 61 film reviews to write up, including this one and only 3 of them deserve this figure, and one of those is an edge case. 

Ad Astra was terrible. 

Bad science, bad plot, bad logic. 

Although I will say it had good set design. 

What annoyed me about it so much? 

It was the laziness. 

I'm a bad sci-fi fan. I do not expect diamond-level hardness in my sci-fi films. I am happy to accept internally cohesive over scientifically accurate. But, if you're going to have one of your characters be a deep space explorer charting new planets out in the Kuiper belt don't have three pictures of "new space objects" be the same picture of Europa turned 90 degrees and coloured in differently. 

Particularly not if you say things like "what I’m trying to do is the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie and to basically say, ‘Space is awfully hostile to us.’ It’s kind of a Heart of Darkness story about traveling to the outer edge of our solar system." during the press tour. (https://collider.com/james-gray-brad-pitt-ad-astra-filming/) 

You really don't get to say that if you have scenes that only work if there is no convection of heat from rocket engines. 

It's not just Europa, and basic physics, it's every little detail of the film. For instance, the faked geography of the opening shot. "Whilst watching Ad Astra, instantly recognised two lakes as Brad Pitt was looking down to Earth. Qinghai Lake and Lake Urmia. Obviously they are no where close to each other, one is in China, the other in Iran." (quoted with permission from here - https://x.com/x4rius/status/1248252953074360320). 

In the director's defence, he does achieve the whole "Heart of Darkness" theme he was aiming for, although his is more the isolation of space drives you mad rather than colonialism will destroy us all.

The vibe I got was more Odysseus in the "everyone he meets dies" way but I think we have to accept my brain was warped at an early age. 

The problem is that it was sold as 'interesting sci-fi philosophical film', but it is in fact, "man-pain the movie: this time we're in space". Which would be hard to sit through anyway, but the lead character is deliberately emotionless as his major characteristic and he's the only character with any major screen time ... this film is dull and unengaging as well as having all those technical flaws. 

Gah!  The whole thing is a mess and is a waste of two hours of your life.

Euro 2025 - Quarterfinal network diagrams

The group stage diagrams and predictions based on them can be found here - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/euro-2025-group-stage-network-diagrams/

How did the group stage predictions go? 

From group A, I predicted Norway and Switzerland would qualify for the quarterfinals, and I was right, even if it involved extra time goals in the decider. 

Group B, I predicted Spain and AN other, which I am aware is a bit of a "the sky is blue" sort of prediction. 

Group C, I predicted Germany and Sweden 

Group D, I predicted Netherlands and one of England and France, which was oh so wrong. 

Out of 8, I am willing to call that about equivalent to 5/8. 

With that in mind, here are the quarterfinal network diagrams 

Unlabelled: Labelled:  

In the communities view, each nation is its own separate colour. Sweden are the national team closest to the centre (just, vs. Norway). 

Either Lyon or Bayern Munich are the club team closest to the centre. 

Barcelona are the team with the most representatives left in with 14, then comes Bayern Munich and Juventus with 13 then Chelsea with 12. 

Predictions for the quarterfinals: 

These are quite difficult because Italy and Spain are pulled out by how many of their players play for Juventus and Barcelona respectively, while Bayern Munich, and the players that play for them, are pulling together Sweden and Germany, and Arsenal and Chelsea are holding together England, Sweden and Norway. 

Sweden vs England - Diagram says Sweden 

Norway vs Italy - Diagram says Norway, plus every single women's football pundit keeps bewailing how often Italy somehow manage to screw up. On the other hand, Norway trip over their own feet also. 

France vs Germany - Diagram says Germany just. Football fan says "ooooh". 

Spain vs Switzerland - Remember how I said Barcelona pulled Spain out of the diagram. This really reflects that. Switzerland are far closer to the centre. On the other hand, there is no way I can see Switzerland beating this Spanish team.