Formula 1 2025 - Australian Grand Prix

An editorial decision was made to skip the rest of my 2024 write ups, on the principle that it's been, gone and done, and I have nothing interesting to add other than I really wasn't expecting George Russell to be that bitey. I think it is going to be the only way that Verstappen will stop knocking into people, if people knock back. 

Ferrari totally won the meme contest in Australia, that counts for something, right? 

I am aware it counts for nothing. I am trying to make myself feel better given that Ferrari somehow managed to finish behind a Sauber. 

A Sauber!!! 

(The Hülkenberg fan in me is so happy. If Sauber could get him a podium this year I will be ecstatic. The Ferrari fan in me is not comforted by this joy. It is a very odd feeling.) 

(I also feel vindicated in my belief that Binotto was not the problem. In much the way Domenicali, Arrivabene and Vasseur are not the problem.)

The vindication also does not comfort me. 

I will stick up for the strategy team however. If that strategy had paid off, they would have been feted as heroes. It's a fine line, and I'd rather them fail by making a decision than fail by dithering. I mean, I'd be even happier if they didn't fail, but I am recalibrating my hopes at this point. 

With regard to other teams, that second Red Bull seat remains cursed, I see that Helmut Marko is living up to the Darth Helmut jokes (although Anthony Hamilton is so lovely), and the Aussie curse has hit Piastri. 

All in all, an interesting season opener.

So when are Georgia replacing Wales in the Six Nations?

It's now been two whole Six Nations tournaments since Wales last won a game in the 6 Nations.

This year, they even got nil-ed (https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/m6n/fixtures/2025/france-v-wales-31012025-2115/report).

What are they even adding to the competition?

Don't worry, I am only being sarcastic, and I don't want rid of Wales, not least of all because I love Adam Jones.

But it is interesting that while there are suggestions that Wales (who came bottom of the 6 Nations) should have a play off against Georgia who won the Rugby Europe Championship, which is the next level down (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cn04pz1wezyo), to see who gets to be in the 6 Nations next year, there's nothing like the volume of suggestions that really, the bottom team ought to be got rid of, like there was when it was Italy down there, not being able to scrape a win by any means.

Why the difference? Is it because Italy, being the newest participants in the 6 Nations are not one of the "old boys", or is it because the other "big teams" are scared that one day it'll be them down there?

In my sports-watching life time, I have seen every 6 Nations team other than England be the Wooden Spoon (team in last place) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Nations_Championship#Wooden_Spoon 

If you think it could happen to you, you're less likely to suggest it when it happens to a Union of the same venerability as yours.

Even 8 years ago (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/how-dyou-solve-a-problem-like-italian-rugby/) I was suggesting a play-off would be better than straight replacement of a team, so I'm glad everyone is realising I was right.

It's even more important now - lack of regular play against the top teams *is* holding Georgia back, and given Portugal's heroics at the last Rugby Union World Cup, the lack of mobility between what I will call tier 2 and tier 1 gives them very little to aim for or any way of improving.

If it's just one team swapped out permanently, that doesn't solve the problem of growing the depth of the game.

There are some downsides to the playoff plan - most importantly, where to fit the game in an already packed calendar and maintain player welfare. But I can't think of a more equitable solution.

Saints Ahoy - Game 22 and the 2024 season to date

Subtle change in name to reflect that the 2025 Rugby League Super League season has started. 

Game 22 was against Hull FC. This time Hull actually managed to score against Saints:  

I wish Saints had kept a clean sheet, but (shrug). 

The good news for Saints is that Morgan Knowles was back from injury in this game, and Jake Burns, got his first ever try for the senior team, then the second in the same game. (A bit of background - https://www.saintsrlfc.com/teams/first-team/jake-burns/ He might be one of the last of the proper, has a non-Saints career to fall back on, players). The most heart-warming part, exactly how happy the Saints Twitter guy was. 

The game 22 "who is present together when Saints score" matrix diagram, I'm including it because I think it looks pretty, and it's nicely shows how forwards interchange (paler colours), while the backs stay on (darker colours).  

For the season to date, Saints have had 172 point-scoring moments and 98 conceded. 

22 players have scored for Saints.  

The "Saints often score in minutes 50-53" has been reinforced.  

Who is present when Saints score?  

The present-together-when-Saints-score matrix has an interesting pattern. Whitley's line makes that pattern. This is because he was present for a lot of point-scoring moments early in the season, then was out for a while, and has now been present for several more tries now he's back. So he's been separated from the main "often present when Saints score" group, but has still been present a lot with them.  

The equivalent network graph looks like this. When do Saints concede?  

The pattern of Saints conceding minute 9-12 has gone. It is starting to look like Saints concede a lot in the last 10 minutes, which I'm not sure is reflective of tiredness (justifiable) or more time needed on conditioning (not acceptable). 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

The matrix diagram of players together when Saints concede also looks interesting. It basically looks like a tartan with a repeating pattern, but each repeat is slightly paler.  

The concession network graph just looks odd.

Not actually yearly round up of film locations

There's a reason L says the motto for my blog should be "I never drop projects, I just don't update them for a while". 

This one used to be yearly and then stuff happened, so I'm taking the chance to update it now. This is a list of all the locations where films I have mentioned up to August 2020 (yes, I know). 

Looking only at real locations, the US and UK lead the way.  

It's a lot less clear cut when I include fictional locations.  

There's still an disturbing, overwhelming, more than 80% of them are set there, English slant to the films set in the UK. It does possible suggest something about film funding in the UK, and where Hollywood sets films when they're set in the UK. When I have time to learn how to do nice map plots, I think this will be my dataset.

Formula 1 - Belgian Grand Prix 2024

 The reason I couldn't remember a thing about the race was because I was flying to the US at the time. It was a bad race to miss because it sounds like many things actual happened - https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2024/belgium A race, with racing, and then disqualification nonsense. Apparently that's the first win lost to a technical disqualification since Schumacher!

Also at Spa!!

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Belgian_Grand_Prix for full details)