Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

The third event of the my 2020 birthday weekend was Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh. (The first two were Leonardo - Experience a Masterpiece (The Virgin on the Rocks) and The Duchess of Malfi) 

Like most people of my generation, I was fascinated by Egyptology from being a small child. I have vivid memories of attending an Egyptology exhibition with Mum at an age of less than 5, and the bug bit me. 

Mum actually attended the Tutankhamun exhibition first, and raved about it so much that when I had the opportunity to go, I had to take it. The exhibition website is here - TUTANKHAMUN: TREASURES OF THE GOLDEN PHARAOH » Saatchi Gallery 

The exhibition focussed on both the dig that uncovered the tomb and the contents of the tomb. Unless I ever get my act together and actually visit Egypt, this was the last chance I was ever going to have to see several of these items. 

Everything was exactly as beautiful as you’d imagine. I think having the objects in front of you makes it easier to imagine the artisans all those years ago making these things, and the talent and skill they had. I understand why lots of people are squeamish about mummies nowadays, and I understand “leave my bones alone”, but if immortality is having thousands of people pay homage and leave offerings of money at your tomb more than three thousand years after your death, I think Tutankhamun has achieved a kind of immortality very few ever will, and his immortality has pulled those artisans along with him.

(Note, it's very hard to write a blog post about "ancient beautiful objects are expectedly beautiful")

Did the sprint points and fastest lap points make a difference in Formula 1 in 2024?

I'm now two years late with this update on whether fastest lap points made a difference and since then they've removed the fastest lap points. Which I find hilarious because 2025 is one of the rare years where it might have made a difference to an important outcome. But that's for a later post. Let's look at 2024. 

2024 Fastest Laps  

8 different drivers and 4 different constructors won fastest lap points which is higher than the average for drivers (7) and equal to the average for constructors (4).

Constructors’s standings with and without fastest lap points Removing the fastest lap points makes no change in the Constructors’s Title. 

How about in the Drivers's championship? 

Drivers’s Championship standings with and without the fastest lap points Removing the fastest lap points makes no changes to the standings in the drivers’s championship at the end of the season. 

That means if we put together 2024’s results with the calculated total points if there had been fastest laps from 2009-2018, and the actual results in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, 0 constructors results out of 169 have been affected by fastest lap points. 

In the drivers’ championship, the number of results affected is 13/373 (3.49% of all results), and none of those are in the top 3 of any given year. 

Let’s look at the sprint races, which I expect to have a greater effect due to the quite frankly ridiculous number of them and the points available for them. 

The sprint race points were as follows:  

Constructors points from the sprint races:  

Drivers’ points from the sprint races:  

Do the sprint race points have an effect on either championship? 

Constructors' championship with and without the sprint and fastest lap points  

No effect 

After 3 years, sprint points have had an effect on 6/30 constructors positions. 

Drivers' championship with and without the sprint and fastest lap points Bearman moves ahead of Ricciardo on countback (one 7th position versus a best of 8th) 

Giving points to almost half the field 6 times a year changes the position of 1 of the 24 drivers. 

Over 3 years with sprint races, 7/68 drivers results have been changed. 

What have we learned? 

• The pattern that the 1 point for fastest lap is too small to affect anything continued. 

• The sprint races don’t do anything to disturb the existing order, and only strengthen the points totals of the good teams, creating further separation between them and the weaker teams. The top 3 teams got ~ 50 sprint points each, the bottom 3 got 6. 

• Deeply amused that McLaren and Ferrari had the same number of sprint points. 

• The order of the drivers is unusually muddled up. Normally it’s very two by two by two. In 2024, not so much. 

For an awful lot more effort, expense and wear and tear, the sprint races do very little to the overall standings. Which strengthens my feeling that they’re pointless.

Formula 1 2026 - Japanese Grand Prix

Qualifying: 

In things that are not important yet, but will be important by the end of the season - Norris already on 3rd and final battery. Even if they can resurrect his second battery, that's too close to maxing out the allowed number of batteries for comfort. 

How much of Max Verstappen's sour grapes about this set of regulations, "I am retiring if we don't change" and so on is due to being beaten by the RB Juniors? 

Pre-race: Radio got slightly more hijinks than usual because of the delay due to repairs following one of the support races. 

Jack Black has noticeably better PR training than Chris Pratt, and sounded like he might have head of F1 before Jennie Gow spoke to him. 

Damon Hill talking about Murray Walker commentating over his victory is adorable. 

However, I disapprove of them whitewashing why the Japanese Grand Prix had to move out of monsoon season. "So we are in sakura season" indeed. 

The race itself: 

See McLaren, if you give him a car that works, Piastri goes fast. 

I did have a full-blown mini-conniption about Bearman's leg; his limping looked like mine when I broke my leg. So glad that it turned out only to be severe bruising. 

I don't think the accident is evidence that the new regulations are too dangerous, just that there is room for improvement. It's not like there aren't crashes with every set of regulations. 

Also, how much of that crash was due to tyres that weren't warm? 

Alice Powell gave a really good explanation around kneepads, and their painful necessity and why some drivers still don't wear them. 

The incident really changed the shape of the rest of the race. I acknowledge the race became duller after the safety car but there was racing up and down the grid and through most of the race, unlike last year's race, which, as someone described it, "could have been an email". Therefore I am still on team "I like the new regulations".