The Bloke and A Bird Show Episode 254

The Bloke and A Bird Show

No, we haven’t watched Drive to Survive yet, we’re behind on Star Trek Discovery, behind on Star Trek Picard, and we haven’t even watched the last few episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down… Plus because the last winter test was so close to the first race weekend - we haven’t even gotten our predictions done- but hopefully we’ll have that sorted by the end of the week.

Instead of taking decisive action on the question of Russian drivers - the FIA decided to punt… Meanwhile Motorsports UK has released a pretty strong “NOPE” when it comes to Russian drivers.

Let there be no doubt now - F1 has in fact canceled the Russian Grand Prix, it hasn’t been suspended it’s been cancelled. But more than that, F1 has now cancelled the contract for ANY Russian Grand Prix. Before this had happened F1 had a contract for aRussian Grand Prix through 2025.

Oh, and were you hoping to watch F1 in Russia? Yeah, that’s not happening either as F1 has cancelled the broadcast rights contract for F1 and shut down F1 TV for Russia as well.

Haas has terminated their relationship with Nikita Mazepin, Dmitri Mazepin, and Uralkali. Nikita doesn’t understand why Haas would do this, Uralkali says they want their money back - and Nikita says that he’s not under sanctions…. And he was right - up until the European Commission named him as the 732nd Russian to be placed under sanction.

Kevin Magnussen has signed a “multi-year” contract to fill the seat vacated by Nikita Mazepin at Haas.

This week was the actual winter testing sessions, as always it’s hard to get a clear picture of where things stand but there were a few clues.

The top three still appear to be Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari.

Red Bull appears to have an edge, but the Ferrari looks strong

Mercedes say that the car is off the pace and not a winner, however nobody believes them.

Mclaren is struggling with brake cooling issues.

The rest of the pack appears to be pretty tight.

Lewis Hamilton will be featured in an upcoming documentary on Apple TV+

And Imola will host F1 through 2025.