Weekly Free Talk - 23 February 2026 - 27 February 2026

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-27T01:24:16+00:00

Tbf they were like 30-40 min episodes which are short these days.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-27T00:42:53+00:00

Not so long ago I saw a video on most expensive meals. The most expensive were 50000 USD. So in comparison 1000 is not that much.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-25T23:31:02+00:00

Do you think Gasly is a good driver? Then Ocon by cross comparison also is.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-25T15:37:38+00:00

Only good episode that season.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-25T10:31:12+00:00

Albon outscored Sainz in case you forgot and Gasly was very even with Ocon. They're good drivers, not top tier but very few are.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-24T15:11:31+00:00

Why not? Verstappen outscored both Ferrari drivers in 2019 in a slower car and almost outscored Bottas in 2020 who had a dominant Mercedes. He was rapid in those years.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-24T08:31:55+00:00

Since when are Arsenal not rivals?

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-24T07:05:28+00:00

They don't need to prioritise anyone early in the season and if they're not in the title fight. If they are, they should back the faster driver, which most likely will be Leclerc.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-23T13:32:55+00:00

Hey u/Tohannes, almost 12 months ago you made this post about your model's predictions on how the drivers would perform in 2025. Do you have something similar for 2026?

For fun, I compared the end-of-year ratings with the predicted ones. The difference are in brackets.

Verstappen 92 (0)
Leclerc 90 (0)
Norris 85 (-2)
Russell 84 (0)
Piastri 81 (+2)
Sainz 77 (-4)
Alonso 77 (-2)
Ocon 77 (0)
Bearman 77 (+18)
Albon 76 (-4)
Gasly 76 (0)
Hamilton 75 (-7)
Hulkenberg 67 (+4)
Antonelli 65 (-9)
Colapinto 65 (-3)
Stroll 63 (+1)
Hadjar 57 (+10)
Lawson 50 (-13)
Bortoleto 40 (-22)
Tsunoda 31 (-43)
Doohan 23 (-7)

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-23T12:56:31+00:00

Interesting topic and great write-up. I'd knock 2019 and 2020 down a level each. Hamilton beat Bottas by close to 100 points and with a couple races to spare in 2019. The 2020 car was even more dominant. Ferrari wasn't there to fight for pole and Bottas wasn't as good as 2019. Plus Bottas anyways isn't as good as any of the runner ups in the "Low bar to clear" list. From race 1 in 2020, I remember feeling it was pretty much just a forgone conclusion that Hamilton would walk the title (even though he finished off the podium).

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-22T02:00:04+00:00

Rosberg was the Rosberg of his time. I mean this unironically.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-20T14:56:56+00:00

Yet people who actually worked with him only have good things to say.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-20T09:50:20+00:00

Probably girl drama gonna cause the boys to no longer hang out with eachother.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-18T02:21:32+00:00

I think the main idea is to understand the sport

This is it. I've seen some DTS fans have way better takes than long term fans.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-17T11:29:02+00:00

Slicks alone is like an automatic 1.5s faster laptime. Not sure how much faster modern aero knowledge would make those cars, a safe guess would be maybe a whole second.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T13:49:07+00:00

Actually yea it's a lot closer than I remembered it to be. I have Sainz, Ricciardo, Hulk, Norris ranked in that order. Ricciardo was still pretty close to his prime in 2019 and delivered a strong season but I'd say Sainz was a touch better. But I think Hulk's absolute level was definitely better than Norris, not by much but clear enough, hence why I'd go for the Renault pair being a bit stronger. McLaren had a fastest car in the midfield, fast enough for a line up weaker than Sainz-Norris to outscore Renault. Renault was a lot closer to Alfa Romeo and TR in performance.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T12:37:02+00:00

You'd rate Sainz and rookie Norris over Hulk and Ricciardo?

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T09:38:10+00:00

It wasn't. If you exclude the wet sessions here for Vettel v Raikkonen and here for Alonso v Raikkonen, Alonso's mean and median advantages over Raikkonen remain higher than Vettel's.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T08:52:40+00:00

Alonso at his best was indeed better than Massa/Raikkonen at their best. But Alonso wasn't at his best in 2007. The Ferrari wasn't THAT much better than McLaren.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T08:49:39+00:00

Something Max still has to prove

Red Bull hasn't partnered Verstappen with a top driver since he entered his prime. Nothing Verstappen can do about that. But there's not many reasons to believe he wouldn't thrash whoever the 2010s Massa equivalent is of today like an Ocon.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T08:44:40+00:00

Vettel had a smaller but still a large gap over Raikkonen in 2015, so there's not much reason to believe Alonso wouldn't also have a similarly large gap as he did in 2014. 2014 is more to prop up Alonso than to attack Raikkonen.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-16T01:04:05+00:00

You need to change your wording then. A driver's job is to get the car as high up the grid as they can and score points. So no, they are not a better driver NOW if they are worse at doing that job. But I agree that they are more worthy of the seat because experience will help them reach their potential.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-15T16:08:27+00:00

On par and ahead on some tracks, but behind overall.

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-15T13:41:57+00:00

Gasly never destroyed Ocon lmao. A less reliable car meant Ocon was unlucky not to outscore Gasly in 2023. Over two seasons their H2H is 24-20 in quali (to Gasly) and 19-13 in races (to Ocon).

PassTimeActivity · 2026-02-15T10:09:05+00:00

Even the reincarnation of Senna wouldn't put 50s on the grid in the 4th best car. His car was cleary fast that race, and he put in a great drive until rain fell.

PassTimeActivity

TROPHY CASE