GridRival Lineup:

• LeClerc
• Russell
• Piastri
• Bottas
• Tsunoda ⭐️
• 🏎️ Kick Sauber

I am writing this after qualifying results. RBR seems to have tuned it up just in time for qualifying. Their race trim seems unbeatable still. So, unless there is a mistake from Verstappen (unlikely) and / or Sainz/LeClerc pull something magical tomorrow, it's likely going to be RBR, Ferrari, McLaren podiums. 

It's a bummer that Piastri couldn't pull the great lap that he kept showing during practice. Norris seems to have an edge still.. Norris certainly does have an edge when it comes to race day. 

Tsunoda was a surprise Q3 hit and I hope he can keep it up in the race tomorrow. Ricciardo having the weird slip is not a good look. Especially not at Albert Park. Especially not when the narrative is going against him. I don't think it's fair, but in F1 results speak for themselves. =/ 

Kick Sauber is having a bad day after the wing incident with Zhou. Thank God, I didn't pick him instead of Bottas. However, I think Zhou is on the rise and Bettas is on the way down. That said, Bottas really does like Albert Park. 

Hamilton continues his slide down the order. Feels like he's checked out of the Mercedes because around this time is where he used to dig deep and bring the hammer. 

Race predictions:

• P1: VER
• P2: SAI
• P3: NOR

This time around, Stroll is keeping up close with Alonso, which is interesting to see as well. 

Hamilton continues to baffle. However, Mercedes seems like they are in a lot of trouble. George Russell continues to get the better out of the car. However, Russell also shows that his racecraft is lacking and he likely needs someone to continue to mentor him. I've long maintained that getting a senior driver in the same team to mentor the junior driver is a lost cause given F1 incentives to constantly race your partner. The only team that's managed to pull that off is Aston Martin and that's because Lance Stroll honestly cannot compete with Fernando Alonso. 

Red Bull continues to set the one lap and race time pace. I continue to be impressed by how well that team's operating despite the inner turmoils of Horner's horniness saga. 

RBs - originally considered to be dark horses for this season - turned out neither dark, nor a horse. More a slow pony dressed up to sell more financial payments options between VISA and Cash App. 

Even the team that lurched to the second-ish position last year - McLaren - seem to have taken a step back. 

All leaving Ferrari as the only team even attempting to bring the fight close to Red Bull. Ferrari's impressed me so far. However, they impressed me because of Sainz, who's racing to win a seat in 2025. 

Anyway, 2025 silly season's gonna be lit 🔥.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y5wMpKXNK4

Bahrain GP was exciting, even with the fact that Max Verstappen had a 3s lead in Turn 2. :) Sainz is desperate and racing for his next seat ignoring team orders and giving LeClerc quite the scare. 

Mercedes is the third best car but Hamilton was nowhere to be found. McLaren still needs work. Alonso continues to set the pace for Aston Martin. 

With some updates through the season, the team order (modulo Red Bull) should change up. 

Yuki had the better race until he decided to be a dumbo. Zhou had a low key solid race. 

With Vincent's help, got https://scribbles.gurupanguji.com/ to point to this site. And have provided a link to this from the main homepage header.

As much as I love my blog, scribbles feels lighter to post on. Working to see if I can setup a bookmarklet for here as I've done for the main blog. 

I am very excited to try scribbling. My favorite way to blog has always been tumblr and so this is right up the alley wrt making this simpler.

Hoping to also use this to further bring my contribution to the community back up and develop some bookmarklets and stuff.

Very exciting!