What other sports do you follow?

[bugylibicska]

England beat Ireland 23:22 with a drop goal after 80 minutes expired! Ireland were a bit disappointing, but they're still favourites to win the tournament.

[Lorric]

Now that's a weird table. England and Ireland both with 3 wins, but Ireland with 4 more points because we have 0 bonus points.

[rpo.castro]

Oliver Bearman called to replaced Carlos Sainz at the 11th our due to appendicitis.
He almost beated Hamilton in last spot in Q3. Will start in P11 tomorrow.

Everyone I know who watches F1 is cheering for Ollie tomorrow, something new and unpredictable happenning in a season that looks to be again boring with Red Bull so much ahead.

Certainly interested in how he will do in the race. New Brit on the block! Even if it's only one race.

Good race. P7 after starting P11, taking advantage of Stroll accident and Norris and Hamilton not stopping under safety car.
This is a very though track (all drivers were exaust, high forces on the neck) and the G forces and race lenght between F2 and F1 are huge but he did great and in final laps was asking for time gaps for Norris and Hamilton instead of struggling. Great driver.
In the front same old. Red Bulls in a championship of their own, Ferrari between them and the other 3: Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin. Magnussen trying to beat the record of biggest penalty: 20s for 3 situations.

[Lorric]

Everyone I know who watches F1 is cheering for Ollie tomorrow, something new and unpredictable happenning in a season that looks to be again boring with Red Bull so much ahead.

Certainly interested in how he will do in the race. New Brit on the block! Even if it's only one race.

Good race. P7 after starting P11, taking advantage of Stroll accident and Norris and Hamilton not stopping under safety car.
This is a very though track (all drivers were exaust, high forces on the neck) and the G forces and race lenght between F2 and F1 are huge but he did great and in final laps was asking for time gaps for Norris and Hamilton instead of struggling. Great driver.
In the front same old. Red Bulls in a championship of their own, Ferrari between them and the other 3: Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin. Magnussen trying to beat the record of biggest penalty: 20s for 3 situations.

Thanks. Wondered what you'd think, there were a lot of comments on the highlights about how this is one of the toughest tracks and how impressive it was, especially with so little preparation for him. Good luck to him.

[Firnen]

Good race. P7 after starting P11, taking advantage of Stroll accident and Norris and Hamilton not stopping under safety car.
This is a very though track (all drivers were exaust, high forces on the neck) and the G forces and race lenght between F2 and F1 are huge but he did great and in final laps was asking for time gaps for Norris and Hamilton instead of struggling. Great driver.
In the front same old. Red Bulls in a championship of their own, Ferrari between them and the other 3: Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin. Magnussen trying to beat the record of biggest penalty: 20s for 3 situations.

You mean McLaren, Mercedes and Alonso, owner-daddy's pampered boy Stroll is a joke as usually.

Ollie was amazing given the circumstances, and he shows that F1 teams should stop being so afraid to give a shot to new talented drivers but endlessly keep around washed up mediocrities like Bottas, Magnussen and Ricciardo, pay drivers like Sargeant, and of course the owner's son Stroll...

[rpo.castro]

Good race. P7 after starting P11, taking advantage of Stroll accident and Norris and Hamilton not stopping under safety car.
This is a very though track (all drivers were exaust, high forces on the neck) and the G forces and race lenght between F2 and F1 are huge but he did great and in final laps was asking for time gaps for Norris and Hamilton instead of struggling. Great driver.
In the front same old. Red Bulls in a championship of their own, Ferrari between them and the other 3: Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin. Magnussen trying to beat the record of biggest penalty: 20s for 3 situations.

You mean McLaren, Mercedes and Alonso, owner-daddy's pampered boy Stroll is a joke as usually.

Ollie was amazing given the circumstances, and he shows that F1 teams should stop being so afraid to give a shot to new talented drivers but endlessly keep around washed up mediocrities like Bottas, Magnussen and Ricciardo, pay drivers like Sargeant, and of course the owner's son Stroll...

I didn't remember who said it (maybe Nuno Luz workingat Aston Martin, and previouslyat Prema), but after the end of F2 2023 season when asked if there was a driver ready to take a seat in F1, he said Bearman was the only one we could see having success.

Its not like there wasn't any young drivers called. Zhou, Tsunoda aren'tanything special, De Vries and Mick Schumacher are flops (both champions, high praised, Mick just smashed competition in F3 and F2).

While Sargeant lost F3 title in last race and was 4th in F2 championship. Stroll was champion in Italian F4, Toyota series, F3 (beating Russell among others) jumping to F1 without F2.

Sargeant and Stroll had very good CV's to climb F1, as did have De Vries and Schumacher, more than Zhou or Tsunoda.
And there were other young perfectly good drivers that didn't fit in F1 recently like Pascal Wehrlein, Stoffel Vandoorne or Brendon Hartley, all FIA champions.

Other thing, Bearman debuted in a Ferrari. Its not the same thing as debuting in a rock with wheels named Haas, Sauber or Williams. I think every Ferrari driver scored points on his debut.

[Lorric]

Stroll is in a slump. He's capable of much better than this but something's just not right, his head, his heart, whatever it is, he's a shadow of what he was.

F1's kinda weird, if you don't have a car capable of winning races, wouldn't it be best to just have two pay drivers until you do? I suppose there's a balance though as if your car is capable of getting points then you get money for points, right?

[rpo.castro]

Stroll is in a slump. He's capable of much better than this but something's just not right, his head, his heart, whatever it is, he's a shadow of what he was.

F1's kinda weird, if you don't have a car capable of winning races, wouldn't it be best to just have two pay drivers until you do? I suppose there's a balance though as if your car is capable of getting points then you get money for points, right?

All teams get money from points except the last one, and you could see this ferocious battle for one point. I remember Ericsson getting the point that got the money to Williams just to lose his seat.
Before this current bubble, all minnow teams were surviving with paying drivers: Williams, Haas, Sauber. So we had several russians and really bad drivers in those cars (Rio Haryanto, Jolyon Palmer (making comments for BBC lol), Mazespin and others. But you had this all the time sonce the beginning but a lot in 70s and 80s. A guy buying a team just to drive? It happened a lot. In 80s it was madness with teams failing to get to GP or failing to qualify races and races a row (rule of minimum lap time).

There are quizzes about F1 teams try to guess some names to see how many you get. I like to play on sporcle.

Whats happening now in F1 its a) the costs got reduced with the budget cap, although still high, more important the revenue increased a lot with the mediatic exposure and now every team can cover their costs. The problem is getting better resources.
In current F1 its harder to break the status quo. Aston Martin started from Force India/racing point which was already a solid good team, and invested a lot just to get where they are.
Lets see how Audi will work. Williams now is financially better but they can't get better engineers so they won't evolve. I think talks with Audi were ongoing but aborted. Toro Rosso is managed by Red Bull and have been going down and down. I think Red Bull new management really wants to sell Toro Rosso fast.
Haas is the team going in wrong way at fast speed because Gene Hass thought this is Nascar and he could put a team without engineers and designers just buying things and assemble together. He doesn't manufacture any components: either are from Ferrari (if allowed by regulations) or he gets from 3rd parties like the chassis by Dallara and so on. He has anything and doubt he will last long. I think its just a question of time and money before he sells it (the license).

F1 needs to hold things until 2026-new regulations with new engines with less complicated hybrid system, new manufacturers.
Red Bull dominance is hard for this but now we will have Hamilton switch. Now with shit happening in Red Bull rumours are for everybody likes: Max going to Mercedes, Newey to Ferrari, Newey retiring. So things will hold on until 2026. But after that if we have a dominance like Mercedes had after 2014 (which is the most common in F1 history, F1 was made of periods of dominance of a make) the bubble will burst and minnow teams will sink.

[bugylibicska]

Mar.9. Miami, Florida: O'Malley - Vera, Poirier - St.Denis, Page - Holland, Burns - Della Maddalena, Yan - Song, Almeida - Blaydes, Gamrot - dos Anjos - very strong card

O'Malley beat Vera in all 5 rounds badly and won with unanimous decision, frankly it was an ugly fight, Vera shoudn't deserve a title fight, it was a strange decision to promote fan favourite O'Malley, Poirier knocked out St.Denis in the 2nd round after lost the 1st one and a mighty scare, Page beat Holland with unanimous decision in another ugly fight, Della Maddalena won by KO/TKO in the 3rd round against Burns in a tough, tight fight, Yan also won with an unanimous decision against Song, all 3 judges seen him winning by 29:28, Blaydes knocked out Almeida in the 2nd round after a grappling 1st round, Gamrot beat Do Anjos by unanimous decision.
Robelis Despaigne the Cuban heavyweight had his 1st fight after much hype, he knocked out 3 opponents in 19 seconds all together, so he "disappointed" a bit, it took him 18 seconds to knock out Josh Parisian.

[amenina]

Meet the Futsal Champions League finalists: Barça, Benfica, Palma, Sporting CP

https://www.uefa.com/uefafutsalchampion ... finalists/

Four past winners will go head to head in the UEFA Futsal Champions League finals at Demirchyan Arena SCC in Yerevan, Armenia on 3 and 5 May.

Holders Mallorca Palma Futsal, who lifted the trophy on debut last season, will be joined by Sporting CP, who missed out on a third title in the 2023 final, four-time champions Barça and 2010 victors Benfica.

The finals draw was made on Thursday 14 March in the Red Hall of Demirchyan Arena SCC, setting the knockout ties.

Finals schedule

Friday 3 May

Semi-finals:
Benfica vs Mallorca Palma Futsal (16:00)
Barça vs Sporting CP (19:00)

Sunday 5 May

Third-place play-off:
Barça / Sporting CP vs Benfica / Palma (15:00)
Final:
Barça / Sporting CP vs Benfica / Palma (18:00)

All time CET, local time is two hours ahead.

[Lorric]

This England U20 team is absolutely immense. They ended up 21-5 down but fought their way back to level at 31-31, then powered ahead to an epic 31-45 win and the U20 Six Nations title!

Looking forward to the U20 World Cup!

[Lorric]

Btw, speaking of the U20 World Cup, you may remember that Scotland got relegated for the first time ever last year. Surprisingly, they failed to win the U20 Trophy, getting knocked out by Uruguay. Uruguay didn't win it either, as they lost the final to Spain, who are in the World Cup for the first time ever.

Fortunately for Scotland, they've been spared the ignominy of having to win the Rugby Europe U20 tournament just to qualify for the Trophy this year as they're hosting it. Europe could potentially fill up a lot of the 12 slots in the World Cup next year, as if Scotland (or Netherlands) win, and a European team isn't relegated, all the Six Nations plus Georgia and Spain would take 8 of the 12 spots! I imagine chances are Spain go straight back down though.

Scotland lost all five U20 Six Nations games.

World Cup starts June 29th.

[Lorric]

Lions these lads.

[matt]

Two wins and a draw (could have easily been three wins) for Italy in Six Nations. Crazy.

[seso]

Terrible results by Wales in the first 5 matches...