Katsuya

Yeah, I was really not sure about it, but honestly it's remarkably fun. The only weird thing is how there's a massive jump up from the regular trainers to the gym leaders - which I guess makes the point of how strong they are, but it almost caught me out with Brock.

Watching FP2 and this is looking like a crazy weekend. Red Bull are a second quicker than everyone else, and Renault look like the best of the rest.

Speak of the devil: Albon looks set for the Toro Rosso drive, which means the top 3 from F2 are probably going to be driving in F1 next year.

Vandoorne and Wehrlein have now both signed for Formula E teams (HWA / Mahindra respectively), which takes them out of the Toro Rosso speculation. RIght now, it looks like it's either Sirotkin, Hartley or Albon who will get that seat. Apparently it's now between Ocon + Kubica for the other Williams drive.

The "Ferrari are a shitshow" thinking is strong ATM, but spare a thought for McLaren, who forgot to submit their tyre choices. So whilst every other driver has at least 7 Supersoft tyres, Alonso and Vandoorne only have 4. They also have 4 sets of Medium tyres, and nobody else took more than 2.

...Max is ever so slightly pulling away from Hamilton here.

Well Q2 was all kinds of a farce. Also I forgot just how boring and ugly the Sochi circuit is. Must be up there with Valencia (and at least Valencia had one or two good moments in the years) in terms of a dull track.

Haas confirm K-Mag and Grisham for 2019. No surprise, given Romain has turned things around this season.

Stoffel is reported to have signed a deal with HWA/Mercedes to race for them in Formula E, which is probably a good step for him. Also, all reports suggest that Kvyat's return will be announced this weekend.

He's going to be Sauber's third driver for 2019, so it doesn't sound like he's got a drive at all right now.

Giovinazzi is confirmed for Sauber in 2019.

Mick just won his 5th race in a row, and Ticktum crashed out so he now has around a 43 point advantage in the standings. He's also on pole for the final race this weekend, and there's only 100 points left in the championship.

Slightly longer. I think we've got enough party ones to go around, just got Sushi Go Party recently which should be good for that.

What are some other good 5-6 player games? Got some friends coming over Saturday so was gonna get a new one in time for that.

Buemi and Alex Albon have been confirmed for Formula E drives with Nissan, which rules them out of the Toro Rosso seats.

Jumping Flash was my first console game ever, and therefore I'm the *most* excited for it.

New report suggests that Wehrlein and Kvyat are favourites for Toro Rosso next year, and Stoffel would move to being Ferrari's test driver.

Kimi says he found out at Monza he was being replaced, and made the deal with Sauber after that. Meanwhile, Giovanazzi has said Ferrari are possibly going to offer Sauber a reduced engine deal to help with getting him in the seat, and Ocon says that Williams are an option for him for 2019.

Kimi's going to Sauber for 2 years! EDIT: If the rumours of Kimi / Ferrari buying part of Sauber are true as well, I wonder if this might be the end of Ericsson?

Played Dominant Species at the weekend, and other than the fact I was terrible at it, I really enjoyed it. Haven't done a big game like that in aaaages.

I'd be surprised to see him at Toro Rosso too, and really don't think he should go there. Also, I dunno which of Merc/Ferrari will have him signed up already in theory, but I imagine there's something that will send him to one of them in the next couple of years anyway. If he steps up to GP2 and handles himself well there, then I could see him in the Sauber for 2020 or 2021 at the latest.

To fan the flames of the future; Mick Schumacher has won twice at the Nurburgring in F3 this weekend, and has moved up to 2nd in the championship. Huge turnaround over the last few months, he’s starting to show some real potential. EDIT: he went ahead and won the third race too, and is now only 3 points behind Ticktum in the standings. He’s also going to qualify for a super license if he stays in 2nd place in the standings come the end to the season...

...okay now they're just trolling us.

K-Mag is probably the closest example to Vandoorne, given that Perez was already very well regarded at least from the Sauber days. And honestly, Magnussen's only really come good this year - it says a lot that even Palmer was kind of matching him in the Renault at one stage, so McLaren might even have been justified in dropping him at that point.

I think Giovanazzi's an odd case in that he was never officially a Ferrari young driver like Leclerc and Bianchi; he just kind of fell in to the role after his GP2 season (and probably only had that shot because of what happened to Jules, unfortunately). So Ferrari don't have as much loyalty to him as some of the people in their camp, but I guess they'd rather lose Kvyat than him. Apparently Haas will likely retain Grosjean now after his last few strong weekends.