caprifiles

Hinchcliffe: (...) He did that Max thing that we've come to know him capable of doing. By getting in front of the Ferraris by keeping them behind him which was incredible when he lost out to Lewis in the pit cycle with the undercut to actually get that move done on track and then keep him behind again. That was a remarkable drive and you could tell it took a lot out of him. That was not an easy day.

Clarkson: What did you make of that move on Hamilton?

Hinchcliffe: (...) it was just so beautifully done. It was completely controlled. No lock up. I mean, it was incredible. And that's against Hamilton who had been dominant on the brakes, the big brake zones here this weekend in turn 1 and turn 12. That's where he was making up a majority of his lap time. So against the strongest guy on the brakes this weekend, he pulled off that move in a car that you can't argue was in the same league as the Ferrari.

Clarkson: Tell me more about the Max factor, right? Is it just consistency or is there more to it than that? Is it an ability to read the race better than the people around you on the racetrack?

Hinchcliffe: It's an ability to read the race. It's a situational awareness. It's an ability to adapt to the car. He came on the radio on lap 5 or something and said, "I think the damping's gone. Like I think the dampers are broken." And he just drives through it. Like whatever was wrong with the car, he finds a way to drive around it. It's a very difficult skill for a driver. You know, it's one that people talk about, oh yeah, this so and so driver is very good at, if it's got a bit of understeer, they can still drive it. A bit of oversteer, they can still drive it. You know, we know Max hates understeer, but when there's even just a more fundamental flaw with the car, he's still going to get everything and then some out of the package. And it's not something that you see. I think the consistency is in how he can do that, when the car is, especially when it's below average, how he's still able consistently to put it up further up the grid than it should be and finishing further in the races than it should.

Clarkson: And GP, his race engineer was glowing in his praise over the radio on the slowdown lap. And he's not like that after every podium, is he?

Hinchcliffe: It's like I said, I mean, when Max came to parc fermé, he was like legitimately happy to be there, which he never is unless he's winning. So, I think the whole team there, the– we've had a horrible weekend, right? both drivers spun in qualifying. Max has been complaining, like we said, upshifts, downshifts, areo balance, whatever. So, they were kind of just in a survival mode, it felt like, and then all of a sudden, they're in the fight for a podium spot.

Clarkson: 3 podiums in the last four races. So, when you look at on paper, you'd think, oh, Red Bull are making progress, but then you actually look at the gaps and you look at where they are relative to McLaren this weekend and then it doesn't tell the full story, does it?

you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.

first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.

now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:

in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.

and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.

and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.

it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:

• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.

• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.

• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.

• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.

• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.

• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.

and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.

what i'm asking:

if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.

if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.

india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.

we can still save her. but only loudly.