Outside Line: Remind me, what Grand Prix is next?

Formula 1 'Pimp in Chief' Stefano Domenicali knows he and his cabal broke it, the FIA know, fans know, everyone knows we are in a sh!thole with no flushing water. Some accept it as c'est la vie, others try to sell you something that isn't Formula 1 and others, like me, moan about it to keep reminding you all that this is fake.

In fact, I was quite pleased by the comments on an article I wrote, the letter to the drivers. A commenter came along and dropped his pearls of wisdom suggesting Formula 1 has left me behind. I would argue, I have left it behind. It's become a low IQ sport now.

Dear Paul,
You are utterly delusional. It is getting more obvious by the day that you must urgently change the sport. You have worked as a photographer for the bigger part of your life... Blah blah blah...
You are the face of the unhappy ageing white males who are afraid and cannot understand the change. and it is a big one. This F1 has nothing in common with the F1 from 20 years ago and absolutely nothing in common with the one from the time of the last drivers' strike. I get it – you were young, and now you are sad that you are not that young anymore. But the world changes. You, I, or anyone can dislike it; it won't stop... blah blah blah.

Spot on, DJM, with his observation in the comments you can read here>>>

The young presumptious 'genius' nailed it: "This F1 has nothing in common with the F1 from 20 years ago." Agreed! But only last year it had a whole lot more in common, if not better as I wrote, than two decaded ago, incomparable to the FOM-slop served today. Less than six months, from hero to zero.

Nevertheless, my mandate on this site is to report and provide my opinion about Formula 1. I must be honest with you; this Monday, when I chatted to our editor, Jad, for the first time after the weekend break, I couldn't even remember which Grand Prix was next.

Then he reminded me. He said I'd probably forgotten because it's Spa-Francorchamps, because he knows me. I'm a guy who remembers the good shit! and locks away the bad stuff. Really, I seldom try to remember bad incidents or events. But alas, there's nothing good to remember about this season so far in terms of racing.

The only thing that brings me joy is this collective of amazing race drivers we have on the grid, the best ever half-dozen in my opinion, making the most of the shitboxes. They are hiding the fact that these anti-racing cars are the worst idea in Formula 1 history. The most expensive and complex cars in Formula 1 history are an absolute joke.

So when this nouveau fan says to me that Formula 1 is no longer for me, I say, 'Yeah, well, perhaps.' But this isn't Formula 1. This is Formula Fuck Around.

With that in mind, it's hard to preview the glorious Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps because I believe it's going to be a shitshow of note, more so than Silverstone.

I mean, etched in my brain as much as any other newsworthy imagery that lingers in your head forever is Kimi Antonelli taking the sprint race lead from Lewis Hamilton down the fastest straight on that awesome Silverstone track. It was a sight to behold, as if Lewis had run out of fuel.

No! Hamilton ran out of electricity. And as Fernando Alonso says, the mighty Silverstone these days is just pockmarked with charging stations. It takes no skill to drive these Formula 1 cars because you're not even going fast enough for it to be the scary challenge it was of the past.

So, what is there to talk about ahead of Spa? Back to the championship. You've got the incredible story of Kimi Antonelli tearing up the script at Mercedes but now stumbling a bit.

George Russell is very much back in the hunt, and he needed a couple of good results. But the reality, from where I'm sitting, is that in his short time in Formula 1, Kimi is now as good as George, if not better. It just boggles the mind to think where the 19-year-old Italian is eventually going to end up.

So that duel, that tussle, remains in the spotlight because one of them will be world champion, no matter what happens, unless we have a 2007 scenario where the teammates deny each other.

But for now, apart from Ferrari, I don't see anyone building enough momentum to get anywhere near the two trailblazers this season. Not even Max Verstappen, who is sitting in an apparently fast-dissolving Red Bull team, is likely to wobble the Silver Arrows consistently. And he is going to hate his other home race in these cars.

More so with these crap cars, something will happen, as has happened too often with Mercedes, in a crucial title struggle between their lads. From bulletproof cars one year, a grid separated but less than a second, to what we have now. Four seconds between P1 and P22; too many teams way off the mark, with cars and packages they do not understand. Plus a slew of DNFs.

Roll on the next generation. The faster, the better. The sooner, the better. Because there's no fix for this. It's a rabbit hole with no exit on the other side.

I wish I could be writing "Cannot wait for Spa-Francorchamps. It's been too long. This break. We have three or four of the top teams with the best engines in the history of the sport. Modern V8s are insanely fast, as you can see, with top speeds approaching 370 kilometres per hour."

"A giant leap from two decades ago, when they tickled 360, and the race is going to be about slipstreaming, about big balls, about big brakes. In the end, the bravest and fastest of them all will sit at the top of the Spa podium." Dream on!

I can't write that because I don't know what's going to happen. I have no clue. Who's going to clip? Who's going to charge? Who's going to run out of battery? Who's going to get more battery? Who's going to get a boost? Who's going to harvest? Blah, blah blah.

All bullshit. These moronic Formula 1 cars are going to go slower than they've ever gone before, apparently, at Spa-Francorchamps. So let's see.

Finally, I put it out there: I'm prepared to pay money to a writer or contributor or correspondent who has receipts, and can come onto our platform and report positive news about Formula 1, with this insane 2026 rules scenario as a backdrop, because I can't.

Sure, I'll go through the motions for Spa-Francorchamps. At the same time, I'll be looking at my calendar to see when 2028 is going to arrive because, seriously, this isn't what I signed up for back in 1973. And I'm really glad the people in the comments understand that.

This Formula 1 is not for me. The sooner they kill this regs package the better for our sport, trust me.