Author: Laura Bustamante

Ferrari SF1000

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Hoping Ferrari has learned from past seasons mistakes, the team unveiled its fighter for this year. Being the first car to be released or shown to public, it got much attention and the event was diverse as well.

With 2020 being a transition season, the SF1000 has to please Tifosi and make sure carrying “1000” is an honor and not a burden. The team is celebrating its 1000 Grand Prix in the Canada GP.

The car has some “horns” surrounding the inlet area and would be a safe assumption to straight-guide airflow to the rear wing.

Also the nose is very different from what Mercedes is showing this season for example and even though it follows same old concept, it seems to inspire the Red Bull nose. The front end shows an overall wing that flushes out to the sides and minimizes the tyre coverage showing a more naked tyre than what Mercedes is attempting. The endplates are straight and not curved outwards the wheel which could let to some unnecessary flow straight to the outer side of the wheel, not really desirable aerodynamically. S-duct has been kept.

It has been mentioned the elements under the nose as vanes to play more with the air under the car and push it through the barge boards. What I find suitable and an area yet to explode is the suspension. Suspension arms in the car seemed to be taken care of during the development phase at Maranello and even if they managed to keep the frontal area of those, the flat surface is reacting much better to the upcoming airflow than the old suspension arms, also they seem to have a profile.

By the barge board area, the over complicated design has taken over again adding elements to work with the wake of the front wheels and guide it more streamlined (if possible) to the sidepods

There are plates channeling near the sidepods and the top plate ends with the tip lifted upwards. The airflow would avoid the rear wheels and create behind this tip some turbulence for the car behind, assuming the main objective is to avoid as much as possible air hitting straight on the rear wheel.

Overall, the car has a pronounced rake and it will be a challenge to predict how Ferrari will handle this change of setup on the upcoming tests. By looking at the side the shark fin has become much larger showing teams are in general exploiting the regulation’s flexibility regarding the dark back areas. Rear wing does not seem to have a big change this season but of course, this part, as many parts of the car will be changed and tuned during the first week of winter testing when a better analysis can be produced.

F1 is slowly coming back

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Last year was meant to be a more active blog-year, however it seems the activity was not meeting my initiative goals. I pretent this year to be more on the move regarding F1 and some surrounding info on what I do or where I travel.

Some updates then before I start posting more interesting topics. Coronavirus outbreak has lead for F1 be suspended in China. The GP for now is pushed to the end of the calendar and it is a big unknown on how this will be handled. Russian GP was proposed to be swapped but then there would be little time for people to get the tickets, therefore this idea was discarded. China GP was meant to be held April 17-19 as the fourth race on the calendar, just after the new Vietnamese GP. Being China out of the calendar (for now) would mean a very rough drought of a month without Formula One; from April 5th to May 3rd when the Dutch GP comes back. Looks very uneven distribution taking into account later this year, races are back to back, weekend after weekend.

This week is launching week. Ferrari started the week on Tuesday, launching the SF1000. Red Bull and Renault followed on Wednesday and Today was Mclaren turn. Some expectations are set on Williams, trying to see if they will manage to put their car on time and if they will be ready to start testing weeks. Also Haas unveiled a new livery to be shown only hours before testing week. Mercedes is closing up the week, tomorrow Friday 14th.

Since 2021 is the beginning of a new era with a hard change on regulations, 2020 is more of a buffering season with less changes than what we anticipated (Pirelli tyres are remaining just as previous season). Some aero updates are expected, some more interesting than others and that is the analysis to be followed on these next days.

Freedom and its price

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I am getting back. It was a process, it still is, but now I want to document it.

Recently I got through a break up. For most, even for myself, the idea of rejection from a loved one is very painful. I stood for harder heartbreaks in the past, however this time I wanted to make it in the right way.

Heartbreak can be a door to endless suffering and depression, but it can also be a door to self discovery and enlightenment. I chose the latter and I knew my only ally was time.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t rallying for all my friends to trash you or telling them the story for the 15786th time, or regretting everything or blaming you. But what I was about to do was for me, to not get any resentment from this relationship, to not build walls anymore, but to build better roots. You were a lesson, I just needed to understand how.

During the first days and weeks, I was crying. This hard feeling of not holding it anymore, knowing I blew it up, knowing you blew it up, knowing my life has changed in your absence and me not being able to control it. Anxiety was there from early in the morning, missing sleeping with you, to getting to work and not talking with you, to finishing work and contemplate how empty my life was before you, and how I got back to it.

I chose to apply my previous medicine: meditation, travel and exercise. For the first one, I started to meditate every day in the morning. At the beginning was hard, I was scared of being alone with my head. I was thinking and replaying our trip so much, every line you said, how I reacted, what we did wrong, how it ended. Stories crowded my head and feelings were so sad and deep, desperation and anxiety of me feeling not worthy, me feeling abandoned, and above all, me being powerless to do something about it.

About travel, I got so enraged how you ruined my holidays. I couldn’t get away no more. I was just coming back from a trip.

And about going to the gym, I just couldn’t. I mean, I tried it, but I didn’t have any will. I wanted to drown myself in Oreos and pizza. And so I did.

Then I decided to let it happen. I started to understand and read about it. There was only one way out of this: go through it. I couldn’t push it away, I couldn’t get away from it; but then where was the healthy line? Should I keep thinking about it all the time? getting depressed with cry out bursts all day? was it healthy at all?

For the next week I started to allow things to be as they are. If I felt like crying waiting for the bus, I cried. If I got enraged in the middle of my work I would go to the toilet to close my fists real hard and cry in rage. I started to tolerate myself for not understanding my feelings, sometimes it was so chaotic and sometimes it felt ok. There were days I felt I was over it, and then I noticed how I miss you drinking coffee or spritz and again I would cry. It was ok.

Then I started to get in touch with these feelings, I mean, they were chaotic and mixed up but I needed to sit with them. I needed solitude to know what I was facing. So during my meditation and during the days, whenever I had a rush of feelings, I wouldn’t brush it off, I started to stay in it, not running away no matter what. I started to dig deeper even if it meant replaying the whole story again. I faced the demons, I sat there putting my guard down, getting all the low confidence in the world and put myself to work.

Then I discovered that I was mostly sad. Beneath all, I had this huge feeling of sadness of not having you around. I felt disappointed at myself for not being enough, for not keeping you interested. I felt angry at how you treated me, how you didn’t keep your word, how you let me down. Angry at myself on how I let it happen.

And at this exact point I dropped the story.

Once I reached this, I stopped thinking about what happened, more about how I felt. I dropped what you said, what I did, and if it popped up, I would just note it and say to myself “this won’t bring any good” and let it go. You see, it doesn’t matter if I got any explanations on why you stranded away, or any conclusions on why we ended like this…you were gone. No matter the story, this was over and as hard it was to do, I needed to learn from it and move on. LEARN FROM IT

Opening to the darkness by not attacking my problems, somehow made me feel free. I started to see my sensations, how my shame, grief and anger would express in my body, the way my face would contract before tears or my back curved when ashamed. So if I could see my feelings, I could contain my state of mind, I wasn’t all over the place anymore. I could dialogue with them and reach an agreement.

To all this I have to add I started dating again. I searched any match in Tinder, to go out, have a beer, maybe kiss. What happened in the middle was that every guy when gone, didn’t match you. I mean, I started to miss you in all your qualities, to appreciate all the good you had, from washing your hands to asking the right questions. You weren’t all a monster and a liar, you were also the good you.

I decided this was a phase that needed to end. It helped me to appreciate you, to make peace with you, but I didn’t want to push it so that I miss you so much I go back to you. I understood in myself that I don’t need to force things, that with you we clicked in a way and sex is such an easy thing to get nowadays that basically everything that comes so easy it is just not worth it. I passed.

Starting to understand the separation, no one was to blame. I had a hard mirror on myself and a lot of blame to your faults. But maybe it was just that. It wasn’t a big conspiracy against my happiness, it was just 2 people drifting away on their own needs of love and the tools to show it.

Yes, you have in my book a list of all the things I see bad in you. But what was hard to admit wasn’t that. It was that you fell out of love, you moved away to a complete different world where I was not there. Not that I wasn’t enough (even though thoughts like this still crawl back in), or that I was too much (I have those too), none was valid.

In that way, I started to forgive you, and what’s the best…to be truthfully kind to you. Maybe my projection of you failed me, maybe your projection of me failed you. I wish I could have loved you as you were, but trust me that your ways of being, weren’t embracing me in my needs or my authenticity. And not because of that I was wrong needing you, or you rejecting me. We were just different. I stood up for what I am, sadly you didn’t follow.

I now have faith in basic goodness. I feel complete and happy inside my grief, I care for you in my longing and I am erasing all my resentment. You are gone, and all the particles you left are here to build me. I took myself in with all my boredom, passion, remorse, sadness and anger. I realized I can’t strategize love but I can reach myself in my curiosity and willingness to feel. How could I be kind to you if I wasn’t kind to myself first?

I am not missing you, I’m missing the connection and the intimacy. But guess what? Connections are everywhere. And somehow, somewhere, love like that will find me again. I will be ready, I will not have traumas. You were a great teacher, and I deeply thank you for all I went through with you. I wish you the happiness you search for along the way, I hope you get to grow as a person as you envision and in your whole unique way of being, I wish you well.

It’s a good time to let go my dear one, it’s time to be free.

Tyres in F1

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I entered Formula One when 2 manufacturers were on board: Bridgestone and Michellin. Of course, being 13 years old by the time I was absolutely clueless on how tyres work, blistering, deformation, compounds, etc. When Indianapolis 2005 fiasco came in, I only knew Michellin didn’t have enough supplies to let teams run the race and so only 6 cars ran that sunday.

Now, this year I am trying to understand more and more of the sport and couple of weeks ago I was puzzled by the tyres. I know aerodynamically wheels are a big question mark and understanding them is a separate whole new world, even in CFD. However, if so in the future I will be trying to cover this aspect, now I want to focus on the sport and the choice of tyres itself. Shanghai is coming along and some time back, they compounds available for the race became known to the public. Then, when do they release the info? How do teams choose? which tyres go on qualy, which go on race? how many sets and how weather conditions affect the choice of tyres? I’d like to uncloud myself and write down useful clarifications.

Slick tyres are around since 2009 and Michellin, Bridgestone withdrew from F1 by 2010 (Michellin did it by 2007) Pirelli was then picked as the sole tyre supplier. 4 dry compounds were distinguished by colors: Hard-Silver, Medium-White, Soft-Yellow, Super soft-Red; followed by a Intermediate-Blue and Wet-Orange. All drivers making it to Q3 should keep their set of tyres used in Q3 lap to the start of the race.

2016: Drivers get 13 set of tyres each. 2 of those are allocated for the race, 1 set only for Q3. Compounds now are 5 for dry conditions adding the purple Ultrasoft. Pirelli as until now (2019 season) makes 3 of those compounds available prior each race. How they choose them? Will be covered below. Each driver can pick their own combination for the rest 10 sets of tyres as long as they choose from the pool of the 3 compounds Pirelli announced as available. Choices should be places 8 weeks before each european race and 14 weeks before other around-the-world races. When does Pirelli announces their pool? 9 weeks prior euro races, 15 weeks prior non-euro races. That means drivers get 1 week to choose since they get to know the compounds available.

The only set allocated for Q3 will be the softest compound available. The other 2 sets for the race are chosen by Pirelli and at least one must be used. Drivers who make it to Q3 should return the set they used in the qualifying session and start the race with the compound that gave them the fastest lap in Q2.

How do drivers then allocate their own tyres? The rest of the 10 sets will be used for the whole weekend. 3 Free Practices, 3 Qualifying sessions and the race. So when a driver finishes using one set, it cannot be reused and tyres will be returned at specific times.
-One set at 40min of FP1
-One set at the end of FP1
-Two sets at the end of FP2
-Two sets at the end of FP3
This leaves with 4 sets of tyres (driver’s choice), 1 set for Q3, 2 sets for race (Pirelli’s choice, at least one to be used), all those for Q1, Q2, Q3 and the race itself. The Q3 set is tricky, if the driver goes into Q3, he must use it and THEN return it, starting the race with the compound that gave him the fastest lap in Q2; however drivers not making it to Q3 can start the race with whichever compound they want, even the Q3 set that is now available.

In case of rain: drivers don’t have to use any of the mandatory race dry tyres. If race starts on a wet track, top 10 drivers don’t need to start with their Q2 set.

2018: Same as 2016 but now the range of compounds is wider. Hypersoft, ultrasoft, supersoft, soft, medium, hard, superhard. Yeah, right. Each still with its own color. Also, the 3 compounds chosen are not necessarily adjacent and one level can be skipped. Meaning “Ultrasoft-supersoft- medium” is a valid choice.

2019: Back to 5 compounds and only 3 colors per race. White is hard, yellow is medium and soft is red. Compounds are named from C1 to C5, C5 is the softest. Wet intermediate is green and evacuates 30L of water per second at 300kph. Full wet blue tyres evacuate 65L of water per second at full speed.

Now, how does Pirelli choose the compounds? Mostly the track demands and the environment (weather) are the main factors. If a circuit has a lot of high speed turns more energy will go to the tyres. The tyres (less pressed against the asphalt) because downforce will be tuned to be less to not compromise drag will gain more temperature easily, therefore harder tyres would be better.
If the circuit has a lot of straights, straights usually allow tyres to cool down, a softer compound could be needed. If the circuit has close turns or corners, less energy will go into the tyres, more grip is needed so a softer compound will be preferred.

As for the asphalt, Pirelli would look on the roughness of the track. If there is a lot of stones in the mixture of asphalt, that means the track is very grippy but damaging more the tyres. A new track or asphalt is always pointy and not even, making it more aggresive, it has more oils in the surface making it more sensitive to temperature changes and if conditions are hot the oils resurface making it more slippery. An old track is much more slick meaning there is not much grip. On the other hand, microroughness is analyzed by looking at the texture of the asphalt itself and matching it to the direct contact element: the rubber of tyre.

As for the weather, it is good to know if it’s going to rain or not (obviously), if it’s too hot or cold, if it’s dusty or sandy, if it’s a straight circuit, the time of the day at which the race will be held.

A trick then:

-Slow corners – Soft tyres
-Low tyre energy – Soft tyres
-Slow average speed – Soft tyres
-Temporary city track (is more worn) – Soft tyres

-Abrasive surface – Hard tyres
-Heavy braking – Hard tyres
-Medium/fast corners – Hard tyres
-High tyre energy – Hard tyres
-High temperatures – Hard tyres

With all this info, track and tyres for Shanghai:

If I learned this right…2 high speed straights, slow corners with a medium fast section, it looks more of a soft compound choice

😦 Pirelli chose a more medium approach compared to 2018 with Ultras-Soft and Mediums

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Mid field looks safe and similar on proportion of tyre sets, however in the front runners there is a subtle play. Hamilton and Leclerc with only one set of hardest compound, I’d imagine the risk of having only one set of hards for a dominant straight circuit as China’s is high.

And that’s the entry for today!

Some links

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Since this blog has a bit of everything and it also helps me to keep track of my usual things and remind me of my chase, here are some YouTube channels that I enthusiastically watch, most of them related to F1 however some are cars in general or aero in general.

Technical questions and a good overview on regulations: https://www.youtube.com/user/chainbearf1

Best channel for F1 right here below:

https://www.youtube.com/user/AUTOSPORTdotcom

Of course: https://www.youtube.com/user/Formula1

Ferrari here! https://www.youtube.com/user/ferrariworld

Great work by Mercedes explaining the behind the scenes: https://www.youtube.com/user/MERCEDESAMGPETRONAS

F1 blog https://www.youtube.com/user/seanculli

My great source of fun WTF1!!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDxm-FbK9nmZKqHI19j-DOw

Aero channels, well Kyle has to be here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh3tzzP6n5b1EWcMUpiEhXg

And also Jason has some videos related but in general it’s a bible there:

https://www.youtube.com/user/EngineeringExplained

The Boys from Brazil

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Movie from 1978 with Gregory Peck and Lawrence Olivier, behind great names, a supporting early role from Bruno Ganz himself.

The movie based on a novel from Ira Levin, tells a story of a post WWII nazi hunter who goes to find an intricate plan from Josef Mengele to bring back the glory of the Third Reich.

Parts I enjoyed the most are the views of Vienna, which I hope to come back to again, and Bruno Ganz with 37 years old. I recently watched Ganz last performance in the last von Trier movie which I can write later about. Ganz there plays a magnificent role, the appearances are few but the references and the meaning of his role are key to the movie. Old, walking slow, the downhill of life. And just watching this movie, he was starting his name in Hollywood cinema. It’s amazing, or shocking how movie makes you eternal. You as a viewer can kill, bring back to life or see a thousand deaths of the actor you’d like. We are holders of their legacy, what they were behind those lines and can in some way navigate through time. The magic of movies, I guess.

Coming back to the movie. I feel all movies or the general quality of films back then (up to 1980’s) was high and among those I would rate the movie low score. I feel the story was weak, I haven’t read the book, but reading about it looks like movie didn’t miss anything. Weak as too much fiction? or maybe they tried too much that became cheap plot. Rating in the 1970’s scale is like rating a Marvel movie nowadays, entertaining but doesn’t go much further than that. But if I have to rate it in the great scale of movies from all decades considering now we have Adam Sandler movies dropping the average; then easily I rate it with 7,2.

(For those who don’t know me, I seldom watch movies/series rated lower than 7 in ImdB)

Gregory Peck in his Mengele role, tons of make up there but always a pleasure to watch him. Believable, strong, concise, maybe less sadistic of what I picture of Mengele. Olivier, sorry, but so far I don’t see why he is so important in the western film culture, I rather watch him in Marathon Man; better acting quality.

Overall score: 7,2

Highlights of the week

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It’s been a very tough week and even though I wanted to get some time off to write here, I used it just to switch off and rest. A very draining week has passed but I expect to catch up in the following days with some new entries.

Tomorrow is Bahrein GP and there is a big wall in the paddock saying 999th GP Countdown to 1000. I am super thrilled! Next GP is in China and well, yes, I will be there ❤ ❤ I will be able to tell I was in the 1000th GP.

Shanghai is hosting it from 12 to 14th April and I expect to get a good good show there.

This year is the year I have most closely followed F1 and it is maybe because I am more focused on the technical side and I understand better how hard is the sport, making me more of a fan. Today was Bahrein qualy and Leclerc got the first pole of his career and beat track record. Previous track record was from Vettel at 1:27:958, Leclerc shockingly made the same time for the first qualy lap on the 3rd part. How on earth can you get the same exact time?!?!?! Later, though, he beat his own time and got it faster at 1:27:866. Vettel, Hamilton and Bottas following the quite normal 2 front rows by now. Verstappen 5th, another expected outcome. Normally Red Bull follows but since Ricciardo is not there anymore and Gasly is having a hard time to get used to the car, I think Red Bull counts as 1 car for now.

Midfield, something not usually seen by the common eye, Haas had a really great qualifying with Magnussen 6th and Grosjean 8th, only separated by Carlos Sainz in 7th with the first of the Mclaren’s in the 10 first places, Norris getting P10. Raikkonen P9.

Quite cool mix up and for 2 races so far, and it’s very interesting to see results engine-wise. Teams getting Renault engine are, of course Renault and Mclaren (after a rocky situation with Honda last year). Honda having Red Bull and Toro Rosso on its side. Now, between Renault and Mclaren…looks like Mclaren has improved a lot already but not by switching the engine; perhaps Alonso might rethink his retirement and stop criticizing engines for a while?; Renault team is nowhere to be seen. On the other side, Red Bull with Honda has Verstappen high up in qualifying with a podium in Melbourne, but Toro Rosso is lost.
Red Bull is having a good driver and more effective aero than its lower branch Toro Rosso, maybe that is the only difference. Because reliability on Honda engines are not so strong even though hugs and smiles are down the podium. But then, why Renault is behind? I suppose most of the questions will be answered with more races to settle down the theories.

It was a great satisfaction to see Ferrari on top, and put away doubts and fears of them repeating Melbourne fiasco. Finally, Barcelona winter testing is proving to be right and Wolff was very serious by the end to today’s session. By neumatics choice, Mercedes is not that far behind, with soft compounds difference is not abismal, but still, strategy and engines will tell the truth tomorrow.

I am looking more on aero and to find an answer on the different approaches taken this season. Very inconclusive so far. Raikkonnen getting a P9 shows nothing and since the sport is very multidimensional, it’s very difficult to judge one performance based on one type of engineering. I do hope to write more conclusive stuff on this.

Kubica and Russell, yeah…just leave as not even getting Head out of retirement will fix this mess.

Another short thing. I started to listen to the F1 podcast (I got to know about its existence this week, terribly sad and ashamed of that). And Hamilton is on the first episode. Each podcast is around 50 min and I was very surprised to have an insight of Hamilton that went so in contrast of my opinion on him. I listened the converstation, fluid, personal, variety of topics. I liked it, I liked him, yes he has a crazy side of having his bulldog as a model…but also more mature now, has a better understanding of himself and I quite share many opinions he has. A bit I really liked and stucked in me:

“I really do truly believe that somehow you can manifest certain things that you either envision or you dream”

Lewis Hamilton

And I agree. It is true that we become somehow what we think of ourselves, at least in one tiny part. For me, that I am not a professional F1 driver making millions a year, I did dream of working at aerodynamics, I did dream of getting to F1 and I don’t know how, things just unveil themselves. We do become what we really want and that’s an amazing thing. Could be destiny, could be determination. But there is an unspeakable force out there; sorry, not out there but INSIDE us, that forge us.

I recommend the podcast. Can be found in many places but I give here the link to it via Spotify:

Marathon man

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A week ago I got the suggestion from my father to get Marathon man checked by the end of the week. Here’s some review.

Movie is from 1976. ImdB can provide more data about the movie and cast.

Coming to think about it, 1970’s were hell of a decade for cinema in general, the reinvention of story telling and new ways of filming. Directed by John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy), comes with Dustin Hoffman and Lawrence Olivier.

Personally, I have a formed opinion of Dustin Hoffman playing it too quirky and that he seems to be a cocky person (by the way he acts looks like he is not trying to engage with other actors, but to surpass them, the movie is him). However, looking at him here, he is young, fit, running marathon man: refreshing. His performance and how he is able to express feelings to the viewer without many times words for them, brings satisfaction. Maybe Harrison Ford could have fit the role as well, but Hoffman goes out of his usual acting and brings this refreshing protagonist.

Lawrence Olivier, to my ignorance that I heard the name several times but never seen a movie with him, plays the counter part.

I was very impressed and delightfully happy to discover many extreme scenes without the use of bad words. Right now, even when characters bump on a piece of furniture you hear 3 or 4 curse words, easily. Back then, people had this world of gestures and other creative insults. Also I liked very very very much how suspense was built up and handled. For example, the earlier running scene, with the sequence and the movement of the camera, the unexpected changes, the cringe of strangers invading personal space and personal marks, and Hoffman running, just running in desperation almost, perfect.

Another scene I must give the props to, the dentist scene. No spoilers here but what a pure and raw cringe. No need to show more than necessary, movies back then trusted the viewer and cultivated the imagination of them to build what they thought was essencial. No revelations, no blood, not even a first plane or focus, the scene gets blurred leaving all to imagination.

All this successful management of suspense gets a climax in the ending, with the diamonds scene. Even though I expected the fulfillment of the punishment, it was rewarding to see someone tasting of their own medicine. A good look on how people swallowed pure gold necklaces to save them, and the comparison of Olivier swallowing his future. Finally to end his life by what he had done all the years, dying for what he was, what he used to do and the weapons he carried. No one but himself did this and he was his own punisher.

I don’t understand the nomination of Olivier for supporting actor. I am not saying the performance was weak. I just think it wasn’t long enough. It wasn’t displayed enough. It felt as a comparison of nominating someone for just a cameo. Of course, general opinion might not be it, but I felt it lacked a longer foundation.

Overall: 8,0

Love, Death & Robots

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I recently finished the last episode in this miniseries. It’s on Netflix and I came to it because of some post in 9gag about it, so I decided to check it out. Little did I know that I was about to enter a very satisfying collection of stories.

This series has 18 episodes, almost all of them if not all are 10 to 15 min long. As I read it from Wikipedia, it was released on March 15th, I watched it March 17th till this morning, not that bad. It’s produced by David Fincher and Tim Miller mostly; I can relate the OST to Fincher and some of the distopic scenarios displayed (The Social Network and House of Cards). Don’t know if actually Reznor was involved in the project but it definetely has some hints of it.

Series shows each episode as a complete independent story and all of them are animation shorts with dark scripts, terror and futuristic worlds.

In an era with increasing influence of AI, humanity is inclined to perceive highly the nature and not the overconnected world we currently live in and appears to be getting worse. Therefore this set arrives in a way to question reality and to push limits of imagination and the dangers that come with it. I could call it an animated version of Black Mirror.

Also, from the very first episode I was hooked by the quality of the animation and the cgi, the amount of effort and how advanced is the technology to have such terrific renderings and fluid movements. Astonished. It is a good portafolio of the main studios that carried the episodes and I am not sure if this was an attempt to showcase the best of the best with a commercial end, but it was very good to leave me breathless and taking hats off every time with those.

To not go through all the episodes, I have my own ranking and goes like:

1- The secret war (that fight scene!!! are you serious?)
2- Beyond the Aquila Rift (the graphics and the story behind. Maybe it’s a bit redundant on how many times the simulation topic was touched this century but gives chills and I loved it)
3- Helping Hand (For the true feeling of disgust and shivers it produced and also because I have a fixation on space stories that go wrong)
4- The Witness (great twist, very psychological)
5- Sonny’s edge (music-wise perfect and great animation as well, not very impacting story)
6- Zima Blue (I could move it higher up, I like the subtle hint of Sartre and existentialism. I’d like to apply it more to my daily life)
7- Lucky number 13
8- Good Hunting (because I feel there are fights one needs to take)
9- Sucker of Souls
10- Fish Night (lovely, it’s poetic and perspire freedom and magic realism)
11- Three Robots
12- The Dump
13- Shape Shifters
14- Blindspot
15- Suits
16- Ice Age (I don’t like Topher Grace but I love That 70’s show)
17- When The Yogurt Took Over (could be less of a dystopia now that we live on the eco vegan age)
18- Alternate Histories (lazy af, good that Secret war was just next to it to renew hopes and leave it high)

Overall rating: 9,3

I know it’s a bit too high but I feel so sad I finished it already. Good investment of time and good job Netflix, clap clap