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dear-ao3 · 6 months ago

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abu dhabi part 3: still december 31, 2024.

lets get onto the race

day of the race, lewis hamilton showed up in yet another red outfit. making his looks for the weekend all red white and….vaguely lesbian flag ???

(nico rosberg would later say that he should have worn silver this weekend because it was about mercedes and ferrari was next year. nico was also wearing silver. though it looked suspiciously like the color of his super hyper car thing he had made with his merc engine that has the silver ferrari paint color on it. the narratives. they write themselves.)

in any case. it was time. time for the race.

they all lined up:

Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri

Carlos Sainz

Max Verstappen

Pierre Gasly

George Russell

Nico Hulkenberg

Fernando Alonso

Valtteri Bottas

Sergio Perez

Yuki Tsnuoda

Liam Lawson

Lance Stroll

Kevin Magnussen

Zhou Guanyu

Lewis Hamilton

Jack Doohan

Alex Albon

Charles Leclerc

Franco Colapinto

alex and franco both had 5 place grid penalties for extra components, charles had a ten place for the energy thing and nico had a three from the pitlane overtaking.

but.

mclaren needed to stop carlos from getting between them because that would stop their drs train to victory.

and don't count max out of this one because in the words of martin brundle “max verstappen will be a menace because he realizes with no championship on the line, he just wants to win the race.”

“thank you guys, thank you for this many races,” franco said over the radio. “you have made my dream come true”

“thank you sauber, thank you ferrari,” valtteri said. “lets do it”

because remember, valtteri, zhou, kevin, franco, maybe checo and maybe even liam are having their last race tonight.

“i cant even imagine the feelings in that mclaren garage tonight. since 1998 [the last time they won],” crofty said. “cher was top of the charts…lando and oscar werent even born.”

and for the last time in 2024.

ITS LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO

and immediately. max and oscar crashed.

“that was just super unlucky,” max said. “i was all the way up the inside before the crash”

meanwhile….oscar said something else Entirely. “yep. move of a world champion that one,” he said in the same manner he says everything.

however, this was aggressively Not what mclaren needed. oscar was now effectively knocked to the back of the grid. meaning that lando. lando needed to win the race now for mclaren to win the constructors title. and he had carlos hot on his tail.

but that was not it for red bull, because checo also managed to get into a kerfuffle off the starting line.

he had gone spin after an incident with bottas.

and charles, meanwhile, was somehow already up to p12 from p19. i have no idea how, man is insane.

and when the virtual safety car came out after checo DNFd from the race, we had the following order:

lando, carlos, pierre, george, nico, fernando, kevin, charles, lance, liam, max, lewis, valtteri, guanyu, alex, jack, yuki, franco, and oscar

charles was up 11 places.

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oscar had lost 17.

kevin had gained 7 places. and lewis was up to 12th place.

the vsc came in and the race continued.

on lap 4 oscar, who was already having a bad day, managed to bonk franco.

“i have a puncture!” franco lamented over the radio.

meanwhile bottas had been noted for causing a collision and lando was already three seconds ahead of carlos, head down foot on the accelerator style.

oscar boxed. he came out 18th.

mclaren was also trying to get max a penalty, you know for his lap 1 stunt.

he ended up getting a 10 second penalty.

someone was celebrating though and that someone was charles.

‘we are p8” he was told over the radio.

“wow!” he said.

bottas got a 10 second penalty for his collision he caused with checo.

and charles moved up to 7th.

perhaps ferrari could just win after all.

“piastri now needs the drive of his life to get back into the top ten,” martin said.

oscar probably knew this though. so when he was told over the radio that “verstappen has been given a 10 second penalty,” over the radio all he said was “good.”

“and here’s even worse news now for oscar piastri,” crofty said. “a ten second penalty.” for his crash with franco. things were going from bad to worse for mclaren. now lando had no choice but to win the race. or else the constructors title would go to ferrari.

and to make things worse, charles was up to 6th.

pierre, in case you were wondering, was hanging out in third still, and george was failing to pass kevin magnussen as he had been since the beginning

and the alpine mechanics in the garage were…massage gunning eachother???

charles was now up to fifth, but he was also on his third track limits strike.

and lewis, who had also been having a proper master class, started to fall apart on lap 13. “ive got no pace mate!” he said. “ive got no pace”

while mercedes tried to fix lewis’s shit box one last time, lando was still going strong out in the front. he had 3.5 seconds on carlos and was managing to keep his tires alive. but it would be massive trouble for them if they got caught on the wrong side of a safety car. and this is abu dhabi. so anything is possible.

especially with charles leclerc steaming up the track, powered by his own bad luck and the entire nation of italy.

max also started to have problems, to absolutely no ones surprise. “front tires are getting too hot,” he said on lap 16. “i cant brake”

and then zhou got a 5s penalty for a false start

lando was still in front on lap 17. he said his tires were “okay” and he seemed calm. despite the rampaging ferraris behind.

“he does seem very peaceful right now,” martin agreed.

lance got the black and white flag for track limits.

and oscar was only going to be doing one more pit stop, which meant that he was going to end on the mediums, which were the better tire. so all hope might not be lost for mclaren.

charles pitted on lap 21 and he came out 8th, half a second ahead of nico hulkenberg

and lando critically was 4 seconds ahead of carlos, which would be enough to cover whatever pit stop move carlos made.

some drivers were starting to come in to pit, but yuki was told to stay out.

“WHY??!” he yelled back because his tires were bad.

“that's the most exasperated team radio ive heard all season,” crofty said.

george meanwhile had gotten into a groove. “i can maintain this pace,” he said over the radio on lap 24, perhaps hoping for another insane one stop like in spa.

“we know what a tire whisperer george russell is” crofty said.

and then liam lawson had a bad pit stop.

how bad of a pit stop?

well he radioed in to say “the wheels arent on the car mate”

so yeah, that level of bad.

“mate the car dropped,” he added.

apparently he had been given the green light, so he went. but that was before they were done tightening the bolts on his wheels and yeah. not great. he managed to limp his way around the track and then come back in again to get his bolts all nice and tightened up. and unlike haas in 2018, he was able to keep going.

carlos pitted on lap 26

and then lando pitted on lap 27 in response.

mclaren managed to pull out a 2 second pit stop and lando was able to come back out in first!

though, carlos’s tires were newer by one lap.

and sometimes that matters a whole hell of a lot.

especially when you're getting chased by the damn guy

lando was on the outlap of his life, 1.8 seconds ahead of carlos. because if carlos was going to overtake him, it was going to have to be here.

“now its plan c” charles was told over the radio on lap 27.

“plan c is a bit optimistic in my opinion,” he said.

and george, who had pitted, was back stuck behind pierre. again. though! he finally managed to pass him.

bad news for franco though. he was told to box to retire the car due to a power unit issue and james vowels came on the radio to apologize that his last race had to end that way.

back at the front, carlos was 2.5 seconds behind lando.

“is carlos pushing too hard on those tires?” the announcers asked. remember, he had a one lap tire advantage, but if he pushed too hard now he might get screwed at the end.

and the haas alpine battle was still alive because nico hulkenberg was trying to pass pierre on lap 29 for 7th

and oscar was stuck behind fernando. which was not helping him at all. mostly because feranndo is a menace. and has also been in f1 longer than oscar has been alive.

meanwhile. lewis, who had gotten at least some of his shit together, received some good news. the good news was that his race engineer, bono, whom this was his last race with, remember, bono had been with him through all his merc championships, had a “cunning plan” to get him to the top 3.

lewis was thrilled. “let’s go bud”

liam lawson meanwhile was given a 10 second stop/go penalty for the tire incident.

“could we ask for 20 seconds?” max asked, insanely. “stupid idiots.”

martin was absolutely affronted by this comment. “that's not fair. you cant say that. you cant say that. not about the stewards. don't crash into people.”

“cmon max,” croft said. “you're bigger and better than that.”

max though, could not hear them.

and then! bottas and magnussen! got into a crash!

“isnt that just fucking great” kevin cursed over the radio, not particularly caring about the no swear rules because this was probably his last race.

“well its not,” crofty said.

because there was now the threat of a Possible Safety Car. in abu dhabi. and we all know what happens in abu dhabi with safety cars when championships are on the line.

lando was still winning by 2 seconds

25 laps to go

oscar pitted

kevin was still in the race and ahead of liam lawson

bottas was out.

on lap 34 we had:

lando, carlos, lewis, charles, george, power, nico, fernando, max, alex, guanyu, yukim jack, lance, oscar, kevin and liam

and lewis finally pitted.

“watch out for a charging lewis hamilton,” crofty said.

lewis came out ahead of fernando which was Critical because fernando had held up oscar.

and then.

what we had all been waiting to hear.

from bono.

for the last time in the mercedes.

“strat 05 and its hammer time”

and boy was it. (nico rosberg even concurred)

lewis floored that mercedes into places that it should never be able to go.

and that, right now, was behind nico hulkenberg, in 7th place

charles, critically, had gotten up to third after lewis had pitted.

so now lando was being chased down by two ferraris. one who was in his last race with a winning team for quite some time and the other fuled by the entire country of italy. he had his work cut out ofr him.

if the positions stayed as they were, mclaren would win the constructors title by 13 points.

lando was 3.226 seconds ahead.

“lando kept his cool and did exactly as the pit wall asked,” crofty said.

meanwhile, lewis was still pushing like hell.

“bono has dangled the golden carrot,” crofty said. “a 154th podium for lewis.”

“would be a tall order for lewis,” martin said realistically.

and back down towards the back, we had, possibly for the first time all season, aston martin acting like teammates because lance stoll was holding up oscar to benefit fernando.

and because this race couldn't get any more insane. kevin magnussen took the fastest lap.

oscar passed lance for 14th.

lando was asked if he could pass carlos on new tires if carlos stayed out, likely in the event of a safety car. because we are in abu dhabi after all.

“yes,” lando said.

on lap 41 lewis was up to 6th

and now he was trying to pass pierre, which martin described, for some reason, as “lewis will absolutely leave this chicane like a scalded car on those tires.”

i have no idea either.

“how big is the gap?” lewis asked.

“14 seconds,” bono said.

“14 seconds???” lewis said, shocked. “i thought you had a cunning plan, bono!”

“you can do that,” toto said, trying to be encouraging.

lewis overtook pierre on lap 44. he was now 13 seconds behind george.

“like this we lose the constructors or not?” charles demanded of his engineer on lap 44.

“like this we do, but its not over yet,” his engineer said. “keep pushing.”

charles tried, but he might just have been starting to lose his tires.

lewis was 12.2 seconds to george.

and he was also 1.2 seconds per lap faster than george.

lando was told that charles was starting to struggle and “the next few laps could be crucial”

lando was 5 seconds ahead of carlos. because, as we said, carlos had in fact pushed his tires too hard at the beginning of the stint.

oscar almost bongled it! he had a big snap of oversteer!

oscar was told rather explicitly to stay calm because the absolute last thing they needed was a safety car.

and on lap 47 we had, lando, carlos, charles, george, lewis, max, pierre, nico, alex, fernando, yuki, oscar, lance, jack, guanyu, kevin and liam

“lets get back into the rhythm,” charles’s engineer told him

“i don't know what you call the rhythm but this is the rhythm,” charles said.

“i think its jazz freestyle,” crofty said.

all eyes were on ferrari now though. “ferrari have got to do something now,” martin said with ten laps to go.

but alas, because they are ferrari, they did not.

oscar though was up to 11th, he had passed yuki.

and lando was now in the lapped cars. the traffic. “the dirty air is terrible,” he said. “im struggling a lot.”

and mclaren were in a unique situation because lando was coming up on oscar in the lapped cars and they could use oscar to help them out.

lewis had closed the gap to george down to 6.5 seconds

and ferrari were considering pitting carlos

mostly because he said that he ran over something that flew into the cockpit

he also said, terrifyingly, “i think i have a puncture.”

fortunately he did not

and he was not pitted

five laps to go

oscar managed to pass alex for tenth and just like that he was back in the points!

charles leclerc had gained 16 spots so far in this race which was a career best for him. similar to the great max verstappen brazil race.

carlos meanwhile thought something was stuck in his car and he started to slow

“how far is carlos from lando,” charles asked on lap 55

“carlos is 7.5 seconds from lando.”

“fuck.”

fuck indeed for ferrari.

but lewis was now 2.2 seconds behind george.

george was told to keep it clean with lewis, not to let him through. so it would be a race to the bitter end.

the final lap.

liam lawson briefly stopped. there was a yellow flag. everyone held their breath. but then it cleared.

lewis was on george’s ass.

“hamilton passes george! and its another brilliant drive from lewis hamilton!!!” he was up to fourth!

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and nico rosberg just about lost his damn mind over this. “no! i missed it because i was at the podium getting ready for the interview there! that was in s an e! the way he lined him up, it was Perfection. through that whole section around the back, overtaking on the outside. A maz ing.”

and just as he did that, lando norris crossed the finish line. meaning that. “for the first time. since 1998. MCLAREN ARE CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONS!!!!”

“we did it mate!” lando’s race engineer said over the radio. “we did it! world champions!!!”

lando screamed. “next year gonna be my year too” he said

and kevin mangussen, of all people took the fastest lap.

lewis hamilton pulled to the front of the grid, and in his mercedes, for the last time, did some doughnuts.

“it will be forza ferrari next year, but it was hammer time tonight!” crofty said.

“and that’s the end of an era,” bono told lewis over the radio. “gotta say mate, its been epic working with you.”

“lewis,” toto said. “that was the drive of a world champion. amazing.”

“thanks toto,” lewis said. “that was fun….the pleasures been mine. i know bono, we dreamed alone but together we believed. and as a team weve achieved things that only [gets cut off] thank you for all the courage, the determination, the passion, and for seeing me and supporting me. what started out as a leap of faith turned into a journey for the history books. we did everything together and i am so so grateful for everyone back at the factory. from the bottom of my heart, you are the best.”

the team even gave him a little thank you graphic on his steering wheel

and also with the emotional radio messages was kevins magnussens wife, who came on to talk to him during his cool down lap:

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carlos sainz came on his radio and said “thank you ferrari, its been a pleasure riving for you guys. forza ferrari, sempre.”

and zhou also did doughnuts. for himself.

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and who was hosting the post race interviews? that's right. nico rosberg.

charles was up first and man. let me tell you. was he disappointed.

“i knew i had to be very aggressive…this was achieved but unfortunately we were starting too far back…hard hit on friday.”

and because nico rosberg is, well, nico rosberg. he of course asked charles this: “next year your teammate is lewis hamilton, greatest of all time, are you excited about that?”

and charles said. simply. “yes.”

carlos was up next. and he said that it was a “bit of a bittersweet feeling, p2 was the best we could do today….congratualtions first of all to mcalren, they have been rock solid in this championship the last ⅔ of the season…and ive proven to myself that i can fight for podiums and wins.”

and then. of course. lando.

“it feels incredible,” he said. “not for myself but for the whole team. its been a lovely journey…been a though one but to win a constructors after 26 years is incredible….me and zak have already said were getting absolutely hammered tonight.”

and then he said with a smile that to win the drivers championship next year, “that's my goal.”

then. lewis was supposed to come out. to you know end cap his merc time with an interview with his ex teammate and friend and everything but a lover and whatever the hell else he and nico were. but he didn't. he ran away to the garage where be proceeded to take pictures with everyone on his side of the garage and then some more. and then he retreated to the corner and as recounted by one of the journalists

“First he hugged everyone. They were the people with whom he had shared his career for years. Even his life... Then he found an empty space in the Mercedes garage where he had been for the last time... Tired, sensitive, proud but fragile, he bent his knees and lowered his head... What he felt at that moment! Only champions can know that... I got goosebumps filming that moment... Then he raised his head and looked at his team looking at him once more... But this time his eyes were in tears 🥹 the tears in his eyes when filming that historic moment again, I involuntarily felt the same too, I left two drops there 😇 And the fact that he even shook my hand when leaving the garage at the end 🥰

We are so lucky to watch you a little more, champion 🙏..”

meanwhile. out in the cooldown room we had one incredibly excited zak brown

and although apparently i forgot to save the clip, lando did give us one last champagne pop on the podium.

obviously, lando won.

but carlos came in second followed by charles third, then lewis, george, max, pierre, nico, fernando, oscar, alex, yuki, zhou, lance, jack, kevin, and liam. with bottas, frando and checo all dnfing.

“an incredibly season and an incredibly abu dhabi grand prix,” will buxton said at the start of our last post race show. “lando drove a perfect race. huge day for mclaren, a guge season for mclaren. took them 13 rounds to get to second 2 years ago they were at the back. to go from that to champions of the world in 2 seasons?” well. will was beside himself.

“theres nothing ferrari could have done,” james said. “mclaren were just a little stronger, the gap is just so painfully small.”

“[ferrari] didn't lose it tonight,” will said. “they lost it in spain.” with the bad upgrade package.

and don't worry, they also had a lot of wild things to say. like how will buxton thought that max bonking oscar on lap 1 was the real start of the 2025 battle because oscar was still rumored to be a favorite for next year.

and a wild oscar appeared. he said that he was “very proud of the team to accomplish our main goal as a team” he also said that max apologized to him about the opening lap. “not much point dawdling on it, i finished the job myself with franco. i think we’re all ready for a break.”

he was excited about the constructors win though for sure. “this was the first one in 26 years. i don't want to wait 26 years for the next one.”

“you and lando werent alive for the last one,” will pointed out.

“i want to be alive for the next one. and the next one. and the next one,” oscar said.

and he did actually, to everyones surprise, show some emotion after winning the constructors. him and lando were both absolutely over the moon and rightfully so.

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and there were even drones of the two of them

they also became the first driver line up ever to both win their maiden victories in the same year as their first constructors title.

and! oscar also completed every lap of the season! the only other drivers to do this were oh shit do i even remember….. michael schumacher, lewis hamilton and max verstappen? i think that's it. and now oscar.

lando said that “today was an incredible day for everyone…pressure was still there, just happy for the team…this is not a small deal this is huge for everyone….i gained confidence in myself this year. it was a good effort and ive learned that i have what it takes [to win the drivers title]”

lando also talked during the press conference about how he was happy that he had stuck with mclaren for so long because he felt like he had truly brought the team to victory and seen them grow. because they were shit when he joined them back in 2018.

and then he also was a worm in the press conference, utterly distracting carlos.

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and also in the press conference, charles waxed some poetry about carlos (as did lando)

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which was a dynamic that of course confused the hell out of one nico rosberg because he didn't understand how two teammates could seemingly love eachother, even after what carlos had pulled on charles in vegas and charles’s angry radio.

carlos said that he was surprised that he was not that emotional and maybe he had learned that from brad pitt, who remember was around in the paddock a lot filming the f1 movie this year (and actually, they ended up dragging charles back onto the podium for a second go around for the movie, after he looked like he wanted to kill everyone, it was quite funny)

and carlos did manage to keep a pretty good hold on his emotions. that was, until ferrari showed him the video that they made for him,

and andrea stella also praised charles for his whole season, but especially the last race: “congratulations to the ferrari drivers that once again showed pure class. i don’t know if i said it to you [sky italy] or someone else, but i didn’t trust leclerc one bit even if he started last, and he demonstrated why i didnt.” so it takes a whole lot to make another tp scared of you starting p19, especially when your teammate is starting p3.

and of course, jack doohan also came by to say hi to his f1tv friends.

“it was a cool moment waiting for the formation lap to start, first lap was okay….a lot going on…some great battles, a lot to take forwards,” he said. “muscles i didn't know i had are sore!” he added, saying he was struggling to press the buttons at the end. and he also said that he didn't know how many laps he had on the hards. he was too scared to ask.

but, of course, he still wanted to replace will buxton as the host. “i don't know why i wasn't hosting tonight,” he joked.

and then they dragged pierre in unexpectedly because in the words of will “its the end anyway, its all gone to shit”

but pierre was still excited because guess what! alpine managed to snag sixth in the constructors title fight!

“there was a lot at stake,” pierre said. “exciting race..bit of a roller coaster of a season…very proud of the team”

and pierre also! cost his team no money in damages this season! insane!

will said that he was manifesting for alpine. “mclaren started last season where you started this season” he said to alpine. and they were just crowned constructors champions.

lewis was also interviewed. he said “it was a tough race, the beginning was a little bit slow, to come back 18th to 4th is a good job for the team.” then he also said “its the last time im going to be in the cockpit of a mercedes…yeah just hold onto that because its history now.”

and as we know his team sent him off quite well.

they all signed one of his race helmets for him

and bono even dressed up as him

and nico rosberg of course continued to haunt the narrative.

this was his reaction to his post race interview

and he continued to be confused when danica patrick asked stupid questions.

zhou was pleased with what he had accomplished in f1 but said that “he didn't think it was finished business yet.”

and he even got carlos to take a picture in a chili costume. because carlos had made a bet with him that he would if zhou got a point before the season ended.

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they continued to speculate about the red bull seat because yeah believe it or not silly season is somehow not over yet. apparently there is talk in the paddock that its going to be liam lawson in the second seat and isack hajdar in the vcarb.

they also said that checos drive today, ending in the sad dnf, was “symbolic” of his season. apparently christian horner said that they gave checo his contract renewal mid season to boost his confidence, but he has only gotten 45 points in 16 races.

and if this was his last race, it was a shame that he did not get a proper send off. because he did have a really good career.

and, for the crash, valtteri was awarded a five place grid penalty. joining the ranks of jenson button and rober schwartzman with their grid penalties that may never be served.

and that was it. that was the end of the abu dhabi grand prix.

we finished out the year in ways we never knew it would end.

as laura winter told us. “it looked at the start we might have a predictable season, but its bee anything but. weve had seven multi race winners, the top four teams all had 1-2s” mclaren won the title for the first time since 1998 and once again max verstappen proved, in a different way this year, that he still deserves to be on top.

twenty four insane races. the longest calendar in f1 history.

and one update still remains, because as i said, silly season somehow still isnt fucking over.

see you all soon for the wrap up :)

the 2024 formula 1 silly season and drama master post, part 2 (part 1 here)

Hello and welcome to ah fucking fuck auto caps fuck fuck fuck how do i turn off auto caps AHA there we go okay. take 2

hello and welcome to the great and very insane formula 1 2024 season drama post, part 2. if you are new here or are just looking for part one (which contains the previous 16 (?) races, the off season, pre season testing and everything else, that can be found HERE. (a word to the wise: open it in a browser, not the app, and preferably on a computer to avoid crashing. its fucking long).

what the hell is formula 1? car go fast. fastest cars in the world zoom around tracks at top speeds of over 300kph, piloted by the top 20 drivers in the world. it might not sound dramatic, but oh man. you will Not be disappointed. this post focuses on the drama, the insanity, the sheer what the hell how is this a serious sport. no legitimately. we've just about seen it all this year. grindr, dogs, watersports, ice cream brands, its all here.

the point of this post? to educate, to catalog the insane drama, and to just have a good time. people like to gatekeep this sport, there is also a lot happening. i try to make it easy to understand. again, probably best to start at the beginning of the post because it does a pretty good job of explaining things, which i began way back in january, and can be found HERE (again, shes long, be careful)

and, as usual, if you do not want to see this post EVER AGAIN, block the tag #saph explains silly season 2024

and a second caution, i assume this post will be getting long as well. including this one we have minimum 9 updates left!

anyway, those of you who have been following along the whole time, welcome back! i know we got a little delayed. and i know we’re on a new post, so lets just briefly take a second for me to explain what the fuck happened. first i had an anatomy test, second i work 2 jobs with fuck ass hours, third tumblr decided to stop letting me look at any of my drafts, fourth tumblr support ghosted me about the drafts issue and the post was half saving half not so i just decided fuck it, were going with post 2, electric boogaloo, and fifth, i decided to start typing this instead in a google docs so. many changes. if you're new here i am usually more on top of this.

but here we are. were back on street circuits. we’re in baku, azerbaijan, for the start of the last third of the season. 8 races remain, world championship titles are still within grasp of multiple people. the drama is dramaing. and today is september 22, 2024 and lets fucking go.

first and foremost, on account of the fact that this post is late (again, see above), were going to have to do a bit of a speed run. if you're new here, i promise that this is not representative of my normal dedication to the update post. and for those asking, yeah, ill probably compile it somewhere better than a tumblr post after its all said and done, but we don't have time for that now.

what we do have time for is the Off Week (and like some of the media stuff). and it was filled with silliness:

george russell decided to wear what can only be described as slightly ugly yellow short shorts with his taylor swift shirt that he got at the eras tour. this was baffling for several reasons, the main reason being that i don't think the internet knew that he was capable of wearing a graphic t shirt

fernando alonso got his aston martin valkyrie finally. in case you are unfamiliar, a valkyrie i think is the worlds fastest street legal car. he posted tweets about this that made it seem like he wanted to fuck the car. hilariously, the car broke down an hour later.

we also had the very thrilling conclusion to grill the grid. oscar won and he somehow managed to look more pleased about his grill the grid win than his first race victory.

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nico rosberg went to the green awards and he wore a fantastically insane teal blue suit. yes i know hes not a current driver. but you all like hearing about him so ask and you shall receive. unfornunately i cant find a picture of it though

and also not a current driver is mick schumacher, but my roommate asked me to include that he was seen on his girlfriends instagram being bad at golf. like. exceptionally bad at golf. like he hit a tree 20 feet in front of him.

also playing golf was lando norris. except he managed to look like try bolton from high school musical 2.

he also talked about the world driver championship with his friend max fewtrell while they were playing golf. unfortunately i lost this link in the sea of technical difficulties, but the gist of it was that he was saying that there is still hope for him to beat max in the championship (hes about 60 points behind right now). lando doesnt usually talk about the championship because he doesnt want news outlets to paint him as “desperate” so this was interesting

charles leclerc had an insane off week. first he rear ended someone in monaco. then he spoke at a yacht conference. he was not scheduled to speak at said yacht conference, he was there doing something else and they were like hey you're cool people know you, heres a microphone. he alsp ended up on a weather channel while promoting a karting event he was doing for the jules bianchi foundation (his god father, the one who died during the f1 race in japan 2014). he also changed his instagram pop and re centered it because some random tiktoker told him it matched his aesthetic better.

oscar piastri posted a photo of himself sitting in the cockpit of a plane and then promptly deleted it. because he posted it on 9/11. for anyone who doesnt know what that is, that was when some terrorists hijacked commercial planes and few them into the world trade centers in nyc and the pentagon in washington dc

max verstappen also posted a plane pic with himself and lando norris, but he did not delete it.

we also had the return of daniel ricciardo’s jpg instagram account, which is kinda like a finsta for photos that hes taken. i think lando started this a few years ago.

heading into the race week we certainly got a weird ass batch of pr. including but not limited to:

lewis hamilton was back on top and slaying in the fit game. as was yuki.

lewis hamilton also exposed george russell as listening to katy perry pre race. katy perry and taylor swift (this was after he claimed that he liked listening to old school rap music.) though, lewis then started singing wrecking ball???? confusing vibes all around

george was not off the hook yet tho because some intern definitely make him say skidibidi toilet or whatever the thing is idk, i might be gen z but im not insufferable, okay? actually george in baku was just all kinds of unhinged

george and alex also got up to something, what it is no one knows but it is clearly something

max pulled up to the paddock de aged about 10 years. picture one is of him in baku in 2015 (i believe he was 17) and picture 2 is this year. no i am not kidding.

and franco walked into the paddock telling everyone about argentinian mate (which is a drink, not a friend)

and max shoved a microphone out of the way so everyone could gossip

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then of course, we had some slightly more relevant drama

haas announced that ollie would be replacing kevin at baku. in case you forgot, kevin magnussen received a total of 12 penalty points over the season so far, which means he gets one race ban. how did he get the points? well he was mostly wreaking havoc on everyone else so that his teammate, nico hulkenberg, could drag his car into the points. lets all remember the time in saudi arabia where he managed to get 20 seconds of penalties by basically driving like a mad man just to make sure that nico could keep his position after he pit stopped. anyway, nico was kind of pissed about the race ban situation and said “maybe the guidelines for F1 penalties need to be reviewed as the stewards ‘want to get involved’ no matter the contact.”

in any case though, k mags was out. and ollie was in. we’ve seen ollie before. notably he subbed in for carlos sainz at the saudi arabia gp when carlos had appendicitis. he managed to get points as well. since then, he has been announced as a haas driver for 2025 and is now subbing in for k mags (haas, later in the week called him a super sub. clearly no gen z person read that over.) he can do this because ferrari has a haas engine so they share reserve drivers.

adrian newey finally got employed. i know! i can hardly believe it either! but he did! and youll never guess where!

ferrari? no that would be too obvious.

mercedes? nah

williams? no too much of a shit show

aston martin? ding ding ding! just the right amount of shit show!

that is right. newey is going to aston for 2025.

apparently he was offered a “good package” according to himself, which i assume means pay and also the fact that lawrence stroll made him a shareholder? stakeholder? whatever its called. in the team itself. basically he has a lot of power.

he said that he always wanted to work with fernando and lewis. and he couldn't do both. and aston had a better package than ferrari.

fernando looked positively evil during all the announcement pictures. and called the team "definitely the team of the future" and for those of you who don't know, fernando is positively evil. hes just been stuck in a shit box and we havent seen very much of him, but man does he know how to evilly slut it up. so that will be fun to see.

by contrast, people said that lance was not excited enough. and well. lance 1. has resting bitch face and 2. never really looks excited about anything. also he lives in a world where take your child to work day somehow became his job. (his dad owns the team).

lewis hamilton was asked what he thought about adrian not going to ferrari, and here's what he had to say:

"i feel like, while I have mentioned before that it would be an honor to work with adrian, i have been privileged to work with two championship winning teams that didnt have adrian."

mclaren announced pato o ward would do FP1 in mexico. who is pato o ward? hes one of mclaren’s indycar drivers and one of the f1 reserve drivers. he is incredibly charming and definitely runs his own social media as seen here:

mclaren Also claim they figured out who their number 2 driver is and they claim its oscar. i say they claim because the statements were a lot more complex than that. essentially, according to andrea stella, the priority is to the team first, then lando and then oscar. so they didn't outright say that oscar is the number 2 driver and i am willing to bet real money that this is because mr mark webber, oscars manager, has something in oscars contract that prevents him from being a number 2 driver. this is of course because mark webber was one of the most infamous number 2 drivers in f1 history to none other than menace war criminal sebastian vettel, who in their time as teammates, managed to win 4 back to back world champions. or, top to bottom if you're mrs darbus from high school musical.

lando was asked about this and he said that yes, the team does support him. though he would not expect oscar to give up a win for him and that it is more complex behind the scenes. i suppose we will see if there are any papaya rules coming out this weekend….

and oscar said "i think the main point is its not purely just going to be me pulling over for lando every single race, because thats how none of us, including lando, wont want to go racing, if we feel that someone has done a much better job on a weekend, whichever way it is, we want that person to be rewarded."

max verstappen commented on the mclaren situation as well. which was funny mostly because red bull has one of the most defined number 1 and number 2 drivers of any team. he said "you look at it form oscar's perspective, he is closer to lando than lando to me. they have to deal with that."

and allow me to put on a tin foil hat as we are about to talk about the future of the red bull seat. because all i have to offer here is a baseball hat and a red bull can.

a long time ago we talked about the red bull cans. the ones that red bull makes to promote f1. at the end of last season red bull put max and checo on the red bull can. this season at the start it was just max on the red bull can. well. now checo has reappeared on the cans too. and i will tell you what i think this means. it means that checo is not getting swapped this season, which was a possibility for awhile.

but! there is more!

daniel ricciardo made an instagram post this week. and it was very interesting. but most interestingly he was wearing a red bull hat.

which he does occasionally, no big deal really. he did race for the for several years, he technically does currently. BUT then he showed up TO THE PADDOCK wearing the red bull hat.

which is Big Interesting. usually you show up in a statement outfit or wearing the team kit. and daniel is not a red bull racing driver. he is a visa cashapp racing bulls driver. they might be owned by red bull but they are Not the same team. so why the red bull hat. in the paddock. well, the rumor is that hes taking checos seat for 2025. and the rumor is that this will be announced before mexico. so checo can have a proper send off.

and with that. the baku lore.

theres a lot that has happened at baku. as i said its a street circuit. and i think its the fastest street circuit. but over the years theres been some notable events.

such as the great kimi raikkonen radio for gloves and steering wheel:

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they gave mini kimi this week gloves and steering wheel in honor of that

the max and daniel crash in 2018 when they were running p1 and p2 respectfully

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and of course. how could we forget. charles’s infamous “i am stupid” radio.

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speaking of charles, he crashed again in fp1. not quite in the same spot, but nearly. he took a picture with the marshalls.

then in fp2 he rage quit, basically saying that the car sucks.

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but he was back and better than ever in practice three because he managed to top the time charts. welcome back fuck ass ferrari.

some other teams definitely experienced the lows but not really the highs of baku during practice. like lance stroll who came on the radio to say “this is not a car” (good thing they have adrian newey now, right?

franco colapinto also cut his ear before practice on the neck strengthener stretcher thing that they all use and the team wanted to give him stitches but he was like no no no i need to be in the car in about 5 minutes im not doing that. so he jammed on his helmet and jumped in the car. he also crashed and when he went to the medical center he took off his helmet and there was blood everywhere and they were like no no no you cannot race! and he was like no! this is not from the crash! and then explained it and they let him do qualifying.

also im pretty sure? ollie bearman crashed? in practice? but frankly i don't have time to google it so whos to say.

but alas. qualifying.

i know i know this is kind of a shitty update. i promise ill go all out in singapore. i PROMISE.

so as i said. its a street circuit. high speed. 90 degree corners. and also windy as hell. we also had the dynamic duo of karun and harry in the commentary box.

max led the first practice, george led the second and i think charles led the third. or some order like that.

slipstream here is almost essential (slipstream: going behind another car to reduce the wind drag so you can go faster)

charles has the last three pole positions (first in qualifying) here in baku, but he has never won. by comparison, red bull have never had pole here but they have won.

and franco has never been to baku before.

i think that's all the exposition that we need here.

q1 started with max complaining about his car. “the car is jumping around like crazy on the rear axle” he said. despite this he was sitting in p3.

the mid field battle though….the mid field battle was heating the hell up. mostly because none other than franco colapinto, who if you will remember, has never been to baku before, had split the two ferraris. he was in third for the moment, .109 seconds behind carlos sainz and .159 seconds ahead of charles leclerc. we still had a lot of qualifying left to go, so this was probably not going to stay, but it was still insane. he was pushing insanely hard, nearly kissing the walls. clearly he had learned from his crash in practice.

the two mclarens waited until the very end of q1 to do their final flying push lap, and oscar made it through, but tragedy struck for lando.

lando was in the middle of his last flying lap, time was ticking down, and there was a Very Brief yellow flag on the track. now, according to rules, you cannot complete your flying lap if there is a yellow flag. so lando pitted and was stuck down in 17th and out of qualifying. this would be the first time that he was out in q1 since vegas last year (which if i remember correctly was also not his fault)

now though, of course nothing is ever that cut and dry. people thought that there had been a mis showing of a flag. yellow flag means that a car is stopped on track, white flag means that a car is going slowly on the track. and people thought that there had been a yellow flag shown when it was actually supposed to be a white flag (if there had been a white flag then lando would have been able to keep doing his flying lap) lando himself said that he had no idea what people were talking about because there is a light on the steering wheel that lights up when flags are called and he had a big yellow light. so it was clearly a yellow flag.

if you're concerned about lando being able to pull it out of the bag, id like to point you in the direction of the mexican gp last year where lando qualified 17th and finished 5th. on a track that was hard to overtake on. he can be absolutely insane when he wants to be. worry not gentle reader.

in any case. also out in q1 was daniel ricciardo, valtteri bottas, zhou guanyu and esteban ocon.

and notably, williams, who was on fucking fire this weekend as we already saw, finished q1 with alex albon in second (ahead of oscar) and franco colapinto in 8th. pierre gasly had somehow managed to also get into 4th. and nico hulkenberg was in 7th with ollie bearman in 13th. i told you the mid field battle was heating the hell up.

q2. everyone zoomed straight out of the gate. they didn't want to get lando norris’d. but, speaking of that, if lando managed to get no points in the race and charles managed to win, charles would overtake lando in the drivers championship. mark webber himself told this to charles, who was absolutely baffled.

in any case, charles was kinda suffering right now and that was because he was not getting slipstream from carlos to make his lap faster. meanwhile, carlos seemed to be actively trying to give charles the slipstream because he came on radio to say “he keeps missing the tow”

and amazingly, franco colapinto was 4 tenths AHEAD of alex albon. alex albon who had not been unqualified by his teammate once since the start of 2023. ex red bull driver alex albon. that alex albon.

max topped the times in q2, followed immediately by charles. insanely, fernando alonso managed to drag the aston martin to fifth. and franco was right behind him in 6th. by comparison alex albon was in 10th.

and from q2 we lost ollie bearman, yuki tsunoda (who has never qualified lower than 8th in baku), pierre gasly, nico hulkenberg and lance stroll. so yes, ollie bearman managed to outqualify nico hulkenberg. this is ollies second ever f1 race.

steaming on forward to q3.

we had, for review, in q3 the following:

both ferraris, both red bulls, both mercedes, both WILLIAMS (has not happened since vegas 2023), plus fernando alonso and oscar piastri.

right out the gate it was wild.

“red bull! theyve re found their mojo! or have they!” karun said. red bull were in 5th and 6th and not entirely sucking for the moment.

everyone did one flyer and then came out at the end for a second flyer.

here were the standings:

charles, carlos, oscar, george, checo, max, lewis, alex, franco, fernando

and everyone was making it to the line and all was going smooth until-

wait a second what is that

could it be! alex albon! with the air box fan still on his car! surely not!!!

oh but it was! and harry and karun were like oh wow so unfortunate for williams tisk tisk

meanwhile ted jumped on the radio to Loudly announce to everyone that this was insane and if i have time here i will put the rant he ranted cause it was Fantastic.

and what do you know i have time

so we had 3 minutes left qualifying and everyone was pulling out of the pits for their last flyer when oscar hopped on the radio to say

"the williams still has the air box fan in"

"oh what an error! disaster for williams!" karun and harry said. they speculated if the marshalls could get it or if the session needed to be red flagged. but alex threw the fan off the car.

and then they asked "ted have you ever seen that before?" and ted did not hold back:

"ITS A MASSIVE YELLOW FAN HOW COULD YOU MISS IT???!!! HOW COULD THE MECHANICS MISS IT???? I CANT BELIVE THEY WOULD MAKE SUCH A MISTAKE DOWN AT WILLIAMS! SUCH AN EXPERIENCED BUNCH OF GUYS AND GIRLS! WHAT IS GOING ON AT WILLIAMS OPERATIONALLY? HOW COULD YOU SEND A CAR OUT LIKE THAT?"

alex, obviously, got fined for an unsafe release 5k euros. he also had to throw the fan off to the side and got slightly covered in dry ice. he did not get to the a second flying lap.

franco did tho!

and here were out qualifying results:

p1: charles p2: oscar p3: carlos p4: checo p5: george p6: max p7: lewis p8: fernando p9: franco p10: alex p11: ollie p12: yuki p13: pierre p14: nico p15: lance p16: daniel p17: lando p18: valtteri p19: zhou p20: esteban

oh ho ho but we werent done yet. because pierre gasly got disqualified from qualifying. for failing fuel flow regulations. and lewis was going to have to start from the pit lane for changing his power unit.

everyone, and by everyone i mean oscar max and checo, pretty much said that charles was going to get pole no matter what, they knew this coming in and the best they were trying for was second

onto the race.

notably, this is considered a checo track. this was one of the three races that max did not win last year. because checo won it. its a track that he does well on, evidenced by the fact that he qualified above max in qualifying. so people were expecting big things from him.

and so, we head into lap 1.

charles managed to hang onto the lead. checo passed carlos straight out of the gate for third and max managed to pass george to take fifth. lando had managed to get ahead of nico and up into 13th. notably, franco held onto 8th and ollie was able to hold onto tenth.

someone who was not doing well was lance stroll, who came on the radio saying that he had a puncture. this was from contact with yuki. lance had to pit for fresh tires and was pretty immediately thrown to the back of the grid.

by lap 2 lando had managed to get past daniel and was in 12th, he was trying to get past yuki next, which he managed by lap 3. yuki also lost a spot to nico.

also slaying in the mclaren was oscar, who took fastest lap. then charles took fastest lap.

and lewis hamilton, who had started from the pit lane, was up to 16th. already. somehow. though he was displeased with the tires, sayig that “this tire is pretty bad” over the radio.

yuki meanwhile was clearly having a problem because he had started going very very slowly. thought the pit wall said that he had no problems. this would later turn out to be false but we will indulge them for the time being.

franco was STILL ahead of alex albon on lap 6. STILL.

lando on lap 8 managed to push his way into points positions, overtaking ollie bearman for 10th. though this was where things were about to slow down for him because in front of him were alex, franco and fernando, who were all very close together and would be hard to get past.

george was back in bad luck hell as a plastic bag entered his airbox. will he ever catch a break.

on lap 11 nico hulkenberg finally caught up with ollie bearman and passed him for 11th.

and max’s car was not working. to potentially no one’s surprise. “i have zero bite in the car” he said. and this was probably true because checo was a whole 6.5 seconds ahead of him. insane gap.

several pit stops later that i will not detail out because we simply do not have the time, alex albon ended up in 4th and lando ended up in fifth. and oscar was about to get undercut by checo.

“mojo seems to be back for checo perez” harry said, correctly.

mojo was back for him indeed. and now he was right behind lando.

and if you will recall, according to mclaren themselves, priority at mclaren is the team first, then oscar, then lando. but oscar was ahead of lando. so what did mclaren do?

they asked lando do hold up perez, but not compromise his own race.

remever a long time ago when i said mclaren wouldn't have any internal drama this season? man how i was wrong.

lando managed to hold up perez for around a lap or two before he got past. this was crucial because this was during when oscar was in the pits.

thanks to lando and the power of the papaya rules teamwork, oscar ended up coming out in 4th, only .706s ahead of checo.

mclaren are working together everyone! mclaren are working together!

meanwhile, turns out that yuki did indeed have problems because he retired on lap 17 with a hole in his sidepod from the contact with lance on lap 1. this was now two races in a row where he had had to retire for reasons out of his control.

several more people pitted. and eventually charles was back out in front, oscar was in p2. until he wasn't. no, he didn't dnf. he overtook charles! he was in p1! he popped out of nowhere! nowhere being 2 car lengths back and just flooring it to spring around charles like a little silly slinky! karun called it a “good, fair and robust defense,” which sounds like its descibing notes in wine. but this was not wine. this was the baku gp. and we were only half done.

ollie bearman was defending against lewis hamilton, holding on tightly to 14th place.

charles was still behind oscar and he could not get past, despite the fact that he was still very much in spitting distance. “they are pushing like crazy or they have more grip than us” he said.

carlos got past both lando and alex albon and was up into 4th

this brought max up behind lando. max was on 11 lap old tires and lando was on 24 lap old tires. but lando still defended like hell and managed to hold onto sixth. max was 0.632 seconds behind lando on lap 25 when he said that “my brakes are not working.” this was hardly a surprise. max has hated the car since china.

also experiencing technical difficulties was sir lewis hamilton. he was stuck down in 14th and was first told to do “everything you can do to get the surface temp down” of the tires. he said “im trying” then several laps later on lap 29 he came on the radio to say “are you seeing how i have to drive this thing?” “yes,” bono, his engineer said. “quite effective though.”

max was still half a second behind lando. mclaren faked a pit stop call over the radio to get max to pit. he did not.

but, george russell did manage to pass him. which was “not good for max’s world champion aspirations.”

this was also when ted very bafflingly said that “if i had a sofa in the pit lane i would be jumping up and down on it” im not sure what that was in response to.

meanwhile, ollie was still holding off sir lewis hamilton. and charles was trying to get oscar to pit again by lying over the radio. it was not working.

lando did a pit stop finally and came out a whole 15 second behind max. he was hoping to catch max by the end of the race. but it might be tight. lets go last lap lando.

“lando, imagine andrea on your shoulder saying ‘zero wheel spin’ in every exit,” lando’s race engineer said. if you're confused, everyone else was too.

10 laps to go and here were the order of affairs:

oscar

+.449s charles +1.865s checo +2.989s carlos +16.530s george +1.909s max +11.535s lando +9.715s fernando +2.589s alex +2.451s nico +4.667s franco +1.590s lewis +1.261s ollie +1.791s pierre +9.205s daniel +23.919s esteban +.789s lance +3.862s valtteri +3.631s guanyu

lando was determined. he took fastest lap on lap 43 and was 8.8s behind max

at this point, the leaders were starting to lap the cars in the back. “the back markers are starting to come up,” checo’s engineer said to him. “its going to get messy.”

“hold onto your hats and if you don't have one go get one and hold onto it” harry said. harry would turn out to be correct.

we had the top 3 all running very close to eachother, that was oscar, charles and checo and “welcome to the party carlos sainz!” who was now 1.2 seconds behind checo in the four way battle for the lead.

definitely not leading was lance stroll, who retired on lap 47 with a brake problem.

oscar managed to pull ahead of charles by 1.5 seconds, finally knocking him out of DRS range. so now it was a three way battle for second. and charles had “no rear tires. no rear tires at all.”

and, just like i said he would, lando managed to pass max on lap 49. he was closing the gap slowly in the championship.

“verstappen’s day goes from bad to worse,” harry said. because lando still had fastest lap, so he would score 3 more points than max. which is important if lando wants to beat max in the championship (though i think hes still like 60 points behind)

meanwhile! franco managed to pass nico hulkenberg for 10th! he was in the points!!!! at his second race!!!

but this was short lived because there was a crash! a big smackeroo! between carlos and checo!! checo was mad, carlos didn't know what happened.

what happened was that carlos was trying to pass checo but checo did not move over. it was deemed an equal fault accident. both of them were utterly confused at what happened and apparently spent 20 minutes in the medical center being utterly lost and aparently saying that sometimes this sport sucks. and! contrary to what several people said! checo did not bang on carlos’s helmet after the crash.

the crash actually caused chef's dad to have a heart attack. he is stable now.

and well. this clip of george from the post qualifying interviews definitely didnt age well:

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but! since we were a matter of a few laps from the end, this meant that the rest of the race was finished under a virtual safety car.

which meant

OSCAR PIASTRI WINS THE AZERBAIJAN GP

and george inherited p3!

and on his own merit too! no safety cars, no team orders, no weird shit!

“yes!” he whispered over the radio.

he almost fell getting out of the car, then gave us all the “one moment” hand gesture before properly celebrating.

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he also got driver of the day!

(this was marginally better than george russell, who said over the radio “i cant get any rubber (to pick up on his tires) all im getting is leaves”)

gunther steiner also hosted the post race interviews. which was interesting.

george said that the most difficult part of the race was “driving full gas into a wall of carbon fiber on the penultimate lap…the vsc should have come out sooner”

charles bashed ferrari because they didn't do any high fuel runs in practice.

oscar was entirely pleased. “i managed to overtake and hold onto it for the next 35 laps..one of the better races of my career.” and honestly, oscar winning a race straight after mclaren basically announcing that he was their number 2 driver is nothing short of hilarious.

and! mclaren was now leading the constructors championship by 20 points! for the first time in ten years!!!!

the top three had a moment outside of the car that was filled with baffled:

and oscar's engineer tom got to stand on the podium with him. he usually takes a selfie with oscar after each race he podiums at, but he was too excited to so george took this picture for them

(george also aparently demomished oscar in a game of uno on the plane, immediately humbling him)

george also shielded himself from the champagne on the podium

the cooldown room reacted to the crash in a very straight forward manner:

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and very quickly cause its midnight and the singapore gp starts in 8 hours, the post race, speed ran:

-mark webber told off laura winter for thinking that oscar didn't have good tire management

-alex albon was “super happy, that's a lot of points for us” (williams finished in 7th and 8th). he cut his own interview short when ollie bearman arrived, saying “I can go, im happy to go” and then waving comically.

-williams was so pleased with this result they blasted everyone with champagne. and they overtook alpine in the constructors championship! this was also their best race finish all season

-(and a quick note, if youre going to really blame logan for being that shit of a driver here, please remember that the car he was driving was several rounds of upgrades behind alex's pretty much the entire time he was driving it)

-ollie became the first driver to ever score points in his first two races for two different constructors because the double dnf pushed him up to 10th place. he said that there was not much difference between the haas and the ferrari, the ferrari was just red

-franco continued to charm everyone and flirt with the reporters.

-they interviewed george and lewis and the camera had to be adjusted for george's height. it was comical and resulted in my favorite edit so far of the season (sound on)

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-lando looked pleased and happy for once. he said about holding off checo that “i didn't hold him up i just had to cool my tires a little.” he was delighted to be leading the constructors for the first time in ten years and he defended alex albon saying “i struggled to get past alex for a while, which is common, alex doesnt make mistakes.” he also ratted on max for going to fast during the VSC and said “i didn't complain, facts were stated.” and to sum it all up he said that “im executing things well, i’m very quick…i’m not going to be the happiest guy, but i am never the happiest guy….car is performing well everywhere…some red cars behind us seem to be our biggest competitors right now”

-by comparison george insulted all of pirelli. the tire people. “pretty infuriating that it (the pace) changes this so much….its black magic, people who make the tires don't understand the tires…..for 20 laps we had a car not worthy of points and for 20 laps we had a car fighting for victory and the only difference is the tires.”

-lewis was notably upset after the race and walked through the paddock with his helmet on, not wanting to talk to anyone. but he did talk to franco and ollie and congratulate them on a job well done defending against him and racing against him. franco even fangirled over this on his instagram.

-charles was clearly upset with ferrari. he was so upset he posted a thirst trap.

-and oscar. oscar was very happy this afternoon. and his mom was there! she doesnt usually come cause it scares her, but nicole was there today!

-mclaren celebrated with a hell of a lot of champagne. both oscar’s wina and lando’s insane recovery, and the fact that they were leading the championship. red bull have been dethroned, at least for now.

-there was so much champagne that lando took off his socks to spray it. all seems well at mclaren.

-at least one thing is for sure, oscar had a better time here this weekend than last year when he got food poisoning and only ate four pieces of toast

and with that. we head into singapore. quite literally as it is starting in a few hours. again, i apologixe about this post. its a little sad, but the next one will be better. pinkly promise.

see you all soon!!!

#not a tag #from saph #saph explains silly season 2024 #WOO FUCKING HOOO #abu dhabi 2024 #Youtube #Instagram

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