#something something redbull juniors -> redbull drivers and Williams drivers

[speedyshark95]

Versainz lore is 10 times the lore Lestappen will ever be.

[cobraonthecob]

alpine has four reserve drive in paul aron, franco colapinto, ryo hirakawa, and now kush maini. i am very happy for kush but also like. why

this is more than excessive, this is gluttony at this point AND it doesn't make sense

teams cannot have more than four drivers compete on the team per season (i'd bet good money that if f1 didn't have that limitation, redbull would run through their junior drivers faster than fire on gasoline-covered dry tinder). alphatauri in 2023 was pushing that when they dropped nyck for daniel who would then break his hand two races in and had to put in liam, and then pray that nothing happened to either liam or yuki because that was going to be one awkward call to nyck or they just wouldn't field a car that grand prix

so like. on paper it would make sense to only have franco and ryo since ryo is in wec and would likely have schedule clashes that may prevent him from stepping in should he need to, where franco can come in to cover since franco isn't involved with any other motorsport. ferrari has that system going on where antonio is a wec driver but also their reserve, and guanyu can easily cover a weekend that antonio can't

but having four reserve drivers???? alpine isn't like red bull where they have a sister team (i.e. if something happened to be max and liam, yuki and isack would be put in the red bulls and then ayumu and pepe [i chose pepe for this because it'd be way too intense to put f3 speedrunner arvid into f1 with almost no prep, at least kimi had half of season to acclimate to f2 before getting to test at monza] would be in the vcarb) so why in the world do they have four reserve drivers? what was the reason to pull franco from williams and ryo from mclaren when their two academy drivers already have an f2 season under their belt?

we know that plenty of f2 drivers are capable of stepping into a seat as a substitute, like we saw with ollie, and paul aron is being primed for jack doohan's replacement (unless franco is a lot more convincing), so what's going on in alpine????

[myimaginarywonderland]

Seeing everyone talking about drivers moving teams like be ffr where is anyone going to go?

RedBull aren't going to take someone like Charles who could be a threat to Max.

McLaren is surely staying with that line up.for at least a year.

Aston aren't changing that line up unless Alonso wants to leave because they are clearly making a step up which can only continue.

Ferrari is a dumpster fire.

Anything else would probably be considered a down grade.

Alpine is a disaster class that will definitely keep their drivers.

Mercedes have been on a continuing down grade since 2022 but unless Lewis spontaneously decides to leave nothing changing there either.

Alfa might let Val go but I think he will stay at least another year.

Haas is just so toxic no one wants to touch that.

Alpha Tauri are possibly dropping Nyck but it will only be for a rookie in their academy.

Williams might lose Alex should he decide to go back to RedBull (something I don't think) but again I don't see any driver besides a junior driver or someone like Yuki etc. going here.

[f0point5]

I am a slightly new fan so wanted to ask

Why is McLaren’s full name McLaren Mercedes and Williams also has a Mercedes logo. And haas is also called haas Ferrari ?? Is it something to do with sponsors or what ??? And same with Aston martin redbull racing ?

They’re not called that.

I’m not sure where you’ve seen that but it’s two different things.

So McLaren and Williams use Mercedes engines, which is why you would see the names associated (Williams also use other Mercedes parts for their car which is why they are more closely associated) but neither Williams nor McLaren is sponsored by Mercedes. Haas uses a Ferrari engine and other parts which is why they would be associated. Both Williams and Haas have closer relationships with Mercedes and Ferrari respectively which is why they often take the team’s junior drivers (eg. Ollie Bearman).

Red bull is different, Aston Martin was what they call a title sponsor of Red Bull. They no longer sponsor red bull, RBR is now Oracle Red Bull Racing. As of 2025 the only team that doesn’t have a title sponsor is McLaren, so all other teams are technically called something else, it’s just the title sponsors are not usually mentioned when talking about the teams. Eg. Ferrari is actually HP Ferrari but no one would call it that in conversation.

I hope that helps explain it!

[myimaginarywonderland]

I am sorry are some of you trying to be this delusional or dense? Can you not just let Lewis say something for once without compeltly changing the meaning of what he said?

Not once did Lewis imply Max was a bad driver or that RedBull hasn't been on it for years.

Max is winning just like everyone else because he is a great driver with an amazing car. Just like Seb did or Michael, or Senna or Prost or literally anyone in the history of F1.

You can not win without an amazing car and you can not win if you aren't at least a good driver. And you can't win consistently if you aren't surounded by a high functioning team. You need strategist to be at their top, pitstops to go flawlessly, a great team manger and just an all around working environment. Seb had it, Hakkinnen had it, Kimi had it,literally every world champion had at least a good working environment if not a great one.

I am sure Lewis would say that for his titles everything also needed to be on top. Hell, we even saw how Mercedes had such a pace advantage at times that they relied on that and forget to actually work which caused stupid mistakes that ruined races.

Lewis is not hinting at anything, he is simply telling the truth. Expect for Checo and Daniel the only true competitors and comparison Max had were essentially rookies. Alex and Pierre were both inexperienced still and especially when it came to RedBull. Carlos was honestly never that good of a driverr before he got to McLaren and he literally started his rookie season alongside with Max.

And even Checo or Daniel are nowhere close to the level of caliber Lewis went up against in his rookie season let alone any other season.

Nando is probably the best driver of the 2000s if we ignore Michael. That man single-handedly beat Michael, challenged him and a young Kimi early one and nearly would have won 2 more titles in a Ferrari that he dragged up to the top because the car certainly wasn't on par with Sebs RedBull. If you can't see that Nando is probay the best of the early 2010s, hell even better than Seb possibly, you are just completely off.

Heikki was another great team-mate of Lewis. He was never a WDC but he was arguably good and had moments of genuine great drive.

Jenson is another incredible driver that is miles better than any team-mate Max has ever gone up against. I could name some races here but his title speaks for itself. He has also something that many of the drivers Max went against lacked which is a supportive environment.

And now we are down to Nico who is probably the greatest challenge Lewis ever had even though he went up against Nando. Nico is probably one of the most underrated WDC winners and genuinely a great driver.

Valtteri was quiet literally amazing at Williams even at Mercedes he did well if we ignore 2021 where it was clear that he was completly exhausted from trying to compete with Lewis.

George is a generational talent and a WDC in the making.

Meanwhile Checo is a great midfield driver and an okay top team driver.

And Daniel, he is a good top team driver. That's it. He isn't WDC material like George, one of the greats like Nando, a WDC like Jenson or Nico. He also was beaten by Valtteri so I think that tells us which of the two is better. (Let's not forget that Valtteri also had a better junior career and was getting podiums since his second year and beating more experienced drivers like Seb in worse machinery.)

Ricciardo is not on pare with any of Lewis teammates expect maybe Heikki and even that is underestimating Heikkis talents. And that's about it. It's fine to rate him highly especially as a fan but to imply that he is better than drivers line Jenson, Nico, Valtteri is just absurd.

Lewis has been against good, great or even some of the best drivers for his whole career.

The only thing Max had to face were average rookies, a good midfield driver and Daniel. This isn't be meant to shame Max, he is still an incredible driver but he never had anything close to the challenge that Lewis team-mates posed over the years. Not to mention the whole Brocedes thing which took not only fighting but also the literally destroying of a life long friendship and emotional wounds which will probably never heal.

All of Lewis teammates if not for him would at the very least be challenging for a WDC or would have in most cases won it. No one of Max's teammates comes close to that. Not Sainz, not Alex, not Gasly, not Checo and certainly not Daniel eventhough many would like to think that. This doesn't mean they are bad drivers but none of them have the winner mentality, the genuine unique talent or the incredible speed to ever come close to that, let alone the strategic thinking. They don't have that cut edge which every WDC had but which could he different for everyone.

This need to use anything Lewis says and twist it to fit into a narrative is something I thought we left behind. This need to undermine Lewis's success and subsequently everyone who was alongside him for that is toxic and harmful, not to mention incredibly disheartening because it discredits so many drivers in the protest.

To act like Lewis teammates are bad purely to uplift a good driver is damaging the reputation of those drivers even more although all of them are clearly great drivers.

To act like Lewis has always been in his prime Mercedes days is just a false narrative. Lewis has been one of the greats since he came in and nearly won the title in his rookie season against a much more experienced drivers and another highly skilled driver.

I don't care what you think about Max even in 2016, he was far too reckless and hot headed to have won a title if he would have had the Mercedes.

I don't think some of you guys understand how incredible what Lewis did was especially since he was in a field of such skilled and well established drivers.

And if you guys want to bost some slightly better than mid driver (in the grand scheme of F1) by discrediting some of the greats of this decade and one of the best in the sport, you better be prepared to face this backlash because Ricciardo isn't even close to any of Lewis teammates and he clearly wasn't a challenge to Max either.

Max has never had to fight a team-mate like Lewis has had to fight Nando or even Nico.

This doesn't make Max a bad driver or makes him accomplishments any less meaningful. He is still a great driver and to admit that he didn't face the same fights as Lewis isn't taking that away.

But you can not compare them.

Lewis has been fighting for titles against some of the best for his whole career.

The only fight Max ever had was against Lewis and neither one of them truly won that.

Max has had average teammates, good at most and never great like Lewis did.

I'm sorry.. What a shit take 😂 Max is winning because he is MAX! There is no need to hint at Max's team mates current or past that they're ”bad” or slow.

Daniel's metacarpal alone is better than half of those he named.. 🙄 AND! Red Bull were best at strategy and pitstops even when they weren't winning.

[fanthaastic]

Catch up ask:

- Mick crashed out in FP3 and the mechanics couldn't fix the car before quali, he didn't go out hence the p20. Not sure if he's starting p20 or from pit lane though, not sure what parts they had to replace.

- the 'thing' that happened in quali is that Lewis was booed during the post-quali interviews. This was because in q3, everyone went out for a last lap. Lewis, then Max, then Checo, made up the last three cars in the line. People were/are accusing Lewis of driving slowly in his outlap, trying to block Max and Checo from crossing the line before the chequered flag. In the end Checo was too late and couldn't put in a last lap (he stayed p4 tho), Max crossed in time and set another lap (but stayed p3). However, data everywhere shows Lewis wasn't slow (he was just breaking trying to create a gap between himself and Bottas in front and his outlap was actually his fastest lol). So just stupid stuff but yea, they booed Lewis and even Bottas said something about it in the press conference without being asked about it which says a lot.

- Williamsgate I am not 100% updated on because I just woke up but from what I've gathered Dan Ticktum said some bad/negative things about Latifi and his fathers money which is. You know. Williams Junior versus actual Williams driver. Don't know his actual words though.

- not sure what Red Bull gate is this time? Could be a few things but those are all from the last few days, in case you missed anything: Helmut Marko called Yuki 'not a typical Japanese' because he is not 'submissive' (?), they made Alex drive Lewis' lap from Silverstone trying to prove a point to the FIA (their appeal was rejected eventually), they made Alex sit in a sim for 4 days straight and he posted about it so now the joke going around is that RB is holding Alex hostage, but there's nothing specific related to yesterday or quali so not sure tbh.

thank you so much!! tbh i would be so lost without all your updates so thank you 🤍

the redbull part just sounds like something that would happen on the real housewives of milton keynes