#and securing points for the wcc

[landonor]

clearly george was traumatized by mclaren's team play and 'team orders' cause why is he still going on and on about it

[charles-leclerc-official]

2024 Japan Grand Prix Race Analysis

My analysis of the 2024 Japan Grand Prix. Table of contents below detailing the order of the post. We have a lot to cover as this was an eventful race so I am not going to waste time making introductions.

Table of Contents  Ferrari – Race strategy: qualifying and tyre management – Charles: his qualifying and his race – Carlos: his race – In depth data and pace analysis Mclaren – Race strategy – Tyre management/Charles – Pace VCARB – Yuki: his race – Daniel: his crash with Alex Red Bull Mercedes Williams – Logan: his race – Team car problems Stake Concluding Thoughts

Ferrari

Ferrari had Carlos start in P4 and finish P3. Charles started P8 and finished P4. They both further secured Ferrari's lead for second in the constructors as well as keeping the WDC and WCC still competitive against Red Bull.

This race highlighted some areas that need to be improved on the SF-24 but more importantly it also showed some of the massive improvements that Ferrari has made in development and that is what made this race very exciting for Ferrari fans.

Once again the Ferrari strategy was great. It would have actually been good to mid if it were not for Charles having the skill and confidence to go for the one-stop strategy. But this is another race where I don't think they could have done anything better.

As it was with the starting grid positions Charles was looking at maybe getting P7 or P6 with a 2 stop strategy. And that strategy was most likely given the track and how much deg there usually is at Suzuka.

The reason Charles made it to P4 was because of his superior driving and tyre management, and Ferrari listening to him when he said he wanted to go for the one-stop strategy. They listened and it was 100% the right call on Charles’ part. 

Charles outperformed what should have been possible. If you don’t believe me just look at what Max, Lando, Oscar, Checo, Mclaren, and Red Bull are saying about his tyre management. Charles in the SF-24 was the only one who could have pulled that one-stop off. Seriously, the fact that Max didn’t think he could have done it is really all you need to know. They saw that and were genuinely impressed not only by the car but by Charles, because we saw that with Carlos he was struggling more with tyre deg and that was with a two-stop approach. 

So not only was this the best strategy to maximize points for Charles this race given his starting grid position, it was also just a truly phenomenal drive from Charles himself. 

And once again we are seeing incredible strides being made at the Ferrari pit wall in terms of timing and strategy. The pit stops for both drivers were on point. They listened to Charles and went with the strategy he wanted and it worked! 

Everything I saw this race was so promising for the trajectory of Ferrari and Charles’ season, and beyond into 2025 and 2026.

Charles: Race, Qualifying, and Free Practice

Charles ran a truly insane race. The only reason he gained all of the positions he did was because of his choice to do the one-stop and not only that but making it work! He gained every position it was possible for him to take and then some. His tyre management on this high degredation track was borderline supernatural.

Charles pulled off zero to negative tyre degradation on both sets of his tyres. (Negative deg is when faster laps are set as the tyres age) This was without question the best tyre management performance we have seen from a driver in 2024. It is something that no other driver could pull off (either due to skill, driving style, or machinery) and that is why Charles is Ferrari. 

Have I waxed on long enough about Charles and his tyres? Just wait till you get to the Mclaren section.

I also have a lot more to say about his pace and tyres in the data section.

For now let's move on to some of the questions people might have about what happened to Charles in qualifying and FP3.

Charles qualifying position was decided in free practice. I want to try to be brief, so here is a quick timeline of why Charles’ didn’t have the optimal setup for qualifying (this also applies to Carlos because both Ferrari’s underperformed in qualifying, there was a difference of 1/10th between them so it really was just a matter of the field being so tight)

Suzuka is colder during the day than any race we’ve had so far this year. With the SF-24 being so good with tyre deg that is actually a problem because it means that getting the tyres to warm up takes longer. 

The loss of all of FP2 due to rain was a big blow to Ferrari and especially Charles.

Charles has been having more issues getting his qualifying settings right to manage the tyre warming issue. This is due to his personal setup choices and driving style. Being gentler on the tyres in a car with less deg is leading to him underperforming in qualifying. 

So we lost valuable time when Ferrari really needed to understand the SF-24 behavior in the colder Suzuka temps. 

FP3: Charles and Carlos both got in some race sim laps, but only got to squeeze in 1 or 2 flying lap tests at the very end. Charles especially was frustrated by this. I believe that this came from not having the time to complete all of the program they had outlined to prep for qualifying and the race. 

Going into qualifying Charles didn’t have enough data to guide his settings for Q1. They went with a certain setup they hadn’t gotten to fully test and it didn’t work. Which led to them having to send Charles out again in Q1 with a different setup on another set of softs to try to set a better lap in Q1.

In Q3 Charles only had 1 set of softs remaining to set his best lap. It was okay but not enough. I do think that over qualifying he did get settings better on the car and if he’d had another set of softs he might have made it up to P6 (possibly P5) the middle of the field was very close so I don’t think this qualifying placement and time was as bad as it looks. It certainly isn’t great, but compared to his teammate and the rest of the top teams it wasn’t so concerning. 

So the lack of enough free practice to figure out the best qualifying setup for Charles in the colder temps is really what cost them here. I think this is why we saw Charles very frustrated at not having the time to do more flying laps during FP3 and Fred also not happy with the program they ran during all free practice sessions.

All of this does apply to Carlos as well. We’ve seen him qualify better in 2024 too so this was just a matter of the SF-24 settings on flying laps given the colder temps and the track. 

This is a current issue for the SF-24, but it is something that can be developed and I think there are certain upgrades that will address this. It is better to have a car base that is too gentle on the tyres than the other way around. The SF-24 tyre treatment is a good base to work with. This weekend just highlighted areas where improvements need to be made. The unfortunate part was the loss of FP2 because that was going to be important for colder temp data gathering.

I want to once again now take the time to shut down some narratives about Ferrari's race specifically relating to Carlos' lap 46 pass on Charles:

The reason Charles and Ferrari let Carlos pass was because Carlos was on newer tyres and thus had overall faster lap times.

It’s insane to expect a team to keep the car that has faster pace behind. I could see it if it was a difference of 1/10th or something or if it was the last lap of the race, then it’s up for debate. That wasn’t the case here, Carlos with the tyres that were 10 laps newer was almost 1 second faster. Keeping him behind would have not only compromised his race but also possibly Charles’. We don’t want a car just hovering behind the other. As we heard on the radio the main concern was keeping Lando behind. As far as gaining significant placement this race goes we always knew Lando was going to be Charles' competition. If the cars were fighting over pace with this big of a discrepancy in the pace we would have seen disastrous results. 

Charles knew this and this is why he let Carlos by. He was never intending to race Carlos(he literally said this in interviews after). With the way they started on the grid it was not going to be in the cards this race. Charles said as much and he isn’t upset about it. 

“Carlos overtook Charles”: No, Charles let him pass because that was strategically optimal for both Ferrari drivers. 

“Carlos’ pace was better”: No, he was on a completely different tyre strategy, the only reason he was faster is because he did two stints on mediums and then finished on newer hards. Charles overall race pace and tyre management was better. This is just a result of 1. Different starting positions and 2. Different tyre strategies. It’s very hard to do a driver-to driver comparison with blanket statements when they are on different strategies.

“Ferrari gave the order to switch with Sainz”: No, they just didn’t do that, I don’t know what race you were watching.

“They should have told Carlos to defend”: That would have been a bad strategy choice for both drivers. There is a lot more than current track position that goes into strategy calls.

"Ferrari strategy screwed Charles over again": No, Charles chose his strategy(and it was the right call). Ferrari did great in supporting him.

I don't understand why people want to run this narrative that we keep getting Silverstone 22' level strategy calls when that is just not happening.

Now Charles radio after the race may have sounded disappointed and in the heat of the moment he probably was. However in interviews after the race he was very happy with the car (I think he realized just what a good performance he put in) but also I think his big takeaway from this race was that Ferrari have given him a strong base to work with(finally) and he has been only saying more positive things since then.

Ferrari did amazing supporting both drivers. Especially Charles because it was his call to do the one-stop and they listened to him and supported him perfectly throughout running that strategy.

Carlos

Carlos ran a clean race. He gained the one position which is about what we'd expect from the car he was in and his starting position. His performance also gave us really good baseline data for the SF-24.

His race was mostly decided in qualifying and also the fact that Mclaren struggled far more than expected on this track. Ferrari initially thought he might have to fight Lando more for that position but Mclaren's struggle was Carlos' gain.

I also think that just this race in general from him and his driving style was really good data for the SF-24 to inform development and that is awesome!

I don't have a ton to add, it was good, got those WCC points for Ferrari and that's exactly what we want to see from him.

In Depth Data Analysis

The name of the game here is tyre wear. The SF-24 (especially in Charles' hands) has had phenomenal race pace and that is due to the fact that this car is so easy on the tyres. However Charles is the driver who has been able to pull this feature out of the car due to his driving style and tyre management skills.

We are going to look at a comparison of Charles' and Carlos' data to highlight exactly what was so interesting about Charles' pace. And then also adding in Max, because as the driver to beat he is a good benchmark(as well as showing the top performance of the RB-20)

Here is a comparison of lap times between Charles and Carlos, corrected for tyre age(because they were on different strategies)

For the medium tyre I used both their first medium stints. Carlos did two stints on mediums, I used his first stint for comparison because it means both tyres were subject to the same time of day and track temps and conditions. 

Now the lap times themselves here aren’t as important. Carlos and Charles were in different spots on the track and Carlos was in much cleaner air even on that first stint. The real thing to look at is the way Charles lap time stays consistent, and even gets faster as the age of the tyres progresses, while Carlos starts off with his best speed and then gradually gets slower. Carlos’ pace here is an example of what we expect to see - as tyres age they get slower so his pace on these tyres is perfectly normal, by the time he got to lap 14 before he pitted he’d lost more than a second of pace on those tyres (which is normal and expected). Then we can then look at Charles who is getting almost the exact same lap time out of his 11 lap old mediums as the first lap. Where Carlos has lost more than a second, Charles has lost nothing. Furthermore you can see multiple instances of an increased speed on his previous laps, which indicates negative tyre degradation. This goes against general tyre wear behavior and can only be attributed to Charles’ skill in extending the pace of his tyres.

I want to add that both driver’s pace was excellent and that both their performances would not have been possible without the massive leap Ferrari has made with the SF-24 and race pace tyre degradation. 

Again looking at the hards the actual lap time is not important here, Charles and Carlos were running very different strategies at this point. Charles was racing to extend the life of the tyres to pull off a one-stop and Carlos was trying to regain position near the front. What we are looking at is once again the way the lap times increase for Carlos steadily, and just don’t for Charles. 

Charles once again was pulling essentially the same lap time on 11 lap old hards, while Carlos had lost a full second. The sheer consistency here is what is scaring the other teams. 

I want to note here that none of this is meant to make Carlos look bad. I think his runs and tyre treatment were pretty good overall, but when your teammate is defying the laws of physics in the same car it can even make a good drive look not as great. But I have no issues with how Carlos managed, he gave a good example of what I would say is the base deg for the SF-24.

Now I want to compare Charles’ pace to Max’s, again correcting for tyre age. 

This is helpful because this is where we can get a look at match-ups for the future, the strengths of the SF-24 compared to the RB20. 

Here is where it gets interesting. Max on the hards was managing degradation amazingly, right on par with Charles. 

The big difference is on the mediums. After 11 laps Max had lost over a full second of pace on the mediums and Charles had not. 

This gap is where we are going to see big results come in from the SF-24 in the future. If I were Red Bull I’d be worried about this. And this is why they are also specifically worried about Charles, because we see that the SF-24 in Carlos hands is behaving as expected as far as tyre deg goes, the real threat based on the data is the combination of Charles Leclerc and the SF-24. 

Deltas Δ

Now let's take a look at what the change in pace lap to lap looks like for Charles, Max and Carlos. Again using those first 11 laps on the mediums.

Lap deltas are the change in lap time lap-to-lap, and this is a metric that shows if a driver is keeping pace, gaining pace or losing pace. Positive numbers mean a loss of pace, negative numbers are a gain. This is calculated by the equation of (Lap time B - Lap time A = change in pace or the delta Δ) So it's just the time difference lap to lap. This is how we can take a look at the actual pace and correct for lap times (which are not important here)

On it's own this doesn't look like much, yes Charles is managing best, but Carlos is also ahead of Max. This is showing where the SF-24 is better than the RB-20. The fact that of these three drivers Max is the worst on this metric is notable.

However the impressive part of Charles' tyre deg is not in these first 11 laps. Because after these laps Max and Carlos had to pit because they were losing time and their tyres were done.

Charles kept going.

Here is what Charles' full stint on the mediums looked like.

Charles continued to achieve faster laps and negative deltas well into the life of the tyres, and that is what is setting him apart from Carlos and Max.

Not only was Charles achieving negative deltas, he was doing it more consistently as the tyres aged.

For comparison here is Carlos' and Max's data overlayed on Charles full medium stint.

While the first graph on the mediums shows that both Ferrari's were outperforming the RB20 in terms of deg(or at the very least Carlos was on a very similar delta to Max), this is where you see the difference in the drivers. Because Max and Carlos had to pit because they were rapidly losing performance on those tyres(see above time sheets) Charles was not, and he only improved. He more than doubled the life of his tyres in comparison to the other two.

This is the graph that really matters because it shows what each driver was able to do with one set of mediums. And as you can see it's not even close.

This is where you can see the impact of the negative deg over time. Compared to the normal deg we see with Max and Carlos it serves to highlight exactly how outside of the norm Charles was operating.

Charles only continued to improve well beyond the other two. That's what was insane about his tyre management.

Neither Carlos or Max were going to be able to continue their pace (hence the pit)

I feel like the data really speaks for itself. Max and Carlos are good comparisons here, Carlos is a good driver in the same car as Charles, and Max is the current top driver on the grid and is known for his tyre management.

I want to finish this section with the sentence that is chilling the blood of every other driver and TP on the grid: Charles set his fastest lap of his race on 25 lap old hards.

Mclaren

So what happened to Mclaren?

A lot of people were expecting Mclaren to be the second strongest team on this track. And qualifying certainly made it look like that might be the case. With Lando being ahead of Carlos in P3 and Oscar being ahead of Charles in P6 on the starting grid.

So why did both Mclarens get easily defeated by the Ferraris?

I think there are 2 main reasons.

The Mclaren car is not even close to the SF-24 when it comes to tyre deg, that car loses pace much faster so it just cannot fight when a Ferrari comes up behind it.

Charles 1 stop strategy really messed up the team's pit strategy with Lando. 

In Mclaren’s defense no one thought anyone would be crazy enough to try a 1 stop around Suzuka, let alone have zero tyre deg on a high deg track. 

They seemed to be managing their pit strategy with Lando under the assumption that Charles was going to pit twice, and I think they were very worried about an undercut in the pits (after they didn’t get away with it in Australia I think they were very keen to make sure they kept their position)

But Charles didn’t do a 2 stop strategy. He stayed out and his pace on the hards was unbelievable. 

There was really no way for them to see that coming. It’s kind of hard when your main competition decides this is the weekend he’s going to challenge the laws of physics.

(And you thought I was done talking about Charles’ tyre strategy)

Here is a graph of Lando vs Carlos. That was the spot he lost, and you can see that the pit strategy is really what cost Lando the spot. Carlos came behind him on much fresher tyres and by then he'd lost the pace. He pitted too early, and that was due to Mclaren not understanding that Charles is on another level.

His pace was okay on newer tyres, but once they age the drop off was pretty bad. So the Mclaren car needs to improve in the tyre deg department if they want to see either of their drivers beat a Ferrari any time this year.

Furthermore Oscar once again struggled more because he is still the weaker of the two Mclarens when it comes to tyre deg, and on this track that really showed. 

But I think the fact that Mclaren kept trying to figure out when Charles was going to pit for his second stint and then he just didn’t really threw them off and had them making some weird pit calls. 

VCARB

Yuki

Yuki ran what was in my opinion the second most impressive drive of the race. He qualified P10 and finished P10. However to keep that position he pulled of some truly perfect overtakes. He was fighting to finally get that home race point. I was so excited seeing him put on that good of a show for his home fans.

In this race he became the first Japanese driver to score home race points since 2012, and that is just so exciting for Yuki and his fans. It really made that single point mean a lot. I don't think I have ever been more excited for a P10!

Yuki has really been showing what the VCARB car is capable of and it looks really promising. He seems comfortable and I think we will be seeing a lot more points from him this season.

Daniel: Crash with Albon and DNF

Going to be covering Alex and Daniel's crash this section.

On lap 1, Daniel and Alex made contact going into turn 3, resulting in both cars going off the track and ending up in the barriers. Both drivers had to retire from the race.

To me this looked like a result of crowding into that turn in the mid field with neither driver at significant fault. I don't think Daniel was trying to push Alex wide, and I also don't think that Alex mistook that corner. The FIA and stewards agree and Alex and Daniel's story of what happened make sense.

Going into the turn Daniel had the outside line, and he was trying to give room to the Aston Martin(Lance) on his inside. He didn't see Alex on his outside and his wheel made contact with Alex's front wing, causing his car to spin and pushing Alex of the line and into the gravel.

Alex thought he had the outside line to overtake and was in the process of attempting that when Daniel went to give space on the inside, this resulted in the contact and Daniel forcing him wide.

This crash really just was a result of crowding in that corner, Daniel was trying to give space to one driver and inadvertently crowded out another. There wasn't space so he was kind of in a lose-lose situation there.

I agree with the stewards that no penalty for either driver was warranted and that this was the result of midfield crowding, and some bad luck for both drivers. It wasn't a result of bad driving on either Daniel or Alex's part. Even if Daniel had seen Alex I am not sure what he could have done if he also needed to give room to Lance.

Ultimately I am glad both drivers are uninjured. Hopefully they have some better luck in future races.

Red Bull

I don't have a ton to say about Red Bull. My comparison in the Ferrari data section is what was most interesting about this race from the data standpoint.

They didn't do much, the Red Bulls started ahead and finished ahead as expected. Max and Checo both ran a really clean race. Again showing the power of the RB-20.

I will add that this was a really good race for Checo(probably his best this year), and it was nice to see him have redemption after Suzuka 2023.

Nothing terribly exciting to add. Max won again, well done Max!

Mercedes

Mercedes didn't have a great race, but considering that both their drivers DNFed in Australia it was good for the team to get some points. Lewis started in P7 and finished P9, while George started P9 and finished P7. So they swapped positions.

It seems that the Mercedes car might be better on those qualifying laps than the race pace (and even then it's qualifying has been inconsistent)

The most notable thing about Mercedes' race was when Lewis asked if he should let George pass when George came up behind him, and George did in fact make the pass. This was done simply because George's pace was better. Lewis knew this so it was best for the team.

I think that so far we have seen that the W15 is struggling in a lot of areas, and as far as drivers go George has been more comfortable in the car(could be driving style, setup, a combo of the two) than Lewis.

Both are solid drivers, and hopefully they can guide Mercedes into making improvements to the car to get them closer to top points. At this point the car Mercedes has made seems to have fallen short of expectations. Make no mistake though, Lewis and George are both drivers who are much better than the car they are in at the moment.

Williams

I covered Alex's crash with Daniel already so we are going to talk about Logan.

Logan honestly did about the best he could do in the car he had. After damaging both his front and rear wing in free practice and still using the repaired chassis from Australia his car was not in the best shape already going into the race. Additionally the Williams really struggled with grip in the rears and has been all over the place. Suzuka especially seems to have not been suited to it.

Yes on lap 41 Logan went off track into a gravel trap, but that was on a corner that had given more skilled and experienced drivers trouble this weekend so I am not going to fault him too much for that in the car he had. Better cars were having problems there too.

He did have a really strong first stint and was pulling some overtakes. Most of his positions were lost when he did get undercut by some pit stops, and then of course losing time to the gravel trap.

The win is that he finished the race and the car is intact. That may not seem like much, but given the state of things at Williams it's important.

There were some highlights for his race and I will say in terms of raw performance he has not been far off Alex this year. That car of Williams is really hindering both drivers.

Stake

Stake actually had pretty good pace overall. The car is not as bad as it has looked on paper. The main issues has been their slow pit stops (caused by incompatibility between the bolters and the tyre covers apparently) Zhou and Valtteri both showed some pretty good pace and were in positions for overtakes.

Zhou unfortunately had to retire his car due to gearbox issues.

Stake has really been a mess and we have not seen what that car can actually do in terms of performance overall, or what what their drivers are capable of in that car.

They are making attempts to address the pit stop issue and I think if they do that, then we will see both drivers picking up some P10 points at the very least.

Final Thoughts

I think we can all agree that Suzuka was the best race of the year so far from a pure racing standpoint!

Whew, that’s all I got on this race, so I will leave you with this final thought. 

This race was a warning shot from Ferrari.

[valyrfia]

If Red Bull continues to falter, it won't even be a fight for P2, it will legitimately be a fight for the WDC between three or more drivers.

Every race for the rest of the season will make or break a driver's WDC chances.

Of the top drivers, who suits the remaining tracks the best? Charles and Ferrari usually do well in Baku and Singapore. Austin I'm not sure about. Maxico could return if Red Bull get their shit together. Brazil is always a toss up. Not much to go on for Vegas but Max and Charles did well there last year and Lando had a terrible crash. Qatar being hot could go McLaren or Ferrari's way, and Abu Dhabi is normally a Max track but we'll see!

This is gearing up to be one of the best seasons in recent times.

I would not count Max, Lando, or even Charles out of this WDC fight. Red Bull have essentially committed to writing off the next two races (which are historically their weakest) in order to bring upgrades to COTA–but some of the midfield are bringing upgrades to Baku which, if they work, might result in the frontrunners eating into the points delta that Max has. Even worse, the RB20 could be fucked in that the upgrades could simply not work. Red Bull are gambling that Ferrari, Merc, and Oscar Piastri won't let Lando close in too much on points.

McLaren typically do well on the next run of tracks, but so do Ferrari and especially so does Charles. Singapore, Mexico, and Qatar are high downforce which McLaren has always had the edge even last year on so I would bet on them to have the best chance of winning those, however that team is on the brink of a civil war and it'll be interesting to see which McLaren driver pulls it off and crucially–Charles Leclerc is an absolute wildcard at this point in the season. We're finally seeing four or so years of Charles being forced to drive unpredictable cars paying off–he has proven time and time again this season in Suzuka, in Monaco, in Zandvoort, in Monza that he doesn't now actually need the best car, it only needs to be good enough in order to be a real strategy and racing headache for everyone around him. McLaren thought their 1-2 was secured in Monza because they didn't think Charles had the pace nor the tyres to win on the one-stop and yet. Charles is completely unpredictable and at the end of the day McLaren may be correct in prioritising their team harmony and a WCC (which some see as a done deal) over Lando's possible WDC because if Charles keeps pulling off performances like that and Carlos keeps up the good consistency he's been showing recently....yeah the WCC could swing. There's only 41 points, Ferrari are very much in contention for that championship still and could win it if McLaren aren't very careful. That's why honestly, as cringe as papaya rules are, McLaren HAS to enforce them because if Oscar and Lando had crashed out in lap 1 yesterday and Ferrari secured the 1-2, Ferrari would suddenly have overtaken them for P2 in the WCC

I think it's likely the gap between Lando and Max could close to less than 20 points before Abu Dhabi, however it could be entirely possible that the gap between Charles and Lando could close to less than that, and indeed all the gaps close up so that the championship is still mathematically possible down to Oscar by the time Abu Dhabi rolls around. And we've still got three sprints to go too, which are complete wildcards with eight crucial points up for grabs in each. Yeah, hand to my heart I would probably still predict that Max takes this WDC but these next eight race weekends are absolutely crucial. One misjudgement, one DNF, one bad strategy call, one safety car, could win or lose the championships. It's going to be exciting, it's going to be tense, I don't think I'll be able to breathe until December.

[blorbocedes]

some predictions from someone who is not gonna watch most of this season:

this is shaping up to be lando norris maiden championship UNLESS redbull get their car fixed in which case it's max's fifth title.

the only way a non mclaren driver or max wins is if mclarens keep taking points off each other aka trading wins. this is mcl's only shot at securing both wdc and wcc before the regs change next year, so I am assuming after half season they're going to implement team orders/1-2 order. so if oscar wants his shot, he needs to catch up to lando in the standings and decisively beat him the next few races.

[pikaclerc]

Carlos Sainz is not the main responsible for Ferrari jumping from P6 to P2 in the wcc in 4 years

Before I get yelled at for being a hater, let me acknowledge that of course Carlos has contributed to the P2 in the wcc, I'm not attempting to question that. What I want to talk about is this claim I've seen going around for a few days now and that is now being echoed by some well known publications that Carlos being hired in 2020 is what led to Ferrari securing a P2 in 2024. Let's look at the 22 season, where Ferrari also placed P2 btw, as I believe this is the easiest way to disprove this claim.

Despite there being many different updates to the F1-75 I think we can define 2 main eras of this car: the one where it looked like the championship winner and the whatever that was after one. If you go back to read statements/interviews, you name it, from that season, you'll quickly find out that Charles was more comfortable with the first version of the car while Carlos was more comfortable with the second, which is indeed the slowest one. I don't think I have to explain why a driver preferring the slower version of a car is not ideal for a wcc fight or why "Carlos said he was more comfortable with that F1-75 but that doesn't mean he preferred it" is not a reality that exists.

Still regarding 2022, let's talk about what Carlos' father said at the end of the season. "But user pikaclerc that's his father, not him". Let's not be naïve, we all know how much his father is involved in his career at this point. Sainz Sr said "Next year’s car has good changes compared to what made him uncomfortable in 2022”. Now go back to my previous point, read that statement again, remember how the initial SF-23 performed, and let's do some math.

Carlos has obviously every right to have his own car preferences and opinions, but is it really fair to attribute the upwards climb Ferrari looks like it's on to a driver who preferred 2 cars that weren't our greatest by any means? Again not to say Carlos hasn't done positive things for Ferrari, but you cannot pretend the negative ones don't exist.

Let's again not be naïve and also acknowledge his support for Binotto and the fact Ferrari would not be here if Binotto had remained as TP.

So yes, Carlos has for sure for the 4 years he was at the Scuderia given them positive feedback and results that have helped Ferrari get to where it is now, just like every driver is supposed to, just like Charles has despite what the lack of highlight on statements from people at Ferrari on his contributions wants you to believe. But he's not the mastermind strategist that has orchestrated Ferrari's climb to the top he's being portrayed as. He supported catastrophic decisions that were made.

Ferrari is where it is today because of the change in team leadership, because people from Ferrari saw the downwards path this team was heading in with no functioning brakes and put a stop to it. Let's not forget the engineers, mechanics, the people at the factory and so many others who have done a remarkable job in the past 2 seasons. The team is not yet where we want it to be, but it has massively improved because of them, and trust that drivers are good at what they do but when it comes to engineering and mechanics they are not better than the people who have gone to school and dedicated years off their lives to these areas.

I get people want to praise Carlos, I get his fans want to prove Ferrari wrong, but ignoring every flaw he has as a driver and as an element of a team is not the way to do it. Even if you don't care that you're erasing the hard work of so many people by wrongfully attributing it to him, if you just care about him as his fan, you're creating a fake narrative about him, you're creating a Carlos Sainz that doesn't exist, you're creating a scenario where if Williams fails to massively improve the man you're deciding to portray as "The savior of teams" will face some tough questions. You may like the praise now, but you may not like where this conversation is at in a year or two.

[landoposition]

everyone can't do maths 😭

Lando - 374 out of 666 is 56%

Oscar got 44% of the points

but it's beyond that, because as you said it's not all about points, it's about who constantly thought about the team

every interview with Lando it was "the team" and with Oscar it was "i" - best example being Monza

Baku, if Lando hadn't been so quick to say "yep how long do you want Checo held up for" the high likelihood was Oscar wouldn't have won

today, Oscar got unlucky with max but then made mistakes, it literally hinged on Lando not losing the win to stop Ferrari outscoring them, because that would've happened if Ferrari got a 1-3? that's 40 points over Lando's 18, that's the 22 they needed to overtake

Lando p2 fastest lap? Ferrari would win on count back because they'd have won the race

Lando secured the WCC end of

THANK YOU LOVELY ANON!!! THANK YOU

[laura1633]

Lauraaaaaaa it’s math time

I wouldn’t mind if we have a Lestappen 1-2 at the end🥰

This is the type of math I actually enjoy 😂

Is it odd that for the past few months I have had a note app on my phone detailing how many points Max would need to lead by to secure the championship hahaha! It's why I estimated he would win it Las Vegas lol which I guess could still mathematically happen.

I would love for Charles to finish second, I think he genuinely deserves it! He has driven so well all year.

If Ferrari beat Mclaren to the the WCC I will never stop smiling. It's a big ask but it could happen.

[i-piloti]

Ok after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix we are all ~feeling things~ and of course hats of to Lando, Carlos was amazing, and Charles had a legendary drive moving up something like 13 grid places or whatever.

But OSCAR, my man, bro really had a fantastic race, too. And here’s why.

We all know that for Ferrari to win the WCC, they needed to bag 22 points more than McLaren. And with Charles making it to P3 and Carlos just 2 seconds behind Lando at one point, there was a moment, a tiny sliver of possibility, that if Lando had fucked up just enough for Carlos to overtake him, Ferrari would’ve won the WCC. Had Carlos won and got 25 points with Charles in P3 taking 15, Ferrari would’ve walked away with 40 points, exactly 22 more than the 18 Lando would’ve earned in P2 with 18 points. This only works because Oscar was out of the points.

EXCEPT!! Except my dude Oscar, despite being crashed into and pushed to the back of the pack on LAP 1, made it all the way back to P10 to earn 1 point. Even if by some miracle Carlos had surpassed Lando, Oscar’s 1 point secured the WCC for McLaren.

I’m feeling normal about this like ok I am NOT obsessing over the most exciting race of the entire season also GO OSCAR

[mgu-h]

I wonder if at some point the mclarens will ask to actually split both sides of the garage considering what theyre fighting for, like why should the car behind refuse to play with strategy from the start? the wcc is pretty much secured at this point

to be honest, i doubt it, like i think they're going to stay as neutral as possible, as long as possible, for the entire year if they can get away with it. unless it becomes absolutely necessary to back one of the drivers from an external threat for the wdc, they're not going to let them use strategy to gain advantage over their teammate. their whole philosophy with lando and oscar is thinking long-term and trying to avoid acrimony and resentment, more accusations of bias than they already get. they're going to try to safely get 1-2s until it is mathematically impossible for another team to get the wdc, and then they'll keep trying to get 1-2s for the hell of it. i sincerely doubt that they'll ever let either side of the garage use strategy to 'steal' earned track position, even if that's a normal part of racing.

[lousycapy]

Btw I know the team orders ended up not mattering that much because they both went off later in the wet anyways, so sorry about ranting about it in this post, but I needed to get it out there because I hate team orders in general with a burning passion 😅

I’m actually curious how people feel about team orders. For me they’re like, one of the worst things to ever grace F1 because they are ultimately anti-racing. As much as a team can want to secure their positions, the driver wants to secure the highest position he can and since it’s an individual sport for the big prize, the wdc, I think individual priority should always override team priority.

At the end of the day, the goal of the wdc is to determine the best driver over the whole season, not the one who could amass the most points during the first half in order to cruise to the title with 1st driver priority in the other half. If their teammate is performing better than them on a given weekend then that’s on them for not doing as well, it should never go down to stopping someone from earning a position or giving away a well-earned position.

As for “safety” team orders, as we saw this weekend, I believe they’re also pretty useless. Especially in McLaren’s case, because it’s not like they don’t know their drivers. They’ve had them for 2 years. I can’t even remember a single time they didn’t race cleanly, not even sure it ever happened. As long as they know what’s happening around them, so that two haas are in front at delta x and a redbull at delta x, they should be allowed to do what they want in their best interest. The lapped cars will get out of the way either way. They might be hungry to pass/defend but they’re not stupid, if they think something is too risky they won’t go all in. And the excuse of “going off the racing line to go w2w being too risky because of the wet” is null when we saw Oscar overtake Lewis by doing so.

Idk, in my opinion every decision that benefits the driver in front at the expense of the driver behind is shameful. An embarrassment to the sport, a disrespect to what racing is about.

The only time I can see them being somewhat acceptable is when one of the drivers’ race is already done, so like Checo in Abu Dhabi 2021 or swapping the faster driver to the front to attack other drivers and swapping back if he doesn’t succeed. And to be fair even those are awful because you’re still giving someone something they haven’t earned, but at least they’re not antithetical to teammate rivalries.

Urgh, I just wish the team aspect didn’t play such a big role in a championship designed for individuality. Maybe attributing prize money for wdc positions instead of the wcc would actually do some good to the sport. Because we’re in a weird place right now where despite the wdc being the ultimate goal of a formula 1 season, it’s the wcc that attributes money. It would force teams to take the best drivers in. And instead of simply prioritizing one driver they’d have to be careful with both because both’s positions would bring money in.

[charles-leclerc-official]

2024 Austin Grand Prix Race Analysis

Charles brought home his third victory of the 2024 season with an impressive drive going from P4 to P1 in the first corner of lap 1. Behind him Max and Lando continued to battle while this weekend set up a very tight race for the WCC.

Table of Contents Ferrari - Charles - Carlos - Data Analysis Red Bull - Max - Max vs Lando: footage analysis - Data Analysis Mclaren - Lando - Oscar - Data Analysis Mercedes - George Conclusion

The Austin GP set the stage for the final stint of the 2024 season, and it’s looking like it has promised 3 way battles through Abu Dhabi. 

The thing I want to note before getting to the individual team sections is the yellow flag in qualifying. In Q3 George spun out in the middle of the session. After most drivers had put in one lap, but before most could complete their second lap. This impacted the qualifying results of many teams and drivers. Most notably Max who was looking like he was on track to score pole. Both Ferrari drivers were in the middle of good laps as well. And Lando and Oscar were also trying to improve. It interrupted what was already a competitive qualifying session, so it’s impossible to say what might have happened if qualifying hadn’t been interrupted. Max might have been on pole, but either Ferrari might have been able to get there, Lando might have kept it. I just wanted to point this out because I don’t think the qualifying results really reflect the best most of the top 10 had to offer for the session. 

Going off that I won’t be going over too much quali data. Because it wasn’t definitively representative, and it ended up not mattering that much with the race results. 

Final note, I don’t have much to say about the sprint. It happened. The points gained will be important in the WCC, and Max’s win is an important reminder that wins are on the table for him and Red Bull again. 

Ferrari

First thing to note about Ferrari is that while it was widely reported that Ferrari did not bring any upgrades, that isn’t quite true. Yes no aerodynamically new parts were brought to the track, however the front wing in Austin was not the same as the one used in Singapore. Since the FIA gave clarification on the permissible flexibility of the front wings Ferrari made a new wing with a more flexible composite. This wing is the same design as the one used in Singapore, but it’s more flexible. Since nothing about the design changed no upgrades were reported, but this was a key change to the car. 

Overall the car performance at Austin was strong. From free practice, to the sprint, to qualifying to the race itself the SF-24 was in fighting form. 

The pace both drivers extracted from the car this race really showed what the car is capable of, and I think highlighted all of the work the team has done to recover post triple header. Apart from that pesky fastest lap point Ferrari maximized results in the race. 

Charles

Charles qualified P4 and finished in P1 securing his third win this season.

As stated above, Charles’ qualifying was compromised by the yellow flag in Q3 he looked like he was on an improving lap from his first Q3 lap, but he had to abort and ended up qualifying P4.

This ended up working because come the race he was poised to pull off one of the moves of the season. Stealing the lead into turn one, overtaking the top 3 and securing P1 until the finish line. 

The move itself was more than a snap reaction. Charles noted after the race that he’d considered being able to gain places based on what he knew about how Max was going to drive into turn 1. The positioning on turn 1 on this circuit can be big in terms of who controls the front. There’s a lot of space to lose the lead and with the wide runoff a gap can be left. 

Charles made a pretty good prediction about what his opponents ahead would do into that turn and planned on how he wanted to take advantage of that. Excellent strategy. It’s an overlooked aspect of race strategy, it does matter who you are racing and what the stakes are for them, and you can use that knowledge to your advantage if you are really paying attention. 

Now an inside start at COTA is best. So Charles was positioned to be able to pull a move like this. 

I think the footage speaks for itself as far as the execution of this overtake goes. Smooth, perfect line.

Once Charles took the lead the race was over. The SF-24 had excellent pace all weekend, that combined with Charles’ tyre management really allowed him to build a sizable gap to comfortably lead the rest of the field. 

Another stellar performance from him, that brilliant overtake followed by masterful tyre management won him the race. 

Carlos

One of Carlos’ best weekends in some time. He was also on the pace this weekend, which I think highlights that the SF-24 was really suited to conditions on track and the team really got the setup right for both drivers. 

Carlos qualified P3 and again, that might have been better or worse if he’d been able to finish his lap. But a P3 start is solid. He started P3 and finished P2. 

In turn one at the start he was overtaken by Charles when Charles took the front. However because of Max and Lando’s fight going so far off track and Lando falling back Carlos did gain a place on Lando at the start, which would be important later in the race. He stayed P3 with Max ahead, but he was ahead of Lando in the Mclaren, which was a win for Ferrari because keeping the Mclaren cars behind in dirty air is crucial. 

Carlos had a minor problem with his car in the early laps. It was fixed pretty quickly, but that made it so the focus of the team was split on making sure his car was good instead of being able to focus on track strategy. Since he was struggling with power in the car on turns he lost roughly 1-2 seconds which notably dropped him out of Max's DRS.

The interesting thing about Carlos' race that I will dig into a little more with Max’s section is when he undercut Max in the pits. That was when he jumped from P3 up to P2, securing the front of the field for Ferrari. 

After that it was about maintaining the correct pace behind Charles. 

What we saw from this point onward was basically the same pace intervals Ferrari set in Australia just reversed(Australia had Carlos in front, whereas this time Charles was in front, but strategically it’s effectively the same scenario). Where Carlos stayed roughly 5 seconds behind Charles. He needed to stay in clean air, but also be close enough he’d be able to react if something did happen to Charles. Once they were in control of the front they went back to the same strategy and management they used before for the same situation and it worked perfectly. Carlos kept the correct pace, catching up to Charles and then hitting those lap times, and coming in for the 1-2 finish. 

Good drive from him, some of his best tyre management all year I would say.

Data Analysis

Comparison of Charles and Carlos race pace. 

Their pace on the hard tyres was pretty much identical. You can see the way the team were managing to keep them roughly on the same pace through that stint. This is when both drivers had the benefit of clean air. Carlos was far enough back he didn’t have to worry about dirty air off Charles which made things easier for him as well. This is one of the benefits of having control of the front so you can make it so both drivers are getting good conditions to set pace. 

Carlos on the mediums was slower by an average of 3-5 tenths of a second. This is mostly explained by the fact he was further back and needing to deal with more dirty air. Also the mechanical issue as mentioned earlier.

Here is a look at the top 4 on the first stint which I think highlights how powerful that clean air was this race. Carlos, Max, and Lando all getting similar pace on the mediums, while Charles is able to just keep a healthy gap ahead. 

Red Bull

Max

Max had his best weekend in some time. The RB 20 has had some improvements and they seem to have solved some of the issues with the car that were hindering it’s pace and raw speed. He started off with a win in the sprint, starting from pole there. 

Max qualified P2 and finished P3.

As stated above the qualifying interruption forced him to abort a lap some believe would have put him on pole, it was looking like a good lap, but it’s impossible to say for sure as others could also have improved. Nevertheless it doesn’t take away from the fact that Max was back competing at the front this weekend. 

At the start of the race Max went for a move to overtake Lando on the inside. Both ran wide, and Max did overtake Lando into turn 1. Because of how wide he and Lando went that opened the door for both Ferraris and specifically Charles to jump ahead. Max did manage to keep Carlos behind, but importantly Carlos did jump ahead of Lando here.

I will cover his turn 1 overtake in the footage analysis section below. But in short Max was ahead at the apex and had the right to the racing line at that point. 

Max was in P2 until the second stint of the race when he was undercut by Carlos in the pits. I found this to be a strange strategic oversight on Red Bull’s part. They didn’t seem very concerned about that undercut. Which I don’t see the advantage to be gained there. I don’t think this was intentional but instead was a pretty significant mistake on the part of the team. They seem to have underestimated Ferrari’s race pace this weekend. So that is how Max lost the place to Carlos.

While Max was running his best race in a few rounds the car was far from perfect. It struggled with race pace in terms of the tyres. 

Max vs Lando

Turn 1 lap 1: this was the first incident between these two when Max attacked off the line going into turn 1 and ran Lando wide. This was allowed because it was the first turn and first lap so there is a lot more leniency when it comes to incidents like this. Now Max had completed the overtake before Lando went off the track. He was ahead at the apex and stayed on the racing line. He ran wide but not wide enough for it to be penalty worthy.

Here are the key moments of his turn 1 overtake. The key moment is in panel 2 when he has his wheels clearly ahead at the apex of the corner. He also stayed ahead in panel 3, so it's pretty clear he did have the right to the corner and was ahead when it counted.

Lap 52: On lap 52 going into turn 11 Max was the defending driver. Lando on fresher tyres had caught up to him and was trying to make a pass. He’d already made quite a few attempts which Max expertly defended.

Lando stayed ahead and this was rewarded with a 5 second penalty from the stewards. Because of this he finished ahead of Max, but was dropped down a place due to the penalty because he did not finish more than 5 seconds ahead of Max.

Let’s take a look at the footage. This interaction has already been torn apart by many others but here is a quick breakdown of the key moments.

The thing to note here is that Lando was not comfortably ahead of Max in the lead up to the corner as shown in panel 1. He was oscillating with Max's pace, which is pretty normal when you see cars go side by side on these long straights. To say a moment when he was ahead for maybe a second was a complete overtake is not accurate and would completely change the definition of a successful overtake.

Another key moment is shown in panel 3 where Max's wheels are clearly ahead at the apex, again giving him the right to the corner.

Finally the moment that defined this exchange is in panels 5 and 6, where Lando was completely off the track, got ahead of Max. He overtook Max off the track. Which is a very clear cut penalty, especially after Max was ahead.

Max was in the right. He was racing according to the current standard of the rules. Lando did not have a right to that corner, and he overtook off the track. This is a well established precedent that Max and all the other drivers were well aware of. You can take issue with the current rule all you like, but drivers are supposed to drive according to the rules as they are currently understood, and they permit for this kind of maneuver from Max.

I will cover more about Lando and Mclaren’s side of this in his section below.

Data Analysis

Here is Max vs Lando on race pace

I think this shows the lacking pace Mclaren were having on the mediums. They were the weakest out of the top 3 on that compound. The thing to not on the hard stint is that Lando pit later, so when he was chasing Max he was on 6 lap newer hards. But you can see that Max was setting a much slower pace compared to Lando, even before Lando pit, so that was the target pace Red Bull were aiming for, and given Max noted a lack of performance on the hards it makes sense they'd need to slow down to extend the life of the tyres. Max didn't have much of a choice, the tyres and the car decided the pace.

Max's P3 finish and sprint win were important for Max's WDC bid because finishing ahead of Lando in both the sprint and the race itself allowed him to keep his gap to Lando and even increase it by a few points.

Mclaren

Another messy race for Mclaren, which seems to be their calling card this season.

The most notable parts of Mclaren’s race happened on lap 1 and lap 52. 

Lap 1: Lando started on pole, but lost the lead into turn one, to Max and Charles and Carlos. So right away Mclaren lost their lead and had to play catch up in the race.

Lap 52: Lando overtook Max off the track and the team told him not to give the place back. 

The biggest error from the team came with the order they gave Lando to keep the position after he overtook Max off the track. This was an extremely risky call and one they should not have made if they were not willing to face the very likely consequences.

I think the radio exchange between Lando and the team is very telling here.

Here the team is telling Lando he is in the right. And they maintained this after 2 laps when they would have had time to look at the footage and see Max was ahead. I think at this point they were hoping that it wouldn't stick because both cars went wide, not because they actually thought Lando was ahead.

The thing at the end is Lando kind of reviewing what they should have done, and he's right. They took a massive risk and it didn't pay off and it wasn't worth taking. The team should not have supported Lando in a risk like this, he needs them to give him the best information and there was no way for Lando to know any differently until he was out of the car what that pass actually looked like. So jsut bad support and a horrendously bad strategy call from the team.

Mclaren appealed the stewards decision of the 5 second penalty. And they changed their opinion in the documentation. Stating that Lando had already overtaken Max before reaching the corner, and thus Lando was the defending driver. Well during the race they were saying that Lando was ahead at the apex. So they changed their opinion based on the footage. Because they could not argue that Lando was ahead at the apex, he wasn't. But their argument also falls apart because if Lando had already overtaken Max he would have been ahead at the apex now wouldn't he? He wasn't, the footage is very clear on that front.

So they really just wanted to try to bend the rules in their favor. And got very upset when the stewards and FIA didn't do that for them.

Lando

This wasn’t all the team’s fault. Lando is responsible for a lot of the circumstances that led to this issue in the first place. He qualified on pole and finished in P4. 

Lando’s driving this race was sloppy and again showed his lacking abilities at wheel to wheel. First he lost the lead going into turn 1. And again, he didn’t just lose the lead, he lost the lead to three other cars. His pole win in Singapore was aided by the fact the rest of the field saw a drop in performance. When he needs to actually defend the lead it’s fairly predictable how this will go. 

He ran wide in an attempt to defend from Max (which was a very predictable outcome, everyone knew what Max was going to try)

However the other issue came when he was trying to pass Max which eventually led to the lap 52 incident. He was attempting the same pass multiple times and Max easily defended. I don’t know why he kept trying what was essentially the same move. He had a pretty big tyre advantage at that point so his chances of passing Max eventually were high, but he was still struggling. 

I think one issue with his wheel to wheel in this case is Lando seems to assume if there is a big enough pace difference between his car and the defending car then the defending car will go easy or simply roll over. Max was not in a great position pace wise, but he still defended expertly. 

Assuming that a pass should happen or should be easy is not a good way to approach these battles. Especially when a championship is on the line. Max had no reason to make this easy, even if it meant driving harder and burning through his own tyres more. 

This race was a replay of Austria in many ways. Again Lando’s lacking ability at actually competitive wheel to wheel battling on track was the main issue here. 

The rest of the problems came from the team making a very bad call to not give the place back. 

Overall a mixed to lacking race from Lando. 

“Lando was ahead of Max before they entered the turn, therefore he’d already overtaken Max”: That’s not how that works. You need to have the car you’ve overtaken behind you. Being side by side and slightly ahead does not constitute an overtake on a straight. I recommend watching Lando’s overtake of George in the COTA sprint opening lap, he was ahead before the turn, but the overtake was not complete until he managed to make it stick. I also would recommend paying attention to the Ferrari’s (and the Ferraris vs George) that sprint as well to see some examples of when things get close before the overtake sticks. Going side by side and even being ahead does not mean the overtake has stuck, you need to be able to stay ahead at the corner. Or get the defending car fully behind you. Lando did neither of those things. It was not a complete overtake and thus Max remained the defending driver. 

To overtake a car must be ahead of the defending car at the turn (Lando was not in this case)

And the overtaking car must be capable of making the corner (again Lando did not make the corner) A defending driver is allowed to defend their line, so that is part of the necessity to make the corner. Lando did not fulfill. These are well known precedents that Mclaren should be aware of. 

Furthermore this is a harder overtake to make. That corner is one where an overtake on the inside is significantly more advantageous. Max knew that so that’s where he defended. Lando tried for the same less successful overtake approach and it’s not surprising it was difficult to make it stick. This comes down to an issue with his wheel to wheel skills. 

“Max forced Lando off the track!”: Max was the defending driver, he made the apex under control, and thus he gets to determine his racing line. Lando took a risk going around the outside, that is a well known risk on that particular move. 

Oscar

Oscar's weekend was middling. I think that after looking at his first 2 years on this track that Austin overall is not a strong track for him.

He qualified P5 and finished P5.

Now his race was somewhat hobbled by the fact he was asked to slow down by the team. Mclaren did not want him to get the fastest lap (which Lando was holding until it was taken by Franco and then by Este) and also they didn't want him to be too close to Lando in case Lando did get a penalty.

So his race results were a result of his own qualifying and then sealed by team strategy as a result of what was going on with Lando further up the field.

Data Analysis

A comparison of Lando vs Oscar's race pace.

Very similar. Lando got slightly better results out of the medium tyres, but overall they were pretty much matched.

Comparison of Oscar vs Lando's qualifying laps.

The places where Oscar lost the most pace compared to Lando in quali was the low speed corners. Looking at the more detailed telemetry I think Oscar's main problem here was his timing. His throttle, and brake applications were just not timed right at certain corners.

Mercedes

This was a rough weekend for Mercedes. Both George and Lewis had incidents. George spun out in qualifying at turn 19, and Lewis spun out at the very same corner during the race.

The car had been difficult all weekend. With both drivers struggling with the car. The upgrades Mercedes brought to the weekend don't seem to have added any performance to the car and in fact have made it more difficult.

Lewis spoke about how he's never had issues like this at this track before. And I think that is telling. He noted bouncing in the car, making it too unstable.

I think that the current Mercedes car is very sensitive to conditions. There were pretty strong winds at Austin and I think the car was struggling all week being destabilized by the crosswinds. With unstable upgrades and a car that is very sensitive to the wind neither driver had a strong chance to succeed this weekend.

George

After he crashed in qualifying George had to start from the pitlane because his car needed repairs. He managed to finish the race in P6 which made for an incredibly strong recovery drive from him. An underrated drive of the race.

Conclusion

Overall I think this race strengthened Max's WDC bid. It also brought Ferrari closer to the WCC. Not only that Charles is now in the fight for P2 of the WDC. Interesting race from the standpoint of quite a few cars and how they are adjusting to upgrades changes to the cars. This has set the stage for a very competitive final 5 races this season.

That's all I got, see you in Mexico!

[redsnowdrop]

Spanish GP - Brainstorming

To my -> F1 Masterlist <-

Let’s speak honestly: one of the best Grand Prix so far!

Quite incredible that after the whole conspiracy theory about Mercedes sabotaging Lewis in favour of Russell, they f*cked up George strategy (hard tyres, really?) and scored a podium with Lewis. Anyway, happy for him! Can’t wait to see him in Ferrari next year!

The bagarre between Lewis and Carlos: it was a fair enough move. I care about rules and how they were written but it’s racing. You must race. Hard racing is not “illegal”.

Ferrari disappointed me too much. I can understand a bad race (Canada) but two in a row? After bringing improvements this weekend? There is something to change and it must be changed NOW! I wasn’t delusional, I wasn’t expecting Ferrari to win a WDC nor a WCC but to secure the position as second on the podium was the bare minimum. In my very personal opinion.

Aston Martin is even there? Hello? Guys you have Fernando Alonso, make him win again, thanks! Apparently Lance is asking his dad to reach to his wallet and bring home Adrian Newey. At this point I’m not sure Adrian is enough to make them win. So sorry for them, I like Fernando and he deserves better.

Nice work from Alpine, still a lot to improve but hope to see what will happens to the French.

Very disappointed also by Williams and Racing Bulls, Albon has showed his potential, deserves another chance. Hope they will give him a better car. For RB the car was just off, too difficult il for both Ricciardo and Tsunoda to show their worth.

Unfortunately the Spanish Grand Prix is the scale needle, it shows if a car is worth it or not. Lucky Ferrari fans the calendar has many different circuits so we have a lot in front of us!

Let me know what you think!

xoxo

[ssereinopheliah]

ficlet - whelve

Oscar can't keep up this smile any longer. His Qatar sprint win was bullshit.

It was one thing for Oscar to follow team orders to pass the win over to Lando, it's another for Lando to the same thing for him, going against team order in order to 'pay back' Oscar.

Did Lando genuinely want to return the favour to him? Or was he just using this move to prove to the millions of spectators worldwide that he too was a team player? Using Oscar as a way to step past all the mistakes he had made in the media in the past few months?

When they did speak about it in private, it seemed genuine, like Lando was personally thanking him for sacrificing his win for a championship title fight that was building into something imaginable.

If he thinks hard enough, he can still remember the conversation. Both drivers sitting arm to arm in someones private jet, winding down when Lando, as brazen as ever, reaches out first.

His hand finds Oscar's shoulder to hold onto. His messy hair was tucked away in his hoodie when he turned over to look at Oscar. Lando then proceeded to tell Oscar that he was grateful for whatever Oscar was doing, giving up positions and listening to team orders for Lando to have a chance at this fight, promising that he would repay Oscar back one day.

At that moment, Oscar had just smiled back lightly, teasing Lando for taking it so seriously, and that Lando could always just pay him back by supporting him in next years WCC. The comment thankfully draws a giggle out of Lando, who then promises to return a sprint win back to him.

Lando's eyes were shiny back then, catching the overhead jet light just nice where his greenish blue eyes were out on full display, and Oscar felt like he can see into them, see through them and into Lando's soul, like how Lando was telling him the truth.

But right after the sprint win, Oscar felt a bitter taste fall into his mouth. The media constantly framing it as a "good sportsman like move" from Lando, and Lando soaking up all the attention from his goodwill left a sour taste in his mouth.

He didn't want to be a charity case, someone that gifted his moments to others, and never had those moments to himself. He could argue to himself that this win was Lando's sacrifice, but what kind of sacrifice was this? Lando had already lost the WDC, there was nothing for him to lose to give these points back to Oscar.

He looks for Mark.

After a brief session with Mark, they agreed to change the clause of his contract, adding that in any case, his teammate was not allowed to take priority over him, thus sealing him in as the 1st driver from 2025 onwards. In secret, Mark got Andrea to sign.

The positive news of his updated contract allowed for sick satisfaction to settle in his stomach.

.

.

In 2025, after Lando had secured the WCC for McLaren in the previous year, it seemed that Zak Brown was trusting Lando up to be the teams little golden boy.

However this proves to be futile, as the clause blocked Lando from ever competing with Oscar. It didn't matter that the team had two championship winning cars.

Lando was of course confused at first. He didn't understand why the pitwall threw in "team orders" at any chances they could at him and not at Oscar. It all came to a head in Hungary when he was told to switch positions with Oscar.

The pit wall commanding: "Let the 1st driver through Lando, don't let us down"

Lando lets Oscar through.

And when Lando climbs out of his car and looks over at Oscar, he looks betrayed.

The sick satisfaction that had been laying dormant within Oscar stirs again, the satisfaction leaving his body.

Oscar has never felt so sick.

————————.—.————

authors note: hello, thank you for reading! I want to add in that I like Mark Webber ok, he is a very silly man with the vibes of a Victorian haunted house kid. The only reason why he does this and makes Oscar a 1st driver is cause I see him as looking out for Oscar's wellbeing and wants!

Funfact, this ficlet was 666 words long!

Thank you for reading!

[boxboxblog]

2024 Abu Dhabi GP Brief Look

Alright everyone, what a race! Had some very interesting moments, had from very and moments, but let's dive in.

So obviously biggest news is that McLaren won the WCC. They really did deserve it this year, having by far the fastest and most reliable car on the grid. Ferrari got close (especially with Charles Leclerc's incredible drive) but Lando Norris was able to take the win and the title for his team.

This was yet another penalty heavy race, so this perhaps is an indicator of the culture around penalties that we will start to see. Harsh, often, and decisive. Were some of them a bit much? Yes, for sure. But they were pretty consistent. For penalties we saw Verstappen get 10 seconds, Piastri get 10 seconds, Valtteri Bottas got 10 seconds, Zhou Guanyu got 5 seconds, Liam Lawson got 10 seconds stop and go.

One of the more interesting things that happened was the first lap collision between Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri (ultimately Verstappen's fault) that led both drivers to lose position and Piastri to fall all the way to the back. This restarted the conversation of the Ferrari v McLaren battle, and made the race a lot more interesting than it probably would have been.

Outside of the top teams, we saw some great finishes from Hulkenberg and Gasly, with Gasly's 7th place finish securing Alpine 6th in the drivers championship, and Haas keeping ahead of RB for 7th. Great results for those two teams, and keeping ahead like that means that they will have more funding for next year.

On a sadder note, we saw a DNF from Valtteri Bottas in his final F1 race, a shame for such a successful and brilliant driver. He had to retire the car due to a puncture, not exactly how one of the greatest teammates in F1 would want to end his career. We also saw another not so great race from Kevin Magnussen, who is also leaving F1. Bottas (who had locked up) collided into the side of him. While he continued, he dropped down the order and away from possible points due to this.

Well anyways, those were the major things that happened. I will dive further into particular drivers races in my winners and losers podium post.

Finishing Positions:

Norris

Sainz

Leclerc

Hamilton

Russell

Verstappen

Gasly

Hulkenberg

Alonso

Piastri

Albon

Tsunoda

Zhou

Stroll

Doohan

Magnussen

Lawson

Bottas (DNF)

Colapinto (DNF)

Perez (DNF)

Cheers,

-B

[vro0m]

hey! i just had a question on who are the most successful driver pairings in f1 history? i’m talking all time here

my mind immediately went to red bull 2023 but that was all max’s work so im asking for a duo that was extremely successful during a single season and yet were somewhat competitive with each other

i’d like to think rosberg hamilton in one of their merc years but i’m sure there’s some older pairing that outdoes them?

(sorry if this isn’t smt you know i just thought i’d ask bc i rmb u being good w stats 😭)

Hi! I honestly don't know that much about drivers pre-Lewis but I looked into it a bit and other people can add to it with their own knowledge.

Like you say, it all really depends on your definition of successful, because some teams have had huge success with drivers who weren't evenly matched. For example, Seb and Webber won RBR 43 races out of 90 in their time together, but Seb won 33 of them. We still consider it to be a time of dominance for RBR, so it could be argued the pairing was successful, just like the current situation with Max and Pérez, or Lewis and Valtteri.

Pairings that were both successful in terms of performance AND somewhat evenly matched are actually pretty rare.

I do think Lewis and Nico are one of the most if not the most successful and competitive pairing there was. Together, they won 54/78 races in 4 seasons (32 for Lewis v. 22 for Nico). Lewis got pole 35 times v. Nico's 29 for a total of 64 poles in 78 races. Nico stepped on the podium 50 times v. Lewis 55.

Some arguments can be made for Lewis and Alonso as well. They both scored 109 points in their season as teammates securing the 2nd and 3rd position in the WDC (Raikkonen won the title with just one more point than them) and would have won McLaren the WCC that year if they hadn't been disqualified from it due to spygate. They both won 4 times, and both got on the podiums 12 times.

Senna and Prost were also pretty evenly matched and very successful in terms of results. In 1988, Senna won the championship with 90 points over Prost's 87, however Prost actually won 105 points over the entire season while Senna won 94 (not all points counted for the championship). In 1989, Prost won the WDC (although it was controversial) with 76 points against Senna's 60. Both years, they won McLaren the WCC by a huge margin.

[twinkodium-inactive]

https://www.tumblr.com/dwarvenchords/769520254772740096/as-much-as-i-dont-love-mclaren-as-a-company-i-do

In reference to your tag on this posts i agree. I was expecting a tad more for Oscar in terms of celebration over the radio and in general cs we didn’t see him fr until he was back in the garage with the team. and i get it lando secured the win and not taking that away from him but when i was watching i was like damn Oscar helped too 😭 but you wouldn’t know that by the first of the celebrations. Soo it was really nice to see him with Zak but especially Andrea. Their hug was soooo sweet, like that’s his boy. and i audibly awwed at oscar ‘s “we did it. we did it.” tell me he’s not the cutest wcc winner itw (alongside lando ofc 🤭)

i don’t want to take away any of lando’s accomplishments and how he helped the team out of the big black hole they were in a few years ago when he joined. and theoretically, he secured the title with finishing second ahead of both ferraris, carried the weight of an unfortunate lap 1 incident between oscar and max. but also without oscar being there and scoring points and podiums, they wouldn’t have been in that position either. because look at rb and how poorly checo performed, basically costing them the title.

so yes. i expected a little more enthusiasm on the radio, a little message from either zak or andrea like how he did with lando (but i have always known that zak is more attached to lando so no surprises).

but maybe i’m reading way too much into it. and oscar doesn’t love the noises on the radio, he’s usually fairly quiet even if it goes well for him. dunno it just felt weird and heartbreaking.

BUT at least they’ve celebrated with him after, and hugged him sooo hard 🥹 andrea’s reaction was so damn sweet 🥹 immediately stopped the interview to hug his boy and cradling his face in his hands OHMYGOD 🥺 and oscar seemed so happy, initiated the touching with so many people, smiled so widely and really reminded me of prema oscar, when he won his f2 title and celebrated with the team. no more worries and pressure just pure joy 🥺