#belgian gp 2014

[usernyoom]

21/08/14, Spa. Max Verstappen speaks with media prior to the F3 Belgian Grand Prix 2014. Photos by Mark Thompson, edited.

[umseb]

andre lotterer and sebastian vettel in the paddock on practice day, belgium - august 22, 2014 📷 sutton images / motorsport images

[f1cars]

🏎️ Lewis Hamilton drives Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team's F1 W05 Hybrid during the Belgian Grand Prix

📍Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

🗓️ August 24 2014

📸 Mark Thompson

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 141/310

2014 Belgian GP

Alright friends it's time for Spa! I think I like Spa. I guess we'll see if I do. Also we have a build up this time so that's good already. 

(Here’s a warning : this is The Long One I just had so much to say and I went on so many rants I’m very sorry)

EDIT : so I calculated that it takes about 25 minutes to read 🥴🥴🥴 just so you know before you start. Again, my apologies.

Jordan thinks there'll be team orders this time for Mercedes, as to avoid any incidents at the start especially. DC disagrees. 

Quali report. It was a really really wet one. Hulkenberg went out in Q1. He said he had no confidence in his car in these conditions. Valtteri is only 6th. The Ferraris have been looking good all weekend but Alonso went off and he starts from 4th. Ricciardo made a mistake and he starts 5th. Seb is 3rd. The Mercedes were 2 seconds ahead of everyone else!!! But Lewis is still not friendly with his car and he went off as well, while Nico had no issues. So that's Nico on pole, Lewis 0.2 behind, and then the others are truly 2 seconds away with Seb +2.126 behind, I can't believe this shit this is insane. 

Wait wait wait what did I hear? So there's been a driver change at Caterham with Lotterer making his debut. I don't even know who he is replacing lmao but that's not what caught my attention. Lotterer out qualified teammate Ericsson and that makes the journalist react, saying it’s quite unexpected. DC says "It's contrasting stories, really, isn't it? We've got Max Verstappen, a young guy being a question mark over is he too young to come to Formula 1 at 16-17, of course next year, and we've got Lotterer at 32 making his debut with vast amounts of experience." Wow. It's the first mention of Max I hear in this rewatch. (Also I keep saying rewatch but I'm watching for the first time so it makes no sense.) It is insanely young to sit in an F1 car, isn't it? Damn.

Anyway. Rosberg is 11 points ahead of Lewis in the WDC standings. 

DC is catching up with Jenson and they can't help but talk about Lewis. He says it's good they're battling for the title and that Lewis seems stronger in the head than he's ever been, even with the issues he's had with the car. 

Oh dear, it’s apparently starting to rain lightly… 

Also silly season has started and rumours say Alonso has had a meeting with Redbull. They're talking about Bianchi being a possible candidate for Ferrari if Alonso does go to Redbull. It's a bit heartbreaking so I'm gonna move on. 

Oh so Max has been signed already wow. I hadn't understood. I thought they were just talking about it but Helmut Marko signed him. Eddie Jordan is listing all the young drivers that came too soon and are now gone from F1 and tells Redbull they should be very careful. I mean. Listen. Not a Max fan obviously but you can't really compare him to Alguersuari or Grosjean (who came back). That's just insane. 

Alright it's time for the race, I'm switching to skysports commentary. 

Formation lap 

Oh there's a problem with Alonso's car. His team is still working on it after the time limit. The other cars leave. He's gonna get a penalty for that but if he can start the car now he can at least start from his spot on the grid. And he does that. 

There's very very light rain. 

Oh and Lewis is reversing on the grid because he missed his box which is great for my nerves. 

And they're racing… 

And he gets an amazing start! He's ahead! HE'S IN THE LEAD BEFORE THE FIRST CORNER! Seb is also ahead of Rosberg! Oh and there's been contact at the back I've seen something fly. Yellow flags. And Seb is catching Lewis! And he attacks in the straight! But Lewis has the inside line in the next corner and Seb goes straight on and loses a place to Nico. Phew. Yellow flags again. Cleared. Oh but that's Bianchi going around the track with one tyre completely wrecked. Wow this is such a long track compared to Hockenheim, we're only now completing the first lap. So Lewis is in the lead, but Nico is only half a second behind. Then Seb, Alonso, Ricciardo, Bottas, Raikkonen, Magnussen, Massa, and Jenson in the top 10.

Lewis makes a slight mistake and the fight is on. He goes defensive, holding the inside line, while Nico attacks. AND THEY TOUCHED! That's on Nico. He couldn't make it so he tucks back behind but he didn't do it fast enough and touched Lewis’ rear wheel with his front wing when he put himself back in position for the next corner. AND THAT'S A PUNCTURE FOR LEWIS FUCK he's dropping back… and he's completely opposite to the pits they just started a new lap I'm so pissed. Over the radio, he says Nico hit him. Fuuuuuuck. And the tyre has started to shred and that might be too much damage by the time he gets to the pits nooooo. Look like I said it's Nico's fault but imho that's a racing incident, it's very much unlucky that it had such an impact… yeah. Lewis is speeding to the pits and the tyre is flying all over the place in tiny pieces. Yellow flags. Lewis is finally in the pits. He goes again. He's P19. Nico is struggling as well. Ted says Lewis had damage to the floor and that it'll be an issue. There's a lot of debris on the racing line from his tyre. Spa I was saying I think I like you why are you doing this to me. Apparently Lotterer has stopped at the entrance of the pitlane. Daniel overtakes Alonso for P3. Yellow flags again. Lewis on the radio. "Floor's damaged, right?" He sounds worried. Bono says he'll need to have a look at the photos but thanks for the feedback. He's not gaining places at the moment, but a lap later, he sets the fastest lap. Come on! Bono comes back to him with a plan. He needs to stay on this tyre for 15 laps, so he should manage the rear left and he sets him a target lap time at 55.7. But Lewis is not convinced. "The rear left tyre is not going to go to lap 15." In the meantime, Ricciardo overtook Seb. And Valtteri overtakes Alonso for P4. Nico is about to pit and they're changing his whole front wing. It's gonna cost him. Yeah. That's a 10.0 stop. That puts him in P15. Lewis is still P19. I'm switching to x2 speed because I don't have time for that shit. It's lap 10.

Oh wtf? There's something dangling from, like, the antenna of Nico's car?

Oh. Brundle says he thinks that's part of Lewis' destroyed tyre. And Crofty makes the funniest "aha?" that goes up at the end that makes it very clear he sees the irony. It looks incredibly dangerous, in any case. It’s flopping around and looks like it’s gonna wrap around the steering wheel. Seb pits. Kvyat pits. Hulkenberg pits. We can see on a replay that Nico tried to tug the debris away as soon as it got stuck on his car but couldn't do it. Alonso gets a 5 seconds stop and go penalty for the issue before the start of the race, which is weirdly lenient. Ricciardo pits, he's ahead of Seb. Lewis P17. He's the second fastest man on the track at the moment. Rosberg is closing on Seb but he locks up MASSIVELY and is under pressure from Valtteri now. And here he goes! He overtook him with such ease! He's now catching Seb. Lewis pits. It's a quick one, but he went 14 laps instead of 15, and he's back in P19 so. Yeah. Not a good race for him… Nico pits as well. 

It's lap 20. Daniel is in the lead followed by Raikkonen and Seb. Then there's Valtteri closing fast on Seb, Magnussen who's far behind, Alonso, Jenson, Perez, Kvyat, and Rosberg is out in P10. Lewis, moodily : "should save this engine guys." Bono : "Lewis, don't worry, it is being discussed, but your pace is good (x2), we never know what's gonna happen with safety cars or anything later, so let's just keep plugging away and we will keep discussing it here." And we don't hear that in the broadcast, but I read in the transcript Bono then adds : "Lewis, you may not feel it but your pace is good. You're only a tenth off being purple in the middle sector. So anything could happen. We'd be kicking ourselves." He's so warm and comforting and reassuring and consoling. Come on Lewis, don't give up!

(I always find this part of him very interesting, because he really is very prone to pessimism. I mean it might be obvious but of course it makes sense he preaches positivity as much as he does, specifically because he naturally gives in to negative thoughts very easily himself. We’ve already talked about that at some point iirc. Anyway, back to the race.) 

We're halfway through and Nico is back up in P5. And then he slows down and is back in P6. He must have made a mistake. Lewis P16. A couple of laps later, Rosberg in P3. Lewis on the radio again. "Guys even if I catch the guys in front I have no downforce." He is absolutely done with this race and wanna go home but that's not in the job description. "OK Lewis, message is understood, but you do have good pace and if we had a safety car then there is all to fight for," answers Bono. "We are not concerned about the engine, just keep your head down and let's keep plugging away." 

It's lap 30. Daniel is still in the lead but Raikkonen has pitted and is now P3, with Nico in P2. Seb is P4, Valtteri P5, Magnussen P6, Alonso P7, Hulkenberg P8, Perez P9, and Jenson P10. And Valtteri overtakes Seb for P4. Lewis is in P15, and he gets called in, out in P16. Grosjean retires. Rosberg pits for the third time, Seb pits as well, and Valtteri gets himself ahead of Nico, but Nico is on fresh tyres… and he overtakes him for P3, and then Raikkonen for P2. Daniel is 20 seconds ahead… Lewis again asks his team to stop him and save his engine. Babe there's 7 laps to go, shut up and do it. Bono answers again, basically, they hear him but no. The engine isn't an issue. He's still 16th. Ah come on. Come the fuck on. On lap 40, with 5 laps to go, they do retire him. That is sooo SOOOO SOOOO stupid. Why. Honestly. Fucking hell. Why did you let him do all this for that. Also why did you give in to him complaining instead of making him do his very well-paid job to the end tbh. Stupid ass team, this was a lesson moment. This race has been infuriating. 

Extremely close racing from P5 to P8 now, between Magnussen, Jenson who's performing actual miracles to stay ahead of Alonso without crashing into his team-mate, and Seb. Final lap. 

And it's the end of the race. 

It's another win for Ricciardo. Rosberg P2, Valtteri P3. 

Ted asks Niki what he said to Lewis. "I said sorry because for him it's bad, no question about it." He says Lewis was clearly in the lead. "Why in the second lap? This somebody has to explain to me," he says. He says these things can happen when there's a fight all the way to the end but not in the second lap. They say they will all have a meeting, and see what they're gonna do, but he thinks it's a bad result for the team, altogether, and Lewis. 

On the podium, Rosberg gets loudly booed by the crowd. He's kinda apologetic, saying they touched "unfortunately" and it hurt both their races and it's not good for the team. Jordan asks about responsibility and he says he shouldn't comment as he hasn't seen it. 

Back to the BBC broadcast for the post race content. We hear from Toto. The journalist says Nico good booed. Toto looks extremely depressed, it's so weird. He just nods with a sheepish expression. Doesn't say a word. Oh he's pissed. When the journalist asks about the incident he says "absolutely unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable". He says on lap 2 of a long race, between teammates… They've discussed that situation before and it happened that day. He's asked about who's to blame as well. He says it's clear what happened out there. "You don't try to overtake with a knife between your teeth, is that how you say? On lap number 2 and then damage both cars." He says he believes this is a decisive moment both for their battle and for the team. The journalist asks what Lewis told him after the race. "Oh, he's very upset," he says. "But there is not a lot to say, I mean. We've kept him out there for a long time with a very damaged car uh… he will recover quickly, that's how he is but uh… obviously not very happy at that stage." Last question : "Toto how are you gonna handle this situation now?" Short pause. "It's gonna be handled." He smiles, but only with his mouth. If I was Nico I'd be shitting myself. The main presenter (Susie, not Wolff) and DC scoff and raise an eyebrow. The message is clear and Toto's fury is palpable. 

There's stuff to say there. But I'll wait a bit more because I've seen that the BBC also had a word with Niki so let's hear that first. 

He says it's unacceptable for him that in the second lap (emphasis on second) Nico hits Lewis. (He calls them out by name.) "Very simple, unacceptable," he repeats. He says there's gonna be a meeting but it's unacceptable. He says they can talk about it if it happens at the end of the race when they're fighting each other. But making such a mistake in the second lap and letting Redbull and Ricciardo win (he takes his cap off and puts it back on), "I have to say they did a very good job", but it's ridiculous. The journalist asks if they had this discussion prior to the race : please don't hit each other in the opening laps. "So far I thought that they're clever enough to know that," he says, "but now we have to discuss it. Very simple." 

The BBC reminds us that's a talk they had in their broadcast before the race, about team orders etc. and that they were disagreeing about. Jordan thinks this is the team's fault for not forbidding them to overtake each other in the opening laps until the race settles down. DC thinks that it goes against what a racer is and you want racers in your cars. Jordan says the drivers are team employees, you can't just let people go and do what they want to do, and that the team is paying the price. DC says he accepts that, "but in defence of the drivers…" Jordan cuts him off again. "Forget the drivers for a moment," he says. Susie says "you can't!" and Jordan loses his calm a bit "of course we can! Why defend the drivers when they're completely out on a limb?! The team is not exercising what is normal control, here." Well obviously Jordan was a team owner and DC a driver, and it shows in their opinions. Susie, who's smarter than both of them combined, reminds them very calmly that everybody has been very excited that Mercedes has let them race all season and that's what has made the season what it's been. She says Jordan is saying the opposite of what he was saying at the beginning of the show. Jordan starts rambling about a conversation he's had with DC, "we even brought his wife into it" (and indeed they talked about who takes decisions at home and it was incredibly cringe) "but leave that aside for one moment" and DC nods gravely and Susie says "yes please". He says he thinks they should have given team orders because it's Spa and the weather is changing and letting them race from lap 1 instead of from lap 4-5 was "stupid". But DC says in a boxing match you don't tell the boxers to not knock each other out until the 5th round so we get some value. (Mh not so sure it’s true.) (And sure enough :) Jordan says they do. And DC says well they shouldn't. Anyway DC thinks Nico didn't do it deliberately and was clumsy. "He knows he's not as good a wheel to wheel racer as Lewis" and was frustrated he lost the lead. He thinks it was almost inevitable for them to make contact at some point of the year (that much is true, imo).

Susie asks what it means for Lewis who's now "far" behind in the WDC. They both agree "it means war". (I think back to the "Nico hit me! Nico's hit me!" radio message and I wonder if there was a hint of surprise in Lewis' voice). DC says what's interesting as well is the public reaction because they all know Nico personally and he's a genuinely nice person but he can't seem to get the public behind him, and he doesn't have the team support right now (and that's what I wanna talk about). Ohhh interesting. Susie says Nico has gone to one of the biggest newspapers in the UK and he bought a column in it to try to win over the British fans. She asks if he's lost the support he could have had from that. Jordan thinks it was fragile from the start. He says RTL is down 30% which would be unimaginable if it had been Schumacher. He points out it's confusing because he's German with a Finnish passport living in Monaco. Susie points out the German didn't embrace Seb either. (Maybe the Germans are the problem then. Jk. Sorry to the Germans.) She says it's like they loved Michael and they can't love anybody else. DC says a German colleague told him they could relate to him as coming from a working class background. (Yep). 

Okay wait. We have Lewis' interview but before that I wanna comment on some things there, because as Toto said it is indeed a pivotal moment.

So yeah, very interesting how everybody is rallying around Lewis there. Remember in the last race how we were told the team apologised to him because the car gave up on him in quali? That also made me tick. It's a very, very interesting twist. We know from the past seasons that Lewis struggled to get the team's support in McLaren. We've seen him struggle to trust them and struggle to keep them motivated in their hard times and struggle with these relationships. It's almost surprising that in Mercedes, where he is the newcomer (I mean it's his second season there but Nico was there first), the team is rallying around him. What changed there? I don't have an answer, you'd have to have been there, in the backrooms, in the meetings to see it happen. (A lot of that was discussed in my asks since then.)

Now don't get me wrong. I've said it from the moment it happened : it was Nico's fault but truly it was a racing incident. It wasn't a huge rash mistake. It was a tiny error that had big consequences. I agree with DC that it was pretty much inevitable anyway, especially given that they let them race. It was stupid as all fuck and team seniors are right to make sure Nico knows that but they are taking such a strong public stance there, I find it very strange. You'd think it was the 2010 Turkey Seb-Webber crash when it really could have been nothing and they got very unlucky.

It's undeniable Niki loves Lewis. He's there for him. From the start you can hear in every of his post race interviews that he's his focal point and Nico is an afterthought. In his opinion, it seems, Nico is a good driver and he's good for the team mainly because he pushes Lewis further. 

It must be such a change of pace for him. Knowing that people are in his corner, backing him up, defending him, publically, loudly, proudly, and he's not fighting alone. That has not been the case, ever. People have always recognized his talent and underlined it at McLaren but I often had the vague diffuse feeling that he was on his own rather than part of a team. That's different with Mercedes and it resonates to this day. I can feel the rise of this magnetic aura he has nowadays, that I find very obvious, that makes a number of people around him act like he isn't completely human. Even most of the other drivers. They treat him differently, like he's an idol, in the religious term. It's like the air bends around him. Even though the young drivers wanna beat him, you can tell they can't help but lose their cool a little everytime he interacts with them. That's how it feels right this moment, seeing this team (and the public) so unequivocally defend him, against better reason (like, idk, basic PR rules). 

I wonder how much of that is due to him being the underdog and incredibly unlucky that season. I guess we'll see how it evolves and whether it changes at some point. (From what I’ve heard from some of you, it does.)

Also about Nico not having the public support. Well. Yeah. No surprise there. It's really interesting because that didn't really change to this day. He's really a golden boy, rich af, extremely privileged and so extremely naive about it? Like, shockingly naive. You're telling me the man bought a column in the UK's most read newspaper to try to get people to like him?! It's a dick move, love. You're just. Being rich. And you're doing that on Lewis' territory? Why not in Germany then? Why not in Finland? Absurd! He clearly means well, he's not mean, he's not an Alonso, he's not purposeful about it but he's just. So. Incredibly. Idk. Sheltered? Senseless? It makes me feel a bit sorry for him, in a slightly condescending way. He's trying so hard but so clumsily. Actually not unlike his racing now that I write it down? His overtake, his mistake, it's exactly that. Naive, senseless, and clumsy. Damn. Parallels. 

Let's get back to the content. 

Lewis says during the drivers' parade he saw so many British flags and the support was amazing and he's gutted he couldn't give the fans a good result. (His attitude is interesting, when he's pissed at a result he usually doesn't wanna talk, but he is talkative there, just very serious.) He doesn't know what to say. He sighs. He says we couldn't see it but he was driving so hard to try and do what he could with the car but it was so damaged…

He says he's gutted for the team. "My guys," he says (which accentuates the whole support thing, because I don’t remember hearing him use a possessive when referring to them), they've worked so hard on "my car", "we've had such a difficult time this year" and he had a good start and it was looking good. He says he took the corner as he normally does, "it was my line and…  I don't know why he hit me but erm… (inhale) I'm sure he'll leave here happy." He tilts his head to the side with a smile.

She asks how big of a moment it is in the championship. He was upset after Monaco, is it worse now? He hums. It's not worse, because it can't really get worse than Monaco. But it's not good. He says it took him a long time to gain thirty points last time, and we've seen it can change very quickly in Silverstone but his (Nico’s) car very rarely stops, "so… it's looking good for him for this season now."

She says he stayed out 20 more laps after first asking to retire. She asks what were the benefits of staying out and whether the team explained that to him. He sighs again. He sighs a lot throughout the interview. He says he wasn't giving up as he was driving (mmmh…) but he knew he couldn't do it, he couldn't catch Grosjean whose car is much slower than theirs. And once he did catch him, he couldn't stay behind him because the car's balance was so bad. He says he thought about the fact that in the last race weekend he lost an engine because it caught on fire, so he's one engine down compared to Nico, so that's why he wanted to save this engine because he's gonna have less laps in practice than him. (Okay I see his point.) She says he's been fighting very hard against the odds this season and he seems still very emotional standing there, what is it gonna take to win the WDC now?

Another pause, another sigh. He says there's a lot of things going on in his mind and of course you start to think maybe it's just not his year but he "can't let that overtake everything there's still 7 races" and he's gonna push, they've got a great car and a great team and he believes in them.

Another pause. "Who knows whether some fortune will come my way but I'm just gonna give it everything I can for these next few races because that's all I can do".

Now listen, because that's very interesting. She asks if it matters that Niki and Toto have been very much on his side, does the speaking needs to be done on track, does he speak to Nico?

He sighs again, it reminds him of school. The teachers would have a talk but they did nothing, "or you get a detention", but he thinks it won't even be that here, "I guess it'll be– all they can do is really (sigh) say that was not good and… we move on. He got those points today, the stewards didn't act on it and he's now 30 points ahead so (sigh, shrug) you know I just have to regather my thoughts and just approach… just be attacking (he smiles) like crazy in the next couple of races."

Alright. Let's take a second again. I'm sorry if this is a very long review but there's so much to analyse here, as I said I truly think it's a turning point. I was just saying how it must be a change of pace for Lewis to be supported like he is at Mercedes but clearly he doesn't feel like he is yet. It's gonna be interesting because you can tell he doesn't trust them to have his best interest at heart and to take the right measures to assert that. You can tell there's a lot of, I don't wanna say trauma because I don't know, but baggage there. We know he's been bullied in school and it's very telling that he's bringing school up at that point. He feels bullied. He feels like a victim in this situation. It seems his whole life he's been left to deal with these feelings on his own. We know his father has many qualities but he wasn't a very comforting father. We know he didn't defend him. Lewis loves to bring it up, but the whole "do your talking on the track" is, also, an admission of powerlessness off the track. He had to do the talking on the track because he couldn't defend himself off of it, because of the stigma, and the racism, and the fact that they weren't treated like they had the same rights as the others, as their bullies. We know his principal singled him out for being a racing driver and didn't support him and even punished him for it so you know he's faced injustice and he's never seen justice being served when that happened. Nobody has ever defended him but himself. Think of the fact he took, was it judo or karate?, to face his bullies, also think of Abu Dhabi and all of the '21 season and what that has meant for him in that context. It's the same thing all over again, in his eyes : the bullies aren't being punished, the people in power are protecting them instead of him, the principal is out to get him any way he can. Fucking hell. That puts a lot of things into perspective all of a sudden.

Let's get back to 2014. So that's what's at stake here as well. Not just the friendship (it's probably too late already), not just the WDC (there would have been other years), but the feeling of belonging, the feeling that people have your back, the feeling that they won't let you fight alone. It all depends on how the team will react now, and for the rest of the season, and for the rest of Brocedes. And maybe, maybe, that was Nico's role in Lewis' story. Someone had to be sacrificed for him, to him. Someone had to be put second so he could be put first. 

Jordan feels it too but without the hindsight I have. He kind of refuses to comment on it because he says he needs to listen to it again, because "he obviously has a message in there, and he wanted it delivered, the message, and I think that message is critical to the team and how his car is run." 

The message, I think, is "do you have my back and if so prove it." 

DC agrees with Susie that it's an incredibly well thought out interview, and he's impressed with how he's able to gather his thoughts in the car, even though he's incredibly emotional while he's racing. He says he enjoys, and that's a good point, how Mercedes allow their drivers to talk (and I'd say all the team members because Toto and Niki didn't hold back either). He thinks it'll bring the team popularity. 

And here's the kicker. The cherry on the cake. The Wikipedia article states that Nico "received an undisclosed punishment from Mercedes for hitting Hamilton". Although the stewards investigated it and concluded, like me, that it was a racing incident. Lewis later said after a meeting that Nico had "basically" admitted that it had been intentional to "prove a point" and that he (Lewis) didn't have to only rely on Nico to avoid it as he could have avoided it as well.

(At some point in this rewatch there will be something to say about Lewis' tendency to get paranoid when he comes under pressure but this is not a very good argument for it as we don't know the truth and there's enough in this review anyway. Also I have a gut feeling that the may-or-may-not-be paranoia is gonna get way worse later on so we’ll talk about it then.)

Toto also somewhat backed Lewis on this, saying after the meeting the collision could have been avoided, it was Nico who attacked and "it was also to show he was not prepared to give in". Nico initially said he didn't do anything wrong, and didn't see any risk in his manoeuvre. Then he denied Lewis' version of the meeting but refused to say what he said in the meeting, to "keep it internal". In one article, a Mercedes spokesman said that Lewis' version was "broadly accurate" but Toto said the part about admitting the crash was deliberate was "nonsense".

(See, let me get back to the paranoia thing after all. (sorry) What I mean is that when he's under pressure he sometimes makes wild claims, like sometimes on the radio, saying people did things on purpose and then he regrets it when he's calmed down. Something does happen, I mean it's never completely unwarranted, but then the question of whether people did the thing with bad intentions or not is up to interpretation and I feel like he tends to believe by default that people are out to get him, especially in tense moments. Which is understandable given the context and the whole bullying thing I mentioned earlier but it's worth keeping in mind. This may or may not be the case here. Like it might be that Nico said something ambiguous that could be interpreted as "I did it on purpose" and that's how Lewis heard it but could also have been interpreted with more nuance which Lewis didn't.) (And I don't blame him for it given the context.) (But still important pattern to keep in mind imo.) (Because if not relevant now it will definitely be relevant at some point.) (OK sorry let's keep going.)

Five days after the race, the senior members of the team held a meeting with both of them. That's when Nico got the undisclosed punishment. They still maintained the no team order policy. Nico accepted responsibility and apologised to Lewis, Mercedes, and the fans. Lewis admitted in a statement he made mistakes in their rivalry over the year and that it would be unfair to put all the blame on one driver. "There is a deep foundation that still exists for me and Nico to work from, in spite of our difficult time and differences." 

So now. The question is, I guess, was the punishment enough in Lewis' eyes to convince him he's not fighting alone? Is he fighting alone?

[iceman7raikkonen]

[milflewis]

part three: sorry i was a dick to you when we were fifteen — and nineteen — and twenty three — and twenty six — do you still think i’m hot?

part one: a love language misunderstood

part two: i think you’re pretty — what? — i said i think you’re shitty! ft. several unintentional snubs

intro of matt stover’s novelisation of revenge of the sith // baku gp 2017 // unknown // mclaren’s instagram // transcript of daniel's answer in this interview // daniel’s twitter from 2013 // unknown // the time daniel ricciardo played the ultimate mind game by alanis king // unknown // belgian gp 2014 // same article by alanis king // unknown // austrian gp 2017 // anonymous // crush by richard silken // autosport article by adam cooper // austrian gp 2017 // yt series: formula one does secret santa circa // ode to an apple by pablo neruda // yt series: formula one does secret santa circa // // anonymous // // post monza gp 2021 // same article by adam cooper // the sports rush by subham jindal // @hungerpunch // same article by alanis king // silverstone eurocup 2008 // @eleyhsa // road to hell by anaïs mitchell, andré de shields and hadestown

[petit-papillion]

The current grid ranked by F1 experience (number of entries), plus debut race.

1. Fernando Alonso (369) - 2001 Australian GP

2. Lewis Hamilton (321) - 2007 Australian GP

3. Sergio Perez (250) - 2011 Australian GP

4. Daniel Ricciardo (233) - 2011 British GP

5. Valtteri Bottas (212) - 2013 Australian GP

6. Nico Hülkenberg (195) - 2010 Bahrain GP

7. Max Verstappen (174) - 2015 Australian GP

= Carlos Sainz (174) - 2015 Australian GP

9. Kevin Magnussen (153) - 2014 Australian GP

10. Lance Stroll (134) - 2017 Australian GP

11. Esteban Ocon (122) - 2016 Belgian GP

12. Pierre Gasly (119) - 2017 Malaysian GP

13. Charles Leclerc (114) - 2018 Australian GP

14. Lando Norris (93) - 2019 Australian GP

= George Russell (93) - 2019 Australian GP

16. Alexander Albon (79) - 2019 Australian GP

17. Yuki Tsunoda (55) - 2021 Bahrain GP

18. Zhou Guanyu (33) - 2022 Bahrain GP

19. Oscar Piastri (11) - 2023 Bahrain GP

= Logan Sargeant (11) - 2023 Bahrain GP

[sebsdaniel]

12 Questions about F1 through the years

I was tagged by @twinkodium Thank you sm girl! This one's my fave so far <3

I tag whoever wants to do this in F1blr <3

1. Who or what got you into F1?

My dad. He grew up in a racing/car family and automatically transfered that love to me when I was just five days old and he held me up in the hospital to show me the German GP of 1999 on TV. We always joke I've watched F1 since I was born, which is no lie. Since then, we've seen almost every race together. We've also gone to 15 F1 GPs together.

2. Who was the very first F1 driver you supported? Do you support them now? Have your opinions on them differed or stayed the same since then?

Michael Schumacher. My dad is a Jenson Button fan and he's convinced I started supporting Schumi just to annoy him. I don't fully remember why I chose Michael, but my best guess is I fell in love with the red car that kept winning. I love him still and still hope he gets better someday.

3. Who’s your current favourite F1 driver?

After 16 years of supporting Sebastian Vettel, I ended up supporting Max Verstappen in 2023. My dad's been supporting him ever since his debut, and made him his main since Jenson retired. However, I didn't get there that quickly. I adored Max when he began F1. Got annoyed with him a lot in 2018 and 2019 when he kept having run ins with Seb (fave bias I guess), but once 2020 I grew to adore him and in 2021 I fell in love. He'll never reach the same level for me as Seb did in my heart (he's my hero after all, since I was 6), but I love him sm already.

4. Is there a driver pairing or pairings you support? What made you attracted to that pairing in the first place?

I love so many F1 duo's, but my two faves are Sebastidan and Lestappen.

Sebastidan got me out of my high school depression phase in 2017. I remember feeling extra down when Seb lost his chance at the title that year in Japan. I was so frustrated and watched video's of them as teammates the whole day. I've adored them since and while they aren't a fanfavorite, I can't help but enjoy the bits and pieces we still get from them.

Lestappen. I got into them last year during their - sadly short - title fight. The history they have, the connection, is something so unique. They also seem to become better friends with each passing month. I'd love to see them as teammates someday.

5. Do your parents, siblings or relatives have a favourite team and/or favourite driver(s)?

Dad's a Max and RB fan. He hates Mercedes and especially Toto. His past faves are Senna, Hill and Jenson. Mom has watched F1 since she's been with dad (1985), but never got into it. She always liked Nico Rosberg though!

6. Do you have any favourite races? Are there any that stand out to you the most?

Belgium 2014 as it was my first live GP. Belgium 2018 as it was the first time I saw Seb win live. Abu Dhabi 2012, which was epic Abu Dhabi 2021, I'll never forget that day Brazil 2008, it was mind blowing.

And probably many more!

7. Do you have a favourite circuit? Can be from the past or from the current calendar.

Spa. It's my home track which I've been visiting since I was a toddler. And Zolder, for the same reasons.

I also adore the Red Bull Ring, Yas Marina circuit and Monza.

8. Have you ever been to an F1 race in real life? Feel free to tell us your experience going to one if you like.

15 in total! 14 times the Belgian GP (would've been 15 if it weren't for 2020) and 1 time the Austrain GP. It's always amazing! The organisation of Spa has changed for the better as well!

9. Have you ever met an F1 driver in real life?

Several times the whole grid before 2020, because it wasn't as difficult to get close to them. In Spa they organized hours long signing sessions at la Source for everyone with a weekend ticket. Since then I've seen them mostly from a distance. The closest I've come to talking a while to someone was Charles in 2018, Seb several times and Daniel also a few times. I still get butterflies thinking about it <3

10. Do you have a favourite F1 car? If so, what is it?

RB19 (2023), it's such a precious car <3 Seb's 2010 RB. The Ferrari from 2004. Brawn GP car from 2009.

11. Do you have a favourite one win wonder?

Not really. Unless, you count Oscar's sprint win from last year.

12. Do you have any favourite quotes from the F1 world? This can either be inspirational or hilarious.

‘If you no longer go for a gap which exists you are no longer a racing driver’ - Aryton Senna -

'Enjoy these moments. We know they won't last forever.' - Sebastian Vettel -

'Enjoy the butterflies' - Daniel Ricciardo -

'If I get a few more, I think I'll headbut someone' - Max Verstappen -

'God might be with him, but he's no God' - Max Verstappen -

Thank you so much for this tag, hun <3

[vidderi]

do you have any footage of valtteri interacting with nico rosberg? especially from when valtteri was at williams? i’ve been looking for some but can’t find it now.

Hello!

Thank you for your ask!

There's really not a lot out there with them, I tried to find something but it's mostly really short parts or podiums.

Malaysian GP 2014 - Press Conference (not really interacting but Valtteri is showing he was listening to Nico)

Austrian GP 2014 - Podium (also here)

Russian GP 2014 - Podium

Belgian GP 2014 - Podium (fair warning: Nico is getting booed)

Canadian GP 2015 - Podium (from 40:21)

Mexican GP 2015 - Podium

Mexican GP 2015 - Post Race Press Conference (most interesting point at 6:35)

German GP 2019 from Nico YT Channel (literally 2 seconds)

UK GP 2019 from Nico YT Channel (literally 2 seconds)

Nico analysis of Japanese GP 2019 (no interaction but interesting insight on what Nico thought of Valtteri at the time)

(If anyone has any other videos, please send them to the page. We'd love to add more content to this list.)

---Garnet

[dr3comebackera]

Crofty on Ricciardo, Rosberg, & Bottas at the end of the Belgian 2014 GP

“Ricciardo, Rosberg, and Bottas. Not a world champion amongst them on the podium, here in Spa. Surely one day, one of these three will be.”

[goldenboygate]

i know i do this quite a lot already but before i disappear into nothingness i wanna talk a bit about someone called lando norris.

born 13th november 1999, in bristol. his father is english, and his mother is belgian. he holds dual british and belgian citizenship. he barely speaks either language. he has three siblings, two younger sisters and one older brother.

in 2010 he placed 3rd in super 1 national championship, and then 2nd in 2011. in that same year he won formula kart stars and placed 3rd in copa de campeones. in 2013 he won the wsk euro series, the cik-fia european championship and cik-fia international super cup while placing 2nd in the wsk super master series.

in 2014 when he was 14, he placed 3rd in the ginetta junior championship with 4 wins, 11 podiums, 8 poles, 2 fastest laps and 432 points in 20 races.

a year later, he partook in the msa formula championship with carlin where he placed 1st, beating ricky collard and then teammate colton herta. that same year he also raced in the inaugural season of adac formula 4. he entered in 8/24 races, won 1 race and got 5 other podiums and ended in 8th place out of 51 drivers.

2015 also saw him race in the italian formula 4 championship where he placed 11th after racing in 9/21 races, and the brdc formula 4 autumn trophy where he placed 5th after racing in 4/8 races.

2016 was a busy year for 16-year-old lando. as a rookie he won both the eurocup formula renault 2.0 and formula renault 2.0 nec with josef kaufmann racing, and also the toyota racing series - also as a rookie.

he drove 11/24 races in the brdc british formula 3 championship, winning four races and getting on the podium for four others, resulting in an overall p8. he drove as a guest (ineligible for points) for carlin in the fia formula 3 european championship and placed 11th in the macau grand prix after having started the race p27.

in 2017 lando entered the fia formula 3 european championship with carlin. he won the drivers' championship with 441 pts. during 30 races he won 9 times, got on the podium 11 other times, got 8 poles and 8 fastest laps. he became the first non-prema driver to win the championship.

he also won the fia formula 3 european rookie championship with 628 pts, beating drivers like jehan daruvala and mick schumacher.

in the macau grand prix that year, he placed 2nd. he made his debut in round 11 of the fia formula 2 championship with campos racing, replacing ralph boschung, retiring in the feature race and placing 13th in the sprint race.

also in 2017, lando was signed as a junior driver with mclaren. he tested for mclaren in a scheduled mid-season test and set the second-fastest lap in the second day of testing at the hungaroring. later that year he officially became the mclaren test and reserve driver for the 2018 season.

in 2018 he entered the formula 2 championship with carlin. as a rookie, he placed 2nd with 1 win and 7 other podiums. current f1 drivers that competed alongside him are george russell, alex albon and nicky latifi.

he also drove daytona 24h with fernando alonso and phil hanson in a prototype car on continental tyres, recovering 33 seconds in 20 laps.

2019 was his rookie year in f1, the youngest british f1 driver of all time at age 19. he was partnered with carlos sainz at mclaren. that meant mclaren had a brand new driver line-up, with carlos having signed a two-year deal after a two-year stint at renault. lando finished 11th in the drivers' championship with 49 points, while carlos scored 96 points. lando did outqualify carlos at 11/21 races. during this season lando signed a new contract keeping him at mclaren until 2022.

due to covid the 2020 season started in july, and it started with a bang with lando qualifying p4 (elevated to p3 because of a hamilton penalty, the highest grid position of lando's career at the time and the highest for mclaren since the 2016 austrian gp). lando finished the race p3, getting his first f1 podium and his first fastest lap (he got his second at the turkish gp). scenario 7 lando was born. this also made lando the third youngest podium-finisher in f1 history (a record formerly held by jenson button). he finished p9 in the end, with 97 points, almost doubling his 2019 points. carlos finished 6th with 105 points but once again, lando out qualified him 9/17.

2021 was lando's best year in f1 to date. he got a new teammate, daniel ricciardo, who, like carlos, came from a two-year stint at renault. lando amassed four more podiums this year, three p3's and one p2. he started on the first row for the first time when he got p2 in quali in austria, but went on to do better as he got his first pole in sochi, and a first real shot at a win while also recording the fastest lap at the same race. he finished the season in p6 with 160 points, 45 more points than his teammate. he also out-qualified dan 14/22. this year he also set a record for consecutive points finishes for a mclaren driver, with a streak of 15 races in the top-10. the record was previously held by two-time world champion fernando alonso. lando signed a new contract locking him down at mclaren until the end of the 2025 season.

the 2022 season isn't over, but while the car hasn't really been up to speed, lando has done everything and more to keep mclaren in the p4 fight. he has one podium, a p3, the only driver outside of rbr, ferrari and merc, and he has 109 points, 79% of mclaren's 138 points. he's currently p7 in the standings, behind the rbr, ferrari, and mercedes drivers.

he also did all three days of preseason testing in bahrain after daniel fell ill, raced in monaco with tonsillitis securing the fastest lap and has only once, in 79 races, been eliminated in q1 (never this year). he has made it to q2 since silverstone 2019, one of the longest streaks of any current driver on the grid.

in 2016 he won british club driver of the year and the mclaren autosport brdc award at the autosport awards.

in 2018 he won national driver of the year at the autosport awards.

in 2019, 2020 and 2021 he won british competition driver of the year at the autosport awards.

in 2021 he was nominated for fia personality of the year at the fia prize giving awards, alongside drivers such as max verstappen, lewis hamilton and sebastian vettel.

tldr; lando isn't just someone who stumbled into f1 back in 2019 with nothing to show for it, with no accolades or experience on his back. does he have a disproportionate amount of privilege coming from a wealthy family? of course, he does, but so do most of the grid in one way or another. whether it's monetary, being connected to the former president of the fia or getting personally invested in by a team principal of an f1 team when you're still in karts.

there are a lot of talented drivers that never get into f1 because of reasons; there are some drivers who lack the talent to drive an f1 car yet still get into the series. lando doesn't fit into either category. he's there because of a lot of things, but the main ones are talent, speed, dedication, teamwork, focus, preparation and the willingness to learn and partake in building a car for the future, whether it's giving feedback through sim work or working with the mechanics to figure out how the car works.

tldr2; lando deserves to be in the sport, on the grid, to be lauded and loved and applauded.

[umseb]

sebastian vettel being a lil stinker in the paddock on media day, belgium - august 21, 2014 📷 patrik lundin / motorsport images

[backupherewego]

merc era vid list

youtube site search now is shit and shit , so I made a link list for James' merc era videos. not all the videos he appears in are in the list, the video must be interesting enough (i'm tired of watching him talking an hour-long strategy) you're welcome!

Previews & Debrief

22.08.12 W13 Challenges, Closing The Gap & New Foods! | 2022 Akkodis F1 Season Debrief

22.26.10 Upgrades, Brake Changes, Podiums & More! | 2022 United States GP Akkodis F1 Race Debrief

22.13.04 Overcuts, Safety Cars & More | 2022 Australian GP Akkodis F1 Race Debrief

21.09.12 Headphones, Damage & More | 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix F1 Race Debrief

21.10.11 First Lap, Pit Stops & More | 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix F1 Race Debrief

21.28.10 Overcuts, Atmosphere & More | 2021 United States Grand Prix F1 Race Debrief

21.16.09 P19 to P3, Car Damage & More | 2021 Italian GP F1 Race Debrief

21.02.09 Wet Tyres, Aquaplaning & More | 2021 Belgian GP F1 Race Debrief

21.01.07 Upgrades, Second Stops & More | 2021 Styrian GP F1 Race Debrief

21.05.05 Sensor Issues, Fastest Lap Fights & More | Portuguese GP F1 Race Debrief peer pressure about food.

21.18.03 Sandstorms, Car Handling & More | 2021 F1 Test Debrief

20.16.09 Safety Car Restarts, Smoking Brakes & More! | 2020 Tuscan GP F1 Race Debrief 4:12

20.09.09 Lewis' Penalty, Best Pizzas & More | 2020 Italian GP F1 Debrief pizza!

20.05.08 Punctures, Pit Stops, Vibrations & More | 2020 British GP F1 Debrief

20.15.07 Tyre Offsets, Floor Damage & More! | 2020 Styrian GP F1 Debrief 6:25

20.13.05 PETRONAS Retro Race Review – F1 Mexico Grand Prix 2019 Is this your loft ??

20.29.04 PETRONAS Retro Race Review - Hungary F1 Grand Prix 2019

20.22.04 PETRONAS Retro Race Review - Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2014

19.07.08 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix F1 Debrief & what happened

19.18.07 2019 British Grand Prix F1 Debrief analyzing toto's heart rate.

19.01.05 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix F1 Debrief he got a promotion.

19.27.03 2019 Australian Grand Prix F1 Debrief he got a cold.

18.15.112018 Brazilian Grand Prix F1 Debrief Why are you so mean to your coworker?

18.22.10 2018 United States Grand Prix F1 Debrief... with a Difference! Paul Ripke what have you done?

16.28.07 Full throttle down the Hockenheim straights! | Nico Rosberg on the German GP

~

Tech Part

16.23.06 F1 2016 Explained: How have the 2016 tyre rules changed race strategy?

13.09.07 Grand Prix Insights - Seat Fit

12.11.11 Grand Prix Insights - Race Overall

20.14.10 Everything You Need to Know About F1 Esports!

21.31.05 INSIDE STORY: Mercedes' Strategic Masterclass | 2021 Spanish Grand Prix

18.13.05 Inside Story Of How Mercedes Won The 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

~

Interview

22.14.10 Driving Ambition - the journey to drive a Formula One™ car part1 part2 part3

22.24.07 "On a aujourd'hui moins de marsouinage que Red Bull ou Ferrari. Ce n'est plus un problème" need fr ip.

22.29.04 "It was UNFORGETTABLE to ride with you!" 🙌 | Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi swap seats! 1:09 He wears a motorcycle suit.

20.15.12 LH44xVR46: Behind the scenes of the ultimate rideswap

19.04.08 An incredibly deserved podium today for James

19.18.07 LIVE at the F1 Esports Pro Draft 2019 star from1:57:26

19.21.06 “Fans, it’s James”

18.12.09 F1 in Schools World Finals Singapore 2018 - Day 4 - Awards Celebration star from 2:25:06

~

ads

17.10.06 The Road to Montreal (Full HD)

15.31.07 Tumi and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

~

other

21.02.08 Took a Champion’s drive to fight back to P3!

19.27.05 James, it’s Lewis... We need to talk!

18.05.11 Lewis Hamilton Behind the Scenes: Day in the Life of an F1 Champion

20.08 08 “James, it’s James”

19.19.12 2019 F1 Race Debriefs: The Bloopers!

18.24.12 Santa Spotted at Mercedes F1 Factory

[herohimbowhore]

On This Day in F1: April 5

Present: Japan Day 1

History: 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix

I'm going to be honest, the time zone differences from Australia to China are screwing with my perception of when things are happening (and my sleep schedule). Especially since FP1 happened on Thursday night (before midnight) for me and FP3 will be on Friday night. So I've been all over the place since the Australian GP.

But in Japan on April 5th, 2024, FP1 and FP2 occurred. There wasn't much to talk about in FP1 except for Logan Sargeant crashing toward the latter half of the session and Will Buxton revealing that there were other teams that only had two chassis for the weekend. Alpine has confirmed that they are one of those teams.

(Sidenote: the plural of chassis is chassis but it's pronounced with a "z" at the end. So the singular is pronounced like "CHASS-ee" and the plural is pronounced like "CHASS-eez." The more you know, I guess.)

FP2 had even less to talk about. It was raining and more than half of the drivers didn't set a lap time. Briefly, Yuki Tsunoda was at the top of the timing charts with Daniel Ricciardo in second. But then Oscar Piastri set a faster lap with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finishing out the top 3.

2024 marks 10 years since Jules Bianchi crashed during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix and lost his life due to the injuries from his crash. In honor of Jules, Charles - Jules' godson - has a special helmet in Jules' colors and with his number 17 on it.

We tend to talk about Jules in relation to his crash, Charles, Daniel, or any other drivers he was friends with. While they are a piece of his story and he is a piece of their stories, we should also remember Jules for himself - for the things he did and loved. He scored his first points in Monaco and that was the first GP he'd attended as a child, he liked dark chocolate, the first meal he cooked wasn't good, his hero was Michael Schumacher because he was winning, etc.

Looking back to another rain-filled day, the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix took place on April 5th.

Malaysia was the second race of the historic 2009 season - which does go to show how early we start the season now in comparison to the previous seasons.

It should have been 56 laps of racing, but due to torrential rain, drivers were only able to complete 31 classified laps. This did not meet the 75% minimum distance completed for full points to be awarded. Therefore, half points were awarded to drivers. The race had been stopped on lap 33 and was not later resumed due to the darkness. Lap 31 was the penultimate full lap and was the one used to determine classifications per sporting regulations.

Half points are very rarely awarded. Malaysia 2009 was the fifth time in F1 history that it had happened (the 4th time had been the 1991 Australian GP). And it didn't happen again until the 2021 Belgian GP.

Jenson Button, driving for Brawn GP, was declared the winner of the Grand Prix as he started the race on pole position and was the race leader for lap 31.

Nick Heidfeld driving for BMW Sauber finished second and Timo Glock driving for Toyota finished third. Heidfeld was the first driver with a KERS-equipped car to take a podium position.

Since Jenson had won the 2009 Australian Grand Prix as well, Brawn GP became the first team since Alfa Romeo in 1950 to win the first two World Championship Grands Prix of the season.

_____________

Previous: Mar. 24 - 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

Next: Apr. 6 - Japan Day 2

On This Day in F1 Masterlist

[iceman7raikkonen]

[alexi-01]

saw that you made a post recommending good max races, could you make one for daniel as well

oh absolutely nonnie (this will be a long ass post because daniel is that great)

2012 Bahrain Qualifying - a really amazing quali for daniel in a midfield car, the race wasn’t that great for him though

2014 British GP - daniel had a different race style this weekend but worked in his favour and ended up P3

2014 Canadian GP - DANIEL’S FIRST WIN!! Full on mercedes drama with daniel not leading a lap till the very end

2014 Hungarian GP - a wet starting race that was full of different strategies, underlying merc drama as usual and daniel made some real ballsy overtakes, most notably on fernando and lewis, to go and win the race

2014 Belgian GP - it’s another dan win but this race is GREAT for the mercedes drama that plagued 2014 - 2016

2014 Abu Dhabi GP - this one gets so overlooked because of the title decider but my man started P19 after basically being DSQ and finished P4 with some amazing overtakes, one with two cars at once

2016 Monaco GP - this was hard, daniel had an absolutely amazing race starting on pole until red bull fucked his pitstop so it ended with pain

2016 Malaysian GP - Malaysia is just such a sexy race for red bull drivers and i miss this circuit a lot. A 1-2 with baby maxy

2016 was amazing in qualifying for daniel so i would recommend watching them as well, he got podiums in Germany (that included some team orders though if that’s not what you’re into) and Singapore

2017 Monaco GP - daniel got third after some good strategies with tyres and even though he hit the wall towards the end

2017 Azerbaijan GP - this race was drama, seb and lewis were at it and causing each other grief, which allowed daniel to go and win the race from P10 with one of the most sexiest overtakes he’s ever done

2017 Austrian GP - just some nice defending from daniel against lewis for P3

2017 Malaysian GP - nice defending again for P3 and a double podium for the red bull boys

Daniel had some more podiums as well at Spain, Canada, Spa and Singapore, 2017 was a very strong season for him

2018 China GP - very sexy overtakes as always that let him go on to win the race after so many issues with the car that weekend

2018 Monaco GP - daniel finally fucking won monaco, with a breaking down car, it’s amazing to watch

2018 Mexico Qualifying - my mans was a fast boy and got pole “i’m tripping major balls right now” but i wouldn’t watch the race if you’re a dan fan

2019 Italian GP - this season was just not that great but this was finally a good race for him

2020 German GP - this bitch finally got a podium after finishing 4th at so many races!!

2021 Italian GP - HE NEVER LEFT BITCHES