#it's sad because i actually think valtteri and lewis are good people

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 160/310

2015 Italian GP

Guys we have a FULL BROADCAST 🎉 let's go!

Oh. They open by saying we're joining them earlier as the drivers have assembled for a minute of silence in honor of driver Justin Wilson, who passed a couple of weeks prior after suffering a head injury during an indycar race. 

All the drivers are standing around in little groups in what looks like an empty garage and chatting at the moment. I like when we get to see them in these less scripted, more informal moments. Seb comes in and grabs Jenson to lead the way out. They're the GPDA directors at the time. And there they go. I can't see Lewis anywhere. Oh, OH! OOOOIAHSHSHSHSHWHDGXZSGSG

IT'S BLEACHED BLOND LEWIS ERA BITCHES! Anyway he's walking alone but he's here. They all get on, erm… Is that the drivers' truck? They line up against a barrier facing the journalists and holding each other by the shoulders. Lewis stands right next to Valtteri, they have the same shade of hair now. And Valtteri tries to chat with him because he's in love with him obviously. They stand there in silence. Then there's some clapping, and the drivers' truck leaves for the parade. 

Natalie interviews him. He's waving to the crowd with his earphones on. She says it was a "incredibly moving moment" and that it reminds us of how "unified the world of motorsport is" (erm… What?) "at a sad time like this". Oh that's awkward, she presents him with the mic and he just smiles in silence. After a second he chuckles and says "I don't know what you want me to say…" He goes on to say it's for sure a difficult year for motorsport, they're all close, they're all drivers, and they all experience similar things, and they're all connected in one way or another. It's his 7th consecutive pole, "just one short of your hero Ayrton Senna", she asks if records like these matter to him. He hums. He says he never really thinks about the records but he thinks it's not fair on Ayrton because he was so good, if he had lived longer, all his records would have been extended. "So whilst I'm getting close in terms of numbers, they're not really real, you know what I mean?" They're now in front of a stand and she says although of course the fans here love Ferrari, he has a lot of support as well. He says there's a lot of British flags and the support has been amazing in the last couple of years, a lot of British coming but also Italians "swinging from ferrari to Mercedes"... She calls it controversial! He smiles. He says he's grateful for the support he gets. She says he promised he'd show the blond hair today. He says he didn't promise that, "but you're gonna see it, when I'll be on the grid, you'll see it."

So yep. Lewis on pole again, but this time it's actually Raikkonen beside him. Then it's Seb, and Nico is only 4th. In 5th place we have Massa, then Valtteri, Perez, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Maldonado for the 10th spot. Loads of grid penalties behind them. 

Ohhh yesss we're treated to Lewis content ❤️ first we see images of him arriving to the track. He burnt rubber on his bike and got swarmed by fans. We also get an explanation about Nico's performance : they apparently changed engines and he had to go back to the old one because of chassis issues? Not sure how that works. 

Ted interviewed Lewis. He says he could in the future be a three time world champion (lol). Lewis makes a face. Ted asks what it would mean to him. Lewis says it's always difficult when he's asked such questions because he hasn't done it yet so he doesn't know exactly. But it's his goal and it's what he's always wanted to do, he always wanted to emulate Ayrton. Ted says there's been a Senna era, a Schumacher era, even a Vettel era. "Do you think of your place in history at all? Do you think there might be a Hamilton era?" – "I hope I get the opportunity to have an era," he says, making a face again.

"I feel like my whole career is my era." He says he finds it funny when people say, whether it's him, Seb or Schumacher, "but he's in the best car." "That's the name of the game here, you have to be– you know, your team has to be on point, and then the driver has to be on point. And there's not one champion from the past that's not been– had the car at its best when he's won the championship. Not one driver." Ted talks about how Lewis wasn't penniless but was struggling and now he's reached a point where he's comfortable. "Does having money bring you happiness?" he asks, and that's a weird, weird question out of the blue. Lewis says he doesn't think he could find anyone who would say yes and that it’s about the people around you, your family and about finding happiness within yourself. (Yeah but being able to spend time with them rather than at work to pay the bills helps with that my man, come on.) (Ah here you go, I should have given him the benefit of the doubt) "But sure… having money for sure helps. Without a doubt. You're able to do things you weren't able to do when you didn't have the money." 

"A Formula One driver has to be this," he says. "Has to be in this square box." He draws it in the air with his fingers.

"If you're not, you're not winning and you're not doing all these other things and the moment I would ever step out of that box… it could be anyone… would comment and make a fuss about it and I'd go back into the box. Now I'm not in that box anymore, and I do my own thing AND I'm winning. So then I'm like… creating a new shape or being a different shape which um… yeah, and I'm happier here that I was in the other box so, if you can understand what I mean…" – "I do understand," Ted answers with emphasis. "I'm wondering if, when you came into Formula 1 in 2007, you– I sensed that you had a focus maybe that's that box, you thought 'I need to be totally focused', it was like a closed off focus. Is that what you mean by being in that box?" (No, Ted, love, it's not.) "It's not about the focus, no. It's about people's expectations of you, it's about your parents, it's about how you behave, it's about what you say and all of those, many other things. But as I did get into Formula 1, the pressure that I put on myself was far too much. You know the pressure that would come from my dad, who… I'm grateful the pressure he put on me but the pressure I felt from a family point of view as well."

"You got a lot of friends in Formula One?" asks Ted. (How can he get some questions so right while he seemingly understands so little about Lewis’ answers.) Lewis hums and looks around. "Well within my team, my last team, yeah. I would say so, I'd think so. A lot of friends I mean, what is a lot of friends? My friends I– my best friends are, I can c– you know, the closest friends I can count on one hand. So I have a lot of… Associates and colleagues and uh, people I like to, you know, people I work very closely with I like to say, I like to think they're my friends. People I can rely on." (:) :) :) :) :) remember what I wrote about him needing to be able to rely on people and feel like he belongs?) "The reason I ask," says Ted, "some people, some other drivers, they love to be everyone's mate, they're joshing around with everybody cause maybe that's how they deal with the pressure, whatever. Um… but you're not like that."

"Naaaah, I'm not." He smirks, Ted chuckles. He shakes his head. "I'm not into that, no, cause… Yeah." He chuckles as well. "Why?" asks Ted. While he asks his question Lewis says "Well what makes you think I'm not like that?" Ted says they just don't see him lurking around. "One driver I feel like I've got a real good relationship with is Daniel," he says. "For example. You know and, I obviously came together with him in Hungary and I, I messaged him and I said 'hey man, I'm really sorry about that. My bad.' and he wrote back like 'no problem man, it's totally cool' and it's a respect thing. So there's respect between the drivers, but I'm here to do a job, I'm not here to play. I'm not here to be all happy dooladi and, you know, and make too much of a conversation. I'm here to do one thing, that's win the championship." – "Maybe blonds do have more fun," Ted says. "Hah!" goes Lewis. "well I've literally just changed so I don't know." He laughs. "We'll see over the next couple of weeks."

Now back in Brixworth they challenged the drivers to a nice little rowing competition on the premise that the Merc engine is the best but what about their own engines. It's between Hulkenberg, Lewis, Grosjean, Massa, Maldonado and Valtteri. Brundle asks Valtteri if he's ready and if he's been training. He says training yes but not rowing. Lewis jokingly says : "I saw Valtteri the other day training in Monaco for this". – "Yeah right," Valtteri says back. Brundle tells them to imagine they're going across a 500m lake. He says on the other side there's Bernie's wallet and 10 WDC points. And here we go.

(Sorry for the ugly colors I did my best but the lightning was sooo weird.)

Lewis is in the lead. Maldonado is literally moving his rowing bench around from how hard he's pulling. My god this is so funny they’re so competitive and for what. Halfway through the 500m Hulkenberg is catching Lewis.

Then it's Grosjean 11 meters behind, Valtteri 16 meters behind, Maldonado and Massa are over 30 meters behind. Maldonado is almost out of the filming area, he's moved his bench so much. Massa and him are still going but they're more so smiling in what I interpret as half awe half mockery of how hard the others are going and how seriously they're taking it. Hulkenberg is 9 meters in the lead now, with Grosjean second, 20 meters ahead of Lewis. And that's the finish line. Grosjean falls off his bench. They're all exhausted. Brundle presents Hulkenberg with a shabby trophy. He asks him how it's gone for him but he can't answer, he's so out of breath. "Ah… Difficult," he manages. "I almost… Fell off… The chair…" Brundle says he had to pace himself a little because Lewis was flying. He says yeah it didn't look good, but he knew he'd hit a cliff at some point. Brundle looks at Lewis. "So I mean… Was that the old lactic acid kicking in?" Lewis says "I don't know, I just went for it." The crowd laughs. "What happened at the end though?" asks Hulkenberg. "I had nothing left!" he laughs.

And just like that the cars are off to the grid. Niki says the Ferraris can beat them today. He thinks the start will be important and we will see who's the best out of the chicane. "And?" says Brundle "What do you think, how do you think it's gonna play out?" – "I think Lewis knows what he's doing, if he gets through the first chicane, I trust him." Brundle says he heard they had 20 men working on Nico's car and it took a miracle to get it on the track. Niki confirms it, they had to change some pieces, and says now the car's okay. Brundle asks if they have concerns about Lewis' car, but Niki says Lewis had no problems all weekend, "thank God". 

It's time for the race!

Formation lap

They're racing ! 

Oh no fucking way! Raikkonen didn't start! He's pretty much at the back, unbelievable… Very very bad for him, but good for Lewis, who's leading the way although Seb is very very close to him. It's not a good start for Nico either, he's currently 6th. And there's a car out already, and it's Grosjean. And Ted says Maldonado has just gone past him in the garage and retired as well. So that's both Lotuses out on lap 3. Raikkonen is gaining back, up in P10 from the back of the field in a few laps. Ted says Maldonado's floor broke in two as he went through a kerb in lap 1. Raikkonen up in P9. Nico is struggling with brake wear. 

On lap 10 Lewis has a 5.4 advantage over Seb, ahead of Massa, Valtteri, Nico, Perez, Hulkenberg, Ericsson, Raikkonen and Sainz. Ted says Nico has been asking about the strategy and his engineer told him to focus on the brake wear right now. That's how bad they're doing. Sainz gets a 5 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Shortly after Nico is back half a second behind Valtteri and told the brakes are getting better with management. He's still stuck behind even with the DRS though. He's attacking. He's told his brakes are hot again. Nico pits. 

On lap 20, Massa pits in response. Raikkonen overtakes Ericsson for current P5. And Nico's undercut was successful as he's now ahead of Massa in P6. Lewis says he's feeling something with his front left and getting understeer. Valtteri pits. He's gonna lose out with that strategy from Williams. Yeah. He's way behind Nico and Massa. Bono tells Lewis he's matching Nico's time on the other (and also fresh) tyres. Seb gets called in, he's losing time a lot. It's past time they changed his tyres. Lewis is called in. He's still in the lead obvi. Raikkonen says he wants to box and so he does, and Mehri almost collides into him in the pit entry… Seb sets the fastest lap. On the replay we see that it was rather Raikkonen going in extremely slowly and Mehri having to brake hard to avoid running into him. 

Lap 30. Lewis is leading by 19.2 seconds lol. Then it's Seb, Nico, Massa, Valtteri, Perez, Daniel (but he hasn't pitted yet), Hulkenberg, Ericsson and Raikkonen. And just as I'm done writing this, Daniel pits and Raikkonen overtakes Ericsson for P8. Then Hulkenberg for P7. Nico's engineer says Seb's first tyres went off way earlier than everybody else's and they're expecting the same for the second stint so P2 is still possible if he closes the gap, but Crofty points out Nico's current tyres are 7 laps older. 

On lap 40, it’s boring. Lewis is over 20 seconds ahead. Seb, Nico is 5 seconds behind him, Massa, Valtteri, Perez, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Ericsson, Ricciardo. Lewis is so chill ahead he's asking what he can do to save his engine the best he can.

Huh?

So we just saw an image of Toto talking with engineers very seriously. And then Bono says : "Okay Lewis we can go Strat mode 3, start mode 3, we need to pull a gap, we need to pull a gap. Don’t ask questions, just execute." Which is very weird. They don't usually communicate like this. Also what fucking gap, he's 22 seconds in the lead?! The commentators are baffled. Brundle thinks maybe it's a slow puncture but he's doing fine? We see a lock up in a replay, so now he thinks maybe vibrations? But then he corrects himself saying it's not a "particularly nasty flat spot at all". Anyway, Lewis picks up the pace. 

5 laps to go. Bono : "OK Lewis let’s just have some ‘Hammertime’ lap times. We just need some good lap times now. No need to ask questions, we’ll just explain it at the end." Very weird, very weird. He sets the fastest lap of the race. Crofty says it's gotta be concerning, if you're Lewis now, he might not ask questions but he's in a bit of a jeopardy. Ted says he must know it's for a safety pit stop, he's 22 seconds ahead and it's 25 seconds for a pit stop. But why would they need that? It makes no sense. As Ted points out, if he had a concerning issue with the car, they couldn't be asking him to do quick laps, so what is it?! Ted says if they're not telling Lewis anything they won't tell him but he'll still try and ask them. 

4 laps to go. Brundle says they're looking at telemetry so they're worried about something Lewis can't see. Hence not a flat spot or vibration. Lewis says he can't go much faster than that. Bono very calmly says what he's doing is all they need, to stabilise the pace and that it's great. Meanwhile Alonso retires. Raikkonen overtakes Perez for P6. 

3 laps to go. Valtteri is half a second behind Massa now but they're both Williams. Are they gonna race? Valtteri's tyres are fresher. OH. HOOOO. And that's smoke for Nico! DNF! It's really not a good season for him. Yellow flags in sector 2.

2 laps to go. Nico's car is in a bad place, but they should be able to push it away. They do. Lewis hits backmarker traffic. Bono says there's no need to take any risks and to keep doing what he's doing. But Lewis is worried. "Bono picking up the pace to where I was, is… it IS taking risks." – "How bizarre," reacts Brundle. 

It's the final lap. Ted says Mercedes said Lewis doesn't need an extra stop but it’s obvious now. Valtteri attacks Massa but can't make it. 

It's the end of the race! 

Lewis wins! Seb P2, so a nice sewis podium, and the battle for P3 is ongoing… but it's Massa who gets it.

Bono : "Okay Lewis thanks for that, I'll explain everything when I see you." Lewis : "I have to say Bono, that, those last few laps were not cool man, I–" Bono cuts him off : "Yeah so just torque zero" and then “Yeah, okay Lewis, copy that, so I'll speak to you in a bit." They don't wanna do this over the radio.

Seb is very happy. Meanwhile Nico's Merc is smoking more heavily than I've ever seen a car smoke, suspended on the crane. 

Ted is with Toto. He asks about the mysterious issue. He goes "Uuuhhhh…" and then says they're looking at "some data". "Can't tell you right now." Ted insists, asks why he can't tell them, the race is over, "it's not a secret." Toto squirms uncomfortably. "Erm… It's still a secret." He smiles. Ted keeps insisting, asking if it was the engine, if he needed the gap for an extra stop, was it a tyre issue? In the background Toto says "I can't" repeatedly, and then, decidedly, "I can't tell you, Ted."

Crofty asks Brundle if them being secretive points towards an engine problem rather than a tyre problem. Brundle inhales and says yes. He thinks Lewis would have mentioned a tyre problem. Lewis not so discreetly checks his car as he climbs out. You can tell he's about as weirded out by the matter as the journalists are. Brundle says you can apply race penalties, maybe tyre pressure too low, some points… As he walks back, Lewis taps on his tyres and you can tell he's trying to figure it out just as much as they are. He's so confused. You know how he is about control. He squats next to the car and caresses it. He moves the steering wheel, pushes it a bit. Baby, go inside, whoever the Merc representative is will probably tell you. Brundle thinks it has to be something with temperature or pressure heading in the wrong direction.

Hahahahaha Ted is with Niki he says he's sorry to see what happened with Nico and then very quickly : "what was going on with Lewis?" And Niki being the smart guy he is says : "Lewis? Perfect race. I can't complain, I mean, he was leading and there he goes. Why? Are you worried about Lewis?" he asks with a chuckle. He's so funny. But it's not Ted's first rodeo. "No, well, your team was," he says. And he talks about Bono's radio messages. Niki keeps playing dumb. He says he doesn't know, he didn't hear these messages. Ted insists but Niki doesn't budge. He doesn't know what happened, there was nothing wrong with him. Lewis does an old man stretch in the cool down room. Ted and Niki agree Nico will be upset and that catching up with Lewis will be difficult.

The other two join Lewis in the cool down room and it's a nice light friendly atmosphere.

They congratulate each other, Massa telling him "Well done, boy!"

Then Seb sees Massa's race suit has a dark spot on the shoulder and asks "where have you been? Picking up some rubber?" and he laughs at his own joke because of course he does.

Massa tells them the same thing he said over the radio : "I'm getting too old for this." He says the three last laps were difficult, Valtteri was trying to pass him. It makes Lewis laugh. He says something but I can't hear.

The podium interviews are to be led by George Lucas which is weird but the crowd is busy chanting ‘Sebastian’ so loud we can barely hear the skysports comment anyway. George hugs them all. Doesn't shake their hands, he just HUGS them. The crowd is so noisy. George Lucas wishes them happy new year? They can't start the fucking interviews they're yelling so loud. "Crazy," says Lewis. "This is amazing," says George Lucas. "Grazie a tutti !" yells Lewis. The crowd roars even more. Finally they calm down. Kinda. George Lucas says he jokingly asked Lewis earlier why he doesn't win by 20 seconds rather than having "close call races of 1 or 2 seconds" and Lewis answered that he thought he could do that. And well he did. Lewis says “look at this crowd, unbelievable”. The crowd that had barely quieted down gets louder again. He says he couldn't have done it without his team ("I don't know if anyone can hear us"), "this team is just remarkable and what we've achieved together is so special".

It's Seb's turn. Now I genuinely can't hear properly because of how much they're yelling. It doesn't matter because Seb didn't hear either and instead of answering he talks to them in Italian. "Quest'anno è incredibile." Massa gets even louder cheers if it was possible. They love him so, still. Then they actually get completely quiet. George Lucas asks him how it felt to get through the finish line with his team-mate so close. "Very tough!" He says again he's getting old. It was difficult fighting with his team-mate. The crowd chants his name. "Grazie mille tutti, sono molto contento di essere cui con voi." And then some things I don't hear. "Grazie davvero" he says. "Siete tutti cui al mio cuore." (sic) The fans roar. George Lucas asks Lewis if blonds do have more fun. He says he hopes so. He thanks the crowd.

Oh fuck. Crofty says the drama is not over as it could've been that Mercedes were running illegal tyre pressures… Ted's gone to talk with Paddy. He tells him they've heard about the tyre pressure from Pirelli and another team, that they've detected a pressure lower than what was allowed on Lewis’ rear tyres. Paddy says they don't understand it "to be honest" but they've been summoned to the stewards. Ted's like oh so you've set the tyres to the right pressure and somehow they've gone below that? Paddy repeats he doesn't understand it because he was focused on the race but he knows they've set their pressure fully supervised by the Pirelli engineer who was "perfectly happy" with them. Ted says that they've heard Ferrari got a similar message and asks if they know if it's true. Paddy says he doesn't know that. Ted says that's obviously why they were telling Lewis to create a gap in anticipation perhaps of a time penalty. Paddy calls it "an abundance of caution, because we haven't done anything wrong" and then confirms it. 

The journalists debate it and Hill says he thought maybe Lewis had cruised so much it made the tyre pressure go down. The others agree it's a possibility. However Hill goes on to say that if Mercedes started the race with the lowest allowed pressure and Pirelli knows it they may have gone against Pirelli's recommendation. 

(It makes no sense man, if the tyre was set to the right pressure it was set to the right pressure there's no grey area. If the lowest pressure they allow dips below their own limit during the race because a driver is doing so well he doesn't have to push that's neither on him nor his team. If Mercedes started the race in accordance to the rules and the race panned out in such a way Lewis had no competition whatsoever how is that their fault? How could they have predicted it to set the pressure higher? It's stupid, but let's see if that's what happened.)

Ted says Hill is right, it's a technical infringement, all the other teams know it, except if they can prove it was a slow puncture or something, it's a technical infringement. And if the rear was under the limit then that's a penalty. Ted goes on to say you rarely get a drive through penalty for a technical infringement. They're even saying they could be straight up disqualified which is absolutely fucking ridiculous, but again, let's wait and see. Ted goes back to what Paddy Lowe said, which is they don't know what happened because they fully followed the regs and that they were told by the Pirelli engineer the pressure was right. 

We hear the team radio again. That "don't ask questions, just execute" is chilling for some reason. 

Toto joins the journalists. He says they heard towards the end of the race that tyre pressure was being checked on some cars, they don't have any more understanding of the situation than that and will try to make sense of it with the stewards. Simon picks up on the fact that according to him it wasn't just their car and Toto says his own understanding is just pit lane gossip at the moment. Johnny asks how the pressure limit works : is it that it can't dip below it even during the race? Toto says he doesn't know the details but he thinks it's just about when you take the blankets off and send the car away, and that's when it's being measured (mmmh...). Hill asks if it's a guidance or a law. Toto says it's more than a guidance. Hill asks if Pirelli can see their tyre pressure. Toto says he doesn't know how they can see that. Simon asks if he's been informed if there might be penalties and what they might be. Toto says no. They just have to wait and see now. 

We get the post race press conference. They explain to Lewis the issue at hand and ask if he has any comment. "Not really no."

They ask if he was aware of it. "I wasn't aware of it, so…" The journalist says at the end he was asked to build a gap and wasn't sure why, and presumably that was linked to that issue. "Maybe." – "They haven't told you?" He smiles. "N… No…" he stutters. They move on. 

Simon says again they heard one of the Ferrari cars is also implicated, but then they show the summons and it's only the two Mercedes. They speak with Pat Symonds (Williams’ chief technical officer). Ted asks him to explain what his understanding of the tyre pressure rules and how they're enforced is. He says from his understanding the pressures have been checked on the grid and some have been found to be under the limit. He expects "quite a high penalty". Ted asks what's a normal penalty for a technical infringement and Symonds says "disqualification". (Lol, when you think about all the times since then there were very obvious violations and barely anything happened…) Now Ted has more info, he reads : "On the grid, after the five minutes signal the tyre starting pressures and thread temperature on the left hand side rear tyres were checked on Lewis Hamilton's car, Nico Rosberg's car, Sebastian Vettel's car and Kimi Raikkonen's." He says those were the only four cars checked. "And they were compared with the specifications of Pirelli. The specification for the minimum starting pressure is 19.5 psi and the maximum blanket temperature is 110°C. The temperature on the left hand side rear tyre of Lewis, Nico, Sebastian and Kimi was within the guidelines. But the starting pressure of the left rear tyre of Lewis was 0.3 psi below the specified minimum tyre starting pressure and the measured pressure of Rosberg's car was 1.1 psi below the minimum specified tyre starting pressure." 

Okay that doesn't look good. Also Ted says the crucial part is the last paragraph, because the pressure was checked with the calibrated Pirelli pressure gauge. 

Natalie is interviewing Lewis and I wouldn't want to be her because that's not gonna be an easy one. She congratulates him and then asks how concerned he is about being disqualified. "I don't feel concerned at the moment," he says. "There's no need to worry, I mean, I had an amazing day, I had an amazing weekend and that's really what I'm focused on, I think. What will be will be, you know," he smiles softly. "We did everything we could." She asks what he's been told about– he doesn't wait for the end of the question nor the mic. I see him shake his head. She repeats : "You haven’t been told anything yet?" – "I haven't seen anyone, so..." She summarises the issue saying he must know he came under the restricted– He says something again, she nods "null point three psi", then he adds something else "on the left rear, so." He says something again but she keeps going : and he knows the consequence of that is disqualification. She asks if there's an easy process that could be put in place to make sure that didn't happen. He says he doesn't know. "It's not my job to think of that." He hums, looks aside and sighs briefly. "Yeah. I don't really know what to say to you about that, it's not my job," he smiles and shrugs.

"I'm sorry to push you on it," she starts and his face gets serious again. She says it seems ridiculous that in such a technical world as modern F1 something that simple could happen, when you lead by 25 seconds. He looks aside, inhales, shifts his weight on his other feet, smiles and lets out a breathy "yeah." He reiterates he doesn't have a particular feeling about it right then, and dives into his usual speech about the team doing such a great job, the car feeling great, driving his heart out, etc. "I extract the best out of the car but they extract the best out of me." He says for the people who are watching to know, as he's already explained, Formula 1 is about running to the maximum. All the cars and all the drivers run to the limit, weight limits, all the limits. They're always within the limits but always as close as they can to them. "That's what we do, that's what Formula 1 is all about, and for whatever reason today… Point three… If it is point three, it is point three, but at the end of the day it had no effect on the car. That small amount on the tyre doesn't do anything. It has to be a much bigger amount, half or one psi, to make a difference." Natalie says if, "god forbids", he gets disqualified, then it wouldn't be fair because he feels like he didn't get "that big an advantage" because of it. Lewis says he's sure people can prove it as well. He says Pirelli will be able to prove that it doesn't make any difference, particularly on one tyre as opposed to all the tyres. "So it would be very much a shame but ultimately that's not the reason that we won today. We won because we were the quickest." He smiles a bit forcefully. She decides to talk about more positive things. He winks at someone.

She goes back to the 25 seconds lead. He says he wouldn't be able to do that without the team. He also says he feels like he's driving to the best of his ability, the best he's ever driven. The balance is perfect and he's not making any mistakes. He says he honestly doesn't feel like he could have improved on anything in that race, and he's very happy with that. "And as I said, this team…" He shrugs and shakes his head with a smile.

"It's the best team in the world!" She asks if he knows when they will know about the decision. "I don't know how I would know when I haven't spoken with anyone so…" he answers with slight mockery. "I don't, sorry!" he chuckles. She says they're all desperate to know "cause, you know…" He says "well, me too, but honestly… This dude hasn't told me anything so…" he chuckles again.

Natalie asks "does this dude know anything?" and she hands the mic to the PR guy. Lewis is smiling wide. (He's really so happy this season, it's unbelievable lol, I genuinely thought he'd be closed off in this interview and he's joking around. Nice to see!) "Nothing at all," the PR guys answer. In the background Lewis says "...put you in the spot!" 

And we cut straight to Paddy Lowe and Shov walking up the stairs to the stewards office. They're not sharing Lewis' relaxed and happy vibe, they look like someone died. 

Crofty is checking twitter and someone there makes a very good point, which doesn't happen a lot : if it was such a safety issue why would they let the cars leave when they check the pressures before the start and they aren't right. 

When asked about it, Seb says it's not fair they ask the drivers about it and focus on that instead of the race that happened. As for the fairness of disqualifying a driver for that he says at the end of the day there are things the drivers can do wrong and things the team can do wrong. He also says Lewis was the quickest today. (And a lot of other things obvi.) She says he gave Arrivabene a very long hug and they joke about the awkwardness of not wanting to be the one to break a hug too soon. He says they're both emotional people. He says he's not typically a hugging person but Arrivabene deserved a hug. 

OH MY GOOOODDDABYVSGAH Massa starts his interview and Natalie reacts to something and it's his son right behind him and Massa grabs him off the ground and kisses him repeatedly in the neck and it's so very cute. (At this point I hadn’t seen the other postrace where the kid was already there, that’s why I got so excited lol). Natalie says well done daddy and the kid says well done in the mic while hugging his dad's leg. About the pressure issue Massa justly says the rules are the rules and fair or not is not the question, it's not his place to say and it won't change anything to the way he feels about his race and how happy he is. 

Paddy Lowe is with Brundle. He says they told the stewards everything they did during the afternoon. He's standing with his arms crossed and he doesn't uncross them even as he does hands gestures which creates a bit of a weird vibe body language wise. The stewards are reviewing it and we're still waiting for the decision. He asks what they can do to protest the decision basically and Paddy says he won't go into that because it's better to just wait and see what they say. He says they operated completely normally and the tyre pressures limits were set slightly higher for this event (in part because of what happened with the tyres blow out in the last race) because the durity of the circuit, and so the only difference from normal is they operated on a different number but everything else was the same and they never had any issue with that process before. Brundle asks if it's a safety issue why did they not make them pull the cars back in if the pressures were low. Paddy says he doesn't wanna comment on that. 

Simon received an email in the meantime saying that in GP2 a driver was excluded from the results that weekend because his tyres’ pressures were too low. So it's really not looking good.

For some reason we hear again from Lewis that all the teams are trying to run as low as possible, and he takes Sebastian as an example. He says the team will explain to him later what happened but whatever the outcome is today they're usually faultless and he's still grateful for their work that weekend. In that same interview he's asked if you'd feel 1.1 like for Nico's and he says yes definitely. He says when you change the pressure you use different patches on the tyre so you'd feel it. She says it must have been a nice position to be in to be so relaxed you're asking if you can save the engine. He says he's always thinking of the engine, all weekend. Like in practice once he gets the info he needs he's done, he doesn't want to do more laps than he needs. He says if you look at the number of laps at the end he's always doing less than Nico just because he's trying to save his engine. He really wanted to take care of his new engine, he wants it to last him to the end of the year so he's looking after it. She asks about the last few laps that sounded difficult for him (ooooh girlie I don't know who you are but I like you) she asks how difficult it is to trust the team in such situations. "Trusting the team is never ever an issue," he says categorically. "I just– when you're in the car you've got a limit to the amount of information" you can handle, so in his mind he's trying to come up with the reasons why they are asking him to do what they're asking him to do rather than focus on the job, he can't help it. Then he felt the car sliding around so he's thinking "damn".

Crofty says they received a document sent by Pirelli to the teams about the adjusted pressure limits for the weekend saying it's measured before the start on the assumption it will go up rather than down during the race but they were monitored and if at any points during the weekend they'd noticed that the pressure went down instead they would change the limit for a higher one to compensate that. So it shows that Pirelli had suspicions that the pressure would behave a certain way on this track. 

I'm just forwarding a lot of waiting around there. The post race video lasts 2 full hours by itself, for reference. They don't know how to fill their broadcast anymore. 

In his press conference Toto says it was not a mistake from the team, the tyres were at the minimum limit when they put them on the cars, and there was a discrepancy in the readings. Oh so apparently there's no penalty? I don't know when it was announced lol all that waiting for that. Brundle asks Toto how concerned he was. He says you're always nervous when you're called to the stewards. Now all the journalists are saying "of course we knew Mercedes hadn't done anything wrong we always said something must have happened with the tyres after they were pressurised" but lmao that's not what any of you were saying before. Ted comes through with the details : "The stewards have determined that the pressure in the tyres concerned were at the minimum starting pressure recommended by Pirelli when they were fitted to that car. In making this determination regarding the pressure, the stewards noted that the tyre warming blankets had been disconnected from their power source as is normal procedure and the tyres were significantly below the maximum permitted tyre blanket temperature at the time of the FIA's measurements on the grid and at significantly different temperatures from other cars measured on the grid. Further, the stewards are satisfied that the team followed the currently specified procedure supervised by the tyre manufacturer for the safe operation of the tyres. Therefore the stewards decide to take no further action. Nevertheless, the stewards recommend that the tyre manufacturer and the FIA hold further meetings to provide clear guidance to the teams on measurement protocols."

Phew.

[kingofthering]

what do you think about ships with Lewis? I think there is mainly:

* Lewis/Rosberg (there is so much angst here 😭)

* Lewis/Seb

* Lewis/Valtteri (I'm 50/50 on this one, I really struggle to see more than a friendship here)

* Lewis with younger guys like Lando or George

* and Lewis/Max but to me is a big no, but to each its own

also, what do you think about f1/motogp pairings?

* I remember reading some Fabio/Lando fics in 2019

* I've also seen a few Marc/Carlos fics

and (I promise it's the last one) what do you think about Fabio/Maverick?

have a good day! ☺️

Okay, so. The first part of this might be really boring because Lewis is not really someone my brain wants to ship with other people? (actually, wrong, I 100% support whatever he has going one with Miles Chamley-Watson, give me more)

He’s not the only person my brain does that with, not even the only F1 driver, but, yeah.

Brocedes

I see the appeal. I’ve said it before, I can really dig a dynamic where there is an ennemies bit at some point. Maybe I’d need to give some fics a chance and I’d enjoy them, I wouldn’t be surprised about that, just haven’t done it yet.

Sewis

I don’t see it. Friends, yes, for sure, more so in the second part of Seb’s carreer, but I think that’s it. I know they’re very popular and I’ve seen them as a background pairing in some fics I’ve read but I don’t know, they don’t work romantically in my head and I’m fairly sure they don’t work sexually either.

Lewis/Valtteri

Friends and I adore their friendship also I do feel sad for Valtteri when I see some stuff from the Merc dominance era and what they asked of him as a number 2 driver.

I see Valtteri as a really nice guy and I love how into cycling and supporting his wife he is. It’s in fic and RPF mode that I can’t perceive him, so, that doesn’t help either.

Lewis/Lando

No. I can understand why, kind of, maybe for a one nightstand, but no.

Lewis/George

Honestly, I want to say why not, in some context, maybe more AU ones than their current situation at Merc.

Lewis/Max

Max is someone that I can ship with a lot of people in different kind of ways (Charles, Daniel, Lando, Rico, etc) but Lewis no. I see them as way too different for something to work there.

Fabio/Lando

I adore rare pairs but I admit I’m not exactly sure where this one is coming from besides the pics from AD 2019? I like both of them on their own but I don’t really see them having vibes that mesh together, I must admit.

Marc/Carlos

So, you’re talking to the person who is responsible for 50% of their tag on AO3 (a whooping 3 out of 6 works, one of them is my prompts fills collection and I have 3 mini stories dedicated to them) and I also wrote a whole primer for them (and did two gifsets about them). But like, I am normal about them, I swear.

They just work so well? Like, you can tell that they have fun when they have to film stuff together and they’re big supporters of each other, Carlos helped Marc settle in Madrid when he got there, they train together sometimes, Carlos was at the Marquez place to watch the Japan-Spain game during the World Cup and they look so boyfriends™️ in that whole sequence of All In.

They may not have had the same success so far in their carreer but they’re of similar age and they definitely understand each other, the pressure of their daily life and all that. They can both tease each other (as evidenced by numerous videos) (by the way, obvio que te gustaria and tú, cuando pruebas la mía still live rent free in my mind to this day). So, like I said : they work.

Look at them. Boyfriends.

Fabio/Maverick

I feel like I say this way too often and I need my brain to stop but my view of this pairing has forever been altered by Fabio answering Maverick when asked who on the grid he gets along with the least, in that podcast in February.

I started watching MotoGP too late to know them as teammates and I know there is some history™️ but yeah, my conception of them is tinted by that. Also Maverick is also one of the guys I don’t know how to perceive and I’m too influenced by what they show in MotoGP Unlimited (and I prob need to consume other content of him to really get him).

[il-predestinato]

Why dun you like merc, to put it lightly? Just curious.

Imagine watching your first F1 season in 2015. You did it for a boy. He tells you there's a 17 year old prodigy joining the baby Red Bull team, and it's a big deal. He's paired with a cute 20 year old Spaniard. They're like little kids learning to walk, but at the same time, they're so fucking talented that it's scary and you start to follow F1 because you're invested - not just for the boy you're dating.

And year after year, you hear about the saintly Mercedes team. RB are the villains, McLaren have GP2 engines, Ferrari is a mess, etc. It's the holier than thou attitude. The superiority. RB are whiny, but when Mercedes whines about pitstops, no problem - let's just slow everyone else down. RB treats second drivers poorly... well, I don't even have words for their treatment of Valtteri anymore. He's gonna finish the season with more engine parts than career race wins. But no, Christian is the devil and Toto is a true leader.

Now fast forward 7 years later. The boy who introduced you to F1 is now your husband. And Mercedes has won every fucking year since then, while drinking the koolaid of their own moral superiority. 17 year old prodigy is now a better driver than the reigning world champion, and there are 23476 other talented young drivers in the wings. But no, the British commentators have only one agenda, and I'm having more and more trouble containing the vomit in my mouth every time they talk.

You know what? I don't even know why I wrote this essay. I think I envisioned writing a more rational argument, but that’s not what this is. 😅Basically I'm fucking tired of Mercedes and they can go take a permanent hike. Their drivers are probably the most positive part of their team, but the rest of that organization just makes the whole team entirely unrootable. 2021 is helping them show their true colours. Never mind rationality, I just kinda hope they DNF from now until Abu Dhabi.

[outofbodyinjury]

drivers as 2010s hit songs

(at least on north american radio stations)

Lewis: Daft Punk - Get Lucky keeps bopping for longer than you'd expect. unironically very good whether you'll admit it or not. you get bored when you're not paying attention, but it's worth it to listen up.

Valtteri: Avicii - Levels nordic. makes me cry. just keeps going, and the good feeling is dubious. they talk about it so many times you wonder when you’re getting that good feeling. foundational to a genre, a stepping stone for many more great things.

Sebastian: Coldplay - Every Teardrop is a Waterfall old. very important. vocal haters but overall very palatable. it makes you wistful more often than you'd like to admit.

Charles: Lil Nas X - Old Town Road horses. little kids love this one. absolute simple mastery in its field but damn there’s a lot of discourse. horses again.

Max: DJ Snake, Lil Jon - Turn Down for What irritating, goes too hard just when you don’t want it too, but don’t tell me you’ve never gotten hyped. it’s not that deep and that’s kind of the allure. 

Alex: Lorde - Team the prospects are grim but the essence is hope. you like this one, something about it is very fundamental. it’s thoughtful vibes all the way down and everyone else you love likes it too.

Carlos: Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines  did it sort of slap, for a pop song? ʸᵉˢ did it actually need loads of side-eye? yeah, that too

Lando: Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe  overplayed, but you'll play it again because it's unironically good. rated by people who know their shit, like KOAN Sound and Jenson Button. too cute to be true.

Daniel: Post Malone - Congratulations makes for terrible instagram captions, but people do it anyway. 

Esteban: Luis Fonsi - Despacito  earworm! never goes away when you want it to. shows up whenever something bad happens, to the point where it’s funny. this... is so sad. alexa,

Daniil: AWOLNATION - Sail is it just me, or was this one always intimidating? you laugh a little nervously when it comes on the radio, and it’s either an acquired taste or you’ve always slept on it. maybe a bit too raw for its own good.

Pierre: Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better oooh you’re so special for liking this one. did you know he’s actually just one person? everyone knows this one, deserves all the airtime it gets, would deserve any more it got. even the haters have a spot of affection.

Checo: Ylvis - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) had a pretty fuckin terrible time in 2013. not taken as seriously as it perhaps should have been. 

Lance: twenty one pilots - Stressed Out incredibly divisive! people who hate it think they’re so cool, but they’re missing out on a fair bit of fun. everything’s cute and nothing’s too serious

Kimi: Pharrell Williams - Happy is this stopping soon? lots of old fucks like this one. dubious congratulations for your fortitude!

Antonio: Capital Cities - Safe and Sound cheesy but cheery, the sound of the summer. no one hates it. terribly endearing if you pay a bit of attention, but at the end of the decade it’s still a one-hit-wonder :(

Romain: PSY - Gangnam Style you probably don't understand but you get hyped anyway. you don’t need to understand. more important than anyone realises. good times all around and very unnecessarily hated.

Kevin: Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks hoes mad! edgy shit has arrived. keeps getting in trouble for it. if it hadn’t taken off, mark foster and kmag would be in much humbler circumstances right now. 

George: Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) you like it. it probably likes you too. unrealistically charming, didn’t have to do a lot to convince you of that. cooler than you will ever be, but you don’t mind. 

Nicholas: Drake - God’s Plan money money money 🙏🙏🙏 this is pretty self explanatory. the vibes are good and so are you

[speedyseastars]

Ranking F1 2021 Liveries

Decided leave this until after testing because the cars look best on track. So here is my opinion of the liveries, testing results are being disregarded. The bonus points do not count towards the score.

Alpine: 1000/10 Bonus Points: 0 because I only like the livery Alpine is the hot girl. The blue chrome is so bright, so beautiful, so stunning. I am in love with this car. Dare I say it she is sexy. I am in love with this car. Yeah she’s kind of ‘fat’ but just look at her... she’s pretty. This is how you do a flag livery.

Mclaren: 11/10 Bonus Points: 5 for the launch, 3 for Daniel, 4 for Lando 2020 livery but improved slightly. There is nothing about this livery that I dislike, I like all of it. The orange sparks joy, the rainbow sparks joy, in a world of cars that all look very similar this bright livery stands out and makes me happy. The blue is a beautiful shade, sponsor logos are well placed, no matter the tyre type they look good with the car. It’s perfect.

Red Bull: 10/10 Bonus Points: -1 for using the 2020 car, -1 for no camobull The RBR livery is iconic, they make matte paint work, and I will never complain about them not changing the livery. That being said I miss the days when they did camobull liveries just for a bit of fun. I do not see the point in them changing the livery when it is so timeless and recognisable, maintaining a brand and being easily identifiable is important.

Aston Martin: 8/10 Bonus Points: 5 for Seb and Lance Classy, elegant, sexy. The pink and green work so well together, it has a modern interior design feel to it. I had higher expectations for something less simple but I do love the car a lot already. That being said I think it’s got too much blue undertones, at times it looks more sea green than racing green.

Williams: 7/10 Bonus Points: 3 because someone hacked their app (sad) Why don’t people like this? It’s fun and different. If there wasn’t so many other blue cars it would stand out. ‘Video game livery’ and??? it look good why does it matter if it looks pullled from F1 2020, we are in the age of gaming embrace it.

Mercedes: 6/10 Bonus Points: 20 million for Sir Lewis Downgrade from last year but still so fucking hot. The AMG thing is a bit messy but I get it (everyone except me and Valtteri seems to forget it’s Mercedes AMG) HOWEVER that does not excuse it being ugly, the rear end of the car is just not a good look. The car is so shiny you could use it as a mirror so they do redeem themselves.

Alpha Tauri: 6/10 Bonus Points: 5 for Yuki (short representation!) Serious downgrade from last year. Really do think the blue and white should swap places. It’s not ugly, just a bit disappointing. My opinion changed over testing, the livery is nice it just looked really bad in the launch but I still like last year’s design more and it’s just in that weird space of ;could be better but I like it’ now so maybe it’ll grow on me throughout the season. And I still kind of miss the bright and shiny Toro Rosso.

Alfa Romeo: 6/10 Bonus Points: 0 because I forget they exist Did I forget they even had a car launch? Yes. The car is very nice, but in certain lights the red just looks really weird. Did anyone tell them you can’t read the numbers at certain angles where the number should be readable?

Ferrari: 5/10 Bonus Points: 10 for Charles and Carlos Bright green on a red car... okay Ferrari you got people talking about your ‘totally not tobacco’ sponsor but it messes with my eyes when I look at it. The gradient on the rear is pretty, but I feel it’s too sudden it needs to be dragged out more. That being said it’s a very lovely colour oh no ferrari is making me like red. Yes the photo is different I wanted to use a Charles photo and I liked this one.

Haas: 0/10 Bonus Points:  10 for Mick (he deserves better this is unfair), -1000000 for everything else The design itself is not that bad. Simple and vintage. But the symbolism of the livery, it’s just a glaring reminder of what the team has become, of the fact that you know who is driving that car. I actually feel so bad for Mick and hope he gets out of there soon. Also how is it allowed to have Russian flags everywhere? No photo because I can’t bring myself to look at the car without crying.