#looks like they're going to sacrifice leclerc

[zombaeguts]

i will drag him out of the ferrari office myself if they pull out a contract.

i saw that someone said that he was born to serve ferrari, and born to suffer for ferrari, and thus: charles lechurch.

[p6to]

What the fuck is going on?

I was in the process of typing out several essays worth of thoughts in the tags of @tsarinablogs's lestappen 2024 manifesto, because what else is new. Since I am uncannily similar to Max in all aspects of his public persona (except his driving abilities and his apparent need to come out as bisexual in every third interview), including the 'tism allegations and the certified "parent has a very weird sense of seeing their child as their own person" experience, in this essay I will be yapping about Screwderia Ferrari, shady business and of course: Charles Leclerc.

Charles has given his life and a large part of his career in f1 to Ferrari, leading to six wins, including his own home race Monaco and Ferrari's home race Monza, but also ten gazillion strategy fuck ups and now a (likely) second failed championship battle.

How much is too much for a person to handle?

Ferrari has not won a championship since Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. That much was known when Charles went through the ranks in the Ferrari Driver Academy, so he knew they were not suddenly going to dominate the way Red Bull did the last few years and Mercedes before them. He still had faith in them, made promises about his achievements to his dying father when he must have known that they might be impossible to ever reach.

His devotion and his talent have made him into an (almost) religious figure to the tifosi. Charles Leclerc is Ferrari, and Ferrari is Charles Leclerc.

Or is it?

Time and time again, we have witnessed Charles getting fucked over in favour of his teammate (see "it looks like they're going to sacrifice Leclerc" - George, or the entirety of the SF-23, maybe even today). While a team principal and a good number of other employees were fired in 2022 because things were going horrible and Charles insisted on it, and things were looking better when competent personnel and even Lewis Hamilton were signed by Fred Vasseur, it seems like the actual problem is still there.

Based on what we saw with the Barcelona upgrades and Carlos' interviews, we may have to expect the car to be developed to suit Carlos' understeer-y preference once again, which is wild considering that he is a driver who is leaving at the end of the year, has been outperformed by Charles pretty consistently over the time they were teammates, and has shown very clearly (alone this season!) that he is (in the words of a friend) not driving for Ferrari but for Carlos.

How can it be that Charles has mechanical and technical problems every second race weekend, while his teammate does not, and not only does nobody from the team leadership say anything about it but they also let Carlos downplay Charles' very severe brake issues in Bahrain?

Silverstone has marked the third race this season where Charles did not score points due to either inherent issues of the car (tire warm up in qualifying), mechanical issues (engine), damage (front wing in Austria) AND very questionable strategy calls. Three races of the twelve that have passed is 25%, a figure that is much too high for any top team, let alone Ferrari who were very close to catching up to Red Bull in the WCC just four races ago.

Of course, problems in car development and maybe even a higher lack of reliability in mechanical parts can happen to any team. However, we will now come to the area where I see the biggest problem.

This entire triple header, Fred Vasseur has been giving unacceptable statements about BOTH of his drivers. In Barcelona, he downplayed the issue between Charles and Carlos at the start, positioning himself directly against the driver he should be supporting since he was objectively (data-supported) correct. In Austria, Sky Sports had to make him watch the moment Charles sustained the damage to his front wing, because he could not be bothered to watch it during the actual race.

And now in Silverstone, he blamed both Carlos and Charles for not performing miracles with this shitshow of a tractor during qualifying, let his drivers be fed different information regarding the incoming rain leading to one of them making the wrong tire choice, ruining his race, and then had the audacity to lie about that and Charles position during this incident, making it look like he was still behind Lance when he had actually already overtaken him and was now behind Carlos after starting four places behind him, EVEN THOUGH there were radio transcripts and of course the fucking broadcast that showed the truth.

Us Chirlies have to preface our posts about conspiracy theories with statements about tinfoil hats and "for legal reasons this is a joke", but I will not do this here.

I fully believe that there is shady business going on at Ferrari, including but not limited to potential blackmailing, software sabotage and bribery. I will not pin these onto specific people/groups, because there are too many options. I also think that there is shady business going on at every team, but not to this extent.

The way things are going, with Charles already being on an actually not so subtle PR warpath, I expect some form of news in the next three weeks, including either announcements about people being fired or a Charles-to-Red Bull announcement, although Charles to Mercedes would not surprise me either.

Merc fans joined in on criticising Fred yesterday, and hardcore Max fans are saying Charles should leave Ferrari and join Max at Red Bull. This issue has breached containment, as it should.

Either things are changing at Ferrari or Charles will be exchanging Ferrari for a different team. There is no other solution.

(You have made it to the bottom of this yap-fest. Congratulations! I wish you a very nice day/week/month/year/life without Ferrari-like fuck ups and thank you for reading my stuff :) )

[brakingpoint]

"it looks like they're going to sacrifice leclerc"

[csashton]

"it looks like they're going to sacrifice leclerc"

ferrari out here doing satanic rituals???

[wolfiemcwolferson]

Yeah so I was in my hometown for two weeks and one night my sister and I took her shitty car and we drove around to all the places I used to run around at and we looked at the stars and I was hit with so many deep memories of being queer in a tiny town and please take this as my weekend sacrifice 💙

Piarles, of course

Charles shifts around in the seat as his truck idles on the curb.

It doesn’t matter that the athletic board sprung for the higher quality leather after they won state this year, the letterman jacket is still new and stiff.

He texts Alex again.

here

Alex is late. He's always late, but Charles gets it so he lets it fly. He thinks the two of them maybe wouldn't be real friends if they weren't the kids marked by tragedy.

George and Alex were always closer, but something happened with them last year after...well, after and now they hardly talk and Charles gets it because if Pierre hadn't been a stubborn bastard, Charles would have probably pushed him away after his dad died, but also...

Well, his relationship with Pierre is different and he's thinking about texting him now, telling him that he's going to try and dip out early, but then the door of Alex's apartment bangs open and he strides out, pulling his own letterman jacket around his shoulders and so Charles drops his phone in the cupholder and puts his truck in park.

.

They're the last people to show up - which is expected. Everyone else probably came together.

Lando is sitting with some girl that Charles thinks looks vaguely familiar and George is sitting on the toolbox of his truck and Max is standing in the middle of the half-circle, waving his arms around telling some story and Charles backs in, revving his engine like he's going to run him down and Max smacks his tailgate, calling him a motherfucker.

It's a typical Friday night.

Nothing changes.

Not even Caddo driving by in his cop car, shining the light on them and calling out from his driver's seat ain't drinkin, are ya boys?

Lando is absolutely drinking and Charles knows Max is too, but he also knows that Caddo won't do anything about it and that they'll all leave well before curfew.

Max will invite them all back to his dad's place off off 1255 where the alcohol is free as long as Max is winning - that state championship doing work for everyone.

But, Charles also has no plans to go and neither does Alex.

Alex has a bottle of water he’s been sipping out of all night and Charles has a styrofoam cup that he is going to pretend is half liquor if anyone asks, and he's preparing himself for that lie when Lando starts to laugh, pointing at him before the worst thing possible happens.

"What's that on your neck, Leclerc?"

Charles wants to disappear through the pavement. He wants the entire truck to be sucked through the asphalt because Max strides over and shoves at the collar of Charles’ jacket, exposing the hickey there that he has managed to keep out of sight all week until now.

"Holy shit," Max laughs that stupid half-drunk laugh of his. "It's fucking a hickey. Man, who gave you that?"

"Bet it was that girl from out in Cedar Creek." Lando laughs, bumping his shoulder with the girl he's sitting with. She must be from Cedar Creek.

George is the one to say, "Bro, that girl is his cousin."

"Nah," Lando turns around, chunking his empty coke bottle at him. "That's Zo's cousin. That's like, not the same ‘cause they don’t have the same dad?”

"You need to get out of this place, man." Alex says. "It's close enough that it's -"

But Max slaps the tailgate of his own truck and he says, "Let's go back to mine. I'm out of whiskey."

Charles is thankful for Max Verstappen for like the second time in his life and he sinks back against the edge of his truck bed.

"Y'all comin'?" Max points at Alex and Charles even though he knows they're not.

"Visitation tomorrow," is all Alex says, but everyone nods and Charles makes a little driving motion to mean that he's Alex’s ride and they're waved off in a chorus of see you Sunday's and Charles is thankful to escape quickly when he sees George staring at the hickey on his neck with his head tilted.

George is fucking smart. Charles doesn't need him to figure it out.

Alex is waiting for him in the passenger seat, tapping his hands on the dash and smiling at him brightly. "You gonna sneak off to see your Cedar Creek honey?"

Charles knows it's a joke, but it doesn't land on him in a comfortable way. He's tense and worried and it hurts and so he tries to laugh - it comes out all wobbly and Alex immediately stops laughing.

He doesn't say anything else as Charles gets them out of the parking lot and over to the other side of town and he's starting to feel really guilty about it, but then Alex says, "Pierre was visiting from Oklahoma State this last weekend, wasn't he?"

Charles wants to slam on the brakes and throw him out.

Instead, he says real tight, "yeah, he was."

Alex makes a little hum and then taps twice on the dashboard, "Thanks for the ride, man. See ya Monday," and then he all but bails out of the cab before Charles has come to a complete stop and Charles is left breathing too hard.

There's no way he can know.

That's what Charles repeats to himself a hundred times while he drives home.

There's no way he can know.

There's no way he can know.

The lights in his house are off. Arthur is out somewhere and his mom is already in bed so he lets himself in the house and heads straight back to his room, peeling that stiff letterman off and tossing it over the back of one of the dining room chairs.

He's tacky with sweat underneath it despite the temperature being near freezing outside. The panic had crawled all over him and he couldn't shake it off, but he knows what will quell it.

What always quells it…

He pulls his shirt off in one motion, letting it drop in the hamper right inside his door before reaching immediately for the one folded on his desk - plain white, nondescript. Except for the P. Gasly in block lettering on the collar and the shiny white logo on the front that marks it as an official shirt for the Sooner football team, it could be any number of white shirts in his possession.

The faint scent of Pierre's cologne clings to it but that will disappear completely before he can exchange it for a new one so the knowledge that it's been on Pierre's body has to be enough.

Pierre answers on the second ring, a soft baby rings down the line as Charles flops down onto his bed, pressing the phone closer to his ear until it aches.

He breathes in Pierre's scent and he whispers back to him "calamar" and he dreams of a time in which football and this town doesn't keep them in the shadows anymore.

[forzasedici]

"it looks like they're going to sacrifice leclerc" what have we as a team become can i stop getting embarrassed

[mionemymind]

Now I will definitely get to that very controversial ending I’m still kinda confused to be honest. So my opinion will be at the bottom of this recap. I just have to say this season was very good. So much drama, I loved it. Still can’t stand Horner(wow he was insufferable as a loser can’t wait to see what he’s like as a winner) sorry I have a one sided beef with him now lol but I unfortunately care too much about Max to wish on Red Bulls down fall.

A lot of young and talented drivers but they were showing how much they lack experience. Some of them seem like they can have really nice careers.

As always my babe Carlos was fantastic to see and looks amazing in that Ferrari red. Great year he had too. He’s an Leclerc’s relationship was amusing to watch.

Daniel proving he’s still has that edge to his driving. It was a bummer him and Lando didn’t quite mesh well with each other. Felt like that could have been a great match.

I didn’t like what Mercedes’ did to Bottas because there’s only so much this drivers can sacrifice.

Surprisingly there was a lot of rain during this races was nerve racking to watch couldn’t imagine seeing them live.

Look first I got to say the commentator on that last race was excellent. Look I would love to give Lewis he’s 8 world title but they clearly aloud the cars to unlap themselves. Was it a very ignorant call especially on the last lap yes totally. Still I believe that Max winning shouldn’t be up for debate. I feel like during that time F1 fans were pretty crazy. It’s a horrible loss for Hamilton really hate for it to affect him negatively moving forward.

Anyway hope to not be shunned for the side I chose in this very controversial race. I’m to start season 5 on Saturday need a few days to recover from these men messing with my emotions.

-S

S, Horner is even worse as a winner. I'm going to warn you about that right now but Drive to Survive doesn't really cover it much. But it still brings me a lot of joy to see you care about Max!

Also, Carlos and Charles relationship is rough because he has to leave yet Charles has to stay. I try not to think about it too much.

And honestly, sometimes people are better friends when they're not on the same team and I think that's the case with Lando and Daniel.

Look if Max has no fans, I must be dead. Although I wish more seasons were like that where the winner is determined at the last race. It really brings out a different cut throat and drive for that race. I honestly wish I was there at that moment. I would give a lot of money up for that.

But do I still hate the fact that it negatively affect Lewis, very much so! So don't worry too much about your opinion S! You're safe with me.

Here's another gif to help spark your day :)))

(I unfortunately couldn't find the original link to the post. Apologies to the creator.)

[redcowboy1]

And once again, like every sunday, they've committed to the george russel radio "looks like they're going to sacrifice leclerc".jpg

[charlewiss]

"it looks like they're going to sacrifice leclerc" made me feel SICK. ferrari what are you doing!?!?!