#probably will have his car back in fp3

[onlyangel4]

I once again dont have any drivers in mind but pls do something with “waves of blue” by majid jordan🥺 thank you!!!!

waves of blue. ls2. smau.

fans have noticed that logan does not seems like he is enjoying his job anymore. but when his girlfriend joins him for the first time they realise that she is all he needs to be happy.

author's note: guys isn't it insane how much abigail cowen's real boyfriend looks like logan it actually blew my mind ngl

faceclaim: abigail cowen

f1lover

liked by user1, user2, user3 and 45,8273 others

f1lover: logan has been having such a bad season and you can literally see the light drained out of his eyes, he just always looks so deflated and it makes me so sad. i just want to give him a hug.

view all 1,175 comments

user1: i know y/n is really busy with work but he just looks like someone who needs a hug from his girlfriend

user2: he has not been happy ever since the beginning of the season

user3: everytime they pan to him he is frowning and it makes me so sad, especially since we now know he probably won't be back next year

logansargeant

liked by alexalbon, y/ninsta, oscarpiastri and 879,374 others

tagged: y/ninsta

logansargeant: had the best summer break back in miami with my girl. back to work in the netherlands this weekend.

view all 4,582 comments

y/ninsta: still can't believe i actually managed to get two weeks of summer break off this year

logansargeant: honestly i'm so grateful you did love, i had the best time with you

user4: this is the most american summer break post ever

user5: the only pictures i see logan actually smiling are the ones where he is with y/n

user6: caption makes it seems like he really doesn't want to go back to work

f1updates

liked by user7, user8, user9 and 78,283 others

f1updates: logan sargeant had a horrible crash during fp3, it is very unlikely that the car will be ready before the qualifying session, therefore he will be starting at the back of the grid. this is the beginning of yet another disappointing weekend for the american driver.

view all 1,329 comments

user7: oh logan, why is it always you?

user8: no longer he seems to hate his job now

user9: i'm so glad that he is okay that could have been really bad

user10: as much as i joke about wanting to be a wag i genuinely don't know how y/n does it, watching the man you love get in these dangerous situations and not being able to hold him afterwards would be so awful

y/ninsta posted a story

written: as many of you know i am a vet tech and i was on the night shift today, 8pm to 8am, logan's crash happened just before i finished my shift, i have spoken to him and he is okay, i just wanted to pop on here to kindly ask that you stop sending me pictures of my boyfriend's horrific crash asking for my opinion on it, i do not want to constantly see that when i open my messages, thank you loves now it is time for me to go to bed

logansargeantupdates

written: another race weekend more sad content of logan

logansargeant posted a story

written: look who happened to pick me up from the netherlands

y/ninsta posted a story tagging logansargeant

written: just watched my first in person practice session and jesus christ those cars are fast

logansargeant posted a story

written: p16 tomorrow, so close to q2 but we move, me and this girl are going to go have a nap

logansargeant posted a story tagging y/ninsta

written: my girl's first race weekend

f1updates posted two stories

story one written: the smile

story two: the reason for the smile

y/ninsta posted a story

written: here we go

f1updates posted a story

written: logan finished p16 but he is the happiest we have ever seen him, he ran down the pit lane to find y/n after the race and they shared such a happy loving embrace. seems like this american boy just needed his american girl

y/ninsta

liked by logansargeant, lilymhe, iamrebeccad and 283,834 others

tagged: logansargeant

y/ninsta: my first ever race weekend ! and i am so proud of my boy i love you so much logan and i can't wait to attend more races even if my heart can't take it

view all 4,585 comments

logansargeant: i loved having you by my side this weekend my love

y/ninsta: there is nowhere else i would rather be

lilymhe: it was so nice to have you in the paddock

y/ninsta: thank you for telling me what was going on when i had to shut my eyes

user11: they have only been to one race together and they are already my fav couple

user12: logan perks up whenever you are about it is the sweetest thing ever

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[littlegrapejuice]

Saved his life | LS2

Pairing: Logan Sargeant x Reader

Summary: You come to check on Logan after qualifying at the Dutch GP, hoping to lift his spirits.

Author's Note: ok so this literally came to me in a dream😭 logan's replacement was announced on tuesday (still crying about it btw) and istg i woke up wednesday morning after having lived this plot during my sleep

You had been seeking him out after FP3, and were once again seeking him out after qualifying. Logan was nowhere to be found and you worried about the state he mentally was in since his crash. The backlash from his team as well as journalists had blown out of proportion, for they were all focusing on the damages suffered by the car before considering the health of the driver.

Similar to you, Logan's fans were doing their best to support him and wondered about how he was doing. You had seen many comments online about people complaining that neither Williams - as in James Vowles - nor commentators had expressed an interest in the well-being of the driver, only talking about ruining a newly upgraded car - which would be proven illegal later on.

Scouring the paddock, you were now going from garage to garage looking for Logan. Obviously, you had first gone to the Williams one but without any success in finding the American. You hadn't even known at first if he was actually at the track, but a quick shot of him on the TV screen had confirmed you that he was indeed in his garage.

This is why as soon as qualifying ended, you had waited for George to come back to the Mercedes garage so that you could notify him that you were leaving for the time being. You had plans together later tonight, meaning that he didn't mind you doing whatever you wanted until then.

And that's thus how you were still walking around the paddock, praying that it wouldn't take much longer to find Logan.

As you then thought you had seen him from afar, someone obviously had to come up to you and stop you in your tracks. You turned around at the tap on your shoulder and was met with a blonde driver, but not quite the one you would've rather faced.

"Hi Max," you said with a smile.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked both because he was genuinely interested in your answer and because he couldn't help but notice you frantically looking around.

"Yeah, I'm good! Congrats on P2, that's great at your home race." You gave a last glance to the side and decided to temporarily abort your mission as you had unfortunately lost sight of who you thought had been Logan.

"Thanks, I wish I could've gotten pole but I'll get the first place from turn one so that's alright."

"I'll be internally rooting for you, but you know I'll have to stick to my roots and publicly support my team."

"Of course," Max replied. "The Red Bull garage is always open if you ever feel like changing your mind. We also probably have better food than Mercedes." He let out a smile at your laugh before scratching his throat, as if he was thinking about his next words. "Listen, I-"

"Sorry Max," you apologised as you checked your watch and got afraid you would miss logan leaving the track. "I'd love to talk more with you but I was on the way to do something important so please make it quick."

"Yeah, hmm... did you have the chance to visit the city and its surroundings? I was thinking that..." Max hesitated before he saw you nodding at him, silently telling him to continue. "We could grab a drink or some food later on, and I can show you around? Seeing as this is my home country, I'm pretty familiar with it so I could give you a proper tour and you'd see things that you would never see with a regular tour guide and-"

"Sounds lovely yeah!" You felt pretty bad for interrupting him once again, but the clock was really ticking and you were getting more nervous. "I already have something planned for tonight though, so maybe another day?"

"Well, there's only tomorrow left then. After the race?" He suggested with hope in his tone.

"I'll get back to you on that. Depending on who's winning, I might be celebrating someone else you know."

"Of course, but I'm pretty confident that I can score another victory here."

"Great, then that's settled! Super cool to chat with you Max, I'll see you later." You waved at him and quickly started walking again to the direction you had last seen Logan several minutes ago.

You were gone so fast that you hadn't even heard Max telling you that he would text you his request again, as he had sensed that your focus had been on all but your exchange with him. You liked Max to be honest; he was a really sweet guy and could easily match your energy as a fellow yapper. However, he had chosen the worst moment to strike up a conversation with you. Thinking about how you could repay it to him next time you'd see him - probably tomorrow, all your stress was going away as you finally found the person you were looking for.

You stopped close enough to him that he would notice you, but a few metres away so that you had time to catch your breath without it being too obvious that you had been almost running around for him.

As he called out your name, you couldn't help the smile that lit up your face.

"You're good?"

"I am now, thanks. Been searching for you, you know? You're quite hard to find," you told him in complete honesty with a light laugh.

"Really?" Logan was surprised by your words. He hadn't expected anyone to come talk to him today, except for his teammate Alex or a couple drivers texting him for a check up.

"Yeah," you nodded. "I couldn't see you after practice earlier and I thought talking to you face to face was better than a text so yes, I was looking for you."

If you and Logan weren't surrounded by hundreds of people, he would definitely shed a tear at your kindness - not like anyone was actually paying attention to the both of you as you were on the side of the path. He didn't think a headline consisting of F1 Driver Logan Sargeant seen crying while talking with F1 Driver George Russel's long-time friend was a good idea though.

"And you wanted to talk to me about something important?" He wondered.

"That's what I said", you replied. "I wanted to talk to you, about you, I guess."

"That's not super-"

"It is," you immediately interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. You knew what he was about to say and you were definitely not letting him give voice to his thoughts. Seeing as he was still taken aback by your words, you kept going. "You're important, Logan. More than a random chassis, or an engine, or whatever they put in the shit car that they make you drive."

Hearing your own sentence, you were about to apologise for the strong opinion - Logan was driving said car so you didn't know if you were right to comment on it - but the chuckle that came from the American stopped you from doing so. It didn't last long as Logan quickly covered his mouth, thus shutting down the sound, but you suddenly wished you could hear it again.

And not because you're trash talking his team, but because you're, let's say, watching a movie together and a funny scene comes up; or because you're walking around a park and he laughs at your clumsiness when you almost trip on a random rock.

You just wished, right now, that you weren't at the track, in this paddock, with all those cars and people around. You just wanted to be with him, in a quiet place where you could just enjoy each other's presence without having to worry about a team principal that didn't take his driver's needs into account or about journalists that couldn't seem to see the human aspect of a driver behind the suit and helmet.

Your thoughts were however soon interrupted when a hand appeared in front of your face.

"Hello? Earth to whatever planet you're on?" Logan had a smile on his face. He wasn't laughing anymore but he didn't seem annoyed either at your silence. "Did you get lost in your mind?"

"Possibly", you answered with a nervous laugh. "Sorry, won't happen again."

"It's fine, don't worry."

You could see Logan was genuine in his eyes. The way they were being lit up by the sun suddenly made you wonder about what was hidden behind it. They often say that eyes are the mirror of the soul; but for now, you could only see yourself in Logan's.

"Hey Logan," you said after a few seconds of silence. He glanced down at you, which you took as a sign to continue. "Do you wanna hang out with me tonight? I- hmm I have this dinner with George, Lando, Alex, and their girls. And it could be nice of you to join. I mean, if you want to of course, and if you don't have anything planned already but yeah, that'd be cool. I'd like that."

When Logan didn't reply, you started to think that it was over and that your stress was so obvious, and that he wasn't going to accept the offer. But then:

"I'd love to." Your gaze was now filled with hope, until the next words left Logan's mouth. "But I think I need to be alone tonight. It's absolutely not against you or the others, but today hasn't been the best day for me as you obviously know and even though it could lighten up my mood, I'd rather focus on tomorrow's race."

"Oh, hmm... okay, yeah... I totally get it, no problem."

Logan was not dumb; he noticed your immediate change of attitude as you lowered your gaze, so he decided to add on to his explanation:

"It's just a raincheck, you know? I'm not going out tonight, but I'd absolutely be down for another day if we both find the time. Sounds good?"

"Yeah!" You nodded with a smile. "Raincheck, okay, got it."

"Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go for now." Logan gave you a smile before checking his phone. "I'll get back to you for a hang out, but thanks for taking the time to talk with me. I truly appreciate it."

"It's normal, we're friends so... I wasn't really thinking twice about it."

"Then thank you for that as well. We'll see each other later, right?"

"Of course," you confirmed. "Race's tomorrow so at least then, goodbye for now Logan."

"Bye, take care."

He gave you a quick hug before departing, and next thing you knew, he was gone. You then turned around, ready to exit the paddock and go back to your hotel, so that you could get ready for your dinner tonight with your friends.

.....

"George, hey!" You called out to him as you saw him from afar. "Thanks for waiting, sorry I'm a little late."

"No problem," he replied. "I sent Alex and the girls inside to keep us a table. We're just missing Lando, but I think he'll be here soon."

As if on cue, you had received a text. Thinking it was from the curly haired man, you opened it in front of George before reading the sender and the content of the message.

Hi! Regarding our conversation from earlier, I decided to formally ask if you wanted to grab dinner with me tomorrow night after the race?

A smile unknowingly took place on your face, and George couldn't help but notice it.

"What's got you all happy?" He asked before adding a comment. "You're even blushing so I guess this is not Lando."

"It's no one," you said as you immediately locked your phone before George could look at the screen. "Just a friend I'm supposed to catch up with tomorrow."

"You have friends other than us in the Netherlands right now?" A familiar voice questioned from behind you.

"Lando!" George exclaimed as the last of your group was finally here. "Hey mate. Congrats on pole. Good quali you did there."

"Thanks man." Lando glanced at you while the three of you started walking inside the hotel, towards the restaurant. "So what's this about a friend of yours?"

"Drop it Lando," you replied, annoyed - although you could truly never be annoyed with him. "I'll tell you all about it when it's over if you still wanna know after the weekend."

"Of course I will! I'll even bring that up in the groupchat so you'll have to tell this wonderful and absolutely not suspicious story to everyone," Lando laughed as he nudged your side.

Thankfully, neither George nor Lando had brought up the topic with the others, even though they were still curious on what you were hiding. You were glad that they didn't because how could you even explain to them that you would be going out to dinner with a fellow driver? You honestly didn't think they would mind, but you also didn't want them to go and bother said driver when you knew that the paddock's walls had ears everywhere.

Hoping that it would be fine to reply to the text later, you had therefore waited until you were back in your hotel room to agree to the offer. Tonight's dinner had been amazing and you were always happy to spend time with your friends whom you didn't see much, but tomorrow's would be something even more special as it would actually be your first time hanging out one on one with the driver you were maybe fancying.

Before forgetting, you also decided to notify your friends of your plans - omitting the driver aspect of the 'friend' you would be seeing after the race - so that they wouldn't be surprised to not see you attend any celebration. Of course you would try and spend some time with the winner if he was part of your friend group, but at least you were in the clear to not go party all night with them.

.....

And you had never once regretted not attending the party that had celebrated Lando's win at the Dutch Grand Prix. He had told you that day after the race that you would have a myriad of other chances to attend another one as he was planning on winning more and more often - which he did.

Tonight's party, however, would be in your honour. As well as Logan's. And you couldn't see yourself anywhere else than here, in front of him. You truly didn't think you would one day end up in this situation, and neither did he. Logan hadn't really expected to experience such an event in his life, but he eventually did, all thanks to you.

You had saved his life. That day, when you reached out to him after qualifying, was unknowingly a turning point in his life. He had been at his lowest. He had known what would certainly happen following the Grand Prix; he had been expecting to be let go after the disastrous performances he was giving.

Knowing didn't make it less painful though.

He did get dropped by his team, Williams, which you cursed for as long as you could and still did from time to time. And even if Logan had achieved being a Formula One driver - which no one could ever take away from him, he had still felt like he was worthless after it happened.

He hadn't known how to process the sudden end of his short time on the grid and felt lost for a while, wondering about what would define him as a person now that the dream he'd had since he was a child was over.

But you had made him believe that it wasn't the end of the world and that something else was waiting for him. He could've ended it all, but you showed him a glimmer of hope and he chose to keep going, see what else was in store for him. He still had a future. And he had been right to trust you, as he was now here, facing you and about to be making you his. Only two words left to say before doing so.

'Thank you', he mouthed to you before the long-awaited sentence was to be heard out loud. "I do", he then confirmed without tearing his gaze away from your face.

..........

Okayyyy so this it lol

Hope y'all liked it🫶🏻 this was my 1st time ever writing for a driver since i got into motorsports and I feel really happy w it!! Thanks to my brain for making me dream ab logan, i think it kinda helps me cope regarding him not being the grid anymore (i miss him sm chat)

Idk when I'll write again for a driver if i ever do so, but don't hesitate to give feedback on this so that ik how to approach a future work🤍

[ottovonruthie]

On the James/Logan situation, it's probably coming down to Logan's driving and what James has been saying to the media.

When James first signed Logan he said their intentions in resigning him after his poor rookie season was to "nurture him" and "develop his talent". For context, Logan was part of Williams Junior programe, so he's a Williams driver through and through. He was announced to be picking up the second Williams seat in October 2022 after they decided to drop Nicolas Latifi during his third year racing for Williams and they honestly didn't have many options (Oscar notably got picked up by McLaren and De vryies who did well during Alex's leave for appendicitis by Alpha Tauri). It also should be known that James also joined Williams as TP in 2023, so it Jost Capito (past Williams TP) who decided to pull up a "underdeveloped" Logan. I put undeveloped in quotations because he was, he wasn't ready and needed that second year, but he isn't a bad driver. He preformed well during his F3 and F2 seasons, and it's proven by his performance in Charouz in 2021. Charouz was the worst car on the grid finishing last the year before, and Logan was able to score their first ever podium in F3. He also scored 102 points and placed 7th in the championship. This is actually insane, and to put into perspective, Charouz only scored a total of 127 points that year.

When he was signed, people had very high hopes for Logan out that didn't exactly pan out.

This year Williams has been relatively unreliable, not only in strategy but also in the car. In Bahrain he had steering problems, and in Australia he had his chassis given to Albon who had crashed in FP3. This caused a lot of outrage over this decision, and people questioning if it should be even allowed to do that. This was the first sign that Williams might not be exactly following what they were saying earlier in the year.

Logan would then be given an overweight chassis in Japan as they didn't have a spare chassis after Williams production of car parts was very backed up (they had this whole Microsoft word doc thingy and they were barely able to even have both cars ready for testing). Logan would from then on have a different spec car and get some 2023 parts on his car until Spain where he would get the updates. The funny thing is that they didn't even work. Silverstone where he finally and the updates working and on his car, he had his best performance of the season. After this we would get a article stating that James never gave any feedback, which was very strange.

James in that time though had been openly interested in replacing Logan this year with rumors flying from Carlos to Valtteri to even Esteban in taking the second Williams seat. Esteban had been reported to have had a seat fitting and was reported to have been planed to drive in Hungary if Alpine hadn't blocked the move.

Then we obviously hear that Logan and James aren't speaking, and take this with a grain of salt, but it's also said that Dorilton Capital (the new owners of Williams and an American investment company) wanted to keep Logan for the 2024 season, so it's spectated that James never wanted Logan in that seat.

In my opinion, Logan probably thinks it's unfair how he's not being given a solid chance and James has been shitting on him to basically anyone who will listen, and James just doesn't want Logan as a driver.

Thank you so much for this. I’m now fully caught up with the Williams’ drama. I knew he’d been driving the non upgraded version of the car most of this season but that’s it. But this is where I debate with myself, if they’re going to do all of this, wouldn’t it just be better to have not renewed his contract from the start and look elsewhere? I’m glad he’s getting the experience but it’s lowkey a waste of both of their times.

[nyoomfruits]

49. "Stop wearing so much perfume/ aftershave, your scent is intoxicating!" "I'm not wearing anything, that's just how I smell!" for landoscar? :)

49. "Stop wearing so much perfume/ aftershave, your scent is intoxicating!" "I'm not wearing anything, that's just how I smell!"

Lando doesn’t really realize how insanely out of hand it’s gotten until he’s standing in front of his newly made nest and counts four of Oscar’s hoodies tucked between the pillows and blankets.

Now he knew it was a thing, sure. Has noticed how nice Oscar smells. Had taken what he thought was maybe a hoodie or two for that exact reason. But this, this might be a problem. A problem he should probably address, maybe.

So the next time him and Oscar are hanging out, somewhere between FP3 and Quali, lounging around Oscar’s drivers room, Lando puts down his phone, tucks his toes under Oscar’s thigh and says, “Dude, by the way. Can you stop like, wearing so much perfume, or aftershave, or whatever the fuck it is that smells so goddamn intoxicating. It’s making my Omega brain all,” he pulls a face. “Weird. Also, completely unrelated side note, I have some of your hoodies.”

Oscar blinks at him over the top of the book he was reading. It’s the Mark Webber autobiography, because of course it is. “Uh,” he says, frowns. “I don’t. I don’t really wear perfume. Or aftershave. So uh. Whatever is making your Omega brain all weird, I think that’s just how I smell.” He says it carefully, without judgement, but its.

They both know what that means.

“Oh,” Lando says, pulling his knees closer towards himself, untucking his toes from underneath Oscar’s thigh. “Right. Haha. My bad,” he launches himself off the couch then, movements jerky and erratic, and falls towards the door. “I just remembered I have this urgent… Thing. Goodbye.”

“Lando,” Oscar says, getting off the couch himself and grabbing Lando’s arm, making it hard for him to leave. “Wait, don’t.” Lando freezes, stops moving, stares at Oscar with big eyes. He doesn’t want this. He doesn’t want Oscar to offer him sweet words and let him down gently and be all nice to him. He wants to go back to his own room, burry himself in his nest, and wallow in self-pity until it’s time to drive the car really fast again.

“Let me show you something,” Oscar says, and then lets go of Lando’s arm and moves towards his bag in the corner of the room.

And like, Lando could totally leave right now. Sprint out of there and avoid Oscar for the rest of the season, somehow. For the rest of their careers. He pulls a face and decides to wait and see what Oscar wants to show him. Just in case.

Oscar pulls a Mclaren hoodie out of his backpack. “See?” He says.

“Okay?” Lando says. He’s not sure what this is supposed to mean. Him and Oscar both know it was never about the actual hoodies part of the stealing hoodies. Lando himself has enough Mclaren hoodies to know he never really put a sizable dent in Oscar’s own collection.

Oscar rolls his eyes. He looks rather fond about it, which is. Lando isn’t endeared by him, shut up. “Just, smell the hoodie, will you?” He says, tossing it at Lando.

Land catches it, buries his nose in the fabric a little skeptically. And, well.

It smells like Oscar, for sure. But more surface level. Like he’s held the hoodie, maybe. Not worn it. And underneath, deeper, soaked into the fabric-

It’s one of Lando’s hoodies.

Lando’s head snaps up, staring at Oscar with wide eyes. Oscar is staring at him a little sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, so,” he says, and does a little ‘what can I say?’ motion.

“Oh,” Lando says, staring back at the hoodie in his hands. It’s just the one, not the millions Lando seems to be hoarding, but still. It means something, right?

“Yeah,” Oscar says, again. “Oh.” He’s moved closer, is right in front of Lando now, carefully taking the hoodie from his hands and throwing it on the couch behind them. He reaches up, then, touches Lando’s face ever so gently, lets his thumb run over Lando’s cheekbone, making Lando shiver. “Is this okay?” He asks, and he’s so close Lando feels like he’s being wrapped up in that delicious, intoxicating scent, and he feels dumb, somehow. That he never realized it was just Oscar.

“Definitely, totally, yeah, super okay,” he rambles, when the silence stretches a little too long and Oscar looks like he’s going to pull away.

“Okay, good,” Oscar says, smiling softly.

And then he kisses him.

[evilscuderia]

Charles is faster but I think carlos is proving to be the smartest driver and that makes him outclass charles

Charles could have that win if he didn't decided to change his setup last minute to a more aggressive one just for a gamble for pole. And even after he made that bad decision, If he perhaps didn't abort his lap he could have qualified higher than Norris and could have fight for the win

I'm tired of the whole "I tried a more aggressive setup and it didn't pay off". Last year was full of that. That's something he could learn from carlos.

i think it simply comes down to the fact that they are fundamentally different people and different drivers as a consequence.

i don't know that carlos is necessarily smarter – he just tends to be a lot more conservative, which can pay off in situations like today's but isn't really effective when you're on the back foot (which is all the time when red bull are in the picture).

i understand that charles' riskier approach can be frustrating at times but i personally wouldn't change it for the world and there probably is a reason why no one asked him to give it up in 5 years at ferrari.

this doesn't change the fact that he did mess up in qualifying – he was the first to admit it – but he'll learn from this mistake as he always has in the past.

if anything this weekend highlights how crucial qualifying really is, despite all the 'points are on sunday' discourse.

about the setup and aborted lap:

i don't think the setup change was a desperate attempt at pole, i think it had more to do with the car behavior that started in fp3 and got worse in quali. they also made some precautionary part changes before the race so idk.

he aborted the lap after a mistake in t12 which lost him too much time. sector 1 and 2 were good but he wouldn't have improved his time if he'd finished the lap

[charles-leclerc-official]

2024 Jeddah Grand Prix Race Analysis

Jeddah was certainly an exciting second race in the 2024 season, with Ollie Bearman's F1 debut in Ferrari, to Lance's DNF, to the absolute chaos in the midfield there was a lot going on.

I am of course going to start by talking about Ferrari Charles and Ollie's race.

Ollie

Ollie Bearman (18) the F2 driver was called last minute to fill in at Ferrari for Carlos Sainz, who had to have surgery to treat appendicitis. Ollie got to participate in FP3 before he then went into qualifying and came in P11.

Ollie managed to come in P7 during the race bringing home his first points in Formula 1, and some important constuctor's points for Ferrari.

Given how little prep time he had, Ollie adapted to the car very quickly. Even comparing his race to qualifying it's clear he was getting more at home in the car with each lap. He struggled the most on the low speed corners in those high braking zones(also where there are lots of lateral Gs which he did mention were tough) but he was not behind at all on straight line speed.

Ollie ran a remarkably clean race. He overtook 4 cars in total and only struggled a little with the car settings when overtaking Kevin Magnussen.

It cannot be overstated what an amazing first F1 performance he put on. Ollie did the most overtakes of the race in a car he'd only just driven the day before on the highest speed track in F1.

Overall this was an amazing debut and Ollie 100% deserved driver of the day!

Charles

Charles race was pretty clean. He started in P2 but lost the position pretty early to Perez and came in P3. Apparently there was an issue with the car and the way the tyres felt and I do think this impacted his ability to really push, especially at the beginning of the race.

He held on to P3 pretty easily.

The standout part of his race was of course setting the fastest lap on lap 50 on old tyres. That is actually kind of insane and I don't know why more people aren't talking about it. After his tyre wear looked so good, like too good.

Charles did say that he was having trouble warming up the tyres. This was seen in quali, but the impact was felt during the race. He had to try to defend and overtake while still warming up his tyres and that is probably what cost him that place to Checo. After he got the tyres warmed up the gap to Checo was pretty stable.

Ferrari

Ferrari is easily P2 in constructors. It was very helpful that Ollie brought home points to continue the lead on Mclaren and Mercedes.

We learned a few things from this race:

The SF-24 has made massive improvements on tyre degen on the SF-23.

However the car is having issues warming up the tyres which for sure impacted Charles' race. There are multiple ways to solve this issue, upgrades and adjustments should be able to take care of it(at the very least mitigate the issue) Another thing to note is that this race was at night and temps were cooler so that likely amplified what was already a problem. I wouldn't expect it to be as bad in Australia even if nothing is altered on the car.

The SF-24 still needs to do some catching up to Red Bull

The SF-24 is certainly more reliable, because Ollie was able to get comfortable pretty quickly and that is in part thanks to the reliability of the car itself(as well as his skill)

Kevin

So thoughts on Kevin's race and the Haas strategy in general.

Early in the race Kevin took a 10 second penalty for track limits. That basically ended his race. So Haas apparently decided to use him to hold off the rest of the mid-field so that his teammate Nico could score a point. In doing so Kevin got an additional 10 second penalty for overtaking off track.

Now people have criticized this strategy, as Kevin not giving the place back messed up a lot of driver's races (Yuki, Logan, Alex, Este, Zhou). But it was all within the rules, and if it's within the rules then I can't begrudge a team for playing to their advantage. It's up to the stewards to issue additional instructions, or for the FIA to change the rules to prevent such a strategy in the future.

The other notable thing was that Kevin still finished P12 which is higher than you'd expect given he racked up 20 seconds of penalties however he finished his race in just under the lap time, so he got a time and the cars behind him were stuck with +1 lap, which further negated that penalty for himself.

Jump Starts: Lando and Sergio

There were two jumped starts this race. One was spotted as it happened (Lando) and one was discovered after the race(Sergio)

Now neither driver received a penalty, and I think this was the right choice for Lando but not for Sergio.

Important things to keep in mind: jumping the start is penalized because it can create early forward momentum that can give an advantage in those first few seconds. Sensors under the track are used to determine if a car jumped the start.

Lando started moving before the lights, it was very obvious, but then he came to a full stop before starting again. He wasn't given the penalty because the movement did not register on the sensors and the stewards make the decision based on if the sensors picked up anything.

Now I do actually agree that this didn't really need to be penalized for 2 reasons.

Lando came to a complete stop after the initial movement and thus probably hurt his start more than anything

It didn't impact any race results. Lando didn't seemingly gain anything and there aren't any results that you could argue might have been different(if he had gained some advantage then it 100% should have been a penalty, but from what we saw he really didn't)

I think had his actions impacted someone's results etc then other teams would have pushed harder for a penalty, but it just wasn't worth it because this didn't really do anything.

However I do believe that Sergio's jumped start should have been penalized.

He didn't brake, thus has slight forward momentum going into the lights out

It potentially did impact the first turn pressure he was able to put on Charles right away

Mostly the fact he did for sure get some small amount of forward momentum for me makes it a pretty clear penalty.

Both of these didn't register on the sensors which is also weird because they were very clearly visible.

Other Drivers and moments of note:

Zhou: his race was compromised by both Kevin and the fact he had a 46 second pit stop

Lance: hit the wall, locked up and ended up in the barrier on lap 7, ending his race

Pierre: had a mechanical failure on lap 1 and had to retire the car

Max: won again

Oscar and Lewis: had one of the most tight battles of the race. Lewis defended for so many laps while Oscar was within DRS so often. Oscar did end up ahead and that lead on Hamilton was hard fought. Lewis' performance as well was impressive given the struggles of the current W15.

Esteban/Alpine: Esteban managed to come in P13 which is Alpine's best result so far this year.

Nico: Came in P10 scoring Haas' first points, placing them 6th currently in the constructor's

George: George battled the pace issues the W15 seems to be having. He is quick in the car, but the race pace seems to be suffering as well as the top speed. This was a bad track for the W15 overall looking at both his and Lewis' results.

This race was memorable for Ollie's F1 debut, and the youngest Ferrari driver lineup in history. As well as plenty of action in the midfield.

See you next time with Australia race analysis!

[lestappenforever]

Quick and Weekly (or rather race week specific) kind of analysis, basically just my takes on what went on during the race.

WE NEED TO GET THE YOUNGER ROOKIES SEATS. Ollie was an absolute beast yesterday, finish p7, managing the tyres, MANAGING A 7 TIME WORLD CHAMPION BEHIND HIM, holding off the rest of the pack, close to overtaking george, just Nico with his experience was able to hold him off a bit longer. Scoring more points in F1 than F2. Scoring more points than almost half of the grid. All with just one free practice session. This kid has a future (the only driver I could actually call kid😂)

Ferrari look fast. Finally being able go see Charles’ pace yesterday, in addition to not being fucked over by strategy or any shit, they’ve done a pretty good iob on that car. I mean, a rookie scored on his debut, and so far, a Ferrari’s always been on the podium. Of course this is just the second race, but still.

Haas aren’t that shit this year. The car looks good. Kevin was an absolute MENACE yesterday. Holding off Yuki, Esteban, Zhou, Valtteri, Alex, Logan, Daniel ALL WHILE HE KNOWS HE HAS A 20 SECOND PENALTY. Also Nico’s pace was pretty good, holding off Zhou and Alex, and kind of with ease. Apparently having a TP other than Guenther is proving to something quite positive.

RB are in shambles. Like, Yuki was pretty good, but wasn’t able to convert his p9 quali to points, and Daniel is just not doing well, that even with that 20 second penalty to Kevin, he’s still dead last. (Maybe it wasn’t McLaren, it was the choice of leaving red bull back in 2019) (I have a whole thing in my head about Daniel, and I still want to make sure if the facts and data before sharing it). But it might have been a miss that RB didn’t get Liam in this season, but we never know. I mean, Helmut Marko did say that there could be mid season surprises. And so far, non of the RB drivers seem or look to be even in contention for that Red Bull seat, in all honesty, it appears so far that Checo is more likely to keep his seat for 25!

I am not 100% convinced with either McLaren or Mercedes. Like yes both are consistently scoring points, and gaining, but I can’t really find that speed. Like they are okay, better than last year, but not Ferrari level improvement. Also, the strategy that both teams put Lando and Lewis on (especially Lando) cost him a better position, more points, maybe even a podium let’s be real.

Williams are okay. Ngl, I love James Vowels, his technicalities and as he said in DTS his geek-inees (hoping to be like him honestly one day). I feel like, Saudi and Bahrain aren’t really their tracks, because they did well, both Logan and Alex gaining positions. They are a team I’m waiting and hoping to see thrive, because Alex and Logan both deserve it.

Stake were okay, especially with that Zhou crash in FP3, like he couldn’t even qualify, but strategy kind of wasn’t ideal, and in all honesty, they’re just kay, not too fast, but not too slow.

And finally, our leaders. Despite everything, they do be cooking (Adrian and Max, you’ve both done it). That speed, the tyre deg, just everything about that car is phenomenal. And Max deserves it, after everything he’s gone through in his life, and he deserves to re-write the history books, which he already is, with re-reaching seb’s record not even 6 months after breaking it. This man who everyone is bored of his dominance are all going to be crying and missing him after he retires (I DON’T WANT TO THINK OF THIS DAY, BECAUSE I’LL BE THE FIRST ONE IN TEARS) but Max Emilian Verstappen is something that hasn’t come and probably won’t come again in Formula 1 and Motorsport history.

So yeah, that’s kind if my inital takes in the race, kind if a mini summary as well, and may we always listen to the Dutch National Anthem because I’ve been emotional this week with Max and everything happening around him.

This is such a wonderful analysis that really doesn't need anything added to it because you've got this spot-on, so I will try to keep my own thoughts relatively brief.

Ollie did incredible and I am so excited to see him in F1 permanently. Him and Liam? The future is bright.

I am cautiously optimistic about Ferrari and I really hope that, for once, they won't fuck themselves over which is in no way, shape or form a guarantee.

K-Mag did so fucking well, and it brings me so much joy seeing my fellow Scandinavian putting on such a performance. And Nico had a decent race, which also makes me happy. It's obviously far too early to be sure, but their new team principal seems to have been a good choice.

VCARB are just... Well, I'm not even going to utter my thoughts. All I will say is that there is no way in hell Daniel will be a good replacement for Checo. Claiming Daniel is better than him is just laughable.

McLaren and Mercedes are giving Ferrari 2023 vibes with their strategy calls yesterday, and it will be interesting to see how they develop over the season.

I truly hope Williams will improve over the course of the season, because I want to see Alex and Logan do well so fucking badly.

As for Stake: they were unlucky, and I'm just glad Zhou made it out of that crash unscathed. It's a shame he missed out on being able to qualify because holy hell did that team do their fucking best trying to get his car ready. I want to see him, and Bottas, do well.

As for Red Bull, they are as impressive as I hoped they were going to be so far this season, and as a Max girl it makes me laugh seeing Max haters bitch about his dominance making the sport boring. I, for one, am having the time of my fucking life. I won't even think about him retiring at this point, and will just keep enjoying every race for as long as I can. And seeing Checo starting off the season in such a strong manner fills me with joy. I am by no means Checo's biggest fan, but the shit he went through last season at the hands of disgusting Helmut Marko and the F1 community at large has me wanting him to suceed. Put some respect to his name because God knows he's fucking earned it.

Thank you so much for sharing yet another wonderful analysis, my darling. You have no idea how happy it makes me, and how much I appreciate it. ❤️

[silentreigns]

Hungarian GP 2023 Post Qualifying Reflection

I was skeptical about this qualifying because this new quali format doesn't sound good to me on paper. But I couldn't have been more wrong. It was funny, exciting, and thrilling because we couldn't predict what would happen next

Alfa Romeo has bounced back and I'm excited to see it! It might be short lived though because Valtteri is being investigated for impeding Lance

I'm happy for Zhou! Topping Q1 and getting his best quali result (ever in f1 I think? Idk). The Alfa Romeo went from being the slowest car on the grid to both cars getting in q3. I don't think we would have gotten that if it wasn't for the new format

I'm sorry but George getting upset and specifically mentioning Pierre's name on the radio was so funny. A lot of the funniest moments this season seem to involve George. Like let's give him his flowers

When Charles knocked Carlos out of q2 my first thought was about the fanwars their fans have on twitter 24/7. For context, some of them have chosen to believe that Carlos is sabotaging Charles at Ferrari for some reason. How are they going to react to this quali? Tumblr is completely tame compared to how they argue over there. It was also very funny when Carlos asked about deleted laps like 😭😭😭.

I was loud and wrong about Max getting pole and I'm glad that I was. I don't think the new RedBull upgrades are giving. And I also read somewhere that this would be RedBull's last major upgrade this season? Ain't it too early to be saying something like that? We got half of a season and all the other teams will be bringing upgrades throughout

Congratulations to Checo for ending that bad quali streak. People are still gonna cook you though because you got p9 in a rocketship 😭. You got out qualified by 2 of the slowest cars on the grid but it's a step in the right direction

I love Lando but I wish he would stop being so hard on himself. Like I know that's what's making him a good driver but girl please be more happier that you got in the top 3 in quali 2 race weekends in a row. You barely made it out of Q1 like please 😭😭😭

LEWIS GOT POLE ON MY BIRTHDAY THIS IS THE BEST PRESENT EVER BECAUSE I LOVE TO SEE MY FAVE SUCCEED

I mean I should have gotten the hint that he would get pole since he topped FP3 on softs. And softs are the mandated tires in Q3. But seeing how Mercedes screwed over George by sending him out in all that traffic, I wasn't too sure

Overall I am interested to see this new quali format be adapted on other circuits. We probably need to see it again a few more times but I loved what I saw today

[bunnytalksf1]

FP1 Livenotes

The biggest story is that Crowdstrike went down hours before FP1, so Mercedes had to re-start all their computers, but they're on track now!

Commentators talking about Ferrari, who have bought a new floor to Hungary to hopefully reduce the bouncing. They're currently on the hard compound, so hard to tell. (12:50)

VER first out on the soft, two and a halftenths clear of RUS on the mediums. (12:51)

TSU impeding RUS and pushing him onto the grass (uh oh) (12:51)

Bearman is in this free practice session! He's currently P19, and in the pits, but his time on the mediums is only a tenth behind Magnussen.

Aston Martin has bought upgrades, and STR just said "car feels shocking to drive", from P19. AM might be the only team as bad as ferrari at upgrading their car. (12:59)

There was an ad break, came back, Alex Albon is P1 on the soft. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? (13:00)

Russell 1:19:1 on the soft, six tenths faster than Albon (13:01) and Hamilton follows into P2, a tenth behind (13:02).

Albon lost something off his car, causing a brief VSC. (13:03).

Sainz out of the car as Ferrari change something in the footwell / knee area, but this is almost finished (13:04)

All the teams have cameras on their front wings to measure front wing flexion in motion, prior to the FIA testing this next week at Spa.

Stroll is not running AM's upgrades this session, which might explain the lack of feeling, but currently Stroll is faster sitting in P17 with Alonso sitting in P19. (13:07)

Leclerc P1. Oh my god. OH MY GOD?? I missed that lap, too??? Probably to do with the rubbering in of the track, as he only has a tenth over Russell in P2, also on softs. The order is very jumbled right now. (13:07)

Sainz P1 and three tenths quicker at 1:18:7 DO NOTTTTT trick me into thinking we have pace (13:09).

Alonso saying "yeah good luck" when his engineer asked for info on the car balance LMAO (he's P10, STR P19). (13:11)

Verstappen about to go out after a rear suspension adjustment and on a rubbered in circuit. He's running upgrades this weekend, Checo is not. He also has flo vis on the rear of the car. (13:14).

Stroll P8 four tenths ahead of Alonso with the upgrades, um. (13:15)

Verstappen P2 behind Sainz on used softs. Yeah, RBR are gonna be rapid this weekend.

Ten minutes to go! Yippee!

Verstappen setting green sector 1 on used, eleven lap old tyres oh god (13:21)

No new fastest times being set at this point. Notable outliers: Zhou Guanyu is P5, this is a strong circuit for him, and Bottas is way down in P15. Tsunoda comfortably clear of Ricciardo in P8, to P12 and a gap of three tenths. In a weekend where the rumours about a driver swap are ramping up, including Lawson outpacing Ricciardo in the RBR test, this is important for him. He's starting (sort of) to enter the conversation for that second RBR seat. Sergio Perez, meanwhile, whilst reportedly not running upgrades, is seven tenths off the pace.

Teams doing practice starts !! Session finished. It's super hot, and track temps are extremely high, so some compromise will be required. With four cars in the mix I think drivers will make the difference, but I'll be surprised if Verstappen isn't on pole.

Ok, logging off please ferrari keep your pace in FP2 and FP3 and quali

[livetogether--diealone]

Soooo is that fic you're writing about Chalex as the blond power couple? 👀

No, but in the mean time can I offer this?

[edited because it needed so? it was a bit rushed yesterday]

“So, Charles, crazy drive today! Pole yesterday, only for the glory with your engine penalty, and now from tenth to first, that move in turn 6, very risky but you made it stick. Any merit to the new hairdo? Spent some time in sun by the sea?” 

So typical of Seb to try and embarrass him in the post-race interview, with his silly moustache and wiggly eyebrows; Charles was ever so grateful to have him back in some capacity into the paddock so he could run and get advice and praises from him anytime he wanted, but this was one of the moments he would have preferred for the german to remain hidden in the mountains. Seb never missed a chance to make him flustered. He could hear Lewis trying to contain a laugh very poorly next to him, he finished 2 nd, but since Seb was doing the interview Lewis stuck around. Why are these two always in cahoots?  

He scratched the back of his neck, “Actually Alex did this. It’s called a dye Seb, you would know”. Charles let out a nervous laugh, he didn’t know why he said that or why he had to make it sound so mean. Maybe the blond was making him a bit of a little shit for real.  

But to his surprise Seb actually enjoyed it? He grinned at the Ferrari driver, in that Seb’s way which if Charles was at all honest with himself still made his knees weak. “Ouch. Careful or Marko is gonna come looking for a new recruit” spat out the german, winking at him. 

Charles couldn’t believe it. Being compared to his ex-teammate was one thing and something he greatly appreciated, but being compared to the pathetic attempt at the Seb clones factory that was the redbull academy, full of floppy blond men with anger issues, was horrifying. He was gonna murder Alex.  

- 

“Can you stay still?” Alex groaned, he was so done with Charles, who spent the last 30 minutes restless sitting on the hotel tub and the last five bent in said tub. He had to dig one hand on the other’s shoulder to prevent him from running away, again. He never realised how muscular Charles’ back was. So maybe this wasn’t only for practicality and if he lingered there for too long than it was needed, nobody was here to judge him. “You’ll go blind if this gets into your eyes”  

Charles’ voice was masked by the running water, which was probably a blessing since the few words Alex did understand were italian profanities.  

Not long after he was standing in front of the mirror staring at a very, very blond Charles, who hadn’t stop touching his hair and fixing them in twenty-five different styles. He kept fisting his new locks, pushing them down, up, pulling at the front pieces. Alex kept thinking he could also do other thing with those hands, if he could only manage to pull Narciso aways from his pond. “You look hot, come on let’s go” 

Charles turned bright red, redder than his ferrari, and the contrast with his hair was... well it was a contrast for sure. “You think I look hot?” he stumbled on the words, his accent thicker than ever. And Alex thought dyeing Charles blond would make him little more forward, it had worked with Seb.  

Or maybe he was right indeed. Charles’ gears were turning while he kept checking himself out. His usually delicate features seemed sharper, his expression more confident. Not even under the most vile of tortures Alex was going to admit that angry Charles turned him on. Didn’t matter that George heard him sigh with frustration while watching Charles pulling off his gloves and balaclava, throwing them hastily in his car and strutting back in his box after being pushed off track, hair a mess, red-faced, something animal in his eyes. 

Alex watched as Charles kept checking himself in the mirror, watched with hunger as the other was nodding at his reflection. No, he was not going there again. Alex get a grip it’s late tomorrow, tomorrow there was fp3 and quali, and more media duties, and-. 

Suddenly Alex was being pulled and pushed against the bathroom tiles, something quite heavy was pressing him to the wall. And yes, he was definitely being kissed by Charles Leclerc. Not that this was the first time it had happened, even if Alex didn’t like to classify as kissing the one time he - after by some weird constellations alignment managed to qualify third - was pushed into one of the rooms next to where the press conference was being held by Charles, who grabbed him by the opened race suit and practically crushed their lips together “What you did was brilliant” and then ran away. This time, despite the towel hanger digging in his back, it felt more deliberate. Charles’ mouth was soft as he remembered and maybe dreamed about, not that he was admitting any of this. Fuck George was going to have a field day. But right now there was only his hands around Charles’ tiny waist, and Charles’ needy hands in his hair, on his jaw. 

Okay so maybe the blond dye was actually getting to Charles’ brain, because his hands were already working on the buttons of his jeans. And when he pulled away, he looked a little feral, but Alex was not complaining. Charles’ lips were now to his neck, one hand under Alex’s shirt. 

“I’m gonna get pole tomorrow” the last button of Alex’s pants was freed. 

“And then on sunday I’m winning this race” and he was already on his knees. 

Well then Alex was not gonna qualify at all at this rhythm.  

[justaredheadf1fan]

O canada, my beloved

Well, I haven't been here much but heyaaaah!

So, after the turmoil of a weekend lived in Barcelona a couple weeks back, where I didn't even find the words to comment on how cool it was watching the race from the Main Stand, I'm back.

It took a week to deal with the fact that we have to wait another year to go back there, but it was awesome. Especially with a Merc 2-3 on Sunday, which was memorable. What a result, what a feeling seeing the boys up there, what a feeling see it pretty closely. No words.

But now it's time for a very lovely track that I hope brings a tone of chaos this weekend. So, time to check all parts of this. I'll have a late schedule this weekend so Saturday and Sunday, I'll be watching during work or after at home probably. We'll see how much work we have first.

Press conference - Thursday

I honestly haven't been able to watch the interviews because of my schedule and a tone of things I had to do these days, but I just need to comment on Lewis crushing Kevin about his age 🤣

My dude is just one year older than me, leave him alone! 💀 We know he's a dad but he doesn't look old, for fuck's sake Lewis 🥲

Free Practice 1 - Friday

So, the FP1 has started pretty badly for Alpine in general. Pierre stopped on track trying to restart his car and Esteban still in his pit. The session was Red Flagged due to Gasly's impromptu stop on track.

This is taking way too long now for a car stopped on track, but that's just my opinion. What do I know. But it's too long 🤣 Now seriously, the car has been long gone, so what is really going on?

Okay, so apparently it's a CCTV issue, since it's not working and therefore the session cannot be restarted. It looks like it might take a while or even the whole session.

And indeed, the session has been deemed "cancelled" and FP2 will run for one hour and a half instead of just the usual one hour. Super fun for those at the track especially, I bet.

Free Practice 2 - Friday

90 minutes to go in a session where they need to try it all today. Must be stressful, I don't remember any other time when this happened (not that it never happened, I just never saw it).

Not much going on until Nico's engine went to shit causing a Red Flag, generating some very nasty-looking smoke they had to put out with fire extinguishers. It reminded me of Kimi's engines back in 2005, almost every race. Ah, the good times (the year, not Kimi's burning engines weekend in weekend out 🤣).

The Alpines are fucked this weekend, what the hell is this? Between Esteban causing yet another Red Flag and Pierre trying to control the car and barely getting out alive, I don't know what the hell is going on with them. I hope they can fix it for tomorrow.

That rain was something I expected more of in Barcelona, but hope this time comes in time. And indeed, in Canada we trust. That looks fucking insane. This weekend might just make my year.

Lewis ending up P1 after more than half the session or almost all of it at the very back of the list is a sight for sore eyes. One I hope keeps repeating itself but in Quali/the race. If only that 3rd one was Sharl...

Free Practice 3 - Saturday

Well, way too late after getting back from work, but I have FP3 in the background. I just see rain and more rain.

I'm just trying t watch a little without falling asleep if possible, but nothing's going on besides a couple incidents due to such heavy rain (thank goodness in Barcelona the rain was so light despite the dark clouds over us). Carlos spinning and losing half his car around the track was the one that took the cake after a few minor issues.

I'll watch Quali directly tomorrow, I can't take how tired I actually am right now...

Peace out!

[f1]

Russell blames Mercedes for collision with team-mate Hamilton at Spanish GP qualifying

'It shouldn't happen': George Russell blames Mercedes for his 'really dangerous' collision with team-mate Lewis Hamilton at Spanish GP qualifying and demands internal talks to improve 'communication' Russell and Hamilton collided at qualifying for the Spanish GP on Saturday After the collision, Russell slammed his team and demanded 'internal talks' By Nick Emms For Mailonline Published: 03:39 EDT, 4 June 2023 | Updated: 03:39 EDT, 4 June 2023 George Russell has blamed his team after colliding with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and demanded internal talks after the incident. The Brit has it all to do as he is set to start 12th on the grid after a miserable showing, failing to make it to the final part of qualifying.  Speaking to The Mirror, Russell pointed the finger at his team and defended his innocence after forcing Hamilton onto the grass on a tight turn.  'It was just a massive miscommunication,' he revealed. 'I was looking ahead trying to get the slipstream from Carlos [Sainz] and next thing Lewis was there. 'So we need to talk internally about how that happened, because between two team-mates, it never should. It was neither [driver's] fault.  George Russell (L) and  Lewis Hamilton (R) clashed during the qualifying session in Spain Hamilton described the collission as 'really dangerous' but doesn't hold Russell accountable Russell slammed Mercedes for the incident and admitted that communication should be better 'Nothing by either driver was necessarily wrong, just within the team, it shouldn't happen and the communication should be better.' The driver continued to admit that he believes the setup of his car led to his failure and knew that he was going to perform badly before stepping onto the track.  He continued: 'We made some small changes from FP3 to qualifying and the car was bouncing.  'The high speed corners that were easy flat in practice, I couldn't take flat, couldn't the tyres working and it all went wrong. 'Back in Q1, I knew we weren't going to have a good day, it was strange. We should be capitalising on conditions like that, we usually do – the team is very good when it is challenging.  'It was pretty telling the first lap in Q1 with [Nico] Hulkenberg P1, one-a-half-seconds quicker than we could achieve. 'I was trying all sorts on the out lap, all sorts of pressures, and we probably just got ourselves a bit confused. A set-up change we made into qualifying was definitely the wrong direction for these cold, damp, greasy conditions, which is a shame especially because I think we have a fast race car.' Hamilton himself described the collission as 'really dangerous', but luckily both drivers escaped unharmed and will try to put the incident behind them and move on as a team. Share or comment on this article: Russell blames Mercedes for collision with team-mate Hamilton at Spanish GP qualifying via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[ohmyeyesmyeyes]

MICK SCHUMACHER ONESHOT ( requested )

LUNCH PLANS

( WARNING: swearing, fluff, second hand embarrassment?...I think that's it )

word count: 1.7k

Being the first female F1 driver to enter the ‘big league’ in 50 years was a massive achievement, one that brought a lot of much needed attention — to prove that women can drive as well as the men can — but the downside was that it always brought unwanted and rather unnecessary attention. You guessed that’s why yourself and Mick clicked so early on; he received backlash purely because of his name and the legacy and expectations that name held alone, whereas you received backlash from the misogynists that couldn’t handle the idea of a woman driving better than some of the men.

So, you stuck together.

It was probably a good idea you were an Alpha Tauri driver and Mick drove for Haas. You figured it put you off the media’s radar when you started dating — that was a choice you both synonymously agreed on.

Keep it a secret.

It wasn’t too hard in practice.

The only exceptions were two other drivers — each of which both yourself and Mick had somehow found yourselves attached to since the first race weekend

Daniel Ricciardo was first and foremost, a fantastic driver, but to you he was more of that popular kid in class that you would never understand why they sat with you at lunch one day when they had friends in every corner and tucked under tables.

Daniel Ricciardo was to you, both similar and different to what Mick had with Sebastian Vettel.

So, those two were the only exceptions to your ‘don’t let anyone find out’ rule. It wasn’t a strict rule as such, you were completely fine with others knowing, it was just a lot less attention and faffing and in general, a whole lot easier, if less people knew.

But it was times like these that really made you regret keeping it a secret in the first place.

You were on your way out of the garage through the back entrance after a rather successful FP3, when you were caught by a couple of the other drivers who were making their way to hospitality. It was the usual crowd; friendly faces and comfortable conversation, but it seemed a little tedious given the fact that you were supposed to be meeting Mick somewhere in the next 5 minutes and you had absolutely no idea how you were going to excuse yourself from the duo without arousing suspicion.

“Y/N! We’re gonna get something to eat, so we’re stealing you.” One exclaimed, their beloved blue drivers suit tied around their waist as they slung a friendly arm around your shoulder.

“Oh, I actually have somewhere else to be right now—” you protested, removing their arm from your shoulder and preparing to go in the opposite direction.

“Why? Got a boyfriend?” The other inputted, a teasing smirk on his face.

“No.” You shook your head, laughing awkwardly.

Yes.

“Who are you meeting?”

“Nonya.” You panicked, the first thing coming to mind being the expression your two year old nephew had taken a fond liking to.

The first one rolled his eyes, but the second one fell victim to the harmless joke, furrowing his brows and tilting his head in confusion.

“What is nonya?” He asked.

“Nonya business.” You finished, flashing a triumphant smile as they frowned, muttering something about childish jokes under his breath.

“Tell me then, what does the back of Hamilton’s car look like?” They retorted, leaning forwards in an attempt to appear mocking.

“What does the back of my car look like?” You quipped back, shaking your head in disbelief as they recoiled, pursing their lips and sighing in defeat. “And that’s not an insinuation.” You added, making sure it wasn’t interpreted differently.

“Well, I think that requires us to have dinner by ourselves… because that was pretty embarrassing for you.” The first one spoke, laughter lacing his tone as he turned to the second one, who was decked in his team's polo shirt and a pair of jeans.

“In my defence, I’m the youngest in this group—”

“By one month.” You interrupted, putting your hands on your hips as you stifled the urge to laugh.

“But that means I’ve had a month less of brain development than you.” They stated, looking at both yourself and the other driver for confirmation.

You furrowed your brows, nodding.

“I guess so…” the other driver answered, looking almost as befuddled as you.

“Yeah,” you checked your watch, knowing it wouldn’t be too long before Mick or someone came looking for you, “I’m gonna go now.”

The driver dressed in his polo nodded, offering a smile accompanied with a wave before turning around and starting to make his way back to hospitality. He didn’t get very far before he noticed the other driver was still standing in the exact same spot, to which he all but shrugged and carried on walking.

“You okay?” You asked the other, just as he turned back to you.

“Yeah, I was just wondering, are you free on Tuesday?” He asked, and his question was so casual you couldn’t help but be curious as to his agenda.

“I’m not sure…why?”

“Well…I was thinking we could maybe hang out…without Loudmouth over there…as a date?” He asked, suddenly becoming nervous, running a hand through his hair as he waited for your answer.

You froze, not exactly expecting those words to come tumbling out of his mouth.

Luckily, before things got weird, you noticed Daniel running towards you from a couple of yards away, obviously having noticed your discomfort and shock from quite a way away.

“Hey,” he greeted, slinging an arm around your shoulder, his usual infectious grin etched on his lips.

You almost let out an audible sigh of relief.

“What’s going on?” He asked, eyes darting between both yourself and the other driver, who had now put a little bit more distance between himself and you.

You looked at Daniel, widening your eyes so he got the message, and he nodded slowly, realisation hitting him like a ton of bricks.

“Never mind, I have been looking for you everywhere. Pierre said you’d be here, and…well, you are.” He stumbled over his words slightly.

You shut your eyes, resisting the urge to kick him in the shin because his acting was so terrible it made you want to melt to the floor.

It was awkwardly silent for a while, to the point the tension in the air between all three of you was so suffocating that you started to drag Daniel away.

“We’re gonna go, I’ll talk to you later,” You told him, offering a small smile to ensure he knew you were being genuine.

“Oh…of course,” the driver mumbled, nodding his head in understanding, his wide eyes flicking between both you and Daniel.

“Yes?” Daniel asked, no doubt perplexed to say the least.

“You two…” the driver pulled a face, pointing a finger between both yourself and Daniel.

As if a switch was flicked, you jumped away from Daniel, throwing his arm away, but he seemed to have the same idea, putting his hands up in surrender, a grimace on his face.

In all the commotion, you stumbled backwards and a pair of familiar arms fought to stabilise you and prevent a potential meeting with the concrete below you.

You spun on your heel, only to be met with your favourite pair of blue eyes. You offered Mick an apologetic smile, and turned your attention back to the group, interlocking your fingers with his and taking a small step forwards, hiding your hands but not staying too far from him.

“Yeah, nah. Me and Y/N? Don’t get me wrong, she’s a lovely girl, but in the nicest way possible, that would be so fucking weird. She’s like my little sister.” Daniel said, only now noticing Seb standing next to him, an identical expression of horror painted on his features.

“That would be incest and it’s too early in the morning to be thinking like that. But it’s Mick and Y/N that are together, not Daniel.” Seb said, shrugging.

Daniel’s eyes widened and he turned to see both yourself and Mick struggling to hold in a laugh at Seb’s plain confession. He seemed to relax slightly once he saw you were so unbothered, and instead turned his attention back to Seb.

The driver’s eyes trailed over to you, and as soon as his eyes settled on yours and Mick’s interaction, his cheeks flushed a slight shade of red.

“Ah, I see.” Was all he said, before seemingly realising that he had humiliated himself in front of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher and yourself.

He coughed awkwardly, fighting the urge to laugh at himself for the pure absurdity of the situation.

“So I’m gonna go now, um…yeah. Bye guys.”

He didn’t get very far before you caught up with him, pulling him out of ear shot from the boys.

“Listen, I’m really sorry about…all of that—”

“No, you don’t need to, it’s fine—”

“It’s not though. I should have told you—”

“No harm done, I promise, okay? I get why you hid it anyway, and I won’t tell anyone.”

“It doesn’t really matter if you tell anyone or not anyway, it’s gonna get out at some point…we’re still good, right?” You asked, feeling an immense amount of guilt in the way things were handled.

“Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’ll need a couple of hours for my ego to recover, but I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you a good driver? Yes, I’m sure. Go, enjoy your meal, I’ve held it off long enough.”

“I’m really sorry—”

“Y/N?” He breathed a laugh, “Kindly shut up. The only way you can possibly show me you’re truly sorry is if you go with Mick. The poor guy’s been waiting long enough.”

You sighed, “I’ll see you later, right?”

“Our paddocks are next to each other, I’d have a hard time avoiding you if I tried, so yes, I’ll see you later. Now, for the last time, go before I consider scratching my eyes out.”

“Gross.” You cringed, wrinkling your nose in disgust.

You hesitated, offered a smile, and then turned around to make your way back to Mick, no Seb or Daniel anywhere in sight.

He raised an eyebrow in question, but the knowing grin on his face told you everything.

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.” He defended, putting his arms up in surrender, the grin never fading.

“You didn’t need to.”

[princessofmerc]

I was unable to watch FP3, how were we looking for quali? I understand practice was wet?

Yeah it is. Pundit acclaimed best rain driver Mv* only got 1 lap together because he went out tok late probs thinking he can do it. He's p9, his teammate p8. The rain brought the field even closer together with allnso leading the way, last minute p2 from gasly and then p3 seb. But george was only 0.4 away and he was on the wets in comparison to everyone else driving on the intermediates.

Charles didn't go out (probably due to him starting in the last row anyway) kmag had a bit of a spicy moment rejoining the track unsafely in my eye but the stewards won't do anything I'm sure. Lewis towards the back. But James Allison said fp3s mission was to keep the car on track because conditions seem to have been horrendous. Nut sure how it's supposed to be later.

Over all I didn't see a lot of bouncing/porpoising from the Merc but they didn't show them from a good perspective a lot. Williams was bouncing that I can say but its the Williams and they're apparently unable to produce a decent car so

[meaningofmotorsport]

A defining title moment?

I honestly thought we had seen it all by now in 2021, but I was so wrong, this was meant to be a Mercedes track, however, by the end of practice both teams were pretty close on pace, if anything Red Bull were slightly ahead. Then, Hamilton had a disastrous FP3, with two runs to the stewards for separate offences, both of which he got away with, which was probably the right call, as a reprimand did it justice.

Now we had qualifying itself, with both teams trading blows through the session, but Red Bull still looking more comfortable on the softs. When Verstappen ended the first run over 3 tenths ahead of the rest in Q3, it looked over for pole, yet Mercedes had fuelled up for many runs, and when the fuel burned down, they were probably on a par with Red Bull. It was Max’s turn to bring the final hammer blow, and for almost the whole lap it was perfect, right to the limit but not over it, and could have been the lap to win him the title, however instead, it could end up being the lap that costs him the title!

I don’t really know what to say about the lap, we saw from the start he was right on the edge, so maybe what happened at the last corner was inevitable, but you have to respect the fact he gave it his all in the pursuit of glory! The other point is, after he locked up, if he had handled the situation better in the moment, was a front row or maybe even still pole possible. It may have been unlikely; however, it was clearly a hot headed Max that put it in the wall, and could cost him more before the race starts!

Mercedes was lucky today, no doubt about it, they didn’t have the pace expected so far this weekend, maybe due to the new engines starting to lose performance. On the other hand, though, you have to be there to get lucky, and staying on one tyre for the whole of Q3 seemed to work best for them. Tomorrow could be another great day for them, but Red Bull will throw everything at them, and Max will be aggressive off the start. Perez looked so promising today right up until Q3, which is becoming a theme sadly, he needed to be there when Max dropped the ball. From 5th he can still have an impact on the race if he gets past Leclerc quickly. Red Bull as a whole need to attack the whole race, and make Mercedes feel uncomfortable.

Ferrari had another mixed day, Leclerc in 4th is brilliant, and could allow them to seal their position in 3rd mathematically, and depending what happens in front, a podium could even be on the cards. Sainz meanwhile did not like his rear end one bit, losing it twice at the same corner in Q3. I don’t think it was helped by him taking the kerb very hard, which will unsettle the car at high speed. Points won’t be easy for him from 15th.

AlphaTauri had a solid day, with both cars in the top 8, good points are for the taking from there, although catching Alpine is a long shot. Of all the tracks for Tsunoda to do well, this might be the hardest, given his lack of confidence in the car, so fair play to him for his drive so far this weekend. McLaren have really dropped back in the 2nd half of the year, I know that Lando didn’t have a perfect Q3, yet they just don’t seem totally happy right now.

It wasn’t a bad day for Alpine, with Ocon in 9th, but it will surely be tense times for them, as they see AlphaTauri away in the distance. Alfa Romeo came from nowhere really to almost get both cars in Q3, Giovinazzi wants to show why he shouldn’t have been dropped, and he did just that, whilst Kimi wants to leave on a high too! Williams did all they could, but will need luck to get points tomorrow. Aston Martin had a woeful day, miles away from the pace over one lap, and surely too far back to make an impact in the race, I bet they can’t wait for 2022!

The drama keeps on coming in this season, and it would be foolish to think it has finished now, I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow, on a track as crazy as this!

-M

[formulatrash]

I’ve always been slightly confused over what a development driver actually does? (And very embarrassed over not being able to figure it out) but yeah - what is that and also what do the drivers actually do to help develop the car in fe?

Hmm well, the reason you’re confused is probably because it’s a confusing role that means a lot of things - and sometimes basically nothing. 

So “development driver” or “test driver” are quite vague titles that don’t, like many things in motorsport, have any formal codification. Actually to be fair that’s true of a lot of industries - ‘communications manager’ for instance has a lot of meetings across different companies.

Anyway, so: development drivers. In theory, the role is to do everything annoying and behind the scenes that the main drivers wouldn’t do. In the case of Formula One and Formula E, that’s tonnes of sim work that they main drivers wouldn’t have time to do in between aggressive race schedules and other work. 

It also covers work in F1′s case on race weekend simulation - so for instance Oliver Turvey has been McLaren’s development and test driver for ages. He’s done a few tyre tests for them, too because he’s a very reliable driver to shove in your F1 car but he’s obviously not a junior, not likely to ever make his way to a race seat - he’s the same age as me, after all. 

But when he’s in the sim, he’s not learning how to drive the car he’s running programming simulations to try and fix things that have been spotted by the drivers during a practice session. So if, say, Carlos or Lando say there’s, idk, an issue with the way the car’s using electrical energy in lower gears (it would almost certainly be something much more granular and specific than that but like, trying to keep this comprehensible without an engineering degree) then they load up the software that’s in the cars on track into the sim and the data from the session and run it until they think they have a fix, with Oliver driving it. He’d be in there from the first data package return of FP1 until the last updates they can send before FP3/quali/the race. 

So it’s an intense role, for a technical driver. It can also be work that’s given to a young driver - for instance, Pierre Gasly during his year between GP2 and F1. He was in and out of the Red Bull simulator so much he was nearly late for the Formula E weekend he did in New York, in for Sebastien Buemi, because he was running F1 work in the Milton Keynes simulator. Needless to say, not a huge amount of Formula E preparation had been slotted into his schedule.

Sometimes, it’s a much more hollow or vanity role that happens to hold the same title. So what was Carmen Jorda doing at Lotus? Err, being someone to greet VIPs, let’s be real. So sometimes it’s more of a ‘here is a driver allowed to wear our uniform who we get to do some PR for us’ - and often more of a role you pay for than get paid for. 

The line between, say, Sebastien Buemi’s role at Red Bull (he’s still the reserve driver and one of the best-paid drivers in motorsport because good god, imagine having Seb’s experience to shove in your sim and on a tyre test for goodness sake) and Sean Gelael’s role at Toro Rosso is going to be pretty big. Not cus Sean’s pointless but because he’ll be undertaking test and FP1 work for the team, not endless hours of very fiddly simulator stuff that they need a guaranteed pair of hands for. 

In terms of what drivers do to develop the car in Formula E, the answer is: a lot. If you’re a manufacturer team (and they nearly all are) then there’s 14 days of testing that you can do before pre-season testing starts and the cars are finalised, tech speaking. So that’s a lot of actual track time and working on the car. 

Beyond that, they obviously have to be able to drive in a way that maximises the energy usage and efficiency - but that goes without saying. There’s no live telemetry in Formula E, so the drivers know more about what’s going on with the car than the pit wall does and have more data, which is why you hear a lot of back-and-forth. A driver who can identify what is limiting that and ways to improve it is completely crucial - you have to work out what direction you’re going to work in for next year’s tech halfway through the previous season, at the very latest, so you need someone who can deliver on working out what would improve results.

Development during a season is done via simulator work. The programming in FE cars is equivalent to aero on F1 cars in terms of changing system management - so you’ll have eg: a programming setup for dealing with the heat in Santiago (and really hope you’ve got it right) and a different one for trying to cope with the a high-power track like Rome. Then lots of tweaks to that, to try to maximise what can be done. 

Simulation in FE is more often involving the “real” drivers than F1 because they have to learn loads and loads and loads of codes and scenarios to use each race because they’ve very much got to solve their own strategic problems with efficiency, battery temps, etc. So there’s a higher element of the driver always needing to learn a track/setup/etc even if they’re very experienced and in theory wouldn’t need to use the sim for learning. 

Hope that makes sense/answers what you wanted!