themelodramaticking

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I feel like if everyone just accepted that BTS is in a weird codependent polycule, everyone would get along a lot better.

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So, let me get this straight:

- Norris qualifies ahead of Piastri

- throughout the race the difference between the first three drivers (VER,NOR,PIA) is only about ~3 sec. In the first stint Norris keeps the same distance to Verstappen as he has with Piastri

- Mclaren pits Piastri first (even though their precedent has always been to pit the lead driver first bar Hungary - and we all know the shit show that followed it)

- McLaren decides to pit Norris on the same lap as Verstappen (this might be the most moronic mistake they have made in a while), completely alienating the chance to be able to undercut Verstappen

- for the most part the same difference settles between the first three (VER,NOR,PIA) drivers

- Piastri is able to get into DRS, but despite ONE chance he is not actually close enough to even attempt an overtake

- Norris at worst is ~ 2.5 sec behind Verstappen, but when Piastri closes up on him he catches up with Verstappen, between 1.1-1.4 sec

- While Piastri is in DRS range and Norris is 1.1-1.4 sec behind Verstappen Piastri starts radioing the team that he "has more pace" and "could fight Max". He continues to be 0.8-0.5 sec behind Norris, but only manages to get close once to attempt an overtake, which is easily defended by Norris

- Piastri continues to tell the team that he has more pace. For the most part he is still in DRS range, occasionally slipping out of it, meanwhile Norris is 1.0-1.3 sec behind Verstappen, just not being able to reach DRS

- Meanwhile Piastri continues to advocate for a possible swap with his engineer, Norris is not once told about this by his own engineer. In fact, Will Joseph doesn't even mention the gap he has to Piastri

- Despite having "more pace" according to Piastri he loses out of DRS in the last four laps

- Norris makes a mistake in the last part of the last lap, but it's still not enough for Piastri to overtake him, Norris coming in second, Piastri third as Verstappen win

So, all this happened, and yet all I see is people losing their minds because Mclaren "didn't let Oscar win" and "took his chance away from a win" and "favours Lando", my question to these people is where?? Norris and Piastri were free to race today, there were no team orders - which is exactly what I thought everyone was advocating for? That every position, especially if it's a podium and most especially if it's a win should be fought for and achieved on merit? But now suddenly, because according to Piastri (who is well within his own rights to advocate for himself, mind you) he has "more pace" because of DRS, Norris should have just let Piastri pass.

The same Norris, who is leading the WDC, who qualified better on Saturday should give up his second place position for Piastri, so he could "fight Max", even though he wasn't even able to properly challenge Norris himself. If Piastri couldn't even overtake Norris, how would he challenge Verstappen (who was managing his race!)? And it's not even that Norris kept sweating blood defending from Piastri's overtake attempts, there weren't any attempts! Piastri was close yes, but not close enough to try anything? They were free to race, if Piastri truly had superior pace he should have been able to overtake him, or at least have more than one weak attempt of a manoeuvre. But he didn't! So quite frankly, I find it baffling that Norris is suddenly expected by everyone and their mother to give up his place just because his teammate behind him claimed to be faster.

Now, of course, if the Mclaren pit wall had any balls, they could have easily bargained with Piastri that he could have a chance at Verstappen, but if he doesn't manage to overtake him he has to give the place back to Norris. The question we all should be asking is why they didn't even dare to entertain the idea. Are they playing too safe? Most definitely. But truth to be told, I'm not sure if Piastri would have given back that position to Norris, and in my opinion Mclaren might have had the same idea. What I'm however dead clear on is there is no chance that Piastri would have been able to overtake Verstappen, there's simply no reason to believe that considering the performance he showed and what Max showed today. Mclaren fucked any chance they had with their pit strategies, it's simple as that. Obviously, opinions will differ on this one. The Piastri fans will advocate for their own driver, Norris fans for theirs, but what should be agreed by both fanbases is that this was, once again, a Mclaren pitwall disaster class.

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there is something so incredibly frustrating about seeing lando explain and explain and explain everything he says to make sure that he’s not misunderstood or misinterpreted and then seeing journalists clip it out of context anyway

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lando’s size kink (smol) but also the fact that he’s (big) is so through provoking

ok i know i said i would keep my kink analysis to depictions on ao3 but fuck it's late and i really want to ramble about this specifically because it IS thought provoking!!! it's such a crucial aspect of lando's personality that i think is easy to flatten, and i see often exaggerated a bit in his popular characterizations from those outside the fandom looking in, the ones from people on twitter who don't really know his whole deal, and just imagine him at his weakest. basically while i think while he does have a kink for subordinating himself in size or competence, that kink reveals a more layered psychology and wider range of needs than he is usually given credence to have. it's a kink, not an entire personality.

i just believe that lando is mostly happy. he's not always a wet, sad, shivering cat who needs coddling!! his anxiety is likely background noise most of the time, not an all-consuming roar. he's an insanely talented guy (and knows it) in his mid twenties (no longer an ingenue) who has a difficult job he's deeply passionate about that allows him to travel all over the world and experience incredible opportunities. he's earning astonishing amounts of money and living in one of the most exclusive and glamorous places on the planet! he's had many career successes and many good days on track that he can be proud of and has been praised for. he founded his dream company barely out of his teens and continues to guide it as an executive through its expansion and development. he's had lovely girlfriends and maintained deep friendships with people he's known for half his life.

i imagine his confidence and zest for life can make him feel like he matches his own size most of the time, or even find delight in being big after a childhood of being tiny. he certainly likes to tease maxf about being shorter now. i think he might actually be pretty vanilla and enjoy topping someone he loves and using his skill to bring them pleasure (he hates and fears being bad at things and loves being competent, this will be relevant in a moment lmao). i just think his dick is big and he knows how to use it, ok? and he likes to provide for people to the degree that in 15yrs i could see him playing "daddy" (but we're not there yet). he can be an annoying brat, but that just means he wants to play. i think his kinks are not the most frequent way that he experiences sexual desire on the day to day. i figure he's playful, horny, and loving most of the time, not into playing psychosexual games with his committed partner.

But.

he is not always happy or composed. his distress comes in rare, exceptional, and dangerous spikes. his ego is not small and it has a few fracture lines where it's been crushed a thousand times, with long standing traumas and complexes waiting to be activated. it's like he has a lower emotional ocean that contextually gets churned up into a powerful maelstrom that inundates him with his insecurities and leads to loops of self-criticism as a coping mechanism and defensive shield. i imagine that it is overwhelming and frightening and frustrating, and it makes him feel small, he has so many complex memories of being small in the past.

it's important that kinks can act as release valve for a lot of tensions in the psyche. these storms he feels are not perpetual, but they do need some trigger to settle back down and let him return to untainted hope and confidence. sweet reassurance from a lover can do it sometimes, but not always, not if it passes a threshold of severity. another way to trigger the end of distress is through catharsis, using intense experiences where fear and shame is felt and released. i suspect he'd crave feeling small because it allows him to be chosen and used by someone(s) bigger and stronger than him. i don't necessarily just mean physically larger, either. the figures that loom large in the mind with high status that he craves respect from also count as big.

so he positions himself in relation to other men in a way where he can indulge that frisson of delight at the potential of being small, a size to be taken care of when he needs it. it's the size he knows gets him special attention, and some other men like and find very cute or fuckable in a specific way. while he's not terribly small physically anymore, there are Certainly bigger men in the world for him to feel a pulse of attraction toward. there's a a subconscious part of him yelling that sometimes (and only sometimes) it feels good and safe for him to feel small, and be useful and get railed by a man who can pick him up physically (or destroy him on track). you know what i mean?

basically, i think he sometimes feels profoundly small on an emotional level, but i also think he's mostly a self-confident vanilla demi-top (if he loves you) who might even enjoy being bigger that his partner (he used to be small), but, he's also an occasionally slutty subby bottom (if he needs it) with a kink for being small or inferior (when he's small again inside). he needs to feel his worst fears coming true (he is lesser) simultaneously as he is reassured of just how good and special he is to a bigger person, finding strength in embodying his own weakness relative to others, and power in having them serve him (fuck him and stoke his ego back to healthy levels). that's my take on his kinks...... fuck i really didn't mean to write this. but there you go lmao

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seb stans who have spent the past like 5 years convincing themselves seb hates Lando over what was clearly a joke in grill the grid now having to come to terms with seb backing Lando for the wdc:

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Idk why people get so pressed about DOTD. So many people. In podcasts. On tumblr. On Twitter. It’s a popularity vote. It means literally nothing.

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due to climate change silly season is now a year round event

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oh my god toto is trying to baby trap max to mercedes with kimi

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charles leclerc would’ve been a world champion three years ago in literally any other f1 team. i don’t know how much more clownery i can take

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thank god oscar had a bad race last week, I can accept him winning today

feel like this is lando’s thought process too

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Pierre, Lewis and Charles are disqualified from the race

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Now that its been reliably reported that Red Bull can and is considering replacing Liam Lawson by the next race— and aside from how you feel about Liam as a person— I just can't help but think that no one on the grid deserves this more than Red Bull. Max is 2nd in the championship and his teammate is last, Red Bull is 3rd in the constructors and every single one of those points are from Max. This is the culmination of almost 18 months of fuck ups and politicking. The post mortems at the end of last year all pointed to the fact that they had 3 seats but had given 4 contracts, Jos Verstappen's friend had reported that "the Verstappen family were informed" that Sergio would be replaced by Zandvoort -> then they took Sergio's sponsor money -> dropped Daniel -> Lawson was moved into VCARB. AMuS reported that Honda had to intervene for Yuki to even get the end of season test because Red Bull were just not interested in even trialling him in the Red Bull even though journalists had already reported that Liam's testing times in that car were not good. Fast forward to this year and Liam literally said after qualifying of race TWO that he already knew he didn't have much time to get up to speed. Bernie Collins pointed out that it's almost impossible to feel sympathy for Red Bull because they're expecting better outcomes and better results when they're just not behaving logically- she compared Red Bull (once the blueprint for developing drivers) to how Kimi was able to slot right into Mercedes because he was tested IN Mercedes- not in another car then thrown into the car he's actually supposed to succeed in.

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Just to put into perspective the rear wing test requirements.

The top of the rear wing is just under 1m in length (960mm) and around 2-3cm thick at the ends, but thinner towards the middle.

For the flexion tests they apply 750N, around 76kg (the average weight of a person) and apply it to each tip of the rear wing simultaneously

Previously the wing element could deflect 2mm which is approximately the size of the point on a crayon, now it’s capped at 0.5mm which is the diameter of the lead for a mechanical pencil

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Remember sochi? The race where it all went wrong for Lando in the last few laps? Where he took a mental hit and made statements about mental health to others?

Remember mclaren not giving him the right info? Giving the choice to an ill informed driver?

Then theres the Australian GP, where Lando wins despite the pressure on him, despite people doubting his every move, thinking he'll bottle it at the start, or restart, or in the pouring rain. He came out on top, 3.5 years after sochi, with experience and a great mentality.

People who shame oscar for sliding off should look back at sochi 2021, and see how those things TEACH drivers how to deal with rain, and pressure of winning. Oscar will learn, if anything he has the best teammate to learn from in terms of such situations. He will be fine.

Sending hate to either Lando or Oscar for that race, is ridiculous. They did phenomenal, they are great teammates, and no person on the internet just wanting to hate on someone will make the difference.

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I feel like I’ve been too mean to Oscar. So for the record. I was very impressed by him not giving up. And reversing all the way out.

It was indeed very hot.

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The fact that Oscar has somehow managed to convince everyone that he is cool as ice and never affected is so funny.

He like regularly gets mad, drives angry, makes a mistake and then can’t recover. Just cause he keeps his tone even doesn’t mean you can’t hear the frustration seeping into every word or see it in every gravel pit or rear end he has when he’s recovering.

It’s not a knock on him, I’d be way worse. But like he should probs work on it. It can’t help.

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This is exhausting.

Why are Oscar fans, and in particular Aussies, so resistant to accepting where Oscar has a weakness.

There are now countless instances over the last year when Oscar has dipped a wheel in the gravel in quali and race. A couple of penalties for running into other drivers when trying to get past quickly. Even the win in Baku was a lunge that he was only 50/50 about whether he would get the car to stop in time. Let’s not forget how many times he’s killed his tyres with over enthusiasm.

Oscar’s weakness is his impatience. McLaren tried to pre-empt it by telling him to hold to get past the back markers. He was told it was to protect tyres, he was told it was only for a short period of time, he was told Lando was managing his tyres as he went through traffic. Yet somehow the narrative Oscar’s fans have decided is that it was done to protect Lando and threw off Oscar’s flow.

So what part exactly did McLaren play in Oscar trying to get back on the track too quickly and at the wrong angle (he was practically in the corner when he rejoined, no chance for his tyres to grip the new surface before he hit the throttle).

Pretending he doesn’t do these things, doesn’t help Oscar. Acting as if he is doing nothing wrong, doesn’t help Oscar. The fact he reversed the car off the grass, wheel spinning for King and country shows you there is talent there. Talent you can’t teach. But if we don’t address where he is losing time and points, it’s never going to get any better.

McLaren now feel they need to step in to protect him and Lando to ensure they both get to the end of a race. Oscar stood there and explained in detail why he thought McLaren had given team orders, all correct and then said he wanted to know why. Someone please be honest with him.

I’ve spent years hearing this victim narrative about Mark Webber and then Daniel Ricciardo and now Oscar. It didn’t work for them. Let’s try the honest approach.