#along with a lewis wdc

[lecilly]

lewis talking about his time with nico IM TIRED of them. please one of them has to pick up the damn phone im BEGGING we don't have to witness this public reminiscing seances please you BOTH have phones AND the stairs if you want to talk!! (it makes me miserable they need to move on so i can do the same✨)

also how many times is he going to insist on this perticular memory of his? like we get it you used to race in italy and eat pizza! please they're both insane about each other 😭

[mickyschumacher]

NGL I LOVE UR WORK... ive been hopping thru ur m.list since the last hour.... its currently 1 am and i have an essay to finish before 8 am(im sure my prof will give me more time ik dey love me) anywasy i was wondering if u could do an enemies to lovers with Lewis((like really hated eachother)the reader could be a driver its oky don mind what she does) and then they were arguing abt sumting lewis says something thats completely out of the line and she starts crying in front him then he just kinda leaves her be, a few days later he would go on then apologize to her abt wat he said and then more fluff. (just ignore this if ur not into it or not takin a request at the moment. but im actually just hapi i kind of got the courage to ask u for a request also ur stories are soooo good i admire and envy u at the same time.)

𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐌𝐄  .ೃ࿐

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: as lewis's former teammate, there are lines that shouldn't be crossed. but a bad move from lewis puts him completely out of line.

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: enemies to lovers trope!, poor humour, some fluff, in depth moment of an alternated 2021 wdc (apologies in advance), therefore ANGST, bad race jargon, horner and masi discussed :(, mention of intermittent explosive disorder, misogyny, allusion to racism (not from the reader ofc!), shitting on the fia for a bit, lewis kinda being a dick for probably an unfair reason lol, a proclamation of feelings from sir lewis himself

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: lewis hamilton x red bull!driver!fem!reader

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 3k+

𝐀/𝐍: you're too sweet to me! 🤧 i couldn't tell if you wanted this to be romantic but i went that way in the end! hope this was good! ♡︎ very very loosely based of swift's 'right where you left me'. but if you argued it wasn't, i would be inclined to agree. proof-read...ish?

𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

⋆  •°.  。  .°•  ⋆

No one ever truly understood your move to Red Bull. It was in 2019, far from when Max was practically living on pole, so Red Bull wasn't exactly a threat to Mercedes, your previous team. Toto had even put a three-year extension on the table several months before your contract came close to expiring.

Yet you had chosen to sign with the devil.

When the commentators, journalists, and fans took a closer look at your decision, the only thing they could all collectively agree on was that you had moved to Red Bull because of Lewis Hamilton. Because you both couldn't keep your differences aside and Lewis had finally struck your last nerve.

While you weren't quite sure about the last part, the first was true. You had Lewis had never ever exactly met eye-to-eye. Every F1 driver had a specific style of driving. You liked to call Lewis' the 'calm before the storm'. He raced with a composure and maturity that most drivers did not hold. He was particularly calculative and the everyone loved him.

You, on the other hand, had given yourself a new nickname along side 'Flash 13' because you did everything in a flash: you overtook ruthlessly and calculated, you pushed the car till it was undrivable, and you were decisive to the very nanosecond. But you had also garnered yourself the name 'IED', after the behavioural disorder.

In part this nickname was due to the misogyny you faced as the only current female driver in F1 but also due to the sheer anger that bursted out of you whenever you encountered Lewis.

The amount of warnings Toto had given the both of you was simply endless. He had even resorted to putting you two with the team therapist.

The source of your hatred for each other was as clear as day. You hated Lewis' arrogance because somehow it was even worse than Rosberg, Alonso, Räikkönen, and Verstappen. And Lewis hated you for your 'perspective'. You didn't know what he initially meant by that but you regretted asking him. He said you needed to be stronger to be in F1 and that you were far too soft-hearted. Right after you had gotten your first ever pole.

It was ridiculous, to say the least.

No F1 driver was soft-hearted. You were all, simply put, a bunch of dicks. Not literally, of course. Naturally, following that comment, Lewis had pissed you off. He hadn't even had a second to know you before even making that judgement. It was ironic as well, considering your nickname that labelled your anger.

After watching Lewis win several championship titles with you following multiple places behind and seeing you only get angrier with each other, you had decided to call it quits for Mercedes. If people were going to take your annoyance and frustrations with amusement, you were going to head to the angriest team of all and leave your former team fuming.

Two years later, in 2021, you had finally gotten the perfect opportunity.

You hadn't really a clue how exactly Red Bull had made the 2021 car so well that you were matching the speed of Mercedes' car but you didn't care. You were matching Lewis. And Christian Horner was a happy man. A sexist prick but a happy man nonetheless.

Pole was either Lewis' or yours. Either he was a Grand Prix winner or you were. It was a game of cat and mouse, always in a constant pursuit of each other. The same went from your team leaders, Toto and Christian, who practically had the race director, Masi, on speed dial.

And by Abu Dhabi, you were equally tied, locked at 369.5 points. It hadn't been easy after getting penalised for multiple incidents against Lewis, but you were here. Lewis was trying to get his eighth championship and you your first.

You weren't sure how this was going to end. Heck, no one could've predicted what happened that day. But all you knew was that you were not going down without a fight.

You secured pole in Abu Dhabi which had put the entirety of Mercedes and F1 on edge. After a discussion with your engineer and several strategists, you had opted for soft tyres to further your advantage over Lewis.

Despite all of that, it was Lewis who had led the first corner after those red lights had gone out. It was only by turn six did you even get a lead. But it was a moment too short as your former teammate regained his top position by going off into the damn run-off area of the track.

You didn't need to scream in annoyance. You couldn't hear Horner, but deep down you knew he had already called up Masi, demanding an investigation. Your engineer reported to you that the stewards had dismissed it. The gap between you and Lewis was getting bigger, the race was coming to and end, and you knew you needed a miracle towards the end of the race if you wanted to win.

And that miracle was called Nicholas Latifi. The poor guy had crashed into Mick and the safety car was out on the tracks. Thankfully, they were both okay, but the timing of it was simply impeccable.

You had pitted to get new soft tyres and Mercedes was on the fence about heading to the pit lane in fear of the race restarting. So Lewis didn't pit. Miracle 2.

You re-joined the track with five lapped cars in between you and Lewis. And soon enough, Race Control had given the dooming message: lapped cars were not allowed to overtake.

The taste in your mouth was bitter. You had cussed out Horner, asking why you were even seeing these lapped cars in front of you.

Then came Race Control again: only the five cars in between you and Lewis were allowed to overtake. Miracle 3.

But of course, F1 had a flair for the dramatics. Because you were fucking restarting. Putting you and Lewis on a tight show-down for the final lap.

The bad news? Lewis hadn't pitted yet.

The good news? You could overtake Lewis. Miracle 4.

And the headline? You won.

You fucking won.

You were F1's first female champion in history.

You made history... or, well, herstory?

Yes it was controversial. Yes it was dramatic. Yes, questionable decisions had been made.

But you won.

By the time you had gotten out of your car and finished with screaming and crying in pure happiness, you had finally caught a glimpse of Lewis.

A small part of you felt bad. You knew for a fact, that these decisions weren't 'human error' as the FIA would go on to claim the following year in Bahrain.

It was entertainment. It was business. It was money.

You had both worked so hard this year. But the fight between an F1 driver breaking the record for the most championship titles and the first possible female champion in F1 was too good to resist.

Things between you and Lewis after Abu Dhabi hadn't gotten worse. You just talked far less than you normally did. You barely argued with each other anymore. It was disconcerting to say the least. Especially now that you were struggling to match Max's pace, always coming second or third as per the instructions of your engineer. For a moment you thought, what was the point of winning if you weren't going to win again?

━━━━━━━━━━━

You were still determined. Beating your own teammate would be hard. But you weren't a stranger to the idea. You had spent years trying to beat Lewis while purposely being the support for him to win. They were two actions they didn't go together but it had happened.

That being said, the venture was proving to be more difficult than you anticipated. In fact, it had caused a full collision with Lewis in the first lap of the Qatar Grand Prix.

You were so focused on beating Max you hadn't taken a second to look around you.

"What the fuck was that?" Lewis' voice invaded the air as he barged into your driver's room, ridden with sweat and still in his racing gear.

"Look, I'm sorry okay. I didn't see you. It was my fault. End of story," You told him curtly, not really wanting talk to Lewis any further.

"Damn right, you didn't see me. You could've taken me or anyone out! Are you so fucking stuck up your ass that you couldn't see me?" Lewis asked incredulously.

You scoffed at his accusation. It was true. But you didn't like when the truth fell from his lips... especially not when they sounded like that.

"Lewis, drop it. No one got hurt. Let's just move on okay?" You queried, annoyance dripping from your voice.

"Why? Can't handle the truth, L/N?" He laughed gently, almost mocking you. "Right... you were always like that."

You snapped your head towards him, raising a sharp brow. "Excuse me?" You spat as if to say he was becoming dangerously close to crossing a line he did not want to cross.

Lewis folded his arms, shrugging nonchalantly. "What? You don't like the truth. It's simple. I told you that you need to be stronger because you're too soft-hearted. And you hated that. And now that I'm telling you that you're selfish, you obviously can't handle it."

"Oh my God, you are one to talk. Lewis, you are so blinded by your arrogance that you can't see anyone else win. That's why you can't accept that I won right?"

"Not Abu Dhabi, aga–"

"Yes, Lewis, Abu Dhabi again. You are so fucking sour about losing that even when the hate targeted me, you let it. You let them say that my win was due to race and gender. Me, Lewis, out of all people, me."

No matter your differences, you had stuck up for Lewis on many accounts when it came to the FIA, 'fans', and haters. But he wasn't there for you.

You could see dark expression fall onto Lewis' face. "That's not true, Y/N."

"Then what was it Lewis?" You flailed your hands in exasperation. "Because you sure as hell didn't come to my aid."

"Because you didn't deserve it!"

You blinked blankly, arms falling to your side. Your mind took a minute to process the words that had fallen from his lips in mere seconds.

Lewis' face dropped as realisation struck him. What the fuck did he just say? "Y/N, I–"

"Get out," You grumbled.

Lewis did a double-take on the fresh line of tears accumulating on your waterline. He took a step closer to you, hands reaching out. "No, no, no, Y/N, I–" But your words made him stop.

"Lewis, get the fuck out of here before I start screaming like the bitch everyone thinks I am."

You watched Lewis return his hands to the side, clenching his jaw tightly as he made way to the door of your room. He stopped briefly, hesitating to open the door, taking one last glance at you before leaving.

━━━━━━━━━━━

Four days.

You had pondered in deep thought for four days. And after 72 hours, one thing had become obvious to you.

Lewis wasn't with you or any of the other drivers. He was still in 2021, right where you had left him. Not a second had gone by for Lewis where he hadn't thought about Abu Dhabi.

What if he had just pushed for Bono and Toto to get him in that pit lane?

What if he had veered the car a little to the side and you didn't overtake him?

Lewis was still reliving the worst moment of his career and his life and everyone had moved on. Sure, every fan and commentator talked about it time to time. But it was something of the past.

To say you didn't deserve your championship title... you had heard it from several 'fans' and insignificant others. But to hear it from Lewis? It fucking killed you.

You cared about his opinion more than anyone in the world. And he knew that.

You would've never said anything as shitty as that to him or anyone for that matter.

You had worked your ass off to get to F1. Fuck, you had won F2 two fucking times because no one was willing to let a girl on their team... into a man's sport. Every driver worked hard to a certain degree. But you were a girl who didn't grow up with the means of driving yourself to your death every day. If everyone worked hard, you had worked ten times harder.

Everyone knew that you and Lewis had fought. And by the looks of it, they also knew it was far worse than your normal fights. You wouldn't look at him, you refused to speak to him, you spent minimal time in the same room, you had even paid your media fines in full to avoid everyone...

Max had even become some sort of bodyguard, telling Lewis to turn back around when he neared the Red Bull garage.

All of this protection, and yet, he had still found you in your favourite place. The one you both came to when you needed to become level-headed. The top stand of any empty Grand Prix, in this case the México Grand Prix, where the air felt a little bit cooler against your heated skin and you could think for even it was for just a second.

You sucked in a sharp breath, seeing Lewis in your periphery while you were firmly seated. He looked nervous, chewing on his bottom lip and taking cautious glances at you.

"Hey," Lewis greeted, making you raise a brow at his lame entrance.

You forced yourself to look at the rest of the empty seats in front of you. "Hey," You mumbled back, trying to swallow the bitter taste in your mouth.

An unsettling silence enveloped the both of you. You were sure Lewis was here to apologise. But you could also tell he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Not in a selfish way. But in the most guiltiest way possible.

You sighed. "How are you?" You asked gently, peeking out of the corner of your eye.

Lewis winced at your question. Leave it up to you to still be this kind after what he had said to you. "Sorry. I'm so so sorry," He rasped, voice raw with the pain that had been gnawing away at him ever since those god forbidden words had left his mouth.

You nodded slowly, taking another deep breath. "I know you're going to call me soft-hearted but what you said really fucking hurt, Lew," You jested with a brief smile.

Lewis grimaced at your poor humour, before his ears perked up at the old nickname you had given him when you first started getting on each other's nerves. "I know. I'm an idiot for saying something like that. Or that you're soft-hearted. You've worked so hard for all of this. You absolutely deserve everything and that win was only the first of many, I'm a hundred percent sure of it. Your Dutch shortie doesn't really know what's coming."

You gave him a tight-lipped smile after huffing in amusement at his diss towards Max. "Thank you," you told him earnestly. "Although, I am quite positive he is like almost ten centimetres taller than you. But, thanks anyways."

Lewis rolled his eyes. "Have you seen me? You don't think I give off tall energy?"

"You mean tall in insults?" You joked, grinning at the blank look on Lewis' face.

Lewis sighed. "I really am sorry. I didn't mean any of it. And by 'it', I mean all of the insults and fights. I was just disappointed in myself. Even more so that I didn't stand up for you. I'm so sorry."

You drew your eyebrows together, turning your body to face him. Confusion filled you. "Then why did you say it at all?"

"I–" Lewis blew out a small laugh. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Lewis, can you not see me dying here? Like a whole kitchen set of knives in my back?" You deadpanned.

Lewis rolled his eyes again. So dramatic.

He brought his hands together, staring at you briefly before looking at the empty stand. "Well, obviously, I heard of you before you joined Mercedes. I thought it was ridiculous that you had to get two F2 championships to get a seat, but anyways, I digress. Toto told me, he was considering you even though you had never been in the junior team.

And I remember just being so fucking jealous of you. Toto was consumed by you. He and Horner had been fighting for your seat for so long and now that they finally had an open seat, it was chaos. Toto won, obviously. And then we met each other in person for the first time and I thought you were the most beautiful woman in the world."

You felt your heart begin to race and your skin heat at the sudden proclamation. "You... you what?"

Lewis smoothly glossed over the compliment. "And then we had our first quali together and you beat me. You got pole on your first race. So you were talented and beautiful. A crime, might I add.

And so when you came to tell me, you were so excited with all your talent and beauty, I was pissed. Because out of all things in the world, I had gotten an amazing competitor I was bound to feel for. I thought that by saying you were soft-hearted and all, it would get on your bad side and it would make me less attracted to you. It didn't. It got worse while it got easier to pretend to hate you."

You blinked blankly at him, cheeks aflame. Lewis Hamilton liked you. Your stupid teammate? The same one who's eighth championship you arguably took? "I'm sorry... hold up, we've been fighting for years because I'm a hot, talented, gifted, smart driver and you're a simp?"

Lewis squinted his brown eyes at you. "I did not include all those adjectives."

"I mean... that's basically what you said," You shrugged, flickering your eyes to the setting sun.

Where did all the damn cool air go? You wondered, pressing your hands to your flushed cheeks and feeling your soft palm absorb the molten lava known as your skin.

Lewis chuckled, picking up your flustered reaction quickly. He watched as you suddenly stood up. "Okay, well I'm... I'm going to meet Hugh and find a way to beat Max. See ya!"

Lewis paused, grabbing your wrist. "Wait? What? You aren't going comment about what I just said?"

You eyed his hold on your wrist: it was searing you. You turned to him, lowering your head to meet his gaze. You briefly looked down at his lips before looking back up. "I think I prefer hating you."

Lewis felt you press your lips on his cheek before walking past him. He watched your retreating figure, your kiss feeling heavy on his face, putting him right where you had left him: absolutely and utterly smitten.

© 𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐘𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑

[jackhues]

paddock pass, baby - hamilton!daughter x f1 grid

lewis hamilton!daughter reader

born on december 7th, 2006 (lewis is 21, almost 22)

she was almost 2 when he won his first wdc

is friends with many drivers on the grid

sir lewis carl davidson hamilton mbe honfreng is a name (or title) that many knew, fans of motorsport and formula 1 especially. his mom and sisters called him lew, broadcasters called him hamilton, and some of his fans called him the goat.

y/n hamilton simply called him dad.

she was there for him during his earlier years in f1, the time when he missed out on the championship during his rookie career (by one point) even though she barely knew what was going on. she was there when he won his first a year later (still didn't realize what was going on). she was there when he made the move to mercedes and dominated (she was finally beginning to understand what was going on). she was there to see brocedes fall apart. she was there when he won his seventh - tying the record for most world championships by one driver.

and she's hoping to be there when he wins his eighth eventually (she knows he'll do it. one day. it'll be his. and she'll be cheering him on).

so she goes around the world with her dad and roscoe (the dog that he loves like a son), watching people in fast cars zoom around the track... and she'll wait for the eighth. but it's okay. she's not in a rush. and maybe she'll make some friends along the way.

she's not worried. she's got a paddock pass, baby.

---

let me know if you want to be added to the taglist! (comment/send an ask/message)

part one out now!

[valyrfia]

Haha I love that lestappen gate is resurfacing, though I think we did a complete 180!

We used to love lestappen gate bc a lot of us felt Charles was being wasted at Ferrari, but now with the Red Bull team inevitably imploding, the questionable quality and brand of their 2026 engine, and Merc still rebuilding - I feel like if anything, Ferrari are looking to come out as the top team.. and so maybe Charles was right in staying (I hope). If lestappen gate were to happen I now feel like it's highly unlikely for Charles to go to RB but actually more possible Max goes to Ferrari after Hamilton retires..

Lestappen Gate was for those of us who were frustrated with Ferrari for seemingly wasting Charles’s talents and wanting to see what he could do in the most dominant car on the grid. Now at the end of 2023 that most dominant car was Red Bull and likely it will be for the first part of 2024 but after….

As you mentioned anon, the entire team imploding with CH clinging on to a position he should’ve resigned from ages ago, new engine along with the new regs in 2026, losing staff to Ferrari, rumours of them losing Adrian Newey to Ferrari…..the writing is on the wall for Red Bull. They’ll still be dominant for the first part of this season but other teams will begin to catch up and Lewis’s move to Ferrari is as much about trying to catch top talent at Ferrari and much as it is having a 7x WDC talent in the driver’s seat. Charles definitely made the right choice staying at a team that he knows like a family and loves him back like a son, a team that will within the next couple of years probably have the most insane off-track talent we’ve seen in a few decades going into the new regs. Forza Ferrari sempre.

As for Max going to Ferrari after Lewis retires….I would just say it’s much more likely than we think. Assuming Max doesn’t retire before Lewis (which is always a possibility to be honest, Max has been yapping quite a bit about retirement lately), Max and Charles have obviously already had that teammate conversation and decided that they could work, and I maintain that Max’s apologies to Charles in part fermé after COTA and Vegas 2023 were part of Max proving to Charles that they could work.

Max also has sentimental connection to Ferrari through Michael, and I do think that if Red Bull stops winning and a spot opens for Max at Ferrari, he would take it. I’ve been saying this to @tsarinablogs but I personally find the idea quite fulfilling in their own personal narrative as well. They are the two generational talents of this era, but Charles has always been the one “chasing” Max in their careers, into karting, into F1, to race wins, to championships, but at the end of Max’s career, he’s the one who chases Charles to Ferrari.

[thearchercore]

How do we think Max took the news 😭 Lewis is living his dream (Charles’ teammate)

i dont think max would care too much (christian horner, however-)

max and charles survived multiple teammates, so it wouldn't really change a lot. lewis and max aren't too close, they never really got along and created a slight toxic workplace environment in 2021 lol. but again, max and checo aren't friends either, they're coworkers.

that being said, it opens the possibility of charles securing his WDC soon. which could lead to the scenario of them being teammates just for the sake of trying it before one of them retires, because essentially fighting in the same machinery would be much more chill if they both had their career dream fullfilled and then were just doing it for their love for racing

[inchidentally]

Um, these 60 seconds of recent content between Lando and Oscar made me realize one thing, are these two really only knowing each other for a year or their whole lives?

the audience does not know !!!

like there's a very specific 'united front' thing I can see in a lot of partnerships and it's founded on different things but ultimately manifests in a feeling of cohesion between the drivers. (and I am so sorry bc I saw in passing someone else made a similar post to this but I cannot remember who so lmk bc I don't want to be ripping off their idea !! I have my own separate feelings about it so it's not a copy but still I wish I could have kept that on my dash long enough to rb)

like most teammates fall in the neutral category of professional politeness and friendliness but also the need to push for their own advantage wherever possible. totally fine and normal. also allows for a few fireworks occasionally which is just as good for fan engagement - sometimes more - than if the drivers were always cool w each other.

aberrations like Senna and Prost, brocedes, and sebmark are not to be included - way too unique. could even throw Esteban and Pierre in there.

you've got consummate professionals Lewis and George who are both careful about cultivating their own separate images and who hold a baseline of genuine respect for each other - but part of that respect being that they both know they'll look out for themselves first. so they're very much similar and equals even in operating very independently. ultimately they want the mess to get cleaned up and to shake hands and do business as usual. I could see them genuinely having to hash out something truly ugly and shake hands and move onto their own lives no problem. which like, they clearly have lol.

then there's a situation like Alex and Logan where the dynamic is so incredibly imbalanced BUT you have someone as humanly decent and warm as Alex (even if he maybe wishes he were less so for competitive reasons) and Logan has already become very skilled at dealing with being an outsider/almost unwanted :( and it's clear that they both see how hard-working they both are and what a massive thankless task they have in trying to just achieve points - undetermined if they're mostly friendly out of trauma bonding or will remain friends after being separated but there's absolute friendliness and respect.

then there's The Charisma Guys of Daniel and Carlos and now Lando (who mooched a lot of his F1 charisma off of Carlos and then Daniel). Daniel and Carlos replicate an almost identical dynamic with all of their teammates and it's predicated on what most drivers are already well versed in, which is: playing gay for fangirls, bromance hugging/camaraderie/ribbing for sports media and fans, and taking care of their own brand and career separately from their teammate. it's a powerful tool to have especially for leveraging the popularity of whatever bromance they're in towards their own image without having to lose power over their own image. individual sponsorships being a driver's second goal after winning races and WDCs also makes this an exceptionally good skill to have. it only starts to break down when the personal fortunes of one of the drivers start to hit hard times (current example being obvious).

the Carlos and Charles dynamic absolutely pulls a lot from the charisma/bromance stuff but the huge difference is that Ferrari would - like any F1 team - not give a shit if they didn't get along and just hitched on a bland smile for the cameras. Ferrari aren't remotely behind C2 being what it is, that's all Charles and Carlos. don't get me wrong Ferrari social media teams are MORE than happy to jump on! and sure, the challenges and content are a fun bonus thing to sponsors but three things here: one is that Ferrari IS the brand and they're a top 3 team like they're not grasping for sponsors asflgaslf. two is that as many partnerships have shown, you really don't need to do that much to satisfy the brief. and third, sponsors are like 99.999999% interested in the team's standings and the drivers' individual popularity with partnership popularity coming dead bottom - the bromances are only worth it if they're engagement darlings like carlando. and charlos doesn't do anywhere near those numbers or that widespread corporate social media appeal. you gotta do major impact with crazed fans for it to at all influence a brand's decision where to put their money. so all of the pop off the screen fun and genuine enjoyment we see Carlos and Charles have is fully legit. when they're being tongue-in-cheek levels of cutesy they literally say so. 2025 onward will see how much of a friendship there actually is, but as far as them being very happy with the partnership and collaborating exceptionally well within it, they're far more rock solid and natural at it than most. and the fact that they're if anything even tighter when there's zero incentive for it ?? and when their families and fanbases and their team principal and garages are constantly feuding ?? like it says everything about how much they respect each other and actually feel affection for each other to remain such a united front and so happy and affectionate. nobody else benefited from Carlos asking his team to tell Charles' team to come celebrate his win with him. nobody else in Ferrari or on the grid made bank off of about Charles rushing to congratulate Carlos while he was still in the car. (especially not when carlando did a quick hug and it got brands and official accounts posting tiktok ship edits to the predictable delight of thousands of fangirls. and for them all to cough cough conveniently ignore the embrace with his gf to push the image further.) there is no PR benefit behind C2 that would justify them hitching on such a dramatic facade - and if anything the people around them would prefer they kept separate so that they could celebrate one without the other. whatever their relationship is after this there will always be that massive respect IN SPITE of what the world around them wants.

but Lando and Oscar are such a major aberration not just in them both being so incredibly young and arriving into F1 so hot and already being so close in ability, but their specific 'history' and personalities. they were already such an easy fit together that it surpassed the professional need for a bromance buffer - and at the same time their bond being partly on how naturally private and shy they are made them poorly suited for a PR machine.

Oscar had already said - and a lot of fans already knew - that there were several friends in common and that the shifts in careers and being separated professionally by more years than their ages is the only thing that meant they'd never crossed paths before privately. as K said back when Oscar originally opened that TikTok acc it was so long ago that he followed Max F but that Lando didn't even have an one yet.

but also as many people close to Lando have said (good example that was posted recently) and that we can often still see in streamer Lando - Lando is very much like Oscar as a person at his core. pretty much all of the 'famous person' stuff we saw him become happened after 2019 and directly because of latching onto the social lives of guys like Carlos, Daniel and Martin. he's always referred to as extremely shy and he's said before he likes for others to lead. but his comfort place is still either hanging out in private with close friends only or to get on stream and laugh with his friends. Lando himself said that he considers Oscar to be very similar to him as a person outside of F1 and for all that in some ways that seems surprising, when you look at who Lando is when he's not in Professional Mode or Party Friends Mode he genuinely really fits in with someone quiet like Oscar who loves spending hours gaming w his friends and not being in public. I don't know enough about Martin Garrix as a person but I rly honestly see that with him as well. yes there's the Party Friend aspect but for them to travel solo for two entire winter breaks in a row ?? clearly Martin is a peaceful, quiet guy on Lando's level <3

and ofc I go onnnnn and fucking on about how while we all hate it bc it means we don't get as much content, the fact is that Lando and Oscar are the type of friendship/partnership where it's quiet and private and not something that translates to a bromance on camera. it's never going to be strategic.

so the fact that they have this "twinning" thing isn't that they are identical or that they even look all that similar, it's down to actually slotting in really well with each other as people! as always who knows how deep these friendships actually go but the whole mind-reading and synchronization and total lack of drama between them as drivers comes from genuinely being similar people and liking each other - that's what we're all picking up on when we watch them together.

the fact that they honestly find it awkward as hell when the media try to get them to "package" their friendship in bromancey soundbites or when they look at the camera a bit like an intruder that's making them dance their friendship around for media, like. that's so incredibly relatable for how any of us would feel with one of our actual friends having to do all that. having a camera aimed at us and some stranger being like "so you two get on really well huh?" and practically leaning in for an expected answer ???? it would be so stupid and weird and the whole way Lando and Oscar work together in unison to dispel how weird that is is so natural !!

idk it's like there's different things to take from different partnerships and literally all of us are suckers for a fun bromance and great professional chemistry. but I think this whole universal 'twins' thing that everyone sees in Lando and Oscar is genuinely two guys who are similar in all the fundamental ways and who actually slot together in ways where they naturally just agree on everything and therefore can predict a lot of what the other person is thinking if that makes sense ??? like yes Lando has Single Guy Party Times and professional motivations where Oscar does not but for a friendship and partnership to work, those are the two least relevant things to need to be similar about y'know ??

[fairie-grl]

inspired by @onadarklingplain 's 'Albon Pet Primer'

Sir Lewis Hamiltion has a dog, his dog is the goodest boy in the world, and I know too much about his dog so now you must suffer with this knowledge as well enjoy:

Lewis adopted Roscoe, a English bulldog, from an online adoption agency in 2013.Roscoe is a purebred bulldog with both his mom and dad being show dogs. Roscoe's name was chosen because Lewis thought it but Crofty calling Nico ‘Roscoe’ at the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix makes me have my doubts. Lewis later adopted Coco, a female bulldog. Coco’s breeder was originally going to put her down due to how expensive her health conditions, mostly likely a heart condition, were but Lewis stepped in. If you are trying to tell Coco and Roscoe apart in photos, Coco has a wider white stripe on her head. It is widest around the top of her head. Roscoe has more wrinkles and a brown spot on his snout and his strip ends at the top of his head and a new one starts off center in the back of his head. Coco’s fang teeth are also out more often compared to Roscoe's little teeth and she is a lighter color than Roscoe. Lewis expressed that he adopted the dog because his family has always had dogs, mostly labradors, but he said he always wanted an English bulldog. Coco lived till June 2020 when she passed in the night. Lewis and Roscoe were with her. His mom has five dogs! Both Roscoe and Coco have passports so they can travel with Lewis. Lewis was also granted special permission from Bernie Ecclestone to bring the dogs to the padlock (I assume Charles will ask Domenicali to bring Leo to the Padlock). 

Lewis brought a jet to fly with the dogs which he then sold in 2019. Roscoe is good with traveling due to his love of napping. In his first trip with Lewis he slept through most of the flight waking up to go to the bathroom and to make Lewis put him in his lap. Lewis followed Roscoe's command, sleeping with Roscoe in his lap like “a baby.” Lewis said, “Roscoe is the best travel pet, he just sleeps with you.” As Roscoe is getting older, Lewis has made the decision to travel less with him, as the time zones were getting hard on him. While Lewis is racing, Roscoe stays in Los Angeles, California with dog trainer Kirstin McMillan (adventuresindogtraining on instagram). Lewis says he gets pictures of Roscoe everyday and checks in on him. Roscoe also attends a dog park or “Los Angeles' first canine social club” as stated on their website called ‘Dog PPL’ in Santa Monica. It is about $120 a month for one dog.  

Not only is Roscoe Lewis’s son but also his best friend. Lewis talked about his instant connection when they first met. Roscoe gets sad when Lewis leaves and happy when he returns. Lewis says, “Then I get the Frisbee and play with him, and that’s, for me, the biggest highlight – the unconditional love you get from a pet like that.” Roscoe loves quad bikes. In one interview, Lewis said it’s because he’s lazy so he likes being driven around. However, I think it’s because he has taken after his dad and wants to race. Roscoe also loves frisbee and his ball; it seems like he enjoys fetching and chasing after things, like chasing other cars down… Roscoe WDC 2024 confirmed. Lewis also has Roscoe involved in many of his projects, Lewis has hinted that Roscoe has a cameo in ‘Apex’, his movie starring Brad Pitt. When Fortnite asked him to be in the game he said he would only agree if Roscoe was in the game with him. Fortnite, of course, agreed because Roscoe is an angel. They ended up putting him in a jet pack. He was 1,500 V-Bucks or 2,400 V-Bucks with the ‘Lewis Hamilton Budle’ (IDK if thats a lot I don’t play Fortnite). Lewis also said Roscoe is the only person he can count on to stand with him along with Bono.

After Coco’s death, Lewis took Roscoe to the vet where they recommended starting him on a vegan diet similar to what Lewis has. This vegan diet is often recommended to bulldogs because they often have food intolerances or allergies to the meat proteins that can affect the skin and gastrointestinal tract. The vegan diet Roscoe is on still includes the same things without the meat proteins in it that caused him to have health issues. Lewis has said his breathing has improved and that he no longer has skin allergies. Roscoe also has physical therapy and acupuncture every week to help with his joints.  Roscoe has also had health issues that caused him to ejaculate, often uncontrollably, scaring baby Roscoe and leading to him getting snipped in 2016. Lewis did have his sperm frozen so that Roscoe could have puppies. Lewis said, “It’s great his genes will live on.” Lewis said his plans were to have Roscoe’s puppies after he retires but with the fanzone in 2024 Australia GP, it sounds to me like he may be looking sooner to have Roscoe’s pups or to retire. Last year, around the British GP, Roscoe had some issues regarding his spine. If I remember correctly, it involved a slipped hernia in his spine. Luckily, he got stem therapy and was able to attend the GP. He has been improving, and as of today he is back to normal.

Now for the part most people know about. Roscoe started his instagram account, roscoelovescoco, in January 2015 with a post featuring Coco and him captioned “Thanks for following us :).” The instagram account was originally a joint account with both Coco and Roscoe until 2020, although both did get solo posts. As expected Roscoe does make money off his Instagram, but he is also a dog model. Lewis said in a Silver Arrows interview in 2021 that he gets paid $700 a day which goes in Roscoe's treat fund. Roscoe also has sponsorships. His Thanksgiving party was sponsored by Bramble Pets, and he did content (including a commercial) for Zapp, a food delivery company Lewis invested in. Roscoe also appears in Lewis' vlog channel (it hasn’t been updated since 2021) multiple times. His last appearance is in a video “Adventures with Roscoe! | Lewis Hamilton Vlogs” which is also the last updated video on Lewis channel. He reached 1 million followers in 2024, which is more than Chouprette Lagerfield, the cat of Karl Lagerfeld (I am not joking, this man left a good chunk of his fortune [~$300 million] to his cat). Roscoe’s captions on his instagram posts were originally typed in a sort of third person first person mix but in October 2020, Roscoe finally established his first first person post with his famous lisp. However, the conspiracy expands as prior to this first lisp post, there are two posts on instagram where Roscoe (and Coco) are talking to us. The first one was posted April 2024 with Roscoe saying, ‘They put a thermometer up me bum, dad!’ In this speech bubble, Roscoe doesn’t have a lisp but does speak in a sort of baby talk. The next post in October 2017 features both Roscoe and Coco with Roscoe saying, “We got acupuncture today Dad!” and Coco saying, “It’s my favorite.” (More info about the dogs getting acupuncture is in the health section.) I will note his lisp comes and goes on his posts around November 2020. His lisp finally stays and its intensity does increase. There are also a few posts taken with Mercedes that don’t feature the lisp, and a few posts talking about Roscoe or Coco written in their “Dad’s” pov where it obviously doesn’t use a lisp.

[just-an-assbutt]

Damn, I hate the infantilisation of F1

I keep reading and seeing shit about how “Ferrari separated two best friends” with their decision or how “Carlos is way better than Hamilton”. Do these people even watch of follow F1? Best friends? Carlos better than Ham? Really?

Yes, Charles and Carlos have a good relationship, but it’s not like they are the only good teammates each other had and they definitely aren’t best friends. Charles had a great relationship with Vettel (even if he did better than the 4 times WDC), and has shown plenty of times that he gets along amazingly with Ham. Damn, he even gets along well with Max, and they used to hate each other. Why the fuck are people acting like Carlos and Charles have this unique relationship? What makes them believe that Charles won’t get along with Ham? Valteri and Lewis are still friends and they get along just fine, Lewis has said more than a few times that he likes Charles a lot and he even one time admitted that if he wasn’t racing, he would be with the Tifosi cheering for Charles. Carlos has a way better friendship with Lando than he has with Charles, he even has a good relationship with Max, even though they weren’t exactly the best teammates in Toro Rosso. They are all work-friends and unless someone really screws up, they won’t stop liking each other just because they change teams.

On the other hand, these people are working and competing, this is not choosing your chemistry class partner or a friend to sit next to at school, these are grown up men fighting for the top and competing for millions of euros. Stop treating the seats as friendships bracelets, a seat means money, sponsors and the chance of driving a better car, not the chance of doing funny videos and challenges with your friend. The videos and the funny moments are just some relaxing and cute content, not the main part of getting a seat and a teammate. The drivers can like each other and be friends, but they are working and their priority is not having fun but winning races. The addition of a driver to a team is not making cute videos for edits or just to hug the other driver at the podium, they are added to bring better input about the car’s performance, to work along the engineer and mechanics to better the car, to drive better and bring more results than the team is getting. Get a grip people, this is a fucking competition and business.

This brings me to the last point, which is: Yes, Carlos is a great driver but IN WHICH WORLD A 0 WDC DRIVER IS BETTER THAN A 7 -TIMES-WDC-CHAMPION ONE?! Carlos better than Ham? Do these people really know anything about the sport? Lewis was dominating F1 3 years ago and he dominated it for nearly a decade, he has more wins, poles, points and WDC titles than anyone on the grid, he’s Schumacher level, he’s the one that can give Ferrari the best input about a winning car performance. He finished 3rd (almost 2nd) last year with one of the worst cars Mercedes has made in the last 5 years. Carlos is doing great now, no doubt about that but he has 3 wins in 10 years on the category and his overall record is still not as good as Charles, even with Leclerc having less time in F1. I’m not saying that Carlos is a bad driver, but on which grounds do people think they can compare him to LEWIS HAMILTON. I mean, SEVEN TIMES WORLD CHAMPION, TOP THREE DRIVER LAST YEAR, MOST WINNING DRIVER OF THE GRID, WITH SEVENTEEN YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND WITH THE BEST ROOKIE OF HIS ERA. That man could be a winning ticket for Ferrari and as a plus, he could help Charles better up his game, like Vettel did.

It really exasperates me that some people (sadly mostly girls) flood the Scuderia, F1 official account and the fan pages with this shitty intakes of the sport. One thing is to have fun (we all do, I even ship drivers for fun) but a whole other thing is to act or take as if those funny ideas are some serious opinions of the sport. Shipping and having fun is just that, but how can someone pretend that a team would choose a driver to get their seat so lightly and childishly?

Get. A. Grip. People. This is a competition and the decisions are made TO FUCKING WIN.

[blorbocedes]

Blorbie I have a question about Nico because I’m still trying to learn all the lore and something I’ve noticed is that there were (and still are) lots of Lewis fans who like to claim that Nico was fairly disliked by the rest of the grid during his time in the sport and I feel like that’s easily disputable and I’d love your thoughts. I saw this post** and was quickly like ‘huh…’ because I’d not really looked into those claims further before but surely the fact that like half the grid constantly shared flights with him means they were friendly, no? I mean sure you could argue they just wanted free flights but everyone seemed to get along with him just fine, it seemed he was definitely involved in the banter and everything from the videos he posted during that time. I also noticed from scrolling back years that he seemed to be one of the few drivers who Kimi usually laughed with, Jenson was obviously good friends with him, I always got the sense Daniel got on really well with him and despite what sewis fans might have people believe, I always thought Seb liked him too. So is this just another example of the LH fans agendas going unchecked and taken as gospel? Did I simply fall victim to the anti-Nico propaganda? 😔

** https://www.tumblr.com/sweetpeapoppy/685938060693749760

did you fall victim to propaganda? yeah lol.

there's presscon pictures of nico looking 😶😐 while lewis and seb are giggling, probably bc nico has been asked for the 30th time that day if he enjoys losing to lewis/does he have it in him to beat him, and people extrapolate off that, that nico is a no fun frigid bitch (unlike the fun loving 4x wdc german seb) who everyone hated, cause he was too busy being jealous and evil. and mind you, this is a narrative that was peddled by sky as well, the cold clinical unfeeling numbers obsessed German, and so a lot of people's 2016 recollections is skewed by this

gif by @teandkimi

there you go. the power of narratives!

and the context to these photos

[vsyrworld]

Serious question - who is more whipped for who: Charles for Carlos or Carlos for Charles?

interesting! Please don't get mad if I said both of them🤣 and this is going to be a long one.

I have to tell you that this ship is taking their time slowly to get close to each other. Their love bloomed like molasses on the ground after a dewy morning rain. Carlos -- he is an easygoing and humble person, who loves to tease, annoy, and banter. He said in an interview that Charles is easy to get along with too. With his humble personality, it would make sense to point out that Carlos would make a move first to introduce him, just like how Singapore 2018, he asked Charles first, not the other way around. It happens because Charles is a shy person but will open up and give all of his heart when he trusts the person. Remember post Seb Ferrari era? the mood was down and the team was split into two sides. Charles was stressed too, suffocated, he missed so many chances to be the world champion. Enter Carlos with his light personality, it gives Charles a fresh air.

I thought Carlos was bolder but somehow Charles also did his own games too. Once he gets comfortable with Carlos, he becomes playful too, he teases him, gives him pet names, asks him ridiculous unnecessary things, and so much more. Remember also that both C² boys are together facing the downfall of Ferrari, 2022-2023 was -I can say- the worst era. There are so many things behind the scenes that somehow they choose to keep it lowkey and not show it to the camera. They did sometimes, back in the day 2021 when they used a silly filter and posted on each other accounts. So bet, through the trial and tribulation as a Ferrari drivers they exchange many deep talks together, both of them are fights for each other, we never see them crash no? Unlike Seb with Charles, or Nico with Lewis, both respect each other, and both are not into mind games, yes Charles might be intimidating for Carlos since he is the golden boy, but somehow Carlos understands his burden to be il Predistinato, he is helping him through bad times. Carlos stated that he wish Charles become a wdc with Ferrari and he wants to help him. Carlos loves Ferrari and bleeds rosso corsa as much as Charles does. Watch Carlos 2023 press conference with the Estrella Galicia, where said his racing future plan A B C is drives for Ferrari, and he also pointed out how he annoyed by the fan who always make them hate each other. With that dedication Charles softens and trusts Carlos, he is having fun and he is down so bad for Carlos. The interview with Martin or the Singapore interview 2023 are the proves how close they are

With much aware, I do understand for whole this four year, fans always pitted them against each other. They beefing bcs there is no "dramatic" content between them. Yes they were used to dissing about strategies, but does it happen so great until it make the headline? No! Thats why fans are nosy about them and yet they are so undisturbed by that. Again, they keep everything so lowkey and yet from interviews, from instastory, articles, and even their personal project, they exchange everything. Charles doesn't like physical touch but did he avoids Carlos' touch? no i dont think so😬❤️‍🩹

[yesloulou]

i cannot stop thinking about your gorgeous art for so close, we combust! i'm wondering if you can give us a little director's cut about it? like how you chose the images, anything that you want to share? it makes me want to launch myself into space and eat the moon like cheese.

em im so honored by this ask and i too want to eat the moon like cheese bc it sounds like a very fun activity ❤️‍🔥

soo basically the first pic was my inspo bc it was just so so SCWC (so close, we combust by @officialmood) coded. it had an imbalance to it. for starters we can only see max looking like he was about to explode from fondness while daniel had his back turned and we can't see his face. and like. everything was straightforward for max. the genuine affection for daniel came so easily to him. it was so transparent. but since they were hugging daniel had no idea max's face looked like that when he hugged him. and based on what we know about cool cocky nonchalant RB daniel, one is likely to assume daniel wasn't equally affected by it – and i think they would be right. that hug was at daniel's last race with red bull. there were walls of ppl lining up to congratulate him and send him off. and max was at the end of this line. by the time daniel got to him the impact of it would've been softened by all those that came before. it was like. daniel was saying goodbye to the whole team in one sitting and max was only saying goodbye to daniel. all the imbalances here really remind me of the first part SCWC, where daniel was aware of everything, yet more or less took it for granted, so used to being on the receiving end of max's attention and affection. SCWC daniel "didn’t know at the time that this would be the kind of memory he would turn over and over, trying to cut himself against the sharp part", canon daniel likely also underestimated how rare and precious it was to have the whole team (and max) adore and support him like that.

and it was all about to change. the hug (2nd gif) after AD 21 was a whole other dynamic. it was a much more reserved hug. there were so much complicated emotions that went into it: before daniel went up to max in parc ferme, he had just witnessed max overtake lewis during the final laps of the most dramatic recent f1 season to take his first world title. and since daniel had been lapped by both max and lewis, he literally had to watch it all unfold right in front of him, first hand. and now max, his old teammate, the reason he had to leave his team, the one he on some level saw as a younger sibling, the one ppl said he ran away from, was a world champion before him when that exact wdc dream had slipped further and further away from daniel, who in fact had just had the most bizarre season in his whole f1 career.

it was just a lot of complicated emotions for daniel at that point. i think it must've taken effort for him to feel happy for max at all, let along going up to him and congratulating him right then and there. but daniel did it anyway. and it was a painfully hasty hug imo esp compared to how it went with lando and carlos. it was even a lil awkward bc you can tell max had both of his arms up but daniel didn't plan on going in with a full hug. but still, he wanted to congratulate max and he did.

it wasn't a fun moment to recall as a daniel girlie but it also has such a nice echo with the second part of SCWC. they were hugging/hanging out like all those times they hugged/hung out before. but everything had changed. max looked like a whole different person now (both in scwc and irl in the gif set), and he became comfortable being in control. and for daniel, this time he was the one with all those emotions going into it. neither scwc pt. 2 daniel (in max's apartment) or 2021 canon daniel (in parc ferme) was all that comfortable, but they were both there anyway, looking for a shred of reality that vaguely resembles what he and max used to be, holding on to the hope that a part of them survived despite everything.

anyways, basically as soon as i had the first pic as inspo i decided that i wanted the second pic to also be one of their hugs but with a completely different dynamic, just like in pt1 and pt2 of scwc they were doing the same things (hanging out) completely differently. and then i just thought of that second hug. and with hugging being the subject there is also the sense of like, the closer they came, the more the reality sank in, that max had won before him, that all their conflicts had come to a boiling point, that the deal had been sealed. it's just like what the title says, came so close we combust.

idk if im making sense with everything here but hopefully this has been a fun read :) ty for this ask em and again ty liza for blessing us with SCWC!!!

[petit-papillion]

there's a lot of misinformation going around as far as lewis' signing goes. there's a few things i know/have heard from legitimate sources. from people who know their shit and how ferrari operates.

it was decided pretty early on that sainz might be replaced. uhh beginning of the season, early. vasseur noticed certain things and patterns which raised some alarm bells.

there were a few replacements lined up, sainz was third or fourth on the list, allegedly.

they had given sainz contract proposals, he refused to sign. rather whoever was negotiating on his behalf would more often than not fuck up the negotiations.

charles was, without a doubt, consulted. they don't need to consult him with regards to the second seat, not really. but ferrari *has* been building itself around charles. especially under fred. and charles was *very* receptive of the idea. as someone on twitter said earlier, people think he's stupid but he's just crazy lmao

charles signed the contract fully knowing that lewis might come on board. he was not at all blindsided. this isn't Binotto's ferrari where they backstab willy nilly. honesty is valued here.

both of them knew what they're stepping into :)

Hi Anon! (Saw your other ask as well - will post it separately)

Definitely a lot of misinformation, but also some really sour Carlos and Mercedes fans. I can understand this is a tough pill to swallow for some, but if you look at it objectively (yeah, I know, hard for me as a Charles-fan as well), the writing was on the wall for a long time.

Charles expressing how he had faith in Fred and the project. Willing to play second fiddle for the team in Singapore so Fred could bring home a win. Fred calling out Carlos when he was talking BS in post-race media pen.

Rumors swirling about Charles having signed his contract. Charles being completely unbothered about contract renewal was a sharp contrast against Carlos stressing that he wanted his future with Ferrari sorted before 2024.

Estrella Galica, Carlos's sponsor, leaving Ferrari. Monster Energy leaving Mercedes, but keeping their sponsorship with Lewis. (Which reminds me of a post in my drafts that I made before the Lewis to Ferrari bomb dropped. Related to new sponsor Peroni. Will post later)

And rumors about Lewis moving to Ferrari as early as May last year. More interactions between Charles and Lewis, including their famous joint DSQ post - could also have been to test the waters and see how they got along / how people responded to them together.

Mercedes giving Lewis the Bottas treatment of a 1-year contract leaving the door wide open for him to look elsewhere. Lewis complaining (a lot) about not being listened to regarding changes to the car.

And let's face it, if you had the opportunity to snap up a 7x wdc with a huge following, great sponsorships, and a massive potential for merchandising, all aside from being an outstanding driver who your homegrown future champion can learn from, you'd be an absolute idiot not to go for it.

As for Charles not being on board with this: not buying it for a second. Will elaborate more another time.

[f0point5]

no because i totally see the shift in lando!!

i think after japan then qatar with oscar being right there with him as a rookie whilst he was in his fifth year… yeah, a sense of bitterness was noticeable in some instances!

just seems like he’s a bit fed up and it’s rational in some sense. losing out on the sochi win while lewis claims his 100th. he watched daniel get a win in a car he’d been driving for years, compared to daniel’s months. george got his first win, carlos got his then a second with lando right there beside him. then along comes oscar, a rookie, who got settled and was battling for poles/top 5’s and scored his first win (albeit sprint, it’s still a first lando doesn’t have).

all that, with years of zak brown hyping him up and putting him first, it’s easy to see why bitterness would bubble. its come and gone over the years (prevalent, imo, when daniel was initially doing well with mclaren but we know how that went. unfortunately). he’s a first driver with second driver results, it’s why people think he would work with max. enough competition to challenge but not overtake.

he’s a good driver, that’s certain after 2023. whether the bitterness will be gone by bahrain and if performance only betters from last year, we’ll see. it obviously depends how 2024 rolls out and whether the red bull holds the lock out dominance, or whether mclaren/mercedes/ferrari will the walk the walk and do something. mclaren will certainly be a good watch this year, that is if the car doesn’t bottle under last years pressure:/

a teeny part of me feels/wants oscar to get a win before lando but i think that’s the villain in me🫡

I just want to start this off by saying I am a professional hater, so I also want Oscar to get his first win before Lando. I kind of want Oscar to do a Carlos and be the only non RB win next year lol. Just because when I see that “it should have been me” attitude, all I want is for it to NEVER be them. Like, it still tickles me that George has won more recently than Lewis. Oscar being the most recent driver to win, after Danny Ric, would be cinema. And even though I have hope that Lando will let out the hot air eventually, I just need a revenge arc.

Okay onto my Bitter Lando Medium Deep Dive (it’s not a proper deep dive because I could go for hours lol).

I feel like Lando came late to the “best of the rest” party, so he was still kind of processing how unbeatable Max is by the end of the season when everyone else had kind of settled into the groove. Like he spent the first half of the season thinking “if I just had the car I could do what others can’t” (and lbr that’s the angle the media was pushing, that if Lando had the car he would be a challenge for Max) and then he got up there and was like…oh wait no I can’t. He got up there and a) he wasn’t really troubling Max and b) he still had other drivers up there (eg the four car race in Singapore) as well as his rookie teammate to contend with and c) he was still making mistakes under pressure. I think Singapore was a bit of a wake up call for him that Max wasn’t necessarily the fight for him up front, because even without Max he couldn’t win, and then when Max was back, there was no question. I think that took the wind out of his sails. Maybe if he’d been up there since the beginning of the year things would have been different but I think he was waiting for his chance all season and when it came the disappointment hit him hard.

And then there’s Oscar. The rookie who outqualified him in Japan, who wins the sprint in Qatar, whose contract is extended beyond Lando’s. Oscar is already being talked about as WDC potential while Lando keeps getting asked why he can’t win a race. The way Lando takes public opinion to heart, that can’t be easy.

When everyone says the McLaren is the only car that can challenge a red bull, but Lando isn’t challenging Max, I guess he has to wonder if it’s him that’s not good enough.

I understand the bitterness, but at the same time, it comes across as undeserved arrogance. “It should have been pole”…woulda shoulda coulda lando, but you didn’t, did you? So just take it on the chin.

I am not hopeful of McLaren maintaining the performance leap of last year, but if they do, I don’t see things with Lando going back to the way they were. I think the climate is starting to get a bit dicey for that generation of drivers because they’re getting to the crossover stage where it’s either going to happen for them or it’s not. Lando is in an RB era, with a teammate who isn’t likely to be destined to be a second driver, and he’s stuck with him till 2026 now. I don’t see how that pressure gets better unless McLaren goes back to the midfield.

This was a jumbled rant but I could literally talk for days about this because I feel like Lando is the most honest/visible with his emotions about what’s probably in the back of a lot of driver’s heads rn.

[valyrfia]

Btw do you think lando got a chance for wdc without a miracle of McLaren building a car with the rb19 level of dominance. Or do you think he's gonna become part of the next silent generation between max-charles(hello lewis?) / ollie-kimi. Because I barely can see him winning even if Max retires tomorrow. And I'm fully aware and admit that he's talented a lot and performing strong. But something about him gives me the impression that he's never gonna actually did it.

Oof what a minefield of a question.

Lando is a talented driver, sometimes I think he is a tad overhyped but that's more down to the britishness of it all. However, I don't think he's likely to ever win a WDC, and it's for the same two reasons I think George won't either–they're in the wrong teams at the wrong time, and the right teams already have indisputably generational racing drivers to build around (Red Bull with Max and Ferrari with Charles).

We've had a killer of a Max Verstappen domination era, and the wind is starting to blow in the direction of a future Charles Leclerc domination era like we've seen with Max and Lewis previously–Ferrari getting good, Charles embracing the insane. I see a lot of people speculating about when George and Lando are going to win their WDCs, when I think the most likely timeline is after our 4-5 years of Max winning everything, we have 4-5 years of Charles winning everything.

I also don't think Lando really has the mentality for a WDC fight currently, he's talked openly and honestly about mentality being an issue when fighting for a win. That's why I maintain that even though Lando and Oscar are evenly matched, if McLaren were a dominant team I think Oscar would clinch the WDC because Lando would psych himself out.

TLDR: I see the next few world champions being something along the lines of Max->Charles->Next Gen (someone not on the grid yet). Oscar could maybe, MAYBE pull a championship between Charles and Next Gen, but I'm much more willing to bet on him than Lando.

[maxemilianver]

im so bored so what i expect from the new season (mean edition):

-lewis and george crash (silver arrows edition) and camera pans to nico rosberg

-lewis fans calling george racist

-checo moving for max quietly at the first race, max is faster than you checo

-max lapping checo (if in mexico, mexicans booing)

-toto crowdsurfing with george after lewis not winning one single race (once again)

-max saying something stupid to media to make everyone go crazy (once again)

-charles making more mistakes and his self confidence just disappearing but its ok he gets a free pass from the slanders bcs he is handsome

-charles quits f1 to become a full time ferrari influencer in social media

-george and lewis playing toxic mindgames to each other on sky and ted having a panik attack over it bcs he cannot decide who to back up (he chooses george and gets kicked out of sky for being racist)

-fernando actually being chill with lance (its a bad thing imo)

-carlos only there to thirst trap other drivers and fans (oh that is his every year in f1 already, nothing new!)

-checo retires (i hate him, he needs to go back to his kitchen and make some sandwiches for his rich wife after rb kicks him and he is jobless)

-yuki becomes a max in performance and personality and says a bad word but in japanese so i can excuse his kusogaki behavior with saying bad translation guys he meant well

-devries actually causing debris (we are all so bored of this little man at this point that we beg him to crash so we can cultivate some boring memes)

-lando being jealous of oscar having the media attention over him (plus if oscar performs better)

-pierre and ocon actually gets along bcs pierre underperforms so badly (please fight every race i beg u i need ocon to be pushed, plus point if pierre does it like max)

-kmag having a podium for haas before hulk ever gets his first after crashing out hulk in the last lap

-charles having his 839447th breakdown that memes are just moldy at this point that even ferrari considers carlos as their main driver

-zhou is unproblematic (do SOMETHING UR FROM CHINA)

-bottas retires to ride bikes or his gf idk idgaf

-max actually losing the wdc because he is bored of f1 and he wants to play his sim and race in wec

-red bull not cheating (horner pls win this year with a bigger controversy)

-hulk and max doing it (i cant prove that but they already did it)

-nothing bad to say abt estie bestie all i can say that he will try to finesse his ass to that rb seat (personal agenda) so i expect him to perform SO WELL

-max winning every single race (since that is the worst thing that can happen to mv0 girlies here)

[leqclerc]

idk if you follow juve (elkann's football team) but they tried a similar poaching a superstar move with ronaldo to finally get them the champions league and...they failed. utterly. dybala (whom they were supposed to build around) left in bad circumstances and they shifted everything around ronaldo. arguably the ronaldo move destroyed their finances and delayed a much needed rebuild.

anyway, i'm not saying the project is doomed to failure and that charles and ferrari are going to have a bad breakup but. i'm not holding my breath.

I personally don't, but I kind of heard the story from reputable sources (Italian bestie ajsdkfg). Who, funnily enough, often drew comparisons between Dybala and Charles. She generally has a poor opinion of Elkann, saying he doesn't really understand the sport/s he's involved, that he's more interested in the business side of things (see: how the stocks shot up at the rumours/announcement) rather than actually finding sensible solutions to solve the issues at these teams.

Apparently Elkann's had his sights set on Lewis for a while now and dropped everything as soon as he learned he could become available. So in that sense it feels like a fantasy league signing, like idk him making his own personal dreams come true because, frankly, he can.

The thing is there's just no logical pattern, no clear roadmap, just them taking some meandering side paths hoping that one of them leads to their destination. So something sours between Elkann and Seb, he's underperfoming in their eyes, they don't want two drivers with big ambitions to get in each other's way; they make it clear that they're going to build their future around only one of them and the choice seems obvious. They sign on Carlos. We're in a new era where we're not banking so much on experience anymore, but we're building something completely new with a young dynamic duo; they can learn as they go along. Charles's position within the team is questioned; things aren't quite as straightforward as they initially appeared to be. But okay, Binotto failed (and one of the main misgivings was his failure to prioritize Charles in the chaos of 2022), they get Fred in for a reset and try to build back trust and morale and it seems we're finally heading towards that promised Charles-centric Ferrari... Until now?

Was Lewis the endgame all along then? Idk it just feels like they're walking back the reason (or at least the partial reason) why they dismissed Seb in the first place years ago. Do they really have the confidence that they can offer them both what they want with minimal internal upset? They're not making them both WDC at the same time, someone's going to lose out on this deal.