#19 skilled drivers and Lance Stroll (they say

[lorrainestea]

One second I'm just someone who's never seen a whole F1 race, and the next I'm "SMOOTH OPERATOOOOOOORRRR" and "Nothing, just an INCHIDENT on the race"

[f0point5]

I didn't realize Tsunoda was such a divisive person for f1 fans 😭😭

I think he's a bit underrated in the sense that he has solid driving skills and gets overlooked by his teammates that are always brought in to give that leadership role rb doesn't believe he has, but he's overrated because his fanbase is extremely aggressive over him and they sometimes treat him as "aww he's so cute" yk?

but i don't see him driving for rb any time soon, i do think he still needs to grow a bit more and channel his attitude into his driving more (i do think people overreact on his attitude tho, just look at the other 19 drivers they're all adrenaline fueled freaks 💀)

His attitude reminds me a bit of young seb, they were both a bit reckless and careless with their words and you could see the bit of arrogance shining through but i think he's improved a lot

I am, ngl, a bit of a Yuki “hater”. Not for any other reason than I want Toro Rosso to be a proper junior team and he’s taking up one of the few seats that has traditionally been given to rookies. I think any time you have someone who’s there in perpetuity, same as Lance Stroll, the scrutiny becomes more intense. It’s unfair but it’s also natural. More people complain that Yuki doesn’t deserve his seat than complain about Zhou, for example, when imo they’re kind of on the same level driver wise - solid on a good day, not setting the timing sheets alight.

I don’t think he’s a possibility for RB. They put in the work with him for a while, by moving him to Faenza and getting him a mental coach, but I think they’ve made their mind up by now that he’s not what they’re looking for and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve “quiet quit” on developing him. Regardless, I don’t think he has the skills to get to RB. He could do well hanging out in the lower midfield but there’s enough drivers already doing that, so I don’t see what he would uniquely bring to a team. For that reason I don’t really think he’s underrated.

I think people overreact to all the drivers’ “tempers” in the car. So they swear, big deal. Saying “stop fucking talking to me” is not the same as saying “you are a piece of shit”, the radios are not really directed at the engineers personally, and sometimes that kind of inflection is necessary to get the gravity of the stress across. Drive at 300kph and have someone talking to you or a feeling of instability and see how politely you manage to talk to someone. Yuki may swear a bit more than average but that’s just his personality on adrenaline, Lando’s personality on adrenaline is a whiny bitch. All drivers say they listen back to their radios and cringe. Judging people when you are hearing them at their most vulnerable is…a bit of a take, imo.

I never really had a poor opinion of Yuki until him doing that nonsense in Bahrain. And it was indeed nonsense. For you to careen your €15m piece of equipment, that 100s of people spent thousands of hours building for you, into your teammates €15m piece of equipment that 100s of people spent thousands of hours building for him, because you’re annoyed about a decision made by someone who’s not in the car, for no real gain or loss (no points available), is really poor behaviour. Yes, adrenaline, but if your adrenaline makes you dangerous then you’re in the wrong profession, buddy.

I never found Yuki arrogant at all, I think he’s always come across really matter of fact, quite honest, I love always thought he’s conducted himself really well in interviews etc., but that Bahrain stunt was embarrassing for him. And as for people saying he’s in contention for the RB seat…let him try doing that to Max in an RB20, he would be gone quicker than Gasly.

I agree with you though, I really didn’t think he was divisive until I saw the real crazy come out after the Bahrain incident. I saw a bit of it when deVries was around but Nyck was rude af about Yuki so I understood it. But I didn’t know people had strong opinions on him either way until recently.

[boxboxblog]

2024 Singapore GP Analysis pt 2

10. Sergio Perez: There is really only one word to describe Perez's race; frustrating. That seems to be a trend with his racing lately, and he expressed this over the radio multiple times. Watching him drive, there is a new impatience to his style that does not suit a circuit like Singapore. Out of all the drivers on the grid I believed he would crash (thankfully he didn't). His qualifying was far from ideal, but the silver lining is that Perez got the car into a points position. Perhaps this is less comforting when your teammate come in P2.

11. Franco Colapinto: Colapinto got compliments all around today, notably from Perez who said that Colapinto was 'good' and 'hard to pass'. He really is the big surprise of the year, and I am very excited to see how future races go. While he finished just shy of points, he showed him self to be an intelligent driver today. He had multiple battles throughout the midfield, and kept a cool head through the whole thing. Other than a minor brush with the barrier, his race was good and rather than it being driver error that knocked him out of the points, other cars just had the better pace today.

12. Yuki Tsunoda: Angry Tsunoda was back today, something many people enjoy. It wasn't the strongest drive from the Japanese man, starting up in points and ending outside. He expressed frustration multiple times, most notably when his teammate was ordered to move over for him, but seemed to be ignoring the order. Riccardo did eventually move, and Tsunoda's anger seemed to cool after that. He ultimately finished lower than he started, and couldn't seem to get back on his feet.

12. Esteban Ocon: Ocon, in truth, wasn't particularly on my radar today. He started low, and ended low. While he was part of a tight battle for the midfield, it did not yield particularly inspiring results for the Frenchman. For the positive, he had a rather clean race (contrary to what people expected) and out did his teammate, which he rarely seems to do. Not super positive, or negative I would say.

14. Lance Stroll: Stroll seems to be on the back foot for the past couple of races, pretty opposite of how he did toward the beginning of the year. Massively out qualified and outdone by his teammate yet again. While his race pace was consistent, it was still well below the top runners and most midfielders too. This could raise questions about why he seems to struggle so much with the car. Is it different setups? Or is it just down to skill? Regardless, Aston Martin will hope to get him back up fighting for points soon or they risk more scrutiny.

15. Zhou Guanyu: Zhou had the best race a Sauber car can have. I feel bad about this, but there isn't much to say. Happily, he didn't finish back of the grid though. I suppose that is good news.

16. Valtteri Bottas: It is always such a shame to see such a talent in a terrible car. Much like Zhou, he did his best with the Sauber, but the car just doesn't have anything this year. I hope Sauber finds something in themselves soon. It would be painful to watch a driver who is one of the best teammates in F1 history leave like this.

17. Pierre Gasly: Gasly had a bad race. He was outdone by his teammate which rarely happens, had next to no pace, and the only reason he did not finish dead last was the two DNF's and Riccardo pitting late to get the fastest lap. This may be harsh, but it was the most uninspiring race I had ever seen from him. He has the skill, so where are the results?

18. Daniel Riccardo: A bad race for Riccardo, which must hurt after rumors have been flying all week. A bad qualifying shot him once, and then bad race choices shot him again. To make it worse, his teammate out did him once again. The silver lining was that after pitting towards the end, Riccardo achieved fastest lap and brought home a point. It was a sound strategic decision by VCARB. But still, this is not the result he was looking for.

19. Kevin Magnussen (DNF): The notorious track menace is finally back, and he did not deliver the chaos people expected. He drove a relatively stable and normal race, but a puncture forced his to retire his Haas before the end of the race. What a shame.

20. Alex Albon (DNF): A gearbox issue is never fun, especially for a driver who is finally in a relatively good car. I expected Albon to make it to the points today, but mechanical failures can ruin any drivers race. Nothing much else to say.

Whew, done! That was a lot. Please remember I have zero hate for any of the drivers, I am just doing my best to give an honest perspective on their drives. Throughout break I will post about different in depth f1 things, so stay tuned.

Cheers everyone,

-B