#AND WHY IS CHECO'S PIC FOR 2021 FROM 2019 WHEN HE WAS IN RACING POINT

[skitskatdacat63]

This being Wikipedia's picture of Jenson for the 2009 season is insane, every time I open the page, I'm like "my god Jenson please, put your tits away 🫣" ALSO ALSO IM CRYING, I checked the pic's descrip and it's literally: "A very fit Jense", so true!!!

[leqclerc]

This whole thing saddens me a lot because up until now charles proved his class while max was salvaged by his team. Spain is the most obvious example. Charles was leading and his engine went poof. Max went into the gravel and was a lot behind but rb had a good strategy and made team orders and he won. I’m not even talking about Carlos who every 2 races he goes in the gravel. Like he was so lucky in silverstone. He went off the track when he was fighting with max, but then max had damage on his car, so Carlos’ mistake went unnoticed and in the end he won because his main competitors were held up by his teammate who never got anything from Carlos. On the contrary, Charles’ strategy was distrusted in the Austria sprint race by this idiot. I’m so sick of these and I feel like we’re just at the beginning. And I don’t understand this sponsors stuff. Ferrari is so popular that I bet there’s a queue of companies who want to sponsor them. Why stick with these Santander idiots?

👏🏻 You made so many valid points!

No, yeah, I think about this sometimes as well, like. You have people who claim they're "fans" but lbr they never watch the races, just check the Wiki or whatever later and think the results tell the full story. And sometimes I get inexplicably sad about idk people picking apart Charles's results from 2022 a year or two or several down the line and using it as 'proof' that he was overhyped, that he can't "perform under pressure", that he wasted his opportunities or whatever. We're already getting a taste of that with those assholes who wave the pole:win conversion ratio up like it's some kind of gotcha when all that does is show they literally have no wheel knowledge. The truth is that most of those opportunities were taken away due to outside factors beyond Charles's control - mechanical issues (Bahrain 2019, Silverstone 2021, Barcelona 2022), strategic fuck-ups (Monaco, Silverstone), etc.

He's been doing incredible things this year. Like, I genuinely feel he's driving at his best and he himself has said he's learned from his past mistakes and is constantly looking for ways to improve. He's putting int he hours, turning up early in the paddock and leaving late; he's been studying and reading his notebook between sessions. Sidenote: a Brazilian journalist included a recent pic of Charles with his notebook in one of her IG stories and in her caption she said it reminds her of Seb/implies it's a habit he picked up from Seb.

Critics will say he "can't perform under pressure" but we've all seen that's not true. He managed a faulty throttle pedal for several laps with Max closing in behind him and nursed that car to bring home a win. He fought off Checo and Lewis on old, worn out hard tyres and Checo and some others have admitted his defense absolutely made a difference in the way the race panned out.

It's bizarre to me that the "mistake prone" label/narrative is still following him around. He's made, what, two notable mistakes this season (Imola - and it's not like he put himself out of the race entirely, he did manage to recover some positions - and that last Q3 lap in the wet in Silverstone.) But one of the things I really appreciate about Charles is that he always owns up to his mistakes and learns from them. He takes responsibility and then moves on and tries to do better. He doesn't like dwelling on what if scenarios and doesn't tend to blame anyone or anything else (gust of wind, blue flags, backmarker, etc.) He's "stupid" for listening to the pitwall and not "inventing" like chad Carlos, but do people realise he's making the same calls on the radio, just largely getting ignored?

Max has made just as many, if not more, mistakes, but like you said, the car has the pace and the RB pitwall has the intelligence to recover from those mistakes. Moreover, they capitalise on others' mistakes, Imola and Barcelona being the prime examples of that. In those two races Max made up the deficit after Bahrain and Australia set him back. After Barcelona - because of team orders - he was ahead of Charles in the standings. It didn't sit well with me at the time because I believed Checo could've won that race, but in hindsight it shows they were putting the WDC over a singular race victory, something Ferrari hasn't been able - or willing, which would actually be worse - to do in the same circumstances.

Re: the sponsors, I'm actually not entirely sure how this works, exactly, so someone else may be able to jump in with more knowledge here. I know some drivers bring "their" own sponsors to the teams, so basically the sponsors move whenever the drivers moves - i.e. Carlos brought Estrella Galicia over from McLaren to Ferrari and now Charles's helmet designs are marred by that massive logo, thanks bro; I believe Richard Mille was Charles's personal sponsor and is now Ferrari's sponsor and I think Armani got involved via Charles initially as well, etc. Some sponsors stay with the team as long as they believe it's profitable for them, regardless of the lineup (Shell, Ray-Ban, UPS have been with Ferrari for several years now, through the different lineups). Again, not 100% how it works, if it's companies that reach out to the team or the team reaching out to possible sponsors, and also, how much Ferrari really needs Santander to stay afloat, or benefit from the partnership.

Santander was already involved with Ferrari in the past. As this article notes: Santander’s sponsorship of Formula One’s oldest and most successful team coincided with the arrival there in 2010 of Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso, who has been at McLaren for the past three years. And now, surprise surprise, they're back after Carlos joined...as a "premium partner", no less. So I imagine there's big money and likely big expectations involved. And it's a "multi-year" deal too, so we're unlikely to see them go anytime soon. As to why Ferrari, by all accounts, seem to be caving and re-arranging their team to meet the demands of a non-racing entity is anyone's guess. But it seems that the Spanish media in general are playing a bigger role here than anyone could've imagined, and are already trying to spread baseless rumours about alleged sabotage. Because, y'know, Carlos is just that good and Charles has no answer for him so he needs Ferrari to do his dirty work for him. 🥴