#Aston Martin India

[namastecar]

Aston Martin DB12 Coupé- ₹4.5 crore | Real-life review

[kazuha-pista-badam]

another version of me, i was in it ❤️

[mannap]

I'm not patriotic at all... but for him I'll make an exception 🇩🇪

[alianoralacanta]

Hi, Alianora :) I've been reading your essays and you're just brilliant! I was wondering about your F1 journey, and I wanted to ask how did you get into it, and what's your journey been like? I know you supported Jules and you support Charles too but I would love to know more.

Thank you for the kind comment, anon :)

I had, and still have, a much longer version of this. I'm not sure how 100% sure to answer the "What's your journey been like?" part but I will try. Please let me know if you're interested in particular bits of the longer piece (it's definitely too long to submit in one go). I'm a 3rd-generation F1 fan, and my parents tell me I watched some of the Mansell era with them, back when I was too young to understand what was going on. While I distinctly remember being interested in his move to Indycars, I don't recall these F1 races. I do recall the moment I decided to become a F1 fan. France 1993. I'd been playing football outside when it started raining. The living room had F1 on (my parents were obviously watching) and I was entranced by the multi-coloured pointy things and the fact the names were on screen. When I found out there were books about F1, that sealed the deal. I'm a bookworm and the intellectual side of F1 came through very clearly. (One of the books helpfully had a section on how much safety had improved since the early days, despite being written in 1980. This was a lot of the reason I didn't quit watching F1 in the immediate aftermath of Imola 1994).

Damon Hill was the first driver I supported - because his last name was short. Despite that unpromising selection criterion, he made me a very happy fan because of his intellectual approach and determination. The 18 months covering his time at Arrows (a near-backmarker team) and the half-season at Jordan where he scored absolutely nothing were when I learned the basics of how to handle being a fan during bad performances. Spain 1998 was when I started supporting my team. Damon Hill had retired from the race ten laps earlier when I suddenly heard myself saying, "Come on Ralf!" Followed by wondering, "Who's Ralf, apart from Damon's team-mate and Michael Schumacher's brother?" That was when I realised I'd been attracted by Eddie Jordan's bright and feisty attitude, combined with its non-nonsense racing crew. I've now supported Jordan through five name changes. Giancarlo "Fisico" Fisichella was someone I started supporting because I saw an interview after Spain 2001 that made me think he had a really interesting way of seeing the world. I think I was right :) I'm still supporting him in his Italian GT adventures and am happy he can now depend on Arthur Leclerc's help.

The following year, Dad and I went to Silverstone to watch F1 qualifying. The fan belt broke on the car but we still got there in time to watch the end of the last practise session, as well as qualifying itself. Dad participated in the infamous prediction quiz that he lost to Alex Albon (I think Dad got 1 position out of the 5 correct), and I discovered that wearing a yellow hat meant getting followed by half of Silverstone's flying insect population. None of this put us off returning for the whole weekend in 2009. In 2003, I discovered F1 forums. My first forum was Home of F1 and my second post (trying to explain why BAR's desire to present itself as perfect would annoy recently-dismissed driver Jacques Villeneuve) caused a minor flame war until I clarified that I did not think BAR was perfect. I've seen jokes about the reading standard on Tumblr; rest assured the generation of internet users before this one was just as bad. I also found a Jordan-specific forum that was much more chilled. There was one particularly gatekeepery user who looked down upon Jordan fans, but I managed to convince even that one (never learned the user's gender) to not deploy it against me or in my sight, because I always had a good logical takedown of the hole in the arguments employed for those attacks. Part of the reason I could do this was F1 Magazine, which helpfully provided practise in the form of its Tom Rubython columns. Every month, he would write a "take" on F1 and it was one's mission, as the reader, to find and pull the thread which made the entire argument unravel. (Not that Tom was ever aware that this was arguably the best use of his column).

I started supporting Tiago Monteiro when he joined F1 in 2005, because I liked his backstory; absolutely no interest in F1 until the second year of university, whereupon a friend invited him to a track day. He then substituted for an injured friend in an entry-level series. He ended up enjoying it so much that after he graduated with a degree in hotel management, he decided to take up racing and see if he could make a career of it. Which he did. Including a point at Spa of all places and being the only person who was happy at Indianapolis 2005. Now he's a regular podium-finisher in the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring. I started blogging in F1 (La Canta Magnifico Blog) shortly after Spa 2005, because the forum I was on split. I'd got friends on both fora and continued writing on both. The "new" forum wanted to get more people reading it. Initially there were four people writing, but I took the opportunity to start writing posts on other blogs and websites which interested me. The only ones which still exist are RaceFans.net (back when it was still one particularly devoted fan's blog) and a small forum called GP Wizard. Within six weeks, the other three had stopped writing their posts and focused their efforts on commenting on mine. Both fora sank in 2008. Although I have a number of posts from that time, it's not a full archive, rather a selection of highlights.

I spent a season as admin of the Jordan forum, the one that was Fisichella's last year in F1. This was also the year I managed to get onto the official Fisichella Forum (this was in the last years of drivers having fora they officially sanctioned). This gave me the confidence to help rescue the official Fisichella Forum when its management deleted it at the start of 2010 (apparently forgetting there were about 100 people still using it at that point and that they might appreciate at least a few days' warning to archive their writings!). I was a co-admin from 2010 until it ended in 2018, having spent the last three years as the sole admin with an audience of three people plus an ever-rising tide of spambots. I still have a penpal from that forum.

Jules Bianchi entered my awareness in 2010, because one of his jobs was clearly being prepared to be reserve Ferrari driver and a lot of Fisico's fans were initially annoyed because they thought that was Fisico's job. However, it was the way he did the Force India reserve job in 2012 that made me a fan. Here was someone who felt like he was completely embedded within his team, with a brilliant attitude, despite patently belonging in a much better position. I was sad when he didn't get the Force India position, but his adamantine willpower and gratitude went a long way towards making the Marussia/Manor team more than I think it had imagined being. Jules gathered together a group of friends who enjoyed being around that positivity and determination, several of whom made it to F1 in their own right. In September 2014, one of the journalists I respected the most about junior series observed that one of the youngest members of that group was doing very well in FRECA and displaying much of Jules' personality. I looked at the article and thought, "Well, I could spend 5 years waiting for this driver to go through the junior ranks and inevitably start supporting him in F1 - or start doing it now and enjoy the journey." With that, I started supporting Charles Leclerc and am very happy to have made that choice. Oh, nearly forgot to mention my solo F1-related trips: the annual visit to the Force India/Racing Point reception with goodies for much of the 2010s, visiting the Manor factory a few times during the short time in 2015 the F1 operation was based next to a steel merchant in Dinnington and the epic fail that was my trip to Hungary 2018 (so fail-y that I only found out who won a week later). Hope this helps.

[checoarchive]

[dear-ao3]

Sorry i tried to scroll past but, i know nothing about f1 other than max verstappen is fast, my dad doesnt like lewis hamilton, fast car goes in a loop and sometimes expodes. Could you give me a crash course in f1 drama? Im very intrigued. Whats the tea as it were?

a terribly loaded question, but i will do my best. i’ve talked about some of the drama before like the red bull second seat and the chronicles of haas but allow me to briefly try my hand at explaining the nightmare that is the upcoming silly season

under the cut we go

silly season is when the drivers go through contract renewals, extensions and switches. usually it’s confined to the first half of the season (march-july) but it has been known to extend all the way to the last race of the season and they like to switch people around at random sometimes. driver contracts are complex, there’s a lot of money involved and basically You Are The Face Of The Team so if you have a shit season then you make the team look bad. but at the same time you could have a shit season because you have a shit car. it’s sticky stuff.

so. there are only twenty seats in formula 1. 10 teams. each team gets two drivers. (there’s also reserve drivers but we’re not going to get into that). who ends up with a contract is largely up to the teams, they can pull the contract out from under people they can also cut you mid season. they’ve done it before.

of the 20 drivers on the grid, 14 of them have contracts expiring at the end of the year. yes. 14. you see how this could get complicated.

so let’s meet the teams.

red bull racing. they came first this year (and last year) in the championship. like aggressively first. like they won the championship by over 350 points. they are definitely the team to beat. but if you end up with a seat at red bull, you do have to deal with max verstappen being your teammate and he won all but three of the races last year. he’s the golden boy. red bull are also notoriously silly when it comes to contracts and famously swap people mid season who aren’t performing.

mercedes. merc is home to 7 time world champion lewis hamilton and they have won the championship a great many times, though not since 2021. they are kind of in their flop arc and their car the last 2 years has been pretty garbage, but they have still made it work because they were able to come in second last year.

ferrari. god help the poor little meow meows with a ferrari contract. ferrari is a notoriously great team and they’re trying to get back to the top again but their strategy every single time has fallen short. to the point where their drivers are the ones doing the strategy in their cars while driving. they came in third last year and have been decently consistent at getting first in qualifying and then getting beat by max verstappen on race day.

mclaren. they’ve definitely worked their way up over recent years. they ended fourth last year and have had some championship wins before but not nearly as many as say merc and ferrari. their team ceo (owner? director?) is a little interesting and their car started out a pile of flaming hot garbage at the beginning of the year but they did manage to get their shit together.

aston martin. they are owned by canadian billionaire lawrence stroll, father of lance stroll (one of the drivers for the team). they’ve undergone several name changes over the recent years (force india, racing point, etc). they positively slayed at the start of the season and then one day they sucked. they finished fifth in the championship.

alpine. the frenchest french team. they’re (i think?) still partially owned by the french government. both of their drivers are french. (their drivers also hate eachother but we’ll get to that. just know they’re in the middle of a modern french civil war). they had the opportunity to have a good rookie driver (oscar piastri) this past year but in a thrilling twitter battle, he publically flamed the shit out of them and went to mclaren instead (and slayed). they're usually solidly middle of the pack. they ended sixth in the championship.

williams. williams has been one of the back of the grid teams for the last many years but they have finally started to get their shit together and don’t quite suck as much as they used to. all of the points this year were scored by only one driver though (except one but we’ll get there). they came in seventh.

alpha tauri. they are the sister team of red bull. so technically redbull owns both teams (meaning they can swap drivers between teams. they like doing this.) they’ve just kind of been There for awhile but they did slay towards the end of the season when one of their drivers led the race for several laps. basically tho, this team is the gateway to redbull. they came in eighth.

alpha romeo. recently renamed to stake f1 team (but sometimes they are going to be called kick sauber. this is a whole other drama post and i’m not getting into it). they’re also just kind of there. generally unproblematic. seems that really great drivers who get ixed out of a contract for a younger driver end up here or young drivers who are in their early years are here before they go to a better team. they ended ninth this year.

haas. oh haas. goofy team. they suck. point blank they suck. they keep loosing sponsors because they suck, they don’t win ever (one time they came first in qualifying last year). they cursed themselves in australia in 2018 by not tightening their tires and its been downhill ever since. they came 10th. their team principle got let go (fired?) who’s to say today.

so those are the teams. it is important to note that:

-there is a cost cap. each team is allowed to spend no more than 135m per year.

-not all cars are equal. some things are standard. they all undergo the same testing. but the cars are all very different. so you can be a good driver but stuck in a shitty car. which makes it impressive if you are doing well in a shitty car.

let’s meet our drivers!!!

starting with the guys who’s contract is not ending in 2024:

max verstappen. 3 time world champion. 26 years old. general beast on the track. he dominated the whole season. he’s currently racing for red bull and has a contract with them through 2028.

lewis hamilton. 7 time world champion. 39 years old. he drives for mercedes. he will not leave mercedes until he retires. he really really wants to win an 8th world championship and is willing to stick it out a few more years as long as merc still believes in him. his contract expires in 2025.

george russell. the other merc driver. 26 years old. hes aggressively british and says thinks like blimey unironically. walking meme. got his merc seat in 2022 right when they entered their flop arc by getting his tractor of a williams to finish second in qualifying in the middle of a rainstorm. his contract expires in 2025.

lando norris. mclaren driver. 24 years old. he has notably never won a race in his five years of formula one (mostly because right when his car finally was good enough max verstappen was 20 seconds ahead of anyone) but he is regarded as Very Good. he has only ever driven for mclaren. and even though there is another year left on his contract there is mass speculation that he will not renew his contract with mclaren after it expires and he may move up to one of the top teams (red bull, merc, ferrari) (tho i think he doesnt hate himself quite enough to go to ferrari). his contract expires in 2025.

oscar piastri. the other mclaren driver. 22 years old. this was his rookie season and he positively slayed. like people compared his rookie season to lewis hamiltons rookie season. he also had the positively funniest start to his rookie year because alpine announced that he would be driving for them (he had been their reserve driver and in the alpine academy) and he posted a tweet that basically said yeah thats false i never singed anything with you and im going to race with mclaren instead (he dodged a bullet) and then alpine tried and failed to sue him for $4m USD. he signed a contract extension with mclaren this year and his contract expires in 2026.

lance stroll. aston martin driver and son of the aston martin owner. hes doing ok, tho there was conspiracy that he wanted to quit and have a tennis career awhile ago. but basically since his dad owns the team it seems that hes guaranteed a seat for as long as he wants one.

so now. moving onto the good shit. the people who have contracts expiring in 2024. hold onto your hats people.

charles leclerc. (everyones favorite slutty little soup can). 26 years old. he is currently at ferrari and he has been since 2019. notably, he was given the longest contract in the history of ferrari after a stellar rookie season at sauber (renamed to alpha romeo, renamed to stake f1) where he got the tractor of a car consistently into the points. having the longest contract in the history of ferrari was a flex at the time, but now its likely how he will introduce himself at therapy sessions. ferrari have fucked this man left right and center up the ass with a plastic lunchroom spork. hes talented, he can drive, and he can drive well. but the strategy that ferrari has absolutely sucks. either something is wrong with the car (see him blowing out his gear box on the formation lap in monaco, his car completely crapping out and spinning into the barrier in brazil before the race even started) or they fuck up his pit stops or put him on the wrong tires and honestly its just frustrating. but will he leave??? likely not. you'd have to pry ferrari out of his cold dead hands and at this rate that might be where this is headed though there has been some minor speculation of him going to another team like merc or red bull, but merc doesnt have any open seats and red bull is a whole other dumpster fire of drama. ferrari are going to have to pay him a boatload of money to make him stay.

carlos sainz. the smooth operator. 29 years old. ferrari driver. previously carlos was at toro rosso (renamed to alpha tauri), renault (renamed to alpine), and mclaren before signing with ferrari. he has been at ferrari since 2021 and has voiced that he would like to stay with them for however long he can. there is speculation that lando might replace him at ferrari (but landos contract is not up until 2025) and there is also some speculation that alex albon might replace him. while charles is clearly the golden boy at ferrari, carlos is slightly slower but also definitely consistent. he was THE ONLY non red bull driver to win a race this past year, in Singapore after max verstappedn was knocked out of qualifying by alpha tauri reserve driver liam lawson (more on him later) and because he basically came up with his own strategy in the car while he was driving.

sergio perez. aka checo. red bull driver. 33 years old. and oh boy here's where we open the can of worms. checo was previously at racing point (renamed aston martin) and it was very near the end of the 2020 (?) season and he was out of a contract. he had a bonkers race where he was knocked to the back of the grid and then overtook everyone and somehow ended up winning (there is more to that story but just trust me) and christian horner, red bull team principle, mr ginger spice and definite disney villain called him and said congrats sir you have a seat at red bull! well. fast forward. hes been causing problems. problems as in crashing a lot, generally not doing great and pissing the crap out of red bull. it is basically guaranteed at this point that he will not be getting a contract extension. there was actually talk this year of him losing his seat mid season to one of the alpha tauri drivers, because remember, red bull owns both teams and they can switch them whenever they want to (and they have!) but ultimately this did not happen. even though checo has a seat at red bull until the end of 2024, its mass speculated that he is going to get switched with an alpha tauri driver, probably daniel ricciardo (more on him shortly) mid season because there is a speculated clause in daniels contract that says that if checo isn't performing well in the first few races daniel is getting his seat.

daniel ricciardo. 34 years old. alpha tauri driver. man oh man what a guy. outside of being the prankster of the paddock, he has one of the most batshit careers of anyone currently on the grid. he started out at red bull and was showing real talent and skill and was on track to win things (and was!) and was there until the end of 2018 when max verstappen (his teammate) started getting preferential treatment and also red bull started having a lot of problems with their engines (which were being outsourced from Renault (now alpine) and another team on the grid) and well very very long story short he made the surprise move of the century and decided to sign with Renault (which makes no sense they're the one with the engine problems) and was there for 2 years before moving again to mclaren where he was reportedly not treated very well and had a hard time driving the car so they mutually ended his contract with them early and he basically retired at the end of the 2022 season and became a red bull reserve driver. then halfway through the 2023 season alpha tauri ixed one of their drivers, nyck de vries, because he wasnt doing well and promoted daniel back up to a full time driver at alpha tauri (which we know is only a step down from red bull) but then he broke his hand in a crash in zanvort (?) and then he was replaced for a few races by formula 2 driver liam lawson (who we will also talk about) and then he came back to finish out the season in alpha tauri after he was cleared. daniel has admitted openly that he never should have left red bull and he was given bad advice to do so. hes towards the end of his career at this point and its well known that he Really Really wants to finish out his career at red bull again. he and max have already been teammates before and they do work well together and daniel is great driver (see his comeback in texas (or maybe it was brazil?) this year). so. Pretty Sure that daniels going to get either an extension at alpha tauri or go up to red bull. thats what we all want. get this man in a red bull we need him there biblically.

liam lawson. now technically liam is not actually a formula 1 driver. hes a formula 2 driver, but he was daniels replacement for five races and there has been some speculation and some confirmed news about him so hes getting included. when he was racing for f1 he was at alpha tauri. hes 21 and looks like he belongs in the movie grease. no one was expecting him to slay in formula 1 and he positively knocked everyones socks off. the scene: Singapore. which, if you'll recall, is the one race that a not red bull driver won. this was largely because liam lawson slayed the absolute game in qualifying. the qualifying part of racing determines what order the cars start in on the grid for the race and theres three parts, the first two parts the bottom 5 drivers each time get knocked out and then the top 10 complete for the last 10 spots. liam lawson knocked BOTH max verstappen and checo perez out of qualifying in the second round by going very slightly faster than them, effectively fucking up red bulls race and allowing carlos to win. and he also scored points in that race, which no one was expecting. now thats all fine and dandy, but here's the speculation: hemlut marko (im pretty sure) (who is somehow decently involved in the decision making at red bull though i couldn't tell you how) said that he thinks that liam lawson will be in an f1 seat no later than 2025. meaning that he will probably get offered a contract this year. and hes already raced for alpha tauri. red bull have sunk a good amount of money into him. they clearly want him. so if he gets offered an alpha tauri seat in 2025, that means theres a good chance danny rics is going to red bull. do you SEE how the plot here is THICKENED

yuki tsunoda. age 23. currently at alpha tauri. and fun fact, the only alpha tauri driver to race there the whole year. he had three separate team mates. he is slaying and hes often slept on. he has a bit of a temper and likes to shout on the radio and also hates working out (they had to force him to move to italy or something to work out, long story) but hes been kinda killing it. he led several laps in the abu dhabi race this year and hes decently consistent. people think theres possibility that he could get moved up to red bull on account of the fact that he is younger than daniel and clearly has more years in him,, but there is also possibility that he might not because red bull like to make stupid decisions. and if he doesnt get moved up to rebel, will he stay with alpha tauri? we don't know.

alex albon. age 27. currently a williams driver. alex albon is another one with a batshit career. he started out his rookie year in 2019 at alpha tauri then got moved up to red bull halfway through the year when red bull decided that pierre gasley wasnt doing a good enough job (more on him later) and stayed with red bull for a solid year and a half until he lost his seat in 2021 to checo. he has been with williams for the last two years and is basically carrying the team. like. williams as a team scored 28 points this year. and alex albon scored 27 of those 28 points. and as we know, williams is still kind of in their shit arc (though they are doing much better. they didnt score any points for a solid 2 (?) years. so this is an improvement.) and if you can get a shit car to perform you catch the eye of bigger teams. now, alex has already been a red bull driver. and he was on the cusp of podiuming two separate times when lewis hamilton ran into him. this (among a few other things) basically killed his chances at getting resigned at red bull because he wasnt ""performing"" and red bull are bitches who love to win. but some people think that red bull should give him another shot. like daniel, hes already been max's teammate and he can definitely drive. but theres also talk he might go to ferrari because ferrari think that he might compliment charles's driving style (or something). but going to ferrari at this point is kind of suicide. so.

logan sergeant. age 23. the only american on the grid. the other williams driver. he just finished his rookie year. he scored a grand total of one single point this season, in texas, and it was because charles leclerc and lewis hamilton both got disqualified because the floor of their car had more wear (by literally less than millimeters) than it was allowed to, bumping him up from 12th to 10th. he has never done better than alex albon. he was also the very last driver to get a contract for 2024, with williams waiting until i think december of 2023 to announce his contract extension. clearly, hes on thin ice. but people have also said that he needs time to get used to formula 1 (other people have pointed out that oscar piastri slayed his rookie season this year and this statement about needing time is largely false). where logan ends up next year though will largely depend on how well the 2024 season goes for him.

fernando alonso. 42 years old. many people like to point out that oscar piastri is actually younger than fernando's racing career. he won tiktok creator of the year (somehow) and is also a 2 time world champion. he retired a few years ago, just to show back up again and slay. during the first half of the season when aston martin had a zoom zoom car he killed it, and then they had problems on top of problems and he didnt do well. except for that one race in brazil where he came in third, beating checo by literally .05 seconds. he hasn't really made any hints about retiring a second time and he is kind of carrying aston Martin right now (he scored 205 points this season, coming in 4th and tying in points with charles leclerc, lance stroll only scored 74 points this year.) and they did have their best year yet this year. (though they are relatively new).

pierre gasley. 27 years old. french. drives for alpine. the french team. previously he raced with toro rosso (now alpha tauri), then got promoted to a red bull driver in 2019, then halfway through the season they decided he wasnt doing a good enough job and he got demoted back down to alpha tauri. then he won a race with alpha tauri just to stick it to red bull. after the great oscar piastri contract twitter war, he was signed as alpines second driver, with Esteban ocon being the other driver (more on him soon). estie bestie and pierre (both french) were childhood friends and now hate each other for unknown reasons and basically feuded on the track for most of the season. french civil war at alpine. he scored 62 points in 2023 and came in 11th. not really sure where he will end up, it is possible that he will stick it out at alpine.

esteban ocon. 27 years old. also french. currently driving for alpine. another one with a silly bonkers career. he started out at force india and had a baller few seasons there but his teammate at the time was checo, and checo didnt really cooperate with him too much and caused some drama that cost estie bestie some places and some points. max verstappen also beat him up in the garage once. thats not really relevant but it did happen. anyway, after the owner of force india was arrested for .... i don't remember what maybe it was embezzlement or bankruptcy or something money related, the team was backed by lawrence stroll and became racing point. but all of that happened mid season and lawrence was basically like look ill back you guys for now but next year my son gets a seat (lance) so one of you two (checo and estie bestie) have to go. and ultimately they let estie bestie go even though he was more consistent because checo had more sponsors and they needed money. so he was out of formula 1 for a few years (but was a merc reserve driver) and then went to Renault, which then became alpine. he did come in 12th though overall this season, just behind pierre. so. will alpine keep both him and pierre and keep the civil war going? whos to say.

nico hulkenberg. 36 years old. haas driver. in his 200+ f1 races he has never been on the podium and he really really wants to be on the podium. unfortunately this will never happen in a haas because haas fucking sucks. and everyone knows it. he is getting towards the end of his career though. though! stake f1 will become the mario Andretti and audi team in 2026 (don't question it) and they have supposedly voiced interest in nico. so we will see if he hangs on that long to end up at audi. for now tough, hes definitely hating it at haas. though, haas are going to have a different team principle next year so maybe that will change things. i have a sneaky feeling through that haas will probably end up with another 2 rookie drivers because everyone else is smart enough to not race for them.

kevin magnussen. 31 years old. haas driver. hes another deeply interesting character. he has had one podium. in his rookie season. in his first race. and none since. kevin started at haas in 2017 and then left at then end of 2020 when he basically got kicked off because the team needed money and they wanted to bring in drivers with more sponsorships. these drivers were mick schumacher and nikita mazepin. so kevin basically was forced to retire after the 2020 season. this went decently well for haas. until russia invaded ukraine right before the start of the 2022 season and, well, nikita was Russian and it was never distinctly proven that his dads company (who was sponsoring the team) wasnt also funding the invasion. so nikita got fired and they were literally like 2 weeks out from the start of the season, down a driver. who are you gonna call? kevin magnussen! and hes been back ever since. but hes clearly getting annoyed with haas. there was one great clip from this year where his car caught on fire and he kind of just stared into to, clearly hoping it would burn for a long time. so the likelihood of him extending his contract is looking slim.

valtteri bottas. 34 years old. currently a driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo, kick sauber, whatever you wanna call it). previously, he was a mercedes driver and notoriously helped lewis hamilton win a great many championships, until he lost his seat to george russell in 2022. there was a rather awkward part of the 2021 season where valtteri knew that he was out of a merc seat the following year and kind of just chose violence. he slayed. then he went to alpha romeo, grew a mullet and made a calendar of his ass. quite the glow up if you ask me. hes also very interested in cycling. honestly though, i have my own personal speculation that hes going to retire at the end of this year.

zhou guanyu. 24 years old. driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo/kick sauber, etc etc). hes doing alright. he just finished his second season, in his first season he was majorly out qualified by valtteri but this past season he managed to out qualify him a good 6 times. which is decently good for the tractor of a car hes driving. its possible that he could get a contract extension, but like logan, its probably going to depend on how the 2024 season goes for him.

and thats all the drivers. theres also a few others i didnt talk about, like some other f2 drivers who want seats and mick schumacher, who is currently a merc reserve driver, all of which could be contenders for f1 seats. but one things for sure. this is going to be the silliest fucking silly season.

feel free to add on and peer review me

[vintageclassiccars]

The Sultan of Oman’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage “Oscar India” Is For Sale.

[suckmyballshoney]

Cant believe some peeps are so deep in their hate they cant stand the 30 lance fans having fun and being happy for just a day, guys we KNOW he won’t really be wdc (as if fernando freaking alonso will let him see that day before him) and we KNOW newey won’t build the best car in the world in 5 months like cmon

It’s part of the process of being a force-point-racing-aston-india-martin fan, you start with hope, you get immediate reward, then you fall down the pits of hell, then some miracle of extreme luck takes you to the point of mass hysteria and then it all goes to shit, wash rince and repeat

We been there for years, we know what we're doing, go back to be a normal person and let us live in our perfectly constructed fantasy thank you

[bringbacktim]

sebastian vettel x reader where y/n comforts him after his difficult time in ferrari. fluff to smut maybe hehe x

Red to green

Sorry if this isn't exactly what you wanted , I got carried away with the dialogue as I usually do , it does have a sexual ending but not quite smut as I just wanted to get this out

Not edited or proofread

Warnings: mentions of sex and sexual things , sad seb ig , probably incorrect use of German words , a crap ton of dialogue

Wc:738 words

You're replacing Checo at force India and I had to find out through the f1 Instagram page" Y/n asked storming into the room where her husband sebastian was

"It's Aston Martin now , but yes I am" he said not daring to move out of his chair as she seemed calmer than she should be and he was scared she was going to try and hurt him if he got up

" Still doesn't answer the question of why you didn't tell me you're own wife" she said crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at him waiting for his answer

" I didn't want to tell you Schatz because of how bad my ferrari season went , if I told you everything would've went bad" he explained hoping for sympathy

" I thought I was your good luck charm though?" She fake pouted and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she sat sideways on his lap

"Don't give me that face , you know what I meant leibling" he laughed

" It's just like when you start dating someone so you don't tell anyone cause once you do they start to not like you anymore , I get it seb. I just wish someone atleast told me so I could've stopped buying ferrari merch"

"You look so good in red though" he teased as he traced up and down her arm ( I literally don't know how you describe it )

"Flattery will get you very far with me mr.vettel" she tried not to cringe as she said that but with of them both laughed

"You can go back to being mad with me how" he told her as he gave her a flirty push

"Well daniil isn't there anymore so you don't have to fight him , but bottas is and he did basically cost you the championship lead , but I'm sure you'll do great" y/n said holding his face and kissing his cheek

"Such kind words , you forgot when me and Lewis had contact in Belgium 2018 and I dropped to the back of the grid" he said looking sad at remembering the memory

"Didn't want to bring that one up since lewis is becoming a bit more of a madman when it comes to having contact with people"

As sebastian sat looking like a kicked puppy Y/n couldn't help but feel bad I mean she did bring up some of the bad things that had happened while seb was in ferrari but she was trying to uplift him in a joking manner , which clearly hadn't worked.

He assured her he was fine but even stevie wonder could see he was anything but .

Y/n tried to mention some highlights in his career like his red bull prime, but seb would just hit back with two other mistakes that happened whilst he was in ferrari as if everything bad that happened was his fault

"You know not everything is always your fault right? You tried your best in ferrari but it wasn't the right fit for you and that's okay"

"But ferrari is one of the best teams in the world and I was terrible, Charles even outnumbered me in Japan" her husband answered head in his hands

"Thats not the end of the world , you even said yourself that charles has a gift and Japan is only one race so why does it matter. Plus I wasn't there to give you any of my good luck"

"So it was your fault I did so bad?" He questioned half a grin showing

"I guess so yes all the bad things we're all my fault" she said with a michevous twinkle in her eye hoping they were on the same page

"Oh yeah ? Guess we're going to have to do something about that then aren't we" oh they were definitely on the same page , same sentence even

"What're you going to do ? Punish me for being so bad or something?" Y/n said stading up and walking slowly backwards towards the stairs that lead to their room

"Don't start something you can't finish" he warned stalking after her

"We both know I can make you finish, just depends where you want to" she giggled as she increased the speed she was walking at as he was hot on her heels

He only ever mentioned his sad ferrari memories after that if he wanted to either annoy his wife or get some

[f0point5]

Whatever my opinions on Lance still driving for Aston might be, his only crime is having a dad that’s willing to use his billions for supprt and fund Lance’s career. Lawrence stroll loves his son and was willing to do it. Which isn’t awful, it’s being a parent and just supporting your child (admittedly at a higher level than normal).

And it’s not like Lance is the only pay driver. Most of them are pay drivers in one way or another. The era of drivers not paying their way into the sport is long gone and has been gone since a clear cut path to F1 was made with the feeder series. F1 is a rich man’s sport.

Every driver funds their seat. They come with sponsorships.

Zhou was in danger of losing his seat when his sponsors weren’t paying. Yuki will be gone from RB when the Honda deal ends. Charles is at innumerable sponsor events. Checo stayed at Force India over Ocon largely due to his sponsorship from Carlos Slim, and he is a cash cow for merch sales in latam.

All these drivers are paying their way somehow, some way. Either a lot of people don’t understand that or they don’t want to.

On Lance, ngl if I were in the Stroll family or Aston Martin, I might be broaching the topic of him still having a seat being a bit silly atp. BUT, 100% I’d have bought a team to give him his shot if I were his dad. People who say they wouldn’t don’t know what it means to be a parent imo.

[harrisonarchive]

George at Kinfauns with his Aston Martin DB5 (photo by Henry Grossman); driving in 1965 (photo by Henry Grossman); with his Porsche in January 1979 (photo by Alan Giddins).

“We’d take a break [during Dark Horse recording sessions in 1974] to go for fish and chips, and there were two ways you could go. One was through this very winding road through the woods from Friar Park to the little fish place. And that’s the way we went. The first time, he took me in a Ferrari. Well, he really liked racing. I’m telling you, man, when we came back from getting our fish and chips, he drove through those winding roads as if he was on a racetrack. I mean really, really going for it. It was serious, and I’m holding on, thinking, ‘Wow, man, I sure hope we stay on the road because if we miss, we’re history.’ Well, we made it home in the Ferrari. The next time we went for fish and chips, he took a Porsche and he took the same route. The Porsche seemed to handle the road better, so he started speeding up. I just thought, ‘He’s such a fan of racing, I guess there’s this little racecar driver inside him.’ But then he really started going, and when we got into Friar Park we were really flying so fast that the car got away from him. There were these high hedges that lined the driveway to the garage, and we’re running through the hedges — and I just sat there acting as normal as I could, but I was praying, O Lord, please don’t let them read about us in the newspaper. Just get us back to the house. After he came out of the hedges, he shrugged and gave me a little laugh as though it never happened. I’m looking at George, and he just looks away like, Don’t say nothing. Well, we went into the house and neither of us ever said a word.” - Willie Weeks, Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison (2006)

“George offered to drive us [Gary and Chris Agajanian] to the airport [from Friar Park], which was quite a hair-raising experience — his version of driving in a Formula One car at the Grand Prix. I thought to myself, ‘We survived India with its tigers, cobras, and pythons, and now we’re ripping down the M4 motorway at a hundred and twenty miles an hour!’ Given the speed we were traveling, we were stopped by a policeman, and as George rolled the window down, the officer politely said, ‘Oh, Mr. Harrison, sorry, on your way then.’” - Gary Wright, Dream Weaver: Music, Meditation, And My Friendship With George Harrison (2014) (x)

[danthropologie]

this sky sports checo interview and him talking about how force india/racing point/Aston Martin is his home and how much different red bull is and how hard it can be to adapt and how he has to consciously think through how he’s driving... Jesus Christ the narrative parallels. also the brief mention of his 4th child on the way like I was already on the he wants the red bull buyout conspiracy theory but that interview just heightened it so much

girl what now-

[mickyschumacher]

watching drive to survive again when the season is moderately close by is liberating and refreshing. everyone looks so fucking young 😭 when we had aston martin red bull and fucking force india out of all things... i also heavily miss toro rosso :( AND RENAULTTTTTTT ugh cyril > guenther

no because what the fuck is stake f1 team?? should i eat it?

don't mind me. just sad lol

[racingliners]

Immediately pre-ordered Bernie Collins (former Head of Strategy at Force India/Aston Martin) the second I found out it existed and it just arrived in the post!!!

[checoarchive]

[race-week]

hey al :) was just wondering about the drastic decrease in aston performance. why are they suddenly flopping so much despite all the new upgrades? which aspect of the car went wrong? thank you!

Hello,

I think a turning point in the season for Aston Martin was the technical directive that was bought in mid season-ish, where they were clamping down on flexible components, and it was rumoured at the time that Aston Martin had a flexible wing, and they were told by the FIA to get rid of it back in Spain, which they did, and that kind of lines up with the tail off of the performance

And then I think after that and towards this point in the season right now, they still don’t fully understand the car or they’re struggling to adapt the car to work without that flexible wing, and as such they’ve kind of moved from racing this season to having extended test sessions in these last few races 

It’s weird because back when Aston Martin was Force India, (however many iterations of the team ago) they were always really really good at developing the car, so it is interesting to see the opposite happening with them starting off the season with a strong car that just got weaker.

But yeah, I’d say there’s some fundamental issue with the car design that they’re trying to figure out but seemingly can’t (and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was related to that mid season TD)