#GP Rant

[forzafe44ari]

i have a lot to say regarding some people’s crashouts over lewis’ comments about the team and team structure yesterday, but i feel like it would either be met with willful ignorance or like be received by people who already know what i’m talking about, but just for me to get this out because i’ve been vibrating with this thought since yesterday—any sort of feedback lewis gives to a team that he is NOW A PART OF and is paid a LOT OF MONEY to give feedback and drive for, is met with again…real nastiness rooted in this need for both maintaining a victim mentality—ferrari fans love to be sad about how shitty their team is, they revel in loserdom, i should know, my grandpa was one of them—and also racism lmao. y’all don’t like that a black man/non-italian is being critical even tho he is literally being paid far too much money to do just that. like it’s literally his job.

y’all clearly don’t want lewis to be the one to rehab your team, because you want it to be charles but i’m so sorry to burst your fucking bubble, but charles doesn’t have the necessary experience of leading a winning team YET because he has always been at ferrari in their big loser era. he doesn’t know any other way than the ferrari way, that’s why lewis is HERE. like i don’t know why that’s not clicking for you people????

that’s also not a knock on charles btw. he is literally 27, he is very young, but it’s getting to a point that he clearly needs some assistance/guidance on getting this team to the right place, because yeah this car is a product of his and carlos’ feedback in some way, even if they changed the philosophy of said car. this is a team sport, and so sorry your driver needs someone on his team that really kinda has nothing to lose. like lewis’ legacy is intact. he’s a 7x WDC, you should want charles to have someone on his side like that.

clearly some fresh outside perspective is required right now for the house of ferrari to get it together, and lewis has that in spades. y’all just don’t want to recognize because jealousy, victim mentality/commitment to loserdom, and racism.

the call is now coming from INSIDE the house and you don’t want to hear it. sorry that lewis is on speaker phone.

[gangst3rswife]

"I think it's obviously not been an easy year for Lando, looking from the outside. And then when I talked to him, he's clearly lacking a bit of the feeling he has in the car compared to previous years..."

"That’s why F1 is such a complex sport because it doesn’t depend purely on you and your talent, but also on a lot of things coming together at the same time, at the right time. My feeling is that Lando as a driver has the capacity to turn things around with his talent, with his speed.

“There’s still plenty of races where anything can happen, and it will all come down to whether he can put those laps together in quali at the right time.” - Carlos Sainz about Lando Norris after the Canadian gp

notice how not once did Carlos mention Lando's mindset and/or mentality here?? That's my biggest takeaway, and i absolutely love and appreciate that so so much.

from what I've seen, It's the people who know Lando the best who know that his mentality is not hindering him. they know it so much so that Carlos didn't even feel the need to mention it once.

Lando has said on multiple occasions that he's the most confident he's ever been and it really shows. It's the journalists who keep forcing this narrative that Lando is cracking under the pressure, and it's just simply not true.

Yeah, I know that Lando has struggled with his confidence and his mental health as he's said, and i'm sure he still does at times, but he's grown so much since then.

He's grown so much since then and yet journalists and people in media keep pushing a narrative that's just ? not current.

"Lando's mental fragility" this, "Lando's self doubt" that. yeah well, Lando's struggles with his confidence isn't a current story anymore. Like?? that story is so in the past at this point, yet people refuse to let that storyline go. that story is so old at this point, and yet people just keep holding on to that headline.

Max already said that Lando's doing fine. Carlos didn't even feel the need to mention Lando's mentality, Seb Vettel has defended Lando, JB has said that he believes that Lando has turned a corner in terms of his confidence--what more do you want?? If these greats who actually know Lando have commended him, who are we to decide that, no, Lando is struggling and that's that?

what I'd love to hear is stories about Lando that don't touch on how he's managing his mental health. yes, a healthy amount of talk on that is great, and yes it's important, but too much is too much.

Lando has grown from all of this, so why won't the media let him grow? Lando has grown, so why won't the media grow with him?

[rocketinthesky]

Literally any other driver wins/gets pole: pure skill, pure class, so talented and skilled omg

Lando gets a RECORD BREAKING lap time and gets on pole: he got lucky he’s in a rocketship

Real time representation of the absolute CLOWNERY that is f1 and its fans and how forced the Lando hate is lmao. Mans has been on every podium except 1 race btw so far this year. The only qualis that went super bad for him happened due to unfortunate circumstances. He’s lost wins/higher podium placements due to shit pitstops and strat. He made mistakes but always made up places in every race. He won literally the most chaotic and disastrous first race of the year from pole despite almost losing position. He’s driving a car that does not work with him and that has its plethora of issues and he’s driving it consistently to podiums despite having trouble with it. He’s under an insane level of hate just for existing atp but he still wears a smile on his face and spreads awareness for mental health and is OPEN about his struggles (that all your favs experience) and is one of the kindest drivers on the grid.

Yea lets hate him and undermine his achievements lol. U can argue its the car for literally everyone who wins—news flash, the cars perform differently depending on the track and mclaren are nowhere near the dominance that was the 2023 rb car!! The teams are much closer this year and the points prove it. So even if mclaren are a “rocketship” in some races that doesn’t take away from any of lando’s (or oscar’s) wins! If ur of the mindset that lando got “lucky” with the pole than ur just very delusional and hey, if that justification helps u sleep at night, all i can say is u do u and continue living in ur whole ass circus.

[chalexleclou]

its so frustrating to watch charles produce generational drives and all he has to show for it is a p4.

[skitskatdacat63]

The casual affection, I'm going to throw up

[syzygyofeureka]

As an Oscar defender and apologist, I have to give my opinion...

So Oscar had a crash in fp2..not big one but he crashed and people are joking about it on Twitter and ig not taking it seriously "bro crashed beautifully" "even the crash are flawless" "the home race curse is powerful" just not hating on him and making jokes about it and the 4s have to go crazy whenever people talk about oscar..

"If it was Lando comments would have been different" and "If Lando had said it people would have crucified him" which is not wrong...people have been hateful of Lando on some occasions..but sometimes we have to admit it that it also gets a little hard to defend Lando...

Oscar has just managed to make a flawless image of himself, he is respectful and never made cocky comments about other drivers...I am not saying Lando is disrespectful towards others but what he said about Max in Miami GP was dumb, and what he said to Lewis about them having fast cars for a long time also gave me an ick...

When Oscar gets a bad result he admits it but when Lando gets a bad result he goes into whole depression mode (which is fine) but as soon as he gets a good result he becomes extremely cocky...we saw it in Miami gp how fukcing suicidal he looked after quali and then made that comment as soon as he gets p2 and max loose podium

People are too hateful of Lando I will admit but some of his comments just make you look at the other side and think from their perspective..if I am being honest I fucking hated what he said about Max after miami gp and to Lewis in cool-down room after Hungary gp...it was so awkward...it felt like lewis had to be more adult in room of adult and make situation less intense "I was just complimenting your car"

Correct me if I am wrong I am open to change..but I feel like Lando's comments have made him prone to hate maybe...I mean you can't hate him for his driving or result...he is constantly on the podium, finishing in point.

I had to say it because 4s are being extremely annoying on ig comments and twt about how people are different towards Oscar... it's just so easy to love Oscar

[wishfuldivine]

I honestly do feel for them. They deserve so much better. Max punching the steering wheel after that disastrous 6.2 seconds pitstop.

Them after the race. They look so fucking done with everything.

How incompetent must you be, Red Bull?

[lechrysracing]

Oscar did his little dancy dancy after he won the miami gp (he lost a bet apparently) and then Sky Germany mentioned how Seb did his little dances after he won.

[dreamingamongthestars]

👀👀👀👀

No wonder he was so mad

[shitapril]

going into the season as a carlos fan, I, without a doubt expected it to be a long, grueling, frustrating one with little to no return. and so far, it has been exactly that, for all the wrong reasons.

it's very clear that the car has made leaps and bounds in terms of development (which I personally think is in no small part because of carlos himself, and his tenacity over the technical aspects of the car). it has the kind of pace and capacity the williams hasn't had in many, many years, and is in good position to make points almost every race. yet, only alex seems to be able to extract this from the car so far.

while i'm able to acknowledge that in more than a couple instances this has come down to carlos' lack of experience with the new engine and adjusting to a new environment, he has also without doubt made some silly, almost all costly errors. even so, I think i'll still maintain that a lot of it comes down to rotten luck, unfortunate incidents on track, discrepancies in the car, and most importantly, the poor, poor communication skills of the team. whether or not a driver chooses to, or is able to, capitalise and maximise on a car's performance, it's the team's duty to actually enable that chance efficiently and completely, and so far, williams has been quite inadequate in that.

while the notions of carlos "finally being appreciated" and "being treated the way he deserves" are very exciting, none of this means anything if it is not reflected in the team's management and actual results on track.

if carlos is choosing to go on radio to say "I've lost a lot of confidence here on everything" then there needs to be change immediately, and it needs to be big.

[i44rise]

some people are so funny like “this disqualification means nothing, he's still the winner” honey, it means Everything. you can choose what you believe in but to say it with your whole chest that the underweight car didn't help him in anyway throughout the race is just being ignorant. penalties are penalties, rules are rules. that's how this sport goes. we accepted it with other drivers before, accept it now. there's only one truth here, lewis hamilton won spa.

also stop taking it out on lewis who has the right to celebrate because he's the legal winner. of course he was not excited before because he felt like this was his race and the team failed him, but that didn't mean he had ill-wishes towards your driver. take it out on mercedes who messed up the car's weight (don't even say it's sabotage because THEY TRIED TO COVER IT UP) which consequently fucked up this mercedes 1-2

[error04landonotfound]

So, I told myself during the race that I wouldn't rant about it post-race. And I wasn't going to!!

But then the interviews and the quotes came out. And then I really couldn't just sit with my thoughts. I'm gonna put a keep reading under here because I just know this post is about to be LONG.

Let me start by saying this: the intent of this post is NOT to hate on Oscar Piastri. The intent is to voice my frustrations with Andrea Stella, Zak Brown, and Will Joseph specifically.

When Lando was P1 last weekend, Oscar was told they were "free to race." The exception to that was, understandably, when they were trying to clear backmarkers. Aside from that, they were free to race each other. Oscar wasn't told to hold back at any other point and even made the argument that he was faster, which was understandable. Lando, on the other hand, was told repeatedly by Will Joseph that his tyre degradation was worse than everyone else's and that he shouldn't push too hard. Now, I don't have it saved, but the post-race graphic showing tyre degradation levels for all drivers had Lando as one of the drivers with the LOWEST amount of tyre deg. If that's the case, then why is his engineer telling him his tyres were bad, when Lando has historically been good at managing his tyres? It begs the question of what exactly Will Joseph was doing giving those messages.

Now we come to this weekend. Oscar qualifies P1 for the main race with Lando in P3 due to some crucial mistakes. Nobody is arguing that Piastri had a better Q3 than Lando. Lando himself said he made some mistakes, and that track seems pretty famous for punishing drivers who make mistakes. Lando also noted pretty much the entire weekend that the car was difficult to drive and that he was just going to have to make the best of it. So when Lando moves up to P2 within the first few corners of lap 1, there should be some excitement, right?? Some happiness that Lando is now P2 and a McLaren 1-2 is within reach, provided the pitwall/strategists play their cards right? That wasn't exactly the emotion conveyed through the NUMEROUS messages from Will Joseph. Instead, we had to listen as Lando was told not to push Oscar too hard; his race is with George, not Oscar; Lando your tyres look bad. Now, I'd like to note here that it was 2 in the morning for me, and my TV volume has to be SUPER LOW because my grandmother sleeps in the room next to me. But some of these were heard LOUD AND CLEAR. It became evident very early on that Lando was NOT free to race Oscar in the same way Oscar was free to race him last weekend.

Fast forward to the last 10-15 laps (tbh I can't fully remember when it was), when Will Joseph finally decides to tell Lando his car has a braking issue. Which, by the way, they withheld from him

A BRAKING ISSUE.

Now I don't know about y'all, but I'm pretty sure literally ANY OTHER DRIVER would be told their car has a braking issue. But for some reason, Lando wasn't told until the last stage of the race. Am I insane, or is that not seriously dangerous to withhold that information? Should a driver not be made aware that their car has an issue with BRAKING, let alone that it's already critical? That, to me, tells me that nobody on that pitwall cared if Lando finished that race. I could list more radio messages from WJ that were incredibly sus and counterproductive (um, the using up pace and pushing into Oscar's dirty air??), but I think I've ranted about that long enough

I cannot stress this enough: I do not hate Piastri. Do I wish he'd react similarly to Lando's wins how Lando reacts to his? Yeah. But I still don't hate on him. It wouldn't be very fair to yell and scream that Lando doesn't deserve the hate he's received (and still receives) and then turn around and hate on Oscar. When I say "hate" I don't mean criticism. I mean saying things like, "oh I hope someone runs him off" or "he should lose it into the first corner". Criticism is fine, but there's a fine line between it and hate, and we should be mindful of that.

Because that's all we want: fairness. I want Will Joseph to stop sounding like he's trying to sabotage his own driver. I don't always like Max and GP, but at least GP's radio messages to Max are encouraging!

I want Andrea Stella to show up to Lando's podiums, too, because he deserves to be praised just as much as Oscar (moreso, imho, because Lando has put in part of the work that's made the MCL competitive again!).

I want Zak Brown to NOT admit in interviews that he's thankful one of his drivers had a car issue that prevented him from challenging for the win!

Because let's be real: if this behavior was directed towards Oscar, there would be an uproar. But because it's Lando, it's acceptable. Nobody (except Lando fans) has any problem with how ZB, AS, and WJ are acting towards Lando, and it's frustrating. I just want Lando to receive the same treatment that Oscar receives. It doesn't have to be an either/or. Both can be treated well!

He's leading the damn drivers championship, for goodness sake. The least you could do is act like it.

Okay, I'm done (I think).

[justc2world]

Lost respect for Ferrari a long time ago. Lost respect for Charles, too now. It's always the ones from whom you don't expect this type of behaviour. Saying "it's his home race.. he wanted to do something spectacular" so mockingly said a lot. That's the same driver who was crying to get a home race win. How are you going to show your double standards like this. Going from not talking about Lewis to not be disrespectful to Carlos to openly mocking his situation in front of the media just baffled the fuck out of me. Also, reprimanding Carlos with hand gestures just after the race. I know Carlos is too level headed, he'll just take it. There's no friend in this sport but all this has been such an eye-opener to me.

[formulamonza]

it actually blows my mind how people (mostly max fans) are making jokes about this, thinking it's funny. crashing into someone, with that speed, is NOT passion. it is NOT ''having fun''. IT IS DANGEROUS!!

i couldn't care less if you don't like george, because it doesn't AND shouldn't matter who he's crashing into. it is not normal behavior, it is not safe and he shouldn't be allowed to race until he has been to anger management therapy. penalty points won't stop him from doing something like this again and it won't stop him from actually hurting anyone.

[sailing-with-100-ships]

I just wanted to talk about the Charlos pictures we have been getting till now. And them in general.

So we know it is the last season together as teammates. And one of the few logical things would be to try and distance yourself bit by bit so it does not hurt too bad. It is something a normal or a sane person will think of doing.

But there comes the heart. It is all about making irrational decisions, not thinking and just doing things. To get a sense of happiness. No matter how things will turn out, you are happy in this moment and that is what matters.

This is something I am seeing with these two.

You can say that these are professional drivers and they very well know what they are doing. Which is something neither of us deny. But the fundamentals still exist with these drivers. They are as human as we are and they will feel that pain of being separated like we all do.

They will be in the same paddock, but we will not see Carlos leaning outside the room of Charles or them watching football together laying on the floor. These moments will come to an end.

And these pictures feel like it is the beginning of an end. These moments will only increase as time goes by, and they will get more intense. And all of this will come crashing down in Abu Dhabi when the bandaid is ripped off and them as well as us all will be confronted with the truth: this is it.

No more giggling together, no more gazing into each other's eyes like they have all the answers.

I know I have accepted them not being teammates for the next year, but have they?

[landohaslanded]

Why am I seeing people blaming Lando for Trump being elected like he personally made that decision?

First off can I remind you all this man is a British citizen. He can’t vote in US elections even if he wanted so how on Earth is it his fault Trump got elected?

People refer to the comments from the Miami GP and honestly I hated that McLaren were chosen to host him for so many reasons but here’s as condensed and relevant as I can make this.

Lando and many other drivers like him are PR trained and when you have such a high profile guest such as Donald Trump in your garage for the weekend your PR team has probably given you approved responses to a variety of questions.

The answer Lando gave sounded so PR approved, it sounded sterile, non-committal really. And please correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure in a stream he has expressed his dislike for Trump.

I also hated how he was asked this question in the first place. This man had just won his first race in over five years yet you use up your limited time on asking him about a controversial man which is guaranteed to get him hate. I know this is how the media works but it makes my skin crawl.

And to anyone saying the other two in the top three didn’t say anything, their teams weren’t hosting Trump. I’m sure if you asked Max about James Charles he probably would have given a similar PR approved answer.

Also, for the record, Trump said he was Lando’s good luck charm, not the other way round. I saw that on TikTok and it was just plain wrong.

So please can we stop blaming him for the results of an election he didn’t even vote in? The hate is getting mental by this point.

In conclusion, I know I am not American but I am a politics student and about as anti-Trump as they come (having argued with multiple boys in that class about him this week).

My heart goes out to every woman, POC, LGBTQIA+ member, child and anybody else who is going to be negatively affected by Trump’s administration. Please know that my inbox is always open if you need someone to talk to ❤️