#T1;; driver

[albonium]

alex was so nice to that marshal i love him

[cvakviigmohns]

come on mr rain whisperer what do you have for me today

[shibuyaakii]

THE REASON THAT ONLY CHARLES COULD DEFEND MAX AT T1

He knew exactly where Max gonna attack and kept driving on the inside line. Comparing to other drivers, they all drove on the outside line.

[leclerc-s]

“he drove well and got lucky” - a sore loser with the fastest car on the grid who ended p6

what kind of bullshit is that? we’re not downplaying the absolute masterclass and generational drive max had to today. he just proved why he’s a 3x world champion and you’re not. by this dumbass logic, miami was fucking luck. your teammate literally gave up his position so you could go “catch” the other car but you never did. you need team orders to win, as obvious by the sprint. you have the fastest car on the grid and you weren’t able to win the race from pole position, its literally a running joke to see who can get p1 before t1 when you’re on pole.

this is why people call you a sore loser, it’s comments like that get other people, who hate max, to root for max verstappen. it’s shit like this that has people praying and hoping you lose that p2 in the driver standings.

it’s not luck, it’s talent, easy as that. maybe get your head out of your ass once in a while, even though we all know it’s a bit difficult for you to do so.

[aaivii]

That's the team I'll always support!! I understand that today's win might have been overshadowed by that strategy (remember when Oscar said I know that us as a team we are making mistakes but it is never the same mistake!! Exactly today was a mistake many agree, and tbh they needed this situations because we are going to have so many of these mistakes in the future given these two are phenomenal drivers) but I'd rather have McLaren making this mistakes today rather than later. They had this situation coming for a long time and will have many more of those, one will come P1 one will be the other, the only thing is that they will be handled in a better way. Many are saying that this tainted Oscar's win but in my opinion not so much, he won the race at T1. This interaction was above was a much needed thing because at the end of the day the drivers did their jobs brilliantly and maybe the strategy team was not spot on!! And they understand this!!

AND CHAMPAGNE POP IS BACK!!!! And don't worry about podium lando!! The champagne pop wasn't aimed at Oscar because A) he was busy protecting his trophy sooo B) lando aiming the full blast at the strategist manager who was on the podium...like guys if you're landoscar fan haven't we learned enough by now...with these two you'll always have to go that extra mile and at the end...they'll still respect each other...and alsooooo see which two guys are on the foreground!! YEP!! enjoy this landoscar version while it lasts because it's going to be a bumpy ride!!

[race-week]

I’ve seen some people sharing this graphic and wondering what is going on, and why Leclerc’s top speed is so much lower

So explanation, the cars reach their highest speeds on the Kemmel straight at Spa

That’s the DRS straight at the back of the circuit between T4 and T5

Now, every other drivers fastest speed is recorded from a lap where they had DRS open, because inevitably having DRS open, reduces drag and allows a higher speed down the straight.

Leclerc did not have a single lap where he had DRS down the Kemmel straight, because he would lose time to Hamilton (or whoever he was following) through La Source (T1) so was always further than a second back from the car in front when he reached the detection point.

So the car doesn’t have some huge straight line speed issue it had a slight slow corner issue, but nothing detrimental, this graphic just looks bad because he didn’t have either DRS or a slipstream to increase his top speed.

(Also the axis labelling is kind of goofy)

[mara-xx]

I have a number of opinions about the Hungary gp (as someone who is a Lando and Oscar fan) so here I am to give an objective perspective on the race strat because it’s very clear that certain fans either didn’t watch the full race so don’t fully know what happened or they simply don’t understand f1 so here we go. This is a long one so strap in.

Oscar led the race from lap 1 (literally after turn 1) after passing Lando.

Lando tried to cut infront of Oscar off the line but Oscar reacted quick enough that Lando didn’t quite manage to cover him. Opinions may vary on this but imo Lando saw Oscar as the bigger threat to p1 than Verstappen. Some people have speculated that McLaren had discussed with the drivers that whoever lead after t1 would get the win and that’s why Lando tried to cut off Oscar but that has not been confirmed as fact!

What has been confirmed multiple times is that the McLaren drivers are allowed to race against eachother- this will be expanded on later. (This can be heard predominantly in post race interviews where Lando was straight up asked if they are allowed to race and he’s says yes)

It’s been confirmed that Landos car experienced a glitch where it struggled to get into 2nd gear which may have cost him reaction time off the line- aka he didn’t bottle the start.

Oscar really worked on managing his tyres as can be heard by his full team radio that is posted on YouTube (his engineer spends a lot of it telling him that he’s managing well and where he needs to manage better- bearing in mind that the engineers are directly looking at data during the race so this is an objective opinion that he was managing his tyres well- something he has been quite weak at in the past but is clearly working on) - this is also important for a later note.

Oscar should have been given the optimal strategy given that he was leading the race from the beginning and for the majority of the race- around 70% of it (usually the leading car gets the best strategy for obvious reasons- it’s the fairest way to do it), however, McLaren decided to box Lando first despite this, claiming that they needed to cover Hamilton despite Lando being around 6 seconds ahead- (imo this was not needed and I believe McLaren were being overly cautious in maintaining their 1-2 especially given the absolute bottle job they did in silverstone). However this decision to box Lando first is what caused the entire situation.

Lando being boxed first allowed for Lando to undercut Oscar which meant that when Oscar pitted, he came out behind Lando (thus losing the p1 position) despite Lando never passing him on track in the first place. This means that the p1 position was not earned via an on track overtake but by a strategical mistake on McLarens end. Lando did nothing to gain p1 just as Oscar did nothing to lose it.

In the case where an undercut happens between drivers of opposing teams, this would not be an issue as the team who managed the undercut would have earned the position by optimising their strategy. However, this undercut was between teammates and only happened because of the (wrong) decision to box Lando first. If not for their reasoning (to try cover Hamilton- for some fucking reason) then this decision would be downright dirty towards Oscar who was the lead McLaren at that point and would have raised questions of favouritism towards Lando. Therefore, the position was not Landos to keep which is why McLaren made the decision to instate team orders.

Essentially, they were trying to rectify their earlier mistake of boxing Lando first to cover Hamilton (which as mentioned was probably not needed), causing a very painful situation.

Oscar was assured that if he agreed to let Lando box first to cover Lewis, then they would revert the positions if Lando undercut him (which he did) so Oscar agreed under the condition that Lando gave him back his position.

Lando, however, in the heat of the moment when the time came, refused to yield his position unless Oscar caught up. By this stage, Lando was jumping between around 3 and 6 seconds ahead as he was pushing his tyres.

Oscar struggled to close the gap as not only was he lacking pace in the final stint (compared to the first stint and the first half of the second) but he was still trying to manage his tyres, unlike Lando who was purposely pushing to “prove a point” (as quoted from the team radio). It can also be heard in Oscar’s team radio (on YouTube) that he was told to continue to manage his tyres and “not worry about Lando”.

Oscar also went off the track at one point which also lost him some time.

Had Lando actually let Oscar past when initially asked he would have had the opportunity to fight Oscar for p1 (unlike what people are suggesting as they claim that the two aren’t allowed to fight on track despite BOTH drivers stating that they absolutely can fight for positions- there are interviews before and after both quali and the race that state this).

However, Lando has stated since that he planned to give the position no matter what (but he felt the need to question the order as he rightly noted that McLaren should have boxed Oscar first) on the last lap but was reminded that if there was a safety car, then he would be unable to let Oscar through and thus take the control from their hands.

Lando also acknowledged that if he let Oscar through when told, he would have been able to actually fight for p1 as he also acknowledged that the position he was in was never his in the first place.

Landos reaction was obviously very in the moment (the man is now in the position to fight for race wins after putting up with shit cars from McLaren for years- you can’t blame him for seeing a second win in sight- albeit a cheap one given that he never should have had the position in the first place- and wanting to go for it)

At the end of the day, this was Oscar’s win no matter how you twist it.

But should McLaren have optimised max points for the wdc? Imo no, Max is leading by a lot and while it is still possible for Lando to catch him, it would be even more controversial and downright cruel for them to expect Oscar to hand over his (rightly deserved) first ever f1 gp win based on a hypothetical of whether Max does bad enough for Lando to be able to pass him in the wdc.

Carlos Sainz made a brilliant point against all those people who are saying shit like “but if Lando loses the wdc by 7 points or less…” as he stated that those few points could be found in so many other places, not just this particular race.

Tbh this was a very public thing that really should not have been discussed via the radio but McLaren put themselves in the position where it was inevitable. Lando was absolutely in the awkward position where giving the position back was the right thing to do (and in his words he had planned to do it anyway) but the discussions via the radio were a little nuanced and borderline uncomfortable and Lando should not have been put in that position in the first place.

All in all, the team handled the whole thing terribly and put both Lando and Oscar in an incredibly awkward position that they didn’t even need to be in in the first place.

Im sure there’s more things I forgot to mention and I may add to this later but this is all I got for now!

[nico-di-genova]

Some interesting stuff from Portland Practice 1:

Rahal has apparently told NBC that he’d “love to have Rossi in the car”, but, “there’s more things in play than just picking out who you want in a car”

There is a limit on how much of the hybrid they can use on a lap, it seems like most of the drivers exceeded this limit by turns 5/6 and so the hybrid was not being deployed as much on the back stretch to the start/finish line.

Cars are experiencing front right lock-up like crazy, going off a ton in turns 5/6 and turn 1 is a bitch because if you hit the apex a certain way you’ll either: A. Fly through the air like kirkwood, or B: spin out like Rossi.

Alex is looking really strong, ran P1 for most of the first half of practice, finished P4 overall.

Pato came off the truck “really really weak” and spent most of practice trying to fix the car and change what they could. He feels better about practice 2.

Kirkwood got a drive through penalty for cutting T1 when Lundqvist kind of pushed him off. There’s a rule now that drivers cannot cut T1, if they run off they have to commit to the runoff area and wind through it where it will bring them out into T3. This is new for this year, and being done to hopefully cut down on the number of collisions in the T1/T2 area.

I expect T1 and T5 to be the biggest problems of the race, this might change depending on how practice goes tomorrow.

Alex’s Crew Chief made a comment about Christmas cards over the radio, which brought up Alex’s angry post-gateway tweet about “cutting people” from his Christmas card list. James retorted, live and on-air, “he doesn’t do Christmas cards, come on. Kelly might do Christmas cards on their behalf”. James will roast his best friend on live TV, he doesn’t care.

“Trading fastest lap back and forth with his bestie” - James about Pato and Felix passing P1 back and forth at the end of practice.

Someone on the commentary team made a joke about “meat cars” and James had to mute himself because he couldn’t stop laughing.

Rossi finished P4, Pato P9 and Siegel P19.

[livetogether--diealone]

his tp said to keep position at the start, he took the lead in t1, he outsmarted the first three, and he kept that p1 untill the end, that's my driver!

[valyrfia]

Lando is obviously a good driver but he has many flaws. The biggest one being unable to perform under pressure, we can clearly see that in his race starts. In brazil, george wasn't even particularly aggressive or anything yet he smoothly overtook him on t1. I think lando is in his head too much and messes up in crucial moments. Maybe it's coz he's competing at the front for the first time, in a 'championship battle' (if u can even call it that) with the reigning wdc or whatever but he seems to constantly be in a victim mentality which i dont think is really helping him at the moment

The frustrating thing really is that this is something that CAN and SHOULD be worked on, and I don't think it's entirely his fault considering his team is the same (constantly making strategy blunders that they then play victim about).

[norrisleclercf1]

hi sorry, i wasn’t able to watch the race today. what happened that everyone upset ? & who won ? 😅

Okay so Charles won by taking Turn 1 from everyone and ran away (beautiful race from him) now everyone is upset because Max pushed Lando off at turn 1 and didn’t get a penalty which caused lando to go down to 4th not bad but towards the last 6 laps lando caught back up and made a great pass on Max but then Max pushed him wide again and they both went off the track at Turn 12 I believe. Now what has everyone made is that Lando continued and took P3 from Max by off the track and he was handed a penalty and everyone is upset because Max has pushed lando off the track twice and didn’t get a penalty and even other drivers and teams are confused as to why max didn’t get a penalty for T1 but lando did for T12 when other drivers were handed the same penalty for barely doing. It’s a mess

Disclaimer: this is my point of view agree to disagree watch the race and form your own opinion

[chequeredandreas]

The 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Highlights

1. Lec's Pole Streak

Leclerc leads the race for the fourth time in a row as he qualifies for pole position in Baku once more.

2. Ferraris Lead

We got to see both the Ferraris take turns in leading the Grand Prix.

3. Piastri Overtakes

Piastri takes the lead from Leclerc in Lap 20 onwards, but Leclerc refused to go down without a fight.

4. 4 DNFs

Tsunoda and Stroll collides early on in the Grand Prix which results in both drivers eventually retiring. This is Tsunoda's second DNF in a row. Sainz and Pérez also collide in Lap 50 bringing out yellow flags, they join Tsunoda and Stroll among the drivers who did not finish the race.

5. Best Bear

Ollie Bearman makes history as the first driver to score points in his two first Grand Prix starts.

6. McLaren Leads

McLaren leads the Constructors' Championship for the first time in almost a decade.

7. Williams Scored

Colapinto and Albon both finish with points!

8. From F2 to F1

We got to see an all-F2 champion podium for the first time in F1. Leclerc, Piastri, and Russell all became F2 champions in their rookie years.

Race Recap

The Start

Leclerc leads, Pérez tries to overtake Sainz towards T2 and gains 3rd place.

Verstappen also makes a move on Russell and gets 5th position.

Meanwhile, Albon and Bearman fight for the 9th position. Bearman manages to overtake Albon, but Albon fights back and regains his position.

Norris managed to gain position by Lap 2, now in P12 after starting in P15.

A little farther from the front, Stroll gets a puncture in his car after contact with Tsunoda at the start of the race, causing him to box at the end of Lap 2.

Tsunoda's Problem

It becomes apparent that Tsunoda is having problems with his car as well, caused by the collision with Stroll. He still tries pushing forward but drops behind Norris and Hülkenberg by Lap 3. He continues to drop position by Lap 4 and gets into P16.

At The Back...

Norris takes the last scoring place from Bearman through DRS in T1, Lap 8.

Lance Stroll is now in P20, way at the back and struggling.

Hülk-n-Bear

Hülkenberg overtakes his teammate and is now P11.

A Series of Box, Box!

Colapinto pits at Lap 11, letting other cars pass. He comes back in P15, behind Hamilton.

Alonso pits at Lap 12 and comes back ahead of Colapinto who is in P17. Bearman is back in the points.

Verstappen pits along with Russell in Lap 13. Pérez follows suit, boxes at Lap 14, and comes back behind Norris who's in P5.

Bearman pits in Lap 15 dropping from P8 to P16.

Piastri is next to the pit in Lap 16, Sainz is now in P2 with Leclerc leading still. Norris is instructed to hold Pérez behind so that Piastri could come out of the pits ahead of the Mexican. Piastri comes back behind Albon who’s in P3 and just ahead of Pérez.

Tsunoda DNF

Another DNF for Tsunoda as he must retire at the end of Lap 15. This is his 2nd DNF in a row. Thanks for trying, Yuki. We’ll get it right next time!

Sainz Leads

Leclerc enters the pitlane in Lap 17, Sainz is now in the lead, Leclerc just behind him.

Leclerc Once More

Sainz boxes at Lap 18, Charles leads once more. Sainz exits the pits in P6.

Hang In There, Albono!

Pérez overtakes Albon in Lap 19 for P3.

Piastri Leads

Piastri tries to overtake Leclerc in Lap 20's T1 and succeeds, Leclerc tries to regain his position into T2 and T3 but fails. Piastri now leads the race, with Leclerc chasing him, not giving up until the end.

Smooth Operator

Sainz overtakes Norris into T1 of Lap 23. He gets P5. He overtakes Albon again at Lap 24, gaining 4th place.

Change Your Car...

Verstappen reports problems with his brakes.

Leclerc is still chasing Piastri with a 0.7s gap.

Albo-NOOO

Albon pits in Lap 32, letting many drivers through. He drops into P10 behind his teammate before getting overtaken by Hülkenberg in T3.

Swift Moves, George And Nico

Russell makes a move on Verstappen in Lap 34, takes P6.

Hülkenberg takes 9th position from Colapinto in Lap 36.

Norris Finally Pits

Norris pits for the first time at the end of Lap 37 and comes out behind Verstappen.

Piastri, Stay Calm!

Piastri remains in the lead while Leclerc and Pérez try to take the top spot from him. Meanwhile, Sainz is closing in on Pérez by Lap 46, trying to take that final spot on the podium.

2nd DNF Of The Day

Stroll retires in Lap 47 caused by car problems.

The Red Bulls And Their Problems...

Pérez tries pressuring Charles into giving up P2 but fails.

Norris makes a move on Verstappen and passes him.

Pérez tries to overtake Leclerc again into Lap 50's T1 and succeeds, Leclerc fights back, regains 2nd position while Sainz took 3rd, leaving Pérez in P4. Pérez tries to overtake again but the Red Bull collides with Sainz before reaching T3. This brings out double yellow flags. Pérez and Sainz DNFs.

Piastri’s 2nd Win

A VSC is called by the final lap.

Piastri now leads 10.9s from Leclerc, Russell follows suit.

After much struggle, Oscar Piastri wins for the second time in his F1 career after a solid drive. He managed to overtake Leclerc and kept him behind since then. He wins against the Ferrari this time around, a job well done to car #81!

For more content like this, please follow me on Tumblr as @chequeredandreas. I am also on Instagram and Threads as @chequeredandreas.

[racingcore]

people will not talk about how Charles held off two experienced drivers at T1 Lap 1 of the race, they wont talk about how he led 3 laps in 4th fastest car. Nah, they'll talk about how Charles bottled this win. Well thoughts and prayers to them, so they can comprehend things better 🙏😌and i know my GOAT!

[supermaks]

'checo got put on the worst strategy' max's strategy relied on him making hard tires last for over 40 laps, come out of a second slower pit stop and get his teammate into t1. It relied on him being the best driver on the grid. Thank you

[thearchercore]

firstly, i just wanted to say thank you for your thoughts on everything! i very recently got into the sport and your tumble has been a great help in learning and understanding grid dynamics.

i just wanted to bring up, with regards to the whole lando situation, that it’s really shitty the way lando’s handling all of it. i understand that lando is a very pr focused person, but max is very much not. to have someone that he considers a friend essentially say that they’re not friends at all just seems pretty backhanded. idk if i’m just blowing it out of proportion or giving max too much credit. just seems shady and shitty.

thanks again for everything. your lestappen gate posts have been keeping me alive through the winter break!

yay! happy to hear that!

agree, max put literally little to no thought to his PR, usually what he thinks he will straight up say.

you could also see it in las vegas, which was aside from the entertaining race a mess. there max admitted that it should be more about the sport than the show itself and was really vocal about it.

for instance, charles put out a very clear PR statement where he sort of disagreed with max, but also ended up saying that the sport should be the main focus. they both put out a different opinion to the press, but managed to respect each other.

then you have daniel:

Daniel Ricciardo commented on Max Verstappen's comments about the Las Vegas Grand Prix at the Qatar Airways Paddock Club event.

Daniel says he was enjoying the entire event.

“I think some drivers are just trying to rebel, but deep down they really enjoy it, they just don’t want to admit it.”

which could be taken as a direct dig at max as he was the only one who actually spoke out.

then a week later lando spoke out that him and max aren't friends. the only close person to max on the grid that did not take a dig at him in the press as of recent was charles (or checo, but they are just co-workers, not friends/friendly with each other), and that's just a fact. even if max wronged him in some races (vegas t1 overtake), charles took his time to admit to the press that max did in fact apologize and that they're cool.

daniel and lando were also spending the winter break together.

so yeah, seems like there's definitely something going on behind the scenes and max is somehow stuck in the middle of it all lol.

[f1-birb]

if I see one more fucking comment about how Lando lost Hungary in T1

or how Lando shouldn't have been pitted first at the second round of stops and that's why Oscar deserved the place back as if Lando wasn't following the team's call to bring him in and cover off a driver who wasn't a threat

or that he should've swapped straight away and raced for it when we've literally had a McLaren employee (pretty much straight after the race) say they wouldn't have been allowed to because of the pre-agreed strategy

sorry that after over a decade of watching that I didn't realise a 70 lap race ended at T1 or lap 45 or when a team decides that "that's enough racing for the day"

fuck McLaren for scapegoating Lando the way they are, for not allowing him to race properly, and for not a single apology or ounce of gratitude and just letting him further take the fall for their incompetency

2010 they became my team and in one race they ruined it