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slutforpringles · 1 year ago

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The key difference to McLaren that makes Ricciardo's revival real

Ricciardo drives the car very differently to regular driver Yuki Tsunoda, but also to Pierre Gasly - who was Alpha Tauri’s spearhead for several seasons. They prefer a later-braking approach with a sharp, later rotation - the V-style we often hear drivers talk about, and that Ricciardo wanted to move away from at McLaren but couldn’t. The way Ricciardo brakes and approaches a corner puts very different demands on the car and tyres, and requires (and instigates) a different kind of car behaviour. What you saw in Mexico was the result of Alpha Tauri really adjusting the car to that for the first time.

“The driving style is different and not only from the mechanical or aero platform, but we know the Pirelli tyres are quite sensitive,” says Alpha Tauri’s chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls. “The way he drives we can see different tyre temperatures, different tyre temperature balance. We're not talking big numbers, it's not massive, but we can see differences in the way he drives. And he makes the laptime in different parts of the corner. Therefore he exposes different weaknesses to say Yuki does - he drives it in one way, Daniel in a slightly different way. So we just need a slightly different set-up direction for him.”

Ricciardo prefers to carry more speed through the corner by making it more of a ‘U’ shape. To do that he needs a little rear instability on entry to turn in, and enough grip to rotate the car mid-corner without the rear braking away. The McLaren had a lot of peak downforce but it was not always usable, making the car unstable and inconsistent to drive in certain corners and conditions. That was murder for Ricciardo’s preferences. And even now, in a McLaren regularly scoring podiums, Lando Norris says he wants to ‘U’ a corner but has to ‘V’ it off because the car can’t handle that.

Ricciardo admitted he’d had a limitation exposed by his failure to switch styles in the way Norris could, and even how Ricciardo’s replacement Oscar Piastri has. But give him the right car and he was adamant he could still work wonders. That’s what he seems to be moving towards with the AlphaTauri. But achieving that by pursuing this set-up direction was not the work of a moment. AlphaTauri started to experiment after the summer break but Ricciardo only managed one and a bit practice sessions at Zandvoort before breaking his hand.

Then the first attempt at his second comeback of 2023, at Austin, was hamstrung by it being a sprint weekend. Given it was his first race back, upgrades had changed the car’s behaviour in his absence, and the sprint format meant just the one practice session before qualifying, AlphaTauri played it safe and put Ricciardo on Tsunoda’s set-up. That didn’t really work for him. So it was all about getting to Mexico and working on different set-ups to try to unlock a bit more potential from the car based around his driving style. “One of his big limitations has been the front end,” says Eddolls. “So the [new set-up] directions have been able to improve the front end of the car for him, accepting the stability compromise and how that impacts the tyre temperatures through the corner and through the lap.”

It may sound surprising given this was his Kryptonite at McLaren but what Ricciardo has been clear on from the start at AlphaTauri is that he could live with a bit more rear instability. There were signs of this right back in Hungary, where Ricciardo drove the car for the first time. There, and in his second race in Belgium, there was some under-rotation in the car. While the AlphaTauri lacks the aerodynamic peaks of what Ricciardo was driving at McLaren, it seems to have a more stable platform. It’s consistent, and understandable. So Ricciardo actually found that he could cope with some more rear instability than it had, to help give him the front end he needed, without it prompting the kind of inconsistency in car behaviour that he could not handle the way Norris could at McLaren.

The key to understanding the difference is to consider that not all rear instability is the same. AlphaTauri has battled some specific corner entry trouble all season, mainly when its drivers were braking late into heavy braking zones. Given he generally struggled with rear instability at McLaren, it was initially a concern that this might be an issue for Ricciardo. But with the way he drives compared to Tsunoda, Ricciardo didn't counter the same issues with the AT04. Instead, Ricciardo knows what to expect from the car and is able to take it to its limits more comfortably.

“Probably the car that we've got, the characteristics, it behaves,” says Eddolls. “Maybe we haven't quite got the load or efficiency of some of the top teams. However, there's no big fundamental weaknesses of the car other than a lack of a bit of load. He knows what it's going to do. And the fact that it does the same thing, every lap, corner to corner, it's given him the confidence to be able to throw the car into the corners and know that it's going to stick and knows that it’s going to do the same every time. Once we've got that platform in those couple of races earlier in the season, then we can start working on changing the balance corner to corner or through corner with the set-up to try to extract a bit more performance. It's a car that's given him the confidence to be able to push it closer to the limit than maybe he had in McLaren.”

Since Ricciardo’s early races before the summer break, the team has added a bit more aero load through upgrades, and the new set-up direction has now unlocked an even more Ricciardo-friendly balance. In Mexico, Ricciardo was able to use the stronger front end to rotate the car through the corners more to his style - braking a little earlier but riding it a little longer, giving him the grip to turn the front in mid-corner and carrying speed through. The result was being at ease with the car in qualifying, visibly leaning on the front and throwing the car around more.

It doesn’t mean he was on another level to Tsunoda, who looked like he could have been just as quick were his qualifying not sacrificed because of a predetermined engine change and grid penalty. But it did mean Ricciardo was more at the limit of this car for the first time, and feeling more like his old self. This continued in the grand prix itself. The controlled tyre management and comfortable race pace was different to the vast majority of his grands prix for McLaren. Were it not for a red flag, Ricciardo probably would have finished fifth – the final stint suggests he’d have had the race pace to fend off George Russell’s Mercedes (who jumped him at the restart instead), and Norris would have been too far back to catch and pass him on his recovery drive from the back of the grid. Ricciardo also looked feisty at both the start and the post-red flag restart, doing a good job amid frenetic runs to Turn 1 and beyond, and even launched an attack on Russell the final lap. It didn’t quite come off, but how often did you see him able to try that in papaya?

“It was a little weird, at the start of the stint, I didn’t feel as good as towards the end,” Ricciardo said of the second part of the race. “It felt like it took me a little bit to get a rhythm with the tyre. Then the last probably 10 laps, I was able to really start pushing harder. Lando getting George probably hurt George’s tyres a little bit, so that brought him back to me. It was tough. I probably didn’t expect to get that close. When you’re that close, you’re like ‘ah, we could’ve!’. But he protected well in Turn 4. At one point, I was trying to go on the outside, but I could see we were both going to run off and had to abort the mission. We tried, but ultimately, just to be battling a Mercedes at the end, that makes me more happy than just missing out on sixth.”

Ricciardo probably does need a Red Bull Racing promotion to start doing that on a regular basis. Getting the most out of the car he has now must be the objective for the rest of the season – and on this evidence, it should be sustainable. “After last week, it’s funny,” he said. “You can never guarantee a good weekend [but] I’m not surprised we had a good weekend. I was just ready for it, and I think the direction we went with set-up, I knew that would allow me to have a bit more confidence with the car. There’s still certainly some things to get out of it. Even in the race, my first sector was a little average, I wasn’t very consistent there through the first chicane. For sure some things I could improve on, but overall I was very happy with the weekend.”

via: The key difference to McLaren that makes Ricciardo's revival real | The Race

#daniel ricciardo #dr3

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charles-leclerc-official · 4 months ago

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2024 British Grand Prix Race Analysis

I am keeping this one short and to the point. This race appeared more complex than it was. For ease of reading I have combined Lando, Max and Lewis’ races into one section as there was a lot of comparison to do there and it didn’t make sense to split it up.

Table of Contents Ferrari - Car set ups - Race: Pit calls, radio analysis Top 3: Lewis, Max, Lando Mclaren - Lando - Oscar Other Moments of note Final Thoughts

Ferrari

Ferrari’s race was a mess. I have noted this multiple times this year, but rain seems to be a difficult factor for the team to deal with. It’s unclear why. I have my suspicions to explain some things. But we can look at results and see that the team(not the drivers) the team behind the pitwall has had a lot of problems when contending with rain and mixed conditions.

Unfortunately Britain was no different.

Car Setups

Ferrari have been struggling to understand the two upgrade packages. It seemed that with this weekend the team heavily sacrificed results to try to understand and test some things with how these two upgrade packages worked. From free practice one it was clear that they were doing some more extreme tests to try to get a handle on the car. Given how many changes were made, and the fact that Charles went into qualifying with a car spec he barely had any experience with it was clear they were sacrificing this weekend in the hopes that gathering data and understanding certain things about these packages would allow them to get better results in the future.

After 3 races in a row of middling to bad results I don’t necessarily fault the team for doing this. Something had to be done, because at this point they said they didn’t have a clear understanding of where their problems were coming from. Sacrificing one weekend for the potential benefit of the remainder of the season was worth it (we will have to see if this turns out to be true) Obviously, in ideal circumstances no sacrifices would need to be made. However given where the team was going into the British GP something had to be done. They clearly needed data that would give them answers, and it meant the drivers were not able to really focus on maximizing any one setup.

You could point to Carlos and say he got good results. But did he? He finished P5 in a car that should be able to do better. In a car that has done better. Consistent P5 is not where we want either driver to be. Glad for the points. But as a benchmark for performance of the car it’s lacking. And to be clear I do not think this lack of result was Carlos’ fault. He may have been driving a setup a little more comfortable to him than Charles, but he was not in anything optimal either.

At the moment it seems that the SF-24 with the upgrades is more track specific than previously believed.

Both drivers were testing various setups and upgrade package specs during free practice to try to find what would work. Bouncing was the main issue. The suspension of the SF-24 is current;y unable to properly support the aero upgrades, which are working as expected, but the car just cannot offer the support for those gains to show.

The team did find that the Imola spec was best to reduce the bouncing, however it wasn’t fast. They chose stability over speed, which was technically the right choice. It doesn’t matter if the car is fast if it’s impossible to drive.

Charles was running various specs of the SF-24 all weekend up until qualifying. He had to go into qualifying with a version of the Imola spec he’d run once before the entire weekend. I said above that the team clearly sacrificed the weekend for data, and this was the result. Charles didn’t have the chance to fine tune any settings on the car to have a good chance at qualifying.

Carlos reportedly had a little more time with the Imola spec than Charles when it came to prepping for quali in FP3. Charles went with the same Imola spec as Carlos, however he reported that several settings were off, especially on the front tyres.

Carlos also did not get as comfortable in the car as he would have liked. He’d had more time, but still qualifying P7 is not the starting position we want to see. He mentioned that the bouncing was still there and the lack of pace was tough to manage as well. These were things both drivers reported.

Both specs of the Ferrari underperformed. The Imola spec was marginally better for this track, and after that it came down to scrambling to get the car setup correct. A track which the team was already wary of being good for the car at the time. They were correct in that assessment.

The Race

Charles started the race in P11 and finished P14. Carlos started P7 and finished P5.

Now, I predicted that Charles would finish around P7 or P6 in the race. He had the race pace for it and his overtaking this year has been great. And if the team had managed his race as they should have I would have been correct.

That wasn’t how things unfolded.

Charles actually had the best start to the race of any driver in lap 1. He went from P11 to P8 in a single corner, passing 3 cars. After that he managed to climb up to P7 and was chasing P6 before track conditions changed.

So while the qualifying performance wasn’t there the race pace was enough to keep the Ferrari closer to the front than the back of the points.

Charles lost all the places he gained in the pits.

The big factor this race was rain. How much rain and when would it arrive?

Charles pit for intermediate tyres on lap 20 after the pitwall told him heavy rain was expected in the coming laps. Using that info Charles boxed. However the rain didn’t come for another few laps. Charles was on inters, which lost considerable time as that compound is significantly slower if the track isn’t wet enough(and it wasn’t) He then had to pit an extra time for another set of interes when the rain did come, because by the time the track was actually wet his inters were already destroyed.

The early pit combined with losing time because he was on the wrong compound, followed by an extra pit stop was what lost Charles his chance in the points. This lost so much time it was impossible to recover.

The key problem was pitting too early for the inters. Why did that happen? And who is to blame?

There has been a lot of speculation about the statements the teams have made about the info the drivers were given, and a similar number of interpretations of the team radios of both drivers.

Fred claimed that both drivers were given the same information. Many have claimed he is directly lying about this, because over the radio we heard very different things. However I think he is technically correct. I think the issue came down to different interpretations of the same information by Charles and Carlos’ side of the pitwall, and this is evidenced in the way Carlos and Charles were receiving info about the rain and the amount of rain.

I think that both sides of the pitwall were looking at the same weather radar, so the same information. However, Carlos spoke about how he worked out a new system with his race engineer to communicate the specifics of rain conditions. Using color codes to convey the specific amounts on the radar. Whereas with Charles it seems the system there was less specific. “Heavy rain” could mean a lot of things. Whereas “cyan” correlates to a specific measurement on the radar.

Therefore I think this came down to the way the same info was communicated to Charles.

Here I want to present the radios side by side for the relevant laps. I have cut down some radios for simplicity, including the ones I think highlight the differences in communication and also show the relevant information about the rain as that is the main concern here. I encourage you to listen to full team radios if you want even more information.

I think if you look at the radios side by side it is clear that the team was using the same info, and were conveying the same information. However the way it was told to the drivers was different, and that made the difference.

Based on what both engineers were saying I think they were both looking at the same weather radar. However one was working with his driver more to confirm conditions. And I think that Charles' side also was not as nuanced in the reading of the weather radar.

The issue here was the way the information was conveyed. With Carlos the he was giving more feedback to confirm the information that was seen on the radar was accurate.

I think that it came down to a difference in communication system between the drivers and their race engineers. The way things were phrased to Charles made it seem like inters would be necessary instead of a more mixed solution. Carlos was trying to see if he could stay out based on the info he had and what he was feeling, while Charles was expecting things to get worse than they were given the way things were presented to him.

Carlos was thus able to play things more by feel. And Charles made the call to pit.

I want to emphasize that this was not Charles' fault for the bad pit call. A driver can only do what they can with the information they have. The information he was given made it seem like he'd need intermediate tyres immediately. Yes he made the call, but the team led him to that call.

I think what this highlights is that these little differences in how the pitwall communicate changing information to drivers matters a lot. Saying “heavy rain” instead of the specific intensity at specific locations makes a difference.

I do not believe that Ferrari intentionally gave Charles the wrong weather information. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, there wasn’t any gain to it. He wasn’t even in direct competition to Carlos at this point, there wasn’t a risk of a double stack. The idea this was intentional sabotage doesn’t really hold up because there was no real gain made anywhere. Sabotage is something that needs to be done for the gain of someone else, no one gained from this. The team lost points, Carlos didn’t benefit in any way, so the idea of this being some sort of sabotage doesn’t really hold up.

I think that the team statements following the race were aimed at covering for the issues in communication behind the pitwall. Not a good look and it did not help with convincing people who wanted to create conspiracies. But usually when things like this are said it’s to cover incompetence or embarrassing mistakes, not malice.

I do think that Charles’ side of the garage can learn from the system Carlos has worked out with his engineer. It seems to be a better method of getting the most accurate info to the driver.

This weekend was a sacrifice for Ferrari. The results were never going to be stellar. However more was lost due to the bad pit call with Charles. Hoping the data gathered from this weekend was worth the sacrifice.

Top 3

The race between the top 3 was a contest of speed, skill in mixed conditions, and pit timing.

Lewis won from P2. This was his 104th career win, his ninth win at Silverstone, which broke the record for most wins at a single circuit. Impressive achievement from him, and winning his home race during his last year with Mercedes is as good of a sendoff fans could have hoped for. Very glad to see him get minimum 1 more win with the team before moving on to Ferrari(the season’s not over so there could be more)

Max started P4 and finished P2, Lando started P3 and finished P3.

One thing to note is that I do believe George might have been in the mix had he not had to retire. He was not as fast as Lewis on pace but I think he would have had a shot against Max or either of the Mclaren’s for a place.

So let’s just dive right into the data between these three.

A lot happened this race, but it was decided on the final stint, and the final stint was decided on the tyre compound. Some teams made the right call, others did not.

The final stint Lewis and Lando were on the softs, and Max was on the hards. The hards were the better performing compound for the conditions compared to the softs, that much was clear, and had the stint been longer Max would have been able to catch up with the difference between those two compounds. The more notable thing is the difference between Lewis and Lando on the softs, Lando is clearly the slowest on this stint, and the difference between performance on the tyres there comes down to Lewis’ better tyre management, and also the fact Lewis had clean air. I think Lando probably pushed too hard at the beginning and cost his potential to save the tyres for a few laps later in the stint. But the soft was also just the wrong compound to catch the cars ahead. Lewis had track position, he didn’t need them, Max and Lando needed to be on a compound to fight on. Softs were not that compound. And you can see the clear difference it made between Max and Lando's pace, which really highlights the difference in performance.

The start of the final stint in the pits was where the race was won and lost. Lewis and Mercedes successfully undercut Lando. Leaving Mclaren stuck having to figure out how to regain the position, and they failed to do so, as tyre compound selection was a significant factor.

Here is their full race pace including the full inter stints(F1 tempo treats most inter laps as outliers because they are much slower than on the slicks)

The first stint Lewis is slightly faster, but they are all quite close. The mediums in the mixed conditions were slowest for Max, the Red Bull was struggling with the mixed rain and the plan was to just survive until it was time for inters. He did do that, but the performance difference between the cars is pretty clear there. On the inters all three were very close. The final stint was where the little gains Lewis made really came into play because all he had to do was maintain his lead after that. And he did.

All three were close on pace, so the little details made the difference, and whichever team/driver managed the mixed conditions of the race won.

And a look at Lando against Lewis’ pace. Lando wasn’t faster for long on any of the stints. Lewis really had the speed against him most of the race. The lap Lando was able to get past was the lap when the Mercedes tyres were starting to fall off.

And Lando vs Max’s pace. They were closer. Max was losing more time in the mixed conditions, the tyre call on the final stint really made the difference. As well as Mclaren’s poor pit timing. But unless they got that tyre compound right on the final stint Max was always going to be ahead of Lando, even if Lando had been ahead he wouldn’t have been able to fight Max with that pace difference.

I will also note that Lando lost a place to Max into turn 1 at the start of the race. The fact he didn’t have track position against Max when he qualified ahead was due to his own inability to defend his position at the race start.

Quick look at what Lewis’ vs George’s pace looked like.

They were extremely close. Almost identical on pace and speed. The race between them would have likely been very tight had George not had to retire. What this really shows is that the Mercedes was the clear fastest car at Silverstone.

Overall the top 3 were very close on pace. Which given the mixed conditions was impressive. Lewis was the driver who managed the changing conditions best, in concert with his team supporting him with the better strategy calls. Great drive from both Lewis and Max. Lando’s race was mixed, I have more about where he and Mclaren went wrong in the section below.

Mclaren

Mclaren have shown all year that the only aspect of their team ready to compete at the front is their car. Their strategy calls have been consistently middling to bad. Ferrari have had some bad weekends, but they have also had more consistently good strategy calls than Mclaren. It’s the middle of the season and Mclaren has yet to make a solidly good strategy call when it comes to the pits/managing the drivers on track. The driver’s can only do so much, and the team’s inability to strategize competently at the front of the field has certainly cost both Oscar and Lando places this season.

This race was no different. In fact it was probably the worst bit of race strategy from them yet.

First completely fumbled Oscar’s pit strategy and cost him places.

Second for Lando they made the same mistake they have made a few times, kept him out too long because they didn’t know how to time the pit when he was in the lead. They then also asked him and relied on him to make the call on the tyre compound for the final stint. That isn’t something the driver should be doing. The team should be putting them on the best compound based on the data they have. A driver doesn’t have the real time data for how a compound is performing, how was Lando supposed to know the softs would be worse if the team wasn’t relaying that info to him?

I have seen some people put the blame of the tyre selection on Lando, and this isn’t right. Lando actually brought up the idea of the medium tyre to the team after they asked him, then saying he didn’t mind. Again, it’s not something he should have had to do to begin with.

The team were then the ones to choose the softs.

Mclaren: “We can choose a medium to cover people like Verstappen or we choose a soft to cover people like Hamilton.”

Lando: “Hamilton. I think Hamilton or do you think medium? I don’t mind.”

Mclaren: “We are going soft. Box this lap please.”

But beyond this the reason they did put him on the softs was to cover Lewis. They were copying what his tyre strategy was, assuming that would pay off. They ignored data showing that might not be the best compound. Because they kind of let Mercedes and Lewis decide their strategy, but they aren’t Mercedes and they weren’t at the front anymore. Choosing the same tyre didn’t make much sense. So not only did they mess up the tyre selection they did it because they were reluctant to do something different to Lewis. Max and Red Bull did and look how it paid off for them.

They are still operating like a mid-field team while competing at the front, relying heavily on the skill of their drivers to carry them. However there is only so much the drivers can do, at the end of the day they can only be as good as the team backing them up, and the team backing them up doesn’t seem to be able to time pits to stay competitive.

The team has been held back by this reluctance to give up places in the pits. They’d rather hold the places they have that are good, then shoot for the top. Their hesitance in this area is holding the entire team back.

In any case, this race was another example of Mclaren defeating themselves. It’s been 12 rounds and they haven’t learned anything from previous mistakes. How many times will they keep leaving Lando out for too long before they have the confidence to give up the place temporarily to pit?

Unclear, but at this point it’s become clear to me that the Mclaren pitwall does not really know how to compete at the front and it’s glaringly obvious.

We may see them turn around after the summer break. But I am not holding my breath.

Lando

Lando also played a role in his own loss as well. First he did not defend his position into the first corner to Max. Second he overshot the pit box when pitting on the final stint. I don’t fault him for the compound choice because at that point in the race his team should have been deciding who to cover and which compound to do it on instead of asking their driver who is trying to fight for a win what to do. You can hear his radio that it all sounded rushed from him, and he shouldn’t have had to waste mental energy on that. Things like overshooting the pit box matter a lot when it comes to fighting for a win.

But the loss of time in the pit box on top of the bad compound selection was what ended his chance to actually fight for the win. Not only did it cost him the place to Lewis but to Max as well.

Oscar

Oscar was somehow more grossly mismanaged by the team than Lando.

Oscar was left out an extra lap before the final stint because the team wanted to avoid a double stack. His tyres had fallen off considerably and he didn’t have the grip, he slid and lost time, and then by the time he did pit he dropped from P2 to P6.

At least they put him on the right compound to fight up a few places.

Top teams can perform a double stack. It’s one of the reasons Red Bull has had some really successful strategies, because they are confident in their ability to perform the double stack if needed. Mclaren clearly aren’t.

Oscar was also clearly sacrificed for Lando. Priority was given to Lando for the pit. Which made sense as Lando was ahead. And they’d already messed up the call on Lando’s pit, so it cost more places than they thought.

I do think that the team were trying to avoid Lando and Oscar being put in a position where they would have to fight on track. After Austria I think they got a glimpse of what it would look like if things got really competitive and that wasn’t a risk they wanted to take.

Mclaren have been their own worst enemies all season, and this race continued that pattern.

Other Moments and Drivers of Note:

George had to retire from the race on lap 34 due to a car malfunction, specifically a problem with the water system.

Logan finished in P11, which is his best GP finish of the season.

Nico finished P6 again, matching his best result of the year once again.

Final Thoughts

Really messy race for Mclaren and Ferrari. Mercedes obviously the biggest winner by getting the home race win with Lewis. Haas are continuing to look strong.

Hopefully this weekend was worth the sacrifices Ferrari clearly made.

See you in Hungary!

#lucis race analysis #silverstone gp 2024 #charles leclerc #scuderia ferrari #sorry this one is so late I have had a really rough 2 weeks #it's not as detailed as I'd like but I need to move on #enjoy

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rb19 · 3 months ago

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what tracks do you think max has a chance to win (or at least podium) at for the rest of this season? & which one's are probably going to be hard due to the limits of the rb19? & thank you for being the voice of reason right now at a time when everyone, including me, is feeling really down about max's wdc chancdes.

in one of waché's interviews before the summer break, he said rb20's strengths are rear-limited tracks and hot conditions. we saw that in austria quali, when max managed to qualify ahead of lando by +0.4. and he would've won that race if not for the slow pit stop. it wouldn't have been a comfortable win, but we ain't gonna see those anymore. every detail needs to be perfect.

but what are 'front-limited' and 'rear-limited' tracks?

front-limited: tracks that ask a lot from the car's front end. so the speed you can carry through the corner is limited by the maximum grip the front tyres can generate. circuits with long, interconnected, fast corners.

rear-limited: logically, tracks that ask a lot from the car's rear end. circuits with higher prevalence of slow corners, characterized by heavy braking followed by significant acceleration on corner exits and long straights.

for example, hungary and zandvoort are heavily front limited. bahrain and austria are heavily rear limited. but most tracks are only slightly biased in one direction, so it's not possible to put each one of them in a little box. the track condition can also affect these traits, if the track is too green or if throughout the weekend there's big variations in temperature, the balance can switch from slightly front limited to rear limited or vice versa.

i can see the mcl38 performing in every track. zandvoort might have been only their second big upgrade of the season, but they've been introducing track-specific parts almost every round and will continue to do so. qatar is heavily front-limited, that's mclaren's playground. even in 2023, lando could've won that race had he started in the front row.

the rb20 underdelivered in zandvoort. they need all three practice sessions to setup the car and they got only one. in the end max ran an old spec floor (for comparison purposes) and a monaco rear wing (in case it would rain in quali and help with the tyre deg on sunday - it didn't, the unloaded setups worked better). they saw max wouldn't have the pace to challenge for the win and decided to take risks. it doesn't matter if it was max's home race, think of the big picture. they still need to run experimental setups in order to understand the car better and improve it for the late stages of the season and even next year. this car STILL has potential to win races. it would've won in spa had max started from p1, i don't know why max fans choose to ignore that. its aero efficiency is still the reference.

SO. with all that said and considering recent performances...

i am optimistic for monza. it's a a neutral track, the low drag favors the rb20. it might not have the same straight line speed advantage it enjoyed over competitors in 22/23, but it's still a factor. track has been resurfaced and it looks like temps are gonna be around 28/30ºC which can help.

+baku: yeah it's a street circuit, but a very rear limited one, low deg and low drag. the rb20 can perform well. -singapore: knees on the floor. start praying for a top 5 finish. ferrari we need your help. singapore is actually rear-limited, like monaco, but its curbs and bumpy nature won't allow the stiff rb20 to be stable. -cota: neutral... but i'm leaning towards mclaren bc high deg +mexico: maxico and inshallah. rear limited and low deg but bc of the high altitude it needs a lot of downforce.. still have faith we can take it tho -interlagos: mcl38 +las vegas: low deg and low drag, rear limited, but cooler temps.. rb20 can you help me out here -qatar: mcl38 +abu dhabi: bit rear limited, low deg, rb20

btw this stuff is not black and white. it just gives you a reference. shovlin has said the w15's weaknesses are hot conditions and rear limited tracks. the w15 was expected to perform well in zandvoort.. but you see, it didn't. a lot of surprises to come. mercs and ferrari are gonna play a big part in this championship.

but don't quote me on any of that!! 😁

#ask

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valyrfia · 10 months ago

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Funny in retrospect now how many people were convinced RB should keep Checo because it wouldn't matter, Max would win the championship on his own anyway.

RB definitely got a little too comfortable lately and put everything into Max and didn't think a team would ever actually put two top drivers together. And honestly, I don't blame him, we all thought that.

So I bet Christian is panicking a little and scrambling to secure someone next to Max for 2025 now.

Currently, the imminent downfall of Red Bull is my Roman Empire. They may be on a high given Max's record-breaking year, but don't be fooled. It seems like they might've already hit the downforce ceiling on the new regs (meaning they're basically sitting ducks in the aero department waiting for others to catch up), they're losing a bunch of their engineers who worked on these miracle cars to Ferrari, and whether Max fully retires from F1 or not, I don't see him staying at the team past 2028.

Red Bull are fine for now, and will probably win the championships next season if we're being realistic, but the Charles/Lewis/Fred powerhouse at Ferrari is going to start being a very real issue very soon and Red Bull don't really have any star material waiting either in the wings or in the junior series, as opposed to Merc who at least have Kimi Antonelli. Liam Lawson could be a good addition to the main team, but he needs time in a junior team first and Red Bull are likely to be hesitant to make the same mistake they did with Alex Albon. Additionally, Liam Lawson is an excellent driver, but isn't on the same generational talent level as Charles/Max/Lewis, and even if he had a season in Alpha Tauri now, would still be a little too green to try and partner Max Verstappen in Red Bull against Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

I think Red Bull's likely long-term plan is to move Daniel up til the end of the new regs, then try and poach either Lando or Oscar from McLaren, or both. I think Oscar would be their first choice and Mark Webber would be a factor to consider in that move (although I don't know enough about the Mark and RBR situation to comment on whether his past with RB would be a help or a hindrance to them trying to get Oscar).

But yeah, in hindsight, this has been why Christian Horner has been so desperate to try and sign Lando, and also why Lando was quickly tied down by McLaren so soon after Charles's contract was announced (@thearchercore has an excellent analysis pointing out why Lando's contract signing and announcement had to be have been rushed once news of Charles's broke), likely someone got wind of this coming and Zak Brown very quickly spotted that this was going to leave teams who have clear n1/n2 line-ups in a dire situation.

TLDR: Red Bull dominates for now but their days are certainly numbered

#asks #anon #lewis to ferrari #red bull racing

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chussyracing · 5 months ago

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what has been happening in the world of motorsports?

it's very long, so all updates and rumours are under the cut

DRIVERS (and others) MARKET

Esteban will leave Alpine at the end of the year (he will confirm his future in f1 „soon“)

Checo Perez got a contract extension in RBR for 2025 and 2026 (meaning that yes, he will be in the team for the first year of new rules)

since there are whispers about Newey already being signed for Ferrari, there are also rumours about Enrico Cardile looking at potential offers (like the one from Aston Martin) as his role could be diminished by Newey coming

very much a rumour (by DailyMail as well) but Ollie to Haas has been confirmed by them

Yuki extended his contract with RB for 2025 season

FIA passed the rule that drivers can be 17 to achieve Superlicence needed for outing in F1 and the only person it could probably apply to right now is Kimi Antonelli who turns 18 in August, so we may see him in an F1 car sooner than that (on the other hand it can also apply to the FP1 junior outing as well)

another thing that supports is are quotes from Toto (that they told Carlos they want to focus on young drivers and he understood) and form James Vowles (that Carlos is their main target for signing)

there are also unconfirmed rumours that Williams offered Carlos a 4 year deal (2 years with 2 years extension possibility) and that the deal could get announced around Barcelona GP

Guanyu is rumoured to look into Alpine seat possibility (remember he was in their junior academy)

Horner cleared up that the new contract extension for Checo is not actually 2 year but rather 1+1

Sauber (or rather Audi) signed Stefano Sordo as performance director in preparation for 2026

Adam Kenyon has been promoted to Head of Aero of Williams and according to James Vowles he has been with he team since 2021 and was “quietly promoted” in March this year already, they just didn’t announce it with a lot of noise

there are reports that Ferrari dropped the negotiations with Newey around Monaco and since he visited Aston Martin factory

Helmut Marko confirmed that if they cannot find a seat for Liam Lawson for 2025 he has a clause in his contract making him a free agent open to all the teams

Montoya said that Logan already has been told he won’t continue racing for Williams in 2025 and this is what is behind his bad results this year (but when does anyone listen to what Montoya says anyway)

OTHER SERIES

Jamie Chawdick became the first ever female to win an Indy NXT race (after also becoming the first female pole sitter)

after Este speaking about getting dead threats, the same happened to Theo Pourchaire in IndyCar for a crash during Detroit GP (Arrow McLaren stood behind him, the same cannot be said about Alpine)

on the other hand… um. he was hired after David Malukas got injured and he was supposed to drive for the rest of the season, and now they fired him and hired Nolan Siegel instead after he apparently just posted about being excited to drive this upcoming weekend (nobody speak to me about how Ferrari treats Carlos for not extending his contract when you see this please)

Marc Marquez will join Bagnaia in Ducati for 2025 in MotoGP

Arthur Leclerc won his first race with his Scuderia Baldini and rest of the team in GT3 series (with a car sponsored by LEC which based on his race suit is his personal sponsor)

Ferrari won 24 hours of Le Mans AGAIN for the second year in row, this time with car #50 and car #51 coming in p3 for a double podium (Nyck de Vries was p2 with Toyota, Ferrari #83 was running in contention for a win or podium at least until the engine died, Alpine suffered double DNF with both cars)

JUNIORS

McLaren reserve driver Hirakawa tested MCL36 yesterday

Jack Doohan did his FP1 session for Alpine in Esteban’s car in Canada and coincidentally Bruno Famin (Alpine TP spoke about him being on their list for the 2025 Alpine seat)

Ollie Bearman will be doing another FP1 session in Nico’s car in Barcelona for Haas

Jak Crawford tested 2022 Aston Martin car

Kimi Antonelli tested W13 in Barcelona

Kacper Sztuka was dropped from Red Bull junior academy after just 4 race weekends and there is a real concern if he will be able to finish the season without the financial backing that the F1 backing brought him

RULES AND FUTURE OF F1

Red Bull Ring will have temporary gravel traps between T9 and T10 (so it would avoid track limits trauma from past two years in F1 but it would also stay safe for MotoGP)

F1’s revenue increased by 45% in first quarter of 2024 in comparison to 2023

the 2026 rules were announced by FIA: cars will be narrower and shorter and lighter, DRS will be replaced by MOM (manual overtake mode) which just sounds like push to pass tbh as it gives you more energy for some time, there will be new aero modes – basically active aero parts (so again similar to DRS but both on front and rear wing and those will be manually activated and it won’t be depended on how close you are to the car in front) and there are new safety measures with stronger hoop after Guanyu’s crash in Silverstone and better/more lights for visibility and of course no front wheel deflectors thank god, there will be less ground effect and less exhaust engine power with electric engine adding more power

FE also will get some new rules: new gloves with better protection (after a series of hand injuries with current generation of cars) and same rules as in F1 about superlicence were updated

side note many F1 team principals apparently already protested certain parts of the new rules (and also some drivers, Lando said that fans can forget about more than one team running for a victory with new rules and George said it could be dangerous with crazy speeds on straights and very slow ones in turns)

also Domenicali admitted that these regs might be the last with hybrid cars, instead they would focus on 100% sustainable fuels and better “traditional” sound and lighter cars in the upcoming years after that

oh and Newey spoke about the new regs as well and said that FIA was “heavily influenced by one or two manufacturers” when making 2026 technical regulations

and Mercedes and Renault are against alternations to the agreed engine regulations for 2026

Ferrari tested the 2025 Pirelli tyres in Mugello last week

FIA is thinking of doing two sets of testings (instead of just three days like it was in recent years, doing 6 of them instead) which would probably be 3 days in Barcelona and 3 days in Bahrain for 2026 as the teams would need to collect more data with the new regulations coming into place

F1 TEAMS

the investigation against Stake Kick Sauber F1 Team in Switzerland was dropped “after determining that Sauber’s international presence and the inaccessibility of Stake’s services in Switzerland rendered the sponsorship compliant with regulations”

formulauno reports that Ferrari’s Imola upgrade package cost them about 35% of development budget, so more big changes were meant come in Silverstone but the team pushed forward and is expected to bring them in Barcelona already (so maybe new floor? maybe diffusor area where we lose a lot to RBR?) – this upgrade package could be fit to both cars depending on how they do (and if they can do 3 copies)

Mercedes should also bring new floor to Spain with more gains expected from them, Red Bull, VCARB and McLaren are also expected to bring some upgrades

Williams had a fanzone in Montreal and opened another in Barcelona

Red Bull is apparently asking for legality check of the front wings of Mercedes (and probably McLaren and Ferrari and there is a speculation that Aston Martin has a similar front wing in works)

there are speculations about Renault dropping out of F1 after rumours that Alpine is asking for possibility of Red Bull Powertrains as their engine supplier from 2026 onwards

speaking for Alpine, they had some upgrades that obviously helped them quite a lot, but according to Esteban, they have been swapping one chassis (the older one) that is 3kgs heavier and he had it since Miami and he expects them to swap it for the rest of the whole season…

Zak Brown was saying how RBR is toxic right now and he expects more people to leave them

Mercedes is under a wave of criticism because they kind of erased Lewis’ trophy from Chinese sprint from this year on social media (person opinion: I don’t think it was purposeful maybe but definitely very unfortunate under the current circumstances)

slight drama with Alpine (again) from Canada: despite starting much lower with the overweight chassis and grid drop penalty from Monaco, Esteban was running in front of Pierre towards the end of the GP and the team asked him to swap with Pierre who was behind, Esteban didn’t want to but after a lap or so he let Pierre in front, at the end of the race when Pierre couldn’t catch up with Daniel in front, Esteban asked if they can swap back like usual and got negative response

also McLaren could have won the race in Canada and fumbled it because they didn’t call Lando to pit although he was in front of the pit entry when the safety car came out (so it wasn’t bad luck with safety car as some fans called)

RB or VCARB or whatever will be changing their name again because it is pretty confusing right now (Horner said that when they called Yuki about his contract extension with RB he was hopeful for a second that RB means Red Bull)

it is in the stage of rumour for now BUT Alpine is apparently looking for a way out of the deal with Renault as it is open secret they make the weakest power unit out of all factory teams and instead is looking for a new engine supplier to become a customer team (also there is a rumour that this and the fact that Flavio Briatore has been linked to the team are the main reasons that Esteban was looking for a way out), there is also a real concern of selling the team (to Andretti for example) but Renault CEO said that won’t be happening

F1 DRIVERS

Charles invested in Chrono24 which is marketplace for luxury watches (funny side note: Christiano Ronaldo invested in the same company last year)

Charles was the first torch bearer of Olympic flame as it passed through Monaco, making him second F1 driver to do so after Lewis (and Nico Rosberg was there in the crowd to watch Charles lol)

apparently Lewis is staring in Camilla Cabello’s new music video

Charles will be taking part in Jules Bianchi karting marathon in September

Carlos will have a special edition of a cap for his home race in Spain

Max will have a special helmet for Barcelona, Red Bull Ring, Spa, Zandvoort and Monza which is fully orange as “they are European races with a lot of orange fans” (…bro. monza… um)

Max said he was contacted by teams in WEC for a possibility of him taking part in 24h of Le Mans in a hypercar, Pierre also said he would like to do it one day but remains focused on F1 now and Charles also said it could be something he would like to do after F1 because it calls for a lot of training he cannot afford with current 24 races long F1 calendar

gentle reminder that Checo will have a 3 places grid drop penalty in Barcelona because his team purposedly told him to bring the damaged car to the pits although they knew it would be considered driving under unsafe conditions, just because they were afraid of it ruining Max chances of winning

apparently Kelly Piquet had to post about receiving hate online and Max also spoke out about it under her post (no comment)

Jacques Villeneuve had some pretty brutal things to say about Daniel Ricciardo (mostly that he doesn’t belong in F1 right now and is taking up space for someone talented) and Daniel answered that he probably hit his head too many times

oh also Charles’ issue in Canada was system one, not engine one which is why they remain optimistic with his pool of used engines, on the other hand the issue was up to 80 horse power units and about 1.5s per lap so…

Charles won the overtake of the month trophy for his pass on Lewis from the outside in Miami

Charles posted a new vlog on YouTube (and I have yet to see it AHH)

Carlos revealed in an interview that he has co—owned a burger restaurant with his friends for a year now (Boogie Burgers)

Liam Lawson recorded a song in the studio (it is unknown to me if he is on the vocals or guitar as well tbh but… damn these drivers are just collecting sidequests at this point)

Valtteri Bottas won a 114 km long gravel cycling race (fun fact: there is an incredibly funny headline I didn’t screenshot talking about Carlos getting inspired by Valtteri’s win as a fellow driver without a seat and buying a new bike)

OTHER F1 RELATED UPDATES

the Apple original F1 movie with Pitt will be released internationally on 25th June 2025

Canadian GP organizers were called to stewards after track invasion after the end of the GP (but there were other issues which Stefano Domenicali had to apologize for: flooded parts of the facilities, fans who paid tickets getting a fence in front of them covered by black cloth, fans being sent home on Friday with information that the sessions were cancelled)

F1 wants to involve AI more in the industry and we already saw AI made trophy for the Canadian GP (and apparently last Merc post about Doriane is labeled as made by AI too)

Stuart Pringle spoke up as a Silverstone managing director about the lack of sales for the tickets and mentioned that after years of Mercedes dominance as a British team with a British champion, the Red Bull dominance has hurt them the most (but as everyone else spoke up, it might as well be their sketchy prizes tactics)

Barcelona had a live roadshow with multiple drivers doing donuts/showrun in f1 cars (Carlos, Checo, Jack Doohan…)

F1 Exhibition will also visit London after being successful in Madrid, Vienna and Toronto

FIA launched a new campaign focusing on preventing concussion

#and that's what you missed on glee #i say as if i wasn't working non-stop in the past weeks and this isn't first update after two weeks or so #e #f1 #gossip night

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gentlemanmotorslifestyle · 6 months ago

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angael-a · 5 months ago

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There weren’t a lot of things that could set Oscar off. He was stable, consistent, unbothered. It was something that everyone around him noted, and he took pride in it.

If there was one thing, however, it would be pre-season testing. Don’t get him wrong—he loved the track, loved racing, and that first lap in the car after the off season was always exhilarating.

It was the stuff after the rush that was unbearable, the hours of data analysis, fussing with equipment, and random runs on track. The time where you discover two things:

1.) The car is shit. (Except, of course, you’re a Redbull driver, which Oscar is not.)

2.) Nobody knows what they’re doing.

These complaints resonated throughout, well, the entire grid. Nobody wanted to listen to engineers talk about something they didn’t understand while nodding at what seemed like the right times and trying not to go insane.

So, in true racing driver fashion, they designed a competition.

The premise of the game was simple: whoever could slip the most song lyrics into casual conversation without being noticed is the winner. The only rules were no teaming up, no quoting casual phrases (it has to be obnoxious), and if you get called out five minutes or less after quoting, you’re eliminated.

Thank you @2bluetwo85 for editing !!

-DAY ONE-

The first person Oscar sees when he arrives on track is Lewis, walking down the pit lane. As he passes the commentary box, his eyes latch onto something--or someone-- inside. There’s something unreadable in his expression, something Oscar's never seen before.

He thinks about it, walking towards the Mclaren garage. There's only two people commentating today, and only one of those people mean something to Lewis Hamilton. Nico Rosberg, 2016 F1 World Champion, and Lewis' ex-teammate, rival, sort-of-kind-of-not-really lover. It's not a secret within the grid--both parties aren't exactly subtle, as recently demonstrated.

When he steps into the hospitality and finds one beaming Lando Norris, he tells him as much. Lando grins, and points: 'I know someone even less subtle.'

Behind them, at the entrance of the Redbull garage, stand Charles and Max, engaged in conversation. He's not quite sure what they're discussing, but it involves a lot of hand-waving and exaggerated expressions.

(Although, he supposes, Charles and Max always look like they're in the middle of a presidential debate.)

At that moment, Zak calls them over, urging everyone into a meeting room. It's wholly pointless, just a lot of emotional speech and encouragement for the coming year, even if it comes in the form of trashing last year's car.

Oscar seizes the opportunity: straight-faced, he says, 'Just because it didn't work, doesn't mean it's meaningless to me. Just wasn't meant to be.'

He gets a few strange expressions from the crew around him--Lando included--but Zak says, without missing a beat, 'That's right. THREE CHEERS FOR MCLAREN!' and the attention is, thankfully, taken off him.

He silently thanks Zak Brown and his endless optimism.

It’s only after the first session ends and Oscar is listening to radio replays--one of his favourite pastimes, both because of the data and because of the entertainment he gets from it—that he realizes a good amount of the grid has gotten a lot more done than he has.

It seems that, during the several runs used to collect aero data, the drivers took it upon themselves to throw quotes at their engineers through the radio.

The engineers that were completely oblivious of their shenanigans, and hence unaware of the game.

(Looking back, he should have expected this. It was completely in character for the grid to find loopholes in any situation.)

A few highlights:

Valtteri saying, voice wistful, 'And it’s been ages, different stages…'

Alex, proclaiming 'I WANT IT THAT WAY!'

Charles, completely emotionless, 'Am I the only, only believer?'

Lewis, telling Bono 'You and me got a whole lotta history.'

Pierre, complaining, 'I’m like a boat on the water.'

And, finally, Logan, who came through with a beautiful 'You’re turning heads when you walk through the door.' When someone asked if their hair was standing up.

By the end of it, Oscar’s had enough. He pulls up Google, and, face determined, starts researching song lyrics.

(In the back of his head, he wonders, slightly hysterically, what this sport has come to.)

Will possibly maybe probably have a part 2?? If I have the motivation??

#f1 #formula 1 #oscar piastri #the result of having too much free time

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blorbocedes · 4 days ago

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redbull finally managing to find something illegal and it not being about mclaren is so funny i guess they want that constructors p2

atp id rather they get the extra aero time and lock in for next year's car

#blorbocedes ask

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mecachrome · 1 year ago

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(sorry for rpf ment) but id like to know your opinion bc from ur tags it's clear you understand oscar pretty well. basically i keep seeing fics and things describe him as "analytical" and "focused" but personally i never get that vibe? could you maybe extrapolate a bit on where that comes from?

oh anon thank you for giving me the opportunity to do my favorite thing in the world (talk about oscar)!!

honestly i do think that "analytical" and "focused" describe him very succinctly — these are words you'll find that he and many others have described him by in real life — it's maybe just a matter of understanding what that means for him and not equating either trait to the sum of his personality. to me this is not a bad thing because i genuinely enjoy athletes who are considered analytical and boring (which i've also reclaimed as a term of endearment now. i'll gladly take a boring dude if it means he doesn't like playing golf!) so i think he fits that archetype well, it's just that he's obviously more than that and thus his personality is endearing to people because he has "unexpected" quirks that betray the occasional assumption of his one-dimensionality.

here are a few direct quotes from people around him:

BROWN: "He's very mature, he's very focused and he’s very technical." STELLA: "There is no external noise in his brain. He doesn’t dissipate or dilute his talent into things that are not useful or functional, and that was apparent to us relatively early on." STALLARD: "Everything is meaningful. I’m not sure I’ve met that many [drivers] who I would describe as calm and intense." WEBBER: "He’s a Prost, mate. He’s such a thinker and so calm. At first I thought I needed to inject a bit of urgency in him, but actually no, he’s got his own frequency. That’s just where he is."

rest below the cut because i talk too much...

i would be curious to hear more about why you don't get that vibe from him so i could elaborate more in that direction, would you say it's because he doesn't come across that way in off-track media that mclaren posts of him and lando? i'd argue that at least on-track his being analytical, focused, unflappable, and most of all ~adaptable~ (if you listen to any commentator talk about him you'll quickly hear that this is people's favorite word for him) is what made oscar thrive at the junior level when he was a rookie in both f3/f2, and what's helped him deliver the rookie campaign he's managed so far with mclaren — of course the extensive testing mileage with the a521 helped immensely with this acclimatization but that was a completely different car with different regs, and more impressive to me is not only that he managed to be decent "as a rookie" in an on-average midfield car and didn't commit egregious mistakes when the mcl60 was a backmarker tractor with constant reliability issues but also that he quickly stepped up alongside lando once the aero upgrades came along and immediately recalibrated his expectations from "maybe points if we're lucky" to "podiums whenever possible." that's a bigger mental feat than it seems and definitely speaks to his analytical nature; another example of his inherent reflectiveness is his somewhat subdued reaction to getting his first podium in suzuka because he was more concentrated on his pace deficit to lando and overall tyre-management issues than the superficial milestone of a podium. similar to tom sarcastically going "i can hear that you're excited..." after quali that weekend and oscar quipping back "that's as excited as i get for second place!"

maybe "focused" is difficult to qualify as a personality trait but i'd say it manifests largely in his calmness, especially when you consider the high-adrenaline nature of racing and the effusiveness other drivers on the grid are prone to displaying. how oscar strikes me as is that he's self-critical while still managing requisite internal belief and optimism, which stella and others have spoken highly of and credited for driving forward his rapid development curve over the course of a weekend, especially at new race tracks. maybe you're asking about "analytical" in the context of relationship dynamics in fic so feel free to correct me there (AND ALSO APOLOGIES FOR THIS UNGODLY SPIEL), but another great quote is andrea in his latest btg appearance where he says this of oscar:

"[What impressed us is] his awareness of what the opportunities are, even before he looks at an overlay or looks at any telemetry. He kind of has this capacity to self-recognize where there is more to come from either himself or from the car, and this is not so obvious. I know drivers that can be fast, but they kind of definitely need external support as to see what is possible. [...] He has a large capability from a self-awareness point of view, and then he has this capacity to then drive according to the opportunity identified, which for me is the definition of talent."

in terms of his media personality, you'll commonly see people online say that oscar is a talkative kimi or that he's winning the idgaf war etc. and i think maybe people (not fic writers but like Guys On Reddit) tend to extrapolate a bit too much from his "mentality" and are like this is why he's going to be the next wdc and lando will become washed which is literally absurd and insane and i'm not even going to entertain that with a ten-foot pole. but i think how i'd describe oscar is that he's very intentional in disseminating his image in a highly specific "everything is a product of cringe culture" gen-z way — he knows exactly how he comes across to the camera or how people perceive his tweets online and is willing to play into the meme when he thinks it'll benefit him, for ex. how he knew the camera was on him during the jetpack guy moment and consciously made that face to incite some kind of reaction. obviously oscar isn't wholly preoccupied with making people like him and isn't going to be as loud and rambunctious as a character like dr3, but he's capable of being "silly" and making jokes because he does like being perceived as funny and will engage in low-effort banter or make his drs tweets and post a 240p reaction gif of the jetpack meme because he enjoys social media virality to some degree. like i'm sure the crb debacle was a stressful time for him but another part of him was like "oh sweet more followers" LOL... maybe because of that it feels like there's a dichotomy between his "silly" self who makes bottoming jokes in mclaren youtube videos and who giggles at everything lando says and then his more focused, technically-oriented side, but imo there is very much a positive relationship between these facets of him. i'd say that because he is generally so analytical and calm he therefore has the mental capacity to be introspective in an actionable manner and improve on his weaknesses without getting emotionally carried away, and then in social settings this also allows him to live in the moment and take things less seriously and not overreact to people's opinions of him. if that makes sense...

also for bonus maxf/renault acad lore purposes: here is the insane mia quote about them that maybe explains more of his "ruthless" focus... i feel like sometimes it sounds weird when people call him that because being ruthless is essentially associated with being cruel or lacking empathy but to me oscar's ruthlessness is entirely inward and not a marker of his EQ or social awareness, just a reflection of how effectively he self-motivates and pushes himself:

"Consistency on track is based on how stable you are off track. [...] If you look at Oscar Piastri, he has been living on his own, [away] from his family who are in Melbourne for the past five to six years. [...] That's why he thrived in those weekends racing. He loves being on his own without anybody. On the other hand, we had Max Fewtrell, for example, who can't – he couldn't survive the 11 weekends racing, because he always needed his family to be around him. So those are the things that suddenly you see and, I think that that we see now, after a few years, a driver who is quick, a driver who has the talent, and then the driver who is stable."

again SORRY for how long this answer is but hopefully it is at least mildly informative!!! T__T

#ask #adding tag for organizational purposes x__x #oscar piastri #op meta

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