#he also said that he wants to nurture the Williams junior drivers

[scuderia-hamilton]

James Vowles shut the fuck up challenge failed astronomically

[ottovonruthie]

On the James/Logan situation, it's probably coming down to Logan's driving and what James has been saying to the media.

When James first signed Logan he said their intentions in resigning him after his poor rookie season was to "nurture him" and "develop his talent". For context, Logan was part of Williams Junior programe, so he's a Williams driver through and through. He was announced to be picking up the second Williams seat in October 2022 after they decided to drop Nicolas Latifi during his third year racing for Williams and they honestly didn't have many options (Oscar notably got picked up by McLaren and De vryies who did well during Alex's leave for appendicitis by Alpha Tauri). It also should be known that James also joined Williams as TP in 2023, so it Jost Capito (past Williams TP) who decided to pull up a "underdeveloped" Logan. I put undeveloped in quotations because he was, he wasn't ready and needed that second year, but he isn't a bad driver. He preformed well during his F3 and F2 seasons, and it's proven by his performance in Charouz in 2021. Charouz was the worst car on the grid finishing last the year before, and Logan was able to score their first ever podium in F3. He also scored 102 points and placed 7th in the championship. This is actually insane, and to put into perspective, Charouz only scored a total of 127 points that year.

When he was signed, people had very high hopes for Logan out that didn't exactly pan out.

This year Williams has been relatively unreliable, not only in strategy but also in the car. In Bahrain he had steering problems, and in Australia he had his chassis given to Albon who had crashed in FP3. This caused a lot of outrage over this decision, and people questioning if it should be even allowed to do that. This was the first sign that Williams might not be exactly following what they were saying earlier in the year.

Logan would then be given an overweight chassis in Japan as they didn't have a spare chassis after Williams production of car parts was very backed up (they had this whole Microsoft word doc thingy and they were barely able to even have both cars ready for testing). Logan would from then on have a different spec car and get some 2023 parts on his car until Spain where he would get the updates. The funny thing is that they didn't even work. Silverstone where he finally and the updates working and on his car, he had his best performance of the season. After this we would get a article stating that James never gave any feedback, which was very strange.

James in that time though had been openly interested in replacing Logan this year with rumors flying from Carlos to Valtteri to even Esteban in taking the second Williams seat. Esteban had been reported to have had a seat fitting and was reported to have been planed to drive in Hungary if Alpine hadn't blocked the move.

Then we obviously hear that Logan and James aren't speaking, and take this with a grain of salt, but it's also said that Dorilton Capital (the new owners of Williams and an American investment company) wanted to keep Logan for the 2024 season, so it's spectated that James never wanted Logan in that seat.

In my opinion, Logan probably thinks it's unfair how he's not being given a solid chance and James has been shitting on him to basically anyone who will listen, and James just doesn't want Logan as a driver.

Thank you so much for this. I’m now fully caught up with the Williams’ drama. I knew he’d been driving the non upgraded version of the car most of this season but that’s it. But this is where I debate with myself, if they’re going to do all of this, wouldn’t it just be better to have not renewed his contract from the start and look elsewhere? I’m glad he’s getting the experience but it’s lowkey a waste of both of their times.

[cobraonthecob]

just remembered that i haven't posted my merc 2nd seat predictions so here they go, i made them before fernando signed to stay with aston martin btw

REMEMBER. this is all for fun and for merc to deal with. some will be funny, others serious

SERIOUS PREDICTIONS: 1. carlos: easy swap, also, i'd scramble to grab carlos. he has a good brain under that pretty hair and why not. swapsies!

2. fernando: harder to get, as he has said that he'll consider going to merc if aston is a flop this year and merc is stronger this year. as we all know, he is choosing a stable future...hopefully.

3. alex: even harder, as he'll want to be the number 1 driver nurturing williams into a top-contending team. something drastic would have to happen to make alex consider moving

UNLIKELY, BUT POSSIBLE

antonelli: IF he makes top three in F2 and a lot of persuasion, but i feel like merc will try and persuade williams to take him on and take on another, more experienced driver. or merc will just put this kid fresh out of school in merc itself.

esteban: if alpine remains at the bottom of the standings and pierre is dominating, then i can see esteban trying to say 'hey merc, take me, i'll be a second player, idc, just get me out of here'. i doubt it though, considering his history of not getting along with his teammates and i think he and george would kill each other in a way that'll give toto a giant headache

I WOULD BE SURPRISED 1. mick: we love blonde nepo babies, don't we? IF mick is to return to the grid, i can see him getting strong-armed to williams and pulling alex to merc, or merc says 'fuck it, let schumi junior warm the seat for the next coming of max verstappen', then that's a possibility. his second year at haas (aka when the car was in a place to score points) showed that he can score good points, but he wasn't very consistent. he really should've gotten a third year to finally prove his skill, but alas. kmag and nico have way more experience. realistically speaking, he's going to have a hard time coming back to the grid unless he pulled a daniel and gets a P2 time or better in a merc in a tyre test. now, mick's job as reserve and i think he also helped develop the car means that he could be pulled to williams if that's an option, but i don't think mick to merc or williams is a possibility

2. logan: if he can score points this season and alex is not willing to play second and seat warmer at merc, i feel like logan would take it. currently, the way the season's going? if i were logan, i'd start looking to formula e, f1 has nothing for me going on if i can't turn the car in a corner without it attempting to fling itself into a wall

3. valtteri: idk if he'd be willing to gamble on being the better driver when merc has been slowly putting their eggs into the george basket. also why would he go back there. used to be in SILLY but now moved here since hulkenberg has taken a seat at sauber, though a driver of his caliber would be able to easily beat hulkenberg

SILLY 1. sebastian: he retired to be a girl dad, but then deciding 'fuck it, i'll pull a fernando' would have me laugh for a grand total of two seconds before i'm like 'no'. we have plenty of older drivers and no new fresh talent on the grid already, like keep your promise and be with your family

2. rosberg: why would he do this. he retired to be a father and he's happy doing other things. f1 is NOT the end all be all. let him be happy running an ice cream shop with his wife and an extreme e team

3. nyck: what i'd give to be a fly on the wall for that phone call. i can see it. toto calls nyck. nyck picks up. toto is begging on his knees. nyck smiles. 'you left me out of a williams seat for so long that i went for alphatauri. now i'm happy in formula e and wec. thanks, but no thank you. good-bye.'

4. yuki: after all the disrespect alphatauri/vcarb has put him through, he can go to merc and claw his way there. or maybe not. idk how i'd feel about yuki playing second driver to another white man

5. pierre: given alpine being a flop, i wouldn't be surprised if he showed up to the merc/williams auditions. i can see him going to williams to replace alex should alex move to merc, or pierre going to merc, but i don't know he's WANT to be a second driver at merc or williams despite the fact that maybe i do want a pierre-alex lineup. ex teammates of max verstappen let's fucking goooo

6. daniel: after all the smoke and mirrors and the reason why nyck's therapist can afford their kid's motorsport career, daniel makes a move to merc. this prediction is so impossible (merc and daniel wouldn't even consider it for different reasons) but thinking about it made me laugh

[f1]

Oscar Piastri will replace Fernando Alonso at Alpine next season

Oscar Piastri won last year's Formula 2 Championship Alpine have promoted their reserve driver Oscar Piastri to fill the vacancy in 2023 left by Fernando Alonso's move to Aston Martin. The announcement came hours after team boss Otmar Szafnauer was unable to confirm Piastri would race, despite having "contractual obligations". An Alpine statement said Piastri would race "in line with the commitments made by the team to the young Australian". There was no quote from Piastri in the media release. The 21-year-old is known to have had conversations with McLaren in recent weeks, as Alpine discussed a contract renewal with Alonso. Alpine wanted Alonso to stay and were trying to secure a deal to loan Piastri, the reigning Formula 2 champion, to Williams next year. Szafnauer admitted in a news conference on Tuesday morning that Piastri's unwillingness to drive for Williams was "a consideration" and said he was "not privy to whatever pre-arrangement [Piastri] has with McLaren, if any any all". He added: "I do know he does have contractual obligations to us and we do to him. We have been honouring those obligations all year. "We do have a legal contract with him into the future with '23 and and if an option is taken up, for '24." And he said that Alpine would "sit down and progress what our future driver line-up is going to be, and the choices aren't different". Szafnauer admitted that the team had been surprised by Alonso's decision to move to Aston Martin, and that it had been because the two-time champion had wanted a longer confirmed contract than Alpine were prepared to offer him. He also said he had been having problems getting in touch with Piastri's manager, the former F1 driver Mark Webber, adding: "Oscar and his camp are 'considering their options', whatever that means." Alpine did not initially respond to questions from BBC Sport as to whether they had since spoken to Webber, who Szafnauer said was in Australia. A statement from the team said: "Oscar is a bright and rare talent. We are proud to have nurtured and supported him through the difficult pathways of the junior formulae. "Through our collaboration over the past four years, we have seen him develop and mature into a driver who is more than capable of taking the step up to Formula 1. "As our reserve driver, he has been exposed to the team at the track, factory and testing where he has shown the maturity, promise and speed to ensure his promotion to our second seat alongside Esteban. "Together, we believe the duo will give us the continuity we need to achieve our long-term goal of challenging for wins and championships." via BBC Sport - Formula 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/