#hungary gp 2009

[sewellove-deactivated9782]

pretty eyes

[umseb]

"Hungary GP (10th Race): Not classified (Hungaroring, Budapest) – a nice show at the Red Bull Street Parade in Szeged (Hungary) some time earlier." - december 21, 2023 📷 @.sebastianvettel / instagram

[iceman7raikkonen]

[umlewis]

hungary, p1 // july 26, 2009

[backmarkerr]

please....can u speak on the conspiracy

So the conspiracy (more like a theory, really) is that Kimi was pushed out of the team starting in 2008 to make way for Fernando, who was more appealing to the big sponsor coming in. Before you click out thinking "Max, that's stupid, no team would throw a championship for a sponsor." I agree! But keep in mind that they didn't throw the championship, they fully expected to win the WDC with Felipe (and almost did) and did in fact win the WCC in 2008 with Felipe and Kimi despite everything. But there were really suspicious things going on. So with that in mind...

It's 2008. Kimi has just won Malaysia, the second race of the season. Three days after his win, there's this:

.

Ok, kinda weird, but whatever. F1 runs on rumours, right? Suggesting that Kimi might retire when he's doing so well is silly. And in the article they seem to be pretty ambivalent over whether it would be Felipe or Kimi to leave.

Fast forward to Spain two races later. Kimi scores his second win of the season and takes the championship lead. The season is shaping up pretty well for the defence of the title, you’d think this would be a good time for him, but again, the story du jour is Ferrari wanting Alonso in Kimi’s seat for 2009.

[x] I guess now we know at least Massa's seat is secure...?

If you’re like me, that sounds stupid. The reigning champion just won the last GP and his contract runs until the end of 2010, so this media narrative makes no sense. Something pretty catastrophic would have to happen for that to ever come to fruition, right?

So anyway, he gets a first row start in Monaco. Great, that's almost a surefire win/points, right? Wrong, he got a drive-through penalty due to the team not fitting the wheels to the car on time before the race start. Not a great race and he ends up outside of the points. Lewis is now ahead in the WDC by 3 points. Not really a disaster, but...

[x] what on earth...

[x] again the talk of retirement.... I mean, it's weird, right?

Zero points in Canada due to being rear-ended in the pitlane, which the team can’t control. Then he’s back to being neck to neck with his teammate and Lewis by the time the British GP is done in early July, with all three drivers on 48 points. Good news, right? Just gotta stay on track and not fuck it up somehow.

[x] sigh... (this one's a little harder to source as it was printed media, but I've seen this exact interview quoted in different pages)

So anyway, they change his front suspension for the next race in Germany. Kimi has always been very sensitive to changes in the car, so he knew something was wrong. Ferrari (via Michael, who was then head of development) say he's just not adapting well to the upgrades. Maybe, sure, but why aren't you bringing upgrades that are geared towards your world champion?

(an interesting remark from Mark Hughes here if you scroll down to the comments, which adds weight to Kimi not being listened to when it came to car development in 2008)

Bar a podium in Hungary, Kimi scores 0 points in 4 out of the next 5 races. It takes until either Monza or Singapore (hello crashgate!) for Ferrari to put his suspension back as it was.

He proceeds to get 3 podiums in the remaining 3 races but it’s not enough to catch up. By Singapore he was already 27 points behind his teammate (reminder this is the old points system) and very much expected to play the supporting role. In the penultimate race in China he very obviously gave up P2 to his teammate:

"I know what the team expects." [x] / [x]

Yet the narrative in the media and from Ferrari themselves is that his motivation is bad and he's not assertive. It was so pervasive that to this day people still parrot it and say he just didn’t care after 2007, despite Kimi always stating he was fully committed and clearly getting annoyed whenever journalists asked about his motivation even years later.

Montezemolo at the end of 2008 even 'joked' that "Kimi in the recent races was replaced two or three times by a friend, but next year he'll be back." Basically saying that Kimi wasn't really present, you know? An interesting thing to say when this absent driver scored 18 points in the last 3 races (three consecutive P3s), while the one who was amazing and had the team's full backing scored 20 (P7, P2, P1).

A whole 2 points' difference, maybe someone should hire that "friend"...

So why did they do this?

Well, the theory is that Santander (I promise this isn’t like the dumb Sainztander takes) wanted a Spanish-Brazilian lineup due to financial interests (Spanish bank, big market in South America with a looming IPO in Brazil), so Kimi was basically being pressured out of the team from early 2008 onwards. Like I said at the start, the team weren’t really throwing away 2008, as they expected to win the WCC with both drivers (they did) and Massa to be able to win the WDC, which would of course be beneficial for their new sponsor. And he almost did. Almost.

[x] they're not in charge of driver selection but this specific driver line-up would good for them. (this archived copy of the article is from 2010, but the text makes it clear it's from 2009)

Of course at this point we have to wonder if a team like Ferrari would bow down to a sponsor's demands. I can't tell you what the internal considerations were or how much money was on the line, but it's also not like Santander were telling them to get rid of Kimi for a bad driver, you know? Fernando is a great driver, so from Ferrari's perspective they were just trading a great driver for another great driver who also appealed to this huge sponsor, and an Alonso-Massa line-up would be solid. And with the previous talk that Ferrari and Alonso had already inked a deal in 2008... It's just difficult to believe there isn't a grain of truth here.

So the alleged initial plan of having Alonso in 2009 was foiled when Kimi activated the renewal option in his contract. It was then that he was bought out of his last year (apparently paid for by Santander).

[from the book The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen]

As we can see, by the end Kimi was also fed up with what was going on, especially people pointing the finger at him and at his motivation, and his frustration is very clear in interviews like here at 2.35 and here:

Publicly, Ferrari said they wanted someone more in line with how Michael used to be (ironic since Montezemolo allegedly didn’t like how Michael made the team his), who could communicate with the team and give better feedback (ironic when Todt, Dyer, Stella and others said Kimi was very clear and precise.) Kimi himself has always stated that he wasn’t the issue, that his motivation was never lacking and that the real reason he was pushed out was politics and money.

[x]

[x]

If it had only been the mechanical stuff, I’d be willing to chalk it up to just bad luck and incompetence. Shit happens. But with all the rumours around it even before things went bad on the track and Kimi stating that his work and performance weren't the reason he was let go it becomes impossible for me to think there wasn’t an actual push going on to replace him.

Hell, even famed Ferrari fanboy Sebastian Vettel didn't think it was realistic for Kimi to return to Ferrary in 2014 precisely because Kimi isn't one for "bullshit" and "politics". Why would he choose to say that specifically? And according to Finnish media Kimi’s 2014 Ferrari negotiations included Montezemolo personally apologising to him. Now why would he apologise if they hadn’t done something wrong?

Personally I think Kimi's "certain people did certain things" refers to this. He never trashed anyone and always said he had no ill-feelings. And I believe him. But it doesn't mean nothing happened, lest we forget how well he handled Lotus not paying him.

The thing that really bothers me is that Kimi got the reputation for having low motivation and not caring about what he was doing (I heard that take just last month from an F1 youtuber, how Fernando was hired in 2010 because Kimi had mentally checked out 🙄), when obviously someone who wasn’t motivated and didn’t care would have simply called it quits under these circumstances. Instead he got P3 in the standings in 2008 (I know he’s talented, but he must have been trying at least a little), trained hard to lose enough weight to use KERS in 2009 (why would he do that if he didn’t care) and took the team’s only win that year despite the car being shit. Interestingly, pundits acknowledged his good performance complicated things when it came to Ferrari’s rumoured hiring of Alonso. So imagine how much more complicated things would have been had Kimi done better in 2008?

Anyway, this is long, but if you want something longer then I definitely recommend this post here. You might not agree completely with the original authors (there are parts where I wish there was more info), but I think they offer a lot of good research and information regarding the overall situation back in 2008/2009, and it's a good jump-off point for your own research.

But yeah. 2008 could have been everything. Or at least better.

[moonvisi0n]

2010 Racing - MAYALSIA, CHINA, SPAIN. 📽🐟🦕🌐

Last lap chaos, Redbull poles, battles, and Mak Webba moments ! Schumacher racing :) Comparisons/comments abt far-better-performing Rosberg :( German world-champ duo should be UP FRONT. HRT-Cosworths <3 My sister and I are watching the docu-series about Brawn GP/2009 and it's hosted by Keanu Reeves. No Vettel though--Far too much Chr*stian H*rner-Good amounts of engineering and talk about the car! Unrelated but Piastri winning grill the grid with the biggest smile>>>, even bigger than when he won in Hungary 🫢

[ivettel]

2022 creator wrapup

this tag game is going around other circles of tumblr, so i figure i'll kick another chain off for f1blr! also tagged by @haydanakin -- thank you, shale <3 happy new year!

list your favourite and most popular creations from every month this year!

JANUARY • favourite: puma singapore 2010 appearance my beloved • most popular: aus 2011 cunt king moment - 510 notes

FEBRUARY • favourite: japan 2009 did you mean babygirl? • most popular: frank iero in the "blood" music video - 1011 notes

MARCH • favourite: hungary 2010 fuckboy press conference (took me ages to colour and match but literally on the list of all time favs) • most popular: lewis and seb mexico 2017 drivers' debrief bitchfest - 901 notes

APRIL • favourite: seb x adobe creative cloud suite edit • most popular: australia 2022 scooter - 2462 notes

MAY • favourite: grand theft auto miami 2022 edit • most popular: monaco 2022 red flag vogue - 1622 notes

JUNE • favourite: baku 2022 weekend wrapup edit • most popular: lewis @ seb "ur doing amazing sweetie" - 1772 notes

JULY • favourite: ferrari seb bleeding heart edit • most popular: 'i don't care about the legacy--HONK' encounter - 2328 notes

AUGUST • favourite: grill the grid finale edit • most popular: sebastian "i heard silly season was quite turbulent :)" vettel - 1249 notes

SEPTEMBER • favourite: abu dhabi 2010 x austin 2013 quote edit • most popular: mcrfirefly gerard way "these are the only legs on stage" - 7209 notes

OCTOBER • favourite: boyzone anakin charli xcx edit • most popular: frank iero singing along to "fake your death" - 2179 notes

NOVEMBER • favourite: luke skywalker's cv edit • most popular: seb abu dhabi instagram live - 771 notes

DECEMBER • favourite: seb's 2022 wrapup edit • most popular: luke and han in the empire strikes back - 1384 notes

no pressure tags! @josefnewgayden @maranello @crusaderkings3 @brawn-gp @toyotagazoo @princemick @andreagrimes @h-f-k @vetterrari @cedobols @kkmeeluqq @leqclerc @queerbenched

[leclerced]

Hey! What are your fave seb races?

hey! i haven’t watched very many tbh, i watched his debut and the beginning of the 2010 season, but i have a list of races i want to watch before the next season! this one is seb specific. tbh i want to watch all of the past decade but i dont have the time for that.

credit for the list goes to devyani on tiktok bc i copied this list to my notes app after she posted it ! i couldn’t find the tiktok though sorry!!

1. Monza 2008

2. China 2009 Quali

3. Abu Dhabi 2010

4. Monza 2011

5. Abu Dhabi 2012

6. Brazil 2012

7. India 2013

8. Malaysia 2015

9. China 2016

10. Silverstone 2018

11. Germany 2019

12. Singapore 2019

13. Hungary 2021/USGP 2022/Japan 2022

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber

Japan 2007, Turkey 2010, British GP 2010, Malaysia 2013

Controversey

Mexico 2016, Azerbaijan 2017, Canada 2019

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 159/310

2015 Belgian GP

Alright. We're back after the summer break, it's round 11, officially the second part of the season and we have minimal broadcast as always nowadays. NOPE FOUND IT.

I remember I hated 2014 Belgian GP because I started by writing I think I like Spa and then everything went to shit– OH RIGHT WAIT I'd already forgotten it was the season turning point with the Long Review, Jesus. I don't know what to hope for this time.

It fucken wimdy. To the point we have a full shot of just the Spa forest undulating to really Show Us.

A little bit of context. It's Ferrari's 900th GP. They celebrated by announcing Raikkonen's 1-year contract extension in the week prior. Merc came with a new low-downforce rear wing. RBR tried two different new rear wings. McLaren came with a new power unit and a new engine cover but warned that the gains might not be visible until Singapore + a tray design for the front of the floor, lower sidepods and a new radiator positioning to cool the ERS. 

New regs were also introduced : drivers are now only allowed to adjust one clutch level after leaving the pit for the starting grid. I'm unsure what it means. 

The Lotus team has had legal troubles with Pic that I think I mentioned in the 2015 context in the Australian GP review. He claimed some breach of contract or something. Because of the legal proceedings, there was a possibility that the Lotus cars would be impounded after the GP. In the end, Bernie stepped in "to ensure staff were paid" and the cars were returned, allowing the team to race in Italy after this GP. 

Verstappen managed to get through Q1 even though he complained of a loss of power. Raikkonen stopped on track during Q2 due to a loss of oil pressure, qualifying in 15th on the grid. Max did not take part in Q2 due to his car's issues and was ranked 14th. Lewis' first hot lap was almost half a second faster than Nico's, and that's about how they qualified. Valtteri was 3rd, 1.3 seconds behind Lewis. Then it was Grosjean in 4th and Perez in 5th. Seb was only 9th.

BUT WAIT because there were penalties. The McLarens had already been given exceptional permission to use an additional PU in 2015, using their 6th in Hungary, and then came back with completely revised 7th PUs on both their cars. It meant a 50 place grid penalty for Jenson and a 55 place grid penalty for Alonso. Yep. You read that right. Verstappen also received a 10 place grid penalty for a 6th PU. Grosjean and Raikkonen both received a 5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change. 

In the end, the top 10 at the start was Lewis, Nico, Valtteri, Perez, Daniel, Massa, Maldonado, Seb, Grosjean and Sainz. 

Lewis thus became the first driver to get on pole six consecutive times since Schumacher, who did so in-between the '00 and '01 season, while Mika Hakkinen was the last one to do it in one season in '99.

Alright now let's see what I missed in the build-up at the time I wrote this. 

Of his quali Lewis said the first lap was great, and he hoped it would be enough. He knew it put a lot of pressure on Nico for the next run. The next lap he did was one of the closest to perfect he thinks he's ever done. 

Ted has been filmed walking around a forest at night to tell the tale of the curse of Spa aka a recap of all the times Lewis got unlucky at this track. And yeah. That's a lot. In 2007, he was pushed wide by Alonso in Eau-Rouge. In 2008, he won but he was penalised after the race for cutting a chicane and lost the win. In 2009, Alguersuari crashed into him. (In 2010 he won so it's not mentioned.) In 2011, Ted says he was slow on track. I mean sure but more notably he spun and crashed and DNFd. Oh sorry, now he mentions it, I thought he was done talking lmao. In 2012, Grosjean managed to take 4 cars out with him in a crash, including Lewis. In 2013, he was on pole and got a good start but got overtaken by Seb, who won. And in 2014, of course, he was taken out by Nico. So that's 4 DNFs in 6 Belgian GPs. Well well well. 

Lewis and Nico are doing a joint side track interview again. He's very happy about the qualifying performance but he needs to translate it into race wins, he says. Johnny says to them they must have bad memories of last year, are they gonna stay as aggressive? Nico says of course, they're gonna keep battling. Johnny asks Lewis if he has plans for the start. Lewis jokes that if he did he wouldn't tell him.

Johnny says he seems to be the man of the moment and then stutters on the word momentum. Lewis makes fun of him. Then he says qualifying has been great as he said and he's happy they have a great crowd today and he hopes they'll put on a great show for them. Then Johnny says today's very important for Nico's claim on the title, how hungry is he? He says of course every race counts. 

Back to the broadcast, Simon says that was a bit earlier and Johnny is now lurking around behind the camera. "What were you doing?" he asks, "rapping?" They laugh. He shrugs with a smile. It happens. 

Well there really wasn't much in this broadcast but here you have it anyway. Let's get to the race. 

Formation lap. 

Hulkenberg is already reporting no power, he was already having issues during quali if I understand correctly. He's told to pit. Then he's told to take the start and not pit. 

They're all ready but Hulkenberg is waving in his cockpit. Aborted start.

Second formation lap. 

Hulkenberg left his box but then stopped. His team tells him they'll pull him back in the pits. Now it's Sainz saying he has no power. He's called into the pitlane as well. 

Both cars are into the garages and may or may not join the race at some point. 

The others are racing! 

It seems like a normal start but in the end, three cars are ahead of Nico into the first corner. That's weird. OH MY GOD AND PEREZ OVERTAKES LEWIS FOR THE LEAD A FEW CORNERS LATER WTF. No wait he didn't, he was shown as such on the graphics but he actually had to fall back phew. Seb also got a great start btw he's up in 6th. Lewis is now flying away and Nico overtakes Valtteri for P4. He attacks back but it's Seb getting ahead of him now. Maldonado has lost the engine and is very slow on track. He retires. Verstappen overtakes Ericsson for P10. Kvyat overtakes Massa for P8. Sainz came back out on the track from the garages but he's now also slow af. Lewis is setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Daniel pits from P3, they're trying to undercut I guess, but it seems early to do that. Grosjean overtakes Valtteri for P5. Perez pits from P2, and it worked for RBR as Ricciardo is ahead. Yellow flags blinked shortly as Kvyat went wide after a lock up. Massa is called in. 

It's lap 10. Lewis is 8.4 seconds in the lead ahead of Nico. Seb is not far behind in P3. Then it's currently Grosjean, then Kvyat and Massa and Verstappen all pit as I'm writing, then Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Perez. Raikkonen is called in from P4. Nico is called in as well, before Lewis. Crofty thinks it's because Daniel, who's currently P4, is really pressuring them. Nico is out ahead of him as well as Perez, but Perez attacks! He can't make it though. Lewis is called in, he stays in the lead. Oh. Valtteri gets a drive through for "incorrect tyres fitted"? Seb pits. Nico sets the fastest lap. Grosjean overtakes Ricciardo for P4. 

Lap 20. Lewis is leading by 3.1 after the pit stops, still ahead of Nico. Behind them Grosjean is attacking Perez for P3 and overtakes him easily. Daniel is P5 ahead of Seb, Kvyat, Massa who's being attacked by Raikkonen and Verstappen is P10. Oh! And Daniel was attacking for P4 but as we're watching his on-board, he locks up and then stops completely on the main straight! That's a bad place to stop too, just at the exit of the corner… DRS is disabled, VSC, the gaps are frozen. Of course a lot of people dive in the pits. Perez actually pitted as Daniel had his issue. Massa pits. Grosjean pits. Raikkonen pits. Lewis asks how Nico gained a second under VSC. It's a good question, but the VSC is over now and people are racing. Perez is told they need to make his tyres last to the end, that's 20 laps, not impossible. The sky is darkening. Are we gonna see rain? I'm kinda bored. Oh no Seb is having issues? He's told to change some things on the steering wheel and he answers a bit high pitched that it doesn't react. Kvyat pits. Seb, much calmer : "Think about an extra stop if that makes sense" and he's told they're looking into it.

It's lap 30. Kvyat overtakes Valtteri for P9. Lewis : "Track has changed, I think I need another half hole back in." It's about front wing specs. Kvyat sets the fastest lap. Lewis is called in. "My tyres are still good, can I do one more?" he asks. "Negative Lewis, this is the fastest race, Nico will take the stop otherwise." He obeys. He's out in P2. Nico is called in, and Lewis is back in the lead. 

10 laps to go. Nico sets the fastest lap. Behind the Mercs the order goes Seb, Grosjean, Perez currently under pressure from Massa, Raikkonen not far behind them, then Kvyat, Valtteri and Verstappen. Sainz finally retires. Kvyat overtakes Raikkonen. There's a four-way fight over P5. 

5 laps to go. Grosjean is told to go get Seb. He's indeed only half a second behind but come on I'd rather have a sewis podium please. To make up for the boring race. Kvyat is warned over track limits. Verstappen overtakes Valtteri for P9. Kvyat overtakes Massa for P6 and they almost make contact. And Kvyat overtakes Perez for P5. OH NO! SUDDEN PUNCTURE FOR SEB ohhh nooooooooo. There's just a lap and a half to go… Sucks. Verstappen overtakes Raikkonen for P7 but locks up, goes wide and drifts onto the run-off area. Back in P8. 

It's the end of the race. 

Lewis wins ahead of Nico for the Nth time this season. Grosjean P3. Welp it was an eventful start but actually kinda boring after that. 

The video glitches just as Nico and Lewis shake hands so I can't gif it lol. Grosjean seems baffled to be here. Nico and him talk in French, obvi. Nico says something about "ta caisse" (your car, but slang) and Grosjean says "incroyable, incroyable ! J'partais 9 en plus !" (incredible, incredible! I started 9th on top of that !) then it's drowned out by the hostesses applauding outside and then he says "j'étais derrière lui, derrière lui, derrière lui, pfiou" (I was behind him, behind him, behind him, phew) The merc representative says he's very lucky and Grosjean nods as he pours water into his mouth and all over himself like a toddler. Lewis is nowhere to be seen.

Bono is in the crowd looking very proud of his boy.

It's DC doing the interviews. It's Lewis' 39th win, his 80th podium, equalling Ayrton Senna. Lewis asks the crowd if they're good. They roar. He thanks them as usual. He says he's had a great weekend, "again, an amazing job done by the team." He's drowned out by the fans cheering and chanting his name. It's unbelievable! 

DC says the only time he thought Lewis could get concerned was after the virtual safety car when Nico somehow got closer. Anything else? He says Nico had obviously good pace but he was able to answer to him most of the time. The car was feeling great so he was relaxed and just mostly looking after the tyres, and especially at the end after he saw one tyre had exploded on another car he was really cautious, and that's why Nico was catching him at the end. But he felt really under control the whole time and great assistance from the team. 

Nico gets a lot of noise from the crowd too. As does Grosjean wow. 

DC asks Lewis if although it's still close with Nico he's starting to feel like he might get another title. He says it's definitely way too early for that. He says you just wanna get these pole positions and translate them into wins. 

After the race, Seb criticised Pirelli's tyres, pointing out that Nico also suffered a failure during practice. He deemed it unacceptable and said if Nico said he didn't go off track then he didn't, as he has no reason to lie and that he himself didn't go off track and the tyre exploded out of the blue. He saw it as a safety risk. Pirelli's director Paul Hembrey said he did not want to start a war of words with Seb but that they were concerned when they saw that the teams intended to do a big number of laps on one set of tyres, as nothing suggested to them that they would go for one-stop strategies but rather two or three stop strategies. Nico backed Seb saying this shouldn't happen and pointed out it also happened in other categories. He said they both were "so lucky" as if it had happened a bit earlier or later it would have caused bad crashes for them, something Seb also mentioned. He called for immediate action as the next GP was to be Monza, which is a very fast one. Pirelli reacted by asking for a maximum stint length for their tyres, something they'd already suggested at the end of 2013. They then announced that they'd found cuts on other team's tyres, especially the rear ones, and that they were investigating the cause. Seb reiterated that his team was not at fault and that their strategy wasn't risky. Ultimately, Pirelli's conclusion was that Seb's blowout was due to debris and not excessive tyre wear. 

Max was singled out for his overtake on Nasr in Blanchimont. He ultimately received an Action of the Year award from the FIA at the end of the year ceremony for it. 

I've found Lewis' interview with Will Buxton. He asked him how it felt to be back on the top step after the summer break. He says it feels amazing. "Sometimes you wonder if a good thing is followed by another good thing."

He says he had an amazing holiday and so he was wondering if the happiness would last and it has. He says qualifying was ridiculous, and he smiles, and it gets a chuckle out of the journalist amassed around him.

He's happy with his race, he didn't have to overpush or overdrive. The balance was really nice and he's very happy with the outcome. Will Buxton or whatever journalist says last year Nico got the pole trophy and this year nobody can seem to beat him and he's said he's been on top of sector 2 this weekend which he never was before. The question is how much does he feel that with each passing race he's becoming more and more complete. He hums. He says generally this year he's growing into his thirties, "the start of a new era for me", he thinks he's growing wiser and stronger, mentally also, with the pole positions he's getting and the results he's getting. "I think I'm growing generally as a man so that's reflecting in how I drive and the decisions that I take and a lot of things I do." He smiles. "How worrying is that for everyone else," he's told. "Hum… Hopefully it should be very worrying," he laughs.

I also found the BBC interview. The journalist tells him Niki said he absolutely raised his game. "You must agree with that," she says. He says it feels good and the weekend has definitely been fantastic.

He says he as always has to take his hat off to his team that's has done an incredible job again this weekend. From the ones building the cars to the engineers. "Me and Nico wouldn't have been able to do that without them." 

He says he's coming back from the best holiday he's ever had with such a facial expression that I'm wondering what happened there,

and that it gave him even more drive to get the pole positions and turn them into wins. He says he's really happy within himself because he drove his heart out. She asks if this is the strongest he's felt in his F1 career. "I think so, yeah." then he adds : "I mean… I felt good today, when I woke up, I was like 'yeah. I got this'".

He remembers it wasn't the case in the last race. "But definitely I feel… Not only the strongest just, but in general the happiest I've genuinely been in my life." He says he loves his job, he's grateful he gets to drive F1 cars every other weekend, it's the greatest job in the world and he has to seize it with both hands and enjoy, which he does, "and in my personal life enjoy it as much as I can!"

He's truly in a very good mood.

(This gif is just for me because I have a thing for intense staring, don’t mind me.)

She says when things are so good he's not wishing his days away to Monza, "you're in a great place at the moment." He says even when the days weren't good he wasn't wishing days to go by (it's a lie but it's okay, we all wanna forget about 2009) because he's "very very aware" that time flies by, "I'm already halfway through my career if not more"... Oh my god. Wait. I can't with this interview. "Erm in my formula 1 career, and it feels like it was only yesterday that I started in Melbourne so I really want to… I don't want it to go…”

“I'm not looking forward to the day that I hang my helmet up but erm…"

"There's room for a few more championships before then." – "I hope so, I hope so." 

(btw given this was 2015 so his 9th year, according to this interview he's stopping in 2024 lol, 2023 being his 17th year in F1.)

Anyway let's see the postrace content now that it’s been uploaded.

Hill says Lewis is watching Nico all the time, as he's been able to tell he gained 1 second under VSC. It shows how in control he is. 

Ted tells Niki they got a perfect result. It's unfortunate for the Ferraris but they score no points. Niki says they went very long, he has to say. But Lewis, Nico and the whole team did an incredible job. "Mercedes is back, I have to say, after Budapest so..." He just thanks everybody. Everybody involved is working hard. They were a bit depressed after Budapest but now it's fantastic, it's the way it should be. 

Let's hear from Lewis. (Again.) He says he'd definitely say this is a "so-so circuit" for him, he's not won a lot here and it's never been easy, but he's happy with this weekend's performance. Particularly qualifying. The race was managing what he had, the gap he had, the tyres… "Nico was exceptionally fast today, but I didn't really feel like I was incredibly under pressure, I was able to match when I needed to so erm… Super happy." He says he was 5 years old when he started watching Ayrton, and he doesn't know what age he was when he wanted to emulate him, but thinking he has the same amount of podiums doesn't feel real.

She asks about the start because in the last race he apparently said having to do a second start it affected his clutch. He says he wasn't nervous, you can't allow yourself to get nervous for the start anyway, but he did the restart and was focused on keeping his car cooled and when he did the restart he did the appropriate sequence to make sure he wasn't overheating it and it turned out "relatively good". He says he did get wheelspin, like Nico did, but he managed to control a bit better and maintain the lead. She asks if he was surprised to see Perez alongside him. He says he was generally happy, and starts laughing, that it wasn't Nico.

He says Sergio was great, he says he thinks if it had been Nico it might have been a different outcome. (He says both ‘obviously’ and ‘probably’ in the sentence, you interpret that as you want lol) He's really glad the day went the way it did. She reminds him of the WDC standings and asks at what point he allows himself to think of a third world title. He says you really have to take it one race at a time. At no point you can get overly excited and think you've got it. But he's very happy with the car, so as long as he continues doing what he's doing and stays focused and healthy, he feels good about it, he finally admits.

Later, he says he's had such a good break and feels super refreshed. He has to interrupt himself to wave to the fans that are yelling. He says they can't imagine how at peace he feels in his heart after coming out of this great break, getting pole and it translating into a win. Brundle says it just seemed easy, he seemed in the groove. He says you don't always get the car where you want it but he did this weekend and same in the last race. He says he and his engineers are gelling more than ever and are working better than they've ever worked together. Together they've put a really good package and the car was feeling beautiful.

Brundle asks him about his position on the tyres given Seb and Nico's comments. He asks for clarifications. Brundle says Seb especially has been very punchy. Lewis says "yeah I'm sure, I'm sure." with an empathetic tone. He says both of them had "fairly big incidents" and that it was just lucky that both of them happened at a stage when it wasn't too detrimental or unsafe. They never ever want that to happen. They always want to be able to go out there with confidence that there won't be any problems. However he says he's heard that for Seb, they went too long on the tyres. So it's not necessarily fully down to the tyres. But if it had happened just a bit before it would have been in Eau Rouge which could have been "quite nasty". He says the FIA and the teams work closely with Pirelli and Pirelli will learn from this weekend.

Simon says he's had a fair share of bad luck in Spa. He nods with a smile. He asks if it's nice to have the perfect weekend here. Lewis says it's a very difficult track. For some reason there are tracks that really suit you and tracks you struggle at more. This is one of those tracks he's struggled at a little bit more (full emphasis on a little bit). He says he's had good results when it was raining, "it makes it easier for me" he half-jokes, but this weekend he thinks he did the best and extracted the most he could out of what's a weaker circuit for him.

Brundle asks what about Perez breathing alongside him in the first lap. Lewis smiles and tilts his head. They're all chuckling a bit like it's really really weird that he did such a thing.

Lewis echoes his earlier answer to that. "Well, better him than anyone else." He says again Perez was very fair. He tried to keep everybody behind but he followed him aaall the way. Brundle says he went wide a little bit. Lewis says he went in there nailing it then the back end bottomed a little bit and slid and he still kept it going, "I was like 'I'm NOT lifting'!"

And Perez slowly caught him but as long as he covered the inside, that's all he could do, and then he fortunately outbraked him. He's grateful for the way it came out because it made the race much easier, he chuckles. Brundle says the only other break in his serene afternoon was the VSC, he thought Nico might have gained on him? Lewis says what happens is you hear beep beeps and the screen changes and you have to brake very heavily to slow down to hit the delta. When you're driving at some point you see the other driver behind you appear so you know what the gap is. And when the VSC started he was maybe four seconds behind but during it he was closer than ever so he thought surely he'll have to fall back for the restart which he never did. Which is why he wondered. Because he did not make a mistake so there was no reason for him to be that much closer. He says he needs to go figure out where he lost that second but dismisses it saying it wasn't a big problem anyway.

Simon says he's 28 points ahead in the WDC standings so one DNF clear and asks if that's something in his mind, wanting to keep it above that. Lewis says he doesn't look at it that way because naturally as a team you never want a DNF. Simon insists that it gives him leeway though. He says for sure, but last year he crashed in this race and was 29 points behind when he came out of Spa. So it's been way more positive up until now. His goal coming back from this great holiday (seriously what did he do?) into this part of this season was to translate the great laps he does in quali into results and wins. And hopefully today was the start of it. Brundle asks if he's got on top of Nico, does he think mentally Nico realises he can't beat him? (way to put him in a tough spot) He says he thinks as a driver you never– it's very rare you see a driver fall to that belief. They still believe that they're better and all that, "whether it's true or not". He says he remembers when he was driving with Alonso. "Fernando could never believe why sometimes I was quicker, he was like 'there must be something wrong with the car cause I'm the best'. That's what he would say. To himself, I know. For sure." He says Nico's very strong, he's gonna come back and keep fighting, he knows that he still has that belief in himself, which is fine by him, no problem. 

For some reason they start talking about Notting Hill carnival and twerking. I'm at a loss. 

[crystalracing]

Video ideas

-How Brawn's 2009 title win created the blueprint for Mercedes

-Was Kimi Raikkonen the best driver in the world between 2003-2007?

-Fernando Alonso's championship losses in 2007, 10 & 12

-Why Adrian Newey is the GOAT designer

-What is the point of Haas?

-Charles Leclerc future

-The legacy of Alain Prost

-Would Michael Schumacher have become 2007 & 2008 F1 World champion?

-Would Ronnie Peterson become a triple Swedish F1 world champion if he survived? (1978, 82 & 84)

-Would Max Verstappen win a F1 World championship with Ferrari?

-Would Rubens Barrichello have won 1996 & 97 F1 World championships with Williams?

-Jaguar F1 rejected him. He became a triple Indy 500 champion (Dario Franchitti)

-How Audi helped Tom Kristensen become the best driver to never race in F1

-Why Scott Dixon is New Zealand's greatest driver DESPITE never racing in F1

-How Valentino Rossi conquered motorsport DESPITE not racing in F1

-How Sebastien Loeb & Ogier became French motorsport icons DESPITE never racing in F1

-How leaving F1 enabled Team Penske to conquer Indycar

-Why Mercedes have fewer F1 wins than Ferrari (1955 Le Mans disaster)

-Why Spa-Francorchamps & Suzuka are F1's undroppble races

-How the new Senna won Indycar, but nearly got killed by a deer (Cristiano da Matta)

-How this man became F1's Deadpool (Alex Zanardi)

-How Renault's turbo revolutionised F1

-Revisiting Fernando Alonso's F1 debut

-Revisiting Toyota's F1 debut

-Revisiting Nico Rosberg's F1 debut

-Revisiting Lewis Hamilton's F1 debut

-Revisiting Sebastian Vettel's F1 debut

-Remembering Lewis Hamilton's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Fernando Alonso's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Kimi Raikkonen's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Sebastian Vettel's maiden F1 victory

-Revisiting Toyota's bottle job at 2009 Bahrain

-Remembering Mercedes' first F1 win with Nico Rosberg

-Revisiting Sauber's & Sergio Perez's bottle job at 2012 Malaysia

-Revisiting Nico Hulkenberg's bottle job at 2012 Brazil

-Remembering Michael Schumacher's maiden F1 victory

-Revisiting Daniel Ricciardo's F1 debut (HRT, Alonso, 2011 Britain)

-Remembering Daniel Ricciardo's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Jenson Button's maiden F1 victory

-Revisiting Michael Schumacher's F1 debut

-Revisiting Rubens Barrichello's maiden F1 victory

-How Damon Hill did F1 backwards

-Revisiting Mika Hakkinen's early F1 career

-How Jacques Villeneuve did F1 backwards

-Revisiting 1994 F1 Season finale at Adelaide

-Revisiting 1997 F1 Season finale at Jerez

-How Robert Kubica became the Polish F1 Deadpool

-Revisiting Subaru's failed F1 journey (Coloni 1990)

-Revisiting Porsche's F1 journey

-How the first ever safety car in F1 caused mayhem (1973 Canada)

-Why 2003 Brazil was the craziest F1 race ever

-Revisiting Kimi Raikkonen's comeback at 2007 Japan

-Revisiting Nigel Mansell's 1989 Hungary win

-Revisiting Alain Prost's 1982 South African triumph

-Remembering the Italian who battled Prost for 1985 F1 title

-Revisiting Montoya's McLaren nightmare

-How Sato went from F1 crash kid to Indy 500 legend

-Revisiting McLaren-Honda hybrid debacle (GP2 engine)

-Why hasn't there been an Italian F1 champion since Ascari?

-He should've been France's first F1 champion until this happened...

-Revisiting Kimi Raikkonen's 2013 Australia masterclass

-Revisiting the day Michael Schumacher became a 7 times F1 champion

-Revisiting the day Michael Schumacher announced his first F1 retirement

-Revisiting the weekend of Ayrton Senna's death

-Schumacher & Hakkinen's first fight at 1990 Macau GP

-Revisiting Coulthard's brain fade at 1995 Australia

-Michael Schumacher's first win for Ferrari

-Multi 87! McLaren team orders at 1998 Australia

-When Sebastian Vettel became F1 world champion

-How Sam Hornish beat Penske... and joined them anyway! (If you CAN beat them...)

-How Alan Kulwicki upset NASCAR royalty

-The craziest NASCAR season (2003 Curse of the leader in Busch series)

[2bluetwo85]

Spreading more Brocedes propaganda:

They used to be teammates in karting and would destroy hotel rooms together by wrestling (Nico ended up under the bathroom sink one time???) and would eat too much pizza and ice cream (I think they’re both vegan now, though) and Kelloggs frosties straight from the box. Fun fact, Nico said that the night before he won his championship in 2016 (a.k.a. when they were definitely not friends anymore) he couldn’t eat anything but the cereal that they used to eat together. Which is something. They went on vacation together to Greece when they were 14 (I think??) and lay on Nico’s dad’s boat and talked about their dreams and shit. They were teammates from 2014 - 2016, and their relationship broke down so much that they crashed into each other during the Spanish GP in 2016. They wanted to beat each other so badly that they used illegal engine modes and played mind games and Nico stopped cycling to lose muscle in his legs and stopped sleeping in the same bed as his wife and scraped the paint off his helmet. Toto Wolff (their team principal) said that there was a historical context that no one else understood (don’t have the exact quote but he definitely used the words “historical context”). When Lewis was asked about the first time he had been to Monaco, he said a “friend” invited him (that friend being Nico Rosberg, who had grown up in Monaco) and when he moved there, he moved into the same building as Nico and they both still live there. At one point (I think in 2021), Lewis was asked if he thought he was a better driver than he was in 2016, and he answered with “Yes, and a better teammate” and you could see Nico’s reaction live because he was there to commentate, and his expression didn’t really change, but he also looked absolutely devastated? (Additionally, you can see Jenson Button's (2009 WDC, now commentates, was with Nico at the time) head turn around so quickly to look at Nico that I think he got whiplash. Now, Lewis still doesn’t mention him almost at all (he said his name once on GtG and brought up a story about him completely unprompted in Imola) but he apparently sends Christmas presents every year to Nico’s daughters and winked at him when Nico was interviewing him after the race in Hungary, and Nico praises his driving and defends basically everything he does and completely psychoanalyzes his driving and projects onto any other pair of teammates having any sort of issues whenever he’s commentating

Also, never getting over “friend, rival, teammate, childhood buddy, everything but a lover” RIGHT BESIDE NICO

Best RPF Ship - Round 1 Match 20

Propaganda under cut

Brocedes Propaganda

it's unlikely childhood best friends to teammates to rivals to bitter enemies to ... whatever they are now (lewis avoids saying nico's name like it's an incantation to cause the end of the world; nico constantly praises lewis and has semi-recently gone on record as saying that in his heart, they're still best friends).

there is a wikipedia page dedicated specifically to their rivalry. they slept in the same hotel rooms as teenage teammates in go-karting. they knew each other better than anyone else did (as one f1 commentator put it, live on air speaking to nico himself, "everything bar lovers.") and their team principal has said there were things between them nobody else could ever understand.

(i started typing out more propaganda but really i was basically just putting in their entire life histories. anyway they live in the same building and don't talk but lewis sends christmas presents to nico's daughters. these men had their teenage codependent homoerotic friendship blow up on live sports tv and it's the most fascinating thing in the world.)

[sewellove-deactivated9782]

“so credit to the team for giving us a car…” x

[umseb]

uuuuuuuh, hungary - july 23, 2009 📷 dominic ebenbichler / alamy

[iceman7raikkonen]

[umlewis]

race winner lewis hamilton during the post-race press conference, hungary - july 26, 2009 (transcription under the cut)

Interviewer: "So, here's the top three finishers of the ING Hungarian Grand Prix; the winner, Lewis Hamilton, Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes; tenth career victory, his first win since China last year. Second, Kimi Raikkonen for Scuderia Ferrari, and third, Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing. Lewis, from the desperation of the first races of this season, tell us what it means to be a winner again." Lewis: "It's an incredible feeling to be back here after what feels such a long time away, and what was such a struggle with me and my team. But as I said on the in lap, I'm just so proud of the guys for... 'Cause I go into the factory and I see how hard everyone's pushing. Everyone wants to win just as much as I do and they never gave up. They've never given up, which is something very rare to see in a large group of people, and so very, very proud of them. We didn't expect to win this weekend. Undoubtedly we've caught up quite a bit, but we never really thought we had the pace to win. But the car felt fantastic and it's incredibly special to get back up here, not only on the podium, but to get a win and it's amazing." Interviewer: "Well done, Lewis."

[gayferrari]

/gen not trying to be argumentative but if you consider brawn gp in the first few races of 2009 to be rocketship, what's weird about considering mclaren a rocketship in these last few races? like that that a car can be very very competitive for this half of the season. again, genuinely, to me it just seems like brawn gp had a development advantage for a while that the other teams caught up on, which also in 2024 (o, the inverse) happened to mclaren. :)

[disclaimer this is my personal opinion as a random tumblrina on the internet!!]

re: this post — I actually threw in the BrawnGP as a cheeky addition more than anything, and I would NOT put it even closer to the same level of dominance as 2014 or 2023 RBR. But it's only fair I'm being called upon to defend my thesis, so here it goes. To Me. Brawn had a wholly different concept than anyone else on the grid due to early-regulation loophole, and were absolutely dominant during their success streak. JB won 6 of 7 races with the only exception being a chaotic wet race. Once everyone else had the same tech, they only won 2 more. Mclaren don't have that level of engineering dominance right now. They've just nailed their updates better than anybody else (the much discussed front wing is also a Merc feature; flappy rear was only in play at a few tracks and has not singlehandedly guaranteed a win, see Monza.) Mclaren have only won 3 races of the last 10, as many as Mercedes, and I'd argue only Zandvoort and Hungary were a dominant display — Zandvoort because Lando won by 20 seconds even though Oscar didn't even get to the podium, Hungary was a 1-2. The competition at the front remains open. If not for Carlos's crash, Ferrari could still be a viable wcc challenger, and I don't expect they'll win the wdc. I don't expect them to go on a win streak just on the basis of their technology. TO ME that's not a rocketship, it's just a very good car

anyway again! that's just my opinion and I'm not expecting others to agree!! It's legit just nitpicking