#i have quali and race on the SAME DAY that's how crazy the time difference is FFS!!!!!!

[lewishamiltonstuff]

Y'all don't understand how crazy the time difference is for me in Asia. This is fucking crazy I waited for ages to see Lewis race again

[marieracingteam]

How Lance became Lancey – ls.18

stepdad!Lance Stroll | series

word count: 1305

summary: Lily’s first time at the paddock could be something challenging but, luckly for everyone, Lance had everything undercontroll. Will he win the race or will he win a tittle even more important than that?

Since Lance had asked Lily for permission to date her mother, the girl's life had changed a lot and not that much at the same time. The change had largely been for the better, except for the noise of the mixer early in the morning, which was usually offset by pancakes waiting for her when she woke up.

The biggest change, however, had been Lance's constant presence at her house. It wasn't that Lily was complaining, obviously she liked the Canadian and always having him near her, but it was a little confusing having him within reach for a few days and then going other days without seeing him.

Without meaning to, every time Lance left, Lily couldn't help but think about her father, whom she hadn't seen in months and about whom she didn't know anything most of the time.

The main problem was that, as happened when Lance left or when she saw her father on a rare afternoon, her life continued as if nothing had happened after that. She barely had any memories that it had even happened to hold onto. Or even a hope that it would happen again.

Her mom had explained to her that Lance was just travelling for work and she could see him every night through her mother's cell phone. But it wasn’t the same.

And Lance had quickly realized this when he saw how the girl behaved when he left and when he returned.

The couple had promised not to run for Lily's sake, but Lance lived for speed, so it was hard for him not to ask them to move in with him as soon as they started dating. However, now he didn't see a better option to make the girl see that he was always going to come back for her and her mother.

He had thought a lot about how to ask his girlfriend. He was aware of how crazy his life was, but they had both already seen traces of it and had not run away, so he thought he had nothing to fear.

He just needed one last test to show them it could work. And that test was going to be the Canadian Grand Prix. His home race.

His father had even helped him prepare everything for their visit. They had decorated a small part of his side of the garage and had brought different things to keep the girl entertained during the race.

Everything had to be perfect for his two girls.

His father had even had a small racing suit made especially for the girl. Green decorated with white flowers, obviously. And of course a matching hat for her mom.

And when the weekend started, half the garage was more worried and excited about Lily and her mother's first race than about the improvements they brought to the drivers' cars.

What Lance hadn't taken into account was that his weekend duties would keep him so busy that he wouldn't be able to spend all the time he wanted with them.

On Friday he had only been able to spend a little time with them before starting the weekend. He had only had time to give them a quick tour and put the little girl in his car –and take too many photos of her there with her little outfit.

“Lilybug!” Lawrence exclaimed as the girl jumped into his arms. “What's this I have heard about you becoming a driver? Do I have to sign you on my team?”

“I did! I got into Lance’s car! Right mommy?” said the girl bouncing in the man’s arms. “Want to draw with me, flower?” she asked once she calmed down.

“Sure! That's why I came to work today.”

At the end of Saturday, Lily was already exhausted from those days of action. So tired that she hadn't even realized how poorly Lance had classified on the qualy.

“It's okay, Lance. You'll bounce back tomorrow, I'm sure. You've had a very good weekend. Lily was delighted watching you run on the screens.” his girlfriend said as they headed to the driver's car.

Lily was asleep in his arms, her head on his shoulder leaving a small wet spot on his team shirt. His father had drained her while they waited for qualifying to start by playing outside, which Lance was very grateful for.

“I wanted this weekend to be perfect. I guess I forgot to plan that I would have to drive well” he confessed when he made sure little ears were not going to hear and be disappointed.

“Don't be so hard on yourself. We are so proud of you,” she whispered, giving him a quick kiss when they got to the car. “And you have nothing to worry about, this is being the best weekend, so close to our first getaway to the beach”.

“At least I haven't been attacked by any crabs here” Lance joked, causing his girlfriend to laugh as they buckled Lily into her seat.

“Don't claim victory, there is still tomorrow.”

And like every time she said something, his girlfriend was always right. After a difficult start, Lance had come back with precision, ready to show his audience today that they had not chosen wrong by choosing him.

And when Lance crossed the finish line in fifth position, climbing more than ten positions, it almost tasted like a podium.

Arriving at park fermé, Lance was welcomed by his girl, his dad and his little bug in his dad’s arms.

“You were sooo fast, Lance!” Lily said excited after shouting at him.

“Did you see, baby?” he asked grabbing her in his arms “I wanted to do it right for you and mom”.

“And flower” the girl reminded him pointing at his dad, whose suit was covered in white flowers stickers much like her little racing suit.

“Yeah, and flower too” Lance corrected himself. “But I wanted to do it super well so that mom and you would want to come with me more times”.

“Are you going to invite us more times?” Lily asked with hope filling her eyes.

“More than that. If you want and mom says yes, I would like to invite you all of the time. And when you can't come, I would like you to be waiting for me at home. In our house, wherever it may be” he finally ask.

Despite all the planning, Lance still wasn't sure how he was going to ask them to live together. He had doubts, but having Lily in his arms and his girlfriend hugging his side cleared them up.

And the smile of his girlfriend said it all “You want us to move together?”

“I want it all together, love”

With a laught, the woman looked at her daughter “What do you say, Lily? Will you want Lance living with us all the time”

"Will he always come back then?" she asked shyly. Suddenly all her energy was contained. She shrank into Lance's chest and avoided eye contact.

Lance's heart broke at her doubt and uncertainty about him, even if it wasn't really about him.

"I will always come back to you and mom, bug" Lance promised.

He wanted to tell her more, to tell her that he wasn't like her dad, to promise her that he would never leave like he did. But that wasn't the place and he knew actions spoke louder than words.

"I love you, Lancey" she murmured hugging his neck tightly.

“Lancey?” her mom asked surprised by the affectionate nickname.

“Yeah, my mommy and my Lancey” the girl explained, hugging her mom too from the arms of the driver, who only hugged them tighter while trying to stop the tears of happiness from falling from his eyes.

That sounded right, he thought. That sounded a lot like a family.

[georgegraphys]

I think we have to acknowledge two things and these two things have correlations to each other nor it is fully wrong or right

a) Antonelli is/is going to be a talented driver

b) He is not ready for Formula One right now

Those two points exist and they don't have to contradict each other. Both of them exist at the same time and it's alright.

Kimi is fast. There's got to be a reason why Mercedes wants him (or even if it's just Toto). The pressure on him is immense with the constant yapping made by his team and boss and also the literal expectations people made that "oh he'll beat this, he'll beat that". When George steps in to Mercedes, no one expects him to beat Lewis Hamilton straight away but somehow some delulu people expect Kimi to pull a world championship on his first year.

A person could be really talented. They could be a wonderkid. But when we're talking about Formula One, it extends beyond just being "fast". You need to have the physique, mentality, talent, and connection to be in Formula One. You're going to have to race 24 races in a year, some of them were double headers, triple headers with sprint races and more. Not to mention you got to have the mentality as well to deal with the public eyes on you, the social media spotlight, and some teams' have a crazy amount of PR duties to be done by their drivers. Formula One, in this day and age, extends beyond racing. It is more than racing whether we like it or not.

Mercedes are one of the teams that has a crazy amount of PR work from sponsors for their drivers. It's just 4 months and 9 races in and George already has 31 duties, averaging on 1-2 per races and 1-2 off-race. And all of those were done in between media day, practices or even before and after quali. Sometimes it's so fast paced that he had limited time in some events because he had to travel again to another event in such a short amount of time and you can't say that does not take a toll on someone mentally and physically. It does.

Then apart from the public duties, we have these crazy spotlight from fans, general public, and the media. One bad race, one mistake, one bad radio transmission and they will grill the hell out of it for days, and weeks or even months for the obsessed people. And if you see how it is for F1 athletes on social media right now, it is very easy for them to just throw hate. Fill your comments with threats, cyberbullying these athletes to hell and back, and do other vile things.

My point here is that in these recent years/decade, racing has extended beyond just racing. Whether you hate it or like it, you need to accept that. It is no longer just turning into a race weekend and just racing. Drivers have crazy PR duties ahead of them now, they have crazy spotlight ahead of them. Every piece of their private life is scrutinized. Look at those freak WAG fan accounts on instagram and tiktok. Look at how people dig into a driver's past, family, and relationship. Look at the general media twisting around words and narratives to gain more clicks and milking slight misunderstandings. For someone like Kimi who has yet to a) polish his driving skills fully when people expect the craziest stints out of him b) reach the matured age and is basically still a minor with all these expectations on his back. It is very wise to say that he is not ready for what Formula One is currently and he should be given some time to prepare himself instead. I'm not saying that Kimi would flop like "driver A" or "driver B". He is talented. But the way Formula One works nowadays? You can't just be talented and fast. You need to be ready, physically and mentally. You can pull a Max Verstappen as an example, but F1 in 2015 and F1 in 2025 is DIFFERENT. Things work differently now and you can't refer back to how things work 10 years ago where there are less spotlight.

Not everything needs to be a "gamble" when the consequences can be avoided and you can do it with better ways.

[myimaginarywonderland]

So, I am going to make my stance very clear on this because I just read a wonderful article (linked below for anyone that is also interested)

Free practice is essential and the argument that F2/F3 has less doesn't make it any less essential. F2 and F3 have always been behind when it comes to innovations, changes etc. as people have always favoured F1 and it's always been a huge problem how those grids had less safety measures etc. The treatment of F2 and F3 has always been horrible especially when you consider they get essentially no way of communicating their wished as they have nothing like the GPDA. They should. Just as they also should have more free practice time.

But in the end, what F2 and F3 has that F1 doesn't is there cars are all much more similar. That still doesn't take away from the fact that they should have more practice but it gives a different perspective on why they don't. Yes set up still makes a huge difference but you have similar comparisons in certain things something that you don't have in F1 because the cars from F1 teams are all complelty different while F2/F3 at least share some similarities. F1 engineering I would argue (and I hope everyone agrees with me) is more complicated than for many other categories and especially when you have such a different car from others, you need more time to test set ups, be sure in strategies etc. to maximise performance.

I definitely agree that F2 and F3 should have more free practice because they also deserve more running time. But the grid is different than an F1 grid.

Another point that he made is sprint races which apparently we have to get into again so here it goes: Sprint races are shit. I don't care that it's an opportunity to get points and I don't care that it might be cool once in a while. If it's on Friday you can make the same argument that goes for Free Practice which is: Who will have time to watch it or rather who wants to watch it? The problem with Free practice is that it falls on a day where many people have work or similar things like university which makes them miss out. And yes I have seen the argument that some fans won't watch it which is totally fan! But do we really think they will watch sprint races? The problem is just like a normal race a sprint race really doesn't do much in terms of positions unless something crazy happens. There's usually nothing to gain from sprint unless a car breaks down etc. I also don't think drivers should get the chance to get a better position before a race if they messed up their qualy. Moving on from that because I don't know why it was brought up and I don't know what relevance it has on this discussion other than being another dumb decision by the FIA which punishes backmarkers who might have had good luck in a qualy.

Jake Hughes (a current FE driver) did a great tweet about what George said that actually focuses on something he criticises. Yes F2 and F3 should get more practice.

No, that doesn't mean F1 should have less.

Also I would not talk about the amount of "extra" races F1 has because that's a whole different problem. The extra races also don't benefit? Every track needs the same amount of practice because they are all different (asphalt temperature, hot temperature in general, possible weather conditions etc.)

So in one line: I strongly disagree with what George said, I don't understand why he said most of those things and Max once again looks out more for his team and driving than most other drivers apparently.

[novemberdevils]

Im so happy that you enjoy my ramblings so much and I WILL continue to ramble as soon as I reread -I want to delay this as mich as possible because it’s like when you eat something so good that you just want to hide it so you can eat it every day-.

QUALI TIME ARE SO you get me!!!!! Especially in q1&2 they are like my catnip I can never not be surprised but no one gets meeee, and especially when I see one leading the whole time but them boom suddenly it’s someone else entirely and I will genuinely groan and be like what the fuck no way!!! I treat this fic like it's a genuine f1 race and it makes me so mad sometimes because WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE DIDNT GET A PENALTY or WHAT DO MEAN YOU ARE MAD THAT THEY ARE RACING EACH OTHER.

oh yeah Jack is 100% dealing with everything well, he isn’t one comment away from a meltdown in front of everyone no way, honestly the only thing he is missing is being a girl to complete the trifecta of being an outcast but that probably is too much for poor Jack to handle; like can you imagine having to watch everything you say not because you are a Ferrari driver but also the first woman? Jack would cry every time a camera is on him 😂.

The social media is THE best because f1twt is unhinged like REALLY unhinged; I have been in fandoms twt since I first got my first phone and f1twt is not real, like rn most of my for you page is a mixture of motogp, indy, f1, nhl and the random fandoms that I also follow but every time I see a weird tweet it’s almost always about f1.

YES!! I hate when people say that oh indy and f1 are the same just because they are open wheel racing but they could not be more different if they tried, even the environment of the races is different. Im privileged to being able to attend a couple of races each year and indy’s paddock is so much relaxed there isn’t that weird energy that f1 have and EVERYONE is there because they want to see the race not look pretty for the camera, and surprisingly in the indy paddock I haven’t received a lot of oh you are a woman wtf you know about indy but in every race for f1 -and I have gone to a lot- there is always a man asking me this.

Honestly I felt like I was overthinking the Quinn being retired NASCAR but I guess im not.

anyways I actually came here not so I can ramble but for this:

https://x.com/rbr_daily/status/1858953692562530688?s=46&t=x4nrvXmBpkAp5eT1C8tTOw

I know it would be impossible to include this but could you IMAGINE?? Like Nico being the one who tries indy rather the Jack?? THE HEADLINES!!! I will be imagining this and screaming into my pillow thank you.

omg it makes me so happy to hear you treat my fictional f1 races as real. that's the dream actually. so thank you

jack is... he sure is! he's got some great coping mechanisms going on in what i'm writing right now! which is still chapter 4 and STILL imola so it's going. it's definitely going. i see the light (the light is absolutely not the end of the fic i am writing round SEVEN OF TWENTY FOUR)

and i love indy so bad... i went to the detroit race not this past summer but the summer before that and it was SO much fun. i've never been to an f1 race so i can't make a personal direct comparison but it's crazy how close to everything you can get with a general admission ticket to an indycar race. i love indy i'm sad the indy season is over lmao but their silly season is silly seasoning. what do you MEAN sting ray robb in the juncos... there is. someone i want on the indy grid...

hey speaking of logan sargeant that's who quinn being a retired NASCAR driver is referencing. i am also having fun with the narrative of it (and the narrative of all 3 hughes brothers being race car drivers but at different levels) but i initially made the decision because i'm referencing fucking dalton sargeant, who was a craftsman trucks driver nobody gave a single fuck about. quinn is a retired cup driver not trucks but yknow. that's where that comes from

AND I SAW THAT that would be crazy. au of my au where nico leaves and goes to indycar for no reason and jack is like what the hell

[happyselves]

Hey!! I don’t know if I can still send in a prompt request, but can you do one about how Daniel would react if you would surprise him at a GP after not seeing him for a while due to the constant travelling? ☺️ i love all the other prompts!

Ohhh hiiii bestie anon bean I really like that idea !!!!

With covid restriction and the constant travelling you hadn't be able to see your boyfriend for what is a long time for you, 3 months. Not lleaving in the same country as him was a difficult thing but you liked to keep that independance of not being a "wag" that follow their signifiant other everywhere.

You liekd your job and you had accept that you needed to be apart form your lover during covid.

You used the fact you had a 2 weeks vacation after so long to finally be able to prepare a surpise visit to a grand prix because you were missing each others like crazy.

You talk with his pr assistant at Mclaren as well as Blake to put everything in order and the day was finally arriving.

It was the Qatar GP, with no much time zome difference between there and where you were originally leaving.

You had to book a room for a day in another hotel to be sure to keep the surprise and hide from any spotlight that he could find on his phone.

When comes the moment on the saturday when you wanted to be there for him, Blake came to pick you up and while he was in practice 3 you enters the paddock, watching him on the screen in the mcalren hostility house.

After it you wait for your boyfriend in his driving room, it tooks him a while to come because he had the practice debrief to elaborate their plan for qualify but if you were able to wait 3 months you were capable to wait a little further.

You hear some noise in the hallway of the motorhome, recognizing his step, he was asking Michael and Blake why they wouldn't follow him inside the room.

They find a way to lie to him, it was a sweet lie wih good intention

There were no point for you to hide in the room so you sit on his couch right in front of the door, crossing your arms and legs waiting for him like he was about to have meeting with you, you were looking serious when internally all you wanted was to jump and hug him.

He finally step inside and it tooks me a couple of seconds for his eyes to transmit the information to his brain but when he did he takes you in his arms.

He was still cover in sweat of his previous session but you didn't care, your head was finding his neck, finding the warm of his body conforting.

Je couldn't believe it , you there with him, he didn't care about how you manage to be here, the most important was that you were in his arms, he covered your faces of kisses before catching your lips in his.

You were there for him during quali when his result wasn't that good, becoming his shoulder to rest on after the disappointed race.

Announcing him that you were following him for the next two weeks as it is rest week for him as well.

Of course this weekend was the best for him in term of racing but you were there for him and all that was mattering is that no matter what you were still looking at him he is was your hero.

The looks you were giving, the reasurring caress on his skin and the non stop support and encouraging was the fuel for him to pass over the disappointment.

[leqclerc]

I don’t want to be a killjoy but... I think you guys are reading a bit too much into Charles’ “he’s a great driver, he’s a four times world champion” statements. They seem like basic PR friendly words to me as a fan of neither Seb and Charles nor Ferrari. Helmet was a sweet touch from Charles, no denying that of course but interviews? They don’t seem personal to me at least.

No I get it, I see where you’re coming from. They’re obviously very media-conscious, having received extensive PR and media training, probably from quite a young age (the younger drivers in particular.) They know which languages are most beneficial to learn, how to act in order to represent the team, and how to market themselves to sponsors and the public for maximum desirability. They’ve got cameras trained on them for much of their “work day.” This of course sometimes makes it difficult to distinguish how much of what they’re saying in interviews is genuine and how much of that is them feeding the media a line. 

For me, when it comes to Charles and Seb, it’s also everything around the interviews that makes me think Charles’s admiration and respect for him goes beyond just a “might as well put up with this guy for the sake of the team” attitude which drivers sometimes adopt. For example the way he acted around Seb back in 2018 and even 2017, long before they ever became teammates - the way he’s genuinely happy for him when he gets his Monaco win; the way he’s so aware of him and watching him closely even during testing in the winter of 2018 or during the live event in Milan before the Italian Grand Prix that same year. Oftentimes he’d be seen approaching and greeting Seb in the paddock even when it wasn’t strictly necessary or expected of him, when he still in a different team and the Ferrari contract wasn’t even on the table yet. And then there’s the way Charles was all nervously excited, oscillating between flustered and preening when Seb spent the majority of the Monaco GP 2018 press conference praising him and his performance. Words can be deceiving, but a person’s body language can usually be a decent indicator of how they feel.

There’s also the little moments like Charles asking about Seb over team radio, often seeming genuinely curious or concerned, depending on the situation - he asked if Seb was alright after his qualy crash in Sochi last year, and after the race in Imola he took the time to ask what happened to Seb in the race, pointing out that he saw him having a good first stint and then he sort of disappeared; when the answer he got from the team wasn’t satisfactory, he waited for him in parc ferme and went to speak to him about it face to face. I think one of the biggest indicators - to me, at least - that he really cares about Seb is his explosive team radio after the last lap craziness in Turkey. He was obviously really upset and angry, yelling and criticizing himself; and yet in the middle of his furious self-loathing tirade he still took the time to say that Seb did a great job in the race, that he knows it hasn’t been an easy season for him, that he deserves the podium and he hopes Seb enjoys it - even though Seb got the podium by capitalising on Charles’s mistake. Sure, that could just be him trying to save face and say the right thing, but when your emotions are running so high...I’m not sure you’re thinking of PR lines in that moment. 

TL; DR: You’re right, interviews aren’t always the best gauge as the drivers are very media-conscious and PR trained to (most of the time at least) say “the right thing,” which can make them feel less personal and less genuine. For me, it’s the gestures and interactions that happen between these two outside of interviews that give the interviews more weight and credibility - in my eyes, anyway.