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batsplat · 5 months ago

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past performance at the remaining five circuits for both bagnaia and martin

pretty obvious that jorge has had the edge at most of these tracks, with the caveat that this is a very limited sample size. last year pecco was in a position in the championship where it made sense to not risk too much (plus potential aftereffects of the catalunya injury), whereas this year he won't be able to afford that to the same extent. the positive for him is that he emerged from indonesia, a circuit where he has a clear pace deficit, in a marginally strengthened position - the less positive side is you wouldn't necessarily expect him to have an advantage over jorge at these other tracks

the sunday race in motegi last year has the asterisk that it was wet and red-flagged; for what it's worth (not much) practise wouldn't indicate pecco has a massive inherent pace deficit there - but you'd still give the advantage to jorge (cf pecco's horrendous 2022). phillip island last year was the one where jorge made The tyre choice but otherwise had a lot of pace in hand, that one feels like a bit of a toss up given neither has won there in the past (and also a plausible one for both finishing behind marc, maybe even a couple other riders). thailand last year was obviously a martin sweep, but that one did also feature the very tight three way battle in the race between those two and binder until the last lap (bagnaia only got p2 because of binder's track limit violation). again you'd lean martin. sepang feels like a toss up and one where you'd maybe expect bastianini to put in a repeat of last year's performance. valencia is the only one where you'd slightly lean pecco, if the title is still undecided then

overall, given the 21 point deficit and the circuit profiles to come, you'd have to say it's on martin's plate. there's a few more question marks like 'can pecco fix his start problem' and 'how competitive are the other riders' (especially at a track like phillip island) - at this stage a 9 point vs a 5 point swing is pretty substantial. plus ofc there's always stuff like 'hm the weather radar for motegi is looking a bit dubious for saturday'. then there's the obvious question of how both of them hold up mentally - especially given their respective positions in the standings. if the pace differential plays out as you'd expect, jorge can probably afford one more major fuck up and still come out on top, which gives him just about enough margin you'd have to reckon he can weather that storm. and if I were pramac, I'd take pains to ensure nobody tells him as much. pecco obviously can afford a grand total of zero major fuck ups, which traditionally does seem to have a positive impact on his performances. all of which probably means you'd expect them to converge again in the standings by end of the season, but with martin maintaining enough of a buffer to emerge on top. but who knows!

#they're currently averaging a combined 4 fuck ups per 10 race starts (quite neatly if u look at how the season's played out)#so that's what you'd expect for the rest of the season. in the last five events of 2023 the only dnf was jorge's one in valencia fwiw #//#brr brr #//currt #circuit by circuit stats feel like they're exactly a year from being useful for both of them somehow #like after this season i feel i have a way better grasp of where they're both good vs mid than i did before #why? idk this year feels like it was more normal. they've both just been the title contenders all the way #direct h2h comparison between two high level riders who are both not experiencing massive fluctuations in performance #like with something like 2022 honestly afterwards if you asked me if i could pinpoint where pecco is strong and weak #i would've just started laughing #but for instance for next year i'd be reasonably willing to take a stab at whether circuits skew pecco or marc #and then it's a question of how well they're doing overall #so for instance if mugello is competitive then pecco is probably in serious trouble and if aragon is competitive likewise for marc #marc is the poster child for this because 'losing close duels at his weakest circuits' was basically his whole MO in his prime #whereas this metric would've been completely useless with valentino who won mugello by the skin of his teeth several years in a row #he had to deal with what experts of the sport like to call the 'pathological need to put on a good show' handicap

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no-144444 · 3 months ago

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playing favourites- o.piastri

summary: your first season as an f1 driver doesn't start the best, and you quickly realise McLaren doesn't like women very much. On top of that, your race engineer is as smug as the rest of them, and you have to deal with him all the time.

pairing: race engineer! oscar piastri x f1driver! fem! reader

warnings: lots of misogyny, lando is an asshole in this, illusions to ed behaviour, reader is not in a good head space, all of mclaren is super sexist.

pls remember this is fiction and purely for fun!

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It wasn’t exactly your plan to have a DNF on your first race but, thus the joys of a backmarker team. Zak had promised you, sworn even, that McLaren would be up there, fighting with Ferrari and RedBull. He’d told you that leaving RedBull would be worth it. Now, you were getting beaten by a fucking VCarb, the seat you could’ve had. You stalked over to Oscar once you got out of the car.

“Care to fucking explain?” you scoffed. He looked at you, unimpressed.

“It was an error with the steering wheel,” he shrugged. “Nothing you, or I, could’ve done.”

You sighed. “Of course not. Nothing anyone could’ve done, do you think the media will take that? Do you think this won’t mark my fucking career?! Oscar I need you to understand-”

“Stop shouting at him, it wasn’t his fault,” Zak demanded.

“Exactly, it’s yours. Make your car drivable,” you said before walking away.

It was your reputation on the line, your career, your life. You’d worked to be in Formula One your entire life, you were the first woman in years. You didn’t have the option of ‘just having a bad race’. You had to impress every single time, or else you’d be ridiculed. You knew what you’d see online tonight. You knew what people would say. You knew what questions you’d get from reporters. You knew it all. You’d done the song and dance a million times before, and you weren’t interested in doing it again.

“SO, WHAT HAPPENED?” “YOUR FANS ARE DEMANDING ANSWERS?” “WAS THIS AN ACTUAL FAILURE OF THE CAR, OR JUST THE DRIVER?” “WHAT DID YOU SAY TO YOUR RACE ENGINEER AFTER?” “DO YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR RACE?” “WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT PEOPLE’S OPINIONS ON YOUR DRIVING AFTER TODAY?” “SHOULD YOU HAVE STAYED AT REDBULL?”

“ARE YOU EVEN A GOOD DRIVER?”

Walking out of the media pen, you had your head hung low and a blank expression. Every single reporter wanted to talk to you. Every question was more and more degrading, and you just felt empty by the end of it. Megan, your press officer, left you in the hallway of the motorhome and you leant against it and sighed.

You couldn’t keep doing this.

In recent months you’d been questioning whether or not any of this was worth it. Every single weekend of your career had been a step towards gender equality, you were the poster-girl for being a good driver, but it was always just not enough. You’d left RedBull because of it. You realised they’d never give you a seat and just continue to use you as a diversity hire. It hurt though, that had been your home for years. You’d always been a RedBull driver, since you were in karting. The whole lead up to your first race was months and months of questions, everyone wondering if you could finally show everyone that women deserved seats in F1.

And you’d just fucked it up.

You hadn’t even noticed that you’d started crying until you felt them on your cheeks. You quickly wiped them away, but it wasn’t quick enough to fool Oscar. He frowned as he looked at you, walking towards you. You rolled your eyes. “Don’t fucking pity me,” you scoffed. “Come on, we have to debrief,” you said, walking into the boardroom.

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“Oscar, when am I pitting?” you shouted, hoping he would finally fucking answer you.

“I’m not sure yet, give me a moment Y/n-”

“Y’know it’s really fucking impressive how we finally get in the points and now I’m getting fucking undercut because you’re not fucking ready Oscar, this is ridiculous!” you shouted.

��Pitting next lap,” he said, neutral. It pissed you off how level-headed he was.

“Fuck off,” you muttered. You pitted next lap. You finished the race in P11.

Shit.

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“Fuck!” you shouted at Oscar, getting out of the car. “This is such fucking bullshit.”

“Y/n-” he started.

“Just fuck off,’ you sighed, pushing his hand off your arm. “That would’ve been our best finish! P5?! And then Lando turns into me?!”

He nodded. “Calm down,” he soothed. Your mood turned.

“Don’t fucking tell me what to do,” you ripped your arm back.

Lando DNFed. You DNFed. Shit.

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P15, another failure. At least you’d gotten higher than Lando, stuck down in P17. 5 races in and 0 points between the two of you? Fucking hell. You’d never scored so badly in your life. You walked over to the barrier, finding Oscar standing there.

“Sorry,” you sighed. “We’re so fucking slow.”

He nodded. “We’ll keep working.”

You nodded, but you felt that same nausea twisting your gut.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, somehow sensing it all. You shook your head.

He stared at you a second longer, then took your answer, despite the way he sensed your lie.

You two didn’t get along. He understood that. It didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of your insane diet and work out regimen. He was completely aware of the way you blame yourself despite the car being the only issue. He watched you work yourself to the bone. He almost wished you would be a bit more arrogant, like Lando, he wished it fell off your shoulders as easily as it did his.

He couldn’t stand the media. The narrative they were pushing about you was ridiculous. You’d won every junior series, you’d waited your turn in RedBull, only to get kicked to the curb, you were good enough, but something told him you were starting to believe otherwise.

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“So what’s the issue?” Zak sighed, pacing the garage, starting one of his famous pep talks.

“Y/n,” a voice from the back muttered and everyone's heads snapped to you. It had been one of the mechanics who had preferred Carlos, but you just shrugged. A few chuckles were heard, one of them coming from Lando himself, and you just continued what you were doing, staring off into space.

“It’s the car we built,” Zak answered his own question, trying to do damage control.

“She’s not exactly Hamilton,” Lando said, a little bit too loud, as he joked with his engineer.

“She’s consistently placed in front of you in the same car,” Oscar pointed out, his voice neutral. “The only reason she DNFed in Saudi Arabia was because you turned into her. Also, you haven’t gotten any points.”

“What are you, her boyfriend?” He chuckled, making the garage laugh. You rolled your eyes, getting up and walking off. “Is she fucking PMSing?”

Oscar’s blood boiled at the way his co-workers laughed at that, at you. You didn’t deserve this shit from Lando, from anyone. Oscar went after you. He stopped right outside your driver’s room.

“I don’t know what to do.

He heard your voice, thick with emotion.

“You’re not working hard enough, look at Lando. You have to pay your dues here, it’s how McLaren works. Go for a run and clear your head.”

“I’m exhausted-”

“I’m not asking.”

He stepped back, letting the door swing open. You stared back at him with wide eyes. “Run?” he offered.

“She should go on her own-”

“Yeah, sure,” you shrugged.

You didn’t like Oscar, but it was better than going alone.

“What’s Richards’s problem?” he asked as you two ran the streets of Miami in the pitch black of the night. Richard was your trainer.

“He’s just a bit of a pushover,” you shrugged. “He’s making me better.”

“He’s making you train more, relax less, and eat less,” Oscar pointed out. “Is that better?”

“So you’re a health expert now?” you scoffed. “The gaul of you, to always assume that you know better than someone just because you can. It is fucking insane how much of an ego everyone here has.”

“Maybe you should get one,” he scoffed.

“An ego? No thanks.”

“No, a backbone,” Oscar said. “You can’t let Lando walk all over you, he’s without.”

“Without what?”

He shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

“I don’t,” you continued. “Explain.”

Oscar smirked. “Talent.”

You rolled your eyes. “You’re so strange.”

And off you went, running again.

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P4, finally a good result, finally a result worth all the struggle, all the shit, everything.

But no one was at the barricade. None of your mechanics, no Zak, no one. Not even Oscar. You looked like a fucking idiot. Lando had DNFed. They were busy with him. McLaren was such a fucking boys club, and you didn’t fit in. You shook your head as you searched the barricade, not one familiar face to be had. Bullshit.

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You walked back into the motorhome after all of your media duties, and you scoffed when they let out a half-hearted cheer. No celebration for you, only sympathy for Lanod, who crashed because of his own reckless driving, Lando who was totally fine, Lando. You pretended it didn’t hurt. You’d been congratulated by everyone else, every other driver, especially Danny, Liam, Yuki, Max, and Checo. They all gave you the biggest hug, told you how well you were doing, and celebrated you. You wished you’d just stayed as their reserve driver. Maybe then you’d be something to someone.

You stumbled into your driver’s room and found a note on your table, beside it, your favourite chocolate bar.

Congratulations on your result, you deserve to be celebrated, but Lando sucks so we had to pretend that you aren’t incredible. I thought you’d enjoy something sweet, sorry we had to be the ones to leave the bitter taste in your mouth.

Osc.

You stared down at it for a moment. Oscar knew your favourite chocolate bar. Oscar explained himself and apologised. Oscar was there for you, even if it was just in spirit. Oscar wanted to celebrate you. He wished he didn’t have to leave you alone, standing in Parc Fermé with no one to congratulate you.

“Fuck you,” you said, to no one in particular. You were alone, as always. You crumbled up the note and threw it into the bin.

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When Oscar looked at his desk in MTC the next morning and found the same chocolate bar he’d spent 3 hours searching for, he frowned. McLaren was ruining you slowly. Your mental health was falling further and further away from ‘alright’, and he seemed to be the only one to notice it. He saw you out of the corner of his eye. “Y/n,” he called. “Come here.”

You rolled your eyes, walking over to him. “What?”

“I don’t like these,” he shrugged. “You should take it, I’m sorry-”

“I don’t like them either,” you shrugged. “Go give it to Lando, since you’re his bitch now too.”

“I-”

“I don’t fucking care about where your loyalty lies, Oscar, but don’t play both sides. You picked one in Imola, so stick with it,” you seethed, hitting the bar out of his hand.

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navigation for my blog :) (masterlist)

playing favourites masterlist

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