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dear-ao3 · 3 months ago

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it's race week irw tae ,ce sek

and yes, that is george, as in george russell. the artist of this lovely graphic. graphic design is his passion.

anyway. today is august 3, 2024 and welcome to spa.

no no not like a bath spa. spa-francorchamps, the race track in belgium. the last race before summer break. the longest track on the calendar and usually a notoriously rainy trip

but before we could get there. silly season was back once again. shape of a haas contract, form of esteban ocon

thats right, the rumors were true. esteban ocon is going to haas and he will be teammates with ollie bearman. and i am pretty sure that he signed a multi year contract.

so haas has confirmed their driver line up. five seats still remain as we head into summer break: vcarb, sauber/audi, alpine, mercedes and williams (and maybe red bull?). this is about standard. usually most teams will want to have this all squared away before summer break so they can spend the back half of the season focusing on the world championship, but its not unheard of to do this. toto wolff has dragged out signings before (with george) and we know from last weekend that he intends to do that again this time.

the following drivers are all still jobless: logan sargeant, zhou guanyu, valtteri bottas, carlos sainz, daniel ricciardo

and then these guys are also in contention for a seat: liam lawson, mick schumacher, and kimi antonelli

and someone else lost their seat this week. but not a driver, a team principal. the alpine team principal, actually.

they released the following statement:

"bwt alpine f1 team can confirm that bruno famin will move away from his current role as team principal of the f1 division by the end of august. bruno will be in charge of all other motorsport activities of the renault group at viry-châtillon. a new team principal will be announced in due course"

bruno, by the way, had only been team principal for about a year, after his predecessor, otmar szafnauer, had been announced to be leaving Last Year at spa. bruno was team principal for an interim period and then promoted to full time real team principal

this is wholly unsurprising, actually. first because alpine is Probably Definitely Almost Certainly stopping their collaboration with renault for engines (and go to mercedes or ferrari) and bruno had ties to them (i think?) also alpine has had a shit ton of staffing changes, including their technical director and head of aerodynamics and pretty much all of their senior staff this year. also lets not forget: flavio briatore is back as a consultant. and as nico rosberg pointed out last week: he has a lot of say apparently.

so have alpine done anything good this week? well they did a deadpool/wolverine livery:

esteban had a deadpool helmet and pierre had a wolverine one

and now why would alpine do this? well alpine has (in my opinion) one of the most baffling list of investors, including but not limited to:

rob mcelhenny (known as a writer for its always sunny in pennsylvania, and kaitlin olson's husband)

michael b jordan (the actor from the black panther, not the basket ball player)

rory mcilroy (professional golfer and 3x pga tour winner)

patrick mahomes (quarterback for the kansas city chiefs football team and 3x Super Bowl champion)

travis kelce (another kansas city chiefs football player (i dont know his position and im not googling it sorry i only know the mahomes position because my ex boyfriend liked him), 3x super bowl champion and taylor swifts boyfriend)

ryan reynolds (owner of mint mobile the phone company, the 2010 sexiest man alive, board member of the match group (which operates like every dating app ever) and also literally deadpool)

so obviously alpine did this probably as a sponsor deal promotion thing because one of their investors is literally The Movie Itself. this was though great for esteban ocon who got to celebrate the public announcement of him leaving alpine with dressing up like a super hero, and he is a massive marvel and comic book nerd (i think he actually did a deadpool helmet a few years ago and gave it to ryan reynolds)

but enough about alpine, lets move on to red bull

first and foremost, max came into the weekend with a 10 place grid penalty. this was because they changed the engine on his car. i dont know exactly How engine regulations work but i Think (and please know i didnt look this up this is just what i pieced together from hearing christian horner and various sky presenters talking) that every car gets an allotment of engines that they can use during a season/set period of time and that allotment is four (?) and you can use more than that but you have to take a grid penalty for changing the engine. and there are strategic reasons for this, mostly because engines wear out and some tracks you need more power at. spa is not necessarily one of these tracks, but it was speculated that they put the engine in and ran it at practice and then swapped it back out after the first practice day to use at a different race (and they wouldn't take another penalty because they had already put this engine in the car, theres not rules against swapping around your engines as long as youre not putting in a new one, it has to be one thats already been used or within the allotment and weigh the same). or at least i Think so.

anyway. it was strategic to have the penalty taken here because spa, unlike other recent tracks, is an easier track to pass on. michael schumacher once won this race from 16th place and i think max himself has won it from 11th. that was last year (and maybe even the year before that?) when he took the very same engine penalty at this track. so just cause max has a 10 place grid penalty, dont count him out here.

max also responded to the curfew red bull supposedly imposed upon him and said "its not that i have a ban or whatever. i also dont need to tell them what they do int heir private time during the weekends. and thats the same for me" he also then later said "i mean, ive won three world championships. i think i know pretty well what i can and i cannot do"

yuki also told the press that "apparently, even what helmut says, red bull can play around with anything he wants. even the contract is almost nothing. to be honest i didnt read it (his new contract) properly"

and of course, the checo seat replacement rumors continue. he has denied them and says the wants the speculation to stop. however, liam lawson and daniel ricciardo will be doing a filming day in imola after spa and whoever performs better will likely get checos seat if he gets replaced. and why, you might be asking, is yuki not in contention for the seat?? despite the fact that hes been consistently doing better than daniel?? well as everyones been saying "he has ties to honda" (because hes japanese) (red bulls current engine provider) and they are on track to replace honda with ford so it aparently doesnt make sense for them to promote yuki? or so it seems. yuki originally got into alpha tauri (vcarb) because red bull was switching to honda and honda wanted a japanese driver in one of the cars (im pretty sure). so by that standard i am personally inclined to think that theyre just being racist. which is unfortunate because yuki is a great driver and i hope he does get a shot in red bull.

max also called checo very handsome and said (along with daniel) that he would not fit in an f1 car at 53

in more fun news, max was quizzed on cat breeds and he knew almost all of them:

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and to make it fair, they also quizzed checo on dog breeds

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moving on. williams.

there are some Rampant Rumors running Wild down at williams and that rumor is that team principal james vowels and logan sargeant are no longer on speaking terms. the rumors are not confirmed and there isn't a really reliable source (the source is actually indy car driver marcus ericsson who "heard from some of his american friends" that logan isn't having a great time at williams and then he also said that logan and james arent talking on a podcast)

logan responded to this saying that "marcus ericsson has a reputation of talking about other people without ever even having a conversation with me in his life. so yeah. its doesnt carry any weight. its not true."

in any case, it seems like logan is due to get replaced with continued rumors of him not making it through the season still circulating as well. whos replacing him? well we dont know. carlos is back on the table but carlos is still on the table everywhere (even at mercedes again aparently) and i think valtteri is still an option as well as probably a few other people.

but despite that and whatever the fuck else is going on at williams, they decided they needed to have an egg and spoon race.

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and in said incredibly baffling video, alex albon gave us all some enlightening advice: "life isn't always about winners and losers. its about...eggs."

alex albon also attempted to draw the olympic rings and failed epically at it. he then accused (jokingly) williams of purposefully making him and logan look like idiots in the pr videos. hes not wrong.

down to mclaren for our government mandated mclaren update. they didnt really do too much, tho oscar did call lando short in a video that i cannot find right now. you'll just have to trust me as you have been for this entire post. because i really could be lying about all of this. i doubt that youre clicking on all of my links. they could all be rick rolls and you'll never know. dont believe everything you read kids.

ah heres the video

anyway lando was asked about his actions from the week before (u know the whole Not Letting Oscar Pass business) and he said he should have "just let him pass straight away. its such a stood thing that i didnt because we were free to race" he also said "the fact that i kind of clouded over oscar's race win, first race win in formula 1, is something ive not felt too proud about. the fact that we have a 1-2 and that was barely a headline after the race, nothing was really spoken about it...." and finally: "oscars done a lot for me in the past and helped me in many races. he drove a better race than i did, he got a better start and mine sucked so...he deserved it."

so it seems all is good between the two of them?

tho oscar liked every other drivers comment on his post congratulating him on his win Except for lando's, and then liked landos several days later

zak brown aparently had a bet with oscar that if oscar won he would get a mohawk. and this was his solution for the hungarian gp win (which he was not present for btw he was dealing with indy car cause he deals with all the mclaren teams not just f1)

oscar was less than impressed:

valtteri, meanwhile, was asked at the press conference what he would have done in lando's position, would he have given the place back?

and valtteri said: "obviously i would give the place back because i am an amazing team player"

this of course was a dig at germany 2018, back when valtteri was at mercedes and lewis's teammate and was told by james vowels to stop attacking lewis in the infamous "valtteri, its james" radio.

he also got a bum squeeze from lewis at the drivers parade

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kevin magnussen gave haas the most backhanded compliment, saying that "upgrades we've had this year, they've actually worked. thats the first time in haas history that we've brought upgrades to the car that made it faster." kevin has been a haas driver for all but one year that the team has existed btw (and that year was 2021 when he was briefly replaced by nikita mazepin and then he got fired for probably finding the russian Ukrainian war on the side of russia three weeks before the 2022 season started) so he knows a thing or two about haas upgrades. that also says a lot about gunther steiner, the previous and disgraced ex haas team principal.

speaking of ex disgraced team principals, mattia binotto, the ex ferrari team principal (who is largely credited with a decent amount of charles's suffering) is making a reappearance on the grid as the chief operating and chief technical officer of sauber (which will become audi) so essentially, he is one of the team bosses.

everyone was curious if this was going to affect carlos sainz's decision about where to sign, because he is still unemployed and binotto was his team principal for 2 years at Ferrari, but he didnt really give an answer, as per usual. he was too busy pretending to speak french:

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anyway. aside from that. there were some announcements in regards to regulations changes for 2025. this is Different than the regulations that were announced for 2026 last month and theres a few important things:

points system will remain the same

there will be an increase in pre season testing

the minimum driver weight has been increased by 2kg

the last one is actually really important. and i will stumble my way through the explanation.

so. there have always been minimum weight regulations for the cars and prior to 2019 it was the weight of the car without fuel (including tires), the driver and the drivers kit all had to equal at least the minimum weight. this was a problem for two main reasons:

drivers who were smaller had a bigger advantage because they weighed less so they could have slightly more weight to put on the car/ move around blah blah

drivers were literally starving themselves or doing insane things to cut their weight to make the cars performance better (see: nico rosberg circa 2016 cutting his socks, stripping his helmet of paint and stopping cycling to loose weight in his legs to go faster to beat lewis)

so that wasnt great.

in 2019 they introduced a new regulation for weight which was that the driver's weight would be weighed separate from the car's weight. the driver weight was the weight of the driver, the seat and their whole kit and that whole combined thing needed to weigh at least 80kg minimum and then that weight is added to the weight of the car to equal at least the whole car's minimum weight.

so presently the driver's weight needs to be at least 80kg and that gets added to the car's weight and both need to equal at least 798kg

with the weight of the seat and the kit, this means the driver needs to be around 77-78kg at Most (that is 171 pounds for my fellow americans). this is particularly difficult for taller drivers (such as esteban ocon, alex albon and george russell who are all over 6 feet tall) (average weight of a 6 foot male being 160-196lbs (72.5-88kg) and yes they are athletes at the top of their field so its likely theyre not really average weight but this is just so you get an Idea)

so, as ive mentioned, all of the drivers are on specific diets and workout plans etc but the taller drivers do have a harder time because of the weight cap with some of them being right at the max, which isn't really great (lets recall a few races ago where george's race engineer told him to basically loose weight despite the fact that he has one of the strictest diets of anyone on the grid because of his height).

the good news is! for 2025 the driver weight minimum has gone up to 82kg, bumping up the minimum car weight to 800kg, meaning the drivers can now be 79-80kg. this was introduced to promote driver health and tbh, good for them

now that that business is out of the way. spa.

spa is a track that has seen a lot of shit. its a very long track, the longest on the calendar, 4.352 miles long (almost double the length of some tracks) and has a lot of elevation changes and is is almost always raining here at least a little.

spa saw the most recent driver death in f2 in 2019. (though there was another death in 2023 in a lower level of formula racing) if you dont want to read this (there will not be in depth detail, skip to the next colored heading)

as i have said, spa is dangerous in the rain and a grand total of 49 people have died at this track across various events since the 1920s

anyway though, 2019.

it was lap 2, a driver named alesi had a puncture and crashed at the radiation curve, several people behind him braked, but a driver named antoine hubert didnt see the accident and clipped one of the slower moving cars. he hit the barrier and then was struck by another car piloted by juan manuel correa at about 130mph. hubert ended up dying in the accident and correa broke both of his legs and had a spine injury, as far as i know he has recovered.

several of the younger drivers in f1, especially pierre and charles, had been good friends with antoine. charles won his first f1 race the next day and dedicated his win to antoine. every year since charles and pierre and others have paid tribute to antoine at spa.

this year all of the drivers paid tribute to not only antoine but also dilano van't hoff who died last year in the formula regional european championship at spa. he was involved in a multi car collision in the wet.

other interesting races at spa include the 2021 race, which was red flagged for several hours due to rain and everyone pretty much just fucked around in the garages for hours. this was also the same year lando crashed in qualifying in a massive rain storm after being on track for pole position. george also managed to pretty much secure his mercedes seat at that same qualifying because he watched lando's line during the red flag and absolutely sent it to hell in his williams (which was a SHITBOX) and ends up p2. it was also his first f1 podium because only 2 laps of the race were completed and it was behind a safety car, so no passing

also up there is the 1998 grand prix which had probably the most hilarious looking start to any race ive ever seen (everyone slid into eachother because david coulthard spun and managed to take out 12 people, no one was seriously injured) and this is also the race where michael schumacher nearly killed david coulthard

now no, this did not occur on track, but rather off the track.

lets briefly set the scene here.

coming into the race, schumacher (then a 2x world champion) was 7 points (13 under the current point system) behind mika hakkinen, though he took an early lead to the race following the restart and it looked like he was going to overtake hakkinen in the championship (the two were rivals)

so halfway through the race, schumacher is starting to lap people, one of those people being david coulthard who was running in ninth after some crashes and repairs and whatever. coulthard was also, notably, hakkinen's teammate at mclaren that year.

the Ferrari team principal at the time, jean todt, actually left the ferrari pit wall to walk to the mclaren pit wall to make sure that coulthard would move out of schumachers way when he inevitably lapped him, because this was aparently a thing you could do at the time.

regardless, coulthard managed to do anything But get out of Schumacher's way and moved off the racing line at exactly the worst time. schumacher ended up crashing into him at 140 mph in the poor visibility and his ferrari ended up losing a wheel, the front wing and most of the nose. somehow though, schumacher made it back to the pits and jumped out of the car with one mission: kill david coulthard.

why did he want to do this? well. simply. he thought that this was literally a plot by coulthard and mclaren to kill or at least injure him to benefit mika hakkinen and take him out of the title fight against hakkinen (hakkinen had also retired earlier in the race)

this is where we get this infamous photo of schumacher on his way to presumably kill coulthard

this was After he had already fought past all of the ferrari mechanics. despite everyone's best efforts he did get to coulthard and yelled "you tried to fucking kill me!" at him. the two drivers were barely restrained from fighting eachother and reportedly coulthard said that had michael tried to come and fight him, he would have given him a "glaswegian kiss" (headbut designed to break someones nose).

in any case, the two eventually got over it and coulthard admitted years later that the accident was his fault but it was not done on purpose.

what does this have to do with the 2024 belgian gp? virtually nothing its just a bonkers story.

speaking of! lets get into it.

as predicted, it was a very very wet run of practice. i only watching practice 3, which had pretty much no track time because of rain and a crash by lance stroll that red flagged everything for awhile.

and in case you're wondering what the visibility situation was well i guess keep wondering because i thought i saved a video of an onboard but aparently i didnt. it was rainy. like a lot.

"take yourself off for a spa weekend, they said. what about some water therapy for a saturday, they said" crofty said. crofty was in fact correct.

considering pretty much nothing happened at fp3, we got some interesting commentary for awhile, including commentary on a nearby karting race at a kart track that the drones briefly showed, a beautiful spider web and a shot of a guy sitting on the side of what could only be described as a cliff cave to watch the race. ted told us that he "sought exposure because i want to feel the rain on my face," they talked about using a field of cows as weather radar (aparently this is a thing?) and someone (i think crofty) said "well forget the weather radar, the cows have stood back up, that means the rain is stopping soon." they also debated max orange versus mclaren orange (theyre virtually the same color) both of which were out in full force because technically both lando and max are at least part belgian (and so is lance stroll, but they didnt mention this) despite neither of them racing under the belgian flag, they argued over how to pronounce a french word that i will definitely misspell, the talked about the corner names and the current football stats and how the cameras kept panning to puddles.

the most interesting thing that got brought up was the speculation that red bull had swapped max's engine out for an older one after taking the penalty because the team had broken curfew the night before.

aside from that thrilling commentary. yuki ended up with 60 place grid penalty for changing slightly more power unit things than max did and would be starting at the back of the grid. and oscar said over radio that he had "turned into a skateboarder" in one of the turns after he had gone off the track. and in practice 1 alex albon went 3rd fastest, just 7 tenths off of oscar in p2.

and with that riveting practice session done: qualifying

and please note, i was really tired when i watched this and my notes are a little lacking, but it was also a thoroughly standard qualifying session

it was wet and there was a risk of rain. everyone was on inters.

and incredibly, alpine was doing insanely well. like maybe there had been more than just a paint job on their car (they did in fact have upgrades)

checo as we know needed a good qualifying. there was one very hilarious moment in q2 when danny rics managed to knock him out, but then checo ended up going faster. he ended up only making it into q3 by .003 seconds, just barely beating alex albon.

and q3 saw the return of a beast, the beast being charles leclerc, who managed to put his ferrari up in p2, right behind, yep you guessed it, max verstappen.

"call that pole, kinda?" max joked over the radio because he would be getting the 10 place grid penalty.

still though, he was interviewed where he said "i dont know how quick were going to be, i hope were in the mix"

charles said that he was "not expecting it" and the conditions were tricky

and checo ended up in p3 and said it was "really difficult" but he had a "good feeling about tomorrow." which was good, because he needed a good qualifying to keep his seat and he got one. this was, by the way, checos highest start since china. china was race 5, spa is race 14.

the most hilarious thing to come out of this tho was the lestappen yap session

it went like this:

max: its better than expected, the weather in like, qualifying. i guess ts gotten bad

charles, ignoring him: which set of tires did you keep for tomorrow? you have two sets of....?

max, immediately: yeah, two medium, one hard

which is Hilarious.

yes, tire type is pretty public knowledge they talk about it on the broadcast and everything, but still the fact that max really just openly was like oh yeah sure here u go! with Zero hesitation makes it funnier.

and so, we were onto the race and it was dry, thank god

first, as i said, it is easier to overtake here than it is at other tracks, so dont count anyone out. second, it is pretty darn standardly a two stop race, but tire strategy is still important

unlike in 1998, everyone survived lap 1. charles was still leading on his inherited pole position. checo though had already been overtaken by hamilton and lando had taken a little trip into the gravel. max, as predicted, had already gained three positions.

"were going to find out just how fast that red bull is today," martin said.

charles's lead did not last very long though because lewis overtook him on lap 3, becoming the second person to lead the race.

zhou started moving very slowly on lap 4, it seemed like he was loosing power and was trying to desperately make it back to the pits. but then the problem seemed like it had fixed itself? "control alt delete and off he goes!" ted said, absolutely done and dusted.

by lap 6 lewis was over a second in front of charles and out of his drs zone, but there was "something moving down by my legs," he said on radio

and welcome back, sebastian vettel because this was almost an exact copy of sebastian vettel's radio during practice 2 at the 2018 Brazilian gp where he said:

"theres something loose between my legs, apart from the obvious. so something flying around my feet. around my feet. i mean, id be proud if it was what you think it is, but its not!"

(the thing turned out to be a small screw)

meanwhile, aparently zhous problem was not control alt delete because he lost the hydraulics and had to retire on lap 7.

and heres were the tire strategy came in. mercedes, ferrari and mclaren all had two sets of hard and one set of mediums, red bull, as we knew from the lestappen yap session, only had two mediums and one hard. the hards were preferrable because the undercut is strong here (you want to pit before the people youre trying to pass)

carlos was the only one to start on hards and he was doing quite well, so maybe that was the right choice.

people started pitting on lap 8 for the hards. people being nico, followed by alex, logan and daniel. williams had a beautiful double stack.

max had made it up to 8th place by lap 2, but he was still stuck there behind lando. on lap 11 he decided that he had had enough of this and pitted for hards to undercut lando.

george had the same idea, but he pitted for hards on lap 11 to undercut carlos

george came out 13 and max came out 14, but george was able to pass yuki quickly and take p12.

this made all of the front runners (and bottas) nervous and lewis checo and oscar all decided to pit on lap 12. max was still behind yuki in 14th.

charles hopped on the radio and attempted to once again fix the ferrari strategy by saying "if we are getting undercut, lets go long"

ferrari ignored him and pitted him on the next lap. he came out in fifth.

this left carlos, still on his hards, leading the race by 4.356 seconds, followed by hamilton, leclerc, piastri, perez, russell, verstappen, norris, albon, ricciardo, alonso, ocon, gasly, bottas, hulkenberg, stroll, sargeant, magnussen and tsunoda

it was still anyones race to win and everyones race to loose.

carlos boxed on lap 20 and came out 8th, putting lewis back in the lead.

george was able to get past checo and took p4. this left checo right in front of max and gave red bull a dilemma. did they tell checo to let max past because max was faster? and lando was trying to pass max....

instead of dealing with that dilemma, red bull decided to box checo on lap 22

hamilton was still leading by 1.865 seconds, followed by charles, oscar, george max and lando. and lando was actively chasing max for 5th. but he locked up and lost a bunch of time.

back at the back of the grid though, logan held his own against yuki fantastically, who tied and failed to get past him. williams tho wrecked it by pitting him pretty much right after.

"the tires are still good" lewis said on lap 25.

"thats the kind of radio call we used to hear from lewis when he was dominating championships" martin said wistfully.

but someones tires were doing better than lewis's and that someone was george, who said over radio to "think about the one stop" on lap 27, right after leclerc pitted.

lewis then pitted, leaving oscar leading the race. again, it was still really pretty wide open, four different people had led it so far.

carlos was right in front of lewis and the commentators theorized that he could be told to disrupt lewis to help charles, but he didnt really do that.

oscar meanwhile took the fastest lap, but he still needed to pit again.

"last lap was purple," oscar's race engineer said.

"it goes without saying," oscar said, "but clean air is king"

max had pitted again, this time to undercut george. lando pitted again to try and get max. lando was on the hards and max was on the mediums,

then oscar pitted, leaving george as our fifth race leader.

oscar also overshot the box and nearly ran into the front jack man, who rescued the whole operation

george though, was aparently staying out. lets remember that he had boxed on lap 11. it was now lap 32. he was leading by 7 seconds. and he thought he could win. lewis though was second and on the fresher tires. so it was going to be a fight to the end.

"i think that lando is pushing behind me, let me know what you want me to do" max said, the epitome of politeness and grace over the radio this week, on lap 33.

lando had in fact been told to push because the "tires are robust" and he was only eight tenths behind.

oscar overtook charles on lap 36 for third position, lewis was aparently threatened by this and thought that oscar could be the one to win the race.

george was now 3.880 ahead of lewis who was 3.587 ahead of oscar.

crofty pointed out on lap 37 that "george could still win this race, there are no team orders from mercedes." but there was speculation that George would be told to let lewis past if and when lewis got to him because he was gaining on george and going slightly faster.

and where did checo end up in all of this? well he was passed by carlos in lap 39, stuck down in 8th. "not a stellar race for sergio" martin said.

Hamilton did start to close on george on lap 40. "just make sure you give eachother plenty of space" came the radio message. so no team orders. they were free to race. and race they did.

george's tires were 30 laps old, lewis's tires were 14 laps old. oscar was 3.8 seconds behind lewis and gaining. but he was too far back to challenge the mercedes 1-2

coming into the final lap, george was just barely holding off against lewis

"its the russell hustle against hammer time!" crofty said as they headed into the final lap

george was .548 seconds ahead of lewis who was .811 ahead of oscar. it was the closest non-safety car finish between the top three since 2016

and george managed to hold lewis off in the most insane tire master class since monaco. all of his last 20 laps were in the 1.47s range

GEORGE RUSSELL WINS THE 2024 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX!

"boys again! what a performance!" he shouted over the radio "oh yes! great strategy! you guys are the best! cmon!"

toto called him the "tire whisperer"

this made three wins in four races for mercedes, and made george the first driver other than max to win more than one grand prix in a season since checo at the beginning of 2023.

and! this was the fourth 1-2 of the season with a different team. red bull, ferrari, mclaren and mercedes all had a 1-2 now. the last time that this had happened was in 1960.

max did though manage to extend his lead because he came in just ahead of lando

Gunther steiner did the post race interviews and whoever was on the sound team did an absolutely ass job because you couldnt hear anything. he did ask lewis if he thought that he could win the championship though, and lewis laughed and said "no"

so instead, enjoy some pictures of george right after he got out of the car in quite possibly the most interesting celebration ever:

lewi, by comparison, came out of the car and sulked

they caught toto right before the podium and asked him how george kept lewis behind and he said, honestly "we didnt think it was possible"

he was also on the phone in the garage before the podium, FaceTiming with susie, his wife and head of the f1 academy

it was also the tenth consecutive podium for mclaren. this is pretty impressive when you remember that there have only been 14 races so far.

the cooldown room was insanely funny. george took awhile to get there and it was just lewis quietly raging in the corner because he really really had wanted to win and oscar kind of sitting there awkwardly and not knowing if he should say something. he didnt say anything.

the podium though was a vibe especially for mercedes. the cameras even cut to kimi antonelli trying to get a piggy back ride from lewis's engineer, bono.

george was positively pleased, right chuffed and absolutely gobsmacked.

he and lewis even held up the i think it was the race director??? who joined them on the podium

and! over on the mclaren side, mark webber was there to support oscar and looking like an absolute proud dad after he hadn't been there last week for his win

so. lets get a quick update on the points:

our top 4 in the constructors championship are

red bull: 404

mclaren: 361

ferrari: 340

mercedes: 284

and our top 10 in the drivers championship are

max: 275

lando: 197

charles: 174

oscar: 164

carlos: 160

lewis: 143

george: 141

checo: 128

fernando: 47

lance: 24

and with that, lets get into the post race show where they agreed that this was "george's best victory in f1 to date" it was his third. but it was still his best.

his tire degradation was half as much as what everyone else's was, and he stayed out for 34 laps, remember. on the longest track on the calendar. this was also following mercedes completely redoing their set up because the upgrades that they had brought actually made the car slower.

even zak brown had to congratulate mercedes, saying "pretty awesome race, hats off to mercedes....impressive of max to hold off lando on mediums"

the commentators even said that mclaren should essentially take notes because this was how to do a proper 1-2 without screwing over either of the drivers. helmut marko also aparently said that mclaren needed to make a real number 1 driver call over the break and make it be oscar because lando keeps making mistakes.

this is now also been four races since the last time that max won, which is the first time that this has happened since 2020. but everyone usually brings in one (or two) more big set of upgrades and that could still flip the championship

and they interviewed one christian horner who said "i thought max drove a good race....checo....we need to have a look at that" this is because, if you will remember, max started p11 and ended p5 while checo started p2 and ended p8. "you never want to go backwards" horner said.

max said pretty similarly. "it was very difficult to pass....plenty of things to analyze....we know we have work to do and we want to do better." he acknowledged that "its not realistic to think that we can go from p 11 all the way to the front again, those days are behind." he later said that "our biggest worry is not with my teammate, but with the car"

checo said that it was "not great for us" because "we didnt have the pace today" but continued to shut down any seat rumors despite the fact that we know that liam and daniel are testing next week

they also interviewed carlos who revealed that he had been on a one stop strategy, which is why he had stared on the hard tires. and, very predictable he was asked about his seat for next year. he said "you guys need to understand no, it's been a long first half of the season for me having to deal with... a season with ferrari" which is first of all funny as shit. but he then said " in every week the race changes (with teams he wants to sign with) "im going to take my time"

they speculated that he was going to williams though

speaking of williams, james vowels was asked again if they were keeping logan and he said "silverstone, Budapest, he was where we needed him to be in terms of growth pattern, thats what im looking for. this weekend hes off the pace." and he again hinted logan might not make it through the season.

and they talked to yuki came in p17 and said that "well considering i started from zandvoort i think that p17 isn't bad"

charles apparently said post race: "i had a crack on the tear off in the last 20 laps. it didnt do anything for performance but i couldnt see well in my right mirror." and he still managed to hold max behind him and finish p4. it was also ferrari's 10,000th championship point that they have gotten in their history, the most our of any team.

they of course also talked to mercedes

george said that he was "really realxed" during the race and was "comfortable with [himself] and the car" and "proud to get the 1-2"

lewis was slightly less thrilled, likely because of the fact that he thought he was going to win, or get team orders to win. but he did say he was "happy for the team" and when asked about the possibility of him doing a one stop he said "i had my own strategy" but he also said that the team getting a 1-2 was amazing heading into the break and offered a "huge congrats to the team" in true lewis style

he was also to hilariously bitchy in some of the other interviews, saying things like "i was trying to get close obviously but george did a great job going long on the tires. every stint i had tires left but the team pulled me in so....unfortunate but it is one of those days" and "i mean, george wasn't really in my race, for most of it and so if the strategy had been done right he wouldn't have been in my race and we wouldn't be having that but it's great" and "yeah... it is what it is, it's done. i'm moving forward, i'm going into my break, i'm gonna have a great time." and that he did. he left the paddock almost immediately after he was done with interviews and hopped on a flight.

george posted this instagram post immediately post race:

and in entirely unrelated new sebastian vettel entered a 150km bike race (and came in 44th) under the name sebastian sprater (his wife's last name)

and leo learned how to swim

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Leo Leclerc Saint-Mleux (@leo_leclercc)

instagram

and max and daniel left the track together in a helicopter

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Max Verstappen (@maxverstappen1)

instagram

and i think that just about does it. relatively chill race weekend tbh, considering that this is formula 1. so the next race weekend is a month from now on august 23-25 in zandvoort, the dutch grand prix. in the meantime, factories are getting shut down for summer break after a few testing things happening next week so thats that everyone, congrats on making it this far on the update post and ill see you in about a month, enjoy your-

wait a minute.

what's that?

george's car is taking a long time at the weighing station?

well surely that means nothing, sometimes that happens, its probably not anything-

oh.

oh i see.

thats probably not great? surely they wouldn't-

oh!

well then!

yes, so, turns out george russell's car was underweight. as i talked about up top, the car and the driver must combined weigh at least 798 kilos. george's car came up a kilo and a half short (about 3.3 pounds).

and you might be wondering Oh Why Did They DSQ Him??? Why Not Fine The Team???? well lets remember back to austin last year when both lewis and charles were DSQ'd for having like .001 more millimeters of wear on their floor than they were supposed to. the rules exist for a reason and you dont want to be caught getting around them

(also considering that merc didnt drain the fuel entirely they probably knew that the car wasn't legal)

they weighed the tires new and used to see if that was the difference and it seemed to be. mercedes officially blamed it on their error and cited the lack of a cool down lap in spa (because its long) so the cars can't collect marbles (bits of rubber) onto the tires to up their weight before weighing. mercedes also said that george did not get a weight advantage from this. but 1.5 kg is a lot. remember all that stuff nico did (like strip the paint off his helmet to loose only like 80 grams to go .002 faster) to beat lewis? surely weight must be involved somewhere.

this is also now three races in a row that they've screwed over george. in silverstone he retired due to water pump problems, in hungary they didnt fuel him enough for qualifying and now his car is under weight. here was their official statement:

george was obviously disappointed, naturally. his best f1 victory had just been snatched from him and given to his teammate through no fault of his own. he posted this

(peep the three red hearts from alex albon?)

so since george was DSQ'd that meant that

a record breaking 105th win for lewis! now he was the only driver to have more than one win in the season besides max! but remember, he instantly hopped on a flight so he didnt know this was happening.

this meant that oscar got bumped to p2

and charles got bumped to p3.

charles actually refused to leave until it was announced. and after receiving the news he said:

"yeah of course, obviously you never want to do a podium with a disqualification of one of your colleagues. they have done an incredible job today and it’s not the difference of the weight that made him win. they won because they were the stronger team today. however in these type of things, it’s difficult to do an exception and it’s understandable that they got disqualified but it’s unfortunate because he has done an incredible job as well as mercedes. but it’s part of racing."

it was funny tho Charles inherited pole and then also inherited a race in.

lewis said something similar on his instagram story

and damon hill, the 1996 world champion, even said:

and i think that just about does it.

so heading into the summer break we have the constructors championship standings:

red bull: 408 mclaren: 366 ferrari: 345 mercedes: 266 aston: 73 vcarb: 34 haas: 27 alpine: 11 williams: 4 stake: 0

the drivers championship standings:

max: 277 lando: 199 charles: 177 oscar: 167 carlos: 162 lewis: 150 checo: 131 russell: 116 fernando: 49 lance: 24 nico: 22 yuki: 22 daniel: 12 ollie: 6 pierre: 6 kevin: 5 esteban: 5 alex: 4 guanyu: 0 logan: 0 vaktteri: 0

the the following seats still open:

vcarb williams mercedes stake/audi alpine and perhaps the elusive red bull seat.

and so, provided nothing terribly earth shattering happens before then, i will see you all in a month for zandvoort :)

Sorry i tried to scroll past but, i know nothing about f1 other than max verstappen is fast, my dad doesnt like lewis hamilton, fast car goes in a loop and sometimes expodes. Could you give me a crash course in f1 drama? Im very intrigued. Whats the tea as it were?

a terribly loaded question, but i will do my best. i’ve talked about some of the drama before like the red bull second seat and the chronicles of haas but allow me to briefly try my hand at explaining the nightmare that is the upcoming silly season

under the cut we go

silly season is when the drivers go through contract renewals, extensions and switches. usually it’s confined to the first half of the season (march-july) but it has been known to extend all the way to the last race of the season and they like to switch people around at random sometimes. driver contracts are complex, there’s a lot of money involved and basically You Are The Face Of The Team so if you have a shit season then you make the team look bad. but at the same time you could have a shit season because you have a shit car. it’s sticky stuff.

so. there are only twenty seats in formula 1. 10 teams. each team gets two drivers. (there’s also reserve drivers but we’re not going to get into that). who ends up with a contract is largely up to the teams, they can pull the contract out from under people they can also cut you mid season. they’ve done it before.

of the 20 drivers on the grid, 14 of them have contracts expiring at the end of the year. yes. 14. you see how this could get complicated.

so let’s meet the teams.

red bull racing. they came first this year (and last year) in the championship. like aggressively first. like they won the championship by over 350 points. they are definitely the team to beat. but if you end up with a seat at red bull, you do have to deal with max verstappen being your teammate and he won all but three of the races last year. he’s the golden boy. red bull are also notoriously silly when it comes to contracts and famously swap people mid season who aren’t performing.

mercedes. merc is home to 7 time world champion lewis hamilton and they have won the championship a great many times, though not since 2021. they are kind of in their flop arc and their car the last 2 years has been pretty garbage, but they have still made it work because they were able to come in second last year.

ferrari. god help the poor little meow meows with a ferrari contract. ferrari is a notoriously great team and they’re trying to get back to the top again but their strategy every single time has fallen short. to the point where their drivers are the ones doing the strategy in their cars while driving. they came in third last year and have been decently consistent at getting first in qualifying and then getting beat by max verstappen on race day.

mclaren. they’ve definitely worked their way up over recent years. they ended fourth last year and have had some championship wins before but not nearly as many as say merc and ferrari. their team ceo (owner? director?) is a little interesting and their car started out a pile of flaming hot garbage at the beginning of the year but they did manage to get their shit together.

aston martin. they are owned by canadian billionaire lawrence stroll, father of lance stroll (one of the drivers for the team). they’ve undergone several name changes over the recent years (force india, racing point, etc). they positively slayed at the start of the season and then one day they sucked. they finished fifth in the championship.

alpine. the frenchest french team. they’re (i think?) still partially owned by the french government. both of their drivers are french. (their drivers also hate eachother but we’ll get to that. just know they’re in the middle of a modern french civil war). they had the opportunity to have a good rookie driver (oscar piastri) this past year but in a thrilling twitter battle, he publically flamed the shit out of them and went to mclaren instead (and slayed). they're usually solidly middle of the pack. they ended sixth in the championship.

williams. williams has been one of the back of the grid teams for the last many years but they have finally started to get their shit together and don’t quite suck as much as they used to. all of the points this year were scored by only one driver though (except one but we’ll get there). they came in seventh.

alpha tauri. they are the sister team of red bull. so technically redbull owns both teams (meaning they can swap drivers between teams. they like doing this.) they’ve just kind of been There for awhile but they did slay towards the end of the season when one of their drivers led the race for several laps. basically tho, this team is the gateway to redbull. they came in eighth.

alpha romeo. recently renamed to stake f1 team (but sometimes they are going to be called kick sauber. this is a whole other drama post and i’m not getting into it). they’re also just kind of there. generally unproblematic. seems that really great drivers who get ixed out of a contract for a younger driver end up here or young drivers who are in their early years are here before they go to a better team. they ended ninth this year.

haas. oh haas. goofy team. they suck. point blank they suck. they keep loosing sponsors because they suck, they don’t win ever (one time they came first in qualifying last year). they cursed themselves in australia in 2018 by not tightening their tires and its been downhill ever since. they came 10th. their team principle got let go (fired?) who’s to say today.

so those are the teams. it is important to note that:

-there is a cost cap. each team is allowed to spend no more than 135m per year.

-not all cars are equal. some things are standard. they all undergo the same testing. but the cars are all very different. so you can be a good driver but stuck in a shitty car. which makes it impressive if you are doing well in a shitty car.

let’s meet our drivers!!!

starting with the guys who’s contract is not ending in 2024:

max verstappen. 3 time world champion. 26 years old. general beast on the track. he dominated the whole season. he’s currently racing for red bull and has a contract with them through 2028.

lewis hamilton. 7 time world champion. 39 years old. he drives for mercedes. he will not leave mercedes until he retires. he really really wants to win an 8th world championship and is willing to stick it out a few more years as long as merc still believes in him. his contract expires in 2025.

george russell. the other merc driver. 26 years old. hes aggressively british and says thinks like blimey unironically. walking meme. got his merc seat in 2022 right when they entered their flop arc by getting his tractor of a williams to finish second in qualifying in the middle of a rainstorm. his contract expires in 2025.

lando norris. mclaren driver. 24 years old. he has notably never won a race in his five years of formula one (mostly because right when his car finally was good enough max verstappen was 20 seconds ahead of anyone) but he is regarded as Very Good. he has only ever driven for mclaren. and even though there is another year left on his contract there is mass speculation that he will not renew his contract with mclaren after it expires and he may move up to one of the top teams (red bull, merc, ferrari) (tho i think he doesnt hate himself quite enough to go to ferrari). his contract expires in 2025.

oscar piastri. the other mclaren driver. 22 years old. this was his rookie season and he positively slayed. like people compared his rookie season to lewis hamiltons rookie season. he also had the positively funniest start to his rookie year because alpine announced that he would be driving for them (he had been their reserve driver and in the alpine academy) and he posted a tweet that basically said yeah thats false i never singed anything with you and im going to race with mclaren instead (he dodged a bullet) and then alpine tried and failed to sue him for $4m USD. he signed a contract extension with mclaren this year and his contract expires in 2026.

lance stroll. aston martin driver and son of the aston martin owner. hes doing ok, tho there was conspiracy that he wanted to quit and have a tennis career awhile ago. but basically since his dad owns the team it seems that hes guaranteed a seat for as long as he wants one.

so now. moving onto the good shit. the people who have contracts expiring in 2024. hold onto your hats people.

charles leclerc. (everyones favorite slutty little soup can). 26 years old. he is currently at ferrari and he has been since 2019. notably, he was given the longest contract in the history of ferrari after a stellar rookie season at sauber (renamed to alpha romeo, renamed to stake f1) where he got the tractor of a car consistently into the points. having the longest contract in the history of ferrari was a flex at the time, but now its likely how he will introduce himself at therapy sessions. ferrari have fucked this man left right and center up the ass with a plastic lunchroom spork. hes talented, he can drive, and he can drive well. but the strategy that ferrari has absolutely sucks. either something is wrong with the car (see him blowing out his gear box on the formation lap in monaco, his car completely crapping out and spinning into the barrier in brazil before the race even started) or they fuck up his pit stops or put him on the wrong tires and honestly its just frustrating. but will he leave??? likely not. you'd have to pry ferrari out of his cold dead hands and at this rate that might be where this is headed though there has been some minor speculation of him going to another team like merc or red bull, but merc doesnt have any open seats and red bull is a whole other dumpster fire of drama. ferrari are going to have to pay him a boatload of money to make him stay.

carlos sainz. the smooth operator. 29 years old. ferrari driver. previously carlos was at toro rosso (renamed to alpha tauri), renault (renamed to alpine), and mclaren before signing with ferrari. he has been at ferrari since 2021 and has voiced that he would like to stay with them for however long he can. there is speculation that lando might replace him at ferrari (but landos contract is not up until 2025) and there is also some speculation that alex albon might replace him. while charles is clearly the golden boy at ferrari, carlos is slightly slower but also definitely consistent. he was THE ONLY non red bull driver to win a race this past year, in Singapore after max verstappedn was knocked out of qualifying by alpha tauri reserve driver liam lawson (more on him later) and because he basically came up with his own strategy in the car while he was driving.

sergio perez. aka checo. red bull driver. 33 years old. and oh boy here's where we open the can of worms. checo was previously at racing point (renamed aston martin) and it was very near the end of the 2020 (?) season and he was out of a contract. he had a bonkers race where he was knocked to the back of the grid and then overtook everyone and somehow ended up winning (there is more to that story but just trust me) and christian horner, red bull team principle, mr ginger spice and definite disney villain called him and said congrats sir you have a seat at red bull! well. fast forward. hes been causing problems. problems as in crashing a lot, generally not doing great and pissing the crap out of red bull. it is basically guaranteed at this point that he will not be getting a contract extension. there was actually talk this year of him losing his seat mid season to one of the alpha tauri drivers, because remember, red bull owns both teams and they can switch them whenever they want to (and they have!) but ultimately this did not happen. even though checo has a seat at red bull until the end of 2024, its mass speculated that he is going to get switched with an alpha tauri driver, probably daniel ricciardo (more on him shortly) mid season because there is a speculated clause in daniels contract that says that if checo isn't performing well in the first few races daniel is getting his seat.

daniel ricciardo. 34 years old. alpha tauri driver. man oh man what a guy. outside of being the prankster of the paddock, he has one of the most batshit careers of anyone currently on the grid. he started out at red bull and was showing real talent and skill and was on track to win things (and was!) and was there until the end of 2018 when max verstappen (his teammate) started getting preferential treatment and also red bull started having a lot of problems with their engines (which were being outsourced from Renault (now alpine) and another team on the grid) and well very very long story short he made the surprise move of the century and decided to sign with Renault (which makes no sense they're the one with the engine problems) and was there for 2 years before moving again to mclaren where he was reportedly not treated very well and had a hard time driving the car so they mutually ended his contract with them early and he basically retired at the end of the 2022 season and became a red bull reserve driver. then halfway through the 2023 season alpha tauri ixed one of their drivers, nyck de vries, because he wasnt doing well and promoted daniel back up to a full time driver at alpha tauri (which we know is only a step down from red bull) but then he broke his hand in a crash in zanvort (?) and then he was replaced for a few races by formula 2 driver liam lawson (who we will also talk about) and then he came back to finish out the season in alpha tauri after he was cleared. daniel has admitted openly that he never should have left red bull and he was given bad advice to do so. hes towards the end of his career at this point and its well known that he Really Really wants to finish out his career at red bull again. he and max have already been teammates before and they do work well together and daniel is great driver (see his comeback in texas (or maybe it was brazil?) this year). so. Pretty Sure that daniels going to get either an extension at alpha tauri or go up to red bull. thats what we all want. get this man in a red bull we need him there biblically.

liam lawson. now technically liam is not actually a formula 1 driver. hes a formula 2 driver, but he was daniels replacement for five races and there has been some speculation and some confirmed news about him so hes getting included. when he was racing for f1 he was at alpha tauri. hes 21 and looks like he belongs in the movie grease. no one was expecting him to slay in formula 1 and he positively knocked everyones socks off. the scene: Singapore. which, if you'll recall, is the one race that a not red bull driver won. this was largely because liam lawson slayed the absolute game in qualifying. the qualifying part of racing determines what order the cars start in on the grid for the race and theres three parts, the first two parts the bottom 5 drivers each time get knocked out and then the top 10 complete for the last 10 spots. liam lawson knocked BOTH max verstappen and checo perez out of qualifying in the second round by going very slightly faster than them, effectively fucking up red bulls race and allowing carlos to win. and he also scored points in that race, which no one was expecting. now thats all fine and dandy, but here's the speculation: hemlut marko (im pretty sure) (who is somehow decently involved in the decision making at red bull though i couldn't tell you how) said that he thinks that liam lawson will be in an f1 seat no later than 2025. meaning that he will probably get offered a contract this year. and hes already raced for alpha tauri. red bull have sunk a good amount of money into him. they clearly want him. so if he gets offered an alpha tauri seat in 2025, that means theres a good chance danny rics is going to red bull. do you SEE how the plot here is THICKENED

yuki tsunoda. age 23. currently at alpha tauri. and fun fact, the only alpha tauri driver to race there the whole year. he had three separate team mates. he is slaying and hes often slept on. he has a bit of a temper and likes to shout on the radio and also hates working out (they had to force him to move to italy or something to work out, long story) but hes been kinda killing it. he led several laps in the abu dhabi race this year and hes decently consistent. people think theres possibility that he could get moved up to red bull on account of the fact that he is younger than daniel and clearly has more years in him,, but there is also possibility that he might not because red bull like to make stupid decisions. and if he doesnt get moved up to rebel, will he stay with alpha tauri? we don't know.

alex albon. age 27. currently a williams driver. alex albon is another one with a batshit career. he started out his rookie year in 2019 at alpha tauri then got moved up to red bull halfway through the year when red bull decided that pierre gasley wasnt doing a good enough job (more on him later) and stayed with red bull for a solid year and a half until he lost his seat in 2021 to checo. he has been with williams for the last two years and is basically carrying the team. like. williams as a team scored 28 points this year. and alex albon scored 27 of those 28 points. and as we know, williams is still kind of in their shit arc (though they are doing much better. they didnt score any points for a solid 2 (?) years. so this is an improvement.) and if you can get a shit car to perform you catch the eye of bigger teams. now, alex has already been a red bull driver. and he was on the cusp of podiuming two separate times when lewis hamilton ran into him. this (among a few other things) basically killed his chances at getting resigned at red bull because he wasnt ""performing"" and red bull are bitches who love to win. but some people think that red bull should give him another shot. like daniel, hes already been max's teammate and he can definitely drive. but theres also talk he might go to ferrari because ferrari think that he might compliment charles's driving style (or something). but going to ferrari at this point is kind of suicide. so.

logan sergeant. age 23. the only american on the grid. the other williams driver. he just finished his rookie year. he scored a grand total of one single point this season, in texas, and it was because charles leclerc and lewis hamilton both got disqualified because the floor of their car had more wear (by literally less than millimeters) than it was allowed to, bumping him up from 12th to 10th. he has never done better than alex albon. he was also the very last driver to get a contract for 2024, with williams waiting until i think december of 2023 to announce his contract extension. clearly, hes on thin ice. but people have also said that he needs time to get used to formula 1 (other people have pointed out that oscar piastri slayed his rookie season this year and this statement about needing time is largely false). where logan ends up next year though will largely depend on how well the 2024 season goes for him.

fernando alonso. 42 years old. many people like to point out that oscar piastri is actually younger than fernando's racing career. he won tiktok creator of the year (somehow) and is also a 2 time world champion. he retired a few years ago, just to show back up again and slay. during the first half of the season when aston martin had a zoom zoom car he killed it, and then they had problems on top of problems and he didnt do well. except for that one race in brazil where he came in third, beating checo by literally .05 seconds. he hasn't really made any hints about retiring a second time and he is kind of carrying aston Martin right now (he scored 205 points this season, coming in 4th and tying in points with charles leclerc, lance stroll only scored 74 points this year.) and they did have their best year yet this year. (though they are relatively new).

pierre gasley. 27 years old. french. drives for alpine. the french team. previously he raced with toro rosso (now alpha tauri), then got promoted to a red bull driver in 2019, then halfway through the season they decided he wasnt doing a good enough job and he got demoted back down to alpha tauri. then he won a race with alpha tauri just to stick it to red bull. after the great oscar piastri contract twitter war, he was signed as alpines second driver, with Esteban ocon being the other driver (more on him soon). estie bestie and pierre (both french) were childhood friends and now hate each other for unknown reasons and basically feuded on the track for most of the season. french civil war at alpine. he scored 62 points in 2023 and came in 11th. not really sure where he will end up, it is possible that he will stick it out at alpine.

esteban ocon. 27 years old. also french. currently driving for alpine. another one with a silly bonkers career. he started out at force india and had a baller few seasons there but his teammate at the time was checo, and checo didnt really cooperate with him too much and caused some drama that cost estie bestie some places and some points. max verstappen also beat him up in the garage once. thats not really relevant but it did happen. anyway, after the owner of force india was arrested for .... i don't remember what maybe it was embezzlement or bankruptcy or something money related, the team was backed by lawrence stroll and became racing point. but all of that happened mid season and lawrence was basically like look ill back you guys for now but next year my son gets a seat (lance) so one of you two (checo and estie bestie) have to go. and ultimately they let estie bestie go even though he was more consistent because checo had more sponsors and they needed money. so he was out of formula 1 for a few years (but was a merc reserve driver) and then went to Renault, which then became alpine. he did come in 12th though overall this season, just behind pierre. so. will alpine keep both him and pierre and keep the civil war going? whos to say.

nico hulkenberg. 36 years old. haas driver. in his 200+ f1 races he has never been on the podium and he really really wants to be on the podium. unfortunately this will never happen in a haas because haas fucking sucks. and everyone knows it. he is getting towards the end of his career though. though! stake f1 will become the mario Andretti and audi team in 2026 (don't question it) and they have supposedly voiced interest in nico. so we will see if he hangs on that long to end up at audi. for now tough, hes definitely hating it at haas. though, haas are going to have a different team principle next year so maybe that will change things. i have a sneaky feeling through that haas will probably end up with another 2 rookie drivers because everyone else is smart enough to not race for them.

kevin magnussen. 31 years old. haas driver. hes another deeply interesting character. he has had one podium. in his rookie season. in his first race. and none since. kevin started at haas in 2017 and then left at then end of 2020 when he basically got kicked off because the team needed money and they wanted to bring in drivers with more sponsorships. these drivers were mick schumacher and nikita mazepin. so kevin basically was forced to retire after the 2020 season. this went decently well for haas. until russia invaded ukraine right before the start of the 2022 season and, well, nikita was Russian and it was never distinctly proven that his dads company (who was sponsoring the team) wasnt also funding the invasion. so nikita got fired and they were literally like 2 weeks out from the start of the season, down a driver. who are you gonna call? kevin magnussen! and hes been back ever since. but hes clearly getting annoyed with haas. there was one great clip from this year where his car caught on fire and he kind of just stared into to, clearly hoping it would burn for a long time. so the likelihood of him extending his contract is looking slim.

valtteri bottas. 34 years old. currently a driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo, kick sauber, whatever you wanna call it). previously, he was a mercedes driver and notoriously helped lewis hamilton win a great many championships, until he lost his seat to george russell in 2022. there was a rather awkward part of the 2021 season where valtteri knew that he was out of a merc seat the following year and kind of just chose violence. he slayed. then he went to alpha romeo, grew a mullet and made a calendar of his ass. quite the glow up if you ask me. hes also very interested in cycling. honestly though, i have my own personal speculation that hes going to retire at the end of this year.

zhou guanyu. 24 years old. driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo/kick sauber, etc etc). hes doing alright. he just finished his second season, in his first season he was majorly out qualified by valtteri but this past season he managed to out qualify him a good 6 times. which is decently good for the tractor of a car hes driving. its possible that he could get a contract extension, but like logan, its probably going to depend on how the 2024 season goes for him.

and thats all the drivers. theres also a few others i didnt talk about, like some other f2 drivers who want seats and mick schumacher, who is currently a merc reserve driver, all of which could be contenders for f1 seats. but one things for sure. this is going to be the silliest fucking silly season.

feel free to add on and peer review me

#not a tag #from saph #written while the power was out actually #strange expense #f1 #saph explains silly season 2024 #formula 1 #belgian grand prix #Instagram

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