#lewis in a mercedes is all i’ve ever known

[44prop]

that picture lewis posted had me crying at 5am, i’m not making it through this weekend unfortunately

[fanfictionismyaddiction]

Driving him crazy

Word count: 1k

Pairing: Toto Wolff x assistant!reader

Summary: When Toto Wolff’s assistant navigates the fast-paced world of Mercedes F1, playful banter from drivers and engineers uncovers a growing bond between them, as Toto acts like a father figure to shy young driver Kimi Antonelli and struggles to hide his own deeper feelings.

________________________________________________________

It had been a busy day at Mercedes' factory, with engineers bustling about, drivers popping in for updates, and, of course, Toto Wolff overseeing it all with his usual intensity. You, his assistant, had gotten used to the fast-paced environment. Working alongside Toto was challenging but exciting — not to mention, you had grown quite fond of him. There was something about the way he carried himself, his sharp intelligence and wit, that never ceased to captivate you. And Toto, well, he’d never admit it outright, but there was definitely something he enjoyed about keeping you close.

This particular day, things took a lighthearted turn. You were standing next to Toto in the briefing room, typing furiously on your laptop, trying to keep up with the conversation when Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, and George Russell sauntered in after their latest sim sessions.

Lewis was the first to make a remark, flashing a mischievous smile. “Hey, Y/n, how do you even keep up with this guy? He’s a machine.”

You chuckled, shaking your head. “It’s not easy, I can tell you that. He has me running all over the place.”

Toto, standing tall beside you, glanced down with that signature half-smirk. “She manages just fine. In fact, she probably knows where I’m supposed to be more than I do,” he teased.

George piped up, raising an eyebrow. “Honestly, mate, we’ve all been wondering… do you ever give her a break? Because if I were her, I’d have to call HR by now.”

The room erupted into laughter, with Lewis doubling over dramatically. Even you had to admit that working for Toto wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Kimi Antonelli, the young and shy prodigy, stood awkwardly in the corner, clearly amused but too timid to jump into the banter. Toto, always the father figure to Kimi, gestured for him to join the conversation. “Kimi, don’t stand there like a wallflower. Tell them I’m not so bad, hm?”

Kimi blushed a bit, looking at the ground. “Uh, well… I mean, he’s okay,” Kimi mumbled, scratching the back of his head. “He just… works a lot. A lot.”

“Exactly!” Lewis chimed in. “It’s borderline criminal.”

“Okay, enough of that,” Toto cut in, though his smile didn’t fade. “Y/n handles things perfectly fine. Besides, if anyone gives her too much trouble, I’ll know about it.”

The way Toto said it had the drivers rolling their eyes, though George and Lewis exchanged knowing glances, clearly onto the growing connection between you and Toto. But before they could tease further, the engineers started to pile into the room, signaling the start of the technical debrief.

Throughout the meeting, you couldn’t help but notice how Kimi kept glancing nervously at Toto, as if trying to gauge his reactions. You’d known for some time that Toto had taken Kimi under his wing, treating him almost like a son. The older man’s protective nature was endearing, especially when it came to the younger drivers.

Once the debrief ended, the teasing started back up again.

“So, Toto,” George began, leaning casually against the wall, “when are you going to let Y/n manage the team for real? She’s practically doing it already.”

Toto gave George a sidelong look but didn’t deny it. “She’s good, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?”

You shot George a playful glare. “Please don’t put any ideas in his head. I’ve got enough on my plate.”

Lewis chuckled. “Come on, Y/n, it’d be an upgrade. I mean, working with us drivers instead of constantly babysitting him?” He pointed toward Toto, feigning innocence.

Toto crossed his arms, looking down at Lewis with a mock serious expression. “You lot are barely manageable as it is.”

Just as the room filled with laughter again, Kimi, who had been quiet for most of the time, softly chimed in. “I, uh… I think Y/n’s the only one who can keep up with him. None of us could handle it.”

Everyone paused, looking at Kimi in surprise. The shy teenager wasn’t usually one for chiming in, but when he did, it was always genuine.

Toto smiled at Kimi warmly. “See? That’s why you’re my favorite,” he teased, giving the young driver a pat on the shoulder. “Now, if only the rest of these clowns would learn to follow your example.”

Kimi’s face turned bright red, but he smiled nonetheless, clearly pleased with the attention.

“Careful,” George said, smirking, “we might have some competition here, Y/n. You’ll be replaced as Toto’s number one.”

You raised an eyebrow, playing along. “Oh, I’m sure Kimi could do a better job. He’s quieter, less trouble.”

“Not a chance,” Toto interjected, looking down at you with a playful glint in his eyes. “No one replaces you.”

The teasing died down for a moment, and you felt your heart skip a beat. The banter was fun, but every once in a while, Toto would say something that made it hard to ignore the undercurrent between the two of you.

Lewis, ever the one to pick up on things, wasn’t about to let it slide. “Ohhh, what’s this? Toto’s playing favorites.”

“Always has,” George added, his grin widening.

Toto rolled his eyes, though his tone remained playful. “Alright, enough of this. Don’t you lot have cars to drive or data to review?”

“Just trying to keep it interesting,” Lewis said, throwing his arm over George’s shoulder as they began to exit. “Besides, I think we’re all interested to see where this goes.”

Once the drivers and engineers cleared out, you and Toto were left in the now-quiet room. He glanced at you, his expression softening from the banter-filled façade he wore around the team.

“Ignore them,” he murmured. “They like to cause trouble.”

You smiled, leaning slightly toward him. “Maybe, but they’re not wrong. You do act like Kimi’s dad sometimes.”

Toto let out a low laugh. “Someone has to look out for the kid. He’s too shy to speak up most of the time.”

“And what about me?” you asked, teasingly. “Are you looking out for me too?”

Toto’s eyes glinted with a warmth that made your stomach flutter. “Always,” he said quietly, his tone more serious now. “Always.”

[nicolesainz]

You never forget your power (LH44)

Lewis Hamilton x reader

warnings: fluff and heartbreaking

mentions of Abu Dhabi 2021 (not blaming anyone, just the fia, not max)

My eyes were full of tears

My heart was shattered into thousands of little pieces

And I knew at that moment, his would be into million

I look around me at a panicked and frustrated Mercedes garage, with all the mechanics swearing loudly in British slangs, Bono’s face in his hands and Suzie Wolff trying to calm her extremely angry husband.

I looked up at the big screen at the center of the track, only to be faced with a disappointment Lewis, who had raised his visor and his eyes were taken over by disgust and sadness. 

What just happened was truly unfair! This title was stripped from his hands the very last moment. Disobeying the rules? This is what we’ve come to? I shake my head and try to shut off the noises around me.

Happy screams, fireworks and chantings were not things I wanted to hear at the moment. My stomach was twisting around. The podium moment was now and I can say that I’ve never felt more awful in my life.

I couldn’t bare looking at Lewis. I wanted to run up and give him the biggest hug. In all the years we’ve known each other, from little kids, he always fought like a true champion. He proved this seven times already.

Max was also a young man who wanted to show the world his talent. Everyone was happy for him. After years of fighting, he reached his ultimate goal.

This season, has been the most horrifying and breathtaking I’ve ever witnessed. I’m glad to say that it’s over. The feeling it left behind is bitter than anything. A win would have made it bittersweet, to say the least.

I could see Max’s father, Jos, side eyeing Toto, I walked a bit towards the boss’s side. His gaze was focused on Lewis, who had a blunt but teary look on his face. This was a hit for Mercedes right where it hurts. It hurt their pride. It hurt Lewis’s pride.

All for a human error.

“If I didn’t want to be banned from the paddock or dropped by the team, I would have punched him” Toto let out quietly, as his wifey caressed his arm.

“I can do it! No one can tell me what to do!” I offer, of course always joking.

“Y/N, darling please. For now, just stand by Lewis’s side. He needs you more than ever” Suzie gives me a gentle smile and I reply with an equally bright one.

“Don’t worry. I would never leave him alone”

“When is this bullcrap ending?” The angry Austrian man said, talking to himself

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Lewis had finished with press and interviews, I was waiting for him at his driver’s room. My heart was racing and I couldn’t bare the thought of a sad version of him.

When he finally entered the garage and he saw me, his movements were faster. I opened my arms and he immediately threw himself at me. I could hear his deep breathing and slight sniffles. I didn’t want to pity him. He is a very strong and capable man. He knows though, that I will always be beside him.

“I guess the peak ended” he said quietly

“I truly hope you’re joking!” I grabbed his chin, for him to face me

“I’m not. Max is a very fucking fast and good driver. I can’t do much about it” Lewis replied still not looking me in the eyes

“If you say another bullshit in the next minutes I will walk away” I warn him! He shouldn’t degrade himself because he lost

“It’s not bullshit Y/N it’s the truth. I’m not good enough” he murmured underneath his breath

“Why are you being like this? You’ve lost again. It’s not the first time but you didn’t act the way you are now!” I raise my voice, which I immediately regret

“I was younger then. I was hungry for more. I still am. But I think my time has come to an end” I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs when he said that

“Even if you want to give up, I won’t let you! I won’t let you drop your entire career because of this!” I cupped his face in my hands and his gaze finally focused on me

“There’s no point in staying Y/N. We all have an expiration date” he says those things with suck ease, I truly hate it.

What he said truly affected me, but I believe that what I said to him afterwards left him speechless too

“So you’re saying that me falling in love with you, will expire soon?” I blurt our and Lewis’s eyes widen. Surprise and shock were written all over his face.

“You’re in love with me? Since when? How?” He was very confused by my statement and I was afraid he might have been scared too

“A year ago. The moment you crossed the line at the Turkish Grand Prix and won the seventh championship, I realized what my true feelings were for you. And that I would follow you to every corner of the world, and support you no matter what!” I said in a quick exhale and then try to catch my breath

“Good. Because I would refuse to have anyone by my side but you. You make me a better person and you’re the reason why I’m mature and want to learn more about life. You give me life” Lewis, leans forward in order for our foreheads to touch lovingly.

“Lewis, I don’t care if you win, lose, get a podium, not get a podium. I will forever be a supporter of yours through thick and thin”

“Like you always have!”

“And I always will. Never leaving you”

“Please don’t. Being close to you is intoxicating and simply brightens my mood. You boost me and make me improve constantly”

“I love you Lewis. Please never forget that”

“I love you too Y/N. And I am more than thankful to have been gifted with your friendship and now your heart. I promise not to break any of those. I will forever protect you!”

[harrysfolklore]

OKAY WHEEW GET READY

(i’ll give u background of the drivers and everything too cause idk if u know)

so basically lewis hamilton is a 7 time world champion and one of the greatest drivers ever. he has driven for mercedes for MOST of his career (his 7 world titles has been with mercedes as well). today we got the news that he is moving to ferrari in 2025. which is BIG because he has been EXTREMELY LOYAL to mercedes. and he is their golden boy and no.1 driver.

so this kinda raises the question of why he moved, did mercedes make a shitty car? is ferrari’s car phenomenal this year?

also like why would they announce a 2025 driver change when the 2024 season hasn’t even started.

now ferrari and mercedes have kinda been going through a rough patch but ferrari is the most successful team in f1 history, in terms of constructors and drivers championships.

him moving to ferrari is such a big deal because one of ferrari’s current drivers charles is the GOLDEN BOY of the team. CHARLES LECLERC IS FERARRI. for many many reasons.

so this also raises questions because in f1 teams there are usually no.1 and no.2 drivers, no.1 obviously being prioritized more for the drivers championship.

it would be weird to have charles as a number to driver because he has just signed an indefinite contract with ferrari and i don’t think he would sign that contract if he would be a no.2 driver. but also it would be very weird to have THE lewis hamilton bring the no.2 driver because he is a 7x wdc winner.

it’s kinda confusing, very chaotic and all over the place so if u wanna know any thing else or have any questions, lemme know

OMG OKAY I GET IT

in one direction terms it’s like if management announced that harry was leaving one direction in 2014 at the beginning of 2013??? sorta

i’ve known about lewis for the longest time he’s the name that always pops up when someone talks about the f1 bc of how good he is (along with checo)

i hope the moving doesn’t have to do with something like mercedes screwing him over smh

AND NOW, please elaborate on charles !!! what’s going to happen with him!

[mionemymind]

And there goes season 6 there is so much to get through so strap in. Sorry this is so late my job has giving me the most stressful hours this week.

Ferrari got a new team principal, aww no more Binotto(is it me or does he look a little like Jack Antonoff lol). Man Ferrari really is that F1 team and there fans go wild so they will always have that status weather they win or lose. They also really know how to keep there drivers in check.

Daniel getting back on the track, it’s really where he belongs. That injury for him was bad and on the hand to so horrible for him. I’m surprised that not many drivers suffer injuries considering how crazy some of the crashes can be. Just wonderful to see him doing what he was born to do. Nice to see that Horner truly cares about him and still sees potential in him.

Otmar really needed to stop being so soft when it comes to discipline those drivers but it was sad the way Alpine let him go. The drivers totally don’t have to be friends but they need to a least have some respect for each other. Taking accountability for ur actions cause in the end it’s gonna hurt the team and yourselves. Being competitive is a good thing but u got to keep ur ego in check so it doesn’t do more damage than necessary.

Tough go for Lewis this season not having the car he needs to get the 8 championship so he can be forever known as the best driver Formula 1 has ever seen. If leaving Mercedes in the future gets him to that achievement well I guess that’s that. I mean Alonso is still putting in work on the track while being the oldest driver on the track.

That battle for second place for the Constructors Championship was so nerve wracking and fun to watch. Max having an outstanding year uhhh I love him it’s so well deserved. Just literally dominated that whole year.

You seriously got to respect that fan-fiction origin that Zak has in Formula 1. As much as I’m starting to really like McLaren, had to reevaluate when I heard and saw they had Trump there for the Miami race. Taking pictures and everything, such a bummer, that’s something hard to look past at least for me. Because that man stands against everything I believe in, it was so disappointing. But Lando is so great and very talented would be a shame if he’s views aligned with someone as terrible as Trump. I don’t mean to put u on the spot but do u have any opinions or feelings about this. It’s just i know I don’t know you in real life but I’ve come to genuinely respect ur opinion and outlook on things. Please if this is to personal then just disregard this whole paragraph.

Again thank u so much for introducing me into this fantastic sport is it weird if I say love u for it. Now I’m off to YouTube to watch the videos u recommended and fall more into the madness. Drive to Survive was an amazing experience definitely 9.7/10. I’m gonna need more F1driver!reader now lol. Just seen the news Hamilton in that Ferrari red is gonna be interesting to witness. But who is Carlos going to drive for next year I’m worried, Ik he’s too talented to not have a seat on a team but he needs a good team and good car. Yay I got to watch my first race live, those last few laps were so good I love to see a good battle. Lando making Max work for that win, it was a very fun first race for me. Anyway I hope u have a great week.

-S

Looks like I've got a lot to catch up on S(ainz)!! But I'm so glad you've enjoyed that season. I wish there were more moments of my man's Max, but I think he declined being on DTS as much, which is fair since they really paint him in a negative light.

I wish sometimes Daniel never left. While I'm glad Max gets the favorable treatment on Redbull, I think Daniel and Max were the closest thing for Redbull on being "fair" on both drivers. Well at least in my opinion.

But I think Lewis's move on Ferrari has been a long time coming even though I thought he was gonna retire with Merc. Like all that history, it just makes me sad but I'm happy for him.

But I've seen mix stories of why Trump was specifically with McLaren, supposedly it was because their garage was the closest to the exit. But regardless, the fact that Lando views Trump as a "respectable" man is really disappointing. Trump is GARABGE!! I really despise that man so much. To see him there was so DISGUSTING!! But honestly, like Lando, be so forreal with me.

In my opinion, I know that the driver's real life political opinions would upset me. I don't know much about what they believe, but I do know that Lewis's values of supporting black people, women, and LGBTQ+ is what I love the most.

But I feel honored that you respect my opinion, I feel like I talk more about my feelings for Wanda that I rarely share what I feel like in regards to politics.

And I'm so glad that you're going to stick with F1. I might start thinking more about what I could bring with F1 Driver!Reader. But did you see Monaco today?! Well it was today for me! Crazy lap one but I'm so glad Charles got his win :)))

But you have a great day now S! No gif for today cause I'm on the work computer :(((

[mickstart]

hi bestie, I’m honestly still in shock and disassociated with reality after what happened to lewis and I’m so scared to go on social media and look at news articles cause they’ll be going off about how lewis’ dominance is finally ending and whatnot, so I kinda wanted to rant and maybe get reassurance?? that the king is still rising and he’ll only come back stronger cause as nico said, lewis is scarier when he’s hunting from behind??

what are your thoughts on this, are we seeing a red bull resurgence or is lewis only getting stronger and more able as a driver? I’ve only recently got into f1 but I’ve known lewis for years and he’s only gotten more impressive, especially with how committed he is for the environment and equality. will France see the return of the king?? will we see lewis coming back to take the crown like he did in 2018 I think it was? When he wasn’t even leading until halfway through the season?

so sorry for the massive rant, I just wanted to get this off my chest and get some assurance, especially with how wrecked and heartbroken lewis looked yesterday...

;Hey nothing to be sorry for bestie I completely understand feeling a little Out Of It from this! I honestly haven't been able to look at post race stuff with Lewis bc the way he sounded on the radio is just haunting me. Putting this under a cut because I also needed to do a massive rant about how good Lewis is.

First of all: for sure red bull have massively improved and are the best car this year. The regulations specifically target Merc and no amount of Sky trying to downplay how much better the red bull is magically gives Merc the better car again. Valtteri is not struggling that badly with the car because he's suddenly forgotten how to drive, it is clearly a hard car to drive. Realistically, it was only a matter of time before Max and red bull led the championship at some point this year.

But honestly? In Bahrain the scenario we're in now was so far beyond my best case scenario. I truly expected max to lead the championship from bahrain and be running away with it now whilst lewis and merc tried to sort out their problems. The fact that Lewis led the championship - for MULTIPLE races - is like.... it's insane to me. Going into this season I LIKED Lewis as a person sure, but I wouldn't have said he was one of my top 3 drivers. But every single race this season he's been more impressive. His talent, how hard he works, his mentality as a competitor, it has all just been amazing to watch. It keeps hitting me that this is a seven time world champion in his strongest era. I see absolutely zero loss in Lewis' skill, if anything I think he's either still sitting on his peak or still rising.

I know it sucks right now because Monaco and Baku back to back have been terrible races for Lewis, but recency bias is a huge problem in F1 and we need to look at it in context that this feels worse BECAUSE of monaco. Neither tracks suited the W12 and in Monaco Mercedes were an absolute disaster, as poor Valtteri proves. In Baku Lewis accidentally hit one button and the restart went to hell, other than that he was flawless all race and once again got fucked by a bad mercedes pit stop. Also, Mercedes struggle with softer tyres and I think we all suspect the tyres at Baku were too soft for EVERYONE let alone a team that struggles with the softs.

Two bad calls that are entirely on mercedes, and one accidental button press. When you look at it like that absolutely nothing damns Lewis or suggests he's losing it. Quite the opposite actually. It's just unfortunate they happened one after the other.

So Mercedes need to get their shit together - they can do that - but Lewis? Lewis has been dragging these clowns to glory. Lewis has been the apex predator. This season so far has only proven his skill and regardless of what happens with the championship I think that in 5 years time - with hindsight and such - people are going to look back at this year and say that THIS is the year to watch to see an F1 legend at his peak. Lewis has pulled off miracles this year. Two bad races in a row - at tracks where he has to work the car to its absolute limits - don't diminish that.

So yeah, I think that in France Lewis is going to be back at it again. As you said, Lewis always vibes better with the tracks after mid season and at France Red Bull will lose the flexi-wing advantage. I'm not guaranteeing everything will be perfect and rosy from France onward. This is going to be a tight season, and throughout the year we're going to see this pattern of red bull and mercedes trading bad days and good days and tracks that suit either car. Be prepared for that and remember the big picture. But am I worried that Baku means it's 'over' and Lewis is going to get eaten up by Red Bull? Absolutely not.

This sport is made up on hundredths of seconds. We see singular moments where one thing going wrong reshapes the entire narrative. We live in the moment because you have to live in the moment in F1. Sometimes we need to take a step back and see the bigger picture. Lewis was pushing the car to its limits, he lost positions solely because of the team's bad pit timing, and there were tyres blowing up around him with no warning which is a problem that's haunted him before. The pressure on him was immense, and STILL it wasn't really a mental mistake it was a physical one. Not to quote god himself but "Less button?" is a relevant rant today.

I get feeling bad after that race and I'm right there with you I was just sat there in utter shock for the last two laps. But trust me bestie, Monaco and Baku are outliers and should not be counted. Lewis is at his peak and only getting better and I think that Hamilton Resurgence this year is going to be the sexiest it's ever been. You’re feeling out of it BECAUSE lewis making a mistake is so unheard of. Feeling lost and upset when Lewis makes a mistake is itself reassuring proof that Lewis is THAT bitch who is normally rock solid.

The championship is in a holding pattern, neither Max nor Lewis lost or gained anything. Baku might as well have not happened for either of them, so let's follow that example. Strike Baku from your mind, from the record. We are in the same position we were in after Monaco, except we're going to a track that SHOULD suit us more than Baku.

This isn't the first seven time world champion I've defended from the press whilst a red bull driver was leading the championship and mercedes were being clowns, and 2012 taught me how to bite.

TL;DR - Baku means nothing, this is going to be a tight season and there will be days like this, but Lewis is operating at his peak and whatever bad takes the press have this doesn't change that. Baku is over, it's time for France.

[formula-one-thoughts]

Styrian Grand Prix Race Weekend Review

Whilst I think we can agree any racing is good racing, there is an argument to be made that qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix was more exciting than the race itself. One of the most rain-drenched sessions I’ve ever seen, all of the drivers exhibited incredible skill. I honestly expected far more chaos and crashes than we saw, but was grateful that we were treated to some spectacular displays of driving with only one red flag punctuating the session.  The Racing Points did NOT seem to enjoy the rain, but someone who did was George Russell, who managed to pull off a spectacular P12, and then was promoted to P11 following Charles Leclerc’s grid penalty. It was Williams’ first appearance in Q2 since Brazil 2018, and it was wonderful to see George display the talent he so clearly has (despite his race not going quite so well). The Uno reverse card came out at Ferrari, with this time Vettel pushing Leclerc out of Q3, the German only able to manage P10 at the end of the day. The battle for pole was primarily between the two drivers who have gained the strongest reputations for commanding a rainy track: Hamilton and Verstappen. But while Max put in a brilliant performance, demonstrating great control as he saved his car from a nasty accident after sliding through the final corner (the kind of thing we first saw in Brazil 2016), it was Lewis’s day. He put in a completely commanding final lap that cemented him as back in the game after a disappointing last weekend, the gap between him and Verstappen a mind-blowing and unheard of 1.2 seconds! Sainz, Ocon and Gasly also impressed, qualifying P3, P5 and P7 respectively.

Due to the wet qualifying, everyone had a free choice of tyres come race day, with most drivers electing to begin on the softs. Almost instantly it was all over for Ferrari, an ill-judged move from Leclerc taking their weekend from bad to worse. It goes back to the saying that you can’t win a race on the first lap, but you can easily lose one. His attempt to go down the inside of Vettel was completely unnecessary, and both drivers paid the price (Leclerc did apologise profusely and accept all the blame). With their car not even looking ‘best of the rest’ and this being their second race ending collision in four races, you get the feeling Sainz might be feeling a little less than happy about his upcoming move to the Scuderia. The incident necessitated a safety car for a couple of laps whilst the remains of Vettel’s rear wing were cleared off the track.

The majority of the race was not super eventful, with only one further retirement – Esteban Ocon. Hamilton pulled away from Verstappen and the trio of Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas in turn pulled away from those behind them. The midfield was closely bunched together for much of the race with lots of good battles, Perez in particular making his mark with a remarkable drive where he was up to 5thfrom 17thby lap 49 (having also pitted), pulling out fastest laps all over the place. Stroll was not able to make quite the same impact, struggling to pass Ricciardo for most of the race. Sainz’s race was rather ruined by a botched pit stop that put him out at the back of the group that included Norris, Ricciardo and Stroll, but he did manage to set fastest lap (and set a new lap record), giving McLaren their first consecutive fastest laps since 2011.

It really started to heat up on lap 67, with Bottas finally catching Verstappen, who was struggling with older tyres and some front wing damage. It looked like the Finn had got him, but Verstappen pulled off an insane move to regain the position, if only for 1 lap. It really showed Max’s passion that despite knowing Valterri was in the faster car and would eventually pass him he still put up an amazing fight, providing the fans with the entertainment we wanted. In my opinion, this drive, fight, and unwillingness to give up are the qualities of a future world champion. Perez finally caught Albon, but suffered damage that seriously compromised his speed, causing him to drop back. Lando Norris has come alive at the end of both races so far, and it’s great to see. Over the final 2 laps he went from 8thto 5th, capitalising upon Stroll and Ricciardo’s battle that saw both cars go off-track, and then passing the ailing car of Perez on the penultimate corner. The Mexican was soon caught by his teammate and the Renault, and the trio crossed the line three abreast, Perez just clinging on to 6thwith only a second separating Norris in 5thand Ricciardo in 8th. It was a Mercedes 1-2, with Hamilton putting in a totally dominant performance to win the race.

One of the most powerful moments of the weekend came during the podium celebration, when Stephanie Travers, Mercedes’ Trackside Fluid Engineer, accepted their constructor’s trophy. She is one of only NINE women ever to stand on an F1 podium, and the only woman of colour. I want to talk about gender diversity in the sport more in another post, but the importance of Stephanie standing up there alongside the drivers cannot be understated. Representation is so important, and the fact that women and young people of colour could see someone who looked like them on that podium says there is a place for them in the sport. I would read Lewis’s Instagram post if you want to find out more about Stephanie, and I think he was certainly instrumental in selecting her to join him for the champagne. Other teams should take note; although this is only a start, it was a display of genuine (rather than just performative) allyship.

Ferrari need to get their act together for Hungary this weekend; if they don’t show any improvement then I can’t see them having much of a chance of success for the rest of the year. Apart from Sainz’s pit stop it was a great weekend for McLaren, who stand 3rdin the constructors championship, with Norris maintaining 3rdin the drivers (with over half the points he managed to get all of last year). Toto Wolff has said he expects Red Bull to be a threat at the Hungaroring, but he has been known to make these kind of comments only for the Mercedes to appear stronger than ever, so we shall have to wait and see. Verstappen was narrowly beaten by Hamilton for the win last year, but managed to secure his first pole position, and has performed steadily there over the years. However, this is arguably the track where Hamilton has seen the most success – he has won 7 out of his 13 races there, and could be set to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of most race wins at the same circuit. Whatever happens, I can’t wait for more racing.

[gokul2181]

Lewis Hamilton: 'Not bad for a boy from a council estate' | Racing News

New Post has been published on https://jordarnews.in/lewis-hamilton-not-bad-for-a-boy-from-a-council-estate-racing-news/

Lewis Hamilton: 'Not bad for a boy from a council estate' | Racing News

PORTIMAO (Portugal): Lewis Hamilton cemented his position as one of Formula One‘s true greats when the six-time world champion claimed a record 92nd race win on Sunday, another staggering achievement “for a boy from a council house”. His victory at the Algarve International Circuit allowed him to pass the previous best mark set by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. The son of a black father and a white mother, who survived a broken home in his youth, Hamilton, 35, grew up on a municipal housing estate where his father Anthony at one time held down three jobs to fund his son’s embryonic racing career in karts.

His journey was unprivileged and without luxury, but it was clear from an early age that he had an outstanding gift for speed and all the gutsy natural instincts of a born racer. In 1995, aged 10, and wearing a jacket and shoes borrowed from his predecessor as British Formula Cadet karting champion, he went to a glittering awards ceremony in London where he met McLaren‘s then-boss Ron Dennis. He asked for an autograph and told him “one day I want to race for you”. Dennis replied: “Phone me in nine years and I’ll sort you a deal.” Bold, determined and individual, he almost won the title in his first record-breaking season as he reeled off nine successive podiums from his debut in Melbourne, rocking the establishment along the way with his speed and his style. On and off the track, he was fast, somewhat mercurial and occasionally tempestuous and this combination led to a fierce rivalry with team-mate and two-time champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren. That was a signal of how tough it was to be for all his future team-mates as Hamilton, who narrowly missed out on the 2007 title, returned to triumph in 2008 with a dramatic last-gasp fifth-place finish in Brazil. He also showed frustration as McLaren failed to deliver the speed to beat Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, who reeled off four straight title triumphs from 2010 to 2013, by when Hamilton had departed for Mercedes. Escaping the management regime of Dennis and his father, Hamilton found freedom at Mercedes alongside team-mate Nico Rosberg, his teenage karting friend and rival. This enabled Hamilton to express himself with a headline-grabbing trans-Atlantic lifestyle, mixing with musicians and ‘fashionistas’. He showed little love for any duty to obey conventions and, for many observers, gave his sport a welcome injection of freshness and diversity as champion again in 2014 and 2015. Rosberg broke Hamilton’s sequence of supremacy in 2016 and then retired, leaving the Englishman to dominate. His former McLaren team-mate Jenson Button summed up Hamilton’s pure speed when he said: “For me, over one lap, I don’t think there is anyone as quick as Lewis and I don’t think there ever has been.” That speed, which has always been a natural talent, has in recent seasons been allied to a more mature attitude to his job as team leader. Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff once summed up: “He is never satisfied. He never settles. He is never happy with where he is as a racing driver and a human being.” Having achieved so much as his sport’s best-known ambassador, Hamilton’s interest in social issues has emerged more frequently. Last season, he posted his concerns for the environment and revealed a fleeting despair at the state of the world when he used Instagram to declare that the planet was “a messed-up place” and he felt he wanted “to give up”. That commentary, including revelations about his vegan lifestyle, led to him being accused of hypocrisy. “I’m only human,” he said. “Like everyone, we have up and down days. That’s what I’ve been really trying to convey.” This year has seen him press for greater diversity in the paddock, a push sparked by his vocal support for the Black Lives Matter movement. His own career and his quest for self-expression and freedom has shaped his advice for young drivers. “What I can definitely advise any kid that’s out there trying to race is don’t listen to people who tell you that you need a mental coach or you need someone to help control your mind,” he said. “You need to let it run wild and free and discover yourself. It is all about discovery. And only you can do it.” When Hamilton wrapped up his sixth world title in Texas last year, his father Anthony summed up his son’s achievement: “It’s absolutely amazing and not bad for a boy from a Stevenage council house.”

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[im-that-bitch-still-that-bitch]

A Place to Recover~s.b.

a/n: this is the first thing I’ve ever written on here, so I hope people like it! I just couldn’t get this idea for a story out of my head and had to write it. more parts to come... and it starts at the end of the first season with an alternate ending to the whole heading exploding thing

Part I-Homecoming: the prequel

The peaceful guitar melody of “Kiss me” by Sixpence None the Richer hummed softly out of Erin Brennan’s iPhone speaker as she put the finishing touches on her makeup for the homecoming dance. As she pulled loose strands of hair out of her half-up ponytail and laced up her converse, she couldn’t help but notice her hands shaking. Her best friend’s words earlier that week echoed in her ears,

 “You just can’t wear heels. No guy wants to dance with a girl who’s taller than him.”

Erin didn’t want to give off a “girl who wears converse with a dress to be quirky” vibe, but she despised ballet flats, so what else was there? 

She straightened up and looked into her full-length mirror at her lanky body in the pale pink slip dress she’d bought at a thrift store a week ago. The only thought racing through her mind was how stupid she felt, but that feeling always seemed to come with getting dressed up for Erin. She felt like an imposter. 

“Do you really think you can convince people you’re pretty?”

As her dark brown eyes met her own in the mirror, she noticed a single tear threatening to slip out of her perfectly curled lashes, “Fuck.”

She had promised herself she wouldn’t smoke or drink at all before the dance because of the homecoming debacle of 2018 when not one, but three of her friends she showed got kicked out and suspended for being drunk, but as soon as that little tear began threatening to fall, she caught it on her index finger and climbed out onto her roof with a joint in hand.

As she felt the joint burn down to a tiny nub and the heat in it growing closer to her fingers, she let it fall onto the wet grass of her backyard and climbed back in through her window. Her timing was opportune because just as she latched the window closed, her sister barged into her room, 

“Erin, we’ve been calling you for like ten minutes. Mom wants pictures,” Clare said, running out of breath.

“Yeah, I’m coming. Sorry, I didn’t hear you over my music.” She was in the clear luckily.

But as she strolled towards her bedroom door to follow in Clare’s lead, Clare stayed put. She whipped around and sniffed Erin’s shoulder. “You might want to put on some perfume,” she turned back and walked another two paces before turning to Erin once more to taunt, “Pothead!”

Erin laughed and spritzed perfume on her dress, then walked out the door. Mrs. Brennan squinted at her phone while snapping pictures of Erin with her best friend Kate, claiming she would only take “one more,” once every two minutes.

“We’re leaving mooom,” Erin called as she opened the passenger seat to Kate’s Mercedes Benz. The two had been best friends since middle school, making quite the dorky duo when they were both in puberty’s punishing grasp. When high school started, Kate blossomed into the perfect picture of a conventionally attractive woman, earning her lots of popularity. In a way, she dragged Erin to her new friend group. They were less than welcoming seeing as Erin was a bit offbeat, but they knew Kate was too stubborn to leave her other half behind. 

The two girls stepped into the gym and admired the golden glow of fairy lights hung from the ceiling. They spotted their friends immediately, and the bubbly girls ran to them and insisted on hitting the photo booth. Of course, they all immediately came up with about a dozen different combinations of girls they wanted in a photo, none of which included Erin. 

“I can hold everyone’s purses,” Erin spoke shyly. The girls all jumped on the idea, piling their clutches in their arms. Erin would get annoyed, but this was high school for her; catering to her so-called friends’ interests and needs because if they dropped her, where would she go, anyway?

Feeling more confident than ever due to her high, Erin marched up to the DJ booth, “What is going on with this set list?” The boy behind the booth shrugged indignantly, clearly not looking to cater to this girl’s music taste. The two argued for nearly five minutes.

“Listen, if you don’t wanna play Twin Peaks, then at least just go for a crowd favorite to play it safe.”

A voice spoke up from next to her, “Twin Peaks, huh? Not bad. I just came over here to figure out what the hell’s going on with this set list.” Stanley Barber stood beside Erin with his arms folded, staring the DJ down. 

“Oh, hey Stan,” Erin said, then turned to the DJ, “Listen, man. I’m just trying to help. Do what you wanna do.” And with that, she was off.

Stanley watched the girl walk away, sort of amazed that she knew his name, but then again, that was the popular people’s job; knowing everyone. She had actually first caught his attention in his debate class, when she’s known for sparring with Bradley Lewis. Two weeks prior, they’d had quite the nasty exchange:

“I just think people should be less harsh on men with all this ‘Me Too’ crap.”

“If you think that you’re part of the problem. The behaviors these men are getting in trouble for are toxic, and they were normalized in a toxic society.”

“Maybe you think that way, but not everyone’s a crazy feminist bitch,” he spat.

Erin scrunched her nose with distaste, “Call me a crazy bitch again, Lewis, it really gets me hot and bothered.” Of course, the inevitable came, “ooh’s” and gasps from their classmates and a day in detention for the two debaters.

It was days like that when the distinction between Erin and her friends became clear. She was stubborn as hell and refused to try to please people like Bradley Lewis. Stan respected her for it, but what did the local pot dealer’s respect mean? Nothing.

The rest of the night went as usual. The group of girls all danced together, squealing with excitement when their song came on. Erin was (thankfully) able to find a boy from the hockey team to dance with for the slow dance who was pretty nice, wandering hands aside. 

The trouble came when it was time to announce homecoming queen and king. “All right ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention? Stop right there, please. It is my privilege to introduce your homecoming king and queen, Jeff Butters and Julie Frasheski!” Erin and her friends all cheered extra loud, as Julie had shown up with them. Jeff Butters began his less than graceful speech, only to be interrupted by none other than Erin’s infamous debate opponent. 

The boy jerked around on stage, trying to avoid the principal’s grasp, “I would like to take this moment to talk about something very important that affects everyone here. Sydney Novak. Hey, Sydney! Give a wave so everybody can see you.” 

Erin felt her jaw clenching with anger, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a bit thankful Brad hadn’t chosen her as the subject of this odd callout speech, as they were sworn enemies. 

He continued, “You see, what a lot of people don’t know about Sydney here… she is one hell of a writer.” The boy pulled a notebook out of his Letterman jacket pocket, and the tension in the room skyrocketed. “You know, it’s funny, because everyone is so fast to call me an asshole, but while I was downstairs banging Jenny Tuffield at Ricky’s, guess what Sydney was doing upstairs.”

Erin racked her mind trying to remember which party Ricky has hosted. The memories of playing beer pong with Julie, Becca, and Kate came flooding back into her mind. Becca puked in the bushes at the end of the night, and a football player had asked Erin for her “hot friend’s number,” which happened a lot.

“She was kissing my girlfriend,” Bradley spat into the mic. Erin anxiously chewed her lip, trying to think of something, anything, to do to stop whatever Brad was attempting. She didn’t know Syd, but she knew that getting made fun of by Bradley Lewis was no walk in the park, and no one deserves to be outed against their will.

The boy drew closer and closer to Syd, continuing his monologue of hatred, full of homophobic slurs, of course. As he continued to rib on the girl, even getting into her family life, Stanley Barber marched out of the crowd, gentlemanly as always, “Hey, man. Leave her alone.” His heroic gesture was cut short by Brad swinging a right hook punch right across his cheek. 

Erin grew more and more anxious. She hadn’t even noticed that she had been cowering backwards until she felt her back hit the wall. She gasped and turned around. She scanned the room, seeing that everyone’s eyes were on Brad. Another key thing that she observed was the fire alarm right next to her shoulder. Her mind raced at the speed of light: “If Brad is exposing whoever he doesn’t like, then I’m next… Falsely pulling a fire alarm is a federal offense… What if I tackled him…. He’d beat the shit out of me.” Her thoughts began to overlap and get more jumbled, when she felt impulsivity take over her body as she yanked on the fire alarm. The sprinklers turned on, and a chorus of whines and shrieks came from the students who were currently getting soaked. 

Erin’s chest began to rise and fall more quickly with every anxious breath. She stood frozen in place watching everyone flee the scene. After the main crowds scattered, she saw Dina and Syd each hooking an arm under Stan’s armpits and carrying him out of the gym. In a moment of bravery, Erin asked if they needed help and ran to the three. Syd and Dina accepted thankfully as Erin picked up the boy’s ankles and began to walk backwards, “Let me know if I’m about to bump into something, okay?”

The three finally reached Stan’s car and laid him down in the back seat. Just as Erin caught her breath, she heard tires screeching and saw Kate’s Mercedes Benz whipping out of the school parking lot with a drenched Julie and Becca in the back. “Shit,” she muttered.

“I-is something wrong?” Dina asked. 

“Um… yeah, my ride sort of just left.”

“Oh well, I’m sure Stan can drive you home when he wakes up,” Dina said with a friendly, but clearly shaken smile.

“If he wakes up,” Syd added with a blank look in her eyes. 

“SYD, don’t say that!” Dina yelped.

Sydney spoke up, looking at Erin, “Could you give us some privacy for a minute?”

Erin looked around awkwardly, “Uh, yeah. I’ll just… walk to the other side of the parking lot.” As she kicked the pebbles on the ground and watched Dina and Syd in a heated argument, she began to regret staying to help them. She probably could’ve gone home with Kate if she had rushed out like everyone else, but she was with two near strangers nursing another near stranger who was unconscious while the remaining teacher chaperones walked the perimeter of the school trying to see if there was an actual fire.

Erin was pulled out of her thoughts by Syd yelling (which she had never heard the girl do before), “Holy shit, he’s up.”

Erin began to jog back over to them, reading their facial expressions to see if they were done with their chat. Dina looked down at Stan intently, “Hey, buddy. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Stan furrowed his brows for a moment then sputtered out, “Brad… son of a bitch… how did I get out here?”

[ilovejevsjeans]

Ricciardo's 'ballsy' move: 'My instinct was telling me it was right'

The plane stopped climbing, the seatbelt sign extinguished, and Daniel Ricciardo exhaled for what felt like the first time in months. The Australian formula one ace was on his way from London to Los Angeles to meet some mates for a mid-season break, and was finally on his own time. No commitments, no fans, no media, no hangers-on. It was the headspace he'd been craving.

Out of contract at the end of 2018 and set to become an F1 free agent for the first time, Ricciardo had been determined to explore every option, even as the speculation over his future intensified by each passing month, and against the backdrop of teammate Max Verstappen committing to Red Bull Racing on a big-money deal until the end of 2020 last October. But the clock was ticking, and the 10 hours crossing the Atlantic gave him pause for thought. It was time to shake things up.

Earlier this month, Ricciardo dropped the bombshell that he'd be leaving Red Bull, home to all seven of his F1 wins since joining the team as the successor to compatriot Mark Webber in 2014, to join Renault, the French manufacturer ramping up its involvement in the sport as constructor in its own right in addition to being a supplier of engines to multiple teams, including Red Bull. It was a move few, certainly not Ricciardo's current employers, saw coming.

Leaving a race-winning team to move to a midfield outfit with aspirations of reprising its most recent glory days of 2005-06 with Fernando Alonso is, Ricciardo admits, "ballsy". But the 29-year-old feels it's a move that's necessary, both personally and professionally.

"I think a lot of people expected me to take the soft option and stay because they see me as a soft guy," Ricciardo told Fairfax Media in an exclusive interview.

"I'm maybe perceived as someone who is a friendly guy who wouldn't push back and make a big decision. It's good for everyone to see that I have the balls to make a call like this."

For most of 2018, much of the speculation over Ricciardo's future focused on Mercedes and Ferrari if he was to leave the only F1 family he's ever known. His five seasons at Red Bull Racing follow a two-year apprenticeship at its sister team, Toro Rosso. Mercedes has been the sport's dominant team since F1 switched to V6 turbo hybrid engines in 2014, while Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel leading its charge, seemed the squad most likely to knock Mercedes from its perch. But doors that could have flapped open never quite came ajar.

As Ferrari dithered over whether to retain Vettel's 38-year-old teammate Kimi Raikkonen or promote promising young Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, Mercedes elected to re-sign Valtteri Bottas to play support act to world champion Lewis Hamilton for a third season in 2019.

With a bottleneck at the top two teams, most expected Ricciardo to stay with Red Bull, where he's demonstrated an ability to win multiple races in machinery that, in his tenure, has never been capable of a championship push. But a surprise player came onto the scene in the immediate aftermath of Ricciardo's second win this season, around the streets of Monaco.

"Renault first expressed some interest around then, with Cyril [Abiteboul, Renault F1 managing director] contacting Glenn [Beavis, Ricciardo's manager]," he says.

"There were several options. I spoke to Renault, I had a couple of meetings with McLaren, and I got to speak with [Red Bull company founder] Dietrich [Mateschitz] in Barcelona and again in Austria.

"Initially, I had it in my mind that I'd be staying [at Red Bull]. But the more I thought about starting something different and taking on a new challenge, I got excited. I met with Renault and got a sense for their long-term plan. Obviously I want to win tomorrow, but the strength of Ferrari and Mercedes at the moment means it's very hard for anyone to take them on in the short-term."

Ricciardo says Renault didn't promise him the earth – in fact, the French team did quite the opposite.

"The thing that struck me about Renault was that they were prepared to be honest," he says.

"Straight away, they said 'we're not going to be quicker than Red Bull next year', but what they told me about their plans for 2020 and for when the next rule changes come in for '21 … they had some good structure in place, they're recruiting a lot of good key people, and they're preparing to win. They have a winning mentality and a realistic way of going about it, which I liked."

As Renault's approach became more serious, Ricciardo still had a two-year deal from Red Bull on the table, but something about the thought of standing pat didn’t feel quite right.

"There's been times this year that I've felt exhausted, maybe a bit jaded, and for the first time in my career, not completely enjoying F1," Ricciardo admits.

"There's been times when I've thought 'this is why [2016 world champion Nico] Rosberg retired', and he had it a lot more intense than me. Or why Casey Stoner retired from MotoGP very young. I can see how you could feel burnt out or a bit over it.

"I pushed for a one-year deal, which Red Bull agreed to, but still in the back of my mind, I wasn't sure. What if I was in the same position, had the same feeling a year from now? Would there still be other options available? I didn't want to snooker myself."

Renault set a deadline for Ricciardo to accept its two-year deal over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend in late July, but he needed more time to ponder his options.

"Renault wanted an answer in Budapest, and the Red Bull offer was still there," he says.

"There was too much going on, so I managed to buy a few more days. But I had to make a call."

Three days after that race weekend, Ricciardo was in London, bound for LA, and with a decision to make. He'd been on the phone to his manager right up until his flight boarded.

"For the first time in I can't remember how long, I had 10 hours to myself, didn't need to be at a race weekend, didn’t need to be at an event, and I was on my own time," Ricciardo says.

"There was something about being alone on that flight that gave me the clarity I needed. The one thing I kept coming back to was being energised again, wanting a new challenge, and that the chance to change excited me. So as we got phone signal as I was coming into LA, I called Glenn and told him it was Renault."

Ricciardo met his three friends in LA, and as the quartet headed to Las Vegas for the weekend, spent most of the four-hour drive on the phone.

"The others all went out when we got to Vegas, but I stayed in the hotel because of how exhausted I was," he says.

"The next morning, I called [Red Bull motorsport adviser] Helmut [Marko] and then [team principal] Christian [Horner]. Helmut said he wasn't too surprised, that he expected it in a way. He said he had a feeling that I wanted to move on. Christian, at first anyway, thought I was taking the piss.

"After I'd made those calls, I felt like a big weight had come off my shoulders straight away. They weren't easy calls to make. But my instinct was telling me it was right. My gut feel was telling me it was right. I was waiting to have that feeling the whole way through the process as it went for months, and I got it for the first time on that flight to LA. When I finished that last phone call and it was done, I knew. I turned my phone off and left it in the hotel safe for three days …"

Ricciardo says the decision to leave is "one of the toughest" he's made in life, not just his racing career.

"It's been a 10-year journey with Red Bull. I was in their junior program in 2008, so amazing memories and things I'll always be grateful for, and things I'll never forget," he says.

"I'm sad to move on, absolutely, but excited by the challenge at Renault. Personally I felt it was good for me to have a fresh start somewhere else, I think it will be healthy.

"I've been pretty stressed all year, and now life feels pretty stress-free." (X)

[starsandnines]

So recently I promised that I would share my new brocdes “headcanon” with you all, so here it goes. I will try to express myself as best as I can but I won’t promise anything because I kinda have lots of feelings about this.

So this new headcanon/theory thing came after I closely analyzed Nico’s and Lewis’ behaviour this year. But before I start, I think it is for the best that I share what had been my originial theory about these two up until now.

First of all, looking back at the rivalry of these two, I always assumed Lewis was the one who was kind of an asshole towards Nico and that’s why they drifted apart. I thought this not because I think Lewis is an asshole or anyting but because let’s be honest he is the one who can be the more dramatic, and the one who is more likely to make a hurtful comment or the one dissing the other. It is just the way Lewis is. Nico is always, ALWAYS diplomatic or at least he tries to be, he tries to keep this composed, calm and collected facade up. That has always been his coping mechanism. So all this led me to believe that Lewis was at fault mostly. And let’s be honest I always had a soft spot for Nico so who knows I might have even been a little bit biased and automatically didn’t blame him. Anyway, on to the next point. After analyzing their personalities even more deeply, I think Lewis’ behaviour is immensly misunderstood in this fandom most of the time. And it makes me sad because Lewis is often treated like this arrogant asshole who always makes rude comments about other drivers. However, Lewis is more complex than that. I’m not saying his statements and comments about Nico are not hurtful because they are. But life and people are not black and white I’m afraid. 

Let’s go back to the time after Nico’s retirement. Nico said that he and Lewis didn’t get on after a while because they obviously wanted to be treated equally in the team. He said that as long as one of them didn’t accept to be the number two then they couldn’t maintan a friendship. Now obviously the one who was always forced into being the second best in the team was Nico. Nico obviously didn’t want to accept second place and honestly why would have he? Now, I’ve always assumed that Lewis, already having championship titles, didn’t take this behaviour from Nico smoothly and I can’t blame him either. He rightly thought that he is the better driver (proven by his titles) and of course there was his competitiveness which naturally every driver has. So when I looked at these facts I believed that Lewis was the one who pushed Nico away and treated him like shit because of his own massive ego. Now, from Nico’s point of view. He must have been furious many times regarding Lewis’s behaviour with the team orders and of course Mercedes (even tho they always said otherwise) kind of wanted Nico to be the second driver. And Nico due to being diplomatic and composed about his feelings in tense situations could easily give people the impression that even tho he wasn’t happy about the drama and the tense rivalry with Lewis and his comments he still seemed to accept it somehow and learnt to roll with it. What I didn’t take into consideration is how hurt Nico must have been all the time. He must have felt like shit being treated like that and honestly just beacause he didn’t show his feelings to the cameras he might have been absouletly cold towards Lewis. Just look at how Nico reacts here (x) to a question about being friends and rivals with Lewis at the same time  and how Lewis  was just trying to make Nico laugh about it almost as if he already knew that Nico didn’t like the situation. So what I’m trying to say is that Nico mght have been the one who started to drift apart from Lewis because he was hurt and couldn’t bare being treated in such way in the team. 

(I hope you can still follow me because I haven’t even started the main theory yet :D)

So now comes a little psychology lesson even tho I’m no expert. Nico has always been very consistent with what he said about his and Lewis’ relationship during his time in the team. If you look at press conferences, post race/quali interviews he used to say the same thing all over again, sharing very little with the media, rambling about the ‘base respect towards each other” etc… Right after his retirement however, he immediately started to open up. He emphasized many times how he wanted to make things right with Lewis because he was not in the team anymore so it should be easy right? At first I was like, sure that’s the right thing to do. As this year’s season went on, Nico somehow always talked about Lewis on twitter or in interviews. Bordering on being a little too pushy in my opinion. Now I get it that he is still connected to Mercedes as he is the ambassador of the team and I guess he still has to suppport them and that means not talking shit about Lewis. But I always thought that he could have tone it down a lil bit if he wanted to but he seemed honest and genuinely happy for Lewis’ succes and race wins this year. So we saw Nico’s behaviour and after this gifset (x) where Lewis didn’t even look at Nico’s direction even tho he touched his arm, and this post (x) where they have shown a picture of Lewis and Nico to Lewis and he simply didn’t want to do anything with it, he didn’t even want to say a word about it, almost like wanting to forget that he and Nico have ever been friends. Now these passive vibes coming from Lewis almost immediately, being hugely in contrast to Nico’s kind and open approach towards Lewis, had been criticized by many in this fandom, saying how petty Lewis behaves and how he “can’t let go of his rivalry with Nico”. But in my view, that is not how people work. Lewis had many rivals in the past before Nico, I don’t think I have to specify these drivers. Nonetheless he still moved on and still can be civil with those drivers. Which leads us to the conclusion that NO Lewis is not childish and not petty and not miserable. He is hurt. Which leads us to another conclusion which is that Nico might have been the one who was at fault in their relationship turning for the worse. Furthermore to support this idea, Nico can be easily open (like I’ve mentioned a few lines above) and forgiving towards Lewis because of this exact reason that he was the one who started it all. Rightly so he is the one who should initiate the making up. Speaking from experience, my mum when she argues with somebody, tends to forget it really quickly and she always thinks that after like 5 minutes everything is forgotten without her ever apologizing. If you read what Lewis has said recently here (x) you might start to see my point. Lewis basically said that he loved Nico and so he tolerated everything but he realized that it was unhealthy for him and so he distanced himslef from Nico. I find this really tragic. I know how hard it can be to do this, when you love someone but you know that your relationship with that person is not good for your mental well-being so you move on.

I think if Lewis was such a pathetic and petty driver who cannot move on from old arguments then he would be like this with everyone. However, Nico is the only person who Lewis “treats” this way and that’s why I’m basically writing this post because it made me think about how hurt Lewis must be from the fight with Nico. And that is because Lewis is not hurt by the championship title taken away from him last year or the previous years’ dramas. He is hurt because it was NICO who (might have) hurt him. And let’s just consider the fact that they have known each other since they were kids. SINCE THEY WERE KIDS. Like, can you imagine what that feels like? 

I am not saying that Nico is the one who is the asshole here. I love both of them with all my heart. I’m just saying that recently their behaviour has put things into different perspective for me. And I also think that Lewis might be waiting for Nico to truly discuss things and he doesn’t make do with twitter mentions and what not. Or he might be so hurt that he doesn’t want to do anyting with Nico for now. Who knows.  So this is it. I feel like I just poured everything that I think into this post and I’m not sure if this is comprehensible so let me know what you think or if you need me to explain some parts then write me and I’ll try my best :)

[thisdaynews]

Formula 1 testing: Mercedes in form; Ferrari in trouble?

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/formula-1-testing-mercedes-in-form-ferrari-in-trouble/

Formula 1 testing: Mercedes in form; Ferrari in trouble?

Hamilton is a six-time Formula 1 world champion, one behind Germany’s Michael Schumacher

The Formula 1 teams are half way through their pre-season testing programmes and world champions Mercedes could hardly have had a more impressive start to 2020 if they had tried.

That’s not to say they will necessarily start the season in their familiar position at the front of the field, but they have certainly underlined their status as favourites.

Mercedes drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton ended the test with the two fastest times – by a huge margin – and the car ran consistently and almost completely reliably throughout.

It’s notoriously difficult to get any accurate sense of true form in testing – as Ferrari found out last year, when they headed to Australia for the first race thinking they were ahead, only to be thrashed by Mercedes in Melbourne.

Nevertheless, what are the key takeaways from the first three days of testing in Spain?

World champions in good shape

It’s well known in Formula 1 that headline lap times in testing should be largely ignored as a means of judging true competitiveness – there are just too many variables at play.

But the fact is, no matter what tyre they were on, the Mercedes was the fastest car in Barcelona this week.

This is unusual for Mercedes, because they usually take a very low-key approach to winter testing, running heavy on fuel and just getting on with their programme, with the reassurance that they will be there or thereabouts when it matters and therefore have no need to stretch the car at this stage.

There is no reason to believe Mercedes have changed their approach to pre-season – so to see Bottas and Hamilton sitting so convincingly at the top of the times is a worrying sign for their rivals.

Bottas said the car was doing exactly what the drivers wanted.

“The main improvements are the stability we’ve had with the car,” he said. “Actually the rear end of the car feels really stable and makes it very drivable.

“I would say the balance through the entire speed range, from high to low-speed corners, is more together than in last year’s car. That’s what we were aiming for and I don’t want to say much more about it. At the moment we have found no negatives compared to last year yet and that’s positive.”

F1 testing live text schedule

Too skint to win?

F1’s new cars gallery

Mercedes confident new steering ‘trick’ within rules

On top of that, the team seemed to be buzzing about their development of a new technology, known as ‘dual-axis steering’, which caught all their rivals on the hop.

When the existence of this device emerged on Thursday, technical director James Allison could hardly keep the smile off his face, his delight at stealing a march on their rivals clear to see.

“It’s an innovative idea which allows the drivers an extra dimension of control on the steering system,” Allison said. “Why we do it, exactly how it works and all those sorts of things, we’d rather keep those to ourselves. But we hope it’s an innovation that will bring an advantage during the season.

“It’s an example of how this team is always pushing to try to find new ways to make our quicker and it’s just great fun having it at the track.”

Hamilton made the same point – and he also seemed enthusiastic about the way things were going on a personal basis.

“I really do feel the best I’ve ever felt,” said the 35-year-old, after completing a race-distance run on Thursday. “I’ve never done the race run and got out and asked if we could keep going. We just ran out of tyres.

“That’s the first time in 13 years that I’ve asked to continue testing – because I don’t like testing. I race because I love racing other cars. I don’t like driving around on my own on the track.”

Despite impressions, Hamilton said he believed the opposition would provide him a sterner test this season as he bids to equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven world titles.

“I’m hopeful that in this last year of this era of car, the gap has closed,” he said. “You saw it at the end of last year – the gap was closing between Ferrari and Red Bull and I anticipate that will be the same this year. We’re going to have a closer battle and I’m down for that.

“That’s what I think everyone wants to see and, from my point of view, it makes it more rewarding when it goes the way that I want it to go.”

Concern for Ferrari?

The signs coming out of Ferrari were not good from the very start of the test.

While Mercedes hit the ground running, the red cars were not doing anything like the same pace. And the impression that they were struggling was confirmed by team boss Mattia Binotto on Friday.

“The others are faster than us at the moment, I believe,” Binotto said. “How much faster I think it’s really difficult to judge and we’ll go through all the data in the next days, but I don’t think we are as fast as them at the moment.

“Do we have any concerns? Certainly, yes, when you are not as fast as you would like to be. I’ve seen certainly Mercedes, and Red Bull, very fast in these first days.”

Binotto admitted he was “not as optimistic as last year”. But the caveat here is that Ferrari’s optimism was misplaced in 2019.

They – and Mercedes, too, it has to be said – left Spain last year believing that the Italian cars had an advantage over the field, only to find when they arrived in Australia that in fact Mercedes were in front and Ferrari lagging well behind.

As a result of that, Ferrari have changed their approach to testing this year, deciding to spend this first week fully understanding the car before exploring its performance at next week’s second test.

But Binotto said he had concerns that if they had gone for performance this week, it would not have been there.

He said that last year “the lap time was easier to find”, adding: “While it is true we did not focus on set-up work or performance, it seems it is more difficult. The competitors apparently are very strong but we should not forget the story of last year and let’s wait until next week and Australia to better understand the true picture.”

The controversy of ‘the pink Mercedes’

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes of 2019 against Sergio Perez’s Racing Point for this season

The Racing Point drew a lot of attention.

One reason was that it was setting pretty decent lap times. Sergio Perez was second fastest on the second day, the Mexican said the team had made “a very good step”, and a number of rival drivers and team bosses agreed that the car looked quick – Red Bull’s Alexander Albon said they were “looking very good”.

But the main talking point was just how much the car resembled the 2019 Mercedes – comparing pictures of the two cars, the Racing Point appeared almost a carbon copy in many areas, including the front wing, nose, front suspension and aerodynamic devices behind the front wheels.

Racing Point admitted that they had copied the Mercedes. The reasoning, they said, was that they were finding with their previous car concept – based on Red Bull’s design approach – that their development was slowing down.

They pointed out that they already bought the engine, gearbox and various aspects of the suspension from Mercedes, so why not copy that car instead, especially as it had won the past six world championships?

The issue was that it meant a complete change of car philosophy – Mercedes use a low-rake approach in contrast to Red Bull’s high rake, meaning the Mercedes runs flatter front to back in contrast to the Red Bull’s nose-down, rear-up stance. This means different airflow structures around the car.

“From the outside, it probably looks like ‘they have just copied a Mercedes’,” said technical director Andrew Green. “But to copy something means nothing unless you understand what you are doing, otherwise it doesn’t work. Unless you understand the philosophy behind every single component and what it’s doing, you’ll never get it to work.

“It was putting our faith in the aerodynamics team to say: ‘Go and understand this and let’s see if we can replicate it. Is it better than what we are currently doing? We will find out.’ I’m very proud of what the team have done.”

Both Green and team principal Otmar Szafnauer were adamant that the car was their own work, with no help from Mercedes, despite the commercial and technical relationship between the two. F1 rules define ‘listed parts’ that teams have design themselves, which are the chassis and aerodynamic surfaces, and this had been complied with, they said.

“I can tell you absolutely, categorically all those designs are Racing Point from absolute scratch,” Green said. “There has been no transfer of information on listed parts from Mercedes. They have never contemplated it; we have never asked for it.

“What you see is what people have drawn from looking at pictures of Mercedes. We’ve utilised what we can see. There’s other teams taking pictures. There’s a pit lane full of photographers employed by the teams to take pictures of other people’s cars. All we did was utilise that information.”

Nevertheless, the striking resemblance between the two cars has reopened a contentious debate within F1 about satellite teams and the degree of similarity that should be allowed between two cars produced by entities that, according to the rules, have to produce their own design.

This has been rumbling on and off since Haas entered the sport in 2016 with an approach that sees them buying every part of the car from Ferrari they are allowed to.

The question at the heart of the Racing Point controversy is this – philosophically, if a team produces an effective facsimile of another car, does that constitute it being “designed by” them, as the rules dictate?

McLaren and Renault are not happy about this situation. They are the teams that have most to lose as the ones who finished fourth and fifth last year, and Racing Point’s likely closest rivals, and they feel the FIA should be doing more to prevent it occurring.

It is a topic that will run and run as the 2021 rules continue to take shape in the background during the early months of this year.

*So far – the second phase of 2020 pre-season testing runs from 26-28 February

RENEWED HOPE FOR WILLIAMS

This time last year, Williams were in a dark place. They had missed more than half the first test because the car was not ready on time, and when it did run, it was miles off the pace of any other car.

This was a precursor to the worst season in their history, a year spent in a race of their own at the back, and which led to some major soul-searching.

The contrast this year was stark. For one, the Williams was the first car on track at the start of testing, something the team described as “cathartic”.

“I have a smile on my face and it hasn’t come off since Wednesday morning,” deputy team principal Claire Williams said. “Getting your car out first doesn’t win you any prizes but it was another milestone on our journey to recovery and it was important to return a bit of pride and dignity to the team after last year.”

Beyond the symbolism of that moment, though, restructuring changes made at Williams over the past year seem to have got the team back on track. When it was running, the Williams appeared to be in much better shape than last year, with George Russell in particular usually somewhere in the middle of the times.

“The drivers feel the car is a lot more balanced and stable than last year so we are in a good place,” Williams said.

She added that there was “a lot more work to do” but she felt confident enough to set a target of fighting for a place in the second part of qualifying and “a position in the race that brings our pride back and George and Nicholas (Latifi) have the opportunity to fight with the midfield competitors.”

Don’t expect miracles, but at this early stage it does at least look like Williams will be able to compete with other teams.

FASTEST LAP TIMES PER TEAM, FIRST PRE-SEASON TEST

1 Mercedes (Valtteri Bottas) 1:15.732 (ultra-soft tyre)

2 Renault (Esteban Ocon) 1:17.102 (soft tyre)

3 Racing Point (Lance Stroll) 1:17.338 (soft)

4 Alpha Tauri (Daniil Kvyat) 1:17.427 (soft)

5 Alfa Romeo (Antonio Giovinazzi) 1:17.469 (soft)

6 Red Bull (Max Verstappen) 1:17.636 (hard)

7 McLaren (Carlos Sainz) 1:17.842 (medium)

8 Ferrari (Sebastian Vettel) 1:18.154 (soft)

9 Williams (George Russel) 1:18.168 (medium)

10 Haas (Romain Grosjean) 1:18.380 (medium)

Read More

[jashasedai]

Tame AU: Glitter Party

I posted this ages ago, but I have a lot of followers now I didn’t have, then.  So I thought I’d share it again.

So all of you may enjoy the adorable humerousness that is Glitter Party.

(Even though this is a Verse fic, it is neither sad, nor dramatic.  No one can be unhappy during Glitter Party.)

Glitter Party Alternate Universe- Tame Racing Drivers

http://jashasedai.tumblr.com/post/151392469153/summary-au-tame-racing-drivers Part 37- Glit Fandom, Formula 1

In an AU where a secret species is used as Racing Drivers, color is a great motivator In which Sebastian solves all of the grid's problems with a liberal application of the good stuff

Tags: Formula 1, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Jean-Eric Vernge, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton,  (Appearing only as Racing Drivers: Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton, Esteban Guittierez, Alexander Rossi, Giedo Van Der Garde, Valtteri Bottas) AU Tame Racing Drivers, Alternate Universe

Racing Drivers and their human doubles Xerxes- Alexander Rossi Trace- Jules Bianchi Freeza- Max Chilton Alisar- Esteban G Sunshine- Sebastian Rabbit- Mark Alondra- Fernando Sugarboy- Jenson Prince(female)- Nico Snap- Lewis Jaamies- Kimi

Glitter Party Circuit Gilles Villeneuve- 2013

The Grand Tour (2012 rookies)-

[I brought you something.] Xerxes gestured, around an armful of box.  Of the other members of the Grand Tour, only Trace could understand him.

[What is it?] he asked.

[Where did you get it?] Freeza asked.

[We're going to have a party.  This box has everything we need.]

Trace opened it.  It was a shipping box, about half a meter to a side.  It was full of plastic bags with different kinds of glitter.  Shapes, big metal flakes, sparkle dust- all in Red.  "Ohhh," he breathed.

[Cool!] Alisar reached out and took a bag of sparkle dust.  He smiled up at Guardian. [Best party ever.]

The rest of the Racing Drivers dug into the box.

Glitter party.

Sebastian-

Mark could say what he liked, he was wrong.  He was always wrong, anyway, he should be used to it.  Glitter party was absolutely the best way to celebrate a win or a finish with your Racing Driver.  He had the money to spend to make Sunshine happy, to reward him for his performance.  So he brought the 200$ Auld Lang Syne pack from the party supply store.  17 different kinds of glitter.  Including a 6 oz package of balloon shaped jumbo confetti glitter.  The balloons were about a centimeter long, cut out of the same shiny metallic stuff most of the glitter flakes were made of, and the balloons had curly tails.  Perfect.  He always made double sure to buy the pack with red glitter, Sunshine's favorite color.  His, too, Ferrari red.  He smiled when he thought of Ferrari.  Maybe Kimi and Jaamies would want to come to their glitter party.

He opened the door to the storage space and stared at the empty space on the shelf.  No.  The box should be right here.  The company delivered them to every track on race weekends.  To the Redbull motorhome.  The staff knew to put it right here on the shelf.

'What's wrong, Sebastian?' Sunshine chirped, reacting to his alarm. 'Don't worry, we'll figure it out.'

He couldn't tell Sunshine their glitter party was off.  He had been winning this year, he would be too disappointed, if there was no glitter party to look forward to.  He loved delving his hands into the 16oz bag of 'standard metalflake' and mushing it, pulling out his hands looking like a 1980's version of the ruby slippers.  There was no box of glitter, though, it wasn't as though Sebastian could just call and order another one, the company would have to send it special delivery, to have it here in time for the end of tomorrow's race.

Why couldn't he?  His bank account wouldn't even notice the drain.  Even with special delivery fees.

He picked up his cell and started dialing.  While he was at it, he would order a case of white glitter for Jaamies.

As a matter of fact...

Mark-

He wasn't on the platform, so he went back to the Redbull stall with Rabbit.  They'd been milling around the room for several minutes, going over the race and cooling down, when he noticed the boxes.  They were sitting under the massage table.  There was a piece of Redbull stationary taped to one.  

I hope you had a good race.  Enjoy.

P.S. You can probably guess who the other box is for.

This was Sebastian's handwriting.

He looked at the box.

[What does it tell you?] Rabbit gestured.

The shipping label said 'Limited Slip Glitter Co. ALS Pack Colour- Navy' [It doesn't tell me anything.]  He opened the box.  It was full of bags of glitter.

[WOW!] Rabbit waved hugely.  He grabbed a bag of balloon shaped glitter off the top.  [Thanks, Mark!]

[It's one of Sebastian's glitter parties...He sent you glitter.]  This was pretty incredible.  He usually only got Sunshine one box.

Then Mark noticed the label on the other box was a little different. 'Limited Slip Glitter Co. ALS Pack Colour- Turquoise'  He opened the other box, just enough to confirm his suspicion.  It was filled with glitter, bright blue glitter.

[Can we play with it?]  Rabbit examined the tiny shapes through the clear plastic bag they were in.

[Yeah, just, call Alondra and ask him if he wants to come over, first.]  He tilted the box so Rabbit could see that it was filled with his best friend's colour.

[WOW!  Sebastian is so great.  I love him.]

If Mark had known all it would take was...400$ worth of glitter, he'd have solved this rivalry long ago.

Toro Rosso-

When Jean-Eric first opened the blox and saw the green glitter, he thought it was a joke, or a threat or...but the Dans had each received a box as well, and he had determined that neither of THEIR Racing Drivers had awoken Saturday sticky with glitter.  Subtle questioning of Jev had convinced Jean-Eric that he had been sprung by the Grand Tour stallions again.  A tiny fleck of red on Max Chilton's cheek Saturday morning confirmed that it had been a Grand Tour exploit.  It made him feel both proud and worried the way the Grand Tour sought to include Jev.  He shared a bloodline with Trace, so he supposed it made sense that they extended that care to him.

Now, though there were these boxes of glitter.  For a glitter party.  Daniel said the handwriting on the note was Sebastian's, and Jean-Eric had to laugh, because he couldn't think of another person who would consider an immense amount of sparkles to be an appropriate base for a party.  The 3 men and 3 Racing Drivers, and 3 boxes of glitter, two green and one navy, made for one hell of a fun time.  And one hell of a mess.

Blue and Gold

"So come on over."  Jensen tossed the bag of turquoise glitter with the hand not holding his phone and caught it again.  "Yeah.  My teammate went to have his glitter party with yours, so we'll just swap.  I've got a great bottle of scotch I'm not supposed to admit to having."

Sugarboy sprinkled glitter in Jensen's hair.

"Well, carry the box with you.  There's two of you.  Blue and Gold.  We'll look like a secondary school graduation.  Oh, and Esteban...do you have any glue?"

Mercedes-

Greys are organized, someone had once told Lewis.  He believed it, now.  With no prompting whatsoever, the two Racing Drivers had set up a table, cups full of glitter and established rules about not getting glitter in the glue pot.  Now the four of them were sitting around the folding card table, playing glitter.

[Please pass the glue,] Prince gestured, smiling at him with her beautiful smile.

[Here you are, Princess,] Lewis gestured fondly.  He handed her the pot.

She gently tapped the strip of paper she'd applied the glue to into the bowl of glitter, creating a nice, even layer.  Both their boxes contained silver glitter.  She added a dot of glue to one end of the strip and pressed it into a circle around the hat band of the fedora.

Snap was fidding with the paper beads he was making by rolling strips of paper into various tube shapes and gluing them in place.  He was coating them neatly with glitter and stringing them one by one.

[I need more glitter,] Nico gestured, looking under the table.  [Is there any sparkle dust left?]

[There is some in our box,] Lewis told him.  [Help yourself.]

Nico poured another dose of silver dust into his plate and resumed rolling his replica World Drivers Championship trophy in it.

Lewis felt jealous that Nico's WDC trophy looked more realistic than his.  He painted on another layer of glue.

[Your trophy if fancier than mine,] Nico told him, without looking up.  [Mine looks so plain.]

[I made it for you,] Lewis said, suddenly.  Prince put her hat down and looked at him.  Snap ignored him and kept fiddling with his paper beads.

Nico looked shocked.

[Great minds think alike,] Prince gestured.  [Here my love.]  She held the hat in both hands, over the table towards Snap.

Nico reached out reverently and accepted the lovely trophy Lewis had constructed out of poster paper.

Snap put his hat on.  [Look how stylish I look!]  He went back to adding paper beads to his chain.

Prince turned and smiled at Nico beside her, clutching his trophy.

[I made this one for you, actually,] he nodded his head towards to the trophy he'd discarded on the table when Lewis handed him his gift.

Lewis picked it up and tried to look less impressed than he was.  It was so perfect.

[Alright,]  Snap looked up from his paper beads.  He stood and went around the table.  He stood behind Prince, stooped, and gently clipped the chain necklace with it's paper beads glittering like silver diamonds around her neck.  He kissed behind her ear.  [You are more beautiful than any trophy, darling.]  The two nuzzled.

Lewis smiled down at his trophy.  Adorable.

Kimi and Jaamies-

They had to go to Sunshine's stall separately.  They were too easily spotted if they were together.  Jaamies had gone a few minutes before.  Kimi walked in and 3 eager faces were smiling at him.  "Ha?"  Jaamies and Sunshine were standing shoulder to shoulder, leaning against the massage table and Sebastian was crouched over two open boxes.

"Welcome to the Glitter Party!" Sebastian handed him a bag of white metal flakes.  It was about the size of a shoebox.

Kimi looked at Sunshine, whose hands were red coated to the wrist, and Jaamies' clothes had smears of sparkles all over them.  There was a patch of glitter on his neck and up into his hair.  Sunshine waved at him.  Like a disco ball.

He squeezed the bag of flakes.  This is what...

Sebastian flung a handful of red glitter into the air.  It rained around them like snow in the night.  Kimi tried to duck away before it got in his hair.  He'd had a girlfriend who was into the body glitter fad, it took forever to get rid of the stuff.

Sunshine and Jaamies laughed in delight, took handsful of the stuff and followed Seb's example.

"Who will clean this?!" Kimi demanded.

"I pay the cleaning lady an extra 500$."  Sebastian shouted, as Sunshine turned on the stereo and a booming beat started.  "She says she's cleaned worse."

Kimi rolled his eyes.  Jaamies was sprinkling white glitter over a red circle on the floor, creating the M pattern that was on their helmet.  He leaned over and looked in the box and let out a surprised little rev.  He pulled out a bag and tossed it to Kimi.

It was tiny balloon shaped glitter.  Hey, he never knew glitter came in shapes. That was actually pretty cool.

Kimi smiled.

[lewishamiltxn]

obviously Lewishit Shamilton was "confortably" in a Mercedes. Confortably an asshole. 9 years for a pole in Monaco, driving only fast cars. New Senna. Wake up teenager.

Hey anon, you have no clue how happy your message has made me, truly. I know you think you’re bringing us down, but really, you’ve just spent time validating my blog by actually either finding it or you already follow me, in case of which, why do you want to torture yourself whenever Lewis wins? Wouldn’t you just be better off following whoever you loved?

(Slightly long reply so it’s under the cut)

Now, onto the actual ask, which is not technically asking me anything but I’ll answer it anyway. 

Lewis Hamilton (yep, another reality check for you, that’s how it’s actually spelt) has always been comfortably (yes, that’s how that’s spelled too, you’re learning so many things today!) in a fast car along with a teammate and I mean no disrespect to his teammate, whoever it may be, but he’s managed those results with a teammate in the exact same car with the exact same specifications as him, which means he’s beaten his teammate 65 times during qualifying for that pole. Before Mercedes, he was in a McLaren and he actually took a risk and moved to Mercedes which were only developing at the time (remember Mercedes’ comparatively horrible 2013 season everyone seems to forget?) and his risk paid off, so he deserves it for having made a decision no one else dared to except Nico Rosberg. He also gets these fast cars because the team owners and team principal trust him and pay him to drive these cars, not vice versa (and as Toto said in his post-race interview today, he’s “worth every cent” they spend on him, so they’re happy with paying him obscene amounts of money to keep him there). He doesn’t come from a privileged background, so he didn’t have anyone to help him through the ranks and didn’t have contacts, all he had was pure talent and drive which was recognised and put him in a car that was the same as defending champion Fernando Alonso in his rookie year and not many rookies are able to beat Fernando Alonso in the point standings even today while Lewis did it in 2007 (we have no way of knowing what would happen today, I’m just pointing out that he did extremely well to get to the position he is in today). Even yesterday, in the best car (according to you), Valtteri finished 19.783 seconds behind Lewis, and he was already quite behind him after the start and in qualifying, and we know Valtteri is talented, so what Lewis did was unbelievable and he also got the grand slam, which, I don’t know about you, but I think makes him truly deserving because he had a great weekend and led every lap.

Speaking of poles in Monaco, Lewis Hamilton has managed to win the Monaco race, which is famously known for being terrible to overtake on twice (both from third) and didn’t win with that one pole, and I know so many people would disagree but two race wins kind of trumps one pole in my opinion, pal. However, I am astounded that you actually know that stat which means you really hate Lewis so much, that you spend time remembering his stats which, at this point, probably even he doesn’t remember. Maybe use that memory to remember your favourite’s stat? Or don’t. I mean, it’s a free world and that stat doesn’t really bother me since Lewis is three-time world champion and two-time Monaco GP winner AND A DRIVER WHO HAS COMPLETED EVERY RACE IN MONACO (11 races, 10 in the points) so basically, he’s a champion of Monaco in his own right, although Ayrton is unmatchable. Just because the Monaco track doesn’t suit his driving style, it’s wonderful how a track where someone gets only one pole and two wins is considered horrible because standards for Lewis are so high whereas, for anyone else, even one win at Monaco would be a dream come true, so it’s nice to see you have the same high standards for Lewis as we do.

I don’t know which Lewis blogs you follow (if you follow any, in which case, again, why?), but I’ve not seen a single post that calls him “New Senna”. Lewis Hamilton is not the “New Senna”, he will never be the “New Senna”. In fact, he himself will never agree to be called the “New Senna” because he admires him despite having matched/beaten some of his records, and none of us are saying he’s better than Senna. We are only happy for him because he’s so happy and in disbelief of having reached his idol’s number of poles (yes, Lewis has emotions, he’s human, and he himself can’t believe he matched him and he still looks up to Ayrton) but no one is calling him the “New Senna” and if someone is, feel free to unfollow them because I’m certainly not in favour of calling him “New Senna”. He’s Lewis Hamilton, and he has enough fame and wealth with his own name, and he’s already influencing children and adults alike all around the world. Also, I’m sorry to break your bubble of hatred, but Lewis was given the real helmet by Senna’s family voluntarily, which is to say that Lewis did not expect it but Senna’s family had watched him and truly believed he was worthy of them sharing a part of his legacy with Lewis, which was a decision made only by the Senna family, so even if you disagree and hate Lewis, the Senna family loves him and I don’t think anything else matters to him (or to us, to be honest).

Also, thanks for the wake-up call, I did sleep in a little late today but I’m clearly awake now and replying to your ask. Is teenager meant to be an insult, though? I’m not sure if you know this but Malala Yousafzai, a teenager, is one of the most influential people in the world, more relevant than you will ever be. Here is a comprehensive list of other influential teenagers, all more valid than you (although some might be in their 20s by now since that’s last year’s list) so if you’re calling me a teenager as an insult (I mean, at least I still have an excuse to make mistakes, what’s your excuse to send hate to a teenager, Miss/Mr Certified Adult who is clearly immature and unable to type properly), I’m super flattered to be compared to these wonderful people rather than non-teenagers such as Donald Trump and Bill Cosby. 

Thank you for asking me! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

[lilyvandersteen]

Y'know Marjan, to my mutuals I'm known for asking for ALL THE QUESTIONS on ask games, so all the questions!

Greedy much, Yuè? ;) I’m only going to answer the ones I haven’t done yet, though.

2. Favorite part of writing.

I love writing first meetings. First kisses, too. And I love creating misunderstandings and then sniggering at Klaine for getting it all wrong.

3. Least favorite part of writing.

Writing smut terrifies me. Also, sometimes there are filler chapters you need to get the protagonists where they need to be for the meatier, more eventful parts, and then I get bored, because I want to start writing the exciting parts already.

5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most.

Oh, too many to count. Thea Beckman, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Roald Dahl, Annie M.G. Schmidt, Henri Van Daele, Agatha Christie, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Tonke Dragt, Mary Hoffman, Stephenie Meyer, Shannon Hale, Meg Cabot, Shanna Swendson, Marcia Evanick, Loretta Chase, Jennifer Chiaverini, Anthony Horowitz, Jane Austen, Alexandre Dumas, Dianne Wynne Jones, Jan Terlouw, Cynthia Voigt, John Irving and so many others I’m forgetting to mention right now. Seriously, every book I’ve ever read has influenced me.

6. Favorite character you ever created.

Grace, because she’s based on a dear friend of mine who recently passed away. Through Grace, she gets to live on at least a little.

7. Favorite author.

See Question 5. Don’t make me choose please. I couldn’t.

8. Favorite trope to write.

Soulmates. I love writing soulmate fics.

9. Least favorite trope to write.

There are certain tropes I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Hardcore stuff like incest and non-con. Also, I don’t think I could write fics where Kurt or Blaine or one of their children gets cancer or dies.

10. Pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about.

Oooh, @hkvoyage​! We’re planning on writing a fake dating Klaine AU one of these days :-) That’s going to be fun!

11. Describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

There’s not much of a process, really. I get the idea for a story. It won’t leave me alone, to the point where I even start dreaming about it. I tell the plot bunny that I have several other stories in the works already and need to finish those first. That doesn’t help at all, so after some time, I give in and start writing, planning to make this just a short one-shot. I finish the one-shot and sigh happily. Sometimes, that’s it, and I can bask in my accomplishment for a few days until another idea hits me. Most times, though, the one-shot starts insisting it wants to be a multi-chapter. Very annoying. Won’t leave me alone until I start working on the multi-chapter. And when the multi-chapter is done, rinse and repeat. Sigh. It never stops.

14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book?

That was probably for Worth the Wait, and I hope it shows.

15. Where does your inspiration come from?

Real life. Tumblr. Things I see. Things I read. Things I happen to think of, giggling that it would be priceless as a Klaine fic.

16. Where do you take your motivation from?

My readers telling me they like a story I’ve written (and why). My first multi-chapter story Weave Your Magic would never have been more than a one-shot if not for the kind and encouraging words of my readers. Feedback is SO important to keep me motivated and happy to write.

Also Bangs, because they give me a time limit to work towards. My beta @hkvoyage will  tell you that I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants and procrastinating kind of writer. I really need a deadline plus a beta who reminds me that the deadline is approaching to kick me into gear.

17. On average, how much writing do you get done in a day?

Not much. On really productive days maybe 1,200 words or so? I’m a slow writer, and a procrastinator, and I have many other demands on my time.

18. What’s your revision or rewriting process like?

I’m a nitpicker. Everyone I’ve ever betaed for can attest to that. As such, I’m very hard on myself and my own writing too. Before I send a chapter to my beta, you can rest assured that I’ve been through it with a fine comb about ten times already. Yep, yet another reason why I don’t produce many words a day.

19. First line of a WIP you’re working on.

“Oh, he’sso beautiful,” Mercedes crooned, stroking the downy head and blinking backtears.

(From a Kurtcedes and Unique fic I’m working on for @tacogrande)

21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIP’s.

Kurt’seyes met Blaine’s, and Blaine sent him a smile, which gave Kurt such a burst ofhappy energy that he couldn’t help but grin and then twirl Lieselotte aroundenthusiastically. 

(From the Time-Travelling Kurt fic I’m writing for @thisdoesnotsuck)

22. How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied and a project is ultimately done for you?

It’s never done. Every time I re-read one of my stories, I spot things I could have said better. Or worse yet, typos/grammar mistakes. As I said before: nitpicker.

24. Poetry or prose, and why?

Prose. I love poetry, but I can’t write it.

25. Linear or non-linear, and why?

Non-linear, I guess? I tend to start in medias res and work with flashbacks or stories within the story to provide the background.

26. Standalone or series, and why?

I don’t think I’ve ever written a sequel to a story. But I could. One day. If I ever get round to it. So, for now, standalone, I guess.

27. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished?

See above. Before I share a draft with anyone, I’ve already been over it tons of times.

28. And who do you share them with?

My beta. Sometimes, I post the first chapter here on Tumblr, to see if I get a reaction. Usually, I don’t get much of a reaction, though.

29. Who do you write for?

Myself, first and foremost. I write stories I would like to read. And if anyone else likes them, that’s a wonderful bonus.

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.

Wow, that’s difficult.

Blaine’ssinging washed over Kurt and enveloped him like a hug. Warm and buttery soft,going from a dark caramel lower register to a liquid honey higher register,Blaine’s voice held Kurt as spellbound as any of the fans present.

(From Stop Flirting!)

31. Hardest character to write.

Hmm… Brittany, I would say. It’s harder getting into her mindset than for instance Santana or Kurt.

32. Easiest character to write.

Kurt. Blaine too, but Kurt is the easiest.

33. Do you listen to music when you’re writing?

No. I do hum or sing sometimes while writing, though.

34. Handwritten notes or typed notes?

I type everything.

35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________.

What story do you want to know this about, Yuè? Same request for clarification for the numbers 36, 38, 46 and 51. I can’t answer those questions without knowing what story you have in mind for them (and don’t say ALL or I won’t ask the question).

37. Most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.Life is like a camera… Focus on what is important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, take another shot.

40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why?

Lately, I’ve been reading almost exclusively fanfiction, so…

41. How many stories do you work on at one time?

As many as I have going on. Right now I have five WIPs, I think.

42. How do you figure out your characters looks, personality, etc.

I don’t. I write fanfic, so that’s figured out for me already. The OCs are based on people I know.

43. Are you an avid reader?

Yes, I am!

44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

That I needed to stop repeating stuff if I insisted on writing from both POVs.

45. Worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

I used to have this reader, who called themselves CC, who kept commenting on Weave Your Magic to tell me there wasn’t enough Klaine in the story.

47. Do you start with characters or plot when working on a new story?

Plot, I guess, since the characters are not mine, I only borrow them.

48. Favorite genre to write in.

Fluff.

49. What do you find the hardest to write in a story, the beginning, the middle or the end?

The middle, definitely.

50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.

Blaine as a Dog shapeshifter/professor.

52. How did writing change you?

It made me notice little things a lot more, and see a story in everything.

53. What does writing mean to you?

It’s an outlet and a passion and a hobby. I love it.

54. Any writing advice you want to share?

Write what you want to read yourself.

[torentialtribute]

F1 was barbaric and a death unexceptional in Fifties, Sixties and Seventies… it’s much safer now

Martin Brundle running around the grid will be a rich prologue for the 1,000th grand prix show because it did for the past 22 years.

& # 39; It will be written on my grave & # 39 ;, says TV & # 39; s leading expert of his a-word-here, a-word-there grid walk. ] And before we continue with heavier things, such as how Brundle thinks Lewis Hamilton is likely to be crowned seven-time world champion by the end of next season, what does he make of his pre-race canter?

<img id = "i-80cfacbce83018b0" src = "https://dailym.ai/2UQIsLg image-a-10_1555094635221.jpg "height =" 644 "width =" 962 "alt =" Formula 1 expert Martin Brundle is looking forward to his 500-something Grand Prix – in Shanghai on Sunday "

<img id = "i-80cfacbce83018b0" src = "https://dailym.ai/2KGhbYe" height = " 644 "width =" 962 "alt =" Formula 1 expert Martin Brundle is looking forward to his 500-and-slightly grand Prix – in Shanghai on Sunday "class =" blkBor

He is drawing a

[F1-expert] Martin Brundle is looking forward to his 500-and-something

& # 39; The problem is that nine out of ten people say they know and that it is my trademark, not & # 39; t? & # 39; he says. & # 39; It really is my alter ego that does it. I interrupt people.

& # 39; I have cut into a driver and has an important conversation with his engineer. When legends like Niki Lauda and Alain Prost speak, I get closer. It is not me. I've never looked back at anyone. & # 39;

<img id = "i-dafacd679b55bfc9" src = "https://dailym.ai/2URhkeZ -image-a-11_1555094639743.jpg "height =" 642 "width =" 962 "alt =" He is in his 36th year as an F1 professional, first as a driver who started 158 races and then as a broadcaster since 1997 "

<img id = "i-dafacd679b55bfc9" src = "https://dailym.ai/2KGheDo" height = "642" width = "962" alt = "He is in his 36th year as an F1 professional, first as a driver who started 158 races and then as a broadcaster since 1997" class = "blkBorder"

It takes about nine minutes to get around in Brundle, without practicing and without scripting, until adrenalinerushush with high stakes that Sky broadcasts to 68 countries. And yes, it can go wrong.

& # 39; I had a car accident in Bahrain last race, & # 39; he says. & # 39; You could hardly see an F1 car for people who were so busy on the net. I knew Guy Ritchie, the famous director, was somewhere out there.

& # 39; I actually know him because he spent some time with him at the beginning of the year. So I asked him a question, I thought. I wasn't looking at him at the time, but was looking around for my next victim. I got the wrong man – someone who looked like him. I would only say to his twin brother. He said it was his bodyguard.

<img id = "i-830dcc3dc7738fb" "https://dailym.ai/2USOMlk" height = "641" width = "962" alt = " Brundle & # 39; s dashboard around the grid takes about nine minutes, is a high-stakes adrenaline rush that Sky broadcasts to 68 countries "

Brundle & # 39; s dashboard around the grid takes about nine minutes, is an adrenaline rush with high stakes that Sky broadcasts to 68 countries

& # 39; But the grid walk has produced some incredible moments. At the title downdown in Suzuka in 1998, I remember that Mika Hakkinen put on his helmet and gave me a look as if I had to say that I should know it all better than approaching him. But I asked him if he could win the title or not. "Yes, I can," he said. And in the 36th year of the Grand Prix – in Shanghai on Sunday – in his 36th year as Grand Prix – in Shanghai on Sunday – in his 36th year as an F1 professional, first as a driver who started 158 races and then as a since 1997. & # 39; I can't wait to go & # 39 ;, he says about the trip to China. & # 39; I am just as passionate about Formula 1 as I have ever been. & # 39;

He was born into the environment with his mother and father, who owned a car dealer, steeped in motorcycle racing. At the age of five, Brundle went to his first race in 1964 and got up before dawn to get home from Norfolk to Brands Hatch with his uncle Keith. He later stood on makeshift wooden crates at Copse Corner to watch races at Silverstone.

Ayrton Senna, Brundle entered F1 the following year

Having just missed the 2003 Formula 3 title for Ayrton Senna, Brundle entered Formula One the following year. I had several major blows, perhaps the most memorable when I stepped out of a crash, which he thought he killed in 1996 in Melbourne, to drive the spare car, calm if you want.

An injury that still hurts him was stopped in practice in Dallas in 1984.

He broke both feet and ankles, the left ankle so much that amputation was feared. & # 39; I am troubling my wife Liz and the family with a lot of concerns and I am grateful for their understanding, more than anything, & he says.

Others did not run away. Of those he knew well, his Tyrrell teammate Stefan Bellof died during a World Endurance Championship race in 1985. And nine years later he raced in the San Marino Grand Prix, killing Senna.

& # 39; We drove around his pool of blood for 50 laps after the accident, and that continues to upset me today & # 39 ;, says Brundle.

<img id = "i-7afbe6f42629c5fa" src = "https://dailym.ai/2KGhfXY 0-image-a-7_1555094242452.jpg "height =" 730 "width =" 962 "alt =" <img id = "i-7afbe6f42629c5fa" src = "https://dailym.ai/2UkHcAp /2019/04/12/19/000F2F7500000258-0-image-a-7_1555094242452.jpg "height =" 730 "width =" 962 "alt =" <img id = "i-7afbe6f42629c5fa" src = "https: // i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2019/04/12/19/000F2F7500000258-0-image-a-7_1555094242452.jpg "height =" 730 "width =" 962 "alt =" Brundle had several big strokes , perhaps the most memorable when I climbed out of a crash in Melbourne in 1996.

Brundle had several big strokes, perhaps the most memorable when he had big strokes, perhaps the most memorable when he crashed out of Melbourne climbed in 1996. Crashed in a crash in Melbourne in 1996.

& # 39; The show must go on, sort of things. I remember that I saw Ayrton's private jet with the door open and the steps down thinking that this would not happen. I also remember the silence after the race, people did what they had to do without making a noise. When you get into a racing car, you know you can get hurt or paralyzed or killed. But you want a little fear, a little self-preservation. It is now safer than in the fifties, sixties and seventies.

& # 39; Death in the name of sport is now totally unacceptable, but then it was unremarkable. It was barbaric, but only through today's eyes.

Brundle will only take care of his dodgy during Sunday's race while he is about to broadcast, the co-commentator of David Croft. Murray Walker & # 39; s student for the title & # 39; Voice of Formula One & # 39; during their work together at ITV in the late nineties and early 2000.

Legend Ayrton Senna died in 1994

I ask Brundle, 59, who his heroes were like a boy? & Sir Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill, for their funny sketches on BBC Sports Personality of the Year, such as the Two Ronnies. & # 39; And the best? & # 39; It's the person you respect most in your own time. Jackie would put Jim Clark there. Sir Stirling Moss would put Juan Manuel Fangio up there. I would Senna

& # 39; Mika was the fastest lap I ever raced in. Ayrton had given by God and talent. Michael Schumacher was the most complete. I would add Lewis to an all-time greatness list. & # 39;

<img id = "i-efd6601ad2d40d11" src = "https://dailym.ai/2KGhimC -image-a-21_1555095217454.jpg "height =" 641 "width =" 962 "alt =" Brundle believes that Lewis Hamilton is likely to be crowned seven-time world champion at the end of the next season Brundle believes that Lewis Hamilton will be towards the end of next season is likely to be crowned a seven-time world champion "class =" blkBorder img-share "

<img id =" i-efd6601ad2d40d11 "src =" https://dailym.ai/2CXoYdR /12/19/12205976-0-image-a-21_1555095217454.jpg "height =" 641 "width =" 962 "alt ="

Brundle believes that Lewis Hamilton is likely to be crowned a seven-time world champion who has earned credit in his own country? "Maybe not" says Brundle. "Maybe you should retire or die before people really appreciate you." love Lewis. I've known him since he was twelve, but sometimes I feel like I don't know him.

& # 39; Mercedes has endurance in their car to stay strong throughout the season. But I think Lewis or Fernando Alonso would have come closer to Mercedes than Sebastian Vettel had driven for Ferrari last year. Lewis is just wheel-by-wheel from street to street. Seb loses his head bit by bit. It must be at the front. & # 39;

CHINESE GRAND PRIX: live Sky Sports F1

Saturday: 06:00 qualifying. Sunday: Race: 7.05am

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