#like better like than never but . god we were in the trenches as xavi defenders

[leqclerc]

new super lovely interview with our boy xavi 🥺❤️ i miss him, i'm so glad it's confirmed he's happy & thriving and still in constant contact with charles

https://www.formula1.it/news/23456/1/esclusiva-xavier-marcos-vi-racconto-gli-anni-con-leclerc-la-ferrari-e-nel-cuore-ora-il-wec

Ohhhhhhhhhh that's the best possible thing to wake up to! Thank you sm for sending this over! Actually, you're not the only person to link me this interview, and I kind of love that I now have this reputation as a Xavi stan. Our boy😭💕

I love this so much. Whenever I was trying to research more about Xavi, the interviews were few and far between. You could tell he was just a simple man trying to do his job and stay out of the spotlight. The part about the online hate 😢He deserved so much better!

Obviously he had a lot of praise for Charles, though that's no surprise, really! Race engineers and drivers work so closely together, spend so much time on-track together, going over the details, asking how the setup is feeling, and then obviously they're also in their ear throughout the actual sessions. It was always sad to see people claiming Charles must hate Xavi, or at least hate working with him, even when he made it clear that he doesn't, even when he chose to continue with him for 2024.

This part is everything 😭💕 We've heard Charles talking about Xavi before, that he enjoyed working with him and appreciated him and that he felt empathetic given the chaos on the pitwall in 2022 especially, but this is so new and so rare and my heart is so full. 🥺

I will never get over the fact that Ferrari never let them have a proper goodbye/send-off. Look at them! They deserved better as a driver/race engineer pairing. I know Bryan's beloved now but it never sat right with me that you'd let a race engineer (that's been working with this driver since the start of his career at your team, has been with him for his first pole, first win, all the milestones up to that point; not to mention was there for all the bad experiences, all the Monaco disappointments) just go with little acknowledgement and no chance for the driver to publicly say goodbye via radio. Hell, we've had drivers getting to shout-out their race engineers when they're just leaving briefly for paternity leave or being rotated out (for those who implement that model.)

Especially after all the online abuse Xavi had to endure over the years, it would've been the least they could have done, even just as a gesture of respect for both. I mean, he still speaks so highly of Ferrari and his time there, even though it coincided with some of the most difficult, inconsistent seasons in the team's recent history. Shows what kind of person he is. They could never make me hate you Xavi 🥺👑

Bonus: Xavi being a Sebchal truther 😭 He must have sooo many behind the scenes stories about 2019 and 2020, it would be incredible to pick his brain about it. Imagine all the fic fuel swdjefrg