#mick schumacher header

[koobrina]

pdm clara icons + mick schumacher headers

★ like or rebelog if u used !

[princemick]

what's in the box challenge

[formulaheaders]

mick schumacher

◦ japanese and qatar grand prix 2023 ◦ like/reblog if you save or use and please don't repost ◦ © piastricc

[stuffspaddock]

like or jdoreleclerc  ♡

head empty just mick mercedes

[httpsleclerc]

masterlist

up to date as of 6/12/24!

☀︎sebastian vettel☀︎

you've got a 9-5 - in which sebastian and his ex-wife are still in love with each other

so i'll take the night shift - sebastian and his ex wife have a chat after the last weeks events (part two of you've got a 9-5)

always an angel, never a god - in which redbull!driver!reader's idol takes notice of her eating disorder.

♡charles leclerc♡

charles finds immense comfort in his person, i.e., his girlfriend

charles and his wives first vacation since the birth of their baby girl

just the three of us - charles and his girlfriends eventful Saturday afternoon

a villa in biot - Charles and Gasly!reader are in love with the one thing they can't have - each other.

under the monaco moonlight - charles leclerc is in love with the forbidden fruit, or his best friends sister Y/N Gasly and can’t control his instincts when she’s in trouble.

under the monaco moonlight (part two) - Charles and Arthur try to deal with the fallout after Charles turns you into a vampire and kills your boyfriend.

Masterlist for 'the story of us'

✪oscar piastri✪

oscar takes care of his sick girlfriend

oscars girlfriend gets caught counting his freckles while he's sleeping

❊george russell❊

georges biggest hater, his teammate, seeks comfort from him during a thunderstorm

george and his younger sister have a movie night together

Dad!George looks after his wife and young daughter

Dad!George has a movie night with his wife and sick daughter

❀lewis hamilton❀

lewis drives his bosses daughter home from their date night

✫pierre gasly✫

a villa in biot - gasły!reader and Charles both want the one thing they can't have - each other

welcome home - Pierre comes home to his girlfriend and newborn daughter after a long triple header.

❂max verstappen❂

max helps his drunk girlfriend get ready for bed

max feels underdressed compared to his beautiful girlfriend

Somewhere in the Netherlands - Max realises his retirement from F1 is all worth it.

☆lance stroll☆

kissing your boyfriend in the Monte Carlo rain was more romantic than you imagined

Girl Dad!Lance practicing ice hockey with his baby girl

❤︎arthur leclerc ❤︎

arthur's girlfriends, very bad, terrible, not good at all is easily solved

✬ollie bearman✬

ollie's cosy date nights in with his girlfriend (russell!reader)

⭐︎mick schumacher ✩

somewhere in switzerland - Mick Schumacher is down sososo bad for his girlfriend and everything she does!

out of the woods - Romeo and Juliet without the violence and hate but with race car drivers? yeah that seems about right.

[agendabymooner]

the little schuminis || ms47 fic

dad!mick schumacher x mom!ofc

EXTENSION TO SHE’S EVERYTHING… AND HE’S JUST MICK! (SMAU) + MICK, MULTIPLIED (SNAPSHOT)

Summary: Barbie Schumacher was the best mother there is to Mick’s little carbon copies. OR four times when Mick showed his devotion for his kids, and the one time his devotion paid off.

Content warning: Made this in about an hour— did not proofread this but I love it bc F1 driver with kids, All around fluff, Mick issa good dad, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel being wingmen to their kids (Barbie and Mick), Michael’s clowning his own son, many Schumacher kids

Note: @avaleineandafryingpan I know this isn’t much but I hope you love this request babygorl 😭😭🫶 my heart beats for you fr. Enjoy some dad!Mick content xx

a - n masterlist

o - z masterlist

i. the time with minna schumacher’s late night wake up call

Shrill cries of a newborn love was equal to the agony that Barbie Schumacher — formerly Blanco Vettel — felt as she groaned quietly. 3 AM never felt this awful until her firstborn child reached her teething stage, and all Barbie wanted to do was cry like her daughter was doing in her nursery now. 

Perhaps it wasn’t ideal to have a baby at the age of 27. Many people told her that her spouse wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment— that he was still on the peak of his career as a formula one driver. 

And Mick was in the midst of a season when Minna Elisa Schumacher was born. Being away from her for far TOO long was something he didn’t want, but he was forced to leave as soon as Minna reached her 47th hour of her life. Mick never hated something this much until his career made him choose. 

Barbie grumbled as she reached for her nightgown and slipped it on, only for a large hand to pull her back to the mattress as the German man murmured, “I’ll get her, liebling.” 

“Mick…” Barbie hadn’t really wanted to make him get up, seeing as he just arrived four hours ago after his triple header.

“‘s okay, I’ll get Minna,” he muttered, reaching out to kiss his wife’s forehead. “Just go get settled down and you can feed her here.” 

The blond man had immediately found Minna crying in her crib as he cradled her, heading downstairs to grab some iced teether to help soothe her gums. “Shh,” he shushed her gently, the baby’s cry subsiding immediately as she sucked on the teether. “You hungry, liebe? Or ‘s it just your gums?” 

“We have to stop waking your mom up at such an early time, Minnie baby,” he sighed, rocking her in his arms as they made their way back up to the bedroom. “She’s been awake all the time— she works too hard for us.” 

“She’s amazing, no?” Mick asked his daughter as if she could understand every single word he was saying. 

“Ma…” Minna mumbled regardless, clinging to his arms as Mick grinned tiredly. 

“Yeah, I know,” Mick nodded. “She’s working too hard, Minna. I’m glad she’s here to see you grow like this, liebe.” 

“Talking to Minna again, Schums?” A soft voice reached his ears as Mick looked back at his wife, who had her back against the headboard as she smiled tiredly and extended her arms. 

“Of course, Barbie,” Mick chuckled. “She’s got to learn her words, one of these days.”

“No need to lecture her though,” Barbie told him. But it wasn’t anything that she didn’t appreciate; she always liked it when Mick talked to their child like Minna understood everything. He had been doing this since Barbie fell pregnant with the girl— he’d often crouch down or lay next to her bulging stomach to speak to the growing baby inside of her. 

It showed Barbie that Mick was a committed father. It showed that regardless of his situation as a busy driver, he always saw his family as his number one priority. Perhaps that was why Barbie loved Mick so much. 

ii. the time with gisela schumacher’s first ballet show

Gisela Belle Schumacher’s first little ballerina performance was happening in the program facility and everyone made sure to show up. 

By everyone, I mean Barbie’s family, the Vettels, and Gisela’s (or Gigi) aunt Gina, Pippa Michael and Nina Corinna. The two year old was excited to show everyone what she practiced with Madame Pinault throughout her three months of being at the class. 

She was the tiniest girl out of the group, with her bright blue eyes and blonde hair making her stand out in comparison to her peers’ darker tones of hair. The Schumachers and Vettels knew which one to look out for while they waited at the auditorium.

Barbie peered down at her phone and sighed quietly. Mick wasn’t here yet. Stupid flight of his.

At Gigi’s age, she couldn’t easily grasp the concept of people not being able to make it to certain events at the right time. All she knew was that she was going to show her Dada how she could balance on her tiptoes without a problem. 

And of course, Mick couldn’t find himself to break her heart like that. And so, after the Brazilian GP, he took the fastest flight back to Lausanne. 

And there he was, rushing inside the auditorium with the biggest bouquet for the littlest girl. 

Minna’s announcement led the families to look at him as Mick kissed Barbie’s lips and Minna’s cheeks.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Mick apologized, “the baggage claim took longer than expected.”

“She hasn’t gone out yet,” Barbie laughed quietly, mindlessly caressing Minna’s blonde hair as she continued to speak, “glad to see you back from the race in one piece, though. With the biggest flowers too.”

Later after the performance, Gigi ran around the Schumacher home with the bouquet bragging about the flowers her Dada had given her. Barbie laughed at the sight of the girl— she was too adorable.

Mick laughed along, as he knew that he’d be more than happy to come carrying the biggest flowers for his girl— even after the longest double header he’s had. After all, nothing can stop him from being the best father to his children.

iii. the time with mika schumacher’s birthday party

“Who decided that setting up a pet display should be this fuc—“

“Mick, watch your words.”

“Sorry, Dad.” 

“Stop going crazy,” Michael said with a frown, throwing the small giraffe plushie at the direction of his son, to which Mick reacted with an ‘Ow!’ after being hit in the face. “This isn’t the first birthday party you’ve handled.” 

“Well this is the first one where ‘pet adoptions’ are a thing,” Mick gestured at the safari animal plushies at hand. “I don’t know what came up to Gina thinking it’s easy to find bulk plushies, but this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done— and I have three kids, Dad!”

“Because you can’t control yourself,” Michael mumbled, making Mick glare at him. Michael shrugged, “Am I incorrect?” 

Mick couldn’t even find himself to argue with his dad. Six years into the marriage, and he and Barbie already had three kids under seven. 

“I’m just so used to the girls wanting princesses and all of that,” Mick pouted lightly. 

Michael sighed, “Well, now you have Mika— think of him as you. What did you like when you’re a kid? Put yourself in his shoes. Don’t tell me you’re having an existential crisis three kids into marriage? I’m actually gonna be disappointed if you didn’t think that before you had the kids— you’ve been a driver for years!” 

“How can you find a time to joke about it,” Mick sighed exasperatedly. “I don’t even know why I’m here being an ass about my kid’s birthday party.” 

“Because,” Michael told him with a purse of his lips, “you’ve never had a son before— that’s why you’re stressing out about messing up.” 

“I struggled with you for a good while,” Michael shrugged nonchalantly, “Gina was into princesses and pink ponies. You were a boy— I didn’t know what baby boys liked. But I was a racer, that’s why I didn’t have any questions— I still hesitated though because you might like something else and I have to be aware of it.” 

“From what I can tell, you’re doing an alright job so far,” Michael smiled at Mick, patting him on the shoulder. “Miki’s been a happy child. That’s what matters, no?”

“So pick up your sad face and put those plushies up,” Michael said.

A delighted scream came from inside the house as the year old boy escaped from Kimi Vettel’s chasing, giggling as Mika Sebastian Schumacher ran as much as his little legs could handle. 

Eventually he found himself in the arms of Mick as Mika hid from his Uncle Kimi. 

“Da!” Mika screamed delightfully, kicking his legs when Kimi Vettel began tickling the boy. 

Mick and Michael exchanged grins.

Yeah, Mick would continue to put these plushies up if it meant that he’s making his son happy. 

iv. the time with michael ‘mikey’ schumacher’s introduction to the world

Michael Senna, or Mikey, Schumacher was born sixteen hours ago, his tiny body was proof that he was so much like his mother. Yet despite the smallness of his, his facial features and expressions of contentment showed that he was his father’s son. 

Another Mick Schumacher had been born into the world, and Barbie and Mick (alongside their family in Switzerland) welcomed him with open arms. 

And no one was more than excited than the newborn’s namesake, his Pippa Michael, and Sebastian Vettel when meeting the little boy. In fact, they raced through the hospital as soon as they heard that Barbie, Sebastian’s adoptive daughter, had given birth to Mick’s second son. 

Michael was more than happy to meet the boy— just as he was excited to meet his other grandchildren— but to meet little Mikey Schumacher was a moment to remember for everyone. Because that was also the time when Mick announced that…

“I’m retiring,” both Seb and Michael looked at the man with surprised expressions as if they wondered if they heard him right.

Mick explained, “I feel like I’ve lost a lot of time with the kids because I’ve been racing. The kids obviously don’t know how much time I’ve lost because they’re young but… I do. Barbie does.

“It took me a good while to understand what Mika loved— it took me a while to learn how to keep Gigi from having flyaways in her hair during her ballet classes— or how Minnie managed to handle her equestrian routine without Gina or Mom.

“I’ve lost a lot of time,” he said with a small chuckle and a shake of his head. Mick then gestured at Mikey, who remained peacefully sleeping in Michael’s arms as he said, “And with Mikey, I think I can’t afford to do that anymore. I’m okay with one championship only.”

Sebastian broke the silence after, “I’m proud of you Mick,” he smiled softly before reaching out to hug his in-law. “Look at how far Barbie and you’ve come.”

“Back then we had to goad him to ask Barbie on a date,” Michael chuckled quietly.

“It took us eight years,” Sebastian joked.

“Or nine,” Michael snorted.

“We’re still here,” Barbie mumbled in her sleep, “stop making jokes about it.” 

“Still,” Michael said, “we’re very happy for you and Barbie, son.”

“This is where your life begins,” Sebastian nodded, “all you need to do is to tell everyone about your commitments and devotion for your children and wife.” 

i. the time mick’s devotion paid off

Being a retired driver felt great. It wasn’t everyday Mick got to say that— and now he had every chance to. 

Barbie’s family restaurant in Lausanne, one that she named SV et Blanco, had been built years ago— it was the Vettels and Schumachers’ pride. After she graduated from culinary school, Barbie worked as a chef in nearby restaurants before eventually deciding that she wanted a place where family could start their traditions through countless dishes and desserts to try. 

Needless to say, it became a local and even international favourite. Many tourists in Switzerland would try to stop by Lausanne just to get a taste of Kimi Vettel’s favourite spinach and egg soufflé.

And now, SV et Blanco became a place for the Schumachers to spend their time during the Friday afternoons after Minna and Gigi’s classes. Mick would always pick up his daughters with Mika and ten month old Mikey on their car seats.

And after that, he’d come dropping by the restaurant. With Mika on his pram and Mikey on his back carrier, he led the kids into the restaurant as they found their mother making her rounds around the place. 

“Mama!” Minna exclaimed before she and Gigi ran towards Barbie, hugging her around the legs. 

“Oh, excuse me,” Barbie smiled at the guests before she crouched down to hug her girls. “Gigi, Minnie— hello! How’s school!” 

“School is good, Mama!” Gigi grinned. “I got star for writing!”

“That right? Good job, Gigi,” Barbie grinned. “And you, Minnie? How is your school?”

“Okay! I want soufflé though!” The eldest Schumacher pouted lightly. “I wanna see Pippa and Nina!”

“Pippa and Nina! And Sebby— and Mamma Bel!” Mika shouted from his pram.

Barbie giggled lightly before looking up at her husband, “And…? How’s Dada, kids?”

“Dada’s not that busy,” Mick giggled, “hungry for some soufflé though— Minna’s right.”

“Well,” Barbie clapped her hands before standing up, “it’s a good thing it’s our everyday special.”

“Great,” Mick joked. “Otherwise we traveled to Lausanne for nothing.”

Barbie rolled her eyes playfully.

It was a good thing Mick’s devotion and commitment for his kids were paying off. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be the retired father that he is now— his kids wouldn’t be adoring their mother as much as Mick did back when they were teenagers and secretly in love. 

[chussyracing]

what's been happening in motorsport lately?

(long overdue update from me so it's very long and therefore hidden under the cut)

F1 teams and drivers:

Williams (union jack) and Red Bull (red pattern) brought special liveries to Silverstone

Andy Cowell (previously Merc PU chief) joins Aston Martin as new CEO

Mick Schumacher will do a Pirelli tyre test for McLaren because no other reserve driver of thier has the criteria to drive the car and their F1 drivers are coming off a triple header (so their activated the option to use Merc juniors/reserves)

Matt Whyman is Publishing „Inside Mercedes F1: Life in te Fast Lane“ book

Mercedes will bring more upgrades to both Spa and Hungary

Checo will get the new Red Bull floor Max has been running in the next race as well although Helmut Marko said that upgrade was only worth 6 points of downforce

i am so sure that i wrote this down about a month ago but since everyone has been talking about it: Enrico Cardile left Ferrari and will serve gardening leave for the rest of the season before joining Aston Martin, so Fred will oversee the area himself before Loic Serra comes (and potentially Newey as according to rumour that’s main reason behind Enrico leaving)

Ferrari is also set to have a board meeting to discuss the current form

Ollie and Pietro Fittipaldi completed Pirelli tyre testing for Haas

Michael Broadhurst became Alpine’s chief aerodynamicist (previously in Red Bull and McLaren) and Vin Dhanani became their head of vehicle performance (previously in Red Bull) and finally Jacopo Fantoni is their new deputy chief engineer (in Ferrari last year)

Visa Cash App RB partnered with Warner Bros to promote Twisters in Silverstone

oh and after complaining about the tickets the N*rstappen ruffle in Austria helped them sell out the Silverstone weekend

Charles is Peroni’s world brand ambassador and an ad and the first part of short video series to promote the drink was posted

Adidas will be Merc’s official clothing partner

Lewis was reading CBeebies Bedtime Story on BBC on 3rd July called „Small’s Big Dream“ by Manjeet Mann

Charles expanded the export of his LEC ice cream so now you can get it in Italy (can confirm that one, had Chocolate Crunch from Unes and it was delicious), France and Monaco

Pierre extended with Alpine and Lance extended with Aston Martin for next year (and beyond)

oh lol i almost forgot Ollie Bearman is officially Haas 2025 F1 driver!!!

Williams announced 26 new employees joining this year with some big names from RBR, Merc, Ferrari and others (like Matt Harman joining after summer break)

Logan started his own app (i didn’t research more on it so far but apparently there are a few articles about him so far)

Ferrari asked for an explanation from FIA after RBR’s mid season RB18 test that led to performance upgrades which shouldn’t be allowed with tests

McLaren sent out thank you packages to other teams as they helped them out after their hospitality caught fire

Alex made (and almost sold out already) Albon Pets merch

Toto Wolff confirmed they included police to research the email that was sent to journalists and F1 figures concerning the sabotage of Lewis in the team

Mercedes will have a charity football match against Aston Martin today

and Levi’s partnered with McLaren to make special edition of merch

after Almave Ambar, Almave Blanco will be distributed in the UK as well

Andretti Cadillac hired Chris Green as IT director and Laura Sturland as finance director (both previously in Merc)

Future of F1:

6 sprint weekends in 2025 will be: China, Miami, Spa, Cota, Brazil and Qatar (there is one or maybe two locations that make sense otherwise it kills the weekend imo but ok)

Rolex ends their sponsorship of F1 after 10 years (11 if you count this one), instead LVMH will step up into their position starting in 2025 (it is also very much possible Tag Heuer will be their title sponsor since it falls under LVMH umbrella and occupies similar position in business as Rolex, side note: Rag Heuer is the current sponsor of Red Bull) – rumouredly this is about money like everything in F1, the new contract is supposed to be $ 150m, so about three times as much as Rolex gave them

besides this, F1 is also finalising deal with American Express as a global partner

Zandvoort is contemplating making gravel traps to avoid track limits like they did in Austria

Rumours of the paddock:

Zak Brown has been asking for a possibility of engine supply from RBPT instead of Mercedes due to fear of reliability if they start supplying Alpine as well (considering they will drop Aston who gets Honda’s engine and knowing how much he publicly criticizes Red Bull and the culture in the team i kinda doubt it)

Alpine is also exploring RBPT and Ferari as potential engine suppliers instead of Renault

Jos Verstappen still very much wants to get his son out of the Red Bull team and Mercedes could be the next destination, Jos said in Austria that Christian Horner is the one responsible for not allowing him to drive during legends parade during the weekend and they had a lil argument speaking to media, there is still the rumour about Merc engines in 2026 being strong and that being a good argument for Max

this is technically not a rumour but also not confirmed either but Fred Vasseur strongly indicated in an interview that Lewis‘ contract will be for three years (he said they want to be champions in 2025, 2026, 2027 or something along those lines basically)

Haas is about to announce the extending of engine supply from Ferrari (with stronger links as Ollie becomes their official driver while being a part of FDA), they might get some kind of parts from Toyota as well (along with their knowhow) with potential title sponsorship deal

also Gene Haas apparently wants to expand their facilities in the UK

racingnews365 believe that Esteban is going to announce his deal with Haas before summer break

i want to prelude this by saying that driver contracts are highly confidential and nobody knows what exactly is in them, because they simply do not talk about the legal stuff so it wouldn’t get out BUT there has been a lot of speculation about Checo and his contract including clauses of performance compared to Max, some of which he is currently not complying so there is a rumour if he doesn’t improve over the next two races, they can terminate his contract and replace him mid-season (with candidates being Daniel Ricciardo – Horner’s favourite + good for their marketing where Checo is strong, Liam Lawson – Marko’s favourite + has a close to look among other teams if he doesn’t get a RBR backed seat for 2025, and apparently also Yuki)

also Liam is doing a filming day (200 kms test) with RB20 in Silverstone today which is a similar move they did with Daniel Ricciardo last year before he replaced Nyck

and Joe Saward thinks he will replace Daniel in July

also some people freaked out about Mick doing a Pirelli test for McLaren and honestly he has bigger change in Alpine where he did kind of a shootout with Jack Doohan (we have no info about how it went besides Toto saying he was strong)

after Williams were ready to announce a contract with Carlos in Spain with Netflix ready to shoot the footage of it and after he pulled out of it with new offer from Alpine (or rather Flavio Briatore), they now focused on getting Valtteri Bottas as a stable driver to partner Alex

that leaves Carlos waiting if Max really leaves RBR (but Marko made it clear they don’t want him anyway), potentially Merc (Toto said they are not interested in him but after Kimi’s  results in F2 so far, he said maybe the door is not fully closed for him yet), Audi (where Liam Lawson was seen in Austria, but even after Carlos missed a deadline from them, they might be interested) or Alpine (and if he says no, they still have Jack and Mick lined up and ready)

meanwhile Guanyu has been exploring the option to get a seat in FE if he cannot find one in F1 (with Alpine, Haas and Sauber as possible options) or even being a reserve for an F1 team for 2025

Ted Kravitz mentioned paddock gossip of Estaban leaving earlier than planned to replace Logan mid season in Williams and make space for Jack Doohan in Alpine (the only thing supporting this right now is interview with James Vowles talking about this and mentioning potential changes event his season)

Will Buxton on the other hand mentioned Daniel Ricciardo is talking to Williams

and finally Blick reported that Drugovich might be on Williams‘ list after Carlos

as for Logan he is reportedly in talks with Prema to get their Indycar seat

Lewis Hamilton is rumoured to buy Gresini Racing motogp team

apparently Lewis also called Seb to ask about what Adami is like as a race engineer and Seb gave him positive feedback

Jeremy Clarkson said he can calm people down and say that Newey is not looking for houses in Italy but rather UK

the superlicence request in Miami was potentially meant for Arvid Linblad (if you don’t know who he is, he is rbr junior currently crushing it in F3)

Briatore wants to bring Binotto into Alpine (lol)

Other series and juniors:

Franco Colapinto, Ollie Bearman, Jack Doohan and Isack Hadjar got their FP1 junior drive in Silverstone

Roman Staněk will end in Trident after Monza, he terminated the contract due to the team not performing like expected and is currently looking for a possibility of another seat in F2 (when it’s on dry, the car lacks too much to others and only on wet like in Silverstone’s sprint, the differences are diminished and the driver can show what’s in them like he did going from p22 to p8)

British F4 race in Zandvoort will have SO many F1 Academy drivers: Abbi Pulling, Bianca Bustamante, Carrie Schreiner, Jessica Edgar (and of course Chloe Chong which is driving full season in British F4)

so Arrow McLaren cannot behave for a week, to sum it up: David Malukas (who got a full time seat after Alex Palou was sued for not driving for them) got injured, they got Callum Illot drove instead of him for some time, since David wasn’t healing, they fired him and hired Theo Pourchaire for the rest of the season, INSTEAD they fired him as well after he posted about how he can’t wait for another race, and now hired Nolan Siegel (and on top Rossi will leave the team and will get replaces by Lundgaard  in 2025)

freaking Nikita Mazepin was testing GT3 in Hungary after the EU sanctions were lifted (side note idk if i stated before but Haas has to pay off Ural Kali)

Other news:

Goodwood festival of speed is coming up with interesting names (like Frederik Vesti, whole of Williams team, RB team including Horner etc)

the F1 movie everyone has been in frenzy about will be called… F1 (i think there is some teaser too if you are interested, also Fernando did an interview after Silverstone which will be used for the movie as well as some other real life stuff, like Pierre’s onboards modified) OHHH also Hans Zimmer should compose music for it like he did for Hunt vs Lauda (however it is called in English)

there was a rumour that Danica Patrick is leaving Sky Sports but that fake (or rather AI generated)

the Silverstone trophy was made by ex-F1 mechanic Alastair Gibson from car parts (there are two trophies always but the Iconic golden one is returned)

i am putting this in other category because it’s simply too unhinged but there was an open letter from some fans that Leo Leclerc is not loved and cared for enough (be so serious he has better life than i do)

[smoooothoperator]

Save Your Tears

03: Stuck With U

Driver! Mick Schumacher x opera singer! OC (Ophelia Becker)

Strangers to friends to lovers, love at first sight, long plane flight, personal drama, opera references

Words: 2.5k

Warnings: turbulences

a/n: New part!! This is special because it's important for both characters. To Ophelia, that finds someone that is intersted on her job, and to Mick, that finds someone that is intersted on his job and not on his name or his fame. Oh, and I make a cameo on the header of this chapter, the picturs on the left side is from last week, I actually performed "Romeo et Juliette" the opera :) (I'm the first one on the stairs starting on the right)

Btw, do you want me to make a playlist? If that's so, what type of music do you want me to add?

Every way of feedback is very welcomed

Masterlist

previous part | next part

There was something in him that made her calm. Maybe it was his golden retriever vibes, his blue eyes and smile. Or how his raspy voice sounded when he talked to her. 

She can't understand.

But the moment they first connected their gazes, she felt her own brain shivering. She could feel how her body shook like if a electric shock.

The moment she followed him inside the plane and watched how he stopped in the business seats, she smiled. And when she saw his backpack she just laughed. 

What type of cliche is this?

His smile was something that made her heart be calm. She wanted to be next to him for a while.

"Oh, you two know each other?" the flight attendant asked, looking at them smiling at each other.

"Yeah… we met a while ago" Mick answered for her.

"Oh, love stories in airports are the best" she smiled. "You two look so lovely, have a nice flight"

Ophelia blushed, looking how Mick didn't even deny anything. But wasn't he in love with that girl?

"Well…" she smiled weakly, sitting and looking at her lap.

"Well…" Mick smiled, imitating her. "We are going to be nearly thirteen hours together, so… why don't we get to know each other a little more?"

Ophelia took a deep breath and looked at him, watching how he smiled. His smile hides something, anxiety and fear.

Getting to know someone… How does it even work? Even since she was a little girl, no one wanted to be near her. They always called her the music nerd, the one that couldn't go to the park to play with her classmates because she had to stay at home to practice and study piano, the one that had to skip classes because her mother had to travel to another country to make a concert, the one that had good grades on music class. 

Whenever she tried to make a friend, they always ignored her. 

"We don't like that type of music"

"Nah, that's so classic, so old fashioned"

"What are you, a granny?"

When she started music school, people already knew who she was. Her teachers knew who her mother was. What happens when your mother is famous?

"Hey, can you find me some tickets?"

"Oh, Ophelia. Can you ask your mother if she needs someone to work with her?"

"Ophelia, how is your mom doing? As great as always, eh?"

"Ophelia Becker, you should be doing better, you are the daughter of one of the greatests"

"I was expecting better, knowing who is your mother"

"You would be a disappointment for your mother if you keep doing if this way"

Exactly. They expect nothing but greatness, or a way to be close to her mother.

She always thought that she was better alone, only having the people she needed to work with near: her manager, her pianist and her mother.

But now… she lost one of them. And the most important of them.

Why would she need friends? Maybe contacts that can find her some work and colleagues that would want to work with her or recommend her to other people.

That's how this world works. You can't be friends with anyone because they will always want your work. 

So when someone out of her world asks her to know something about her… how should she react? What should she talk about? She barely knows him… she should say everything?

"W-well… you already know I'm an opera singer" she mumbled, feeling how the palms of her hands were getting sweaty.

"Yeah" Mick nodded. "It's exciting? Like… I don't know. Singing in front of many people… does it make you nervous?"

"Oh, you have no idea" she chuckled. "When I started I didn't have problems with that. It was so natural sitting in the chair in front of the piano"

"You play piano too?" he asked, surprised.

"Y-yeah" she nodded. "But… yeah. Once you get older you see the world with different eyes. You notice how people judge, how… how they see you or talk about you"

"And that made you nervous" he nodded. "Yeah, I know how that feels"

"Really?" she asked, surprised too. 

"Yeah… my work is all about that" he smiled weakly. "You have to be the best out there, perform perfectly and don't make mistakes. Some years ago… well, it wasn't my best season. I had a lot of crashes and it cost a lot of money. I made my team lost a lot of money"

"You had crashes?" she gasped. 

"Yeah, like… two or three" he smiled weakly. "But I was fine. The thing is that my boss wasn't happy because of that and he didn't want me for the next season"

"Oh… I'm sorry" she smiled weakly. 

"Perks of having a father that is a legend of the sport…" he smiled weakly, sadly. 

Ophelia looked at him surprised. He has an important father too? Maybe he understands… No, maybe not. Maybe it's something completely different.

"My mom is important too" she mumbled. Is… was.

"Yeah? That's amazing" he smiled. 

"Mhm" she sighed, nodding slowly.

Amazing? Yeah, sometimes. Unless they use you to get to her.

"So… Romeo and Juliet?" Mick asked, crossing his arms. "And you are Juliet? How is it?"

"Nice" she nodded. "It's actually my debut in opera"

"What? No way!" he gasped. "Where can I watch it? YouTube? It's already posted?"

What is this? Someone interested in her work? Someone interested in her?

"Eh… my manager recorded it" she smiled weakly. "I can ask her if she can send it to me"

"Wait, really? I can watch it?" 

"Of course" she nodded.

She felt weird. Usually she's the only one that watches her own concerts, maybe with her mom so she can tell her what she can improve or what went well. Or even with her manager and pianist, to correct things or to cut them and post them on their social media. 

A stranger, out of the people that goes to see her concerts and only throws praises at her just to get close to her, never asked about watching something like that. Why would they?

"An opera is not like a musical" she mumbled, grabbing her backpack and opening her laptop, searching the file with a recording of the opera. 

"Yeah, I know" he nodded, smiling. 

Ophelia nodded, taking a deep breath. She grabbed her earphones and gave him one of them. Is this how are they going to spend the next three hours? Watching her concert?

"It's in french?" he asked surprised after hearing the first words the choir sang. "You know french?"

"A little, yeah" she nodded. "I sing in different languages"

"Oh that's so cool" he chuckled, paying attention to the screen again. "Oh, that's you!"

She looked at him, blushing. He looks like a kid watching a movie. 

He looks at the screen the way she looked at her mom singing.

"There's no way! You can sing that high? Oh God" he gasped, making her Ile grow a little bit more. "But your speaking voice is so… low? How can you do that?"

"Practice and practice" she smiled.

Mick nodded, smiling, understanding that. To get better he has to practice too. 

He watched the whole opera, clapping silently at her, letting some tears fall in emotional moments, gasping when he saw how she acted as Juliet Capulet.

"You really have a lot of energy" Ophelia joked, making him frown. 

"Is not the first time I heard that" he smiled. "The golden retriever vibes, right?"

"Exactly!" she laughed.

She laughed. For the first time that night, she laughed.

"No, but… it's amazing" he smiled looking at the screen, how the final act of the opera was playing. "You are so good in this, Ophelia"

"Thank you" she smiled, touched by his words.

A little more silence, sharing the earphones while looking how the end of the opera was coming.

Mick watched how the ending was more and more heart whelming, how the acting of Ophelia and the man that acts as Romeo was heartbreaking. He could hear how their voices full of emotions were at the edge of crying. 

Ophelia looked at him, at Mick. She could see how his eyes were getting red, how he started biting his lip trying to not cry. She felt grateful for it, watching how he appreciated something like this and showed it like that.

"Wow" he sighed, sniffling softly and taking off the earphone, then looking at her. "Just… wow"

She chuckled softly, taking off her earphone and blushed. He was amazed, watching her with adoration in his eyes.

"Next time you have a concert just invite me" he asked. "This is… Wow"

She smiled softly, looking at how his blue eyes were wet. It touched her, how he reacted to her singing.

"Just a question" he smiled. "The kisses weren't real? Because, my God! Those seemed pretty real!"

"No, no" she laughed softly. "It's a theater kiss. I kissed under his lips and him above mine. We used our hands to make it look real"

"Oh…" he nodded, impressed, looking at her lips.

Silence again. He scrolled through his phone and she replied to emails. Even if the sears were big, since they were in business, they stayed close. His knee was touching hers and she was leaning on his arm, their shoulders touching.

"Oh, you want to watch one of my races?" he asked, looking at her. 

"What? Yeah!" she smiled. "Of course. But not one where you crash"

"Oh please, I'm not that silly" he chuckled. 

He smiled, looking how she gave him her laptop and he just searched for a race, one he can show and feel proud of himself.

"Here, Canada 2025" he said, placing the laptop back on the table.

Ophelia never watched a race like this. But watching all the action, the cars going fast and watching all the overtakes… it was exciting.

"You drive for Mercedes?" she asked after watching the logo of the brand on his black suit. 

"Yeah" he smiled proudly. "After having that terrible year after losing my seat, the boss of Mercedes talked with me and I became the reserve driver. But now an official driver"

"That's amazing, Mick" she smiled softly. "You deserve it"

He smiled, feeling his chest getting warm, and continued watching the race. 

He remembers how it was. He ended in the points position, but yet so far to touch the podium. He still remembers getting out of the car and watching all his team run towards the fences where the first three drivers parked their cars, cheering for George, sitter of the second place podium. 

But watching her look at the race, how she smiled, following with her eyes the cars and looking to the left searching for him, it touched him so much. 

"Hey, ending in the top ten is good… right?" she asked. "You've got…"

"Six points" he smiled weakly. "In that race I've got six points"

"That's good!" she exclaimed, smiling softly.

They watched the race, until they felt the plane shaking. 

"No, no…" Ophelia mumbled, closing her eyes tightly and holding his hand.

"Hey, Ophelia" he frowned. 

"I can't. I can't die! God, this was such a bad idea. I hate this!"

The levels of joy she reached with him, watching how his smile and adoration towards her made her heart feel warm, was now being changed into fear. 

Fear of falling. Fear of dying. Fear of now seeing her mother one last time. Fear of not being successful as her mother was. Fear of not portraying her last name how she's expected to do. Fear of failing everyone.

"Ophelia!"

Her eyes snapped open, letting her see those blue eyes looking directly at her. He was cupping both of her cheeks to make her look at him.

How can his eyes be so blue? Are those freckles on his cheeks and nose? He has moles… how many?

"Take a deep breath, okay?" he whispered, nodding slowly. "Nothing will happen, yeah? It was just a little turbulence, the plane is alright"

"Okay" she whispered, hearing her own voice being little.

"Do you want to watch a movie to get distracted?" Mick asked, taking his warm palms away from her cheeks and making her sigh.

"Yeah, please" she mumbled. "Which one do you propose?"

"Hm… Cars?" he chuckled. "My dad voiced a character there?"

"Really?"

He could feel she was still shocked, how her voice was so little and how slow she talked. He only nodded, searching the movie on her laptop and placing the earphone on her ear.

When the turbulence started, her hand was holding him so tight that he actually got worried for her. He saw how her eyes were closed tightly and how she prayed in her lower voice, panicking and begging for dear life.

So he stayed close to her. When the movie started, he placed his arm on the armrest between their seats, holding her hand tight and rubbing his thumb on her skin.

There's something on her that makes him want to be close.

"Is that your dad?" she asked when he saw him smile.

"Eh… yeah" he smiled, happy to hear his dad's voice. "Yeah, it's him"

"Michael Schumacher?" Ophelia whispered. 

"Yeah" he nodded, somehow feeling his heart beating fast hearing her say his last name. 

"Mhm" she nodded, getting closer to him and hugging her legs close to her chest.

When the movie ended, both of them were tired, feeling how his eyes were getting swollen because of the need for sleep. 

"I'll go wash my teeth" Ophelia yawned, grabbing her little toilet bag and getting up.

"Y-yeah, I'll go too " he said, doing the same as her.

Both of them walked towards the bathroom of the plane, finding the door locked with someone already inside of it.

Both of them stood there, face to face and close to each other because of the lack of space on the corridor.

"Are you feeling better?" Mick whispered, looking down at her.

They were so close that he could smell her scent, a mix of her perfume and her shampoo: fruits with vanilla.

"Yeah" she whispered, looking up at him.

They were so close that she could smell his scent, even see how his beard was showing a little on his jaw and chin, making her smile. He smells like aftershave and a manly perfume: citric and clean.

Her eyes went to his lips, and somehow she couldn't look away from them. 

He saw her looking at his lips, and he had to fight himself to not lick them and kiss her. They are so close, he only has to lean a little on her and he could just… He reached for her hand, making his fingers touch her rings while he fought against his own desires.

"Eh… the bathroom is free" 

Ophelia gasped softly, taking a step away and looking at the man that got out of the bathroom, blushing and clearing her throat.

"Eh… I'll be quick" she mumbled looking at Mick.

Before he could say something, the door of the bathroom was already locked, making him sigh and mess his hair with his fingers.

"Oh, wow…" he sighed, biting his lips with a small smile.

Ophelia looked at her reflection in the mirror, brushing her teeth and frowning.

"Why did you do that?" she whispered. "God… Stupid, stupid!"

But… she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to kiss him.

taglist

@racinggirl @elisysd @lorarri @musingsbyshreya @vellicora

[sweetpiccolo-blog]

hey sweetie, here about the mashups

so, I have a lot of hobbies but here are my favorite ones: reading, writing, doing crochet, learning new languages and history, singing (but I'm awful) and going to the gym

I'm 1,61cm, have brown eyes and brown/dark blonde curly hair, right now it's a few inches down my shoulders.

fluently I speak Portuguese (cause I'm Brazilian 🫶🏻🫶🏻) and English. due to Portuguese, I can "handle" with Spanish and Italian. I also know a bit of french and some word/sentences in others like russian and German

I'm totally extroverted, I'm always making friends everywhere I go, I love talking and if you let I'll be talking bout my interests for hours. I'm also the friend who's always making jokes with everyone. and more than I hate, I'm the total ENTP stereotype. I'm a cancer

I love baking, cooking, showering, all the arts(painting, dancing, acting…), swimming, and for sure travelling. also, I'm a Mercedes fan since I started watching F1

it's not hate, but I'm not a big redbull fan. now about dislikes: small cities, step on the grass barefoot, camping and fish

already, thank you love and sorry if there's any mistake, my English is kinda crappy

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG my fist ask! This totally made my day! Hi and welcome! I am so happy somebody asked for a match-up. Now I will try to find somebody who suits you based on what you given me. (and no worries, your English is great!<3)

This is only my opinion, so be sure to let me know what you think about it later : )

LET US GET STARTED!

Header by @dvluc

Your first match is...

☆LANDO NORRIS☆

First things first, I think you two being extroverted would not be a bad thing, I can see you talk about your interests for hours, exchanging opinions, just chit-chatting, but it would go on non-stop – if somebody else were with you they wouldn’t even get a chance to talk because you and Lando are in your moment and nothing can interrupt you.

About the languages you know, I`d say he would be absolutely amazed and ask you to teach him something. In privacy he would want you to talk to him in Portuguese because he likes listening to it. Also if go on a vacation together, he`ll totally let you handle all to foreign-language talk to show of how talented you are and how proud he is to have you.

Your zodiac signs are totally compatible – you have an unspoken understanding in between each other, you feel secure and comfortable with each other. Even though his emotions could erupt sometimes, you know how he feels and how to calm him down.

Making friends is not a problem and I don’t feel like jealousy would ever get in the way , you two trust each other enough.

When you two team up and joke around, oh boy, everybody with you is in for a ride, constant wheezing and cry laughing is gonna be present. Even when you are away, your messages are full of jokes and memes.

Gym would be a together activity. If there is a chance he is not away, he will take you with him.

Quality time would be the main love language with you two. Whether its backing or cooking, you bet he will be there trying to help you, but he only ends up making a bigger mess. When he gets home after another tiring travel, Lando will just lay next to you as you read for him out loud or watch you crochet.

About the barefoot in grass part, he would always carry you on his back to save you from the unbearable feeling! And then make fun of you for it – but jokingly.

Bonus: you and Lando would fall in love because of your shared hatred for fish. Love at the first sight as you yell out YUCK! in unison.

--------------------------------------------------

Your second match is...

☆Mick Schumacher☆

You and Mick would be the definition of See you again (okokokokok/lalalalala), he would just smile as he listens to you talk about what you love, just living in the moment and appreciating you.

The height difference here would be so adorable, don’t get me wrong.

He would totally teach you some more German and he would want you to teach him Portuguese.

I also see Mick trying to teach you surfing since you both share the love for sea and swimming.

I don’t see him liking big cities, but with you, it would be an absolute pleasure, because it means spending more time with you and listening to you.

Germans loooove partying, and you bet he will drag you out to a Karaoke or something similar for a date.

The power you have over him!! He could be having the worst day of his life but as soon as his eyes meet you, a wave of serotonin hits his entire body.

--------------------------------------------------

Hope you like it! : )

[mirrorball-leclerc]

the blue - part nine

series masterlist // previous // next

ameliaholland triple header, you were amazing, time to go home for a while before vegas! p.s. i'll be performing for one night only in london on the 7th, tix on sale now!

tagged: oscarpiastri, charles_leclerc, landonorris, mclaren

view all comments

username girl do you ever fucking rest?

↳ ameliaholland you know what they say, the devil works hard but amelia holland works harder

samholland1999 how soon are you flying out again?

↳ ameliaholland we fly out on the 9th...

↳ samholland1999 damn.. they're right you never rest

↳ ameliaholland wag life is not for the weak

username NEW MUSIC? A PERFORMANCE IN LONDON?

paddyholland2004 tell mum i'm old enough for the vegas gp

↳ ameliaholland sorry kid, you're not

↳ paddyholland2004 I TOTALLY AM! THIS IS UNFAIR!

username the random charles picture is so funny. like no context is given and it's my favorite thing ever.

username oscar's featured on this more than amelia on her page, and i don't mind it one bit

mclaren perhaps tickets for admin?

↳ ameliaholland keep sending the oscar pictures and you've got a deal

↳ mclaren will do ms.holland!

logansargeant boo! we hung out and not once is there a picture of me here!

↳ ameliaholland you said and i quote, "i look like shit, don't you dare fucking post those amelia!"

↳ logansargeant but you still could have posted one of me!

username i live for wag amelia!

username my favorite wags are amelia holland and taylor swift.

danielricciardo DO I GET A FREE INVITE!!

↳ ameliaholland OF COURSE, ANYTHING FOR MY 2ND FAVORITE AUSTRALIAN!

amelia holland added 5 people

max verstappen i swear if one of them is harrison i reserve the right to sic yuki on him

yuki tsunoda who am i fighting?

amelia holland it's my brothers, tuwaine, and z

daniel ricciardo i may just be uncultured but who's z? amelia holland zendaya? duh.

lance stroll sure just casually mention of the biggest actresses of our generation as if we should all personally know her.

lando norris to be fair, that is technically her sister-in-law. am i allowed to call her that? they aren't married.

tuwaine barrett why would you call each other max's biggest nightmares?

george russell he said we were. except for charles

alex albon they're in love with each other, they just don't know it yet.

logan sargeant sort of like pierre and yuki, although they know they're in love.

mick schumacher amelia, toto was hunting down the person who left a whoopie cushion on his seat.

amelia holland te-he. carlos sainz is next on my pranking hitlist. charles leclerc do i want to know why? amelia holland inexperience... daniel ricciardo i love this kid

amelia holland can't believe they were all bitching for a week straight to be added to this group chat and when i add them they don't answer.

zendaya amelia, do you ever fucking rest?

amelia holland sometimes but in my defense, i got nothing.

oscar piastri she just doesn't want to see harrison

yuki tsunoda that's the dickhead, correct? lando norris yes, yuki, that is the dickhead

tom holland i don't get what performing has to do with seeing harrison but okay.

amelia holland you’re a man, of course you don’t get it.

zendaya ugh men lando norris yeah, you girls tell him. amelia holland that goes for you too norizz

yuki tsunoda yeah fuck men, especially pierre

amelia holland speak your truth king! lando norris this is favoritism! pierre gasly what the fuck did i do? yuki tsunoda you know what you did dickhead

alex albon nothing will ever hurt more than the yukierre break up

amelia holland WRONG!! BROCEDES EXISTS alex albon true

amelia holland AHHHHHH

amelia holland SOMEBODY SEDATE ME!!!

amelia holland THERE'S NO WAY THIS HAPPENING

lando norris WHAT? WHAT'S HAPPENING??

zendaya NO WAY!! CONGRATS AMELIA!!

max verstappen what are we celebrating??

daniel ricciardo why is she so happy? what’s happening? did oscar propose?

tom holland now hold on! he hasn’t even met our parents! harry holland eh, as long as they don’t have a vegas wedding who cares? sam holland I CARE DIPSHIT!! oscar piastri i didn’t propose.

amelia holland GRAMMY NOMINATED BABY!!

amelia holland I, AMELIA GRACE HOLLAND, AM OFFICIALLY A GRAMMY NOMINATED ARTIST!!

charles leclerc CONGRATS AMELIA!!

lando norris LET'S FUCKING GO! THAT'S MY BEST FRIEND!!

tom holland OH MY GOD!!!

tuwaine barrett OH MY GOD!! THIS IS CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION!!

daniel ricciardo PARTY TIME IN VEGAS!!

ameliaholland not a whole lot going on at the moment

tagged: oscarpiastri

view all comments

tomholland IS THAT WHY HE TEXTED ME SOS AT THE ASS CRACK OF DAWN??

↳ oscarpiastri I'M SORRY I DIDN'T KNOW ANY BAKERIES IN THE AREA THOMAS

↳ username HE WOKE UP EARLY TO GET HER CAKE AND FLOWERS?? SHUT UP THAT'S SO FUCKING CUTE!!!

username CONGRATS ON THE NOMINATION AMELIA!!

maxverstappen1 i see i've corrupted you on becoming a cat parent

↳ ameliaholland oh shut up, it anything taylor corrupted me

taylorswift congratulations amelia 💙

↳ ameliaholland thank you taylor 💙

username she's and icon. she's a legend. and she is the moment

hazosterfield congragualtions

↳ ameliaholland thank you

↳ username usually in the past she would include a heart

↳ username she has a boyfriend. and some f1 fans are so toxic they'd accuse her of cheating on oscar based off of that

tuwaine this barbie is a grammy nominated artist

↳ ameliaholland tuwaine i swear i'm going to cry again

username not a lot going on? girl you're nominated for a grammy!!

danielricciardo congrats baby holland!

yukitsunoda i was promised a party

oscarpiastri proud of you 🧡

↳ ameliaholland i know, you've told me about 8 times already

↳ oscarpiastri just making sure you know

username what's the kitty's name??

↳ ameliaholland i, of course named her after a taylor swift song. her name is ivy. she adores sleep much like her father oscar.

↳ oscarpiastri lies. slander.

landonorris THAT'S MY FUCKING BEST FRIEND!!

↳ ameliaholland grammy nomination before your first win

↳ landonorris we are no longer best friends

taglist: @six-call @1nt3rnetgf @fernandoswarcrimes @skynel09 @arieltwvdtohamflash @Mimolovescookies @brekkers-whore @natcha888 @camdensreg @mycenterfold @woozarts @dear-fifi @tygecjjd @cataf1 @nothaqks @caipng @nataliambc @formulaal @lichterfee @prongsvault @kaa212 @anxxiousaries @julesbabey1 @julesbabey @georgeparisole @hobiismyhopeu @melissayalene @nikfigueiredo @bella-1 @nichmeddar @namgification @anniemae299 @octopussesarecool @jensonsonlybutton @ragioniera

strikethrough means i couldn't tag you

¡leclerc-s speaks! let's ignore that the picture says gracie. we have to use our ✨imagination✨ the taglist for this story is officially closed, because i plan on ending this series soon.

¡disclaimer! this is in no way making assumptions about the people involved in this story, this is all fake. it is a fanfiction please don't take any of what is said seriously. this is all for entertainment purposes and as a creative outlet for me. enjoy!

[dear-ao3]

hungary. round 13 of the 2024 world championship. we are now officially halfway through the season. and well. it didn't disappoint. why do i say this? well. in every possible meaning of it: welcome back brocedes (and others)

today is july 27, 2024 (yes I KNOW ITS A WEEK LATE I KNOW SPA HAS ALREADY STARTED IVE BEEN BUSY OKAY) and lets fucking go

now. this post is going to be a disaster. more so than the other ones. im terrible sorry about it but that is just simply the way that it is. when we get to the disaster part i will let you all know but look. its a double header, we're hurtling towards the summer break and ive, as ive said i think last time, had a lot of things going on so. please tolerate the disaster i beg of you.

there was a lot that happened leading up to the race that i am just going to speed run fly through otherwise we will be here forever and i dont want to be here forever

-ralf schumacher (michael schumacher's brother, ex f1 driver) came out as gay via posting a photo of him and his partner on his instagram

-he happened to do this literally while his nephew, mick schumacher, was driving his leg of an endurance race in brazil

-most of the drivers went to either the euros or Wimbledon. carlos had fun with the fact that spain won and england did not and left lando this note on thursday

-lando responded by blocking carlos's spot on sunday

-if you were charles leclerc you went to neither the euros or Wimbledon. you were photographed wearing a big floppy hat.

-charles also went to the eras tour in milan with his girlfriend, alex. and there he met up with pierre and his girlfriend kika. aparently, according to the two of them, this was entirely unplanned and they had no idea that the other was coming and just kinda ran into eachother. there were some funny pictures of charles on the phone waving around and looking for pierre

and then of all of them together

(they are kind of wearing matching outfits?)

-and this might have been at silverstone but charles was asked how leos training is going and he said that leo and wait and he can sit but he cant do much else. he doesnt turn around unless there is food and he doesnt know how to lay down because he is already so short.

-we also had the very much anticipated leo and roscoe meet up!!!!

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A post shared by Arthur and Ollie (@arthur__ollie)

-leo and roscoe also totally overshadowed pierre and kick getting a dog, a toy poodle named simba

-and max and checo won the MTV MIAW award for couple goals? apparently this is a latin american music award. and also apparently max and checo won. which is incredibly funny for several reasons, the first of which being that they are not a couple (i think they were the only same sex people nominated also? and maybe the only people who weren't actually dating)

-esteban ocon now has his race winning car in his garage

-esteban has won exactly one grand prix and that was the 2021 hungary gp and this year he also made his helmet themed after his trophy from that race

-someone else did the same thing and it was lando norris, though he didnt win a hungarian gp, he broke max's trophy last year.

-they made a whole big deal out of it and the trophies are handmade porcelain so lando went with max to get a new one for max and blah blah, big thing

-anyway, lando also made his helmet after the trophy to commemorate the whole silly incident

-other important f1 drama from pervious years in Hungary was when kevin magnussen told nico hulkenberg to "suck my balls" on live tv. clearly they have gotten over that feud.

-alex and logan tried and almost failed at solving Rubik's cubes

-and stake (and others) continued to be goofy and insane when the severe rain storms earlier in the week flooded the whole paddock

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A post shared by sofia¹⁶ (@f1.sums)

-the rain storm ripped the roof off of the mclaren hospitality

-oscar said that "last time our motorhome caught on fire, lando put it on pole"

-which will take us right into silly season (yes i know im probably missing things, theres a lot to come here ok, just deal w it)

alright so lets just fly through this

first and foremost haas announced that kevin magnussen will not be re signing with the team in 2025, this is likely to make way for esteban ocon, who is heavily rumored to be going to haas, though no announcements have been made about it yet.

who is replacing esteban at alpine? well we still dont know. pierre hinted that it could be carlos sainz as he said in the press conference that "i welcome the fastest guy, we all know who that is" carlos meanwhile was asked if he had made a decision yet and he said "ive been busy watching the euros and i havent taken a decision. sorry." though he is probably waiting for a seat still from either mercedes or red bull. its unlikely that he will get a red bull seat, but mercedes could be back on the table as toto wolff said later in the week that his gut instinct is to wait on signing anyone (more on this later).

of course, jack doohan and mick schumacher are still on the table for seats, if not at alpine then elsewhere. mick did some testing this past week. one was a tire test for mclaren which had nothing to do with anything silly season. they had to do some mandated pirelli tire testing, in order to do it the person driving the car needs a full super license and meet some other requirements (which mick does) and none of McLaren's test and reserve drivers have a full super license and instead of bothering lando and oscar during the triple header they borrowed mick under the engine agreement because mclaren uses mercedes engines and mick is the mercedes test and reserve driver.

and he also tested for alpine along with jack doohan. apparently (according to alpine and toto wolff) he kinda knocked peoples socks off and went way faster than jack and teams like alpine and audi and williams are all some level of interested in him. audi having interest in him is not really surprising as mick is german and they have already signed nico hulkenberg who is also german and they are a german team. we've seen teams do this (have an all nationality line up) when entering the grid before, most notably with nico rosberg and michael schumacher at mercedes when they first started as a team we we know it back in 2010 (?).

which then takes us to liam lawson who ran a test in the red bull at silverstone (which is exactly what daniel ricciardo did last year) but aparently liams times were underwhelming and he was .200 off of max (which is not good enough in modern f1), and considering that perez was not instantly swapped as happened with daniel and nyck de vries last year, it seems that wont be happening.

and in any case, sergio perez said during this weekend that "Even if I win the race or even if I finish last. I have a contract with the team and I am going to fulfill it.” yuki tsunoda very clearly said that he thinks he deserves the seat next to max and said that if they chose liam, "it would be weird." but yuki has never been given a red bull test (daniel and liam both have) and christian horner pretty much said well one say it could happen, "you never know." but as we know, checo might have those stipulations in his contract saying he cant be more than 5 places or 100 points behind max in the championship by spa (next race) so who would replace him? the only other option is daniel ricciardo who said "i have two races to kick some arse and thats where my energy is right now" why two races? well because helmet marko said that "we wait until the next race in spa and then we make a decision."

and there you have it. silly season is sillying as per the usual.

now there is one thing that i have yet to mention, that is only adjacently related to f1 and it is this:

yes. that is in fact nico rosberg. aside from being a world champion, and the only person to beat 7 time world champion sir lewis hamilton in equal machinery, he also has an insane youtube channel which is pretty much dedicated to cars and f1 and environmentalism and vlogging and whatever else he feels like. anyway its been like over a year since hes posted anything. and he close. the middle of the hungarian gp week. to make a reappearance.

the video came out slightly later in the week and it is here. and just a quick tangent here about the video: he basically took his f1 engine from when he was in f1 and put it into a street legal mercedes hyper car. and aside from looking like there was light and joy and happiness in his eyes, he decided to paint the car silver. at first glance you might be thinking oh that is a normal shade of mercedes silver. incorrect! it is not! aparently he gave them a random code of color and was like hey i want this and didnt say why so people were like yeah alright probably just a good color. false. wrong. incorrect.

nico rosberg is good at one thing and that one thing is being absolutely fucking insane. so the color code was for a ferrari color called grigio ferro. a FERRARI COLOR on a MERCEDES POWERED CAR. nico. buddy. what on actual earth. (you know cause lewis was the mercedes driver and hes going to ferrari and yeah how can one not read into it?)

anyway. so we have nico floating around. and the weekend was shaping up to be another insane race. what could go wrong? (hint: a lot)

lets get into practice.

specifically practice 3 because i didnt watch 1 or 2. (charles ran into the wall in practice 2 and idk what else happened) and i only watched practice 3 because i was on a train stupid early and watched it live. and i was half asleep on this train and was like yeah ok ill watch the boys go vroom.

so there they were, they being crofty and ted, talking about who the favorite was (lando) and the car performance and the temperature when suddenly:

"now i am going to jump in here unannounced” said a certain blonde 2016 world champion, knocking the socks off of everyone

thats right everyone. not only is nico rosberg back vlogging, he is back in the paddock commentating for the first time since china. and since everyone on here has made it well known how much they like hearing about nico, im going to include him as much as possible (tho thats what will lead to the impending disaster later.)

and he had, as usual, a whole lot to say

the first thing that he chose to speak about was checo perez and his mental health

checo, as know, is getting speculated about left right and center by everyone and their mother about what's going to happen with his red bull seat. his teammate is max verstappen, arguably the best driver in F1 right now and perhaps one of the best ever.

nico rosberg, as we also know, was notably teammates with michael schumacher (admittedly, at the end of his career) and sir lewis hamilton. he knows a thing or two about being overshadowed by your teammate.

and so he said:

nico: “it’s difficult to see the mental struggle and for someone like perez now in this situation it’s really really hard yeah cause you into this big negative spiral uh you start to doubt yourself you have one of the greatest of all time next to you that’s verstappen um so… the media pressure starts as well in every press he’s at he’s like there’s fifty people in front of him saying are they gonna kick you out next race or how long will (you stay there)” crofty: “so can you empathize with sergio perez cause you were up against one of the all time greats as well? and you found a way to beat him over a season and become world champion?” nico: “well of course i can empathize that’s why i’m talking about it. i was in the same position!” crofty: “so what does sergio need to do then?” nico: “it’s it’s really uh it’s hard…of course work super hard and also a bit of luck that you hit the ground running on a weekend a fresh you know? and that you need to just find those little positive momentum’s to go back in an upwards spiral also the expectations are really re set. so now anything like within 3 4 tenths of max verstappen can already be a success so that also helps cause the expectations at rock bottom so that can help get him back into a positive momentum.” 

despite checo's poor recent performance, nico also pointed out max's recent performance when the graphic flashed up on the screen saying "well thats not a very good run there...well we just saw max verstappens race results and it was a very unusual picture with a 6th in there and a fifth and a two wins and a second which is great. great for all of us.” great as in, it is entertaining.

there was also discussion about lando and mclaren

“mclaren and lando are at least as strong as max at the moment but have not maximized their opportunities," nico said. “max already knows how to fight for the win he’s done it so many times with lewis. lando needs to still learn and he’s learning quickly” 

then, we started to have some runs on the soft tires. previously everyone else was running on the hards. and esteban ocon put some softs on, but was still .8 off of max, who was on hards.

nico did not hold back: “that’s looking like quite a struggle so far unless of course they’re running a lot more fuel but um i wouldn’t assume that so it’s a bit strange”

he also had a lot to say about the return of flavio briatore:

“but what a comeback we’ve seen from flavio briatore at that team, hm? he arrives at the track and the team jumps 10 places ahead instantly, have you noticed that?”

at first, crofty chalked this up to a coincidence but then asked, “what does he bring to a team like alpine?”

and nico once again was brutally honest: “well it’s such a mess over there that you really can do with an experienced hand as a consultant who takes a look from the outside and says ok listen this and this and this worked best in our day when this team was the best team in the world we should try and work back towards that. he also will definitely play a role in the drivers i’m sure of that. he can be very helpful”

it wasnt too long after this that pierre spun off the track, claiming that there was something wrong with the front brakes

and it was on a soft tire, which was bad because according to nico: “i was just going to say there with pierre gasley locking up into turn one that’s one of the horrible things that can happen in fp3 cause you ruin one of your sets of tires. cause it gets flat spotted and vibrates so much in the front that you don’t learn anything.” 

then nico told some very insane story about how james vowels, back when he worked at mercedes, would only call nico "rosberg" so nico only called him "vowels"?

the camera then panned to a banner that someone had made:

crofty was speculating about whether or not toto was a cat person or a dog person and nico said "well he loves the flag”

crofty was confused “he loves the flag?”

“yes he seems very happy about that," nico said because aparently that is a pleased toto face.

nico also praised george, saying that he was doing "magical laps" while once again psychoanalyzing Lewis's driving down to the exact amount of tenths that he lost in each corner

and then he started to pull out the stats:

“well let’s remember lewis this is one of his best tracks, or one of his best with 9 pole positions but it’s also a track where i think george is extremely strong cause he put it on pole here just..two years ago? with a car that did not deserve pole at all so he’s also extremely quick here” 

and if you're thinking, oh he just knows everyone's stats. incorrect.

because they started talking about fernando alonso a few minutes later and:

“but qualifying was never his (fernando’s) strength cause he only has twenty three pole positions? crofty if you could pull out the stat?” “uh he has got 22 pole positions” “22, which for the career fernando had that is surprisingly low. versus his thirty plus, what is it thirty race wins?” “…32” 

i rest my case.

then the teams started putting in the fast laps. george and lewis both did fast laps. lewis on a new set of tires and george on an old set of tires. but despite the fact that lewis was on a new set of tires, he was still .2 seconds behind george.

nico started arguing with crofty over it: nico: “but this is a brand new set compared to george’s old set, yeah? and it looked all over the place that lap also so lewis…..” crofty: “but it’s an improvement of sorts to be 2 tenths back instead of 6.5 tenths back” nico: "sure but now george was only able to improve by what is it two tenths? his own lap? something?” crofty: “he’s gone one tenth up”  nico: “yeah ok so then it’s not so bad for lewis to be just over two tenths behind that’s still acceptable at this point in time you can still make that up in qualifying.”

lando did a fast lap. and just like in china, nico continued to be president of the lando norris fan club:

“wow i was like shaking my head through that lap that was phenomenal to watch no that was phenomenal to watch that was so close to perfection between driver and car, magical, like as you said it was just the exit on the very last corner where there was a Slight imperfection with the rear stepping out cause the rear was blazing hot obviously by the end but wow incredible”

max also did a fast lap, but he was not satisfied with it. he was shaking his head as he crossed the finish line. this might prove to be an omen for the rest of the weekend.

and max was followed by checo, who continued to have an underwhelming performance

“wow miles away." nico said. "even on the hard tire he was 8 tenths off verstappen and now six tenths off still which is kinda where weve seen him lately but still so far off wow” 

as far as the stand outs after practice? it was ruled that was daniel ricciardo, alex albon, and nico hulkenberg of the back marker cars. and then the two mclarens and max. lewis and the ferraris were not stand outs.

lewis then proved he was really not a stand out by sprinting out and going in the grass briefly.

“yeah this is not what you want to have happen before qualifying obviously cause you can tell that he’s not in the sweet spot and thats really not a nice place to be in,” nico said.

and then, well, practice was over and nico's services were needed elsewhere.

"we will see you and your shirt on screen in a few moments," crofty said to nico.

and what shirt was he referring to?

this one

yeah idk either guys.

and. nico nearly harassed toto and george threw peanuts at them:

but anyway. we dont really have time to unpack that

qualifying

and heres where the disaster begins.

this race weekend saw the return of a lot of dynamics (brocedes, sebastian vettel and mark webber, multi 21, mad max, etc etc.) so theres gonna be some interspersed lore in here with the everything else thats happening. and to top that off, nico rosberg was still commentating, but he was commentating on sky sports italy. and i do not have sky sports and i dont speak italian so i was watching crofty and martin and ted on the international broadcast so theres going to be weird intercut scenes and quotes from nico mixed from the other broadcast and yea. disaster. try to keep up i guess????

anyway. it was raining.

which aparently no one saw coming?

but it was raining for around an hour. and it was Damp. so could go inters. could go slicks. regardless, it was crunch time to get a lap in before the rain hit again.

despite the fact that rain was only Approaching, the track was still slippery, as logan sargeant demonstrated as he went off track, but managed to rescue it before he hit the wall.

mercedes was really having an absolute time of it. lewis was up in p1 meanwhile george was way down in p14. right on the cusp of getting knocked out. rain was coming in.

max was also not having a great time. and he was getting angry about the weather and the strategy over the radio, which is pretty typical of max. over the radio he said, to his race engineer, gianpiero lambiase (gp)

max: mate i dont think we can improve like this gp: what's your concern, the temperatures or the- max: the rain! THE RAIN! gp: okay. calm down max. then if youre concerned about the rain we can box, we cam come back to the garage its not a problem. you were talking to me about tire temps.

that plan pretty Immediately went out the window though because there was a big crash and crofty screamed "ITS PEREZ HES IN THE WALL"

and he was indeed

this was exceptionally bad news for checo. it was, as Martin said "the last thing that sergio perez needed today"

and nico, over at sky italy, speculated that potentially, checo's damages due to crashes could be costing red bull updates due to the cost cap

this sparked some more Speculation about checo's future and crofty said: “we get a lot of comments that are like when are you going to stop speculating about sergio perez’s future? and the answer is when he stops having moments like this. because there have been a lot of these.”

then ted said: “we’re not (speculating) it’s red bull who is and we are reporting on it that’s all we’re doing. when you’ve got helmut marko the special driver advisor at red bull saying that in terms of drivers ‘everything is open’ then we’re just reporting that they’re doing it but yeah christian horner's gonna have to have a round to his kitchen for another cup of tea isn’t he?”

but. the car was cleared. the track was damp. and qualifying resumed. there was some speculation that it might rain again and nico again bitched that engineers “will look at the radar to check if it's raining instead of just going outside.” reguardless all eyes were on one george russell, who as i said was down in p14, and came out on new softs

there was speculation from crofty that the cars were going to be fueled for three to five laps, so that the tires could get up to temperature by the last run.

five cars started on track but then gradually everyone came out, except for esteban and pierre as the result of a bad strategy call (the pit lane was saturated) (nico called this strategy "foolish") , and checo obviously

george though, came in just as the track was really starting to dry out again, which was surprising.

not as surprising though as daniel going fastest, a whole .037 seconds ahead of lewis.

and then! bottas knocked george russell out of qualifying.

george owned up to it on team radio, first saying "i’m sorry everyone that one is on me” and then later saying “why are we not putting enough fuel in the car to complete the session guys? traction is getting better and better” 

toto later said it was mostly the teams fault, but george stuck true to the statement that he shouldn't have put the team in that position for the rest of the weekend.

over on sky italy, nico had some interesting things to say about george getting knocked out:

“... you know hamilton is happy about that. george has been doing better than him all weekend and now he's out...” [other commentators make shocked noises] “... maybe that was too blunt. i should have said, hamilton is sobbing over russell not making it into q2?”

george was interviewed during q2 and here was what he had to say about the ordeal:

george: “well there’s two factors. the first was i didn’t do a good enough job at the beginning and that was why i was down in p15 and then the next one was we put the new tires on at the end and we didn’t have enough fuel to complete the session and i was on track when it was wettest and when it was dryest i had no fuel so it was a disaster from both aspects we should have gone through comfortably on that last lap but we had no fuel so as i said that was on me for being in the position in the first place.” lawrence: “that’s an unusual mistake to make isn’t it?” george: “um. yeah. it’s not our usual standard for sure. but yeah we need to go through it, i need to understand what happened at the beginning but i mean having enough fuel for the whole session is a fundamental so we uh as a team we made a big error.”

the only other interesting thing to happen in q2 was that charles came very close to hitting the garage when he pulled out and crofty said "now that is either incredibly fortuitous or the most precise piece of driving charles leclerc will put in all weekend long”

and well. we've all seen his parking.

oh and! logan sargeant made it to q2! for the second week running! he was happy about that. alex albon, his teammate was not happy though that he didnt make it to q3 because he thought he would have been able to if he had been able to go out again at the end. this was the start of some of the Bonkers Strategy Calls that we were going to see throughout the weekend.

which takes us to q3.

and it was going to Rain

which meant speed run! to the track! get in a lap as fast as possible!

max got the ball rolling with a 1:15.555. and he was complaining about his front win. oscar tried to beat him. he failed by .308 seconds. but lando DID beat him and put himself on provisional pole with a 1:15.227. by now it was raining in the pit lane. people were getting antsy.

and yuki crashed!

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nico made a joke about this. what the joke was, i am not sure, but one of the other commentators told him "your COLLEAGUE is IN THE WALL!! BE NICE!!"

he was okay! but there was a red flag

lando was on pole still, oscar was .022 behind him and then max was .046 off of oscar

and then something interesting happened

obviously there was a red flag and obviously it was starting to rain more. but there was still enough time in the session left for everyone to be able to just barely have enough time to go out again.

despite this! max and fernando started getting out of their cars and taking off their gloves and helmets, clear signs that they were not going to be getting back on track (yes, drivers sometimes do this during red flags and can still get back in the car but this was not a particularly bad accident and so it would heave been impractical to get out of the car)

fernando threw a bitch fit about it, throwing his clothes literally on the ground as he complained about how the fia had handled the red flag and he said later that he thought he could have been able ti improve his time if the fia had handled the red flag better, but thats not the point here. the point is that george russell walked past the bitch fit filled with swagger, only to turn around and go back because he remembered that he has a job and its to listen to the drivers complain. (hes the head of the drivers union)

but max and fernando both ended up getting out because they were "reasonably sure that they would not improve their lap time"

meanwhile. oscar.

he was waiting on the pit exit to be able to go back on track, smack in the middle of the queue behind lando and lewis. his race engineer, tom, came over the radio and said:

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then after that he said

"priority here oscar is not getting any sporting infringements of penalties. so that means not excessively impeding cars in the pit exit."

and oscar had the perfect reaction:

once everything got up and running again it was a mad dash to the start line. or well. kinda. the two mclarens took their sweet time to slow down the other cars. nico was asked what he thought of it and he said "I think it's fine but they change the rules so often I can't keep up." the order was lando, lewis, oscar, Daniel, lance, charles and carlos. everyone but carlos made it to the line and time and.....no one improved upon their times except for daniel who moved into 9th.

so all that kerfuffle was pretty much for nothing

but! we had a mclaren front row lockout! with lando on pole and oscar p2. and the mclaren twitter admin got a little bit too excited about this:

now this is clearly a very bongled stat. this is the third time mclaren has locked out the front row in hungary but the 64th time in the teams history that theyve locked out the front row. the tweet was soon after deleted.

lando said in his post race interview that he was expecting to win. oscar said that they wanted to get a 1 2. and max said “of course i love competition but i would like to be on top of the competition” 

nico had a prediction on sky italy and it was "Lando not even bothering celebrating pole position... I bet that tomorrow, by turn 2, Max will have overtaken Oscar and be second. After turn 2.”

this was right in line with what nico said earlier in the week that "ive heard rumors that the middle eastern bosses were very much fuming because a couple of wins have been thrown away now/"

that though did not stop him from rambling on about the "amazing grip" of the mclaren

and now before we get into the race, unfortunately we need to talk about some back story. and that back story is Sebastian vettel and mark webber.

sebastian vettel, as i have talked about before, is an ex formula 1 driver, most notably for red bull and ferrari, a 4x world champion, the youngest ever world champion, bee enthusiast, environmental enthusiast, and also the proud owner of several terrible pairs of shorts.

mark webber, as i have also talked about before, is an ex formula 1 driver most notably for williams and red bull, oscar piastri's manager, australian, notable number 2 driver, and he coined nico rosberg's britney nickname

the two were teammates at red bull for the entire time sebastian was there, from 2009-2013 (though i think mark was there from 2007? on?) this was also during the time that seb won his 4 championships from 2010-2013.

by all accounts, sebastian vettel was an absolute menace on the grid but especially in his red bull days. and this was exemplified by nothing better than the infamous multi 21 incident at the 2013 Malaysia gp

so now, briefly, cause we still have a. whole race to get to, lets se the scene. (this is a really shit a brief retelling of the story, if you want more detail i implore and beseech you to google it)

seb is a 3x champion at this time, 25, and absolutely dominating the sport

mark is a 0x world champion, basically just seb's number 2 driver, 36, and in his last year in f1

seb was starting on pole, mark p4 and then both mercedes (nico and lewis) were behind them. mark ended up taking the lead from seb early on and towards the end of the race both cars were told to hold position, which we now know as the multi 21 instruction. (mark was car 2 seb was car 1, car 2 must remain in front of car 1)

mark was on older tires, seb was on newer tires. marks engine power was also turned down slightly and i think he was told that seb was going to slow down as well. this was not the case.

with 13 laps to go, seb passed mark, defying team orders and winning the race.

over radio, seb was told "this is silly seb, come on"

as he was trying to get past, mark said "yeah thats good teamwork!" (he had been told the race was his) and he got the following response "okay mark, he was told, he was told!"

over radio after passing seb said "i was really scared, main straight. all of a sudden he was moving and i had to lead the line, to repeat, i had to get over the line"

after he had won, sebs race engineer said "good job sebastian, good job. it looked like you wanted it bad enough, but there will be some explaining to do"

in the cooldown room after the race, mark said "multi 21 seb" *throws hands in frustration* "yeah, multi 21" *slams down water bottle*

seb said nothing and angrily chugged his water bottle

on the podium mark said "in the end seb made his own decision and will have protection as usual and thats the way it goes" (seb told mark at the next race in china that he had no respect for him as a person after making that comment)

and seb later did apologize for it in a post race interview, saying "i put myself above that decision today, i didnt mean to i can only you know, say sorry, apologize, i know it might sound very dull now to mark and to the team but its the truth"

their relationship had already been rocky, and it was never really the same again after that

years later, mark said he wasnt angry about this but more sad that the team had reached that point. many have pointed out that sebs actions were likely payback for the previous year's championship deciding fight in brazil when mark squeezed seb against the pit wall at the start, which seb was really angry about. malaysia was at the start of the 2013 season, so it was only 2 races after brazil, despite the fact that it was separated by several months.

seb was ultimately not punished for the incident because his lawyer sent red bull a two page letter a few days later saying that the team order breached his contract because it had been an unreasonable team order.

so thats, basically, multi 21.

lets also remember that mark webber is none other than oscar piastri's manager. mark webber was a very very infamous "number 2 driver" (with him even saying "not bad for a number 2 driver") meaning that youre just there to help your teammate win. he has said or implied before and of course i cant find it that oscar has it in him to be a number 1 driver and win championships. this will all come back in a few minutes.

lets also also remember that who is in the paddock this weekend? nico rosberg. the very same nico rosberg who was involved in one of the most insane and intense teammate rivalries in f1 (we've been over this before but in case you forgot, nico and lewis battled head to head for three straight years at mercedes, destroying their childhood friendship, playing mind games with eachother and actively trying to sabatoge eachother in order to win the world championship. lewis won the first two of those years, nico won the last year and then announced his retirement from f1 at the prize giving ceremony)

nico also made a prediction for who he thought was going to win:

and there had been speculation that the infamous rosberg curse had been broken last weekend when lewis won after nico predicted that he would, but we will see.....

also, prior to the race, max had stayed up late and by late i mean until at least 3 am to do a shift of racing for his sim racing team. this is not the first time that max has done this, he also did this before imola and everyone was fine with it. max also won the race in imola (albeit by like .7 seconds or something but he still Won)

and with all that in mind. the race.

our starting order:

lando norris oscar piastri, max verstappen carlos sainz lewis hamilton charles leclerc fernando alonso lance stroll daniel ricciardo yuki tsunoda nico hulkenberg valtteri bottas alex albon logan sargeant kevin magnussen checo perez george russell zhou guanyu esteban ocon pierre gasly

and i think pierre started from the pit lane? yes no maybe idk?

what i do know is that the race started and lando Immediately lost the lead

like Immediately

to oscar

so oscar was p1 and lando had been trying not to hit oscar so he went a little bit wide which caused max to react and go off the track. max rejoined the track in front of lando in p2 which lando and mclaren said was leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

"max has to give back the position!" lando said over the radio.

max was pissed about it over the radio and said that he was shoved off and refused to give the position back. max of course didnt know that lando had not been shoving him off the track and literally had nowhere else to go because he was trying to not hit oscar. so the incident went to the race directors

max was told rather sternly to let lando past on lap 4. and he begrudgingly did. there was no further investigation.

"okay, so you can just drive people off the track then?" max asked over radio. "then you can tell the fia thats how were going to race from now onwards. just driving people off the road"

and everyone that statement was very exciting for all of us because it meant that mad max was making a reappearance.

who the hell is mad max?

well that would be max verstappen, but more angry.

prior to dominating f1 for the last 2 years, max had plenty of angry radios, but since he hasn't been fighting too many people for race leads or been stuck in the mid field recently, we havent heard too much of it. until this weekend. and believe me, there was more to come.

speaking of the midfield, they were starting their pit stops. albon, k mags and ocon pitted on lap 7 while alonso ricciardo and zhou all pitted on lap 8. which was a little early for some for pitting, but they still did it.

mostly because the undercut is strong here. meaning that you pit before your enemies for best results. supposedly.

with all the pit stops though, checo and george had made it up to p11 and p12 but were now very effectively stuck in the mid field. and by lap 12 everyone who had pitted already was lapping faster than them.

speaking of undercuts, hamilton who was in p4, went for the undercut on max, pitted on lap 17 and came out behind yuki in p7. over at sky italy, nico rosberg yelled excitedly "it's got to be hammertime now!" lando, still up in p2, also pitted on lap 17.

max, meanwhile, was having problems. "i cant brake, i cant enter corners, front and rears" despite these apparent issues, max kept driving the car

it was at this point when they started bringing up that max had been sim racing for awhile the night before.

meanwhile, oscar was still out in p1 and he had built up an 8 second lead over max who was in p2 since lando had pitted. oscar pitted on lap 19.

checo and george did not pit. they were still stuck behind yuki in 8 and 9th.

also not slaying was aston martin. fernando and lance were down in 12 and 13. they started on soft tires and were now trying to get past nico hulkenberg. they were failing as of lap 27. but on the next lap fernando managed to get passed when nico locked up.

"CAN LANCE GET PAST TOO???....no." crofty yelled

and also also not slaying was williams

their tire strategy was leaving much to be desired. it was a little hard to figure out what had happened but they basically told alex one tire strategy initially and then changed it mid race kinda without notice. he was less than pleased.

"we're now thinking were going to have to go to plan b" his race engineer said

"yeah" alex said "but i dont appreciate when you do that. and now the tires are dead. we're just too indecisive."

for some context, alex was able to get 5 spots up to p9 at the start of the race, then had a really slow pit stop and this call ultimately led to him being stuck on the same very dead tires for 40 laps. worry not everyone, this was not the last bad strategy call that was made this weekend.

while all that was happening max and carlos had pitted. max came out in 5th behind lewis.

checo finally pitted on lap 29 right along with pierre, daniel and alonso.

and yuki pitted, for the First time i might add, on lap 30.

this was another weird ass strategy call because by the time daniel had pitted twice yuki was only just pitting once. and this was generally a two stop race. and 70 laps. hm hm. maybe it'll pan out for daniel whos to say!

oscar meanwhile had managed to get back out to the front and was ahead by 4.413 seconds on lap 33.

on lap 43 lewis was under pressure from max. over at sky italy, nico rosberg had a lot to say about that:

"you cant imagine how difficult it is to have verstappen behind! right now lewis has to give it his all!"

and while that battle was happening, pierre retired his car on lap 35. for the SECOND week in a row. due to a hydraulic leak.

oblivious to that though, lewis and max kept battling. max briefly got past lewis but he went wide and lewis was able to pass him back.

again nico had a lot to say. (not sure if this was said specifically here but im making educated guesses). one of the other commentators said that lewis gave up his position, and nico disagreed: "no no! he braked early and max simply braked late! lewis did not give up anything!"

max got back on radio after locking up: "im minus five brake bias and this thing just doesnt fucking turn its undriveable"

crofty was unimpressed with this. "he sounds like a man who could have done with a better nights sleep last night"

and over on sky italy, nico was saying similar things. though he was saying it a bit more unhinged.

"last night lando's bed time was 11:05. wake up at 8:05. so hyperprofessional. at the same time you have verstappen, who until 3am was sim racing. thats a bit disappointing. it shows hes too used to his ease of domination."

and why did he know lando's exact bed time? aparently he called him??? baffling man. anyway.

hamilton and leclerc pitted on lap 41. and we havent talked about ferrari too much i know but that was mostly because they were actually having a pretty decent race. and by that i mean that other people were fucking up far worse than they were. though, nico rosberg did compliment charles's tire use.

they both came out in fifth and sixth behind sainz and verstappen

max was once again, unimpressed.

"its quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut, and just completely fucked my race," he said.

that was not what ted thought tho. he said "max does not have a car that hes comfortable with." hm.

meanwhile. as interesting as that was. something else even more interesting was about to happen. and that was that lando was about to make his second pit stop.

this was interesting because as i said and as max brought up, the under cut is powerful here. at the very beginning, lando was also told that his fight was Not with oscar with first, but with max for second. and then, a few laps before his second pit stop he was told that he could fight oscar. hm

in any case. lando pitted.

this was aparently to protect against lewis in p3.

nico rosberg, undoubtedly reliving the silver war in real time, said "they should then let piastri pass him, let's see how they manage it"

oscar was told not to worry about it when he came in two laps later on lap 47 for his pit stop. he was told not to worry about lando because they were going to reinstate the order.

lando was now ahead of oscar.

max was leading cause he hadn't pitted again yet, then lando and then oscar.

on lap 49 lando was told to give the position back at his convenience. remember that this is a 70 lap race. that is plenty of time to swap back.

on lap 50 nico rosberg was once again loosing his mind: "i would be worried in piastri's shoes! we'll have to see what lando does ... and they told him, let him pass when you want, i'd do it on the last lap!"

he also predicted how lando would swap the position back (if he did):

"he's gonna slow down. he's gonna make it so obvious. he's going to humiliate him... kind of like Lewis when he was asked to give me the position and was bitter about it"

max went to box and came out in fifth so now lando was leading.

and he was still pulling away from oscar. oscar who he was supposed to swap back with.

lets get a little refresher on the driver's championship standings. while we wait for lando to give the position back.

max: 255 points lando: 171 points charles: 150 points carlos: 145 points oscar: 124 points checo: 118 points george: 111 points lewis: 110 points fernando: 45 points lance: 23 points nico: 22 points yuki: 20 points daniel: 11 points ollie: 6 points pierre: 6 points kevin: 5 points alex: 4 points esteban: 3 points guanyu, vlatteri and logan: 0 points

so. max and lando are only 84 points apart. first place gets you 25 points. second gets you 18. hm. all things to think about.

"once you get to lando we will swap positions" oscar was told over the radio. which is Not what they had told lando, btw. lando was told originally that they would be swapping positions.

nico rosberg once again had things to say: "im suffering with piastri! because theyre telling him, if youre not as fast as norris, we might not let you past! ai ai! horrible!"

he also criticized McLaren's inability to give unclear instructions, saying "im not in agreement with mclaren's strategy, you have to be precise in your instructions"

meanwhile, there was some speculation that mclaren might have to keep lando in front because max was picking up speed again.

max disagreed with this though. gp tried to be positive with him over the radio and max said "no mate dont give me that shit you guys gave me this shit strategy, okay? im trying to rescue whats left"

crofty once again said "not to be critical but it sounds like max stayed up too late playing a sim race which he did and got up early to do a sim race session with he did instead of getting a good nights sleep" and then anthony davidson came on and defended max, saying "the last time max did 24 hours of sim with his team he won the grand prix. some of us dont need that much sleep."

max though was oblivious to all of this as he tried to pass charles but failed. he was trying to very politely pass charles as well, because charles as we all know will not hesitate to send max off the track and into a wall if provoked. he finally managed to get past him on lap 57.

lando had still not swapped back the positions. but he had gotten a whole earful from his engineer about how much he was over using his tires in pretty much every corner.

on lap 57 lando was told "lando we still think youre using the tires too much...i know you'll do the right thing." the gap between him and oscar had grown to 3.876 seconds. lando hadn't actually responded in awhile during all the tire talk and they did a radio checo to make sure he could still hear them cause they thought that was the problem (he could hear them)

this is when multi 21 started to get brought up. you remember, multi 21 from the Malaysia gp between sebastian vettel and oscar piastris very own manager, mark webber?

"oscar piastri's manager has a thing about team orders not being followed" crofty said. they also said that it would have been a breach of trust if lando didnt switch back.

meanwhile, nico also had things to say about the multi 21 comparison: "when you feel like your team is giving more importance to your teammate, that's a horrible feeling" and nico would know this first hand because again he was half of the great silver war.

10 laps to go. lando was still out in front. 4.7 seconds ahead.

"okay lando," will, his race engineer begged over the radio. "10 laps to go. both cars are using tires too much. remember every single sunday morning meeting we have, okay?" basically saying, remember that oscar has been there for you in strategy before, you need to be there for him now.

lando was not phased. "okay well then tell him to catch up please." lets remember that lando is nearly FIVE SECONDS AHEAD RIGHT NOW

nico rosberg had started to leave the commentary box because he had to get ready to interview the winner, but when that radio came back through he ran bACK INTO THE BOX AND SCREAMED

"guys LITERALLY COPY OF WHAT LEWIS USED TO SAY! when they'd say "let nico pass" "well he needs to come get me first". FOR REAL COPY AND PASTE SAME WORDS."

and aparently when he was asked why he wasnt leaving to get ready for the interviews he giggled and said "I CANT LEAVE NOW FOR SURE IM STAYING HERE!"

he did eventually leave though, sadly :/

and lando's race engineer was still losing his mind. "lando, he cant catch up, you've proved your point."

but that was briefly abandoned because max decided to take red bull gives you wings literally:

he locked up and bumped into lewis, and it was flagged for causing a collision.

miraculously, max kept racing, but he was now definitely behind lewis, actually 2 spots behind lewis in 5th. and he was pissed.

"yeah, i moved out of braking" max said over radio.

gp was kind of done with him at this point. "im not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, max. its childish on the radio, childish."

the crash was hard enough to trigger the sensor that requires drivers to be checked by the medical team post race. so gp came back on and said

"i understand the medical delegate neds to have a look at you and examine you."

max was having none of it. "we can send the medical delegate to the stewards team and they can have a look. see if they are all okay. im absolutely fine."

regardless of all that though, nico did give us his thoughts on this crash in the post race show:

"im assuming here that maybe max hasn't seen it (the crash) yet on tv? otherwise someone needs to tell him that there was actually a corner which is why lewis was turning in? i mean, lewis was taking the corner."

regardless. there were now five laps left. and lando had still yet to give the spot back.

"lando," will begged again. "there are five laps to go, the way to win a world championship is not by yourself its with the team"

this is about when crofty started saying that “would lewis hamilton move over, would max verstappen move over, would fernando alonso move over? lando is coming of age and learning to say no. i’m your number one driver.”

mclaren though were simply not having it. despite the fact that they were the ones who had put themselves in this situation in the first place.

and oscar, who had been quiet this whole time, finally said on lap 66 "the longer we leave this the riskier it gets"

by lap 67 will was absolutely Done with lando. "Please. Do. It Now."

and so on lap 68, lando finally slowed down on the straight, and let oscar by. "you dont need to say anything." lando said over radio.

lando did manage to stay within DRS of oscar, and for a quick second everyone thought he might try to pass him back again, but he didnt.

and so, OSCAR PIASTRI WON THE 2024 HUNGARIAN GP!!!!

his post race radio though was anything but celebratory:

"well done oscar, well done. checkered flag. really good." "yep. thank you everyone. thank you very much. thank you for the coordination. sorry i made the swap a little more painful than it needed to be but yeah thank you, appreciate that. well done. come good points. really good weekend. first f1 win. thank you everyone, thank you, thanks."

now oscars a very chill guy so no one was expecting him to be insane and celebrating but it was still a little more subdued than everyone thought it would be. people are usually screaming and cheering. this was anything but.

and will buxton (who was not present this weekend) tweeted pretty much that:

anyway. that aside. we had the interviews. for the top three.

who were the top three?

oscar, lando and lewis. lewis was in fact celebrating his 200th podium in f1 (the record)

and who was conducting the interviews?

why none other than NICO ROSBERG!

yes. a brocedes interaction in 2024. a real live brocedes interaction in 2024. who would have thought.

idk when the last time these two spoke publically was, but i know its been awhile. and this did not disappoint:

and yes it was a very nice and civilized interview and once everyone got over the holy shit theyre Talking aspect. well. lewis fucking WINKED at nico at the very end of it.

brocedes, no one will ever be as insane as you.

while that was happening, oscar did the p1 sebastian vettel finger

crofty was beside himself about it

also really quickly because it is in fact 1 am and i do need to sleep but ted lost his mind over the hat that oscar was wearing. cause pretty much everyone at mclaren was wearing one. and ted had a right proper crisis over How the hats were made when When they were made and Where they came from and it was really quite funny please watch it

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A post shared by Oluyinka Olumide huh?/ehh? (@oluyinkaolumide)

charles also came over to congratulate his son

also, in case you were wondering, lando was the first person to congratulate oscar on his win:

and they had this moment while lewis was getting interviewed:

so they seemed to be okay? whos to say.

especially because this happened in the cool down room

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so lets unpack that.

first lando chucks to p2 hat ala nico in the cool down room 2015 in cota right after lewis won the world championship:

and then kinda insulted lewis. which btw, no one (not even lewis) really blamed him for because hes still coming off of his adrenaline high. racing cars takes a lot of work.

the podium was also interesting.

oscar first shielded his trophy from lando (because you know lando broke max's last year) and before lando champagne popped he gave his trophy to an official to be taken off stage so that he didnt accidentally break it

this did not stop oscar from holding his own trophy as lando popped his champagne.

although! lando did not spray oscar! he sprayed lewis! interesting!

lando, of course, was hard on himself again for the race result and i cant find what he actually said but i can find nico defending him:

"well lando is always a little bit, hes on the more sensitive side psychologically and also he criticizes himself a lot even on the start you know now on the start he criticized himself but actually it was the shift that caused the bad start and the shift is most likely not him, actually its 100% not him if thats the case he always exaggerates i find with criticizing himself."

one things for certain tho, the rosberg curse is clearly still very much a thing.

(as a very brief aside, aparently they asked nico what he thought of lewis going to ferrari and he thought it was an april fools joke)

despite all the drama though, oscar said later that he thinks that mclaren can definitely win the constructors championship. and andrea stella (the mclaren team principal) said that he trusts "lando 100% and ultimately he made the right decision"

(zak brown, the mclaren racing ceo, was i think at the indy car race this weekend, mark webber (oscars manager and multi 21 victim) was at the formula e race, oscars girlfriend was also not present and his mom was not at the race because she never comes because they scare her, but she did tweet that her 6 am pilates class was cancelled, likely because she would be celebrating)

this did not stop nico rosberg again from interviewing andrea stella and really giving him a piece of his mind.

i cannot find the exact quotes but it was something to the nature of ANDREA WHAT ARE YOU DOING PLEASE YOU NEED TO BE MORE CLEAR WITH YOUR INSTRUCTIONS PLEASE BELIEVE ME I HAVE EXPERIENCE IN THIS ANDREA PLEASE

and andrea, to his credit, was just like. okay. yes i trust you. i will take your advice. you have experience here.

nico was still Displeased though

but enough of that. lets look at some of the other flops of the weekend. cause there were many.

so, this was the finishing order:

oscar, lando, lewis, charles, max, carlos, checo, george, yuki, lance, fernando, daniel, nico, alex, kevin, valtteri, esteban, and guanyu

so we've talked about the top 3. Ferrari, somehow, given everything that happened seemed like a big happy family of a team. which is saying a lot when we remember everything ferrari's been doing recently.

checo also had a pretty good race. p16 up to p7. and so did george, p17 to p8 and he took fastest lap.

yuki ended p9, which was good. he had started p10. but his teammate daniel, who if you will remember is trying to potentially be on deck for the red bull seat (though we dont know if there will be a swap because daniel is horner's pick and helmut marko wants to leave checo blah blah bureaucracy) finished p12 after starting p9 because of the shitty tire strategy he had been put on. remember, he was called to pit after a very short first stint on the mediums (he pitted when people who had started on softs were pitting) (and came out in traffic in a drs train) and ended up doing both of his pits before yuki had done his first.

ted even said post race about daniel:

"Not the greatest strategy in the world. It was not Daniel's fault that he was P12. Some people would say that but there was nothing he could do about it, Yuki had the better strategy so ended up P9."

there was even briefly worry that daniel was skipping media. which was pretty worrying because even when daniel was getting fucked over left right and center at mclaren (thats another post entirely), he still came to all the media sessions. but he did eventually appear.

moving on from that. aston martin. they also aparently had team orders, but their team orders got ignored.

fernando was told to let lance past to try to get past yuki. if lance could not overtake, then he was supposed to give the spot back. he did not overtake yuki and he did not give the spot back. so lance ended in the points and fernando did not.

and we already talked about williams

there were a few other things that happened post race. nico rosberg got incredibly pissed at the sky sports team for trying to get him to back liam lawson as the best replacement option for checo at red bull and he said something to the effect of: SURE! YES! HES THE BEST CHOICE MAYBE. VERY HIGH RISK THO. ITS A BAD IDEA TO PUT A ROOKIE INTO A RED BULL SEAT

speaking of rookies, kimi antonelli won his second f2 race, but he did openly admit to the press that he's not sure if he's ready for f1 yet because he is still learning a lot in f2 and he s not doing everything correctly yet. and ill have you all know that i tried to find the link to that article and my google literally froze. its time to wrap this damn thing up. tho he will be testing the mercedes again after the belgian gp

and max verstappen had a lot to say after the race, mostly in response to what people said about his angry interviews

"i not know why people think you cant be vocal on the radio," max said. "this is a sport"

max was also banned from late sim racing before gps by red bull. which is kinda funny. cause that was the squeaky wheel that needed the grease!

and carlos also defended oscar's win and the swap, because his own first win also had a lot to do with team orders.

and i really think that the last thing that i need to talk about is oscar's post race celebrations. which he said were not very glamorous because

"we had a flight back from budapest that was significantly delayed and then flew into a different airport. i didnt get home until about 5am and my girlfriend was waiting at home for me. spent a few hours with her that were asleep and that was about it. had mcdonald's - we were flying back with a few of the drivers, lando was there, alex albon, a couple of others. in our wait for the alway we got a cheeky maccas, ad a big mac, got home at 5am and that was the celebrations. just a couple of f1 drivers, getting some burgers and nuggets really. we didnt take any trophies or anything, not that you can put anything in those trophies anyway. we had three or four hours of delays and there wasnt any food around so mcdonald's was the nearest and the most convenient thing so that was what we chose."

he also said that he and lando "were good" because they shared mcdonald's and "we were playing monopoly on the way back on the plane, were all good apart from alex albon teaching us a thing or two about monopoly!"

about not having his family there, oscar said "of course its nice to have people that are close to you there, but its impossible to predict where youre going to get good results so its just luck of the draw of whos there in some ways. marks not missed many races in y f1 career, maybe three or four. he was very busy with mitch in london, so i dont blame him at all for going to do that. but i got to see lily that night, a little bit later than id planned, but it was still nice to go back and see her."

and despite the fact that it was clouded by all the team orders drama (just like how oscars first sprint win was clouded by max winning the world championship) oscar piastri is still a race winner. he had excellent moves in the first corner and was able to hold p1 until the team made the terrible pit stop decision. oscar and lando both deserved to win, but it is mclaren here that is really at fault.

reguardless. oscar piastri is a race winner.

last but not least, a very very big shoutout to everyone who posted quotes and clips from nico on sky italy and on the post race show. i didnt tag anyone cause i would hate to crash anyones computer or phone opening this post but i did link everything if anyone is curious :)

and i will see all of you very soon in our last race before summer break: spa

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

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

under the cut we go

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

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

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

so let’s meet the teams.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

let’s meet our drivers!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

feel free to add on and peer review me

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