#podiums 2017/18

[umlewis]

"Hamilton reaches 18 consecutive seasons achieving at least one podium at #F1 🙌🏆 ✅ 2007 ✅ 2008 ✅ 2009 ✅ 2010 ✅ 2011 ✅ 2012 ✅ 2013 ✅ 2014 ✅ 2015 ✅ 2016 ✅ 2017 ✅ 2018 ✅ 2019 ✅ 2020 ✅ 2021 ✅ 2022 ✅ 2023 ✅ 2024 Tremendous!" - june 23, 2024 📷 @.dazn_es / instagram

[charleszleclerc]

Timeline

June 21st 1997

Evelyn Martin is born to Elise and Hugo Martin who already have one son named Adrien.

October 16th 1997

Charles Leclerc is born to Pascale Leclerc and Hervé Leclerc who already have a son named Lorenzo.

April 2nd 1999

Elise and Hugo have their last child. A girl named Arielle. He completed the Martin family and both Evelyn and Adrien were happy with their new sibling.

October 14th 2000

Hervé and Pascale welcome their third son. Arthur Leclerc completes the Leclerc family.

2001

Evelyn starts ballet dancing at the age of four because she had seen it on tv and wanted to be a ballet dancer

2005

Charles starts go kart racing competitively he was eight.

He wins the French  PACA Championship in 2005, 2006, and 2008

Evelyn decided she wanted to be a professional ballet dancer when she grew up so she became more serious about her dancing and entering competitions.

2008

Evelyn fractures her foot for the first time when one of her jumps went wrong. She was out of dancing for awhile.

Charles won the French PACA for the last time

2009

Charles became a French Cadet Champion

Evelyn returned to ballet and won a few competitions. Her dancing outshone others and she was offered a place at a prestigious ballet school in Monte Carlo.

They both join the same secondary school

2010

Charles moved to the KF3 class where he wins the junior Monaco kart cup

Evelyn is having a hard time at the ballet school as none of the girls really like her but her love for ballet stops her from quitting

2011

Charles wins the CIK-FIA KF3 World Cup, the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy and the ERDF Junior Kart Masters

Evelyn joins her school’s photography group

2012

Charles partakes in Val D'Argenton track is hosting the second round of the WSK Euro Series season this is where max and he have their “inchident”

Evelyn attends the race with her family she meets max and they become friends

2013

Max and Evelyns friendship grows

Evelyns dream to be a professional ballet dancer and that’s all she cares about instead of school

Charles  won the South Garda Winter Cup and claimed sixth position in the CIK-FIA European KZ  Championship and finished second in the CIK-FIA World KZ Championship, behind Max

Evelyn and Charles meet at school and become good friends towards the end of the year

2014

Evelyn tears her Acl in January of 2014 and is told her dreams of being a professional dancer will never happen

Charles is there and supports her through it all. They start hanging out more.

Evelyn realises there is more to life than dancing. She puts her spare time into fashion and creating clothes.

In 2014, Charles graduated to single-seaters, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship for British team Fortec Motorsports. During the season, he took seven podium positions, including a double victory at Monza, to finish runner-up in the championship behind Koiranen GP's Nyck de Vries

October 2014 Jules Bianchi crashes in Japan

Evelyn’s there for Charles immediately

Christmas day Charles and Evelyn decide to start dating

2015

Charles and Evelyn finish school at the age of 18

Charles joins F3

Evelyn applies to start a fashion design course

Their relationship is a bit rough when Jules dies but Evelyn stays by Charles side

2016

Charles and Evelyn’s relationship is stronger than ever

Evelyn decides to start teaching ballet to children to spread the love she had for it

Charles claimed three victories and took the title in his first year of the series, despite crashing out in the feature race of the season's final race in Abu Dhabi in the GP3 series

In 2016, Leclerc joined the Ferrari Driver Academy and he acted as development driver for Haas F1 Team and Scuderia Ferrari.

2017

Charles joined formula 2 for the 2017 season with the Prema racing team

Evelyn graduated and started working on trying to set up her own business  

Hervé Leclerc passes away

Evelyn is there for Charles day and night. Their relationship only grows stronger

Charles wins the f2 championship

2018

For the 2018 Formula One World Championship, Leclerc signed for the Sauber F1 Team as a race driver

Evelyn released her first clothing line

2019-present

Charles signed with Ferrari

Evelyn continues to release clothing items building her brand one step at a time

She also continues to teach ballet

Max and Evelyn’s friendship has continued to grow over the years

May 2024 Charles wins the Monaco grand prix

July 2024 Evelyn finds out she’s pregnant

December 2024 marked 10 years since they started dating, Charles has something to ask Evelyn

Here is a new post!! this is sorta a timeline and masterlist so if there is anything you would like a blurb/oneshot on send me an ask. I'm excited for this story but I am in college right now so updates might be slow. All the dates and events I took from Wiki so sorry if their wrong

[lokideservesahug]

For How Long!?! -Extras

Extra 1: Y/N Y/L/N - Timeline

-°•°•°•°•--•°•°•°•°--°•°•°•°•--•°•°•°•°-

Pairing: Logan Sargeant x fem!driver!Reader. Oscar Piastri x reader (platonic), Arthur Leclerc x reader (platonic), Mick Schumacher x reader (platonic)...

Warnings: None that I can see.

Notes: This isn't a SMAU (sorry). Also this could be added to/altered. And I hope to put out the next chapter pretty soon...

Also!!! I got way too far into writing this before finding out that a driver can only win F2 once (or rather after they win it, they can't return)....so for my own sanity, that rule doesn't exist or if it does then it came into place after Y/N won 5 championships😅

-°•°•°•°•--•°•°•°•°--°•°•°•°•--•°•°•°•°-

2012- Age 11

Y/N Signed with Red Bull Racing for them to sponsor her in her karting career. This was a part of the Red Bull Recruiting Scheme (RBRS).

2017- Age 16

Y/N becomes the first woman to race in The F3 European Championship. She goes on to come second in the drivers championship.

2018- Age 17

Y/N meets F3 rookie Oscar Piastri and the two become friends (they still are to this day). She wins the F3 championship and recieves an offer to move up the ranks and into Formula 2. She runs into Logan Sargeant, he asks her out and the two start dating yet don't tell a soul.

2019- Age 18

Y/L/N Moves Up to Formula 2 into the newly established Red Bull Racing Formula 2 Team. The RBRS terminates any connection with lower leagues of racing but establishes a Formula 2 team. Y/L/N is the first woman to ever enter F2. She also signs as Red Bull's F1 reserve driver. Y/N even stood in for (and came 3rd in) a race after Pierre Gasly became extremely ill. This makes her the first woman to ever get on the podium in an F1 race and also one of the youngest drivers to ever start a race.

Y/N meets driver Mick Schumacher and the two become good friends despite their different teams. Y/N went on to come second in the championship, narrowly missing Nyck de Vries for points. She is also awarded the Anthoine Hubert award.

2020- Age 19

Y/N once again, comes runner up in the Formula 2 championship by loosing to her good friend Mick Schumacher by a few points.

Red Bull Racing renew a contract for the next 2 years to be a team in Formula 2 and they sign Y/N's new teammate, Liam Lawson. Y/N continues to race for them and for the third year in a row, she comes second in the Formula 2 championship due to a technically issue with the car causing her to DNF (huge scandal in the F2 world). The media also sees Y/L/N "meeting" rookie Logan Sargeant and the pair become extremely close...

2021- Age 20

2022- Age 21

Liam Lawson swaps teams to race for Carlin with Logan Sargeant. Y/L/N once again comes second in the F2 championship. People are confused by her lack of wins or lack of moving to other motorsports categories (especially with her F1 podium in the past). Y/L/N is unable to win due to the amount of races and points missed by driving in F1 (as a reserve driver). She does however score many more points and podiums in F1.

2023- Age 22

In mid December, Y/N receives a call from Aston Martin F1 executives. They invite her to have a meeting about possibly racing for them that year. Y/N goes to the meeting and leaves having signed for Aston Martin Aramco F1 team for the 2024 season. This is because Lance Stroll dropped out for undisclosed "personal reasons"

Y/N meets Arthur Leclerc. The pair become very good friends - this is aided by Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri's Formula 1 debuts and subsequent exits from the F2 scene. Y/N wins the F2 championship finally, making history for women in motorsport. Not long after, Red Bull announces the retirement of their RBRS programme and they pull out of junior motorsports to "focus on the current success of [their] Formula 1 team"

2024- Age 22 (not yet 23)

It is publicly announced that Y/N Y/L/N is replacing Lance Stroll to race at Aston Martin for the 2024 season...

-°•°•°•°•--•°•°•°•°--°•°•°•°•--•°•°•°•°-

Thank you for reading. As always likes, reposts and especially feedback is greatly appreciated.

Please don't copy, translate or steal my works without permission.

Taglist: (I didn't know if I should do this or not because it's not a chapter but oh well)

@nikfigueiredo

@mysoulispainted

@leclercings

@hiireadstuff

@a-beaverhausen

@d3kstar

@nichmeddar

@lozzamez3

@stinkyjax

@littlesatanicassholebitch

@insanedeathwish

[boxboxblog]

Driver Profiles: Lance Stroll

Updated December 2024

Name: Lance Strulovitch

Age: 26

Nationality: Canadian

Years in F1: 8 (Williams 2017-2018, Racing Point/Aston Martin 2019-Present)

Number: 18

WDCs: N/A

Driving Style: Stroll is know to have a rather reactive and sensitive driving style. This sensitivity means that he his highly tuned in to his car, and can easily analyze if anything is wrong with the setup, which is very helpful for his team. He is also a driver who takes corners at high speeds, allowing himself to gain seconds where other driver lose them. In general he pushes to the limits, and so this paired with his sensitivity makes him a great driver to develop a car around. He tends to take much more risks than other drivers do, which has led to some stand out performances. The negative side of his style is that his aggression in turns can sometimes be sacrificed for precision, meaning he is prone to crashing in tough battles around corners. He has also been criticized as being over eager in overtaking situations and pushing the card too hard, leading to contact or lost positions.

History:

Stroll is the son of Canadian Billionaire Lawrence Stroll, and started karting at the age of 10 in 2008. He would win multiple races and championships in North America, and won rookie of the year in 2008. That same year, Stroll won the Italian Open Masters 60cc category, showcasing his natural talent and determination. 2 years later, he became the youngest champion in the Florida Winter Tour - Rotax Max Junior category, impressing the racing community and garnering European attention. He would become a Ferrari Academy Driver in 2010. In 2013 he had a breakthrough year, winning the CIK-FIA European Championship - KF category, his first real foray into intense European competition.

(Stroll in his karting days)

In 2014 he debuted in car racing, at the Florida Winter Racing Series. he would have positive results, achieving multiple podiums and pole positions. Stroll took part in the 2014 Italian F4 Championship, and despite missing the final round due to injury, Stroll emerged as series champion, taking seven race wins, thirteen podium finishes, and five pole positions.

(Stroll on top step after winning the 2014 Italian F4 title)

At the beginning of 2015, Stroll won the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing series, earning ten podiums and four wins. In the same year, he also drove in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. He won one race and achieved six total podium finishes, coming in 5th in the standings. 2015 was also the year Stroll left the Ferrari Drivers Academy and joined Williams as a test driver.

In 2016 Stroll competed yet again in the F3 championship, and dominated the season, clinching his win before the last race 187 points above his nearest competitor. He earned 14 wins and 20 podiums throughout the year, in the process gaining more attention from F1 teams. In late 2016 it was announced he would be driving for Williams in the 2017 season.

(Stroll after winning the F3 title)

His first year with Williams was a very positive ones. His early races saw a few retirements due to crashes and mechanical errors, but he achieved his first podium and became the second youngest driver after Max Verstappen to finish on the podium in F1, at the age of 18 years and 239 days. He also broke a record at the 2017 Italian GP, when he became the youngest F1 driver to start on the front row at the age of 18 years and 310 days. He ended the season 12th in the championship and winning half of his teams points. Furthermore, he gained more positions on opening lap than any other driver that year.

(Stroll on the podium with Williams)

2018 he remained with Williams and had a much more negative year, mostly due to the Williams car being the slowest car on the field by a wide margin. He finished 18th in the championship that year. This led Stroll to sign with another team for the 2019 season.

2019 was when his saga with Racing Point (later renamed Aston Martin) started and he still remains with the team today. He replaced Esteban Ocon to team Sergio Perez after his father led a consortium to purchasing the dying Force India team. This move gained him a lot of criticism, as many detractors stated he bought his seat. His first year with Racing Point was not particularly good. He only finished in the points a few times and was outpaced by his teammate on multiple occasions. 2020 was a better year for Stroll. He regularly found himself in high points positions, and earned his 2nd career podium at the Italian GP and his 3rd at the Sakhir GP. He was on his way to earning 4th in the championship, until a series of mechanical failures and a stint of illness dropped him down to finish in 10th.

(Stroll's second podium)

2021 saw the team become renamed Aston Martin and his new teammate was 4x WDC Sebastian Vettel. This year was less positive than 2021, and his highest finish was 6th at the Qatar GP. 2022 was an even more negative year, and he only was able to earn points a handful of times. In 2023 Vettel retired and Stroll's new teammate was 2x WDC Fernando Alonso. This year was a mixed bag for Stroll. While he had some of his highest finishes since 2020, he also was heavily out paced by his teammate, and scored 74 points to Alonso's 206. Again he was criticized by the public, and Aston Martin had to publicly defend his seat against critics.

(Stroll with teammate Fernando Alonso)

2024 so far has been another mixed bag year for Stroll. While he still was outpaced by his teammate, he had some high points finishes. At the Australian GP he finished 6th and achieved 7th at his home race in Canada. The latter half of the year was worse for Stroll (and Aston Martin ion general), and he ended the season 13th in the standings.

He is set to remain with Aston Martin for the 2025 season.

(Stroll in his 2024 Aston Martin)

Major Races:

2017 Canadian GP - Stroll's first points, he picked his way up the field to 9th place after qualifying 17th. A fantastic race where he showed how his aggression can help with overtakes.

2017 Baku GP - Stroll's first podium in his rookie year with Williams. The race was a chaotic one, filled with multiple crashes. Stroll managed to maneuver around the drama, climbing his way from 8th to 2nd. He held off much faster cars for the majority of the race, and would have finished 2nd until Valtteri Bottas passed him in the last lap.

2020 Turkish GP - In one of the biggest surprised ever, Stroll took his first pole position after a wet quali session. He demonstrated his skill in difficult conditions and his ability to push the car to its limits. Though he did not finish on the podium due to strategic errors, his qualifying showed he was a capable driver.

2020 Italian GP - Another podium finish for Stroll, he drove a consistent race and managed once again to avoid any on track drama from crashes. He showed his shrewd driving style by taking advantage of other drivers mistakes.

2023 Bahrain GP - When Stroll broke both wrists and his toe, and had to get surgery pre-season, most assumed he would not drive in the season opener. Even though he was still not healed properly, showing grit and massive mental strength, Stroll raced in Bahrain and was able to score high points, finishing in 6th position.

Cheers,

-B

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

ISU released an article about Shoma

Two-time ISU World Champion and three-time Olympic medalist Shoma Uno of Japan has announced his retirement from competitive skating after a long and distinguished career and is ready to open a new chapter in his life.

“I have decided to retire from active competition,” Uno wrote on Instagram. “I am very grateful to have been able to continue skating for 21 years since I was 5 years old, and to have had a wonderful athletic life.”

The Japanese star will talk in more detail about his retirement and future plans in a press conference scheduled for May 14.

The 26-year-old looks back at a career with many highlights and also difficult times, but he always came back, proving his talent and showing resilience. When five-year-old Shoma went to the ice rink in his hometown of Nagoya with his father to have fun, he had no idea that he would become a World Champion, Olympic medalist and super star of the sport. He only knew that the enjoyed skating and kept coming back to the rink, taking lessons. He trained with Machiko Yamada, the coach of Japanese skating icon Midori Ito and also with Mihoko Higuchi for many years and worked his way up in the skating world.

Uno debuted in the ISU Junior Grand Prix in 2011 and was so tiny that he was unable to look over the boards. He won a few medals on the Junior circuit but his breakthrough came in what was his last Junior season in 2014/15 when he qualified for the first time for the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final where he claimed gold. Shoma went on to take the ISU World Junior title in 2015, in what was his fourth and final appearance at the event (climbing from 10th in 2012, 7th in 2013 and 5th in 2014).

Once at the senior level, Uno quickly became one of the top Skaters in the World. In his World debut in 2016 he placed 7th but then the next year won silver, his first of a total of four World medals. In his first Olympic Winter Games in 2018, Shoma skated off with the silver medal and returned on to the Olympic podium four years later, earning the bronze. In 2022 and 2023 Uno crowned himself ISU World Champion.

However, in between there was a time of struggle. In the 2019/20 season, for the first (and only) time in his career, Uno finished off the podium in the ISU Grand Prix Series. He had left his coaches since childhood and struggled with confidence.

“At first, to be honest, I was thinking about finishing my career,“ he said in an interview at Skate America 2021 about this time.

“I did not know how much longer I would keep going. But imaging the end (I thought) maybe I'll enjoy the rest of this career as an athlete.“

Uno started to work with two-time World Champion Stéphane Lambiel as his coach and choreographer in fall 2019 and soon came back strong. He grew as an athlete and a performer with beautiful programs that highlighted his versatility: “Turandot” (Free Skating 2017/18), “Great Spirit” (Short Program 2020/21), “Bolero” (Free Skating 2021/22) and “Spiegel im Spiegel” (Free Skating 2023/24) to name a few.

At the same time, the Japanese star always pushed the limits technically and made history by becoming the first Skater to perform a quadruple flip in competition in 2016.

“When I train and want to become better, it's not good for me to work on what I can already do. If I'm satisfied with just giving 80 per cent, I'm not good. The right training for me is to push my limits,” Uno said in an interview.

The Japanese Skater has an independent mind and a fun personality. He has a Youtube Channel where you can meet his three toy poodles Emma, Baron and Toro.

“When I am on the ice, I am totally focused on my sport, but when I'm off the ice, I am sure most people know I am just a lazy slacker, but I thought that would be a good way to show to the people how I am off the ice, but still this is Shoma Uno,” he explained.

When asked who inspires him the most, Shoma’s surprising answer was:

"Myself. Of course, I think I am inspired by many people and heard some good words from everyone, too, but in the end when you break it down, I do feel that it is myself that inspires me and sadly, I don't listen to anyone. Sometimes I listen, but mostly I go with my own mind,” he added.

For sure Uno will follow his own ideas in the years to come but you can certainly expect to see him gracing the ice in shows for a while.

[coochiequeens]

Another example for SheWon

By Jennifer Sieland December 4, 2023

Two trans-identified males dominated a women’s category at the Illinois State Cyclocross Championships yesterday, leading many women’s rights advocates to condemn the tournament for allowing men to self-identify into the women’s divisions.

The Illinois State Cyclocross Championships was held at Montrose Beach on December 3, representing the final challenge in the eight-race Chicago CycloCross Cup. As with other events in the Cup, the event comprised of over one dozen different competitions for men, women, and junior athletes.

But two trans-identified males topped the podium in the Women’s Singlespeed category, taking home medals set aside for female racers. Tessa Johnson and Evelyn Williamson placed first and second, respectively, in the competition, leaving space for only one biological woman – Kristin Chalmers – on the podium.

Johnson also participated in the Women’s Category 1/2 race, placing third and winning $100 in prize money.

According to the Chicago CrossCup’s website, the competition prides itself on “first and foremost fostering a positive & supportive community built around competitive cyclocross racing,” continuing: “That means welcoming and challenging everyone who wants to contribute to the series and make it better in that regard.”

In its official FAQ on the topic of transgender cyclists, the Cup notes that “discrimination or harassment of any kind on the basis of race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, national origin, or any other stupid idea someone comes up with to belittle another racer will not be tolerated at [our] events and may result in disqualification.”

On X (formerly Twitter), news of Johnson and Williamson’s victories was shared by user @i_heart_bikes, an anonymous female cyclist who frequently calls out males self-identifying as “women” in the sport. In response, many women’s rights advocates and sports enthusiasts condemned the competition for allowing the men to participate.

“Well done @usacycling you’ve proved you don’t care about women & you’re happy to put men in female categories. What a joke,” one user replied.

“Cycling has been my refuge since I was a little girl. This makes me sick to my stomach and full of rage,” another said in response to the news.

One woman’s rights advocate even went so far as to edit Johnson and Williamson out of the podium photo, placing female racer Kristin Chalmers onto the top spot.

This is not the first time that Johnson and Williamson dominated the podium at the  Chicago CycloCross Cup. In October, the two also took gold and silver in the Women’s Singlespeed, similarly leaving the only female on the podium with bronze. Johnson also took first place in the Women’s Category 1/2 race, earning him $150 in prize money.

Both Johnson and Williamson have been racing in women’s cycling for years, with Williamson collecting 18 first place titles in races across the country since 2017. 

In September, Reduxx reported that Johnson and Williamson competed as a team in two separate women’s races in Illinois, taking first place in both of them. During one of the competitions, Williamson and Johnson competed under the team name “TS-ESTRODOLLS,” a reference to cross-sex hormones.

Johnson and Williamson celebrated their initial first place win on August 27 after their victory at the xXx Racing-Athletic Relay Cross in Chicago. The two men surpassed nine pairs of women for first place.

Just days later on August 31, Johnson and Williamson beat out two teams of women at the Ed Rudolph Velodrome during the State Championship in Madison. 

Williamson is reportedly in a polyamorous relationship with Austin Killips, another trans-identified male cyclist who has become notorious for his frequent participation in women’s competitions. Killips has similarly taken several first place wins in women’s categories and has forced at least one woman out of the sport after targeting her with physical aggression during a race.

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

The reason why they don't follow each other lmao, I still cackle thinking of Charles - literally on Max's freaking plane going home to Monaco after Austria 2019 - looking over at Max to see if he noticed that he'd unfollowed him.

(this point from a post of yours btw)

is there any proof to that point? i'm genuinely asking

Hi Anon,

So I don't have any screenshotted proof from this pre & post Austria 2019 era myself, but maybe another blog does (I've only been active myself in f1 tumblr since 2021, despite following the sport my entire life and looking over the tags every so often before setting up my blog here) so I'll throw this in the tags so if someone does have that type of evidence, they can add it here.

Here's what we do know and have evidence for;

We do know that Max and Charles did follow each other on their various social media platforms until circa 2019, as - (if you scroll back far enough) - you can see different interactions between them pre 2019, pre Austria specifically. [Unrelated note: the unhingedness of them and the rest of the then teenaged members of the grid at this point of time is beyond hilarious. Genuinely, if you have the time it's worth the scrolling because they're such teenage boys tm it's ridiculous, and we kinda forget how long their lives have been interconnected, and it's before they got proper pr training and before certain drivers - most recognisably Max - gave their socials to a media team to run. There was a good period of time around 2017/18 when Victoria, his sister, ran his accounts as well as he wanted to include her in his team, before a proper media team took over. Objectively, the idea of Victoria noticing Charles unfollowed Max and then being the one to unfollow Charles in response, while Max remains oblivious to the entire situation is killing me lmao].

Now we do definitely know that they shared the flight home from Austria as during press after the race, Max was asked if things were going to be awkward with Charles now and he was essentially like "??? We're literally sharing a flight home???" This was Max's "It was just an inchident" ngl. Meanwhile, this was Charles on the podium:

... so he certainly did not share the same sentiment. It was his "it's just unfair" era. You can see a clear difference in Charles' driving post Austria, he started taking more risks and was more aggressive afterwards, because he felt if max was allowed to take risks and be aggressive, so was he. In the story of Charles' racing career, Austria 2019 is a significant race in his journey, even though it wasn't the win he wanted it to be. He would win his first two races in the aftermath of it.

It would not be the first or last time Charles would pettily unfollow someone on the grid after feeling he had been dirty by them and/or the FIA. In 2021, he followed every driver on the grid bar Max and would unfollow Valterri after what Charles dubbed the bowling incident in Hungary. While Bottas caused the main chaos of that opening lap, Stroll was the one who actually took Charles out of the race, but Lance has Charles following him as of 2024. Bottas also may have been unfollowed because of his preference of being as little clothed as possible in his insta posts lmao, but Charles did follow him before Hungary 2021 and quickly unfollowed afterwards.

I hope this provides some help, anon. And I'm sorry that I don't have the relevant screenshots to validate and accurately fact check this section of lestappen lore.

[moeruhoshi]

can't find the original post I made forever ago but I'm working on a storyline for this short I wrote 2017-18?

"Today, students," The principal cleared his throat as they stood in front of them, all lined up in the field. "Is the day you will summon your first companion. Depending on their strength level, magical affinity, and your own test scores, we will be separating you into new schedules. Your own focus and magical strength to ensure a positive outcome but don't worry if you can't summon the creature you were hoping for. This is your first day, let your true self shine, and I'm sure we'll see amazing creatures conjured today!"

The reasonably large group of first years clapped and cheered as Makarov smiled from his podium, directing them all to look towards the courtyard they had cleared for this day's events. They were led to line up along the edge of the grass in front of the cobblestone, Lucy and Levy staying as far from the front as they could, breathing out jitters as one by one, watching as students called their spirits.

"Gosh, Lu-chan, I don't think I'm going to be able to summon anything other than a cat," Levy sighed as they gripped one another's hand, their move to the front of the line slow.

"I'm excited," Lucy's voice quivered as the pixie-like girl giggled. "Nervous, but excited! I'm sure mama is watching, I can't let her down,"

If not for her mother, Lucy would be doing it for the Heartfilia name. Their family was known for the most glorious of summons, angels, and spirits of element, their range vast and full, powerful even from the first spell spoken.

"Oh, that's Minerva Orland," A girl standing next to them whispered to her friend, everyone watching as the cocky-looking girl stepped forward and waved to the students with a smirk before casting her spell. A brilliant white light blinded the crowd, wind whipping as swirling as her spirit took its shape. He bowed to her, white scales patterned along the side of his face, dragon wing and claw opposite of a more human form.

"A humanoid…" Lucy gasped along with the others in line, teachers applauding her natural strength. It was the sign of a great magic user, one who could reach unimaginable heights and find immense power. "A dragon, too."

Levy pushed the blonde in front of her as they neared the head of the line, her breath shaky as she centered herself amongst the crowd, and teachers encouraged her to proceed with the ceremony.

"I summon thee!" She chanted, holding her hand out, back straight, and eyes targeted the circle in front of her. "Open, gate of my spirit! Come to me!"

The students took a step back as the ground began a quiet rumble, birds chirping loudly as they fled the area, the air too still to understand what was happening. Some were close to opening their mouths to scoff at the poor girl who could only frighten nature when the ground split and fire rocketed wildly from it.

"Everyone, back away! Quickly!" Makarov shouted as the flames whirled sky high, ash falling, and heat gathering that could've burned anyone who stood too close.

Lucy forced herself to stand still, knowing that any movement halfway through her summon would disrupt the connection she had with whomever she was calling. She stared the fire down and challenged its proximity, letting the spirit know she wasn't afraid of its being, her fingers grasping at the flames to introduce herself. In a sudden flash, they were swallowed back into the ground, the crack closing swiftly behind it.

"All that for no beast? Pathetic." Minerva chuckled, leaning on her spirit who looked apprehensively at the ground, knowing it wasn't over.

"Lu-chan…" Levy shuddered behind her hand, watching her friend tremble at the knees as she still held her ground and coaxed her companion to arrive at her side.

The principal stood with wide eyes and forced a protective shield on the crowd as he felt the sudden clamor of magic flowing into the summoning circle. Lucy promptly fell on her butt as the ground coughed up her spirit in another whirl of rapid fire.

He groaned and sighed, shaking his arms and legs loose as he took in the filtered air around him, turning his nose at the sight of so many spectators around him.

"The hell am I doin' here?" He coughed and rolled his shoulders, smoke falling to reveal the girl in front of him, and the demonic features he sported to the crowd. "Ooh, panties."

"Y-You're my companion!" Lucy informed him as she rapidly stood to her feet and held down her skirt. "I summoned you here!"

"Oh, geez, really? Of course I got caught up in nonsense like this." He frowned, his tail flicking in annoyance as he continued to eye the girl who watched him with a ferocious blush. "But you're cute enough to be my woman."

"Lucy," The principal made his way through the crowd and to her side, keeping one eye on the demon as he continued to stretch himself. "This is no ordinary spirit. You've summoned a being beyond even my strength. No one has been able to conjure the demon, E.N.D, as their familiar in over a century."

"A demon…?"

[mysteriouslyjovialcolor]

Spain 2016

- “Big shock” Williams knocked out in Q1 ???

-Can’t believe they took each other out in lap 1

-Man covered his face with both hands and then threw his steering wheel -valid

-They replayed the crash like six times

-Williams used to be good??

-Danny leading 😭

-He was only 18

-Damn never led a lap before this

-“Carlos definitely does deserve a front running team” (He’s holding off two Ferrari’s rn with an old Ferrari engine- little does he know he will be driving Ferrari soon)

-Aww I wish Carlos stayed p3

-Fun seeing Vettel and Raikkonen race tho

-“Young Sainz says not this time”

-Toro Rosso and RB have such similar looking cars

“Nice strategy by Red Bull, that’s racy, that’s good” [DANIEL WHY DID YOU LEAVE]

-Neither Mercedes drivers taking off the helmet until now (12 laps into the race)

-MV33 incoming

-Kinda wanna be in that “treehouse” to see that Mercedes conversation

-MV33!!

-“Don’t want team orders” rRiight, the hell are papaya rules then

-Why don’t these old races show the leaderboard properly

-Just now realizing these cars don’t have halos

-“Let them (brocedes) sort it out like men” “behind the motor homes” lol

-Nico H 😢

-“Nico Roseberg will drive for Mercedes in 2017” Ha I wish

-I really need that leaderboard

-How did Ricciardo lose this race, he’s so far ahead

-I’m assuming they messed up the pit stop strategy

-…or not??

-Yay youngest ever lap leader

-Boo don’t undercut the child

-The lack of radios in this race is throwing me off

-First ever Dutchman to lead a GP!!

-Where did Carlos go?? They just stopped showing the man

-Forgot Danny and Seb were teammates

-Aaaah Max is in the pits, how does he win from hereee

-I don’t know why I asked, Ferrari probably messed up a strategy

-Hm actually don’t think they did

-Pfft they did

-why is it “Ves” it’s supposed to be “Ver”

-The no radios is really throwing me off!

-Ayy pretty sure Danny lost because of that pit stop

-“Verstappen can win this can’t he”

YES HE CAN

-oh no!! Fernando 😭 ( I did not see that coming)

-MV33!!

-Okay that Ericsson radio was a jump scare

-come on Daniellll

“Last of the late breakers!!” do it again 😭

-Ahahaha “racing or ping pong”

-6 more laps!

-Would be nice if Danny made podium

-God imagine the emotions leading that race

-🎶Jenson Button 🎶

-3 more laps!

-Come on Daniel!

-Aaaaaaaah

-When did Valterri overtake Carlos

-Oh no!! Daniel whyyy!

-Final lap!

-Incoming youngest race winner!!

-MV33!! MV33!! MV33!!!!!!!!!!!!

-The marshals are so cute

-HE IS SO CUTE WTH

SO TINY

SO TINYYYY

IM SOBBING

[jennibeultimate]

German Nationals AA podium 2024

Margarita Kolosov - 140,800

Darja Varfolomeev - 140,500

Anastasia Simakova - 130,700

In an exciting AA final with 18 gymnasts Margarita Kolosov wins in front of reigning world champion Darja Varfolomeev. Margarita was absolutely perfect and Darja had two bigger mistakes - one unfortunately completely out of her control when the hoop hit one of the planks on the ceiling of the arena and one wide throw with loss with ribbon.

Sidenote: This was such a high quality competition. I remember watching some German Nats live back in 2017 and one more recently in 2022 in Berlin. Berlin already had Marga and Darja and it was already quite a difference to 2017 but this time it's even higher. Also with Darja's success the sport gets more recognition and more audience in Germany. Can't wait for Worlds to be in Germany! (I remember at Nats 2017 where it was a tiny arena and basically no audience attendance beside ppl involved into the sport - I felt like an alien bc I was the only one who didn't have any relation to any gymnast and was there simply to watch. So happy this has evolved so much!)

You can rewatch the full competition here:

[dear-ao3]

A different anon but as someone deeply fascinated by Esteban Ocon and the redbull musical chairs here are some extra notes:

Estie bestie is currently at Alpine formerly Renault since 2020. And back in 2018 (ie when he was in Racing Point) there were rumors linking him to the Renault seat Daniel would take in 2019 so that’s possibly why his and Lances friendship survived

Unrelated but Alpine/Renault is currently the Frenchest team to ever French. It is (or at least was) partly owned by the French government through their stake in Renault (Alpine got renamed cause Alpine is the sports car brand of Renault. Not that they make any sports cars I believe they made maybe one in 2017). The current two Alpine drivers are the aforementioned Estie bestie and Pierre Gasly (both French. Also childhood friends to enemies to they have to tolerate each other now) and while their current reserve driver is an Australian, he will hopefully for his own good take a page out of his countryman’s Oscar Piastris book and hightail it out of there for his own good. The most likely replacement for him would be Victor Martins. Also French. The Alpine factories are in Enstone (UK) and Viry (France) so that’s the least French part of that team

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming of rbr 2nd seat:

So rbr started by buying the Jaguar team in mid 2000s after afaik getting fed up by Sauber who they used to sponsor. Also at that time Sauber was sponsored by Petronas, Mercedes’ current title sponsor. Fun fact

The two drivers that they started with was David Coulthard who no one cares about in this story and Mark Webber, Australian, first victim of rbr 2nd seat shenanigans

At some point (for the 2009 season I think?) Seb Vettel, German, certifiable little shit at that time, replaces Coulthard

Insert a highlight reel of Seb Vettels warcrimes between ~2010 - 2013, which culminate in Multi-21 Mark Webber retiring after the 2013 season. He gets replaced by Toro Rosso driver/Red Bull junior Daniel Ricciardo, Australian, happy go lucky guy and our next victim in a couple of years

2014 brings new regs for the cars and Red Bull struggles to adapt. For context Seb went from a 9 win streak at the end of 2013 to no podiums in 2014. Yeah. So he runs away to Ferrari for 2015 to become a victim of Italian incompetence instead

He gets replaced by Daniil Kvyat, Russian, the most forgettable man in this story. Also he is pretty new into F1, it’s his second or third year there

2015 is sorta meh for rbr but the two Daniels are sorta even. And then 2016 happens

Here’s the thing; Daniil decides to play bumper cars in Russia and China right off the bat at the beginning of the season, one of the victims being former rbr golden child Seb. Now there’s more lore that I don’t remember but it culminates in him being replaced for Spain 2016 by Max Verstappen, Dutch, aged like 18 at that time

Max goes on to win his first race with Red Bull because Mercedes (the best team on the grid) is in the throes of a civil war and their drivers take each other out. There could be novels written about those two drivers btw

The next two and half years are a slow process of the garage slowly going from preferring Danny Ric to preferring Max. Highlights include Baku 2018 and then Dans redemption win in Monaco the same year. There could be novels about this as well but we culminate in Dan leaving for Renault

And then we get to the real musical chairs. He gets replaced by Pierre Gasly, French, third victim of rbr 2nd seat

He has a shite start to the season and ends up getting replaced by Alex Albon, Thai, a rookie that year, midway through the season after Christian Horner, Mr Ginger spice, swore up and down he won’t

Intermission: Toro Rosso liked playing musical chairs as well and Pierre Gasly only got an F1 seat at the last few races for 2017, Alex got told he’s racing in 2019 (his first season) days before preseason testing. With no experience in an F1 car. And there’s a world of difference between a shit car (Toro Rosso) and a good car (Red Bull). Yeah they were ultimately victims of rbrs shitty management, especially Alex since he does wonders in a Williams now

Rbr decides to drop Alex after 2020. Except they usually promote Toro Rosso drivers and the two Toro Rosso drivers right now? Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat. Yeah

So they end up hiring Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez, Mexican, who knows if he will be racing next year. Idk if he got an extension or if they hired him for four years, either way his contract is supposed to last until end of 2024 season but right now how Mr Ginger spice is acting… yeah

Also, Daniel just came back to rbr as a driver for Alpha Tauri (former Toro Rosso) after a mid season swap that was widely regarded as shittily done so there are very little contract issues that would stop Red Bull from hiring him, a marketing departments golden boy, a good friend of Max, as the second driver to maybe finally have a good team

(Red Bull has never ended 1-2 in drivers standings. Checo is currently second but Sir Lewis Hamilton can do wonders sometimes)

So to reiterate the seat movements:

It’s Webber -> Ricciardo -> Gasly -> Albon -> Perez in that metaphorical seat which when rb had a clear first and second drivers it was usually second drivers seat

And (Coulthard ->) Vettel -> Kvyat -> Verstappen for that other seat. The one that if rb had a clear first and second drivers was usually first (Vettel, Verstappen after ~2018)

Bonus fun fact about Liam Lawson, one of the threats for Checos seat:

He is born in 2002. He’s younger than Fernando Alonso’s career by several months, upwards to a year

He is the guy that knocked Verstappen out of quali in Q2 in Singapore and consequently broke the several year long streak of at least one car always in Q3 that Red Bull has been holding

There is always a debate if he has a guaranteed seat from rbr or not at some point. There were rumors of a guaranteed for 2025 a while ago but who knows…

Sorry for rambling so much I have thoughts haha

forgot i’ve been sitting on this ask for a month lol but yes. red bull second seat drama is indeed fascinating. and now there is aparently another rumor that arthur leclerc might come up to f1 through racing bulls (alpha tauri) which would disrupt the process again.

[gaiassecretsportsdiary]

Logan Sargeant: What Went Wrong? Part 1

{Another multi-part series }

Today, let's talk about Logan Sargeant. The only American driver on the grid right now. Possibly the most disappointing performance for a driver in a while. So, what happened?

Logan Hunter Sargeant, born Decemeber 31, 2000, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Mallika Sarabhai & Daniel Sargeant. He has one older brother Dalton Sargeant.

Karting

Logan began his motorsport career in karting in 2008. In his first year of karting, Logan had competed in the Rotax Micro Max class in the regional & national championships. He finished third in the Florida Winter Tour & the Rotax Max Challenge USA. In 2012, Logan & his family would move to Europe, where he would go on to compete in the ROK Cup International Final, the Trofeo Delle Industrie & the WSK Euro Series, where he competed in the OK class.

Formula 4

In the winter of 2016-2017, Sargeant made his Formula 4 debut in the Formula 4 UAE Championship with Team Motopark. While he didn't win, he was on the podium in 15 of the 18 official races & finished second in the standings behind his teammate Jonathan Aberdein. In 2017, Logan joined the racing team Carlin to compete in the F4 British Championship. He had amassed 10 podium finishes in 30 races, with two race wins at Rockingham & Silverstone, even finishing third in standings behind Oscar Piastri & his teammate & champion Jamie Caroline.

Formula Renault Eurocup

In 2018, Logan made a full-time switch to the Formula Renault Eurocup with R-ace GP. He won the season-opening race at Circuit Paul Ricard & he would later add victories at the Nürburgring & the season finale at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With 218 points, Logan finished fourth in the championship behind Yifei Ye, Christian Lundgaard & his teammate & champion Max Fewtrell, yet he finished ahead of his teammates Victor Martin & Charles Milesi. Logan was the second-highest placed rookie that season, behind Christian Lundgaard.

[blorbocedes]

perhaps this is me being shallow and i’m not trying to insinuate that every driver on the grid has to be gunning for a wdc but i don’t understand why anyone would turn down a rb contract at this stage? i mean if the rumours about alex refusing the seat are true i just… idk i know he’s been personally victimised by helmut marko before and been through the rb ringer but he’s a much better much more skilled and experienced driver right now and if it were me i’d personally want to test my skills against max. rb is the most coveted seat right now, it’s an opportunity to get regular podiums and even wins if max messes up or you’re simply faster. i don’t enjoy this “running from a fight” mentality (not saying that’s what alex is doing rn cause ofc there are other things at play) and it is in fact one of the reasons ****** sorta fell out of my favour. anyway i hope this makes sense haha not a native speaker, and not trying to be rude i just… don’t get it. i had similar thoughts about lando before, when horner said they’d talk to lando and then he’d only use that as leverage in his mclaren contracts. but baffling to me to come all the way to f1 after dedicating your life to it and then just going “nah” when you have the chance to be in the best car cause the other might be better than you. i mean when max got to rb daniel was the guy who had just pulverised 4-time wdc vettel, and you didn’t see him hesitte to jump in the car mid-season

when you sign a redbull contract now, you know you're effectively going to play second driver until 2028. yes Alex is a more complete driver now and would prob fare much better vs Max now, but he's also been through the RBR ringer like you said. going back would mean adjusting to an entirely new car while Max has only driven redbulls, AND getting scrutinised 2x because of his prev performance. anything below p2 is considered underperforming in the best car, and that's a lot of pressure and ofc your ego having to handle being "Max's bitch." pulling a rosberg against a generational talent is not easy. at Williams alex is personally more involved and treated as team leader and the car has improved from being the worst back marker to a solid midfielder, with Alex outdriving it.

also. job security in f1 is notoriously limited with 20 seats and rookies from f2 vying to get in. let's say alex goes to RBR. he either has to hope they let him drive until 2028 and finally get a shot at the championship (if 2026 regulations don't turn it into a junk box) and no second driver is getting a 5 year contract. Valtteri went from the best car to a backmark/midfielder. He's not even in question when silly season rolls around for the Ferraris and Bulls, despite being a solid second driver who picked off wins when Lewis dnf'd. they might scout him for Audi because they need an experienced driver for development. your career moving from the best car can only go Down. Alex already had a year off from f1 as a reserve driver when RB booted him, whatever choices he makes -- it'll be with a long term goal in mind.

Alex has said recently that if the Williams doesn't improve, he will look at other options -- as he should! He's being scouted by multiple teams. The improvements of the Aston Martin and even Mclaren have shown absolute backmarkers can become podium contending cars within a season! you'd prefer to succeed with a team that knows you and will accommodate to you than a top team where you're expected to play someone else's defense. Which brings me to lando. Lando is in the curious case Max was in 2017/18, where all the top teams were courting him. He had offers from Ferrari and Merc, while nobody knew if the RB Honda deal would work, and the RB was DNFing every other race. redbull convinced max to stay, that they'll develop the car around him and they will become a top team. I'm sure mclaren is doing the same to lando, that's the only team he's driven for and he's getting paid Very Well, the team principal is literally invested in his business, and they started this season around p19/p20, and finished it on podium. the results are there, why would he move to rbr to pick off max's crumbs?

do you know who absolutely did run from a fight? daniel. bc RB had no outright driver hierarchy in 2018, they literally stated they wanted to win a championship with daniel -- but max was too much of a rising star and daniel dipped, leaving the only team his career had anything notable from.

[boxboxblog]

Driver Profiles: Charles Leclerc

Updated December 2024

Name: Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc

Age: 27

Nationality: Monagasque

Years in F1: 7 (Alfa Romeo Sauber 2018, Ferrari 2019-Present)

Number: 16

WDCs: N/A

Driving Style: Leclerc is a very strong racer, known for his raw speed, aggression, and talent on street circuits. He is famous for his late braking overtakes, and for holding off on overtaking until the perfect moment. There have been times in races where he has chosen not to overtake/let someone by because he was biding his time for the most strategically sound moment. Often, commentators refer to him sitting behind drivers as 'prowling' due to his later actions. Like Verstappen he can be very aggressive, and he pairs it with a strong instinct and technical skills which leads him to be a very clean overtaker. The only criticism I would have is that in his nature to wait for the perfect moment, he often lets opportunities slip by. Other than that, he's a particularly well rounded driver, and when placed in a solid car is a regular on the podium.

History: Born into a racing family (his father Hervé raced in F3) Leclerc first drove a cart when he was 5 years old, and started his karting career in 2005, winning the French PACA Championship in 2005, 2006, and 2008. In 2009 he became French Cadet champion before moving up to the KF3 class in 2010, where he won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup. He continued in the KF3 class for 2011, winning the CIK-FIA KF3 World Cup, the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy and the ERDF Junior Kart Masters.

(Leclerc in 2009)

Leclerc graduated to the KF2 category in 2012, winning the WSK Euro Series title, and finishing 2nd in the CIK-FIA European KF2 Championship and the CIK-FIA Under 18 World Karting Championship. In his final year of karting in 2013, Leclerc won the South Garda Winter Cup and finished second in the CIK-FIA World KZ Championship, behind Max Verstappen (his childhood rival).

(unknown on left (got lazy), Leclerc middle, Verstappen right)

In 2014 Leclerc started in single-seaters where he took seven podium positions, to finish runner-up in the championship behind Nyck de Vries. Leclerc also won the Junior Championship title in the last race of the season. He graduated to Formula 3 in 2015, and had a successful stint, earning multiple podiums, but finished 4th in the standings. In 2016 he moved on to GP3, where he took his first championship win.

(Leclerc in 2014)

Formula 2 was where Leclerc really shined. He joined in 2017 for PREMA Racing, one of the best F2 teams. In his rookie year he dominated the track, regularly getting pole positions and wins. This led him to earn the championship title before the season even ended, and made him one of a short list of drivers who won F2 in their rookie year. To this day that season is seen as one of the best performances F2 ever saw. During GP3 and F2 he was a testing and reserve drive for both Haas and Ferrari, after joining the Ferrari Drivers Academy. In late 2017 his contract with Alfa Romeo Sauber (Ferrari's junior team) was announced for the 2018 season.

Leclerc had a strong season with Sauber, regularly finishing within the points in a midfield car. It was his performance at there that made Ferrari take the plunge and choose him for the 2019 seat. This would be one of the rare times that Ferrari had actively gone after a driver, and they offered him the longest contract in Ferrari history; 5 years.

(Leclerc in his year with Sauber)

Unfortunately this year for Ferrari were not all that great. While Leclerc clinched his maiden win at Spa, and a massive win at Ferrari's home in Monza, there were multiple car failures that held both him and his teammate back. However, he did end the season at 4th in the championship, and ahead of his teammate 4x WDC Sebastian Vettel.

(Leclerc winning in Spa 2019)

2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 will all carry similar dark clouds for Leclerc. Only in 2022 was he truly battling for the championship, and by midway in the season the battle was already lost. But still, Leclerc is a regular on the podium and has won multiple races in his time with Ferrari.

His 2024 season was perhaps his strongest, showing incredibly consistent results, especially after the summer break. he had three fantastic wins, one in Monaco, one in Monza, and one in Austin. Beyond that he was a regular podium finisher. He finished 3rd in teh championship.

(Leclerc's on top step in Monaco 2024)

Major Races:

2019 Bahrain GP - This was almost Leclerc's first win, and where he secured his first ever pole position. Unfortunately a late race engine problem cost him victory and he would finish 3rd.

2019 Spa GP - Leclerc's first win, after snatching pole and keeping his lead, he held off Lewis Hamilton in the final laps. An especially emotional win, as his good friend Antoine Hubert had passed away in a F2 accident the day before.

2019 Monza GP - This was the first Ferrari home win in nearly 10 years, and was a very emotional one for Ferrari and Leclerc. Starting on pole, he drove a highly defensive race and held off the two Mercedes the whole time.

2022 Australian GP - By far Leclerc's most dominant win, he started the race on pole and had incredibly fast pace the whole time. He also snatched fastest lap (a grand slam) and crossed the line with a significant gap to second.

2023 Vegas GP - While Leclerc only finished P2 in this race, his last lap overtake on Sergio Perez wowed the crowd. This intense last-minute lunge got him up to 2nd. He stated he chose to take this risky move because he had seen Perez make a mistake on that corner a few laps earlier.

2024 Monaco GP - When Leclerc won his home GP, there wasn't a dry eye in the city. Taking pole in qualifying, he drove a level-headed and strong race, making zero mistakes the entire time. He finished with a solid lead and became the first Monagasque in 90 years to win in Monaco.

2024 Austin GP - Starting from 4th, an incredible triple overtake saw Leclerc take the lead of the race early on, and he controlled it for the rest of the time. Brilliant drive.

2024 Abu Dhabi GP - While not a race win, Leclerc drove an incredible race moving from P19 to finish on the podium. Perhaps his most impressive race to date, it was a masterclass on overtakes and wheel-to-wheel driving.

Cheers,

-B

[tabbycatreads]

GUESS WHAT THE ESSAYS DONE

So its like 2k words lol

So let’s talk about Checo Perez and Logan Sargent’s treatment in F1. Checo is 34 and has been in the series since 2011 after a really successful early carer in both karting and the junior series. Logan Sargent is 23 and also had a very successful carer in the lower classes. When Checo was in karting the lowest place he got in the championship was fourth. He was the youngest driver to be champion in The Karting Youth Course. Then in 2007 he switched to British Formula 2, and won the series on his debut with podiums in two thirds of the races. He continued this trend into his later years in F2, and in 2008 he was the first Mexican driver to compete at that level since Giovanni Aloi. Then he joined Formula One, debuting with Sauber. He was the fifth Mexican to compete in F1 and joined the Ferrari driver academy in October of 2010. This is a lot of information all at once but it does show that Checo was a good driver from the beginning, he was consistent and fast. However in 2011 Sauber was a lower field team and as a result he struggled a lot to be competitive in the championships. This continued when he joined McLaren in 2013 because they were also a midfield team at the time. According to his teammate Jenson Button during the Bahrain Grad Prix of that year, “He’s extremely quick and did a great job today-“.(ESPN) Checo was driving very aggressively against his teammate and they collided a couple times on track. He started doing better and getting podiums but he encountered a lot of car issues dUe to his car being a midfield competitor. He was showing improvement at the end of 2015 when he finished ninth in the standings. He continued to improve into 2017 and 2018 when he switched to Force India. He got his 8th carer podium finish in Azerbaijan in 2018 and was the only non RedBull, Mercedes, or Ferrari driver to podium that year. Then he won in Sakhir from last place, which makes him the first Mexican driver to win in over 50 years. After that he signed with Redbull in 2021. He was doing a lot better, finishing the season in fourth and was consistently in the top ten during races. Even very early into their run together Max considered Checo a great teammate saying” Checo is an amazing human being. Not only just to work with in F1 but a super nice person-“He continues later in the article with, “It’s very rare to have a team mate like that and what he showed today, he was a real team player and I really hope we can continue this for a long time.” (formula1.com) This will become relevant more later when we start to talk about the current season, but its important to keep in mind that even in December of 2021 Max considered Checo a good driver and teammate. Checo would continue to do better, getting third in the championship in 2022 and winning in Monaco in the wet. And then got his 20th carer podium in Azerbaijan of that same year. He consistently got 1-2s with his teammate and helped hold off other cars. In 2023 he continued this by helping defend against the McLarens and Ferraris and as a result helped create massive gaps in the field. He ended the Championship in second and continues to be Max’s teammate at Redbull until 2026. Overall Checo is a good defensive driver, he tends to be very consistent and is good at overtaking. When he is in a good car he can drive very well, and he is a good teammate for Max Verstappen due to his more calm attitude and driving skills.

Logan also has a similar record albeit a significantly shorter one. During his 2008 karting debut he got third, then he got another third place in a second karting series that same year. He was the first American to win the CIK-FIA World KFJ Championship (yes that is the real name of the championship)since 1978. In his UAE F4 debut he podiumed in fifteen out of the 18 races and ended the championship in second after his teammate. The following year, 2017, he got third behind his teammate, and future competitor, Oscar Piastri. He continued this patter of high championship standings until he joined Formula 3. He ended up getting 19th in the championship, which is very low but he wasn’t in last place. He joined Prema racing in 2020 and started doing better again. He finished the championship in third that year, but he left Prema the following year and ended the season in seventh. He moved up to formula 2 after being backed by the Williams academy. In 2022 he had his first practice F1 debut, which makes him the first American F1 driver to participate in a Grand Prix weekend since Alexander Rossi in 2015. Then he joined the Williams Formula one team in 2023, he was the first Williams academy driver to drive for the team. And the first Williams driver to be a rookie under James Vowles. Who was the new team principal of Williams. The team was not doing well, they struggled to get points and generally function. But Logan was the first American to score a point in F1 since Micheal Andretti in 1993. In 2024, Willams decided to make Logan give up his car after Alex Albon’s crash during the Australian Grand Prix’s practice, citing the team forgot their spare chassis. After that, there were a couple races where Logan was racing with a rear wing and other parts from last year’s car. Overall Logan reminds me a lot of when Alex drove for Redbull during his debut. Logan was very good in the junior series and I think he could be better if he was given a car that wasn’t like wrangling an angry goat every weekend and maybe another year in F2. It would also help if he had a car that was fully updated and not use essentially as Alex’s backup car.

Both Checo and Logan had pretty similar results in their junior series and karting years. I think the biggest difference between Checo and Logan is that Checo always had a purpose to the team, he was never meant to be disposable. Checo, with his defensive skills helps create large gaps between Max and everyone else, Logan was meant to show that Williams was no longer Mercedes’ feeder team. Which he has in a way, by showing just how much Williams is drowning. Logan was pulled into F1 too early and it shows, if he was given another year he probably would have done better. With Checo they have to be keeping him on for a reason even though he’s been lackluster this season, and the public probably doesn’t know what it is. Redbull, if anything have a talent for throwing out underperforming drivers, we’ve seen it happen countless times, like with Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Daniel Ricciardo. If Checo didn’t have something the team wanted he would have been replaced by now, we all know that Helmut wants him gone. And like on that, most of the talk of Checo being kicked stems from Helmut, you know, the guy who has a history of being racist to Checo. Why would people believe the number one rumor spreader in the paddock as if he’s a reliable source? I think the only commonality between Redbull and Williams is their team principal’s being embarrassingly unprofessional at the driver’s expense. If I was seeing that my boss was saying that I was going to lose my seat every race weekend I probably would be stressed too, especially if the car is clearly not working. How is it that Max Verstappen himself said that the car sucked and there was no need to worry about Checo and yet people are still blaming Checo? The car is already built around the hyperspecific needs of the number one driver which has proven to be incredibly hard for most other drivers to drive, and it isn’t working this year. At some point you have to starting thinking critically about the team. If the data isn’t matching up in the sim when applied to the actual car then there a bigger fish to fry than a teammate who’s doing okay in a more competitive season.

At least we know that both teams share an air of unprofessionalism around their second drivers. Doesn’t it rub you the wrong way when you read about James publically talking about him thirsting over Carlos Sainz as soon as it was announced he lost his seat? Loudly? Over and over again? I think it was all over in Australia, I’ve never heard of a team making their driver give up his car for his teammate. And how do you just have your spare Chassis unavailable? I genuinely believe Logan was rushed because James wanted two things from the young driver. One, he wanted to show that Williams wasn’t a feeder team into Mercedes anymore. And two, he wanted someone to essentially be fodder to test things on until they figure stuff out. I don’t think James would have been so adamant about trying to get a new driver if it wasn’t Carlos Sainz, due to his knowledge of engineering. Redbull on the other hand, has Helmut Marko, he constantly complains about Checo’s pace and while that’s a good point, he isn’t doing well, at some point you have to actually help your drivers. It also doesn’t help seeing yourself being insulted on social media. During this years Dutch Grand Prix practice 1 Checo got 12th and most of the comments on Redbull’s post were insulting Checo. But then during the testing at the beginning of this season when both drivers were doing poorly, all the comments were worried that the team was sandbagging and hoping that they would do well in the race. Checo also gets a lot of bias against him in the media, especially the British media and Sky sports announcers. It’s once again a thing of only bringing up Checo being Mexican when he’s doing poorly but when he’s doing well he’s a Redbull driver. A similar thing happens to all the other drivers who aren’t white and European. I also looked at the Willams posts about the practices and everyone showed more pity for Logan, saying things like “I really feel very sorry for him” Ect. In fact I only saw one direct insult, “Least he’s winning the world destructors championship”. And then I looked at another practice post to make sure the results weren’t skewed due to his crash, and no it was actually better, most of the comments were calling for Logan to get a better car, or believing Logan could be a good driver later. However both of the driver’s personal instagrams have only positive comments as far as I can see. But I do remember there was a period when Checo would get a lot of hate comments on his posts. It’s interesting to me how people can acknowledge that Logan is struggling due to his car but they can’t do the same to Checo even when 1. His teammate is complaining about the car, and 2. These same people will say that Max’s ex-teammates struggled due to the car. I wonder if it’s because Checo has been driving for so long and was pretty successful compared to Logan who was beaten down since he started.

TL;DR Checo and Logan are in a way set up to fail with their cars. Checo, with the car being so geared towards Max it’s incredibly difficult to drive and on top of that it’s not a very good car this year period. And Logan well, he was set up to fail from the beginning. He was pulled from F2 a year too early and he never had the same amount of test driving that the other rookies of his time had, Oscar for example had a trial in an F1 car a full year before Logan did. As well as having three tests with McLaren before debuting but Logan only really had one.

[lewisinho]

as the anon that asked for the race list: thank you!

now this is totally up to you if you have the time to spend on this, but this is my first year watching the races, and while I've been doing some background research to get up to speed, there is still a lot i don't know. i trust your judgment so what are some races and/or f1 adjacent things i should look into? i'm going through your McLaren list and have watched the last 4 seasons of dts and the brawn documentary. are there any other books/ documentaries/ races (especially seb's) / old youtube videos that are lost in the void that i should also check out?

again no pressure and thank you!

no problem!

(and btw welcome to f1 and the world of watching some glorified hot wheels every other sunday 😁 it’s great!)

i completely get how daunting it can be as a new fan in the sport. when i was getting back into f1 it also took me some time to get back up to speed with everything, especially all the techy stuff; i honestly learned the most through just watching the races (old and new), bc you get to see all the strategies play out, the pit-stops, the overtakes etc. and the terminology just becomes much easier to understand through sheer exposure. there are also some really cool f1 data analysis blogs you might want to follow on twt/x if you want some more detailed tech analysis and graphs if you’re into that sort of thing: (x)

as for seb, oh there’s a whole arsenal of recs i have!

monza 2008, rise of torro rosso wunderkind; i presume you already know the lore with that one but ig you can never get tired of it.

abu dhabi 2010, world championship no.1 “du bist weltmeister!”

interlagos 2012, the infamous one. this one’s a rollercoaster, chaos everywhere and the manifestation of murphy’s law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. amidst a title battle against nando, seb was fighting the weather, bruno senna’s front wing, a damaged side-pod, no radio, and somehow managed to claim p6 to win the championship

malaysia 2013, multi-21 (iconique), he was faster, deal with it. 💅

singapore 2013, domination masterclass from quali to the race. (also just all of his singapore wins...lion of singapore and all that)

india 2013, title no.3 secured, changed tyres on lap 2 and came out p17, was third by only lap 13 and then won the race by nearly 30 seconds. it was also his sixth win in a row. he went on to win three more. speaks for itself. also this:

malaysia 2015, first win with ferrari, can't forget that one, also features sewis’ gay knee-touching on the podium.

germany 2019, CHAOS, in which merc got bewitched by the special livery curse 😅, with crashes, spins, 50-second long pit stops, and also features one of seb’s best drives from p20 -> p2

i also highly recommend watching Floz's fan-made docus on youtube about 'the silver war' (there are also docus for the 2014 and 2015 seasons) as well as the merc v ferrari (lewis vs seb) 2017 fight and 'fight for five' in 2018, they're so much better than dts and actually give a full run-down of what happened during the season, with all the action on-track, with interviews and providing all the context! it's so well-edited as well (you literally feel like you're watching a movie about all of the seasons) and they are just incredibly fun to watch.

in general, i love rewatching races from 2017/18 (literally my comfort seasons), personal favs include spain 2017 (strategy galore and lewis v seb), baku 2017 (for obv reasons), austin 2017; and basically the 2018 season in its entirety...

as for books, there are many driver autobiographies e.g. jb (he’s even got two lmao), mark webbah etc. but i think the best f1 book out there is adrian newey’s memoir ‘how to build a car’ if you want lore + great insight into cars!

i’d also recommend watching some older races (i could do a separate post on which ones are my personal favs) but it’s all up to you in the end! go digging, look around on yt for some highlights and just keep exploring! 🫶💜