#silverstone 2007

[schumigrace]

fernando alonso | 2nd place | silverstone 2007 | podium no.43

[charles-leclerc-official]

what has been your favorite race that you have watched? or top 5

Brazil 2007

Monza 2019

Spain 2016

Brazil 2016

Monaco 2004/2024

Honorable mentions to: Singapore 2008(iykyk) Austria 2019/2022 and Bahrain 2022

[lewishcmilton]

I've heard some truly questionable f1 takes but saying max is a better driver in the wet compared to lewis might just be one of the worst

[inhidingxoxo3637]

Me when my model bikes arrive <33

[wejustvibing]

The Numbers Behind Lewis’ Silverstone Win

- Lewis’ ninth win at the British Grand Prix sets a new record for most F1 wins at a single Grand Prix. He had previously held this record with Michael Schumacher at the French Grand Prix, and himself at the Hungarian Grand Prix!

- Lewis also breaks the record for most wins at a single circuit (nine), at Silverstone.

- It is the 15th time Lewis has stood on the podium at Silverstone, extending the record for most podiums at a single F1 circuit.

- Lewis extends his consecutive podium streak at Silverstone to 12. He has finished every F1 race at Silverstone in the Hybrid era (since 2014) on the podium. That includes 11 British Grands Prix and the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in 2020.

- This is the 104th Formula One victory of Lewis’ career, and his first since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - 945 days previously.

- At 39 years and 182 days old, Lewis becomes the oldest winner in F1’s modern era, and the oldest since Nigel Mansell triumphed at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix aged 41 years and 97 days.

- Lewis becomes the first driver to win a Formula One race after competing in more than 300 Grands Prix. He achieves this at the 344th attempt.

- The time difference between Lewis’ first F1 win and his latest is also an F1 record. 17 years and 1 month has passed since the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis’ first win.

- Lewis also becomes the first driver in Formula One history to win at least one race in 16 different seasons (2007-2021 & 2024). This sets a new record and breaks the tie with Michael Schumacher.

- The podium is Lewis’ 199th in F1, extending his record for most podiums in the sport’s history.

- It is the 299th time Lewis has finished in the points at an F1 Grand Prix. He could become the first driver to score 300 Grands Prix points finishes next time out in Hungary.

- Lewis’ podium is his 150th with Mercedes in F1. That extends the record he already held for most podiums scored with the same team.

- Win number 83 for Lewis with Mercedes also extends the record held for most wins with the same team in F1.

[capricorn-ascending]

Faithful and Virtuous Night, Louise Gluck (insp)

On February 1st 2024, it was announced that 7-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Formula 1 team Mercedes AMG Petronas would be parting ways after the 2024 season. This announcement ends an 11-year long partnership between Hamilton and the Mercedes works team, and a 17-year long relationship with their parent company, Mercedes-Benz.

Hamilton will drive for Scuderia Ferrari in the 2025 season. It will be the first time in his racing career driving a car with no connection to the Silver Arrows.

Image credits, in order:

Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes Garage (Photographer unknown, 2023) / Lewis Hamilton takes his first pole position since 2021 (via Lewis Hamilton's Instagram, 2023) / Lewis Hamilton celebrates with the Mercedes team post-race (Photo by Dan Istitene, 2022) / Lewis Hamilton celebrates his 7th F1 title with the W-11 (Photo by Clive Mason, 2020) / Lewis Hamilton celebrates his 7th F1 title on the podium with Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez as confetti falls (Photo by Pool, 2020) / Lewis Hamilton and his father share a moment in the aftermath of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Fuck the FIA (Photographer unknown, 2021) / Lewis Hamilton doing donuts at the end of the season (Photo by Marco Renzi, date unknown) / Lewis Hamilton at the Silverstone Grand Prix (Unknown source) / Lewis Hamilton during a F1 press conference (Unknown source) / A young Lewis Hamilton accepts a junior racing trophy (via plus44world's Instagram, 2023) / A young Lewis Hamilton poses with his signature yellow helmet, inspired by his childhood racing hero, Ayrton Senna (via Lewis Hamilton's Facebook, 2018) / A young Lewis Hamilton racing remote-controlled cars (Unknown source) / Lewis Hamilton takes the podium for third place at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, his first podium in F1 (Unknown source) / Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win at the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix, his first win with the Mercedes works team (Photo by Mark Thompson, 2013) / Ferrari Trento sparkling wine is pictured on the podium at the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (Photo by Marco Renzi 2023)

[p6to]

What the fuck is going on?

I was in the process of typing out several essays worth of thoughts in the tags of @tsarinablogs's lestappen 2024 manifesto, because what else is new. Since I am uncannily similar to Max in all aspects of his public persona (except his driving abilities and his apparent need to come out as bisexual in every third interview), including the 'tism allegations and the certified "parent has a very weird sense of seeing their child as their own person" experience, in this essay I will be yapping about Screwderia Ferrari, shady business and of course: Charles Leclerc.

Charles has given his life and a large part of his career in f1 to Ferrari, leading to six wins, including his own home race Monaco and Ferrari's home race Monza, but also ten gazillion strategy fuck ups and now a (likely) second failed championship battle.

How much is too much for a person to handle?

Ferrari has not won a championship since Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. That much was known when Charles went through the ranks in the Ferrari Driver Academy, so he knew they were not suddenly going to dominate the way Red Bull did the last few years and Mercedes before them. He still had faith in them, made promises about his achievements to his dying father when he must have known that they might be impossible to ever reach.

His devotion and his talent have made him into an (almost) religious figure to the tifosi. Charles Leclerc is Ferrari, and Ferrari is Charles Leclerc.

Or is it?

Time and time again, we have witnessed Charles getting fucked over in favour of his teammate (see "it looks like they're going to sacrifice Leclerc" - George, or the entirety of the SF-23, maybe even today). While a team principal and a good number of other employees were fired in 2022 because things were going horrible and Charles insisted on it, and things were looking better when competent personnel and even Lewis Hamilton were signed by Fred Vasseur, it seems like the actual problem is still there.

Based on what we saw with the Barcelona upgrades and Carlos' interviews, we may have to expect the car to be developed to suit Carlos' understeer-y preference once again, which is wild considering that he is a driver who is leaving at the end of the year, has been outperformed by Charles pretty consistently over the time they were teammates, and has shown very clearly (alone this season!) that he is (in the words of a friend) not driving for Ferrari but for Carlos.

How can it be that Charles has mechanical and technical problems every second race weekend, while his teammate does not, and not only does nobody from the team leadership say anything about it but they also let Carlos downplay Charles' very severe brake issues in Bahrain?

Silverstone has marked the third race this season where Charles did not score points due to either inherent issues of the car (tire warm up in qualifying), mechanical issues (engine), damage (front wing in Austria) AND very questionable strategy calls. Three races of the twelve that have passed is 25%, a figure that is much too high for any top team, let alone Ferrari who were very close to catching up to Red Bull in the WCC just four races ago.

Of course, problems in car development and maybe even a higher lack of reliability in mechanical parts can happen to any team. However, we will now come to the area where I see the biggest problem.

This entire triple header, Fred Vasseur has been giving unacceptable statements about BOTH of his drivers. In Barcelona, he downplayed the issue between Charles and Carlos at the start, positioning himself directly against the driver he should be supporting since he was objectively (data-supported) correct. In Austria, Sky Sports had to make him watch the moment Charles sustained the damage to his front wing, because he could not be bothered to watch it during the actual race.

And now in Silverstone, he blamed both Carlos and Charles for not performing miracles with this shitshow of a tractor during qualifying, let his drivers be fed different information regarding the incoming rain leading to one of them making the wrong tire choice, ruining his race, and then had the audacity to lie about that and Charles position during this incident, making it look like he was still behind Lance when he had actually already overtaken him and was now behind Carlos after starting four places behind him, EVEN THOUGH there were radio transcripts and of course the fucking broadcast that showed the truth.

Us Chirlies have to preface our posts about conspiracy theories with statements about tinfoil hats and "for legal reasons this is a joke", but I will not do this here.

I fully believe that there is shady business going on at Ferrari, including but not limited to potential blackmailing, software sabotage and bribery. I will not pin these onto specific people/groups, because there are too many options. I also think that there is shady business going on at every team, but not to this extent.

The way things are going, with Charles already being on an actually not so subtle PR warpath, I expect some form of news in the next three weeks, including either announcements about people being fired or a Charles-to-Red Bull announcement, although Charles to Mercedes would not surprise me either.

Merc fans joined in on criticising Fred yesterday, and hardcore Max fans are saying Charles should leave Ferrari and join Max at Red Bull. This issue has breached containment, as it should.

Either things are changing at Ferrari or Charles will be exchanging Ferrari for a different team. There is no other solution.

(You have made it to the bottom of this yap-fest. Congratulations! I wish you a very nice day/week/month/year/life without Ferrari-like fuck ups and thank you for reading my stuff :) )

[batsplat]

hiiii <3 i just saw your casey race recs post and i was wondering if you had one with dovi or marc races too! i'm relative new to motogp and i don't know where to start watching!

thankk youuuu, i love your blog, i'm learning so much thanks to you 😭😭 also you're really funny 🫶

right, this one admittedly was trickier than the casey list. marc in particular has accumulated one hell of a body of work... not easy to do justice to. marc's won a lot, but his most enjoyable races aren't the ones where he gaps the field by about two minutes at cota. it's the ones where he's scrapping and brawling his way through and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. and there's a lot of races to choose from in that regard, against a whole host of different rivals

which is very nice for him, but that makes it impossible to do anything comparably comprehensive for marc without getting to a slightly ridiculous length. luckily, that's never stopped me before, and long is what you're getting. you asked about dovi so I'm gonna go with him first, because that's a somewhat easier to tackle body of work - and limit myself to a mere ten twenty five seven eight recs. then I'll get to marc, where I've limited myself to an extremely reasonable thirty three five races, not including any I already covered in the dovi section. if you're looking for something a little more specific, like idk wet weather or feuding or whatnot, lemme know

same warning as before: plenty of race results will be spoiled in the description. in honour of how worryingly long this list is, I've escalated to a three asterisk system: * means 'go check it out', ** means 'personal favourite', *** means 'classic race'

dovi

spoiler free top ten list: welkom 2004, turkey 2007, sepang 2008, silverstone 2010, mugello 2012, mugello 2017, austria 2017, sepang 2017, brno 2018, qatar 2019

*welkom 2004: dovi's first grand prix win. most of this race consists of a three-way battle between locatelli, dovi and casey (who eventually drops away a bit) at the circuit that kicks off dovi's 125cc title-winning season. the second half of this race is more exciting than the first, and you'll never guess how dovi wins a grand prix for the very first time. let's just say he wasn't leading going into the last corner and leave it at that

**turkey 2007: andrea dovizioso once again getting himself involved in a last lap battle? SURELY not. this race is so so much fun, though after the start it settles down for a bit - stick with it, because when it gets going, it really gets going. these kids are vicious with each other! half the joy of watching these old 250cc/125cc (or equivalent) races is hearing the stuff the commentators chat about, basically getting all the good gossip of the time... like say jorge telling the spanish press they shouldn't believe half the things he says about his rivals... or how he'd already been visibly pissed off after qualifying because he was starting from p2 rather than pole... also the kind of podium both me and the commies always massively enjoy, aka one where two people on it basically refuse to acknowledge each other. the vibes between jorge and dovi are NOT good here and it's a lot of fun to watch these children being so pissy with each other

^one of his favourite career victories against his main rival in 250cc, the defending champion jorge lorenzo, who was sporting the number one plate on a superior bike to dovi's honda machinery. more often than not over the course of their time in the sport, these two have not gotten on well at all. it remains one of the sport's defining tragedies that chupa chups did not sponsor jorge throughout his career

qatar 2008: his debut in motogp and a strong race. pleasingly he gets involved in a last lap fight, and does pick off one of the aliens

*sepang 2008: dovi's first premier class podium and an extremely deserving one that really showcased his abilities as a defensive rider, the latest of late brakers etc etc. fought with valentino, then led a train of four/five riders at one point, then was involved in a great late scuffle for third place that lasted until the very end

donington park 2009: first motogp win! has to be said the aliens... uh. none of them delivered their most dignified performances. but ignore those clowns - dovi's of course cemented his reputation as a highly skilled wet weather racer over the years, but this was his first time in the spotlight in the premier class. it would take him seven more years to acquire his next victory

*qatar 2010: a somewhat stronger season than his disappointing 2009 campaign, and the first race was certainly promising. dovi scraps with vale, scraps with nicky hayden, scraps with lorenzo... the racing is pretty decent too. includes the strange sight of seeing the ducati out-powered in a straight line down the lusail straight and I'm sorry but at that point ducati might as well have called it a season, like that was their ONE thing. anyway, dovi still rode well to take advantage of it

*silverstone 2010: once jorge hits the front following some initial resistance from dani, the fight for the win is basically over - but what's going on behind him is good enough to make up for it. bunch of different duels going on in the top seven, whether it's dovi and de puniet, hayden and pedrosa, spies and sic, and eventually casey shows up to join in on the fun too. another one where a bunch of riders are pleasingly close together and there's some real suspense about the final order late on (though the most dramatic action in the last lap is happening right behind dovi - not that you see most of it given the classic tv direction sin of instead giving us a nice prolonged shot of jorge doing a wheelie over the line and his crew celebrating. cheers guys). nice comeback ride for casey-enjoyers too (he wasn't enjoying it)

**sepang 2010: lot going on in this race. three-way fight for the win. valentino is eleventh after a few corners. he does not end the race in eleventh place. this is a good race both for dovi enjoyers and for enjoyers of the... uh. complicated vale/jorge dynamic (this race immediately followed motegi, a notable low point of their relationship). lovely little spite ride, for people who like that kind of thing. love the way it gradually builds up as valentino closes and closes and dovi is just sitting on jorge's rear wheel, and then it just nicely lights up around half distance. me and the commentators are once again having a great time. it is here that jorge seals the title, so it's all post-race smiles with just a hint of posturing

silverstone 2011: casey won this by several light years, but dovi demonstrated his pedigree as a wet racer once again. his race involved intense skirmishes first with jorge and then with sic, and it's fair to say he got the better of both of them

^two excellent wet weather racers and teammates for a single year in a three person repsol honda squad. when dovi was informed he would be let go by the factory team, he decided against accepting a demotion within honda and instead made the jump to yamaha's tech 3 satellite outfit for one year. this was the first time he raced outside of honda in his grand prix racing career. then, in 2013, valentino's return to yamaha made space within ducati. he was always going to have to be vale's replacement rather than his teammate - in 2011 while searching for a ride he said "I would never accept to be teamed up with valentino rossi. it would be pure masochism. there is no room for anybody at his side, he takes it from you and he takes it all. when rossi is ready to share the limelight it will be the end of his racing days". fittingly, dovi was valentino's last ever teammate in motogp

mugello 2011: this feels like one of those classic alien era races where the winner of the race is determined after about a lap. but... it's not! makes for an unexpectedly exciting race and also *ding* last lap overtake

*valencia 2011: this one should have gone on the casey list too, knew I'd missed some. anyhow, on dovi - a lot of dovi's best races during those years came in the wet. but this time he was already engaged in a nice little scrap with dani and ben spies before the rain came. the clash also had real stakes for dovi and dani's final championship positions, a point of personal pride given that dovi had been let go by honda and pedrosa had been retained. a race that accidentally gets exciting again at the end, quite the dramatic finish. this was an emotional podium at the first race after sic's death. dovi and sic had grown up racing each other - and while he stressed that they had never been friends, dovi went to sic's house two days after the crash to see his family and share his grief with them

assen 2012: another one that probably could have gone on my casey list too, actually, with the fight for the win between dani and casey lasting pretty far into the race. behind them, it's dovi putting pressure on spies, lying in wait to make the attack... and, thrilled to say, we do in fact have some last lap overtaking. we don't really get to see how this contest is resolved because the audience needs to see the race winner coast for half a lap, but nevertheless! this one also has extra significance because spies was a factory yamaha rider and dovi was with the satellite team. always a good idea to get your market value up during contract negotiation season

*mugello 2012: would put this on my casey list if I'd included some disaster rides, which this is for him. that bit of the season where he made some high profile errors and controversial passing attempts of his own (and there was an overtake he did apologise for post-race) (this is the last casey mention I promise). anyway, never mind him. this is another one of those alien era races where the winner pretty quickly checks out by a margin of around ninety nine years, and indeed is already waving to the crowd on the last lap. the racing behind him is not too bad though, dovi is involved in a long duel with bradl that hayden eventually joins, and casey isn't the only guy executing controversial passes

assen 2014: ducati was in a pretty sorry state in 2013 and it's still in a pretty sorry state in 2014. another wet race podium, very strong race from dovi where he does manage to stick with marc for a while there. lower down the order, valentino is executing a rather nifty comeback ride after making an erroneous tyre choice

**qatar 2015: a great race and one that nicely sets the tone for what some consider a fairly interesting season. marc goes wide in the first turn and jorge has some kind of visor issues, so we end up with the two ducatis and valentino having it out for the win

^valentino after qatar 2015 about the current era of racing. at the start of the season, it looked like the ducatis would be right in the mix - surely one of the two factory riders would be able to snag a victory sooner or later. it was not to be that year and the results for the rest of the season were largely disappointing, but ducati had clearly made a step forward

sepang 2016: dovi's 2015-16 must have been maddening. three consecutive p2's to start 2015 but drops off from there. rumours at the start of 2016 that jorge's sick of yamaha and speculation is ripe about who in ducati might be sent packing for him. it looks like dovi might well be headed for the door, except iannone did something extremely damaging to his case early that season - dovi was the safe pair of hands, not the guy ducati put their hopes in. they're handing out wins to anyone who rocks up that year and indeed dovi's soon-to-be-former teammate gets ducati's first victory in about a million miserable post-casey years. plenty of talk about who'll win next and marc and vale both point to dovi, but it's just not happening. sepang is the penultimate round of the season and by this point, at least a little order has been restored again - which is when dovi finally gets his win in the wet. still bonkers to think he had two premier class wins pre-2017 both in the wet and then he's runner-up three consecutive years, very gibernau of him. he earned it too, a long scrap in the race with valentino until vale's tyres went kaput

*mugello 2017: dovi begins his transformation into a genuine title threat here. it looked like lorenzo would lead the ducati charge as he had been hired to do at ducati's home circuit in mugello, a circuit he had always been strong at. in the early stages of the race, jorge fought valentino (fresh from his first motocross accident of the season and expected to struggle late in the race) for the lead. dovi had missed warm-up as he was suffering from food poisoning, but, as would happen repeatedly that season, jorge quickly slipped back down the order - and in the end it was dovi who took the fight to the yamahas. a home victory, his first dry win, and all while not at his best physically... no wonder it was one of dovi's favourite career wins

^the moment dovi replaced maverick vinales as marc's biggest threat that season

catalunya 2017: it took dovi seven years to win two races and a week to win his next two. this was the moment when yamaha really started falling apart and confirmed the looming realignment of the competitive landscape. it all came back to the tyres - as it often did in those years, but it was particularly extreme in the sweltering heat. winning a race with your tyre preservation skills on a bike that allows you to preserve those tyres doesn't make for the most thrilling of races, but hey, job well done. his teammate finished fourth, almost ten seconds back after leading on the first lap

***austria 2017: one of the classic marc/dovi duels. the best races between the two of them (unsurprisingly) tended to be at tracks that quite heavily favoured ducati - and austria was already establishing itself as a prime ducati hunting ground. which meant that marc was pretty happy to even find himself that high up in the order and doing damage limitation in terms of the points swing in the championship fight. does that mean he plays it safe while trying to snatch the win from dovi? not even going to bother to answer that question

*motegi 2017: another in the marc/dovi collection and one that reaffirmed dovi's status as a worthy challenger to marc. a dramatic last lap in treacherous conditions that goes down right to the very last corner

**sepang 2017: such an impressive win. the title was on the line... or rather, dovi knew that he basically had to win to even still give himself a chance. he was not helped out one bit by his teammate in this regard, but rode a fantastic race in the wet to eventually force the title decider (left field choice but this dovi win is the one that most impressed me, fully thought the title would be wrapped up here especially after a poor race in phillip island)

valencia 2017: has to go on here as it's the one title decider dovi has gotten himself involved in. marc had a comfortable 21 point margin, which meant that for dovi to win the title marc would've had to finish... uh p12 or lower I believe, and dovi would've had to win the race. straightforward for marc, right? well, title deciders have a tendency to get a bit weird and nervy, just because of the stakes involved... and you can tell from how marc's riding. this race is also really dull until about ten laps to go... thing about valencia is that even when it's looking like an overtake is coming it's basically guaranteed that it won't be. the funniest part of the race is jorge ignoring team orders to a ridiculously blatant extent and ducati attempting to psychically murder him

^dovi always knew the odds were against him going into valencia. this is the moment his title bid ends, ironically just after he'd finally been freed of lorenzo

*qatar 2018: dovi would never come as close to the title again as he did in 2017, but at the start of 2018 at least it looked like he could be a serious challenger once again. this is a great race, another last lap battle... trying not to get repetitive so here, have some of my race notes to change things up:

**brno 2018: for a while, this looks like we're building up for a nice little four-way fray between dovi, vale, marc and jorge (feat. crutchlow). dovi does what he always does when he's leading and goes at the slowest possible pace, and everybody else does what they always did in those years and lies in wait, while occasionally reshuffling the order at the front in the name of whimsy. and then the yamaha does what it always does and somehow burns out its tyres anyway even though they're crawling around the circuit. anyhow, once valentino has done his scheduled backwards slide and jorge has rejoined the fray, it shapes up as a nice little three-way fray between dovi, marc and jorge. appreciating dovi races is all about getting really into the idea of tyre preservation and knowing the last laps will probably be fun. extra little spice because by this point the jorge/dovi dynamic is... not great :)) and we get an appropriately feisty duel between those two in particular

^after his win at the season opener in qatar, dovi had struggled to continue the momentum from the previous season. he went into the race fourth in the standings behind marc, vale and maverick, already 77 points down on marc - and his teammate had recently won back-to-back races. an important win and the rest of his season was a lot stronger. and of course, he had the joy of beating jorge, a relationship that managed to deteriorate even further over the course of that year

*thailand 2018: minus the yamahas providing an early and a late cameo, this one's all about another marc and dovi duel. a lot of stalking and lurking and then marc makes his move with four laps to go. excellent last few laps with overtakes galore, including of course at the very last corner

**qatar 2019: perhaps the archetypal dovi race. runs a very slow pace at the front to just carefully manage the pace, which leads to a nicely bunched up field that keeps sniping at each other. the top three for much of the race of marc, dovi and rinsy switch around plenty of times. there's one moment where dovi just like. ups the pace simply to test if he can drop everyone and then fully drops it by a second the next lap when he can't. pretty funny in how blatant it was. also, don't want to shock you here but we do indeed have another last lap battle. top five at the end covered by .6 seconds

*austria 2019: the first lap is WILD and actually manages to delay the inevitable marc/dovi duel. fabio leads for a bit, and then you are reminded of exactly why he hasn't been able to shut up about top speed for the past few years, like man after a while I'd be traumatised too. another fun duel between marc and dovi, which ends with... that's right. a last lap battle. that was kind of what their rivalry was about by 2019, given there wasn't really a title fight any more (certainly not after jorge played bowling in catalunya) - but the races themselves were thrillers, a welcome remedy when marc's dominance was at its most stifling

austria 2020: just as a heads-up - this race includes a terrifying crash when the bikes of zarco and franky morbidelli almost fly straight into valentino and maverick. nobody was seriously injured but they were inches away from a life-threatening accident; it's by the grace of god stuff. the race was stopped and then restarted, which... bit tough to say whether that helped or hurt dovi. probably helped (though I reckon he was always winning this) - in part two mr tyre whisperer is chasing jack miller on soft tyres. what happens next will shock you. deeply odd race... a lot of 2020 races had a surreal vibe - you just have to kinda experience it for yourself. at one point there's a graphic on screen telling you dovi, zarco and stefan bradl are competing for the win. this is not the case

^once more with feeling: dovi's third win at the redbull ring and only win in 2020, just after he'd announced his decision to leave ducati. between injuries, being unable to make the new rear tyre work for him and the growing alienation from ducati, 2020 was not an easy season for dovi. in the end, he was not the one to take advantage of marc's absence, and his time as a top-level rider ended when him and ducati parted ways

marc

spoiler free top ten list: cota 2013, assen 2015, phillip island 2015, mugello 2016, misano 2017, phillip island 2017, argentina 2018, assen 2018, silverstone 2019, sachsenring 2021

mugello 2010: first grand prix win! once marc has worked his way through the field this develops into a tight four-way scuffle that continues until the very end, with marc winning by .039s

estoril 2010: absolute chaos race and also the penultimate race of the season with a tight and tense championship situation. marc does well to move up the order until the rain comes and the race is paused... and then my man bins it on the sighting lap. anyway who needs more than half a bike to win a race. one hell of a comeback ride with a nicely dramatic ending

phillip island 2011: marc had to start this race from the back of the grid as a result of a one minute time penalty. early in one of the practise sessions that weekend, he had crashed and had been forced to wait in the pits while the bike was repaired, but was then sent out with only a minute to go. he tried to get in a hot lap after the chequered flag was out, and barrelled into the back of another rider who was slowing down after a practise start. the other rider went to the hospital, though was not seriously injured, and marc ended up with only a cut - but both parties were very lucky to escape relatively unscathed and he was heavily criticised for it. he himself did not agree with the penalty, and his team lodged an unsuccessful appeal. this was also a big race in that year's championship fight (that marc eventually could not see out after his crash in sepang), presenting a huge opportunity for title rival bradl to gain a decisive points advantage. a very impressive comeback ride, as well as a good contest for the win

**qatar 2012: love a race that's a mess. the season opener, and also marc's first race back after the horror crash in sepang the previous year that had given him career-threatening diplopia. marc spends a fair portion of the race battling with iannone, one of his main rivals that year, and if I personally had to fight both baby marc and baby iannone I would simply leave. another bloke is so furious at marc he slaps his arm on the cooldown lap, which was in response to a very controversial pass down the straight where marc kinda ran him off track. both were reprimanded by race direction. the finish is ridiculously close. go watch it

^the cooldown lap slap - marc was involved in several controversies that year. at the end of the year, the fim updated its rulebook, widely seen as a response to marquez-related incidents and the controversial handling of them, and introduced the penalty point system. ironically, it was that system that resulted in valentino's back-of-the-grid penalty in valencia 2015. in early 2017, the penalty points were once again scrapped

motegi 2012: another comeback ride - this time, marc stalls at the start. does his thing and eventually has a late scrap with his main title rival pol espargaro for the win. good fun

valencia 2012: 'oh you can't overtake at valencia' 'oh all the races are boring' 'oh could they please kick it off the calendar come on we deserve a better race to end the season' is what only an idiot would say. marc's last moto2 race starts from p33 after being penalised for a practise collision. spectacular comeback rides are a funny calling card to have for the statistically strongest qualifier in motorcycling grand prix history, but reflects how much of a trouble magnet he was - especially in those days. he might not have a great reputation in the premier class, but he did calm down in 2013, relatively speaking. or, well, he certainly did things it was harder to penalise him for

*qatar 2013: marc's first premier class race. jorge basically fucks off at the front from the word go, but it's an exciting battle behind him - that of course eventually involves valentino, who as ever had worked his way through the pack from further down the grid. first race first podium simple as

*cota 2013: this was always going to go on the list given that it's marc's first premier class win. the race itself is fine, not the most exciting entry on this list, but still! obviously worth a watch

**jerez 2013: icl I feel like this race really benefits from watching jerez 2005 first. not only because 2005 is the better race, but because I think you need to picture twelve year old marc marquez watching this race and thinking it was just like. the coolest shit ever. the patriotism left his body that day. I will not talk about the 2005 race here, but to be clear I am with twelve year old marc marquez on this one. anyway, back to 2013: the race is decent, the infamous copycat overtake is great but arguably the parc fermé and podium vibes are even better. not only was he shameless, but he was shameless in a way he knew echoed his hero beat for beat. baby's first premier class controversy

^the infamous finger wag. marc tries to approach him again during the podium celebrations, but seems unbothered when he is rebuffed. jorge made clear throughout that season he thought marc should be penalised, repeatedly bringing up when jorge himself was given a one race ban and how it had taught him a lesson about responsible riding (some of his rivals in 250cc and premier class rookie season might have some thoughts on that). his criticisms continued well into the season, with tensions rising again after marc's overtake on dani in aragon led to dani crashing

**laguna seca 2013: can't leave this out. important to stress moto2/125cc never went there, so it was his first time at just this notoriously tricky track that was known to be incredibly hard to conquer (here is a clip of vale and marc talking about this in the sachsenring presser). I wouldn't say the race itself is all that great once marc does his thing at the corkscrew, but laguna's quite high up there on tracks you can mostly just enjoy watching bikes go around. big moment in the championship fight because it's when marc is racking up the points at the expense of the injured lorenzo/pedrosa

^2008: valentino stops during his victory lap to kiss the corkscrew where he overtook casey // 2013: marc gets his photo taken at the corkscrew a few days before he will overtake valentino there

*silverstone 2013: a jorge/marc contest for the victory with a dramatic ending, one of the best races that year. marc had dislocated his left collarbone in that morning's warm up, so there was added tension in whether he could hold up physically across a race stint - at a time when jorge (and dani) desperately needed to make up points. interesting continuation of the lorenzo/marquez arc that season in that jorge was a little more willing to match marc's aggression, whatever the problems he had with it

valencia 2013: not bad as valencia races go, actually. which is literally only because it's a title decider and the points situation is exciting, but well credit where it's due. proper tussle between the top three - jorge was so aggressive as he attempted to back marc up into the pack that journalists in the presser afterwards were essentially inviting marc to call jorge a hypocrite. obviously has sentimental value as it's where marc's first premier class title was sealed (even if it should have been sealed earlier but hey ho)

*qatar 2014: I found it quite tricky to make a few picks for 2014, because I feel like a lot of the races this year are in the category of 'fun but not all time epics', and it's hard to really choose between a bunch of them in terms of either significance or entertainment value. the first race of a ten race win streak feels as good a place to start as any, and represents the moment when marc really began stamping his authority on the series. in many ways, this race echoed the race of the previous year: jorge leading from the start, valentino charging through the field, marc somewhere in between. except this time jorge crashes and the fight between marc and valentino is for the victory. it lasts until the penultimate lap, and this time it's marc who comes out on top

le mans 2014: marc did try occasionally to keep things interesting. yes he consistently qualified very well, but sometimes he threw in a bad start or an awful first lap for the vibes. in this one, he ran very wide during the first lap (partly helped along by jorge) and ended up back down in tenth. the pace differential is too extreme for good battles but still, some nice overtaking

**catalunya 2014: see above - there's not all that much to separate this from say mugello or silverstone, so the tiebreaker is personal preference. a good, fun scrap that involves all four of marc, vale, jorge and dani at different stages - even if the end result by this point feels almost inevitable. it is here that valentino rather understandably attempts to strangle marc in parc fermé

^still a close contest with seven laps to go. plenty of overtakes, plenty of confusion relating to a yellow flag, and last lap contact

indianapolis 2014: last of the win streak, at a track that was never particularly popular with riders and typically short on good racing. for a while there at the start it looks like this race would deserve to go on the dovi list until valentino just. um. bumps him aside. and lets marc and jorge past both of them. and then lorenzo also bumps dovi aside. sorry dovi, yamaha decided you were not to be involved in this. the next few laps are good fun too, like by this point you can TELL how much both yamaha riders want this. no manners in sight. icl it's mainly the fact that it's closing out the win streak that has made me include it and the first few laps, because once it settles down it... sure does settle down. ignore this list and just pick a win from the 2014 win streak at random - if you enjoy that one, you'd probably enjoy them all

***assen 2015: probably my favourite marquez/rossi battle. really all you can ask from with a race with two protagonists: lasts the whole race, tense, high stakes, two guys who are particularly motivated to beat each other, several overtakes plus a hell of a lot of stalking and studying each other, and last lap controversy. involves cunning, a little bit of ambiguity in the intentions of both parties, some unresolved questions. an appointment with race direction. an awfully tense post-race press conference that the relationship of the protagonists could never quite recover from. the ideal race

***phillip island 2015: one of the best races of all time etc etc, though it may make you feel like somebody is repeatedly stabbing you with the sword of damocles. still, that's entirely to do with what follows, and the race itself is a fantastic four-rider battle with a murdered seagull and a late twist

**sepang 2015: well, obviously! the actual confrontation between marc and valentino is deeply counterproductive in terms of 'guys you're letting lorenzo/pedrosa escape, stop divebombing each other' and well the whole thing is all kinds of tragic. but the racing itself nicely showcased the complete lack of respect between the pair of them and there is something kind of mesmerising about seeing two all time great wheel-to-wheel fighters go at it, no holds barred. plus it's a major part of marc's story. it is what it is

argentina 2016: this probably isn't making a lot of top thirty something lists, but hey, sometimes you just need to watch a kind of stupid race. this race was kind of stupid. it has the dubious honour of being the first in the marc/vale walk of shame 'hey remember when you guys fought here last year' tour, and they do actually get to scrap it out a bit on track again - though that confrontation is defanged from the moment they have to switch bikes. the last corner incident is dumb but also funny. the podium has truly rancid vibes. I had a good time

^nobody else on that podium as much as twitches when marc goes down. blank faces when he jokes about it in the presser. kind of impressive really. same weekend

***mugello 2016: there is a moment when you think this race will end up being an extremely tight contest until the end between the three protagonists of the 2015 fiasco. then something extremely infuriating happens, and it ends up not being that. on the one hand you leave that race feeling a little robbed, on the other hand it did still feature a veryyy dramatic finish between two of the protagonists. excellent race

**catalunya 2016: the first proper post-2015 marc/vale battle, and at valentino's favourite location for enjoyable race-long duels. it's not like... I don't think of that particular category, I'd call it my absolute favourite - but that's a very high bar. no surprise that they both really really wanted to beat each other, and hey interpersonal animosity always adds a fun nice note to the racing

sachsenring 2016: the problem with the sachsenring is that it used to produce banger after banger race until some diminutive bloke called 'marc marquez' fucking ruined it. 2003 2006 2009 2010 2011 are certified classics, as good as it gets really, tight dramatic fights for the victory and podium positions and integral to the narrative arc of their respective seasons. you used to be able to rely on this track to give you a SHOW. but then that twat showed up and... tbh I can't even remember many of his wins there having particularly memorable racing behind him (I did quite like 2018), so maybe it's not only his fault (to be clear it is in large part his fault). anyway the 2016 edition is in that stretch of 2016 where everything just kind of. goes to shit. like they start just letting anyone win. jack miller won in assen that year. anarchy in motogp. it's the michelin tyres, it's the rain, and it's this bit of the season where marc starts running away with the title. this is another very messy race, more rain, and it's one that has convinced me once and for all that marc has actual plot armour at this circuit. there is a moment where you will go 'how does he win this race' and it's the moment where he goes so far off the track he's halfway to austria. watch to find out how he somehow scams another win at the ring. damn him please do it again this year

^come on this is bullshit. if I'm the other guys I'm calling for a ban of the sachsenring until we figure out what the hell is going on. no wonder he was hopeful of winning on the murder honda

**assen 2017: brilliant race. initial four-way tussle between marquez, rossi, zarco and petrucci that includes some early aggression between the usual suspects and then some light rain to further spice things up. right on the very last lap, there are two great scraps going on - one for the win (with a controversial involvement of a backmarker), and the other for the last podium spot against cal crutchlow

**misano 2017: this is a race that very much had the shadow of valentino rossi looming over it, even though he was not in attendance. valentino had gotten himself involved in his second serious motocross crash of the season, both right before italian races, and had this time decided to take himself out of the title hunt rather definitively by breaking his leg. some time after this, marc posts a photo of himself doing motocross - which he has done a lot of over the years, but was interpreted as taunting valentino and got plenty of backlash online. whether this was a contributing factor or not, he received a frosty reception in misano. he crashed during the wet warm up session and was booed by fans as he rode past them on the scooter, prompting him to blow kisses at them. the race occurred at a tense moment during that title fight: marc had suffered a mechanical dnf in the previous race and in doing so had surrendered the championship lead to dovi. he could not afford another dnf at this late stage of the season. which perhaps made it a little surprising just how hard he fought for that win against petrucci in the treacherous wet conditions, the risk he took with his overtake on the very last lap. was it just to get an extra five points and the win, or was it (as the speculation went at the time) about getting revenge on the italian fans? who's to say - but in any case it was one of the defining performances of that year's championship and another example of marc's skill and confidence in the wet

***phillip island 2017: you know the drill - this circuit produces bangers, and this is another all-time great race. marc by this point had a weird and somewhat cursed record at phillip island in the premier class, where he'd a) been disqualified in 2013, b) crashed out of a comfortable lead in 2014, c) won in a dramatic last lap in 2015, and d) crashed out of a comfortable lead in 2016. so in his first four years, the only year he'd even finished the race, it set off a deeply unfortunate series of events involving marc and allegations of sabotage made by his childhood hero - which maybe goes to show the universe just wanted that particular relationship to be doomed. anyway, 2017!! apparently marc decided he could only finish at that circuit when it involved a dramatic battle between multiple riders. good on him! the racing is brutal, with plenty of contact between the riders, as perhaps you might expect looking at the list of protagonists: marquez, rossi, zarco, vinales, iannone, crutchlow. high stakes too - a decisive points swing in that year's title fight that could have easily gone disastrously wrong for marc. in 2018, marc once again did not finish the race

^a hard-fought race where all participants are more than happy to get physical. one of several races that season that prompts questions about aggressive riding, though this time all the riders are in agreement. after the handshake, marc gestures to the rubber that now stains valentino's leathers. in a year where team orders were a big topic of debate, valentino finished right in front of his teammate - who had still been in mathematical contention for the championship

**argentina 2018: for lovers of hubris and head loss. the full marc marquez experience. off his rocker the entire weekend. got whacked with a massive penalty at the end of the race that made the whole thing quite literally pointless and deserved every second of said penalty. jorge's long-standing mantra of 'just give him a race ban' became part of the discourse again. ended up p18 to valentino's p19, hand in unlovable hand. but apart from that, it was a really great performance!

^complaints at the time obviously centred around how marc was a repeat offender in the recklessness of his riding, and lacking in respect (see too the ever-lurking parallels drawn with the jerez 2011 apology - which was, it has to be said, issued for a considerably less egregious offence). publicly marc was mostly remorseless, accepting more blame in the aleix incident than the valentino one, and saying in an interview a few days later that he wasn't going to change his approach. it's the worst and the best of him - he had no need to barge aside other riders with the sheer raw pace he was able to access. on the phillip island 2003 comparison, see valentino's words about riding angry here. in 2012, marc was asked about whether there were races where he was determined to win at all cost, and he mentioned some examples from that year before adding, "there have been many times when I had to channel my inner rage to win a race"

***assen 2018: excellent race, as memorable as phillip island 2015 or 2017 if your favourite type of race is multi-rider dogfights. involves seven or eight riders in the lead group for large chunks of the race, with the order of those riders chopping and changing with incredible regularity. some pretty ridiculous saves (at least three riders right at the sharp end of the action where you feel that they really should have hit the deck) and a lot of contact, putting on full display just how aggressive riding had gotten during that time. most riders enjoyed the contest, though this time it was dovi's turn to be a dissenting voice. in any case, there were reportedly 99 passes within the lead group and it is rightly remembered as one of that era's finest gems

*austria 2018: marc vs the ducatis, as was tradition at the red bull ring. marc wanted to get payback for the last time they had been in austria, and determinedly got a good start to try and avoid history repeating itself - but he never quite managed to escape his pursuers. this is one of those races where there's a long stretch of it just... building, where it feels like either marc will make the break for it or there'll be a dramatic finale. which can make it ever so slightly annoying when there isn't a dramatic finale, but I am happy to assure you that this race delivers on that count. gets very good with ten laps to go

^plenty of close battles, but in those years nobody could match marc for week-to-week consistency. the closest by that metric in 2018 was valentino - but typically a few positions further down the order, hindered both by competitive decline and an increasingly horrendous yamaha. as for jorge, he found his form on the desmodici just as the ducati higher-ups lost their patience and kicked him out. he reached some impressive peaks and at last adapted well to the demands of the bike, but his season was eventually marred by injury

***silverstone 2019: quick warning - quite a scary crash on the first lap even by motogp standards. anyway, dramatic last lap battle with alex rins, who I think it's fair to say marc hasn't always had the best of relationships with. while things haven't exactly gone to plan for either rider since then, excluding fabio that was probably the rivalry that I was most excited to see develop post-2019. ah well. the race itself is fantastic though, one of those that just gradually ramps up the tension before the finale. the last two laps are crazyyyyy. top five closest finish in premier class history

^marc and rinsy (not at silverstone but earlier in the season at jerez). some long-standing bad blood here and I'm sure rinsy really would have liked to strangle marc from time to time

**misano 2019: another visit to valentino's home turf in the year time finally caught up with vale. before this race, marc and valentino tussled in qualifying. an odd and deeply unserious incident that had zero actual impact on their already doomed laps, it's notable in part due to how much marc visibly lost his cool over the whole thing. from p5 on the grid he ended up in an enjoyable duel with fabio quartararo for the victory that went down to the very last lap. as the commentators noted, he celebrated more than he has after sealing some of his championships. coming out best in a last lap battle, making sure to keep the edge over fabio, as well as 'winning in enemy territory'? the perfect weekend. as he says in the immediate post-race interview, "honestly speaking, yesterday was the extra motivation, the extra push for the race" and "really nice to win here in italy". you could tell

**thailand 2019: marc attempting to burnish his last lap battle record by breaking children's hearts? sad stuff. cruel and unusual. a lot of fun to watch. it's an understatement to say that fabio's rookie campaign exceeded expectations, and marc quickly identified him as his biggest threat going forwards. this was a match point race for marc and he needed to outscore dovi by two points to seal the title, but he had such an overwhelming lead that he could afford to take more risks than he might have other years - even if the race did follow a massive crash in friday practise that required a hospital check-up. another race that involves a lot of stalking and shadowing and plotting before the action really kicks off (with four laps to go). this race was part of marc's considerable efforts that year to put fabio in his place while he still could. poor fabio

jerez 2020: hurts to include but this list wouldn't really be complete without it. another race that very much encapsulates the full marc marquez experience. truly bonkers pace until it all went horribly wrong

^funniest moment of the race is when valentino does what is surely the closest you can get to a double take on a motorcycle when he sees marc go past. like he sees marc, then clocks who he's seeing and then visibly looks again in a sort of 'HOW is he here'

*sachsenring 2021: thing about marc at the sachsenring is that it undoubtedly got boring in terms of the victory fight for a few years there, but it's also just a fun, tricky track and he's a joy to watch on it. obviously this win is anything but boring, and the margin he pulls on the field never feels as comfortable as it should be. I don't really think I have much to say about this race that hasn't already been said. I cried

^make that eleven in a row at the ring. honorary mentions go to cota and emilia romagna '21, at time of writing his most recent wins. neither are classic races exactly - and indeed, if you're looking for races relevant to the current climate then aragon '21 is a good shout. at emilia romagna (the second race held at the misano circuit that year), pecco crashes out while being pursued by marc, which clinches the title for fabio. it is also the last race on home soil for valentino

**phillip island 2022: one more for good measure. somehow this is his first premier class ride at the circuit where he finished the race but did not win. late on in that year's tense title battle and gives you exactly what you want from a race at phillip island. it's not even a multi-rider dogfight as it is an every-rider dogfight that eventually becomes a multi-rider dogfight at the front of the pack... but if you looked at the run order after about three laps you would NOT be able to guess who the riders involved are, never mind who wins it. absolute chaos. one hell of a contest right until the very end involving one of that year's two primary title contenders - and some other foes old and new. marc's sole podium that year, and his 100th in motogp. second closest top ten in premier class history, not too bad

[solaireverie]

Solsplaining Lestappen Gate 2023: Motivations

(aka i spent a full day psychoanalyzing rich white men who drive fast cars for a living)

I'll be the first to admit it: the recent rumors of a move to Red Bull for Charles / news involving him that is just as shocking, affectionately known as Lestappen Gate 2023, is likely delusion. (Or in the words of my beloved sister, "silly season didn't deliver this year, so we have to find something else to obsess over")

However, one common misconception is that one of the main reasons why a deal like this would fall through is the perception that Charles is, and will always remain, loyal to Ferrari, and would never move to another team. However, I actually think that it's very possible for Charles to want a transfer.

Charles is a professional athlete. You don't get to the level that he's at without being dedicated, hardworking, and incredibly competitive. (You can even see his ultra-competitive nature outside of the car — just take a look at the Ferrari driver challenges on Youtube.)

Every single Formula 1 driver (with the possible exception of the man, the myth, and the legend that is Yuki Tsunoda) dreams of winning the World Driver's Championship. Charles isn't going to stay with a team that promised him victory yet keeps failing to deliver (see Silverstone 2022, Spain 2022, Hungary 2022, etc), especially when he's already proven that he can challenge for the title when given a competitive car and decent strategy.

In fact, Charles has already told us the circumstances under which he would be open to leaving Ferrari: when he no longer believes in their "project" and he doesn't feel like he's maximizing performance. (He states clearly that he won't leave at the moment, but the most reasonable estimate for a move has always been 2025, after his current contract expires.)

Now, what could possibly qualify as not maximizing performance? Maybe Charles' past four years with Ferrari?

It obviously isn't all Ferrari's fault. Charles has made his fair share of mistakes and he's paid for them (ex: French GP 2022), but at the end of the day you have to admit that Ferrari seems to make an inordinate amount of mistakes for what should be one of the most prestigious teams in the sport.

Also, not directly related to Charles going to RBR, but it's been said that Ferrari only want to keep one of their current drivers for the future due to concerns about car development since Charles and Carlos have different driving styles. They would prefer to retain Charles, and that's why Carlos has been having difficulties with his contract, but at the end of the day I think that may be another concern Charles may have.

Red Bull have proved time and time again that they are currently on top in terms of car development, pace, strategy, etc. etc. It truly cannot be stressed too much the insanely dominant season they're currently having, and it seems probable that they'll continue this streak into at least the next two to three seasons.

(And even if they do fall off after the 2026 regulations are introduced, they've shown that they can remain competitive and fight to get back to the top. Red Bull have had two periods of domination in the past decade-ish and Ferrari haven't had a WDC since Kimi in 2007 or a WCC since the year after.)

If Charles wants to leave Ferrari to get a better shot at the WDC, Red Bull would be one of his best bets.

On the other side of the equation is Max Verstappen, who has consistently praised Charles' racecraft and has even said that he thinks that they would work well together (mind you, this article is from 2019, which was waaaaaay before their relationship reached the stage that it's at now, and Max was already floating the possibility.)

Red Bull is currently Max's team. He would definitely have a significant amount of input should they decide to change his teammate. Everything he's said so far about and around Charles, as well as the way he acts with him, points to Max not being opposed to the idea. (I'd even go so far as to say that it's possible that he wants to race alongside Charles... *cough* those comments about putting Charles in a better car *cough*)

Red Bull as a team would also benefit greatly from signing Charles. Firstly, he's a great PR asset. He's a media darling and at least one of the top three most popular drivers in F1. For a team that's basically a glorified marketing campaign, that's incredibly important.

Secondly, he and Max have similar driving styles. They're both aggressive and prefer borderline "undriveable" cars. Red Bull have the same issue as Ferrari currently in that their two drivers don't necessarily share the same style, which makes car development difficult. This results in the car suiting one driver (usually the faster) over the other, which then leads to the other driver performing abnormally substandard (see post-Miami 2023 Sergio and McLaren 2022 Daniel).

There are, of course, people who think that Checo might keep his seat or Daniel/Liam/Yuki will replace him.

Checo hasn't been able to achieve a 1-2 in the championship despite having had two dominant cars. This year, if he does get it, it would be by the skin of his teeth (fingers still crossed for Lewis!!!), which if you look at Max's gap with him in the points is simply ridiculous.

He's been decent for getting in the points, but a car like the RB19 shouldn't just be "in the points". Of course, it's not exactly suited for him, but less Q3 appearances than Oscar Piastri, a rookie who had a bad car for a third of the season? Sergio has always been a driver who excels in midfield teams and dragging decent cars higher than they should go, but I don't think he's built for championship contention in a dominant team like Red Bull.

I hate to say it, but realistically I don't see Daniel finding his way back into a RBR seat. He's still a good driver, but he's getting older and his stints with Renault and McLaren really hurt his reputation. The main reason that I think Red Bull would keep him now is for marketing but they've already achieved that by first making him their third driver and then sticking him in Alpha Tauri. Moment of silence for Nyck.

Let's take a look at Red Bull's history of choosing drivers: they've always leaned on the younger side. Sebastian Vettel, Max himself, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon were all brought in to replace an older driver. (Which again proves my point about Daniel: Why would RBR replace Checo with a driver older than him? This sentence pained me to write. RBR Daniel you will always be special in my heart!!!)

On the other hand, both Pierre and Alex have shown Red Bull that promoting a rookie too soon can hurt both of them. Yuki, perhaps, but he's not the most stable driver, and he doesn't have the raw talent that Max possesses to make up for the mistakes he makes occasionally. (Personally, I think he'll go to a midfield team eventually.)

For Red Bull, Charles would be a fantastic addition. He's already proven himself, is a publicity powerhouse in his own right, and can compete with Max. Just... no Brocedes ending, please.

Red Bull and Ferrari are incredibly similar in the sense that they are both, at the core of their existences, a mythos, albeit in vastly different ways. Red Bull Racing is a marketing scheme that chases success above all. Scuderia Ferrari is the years of history that looms behind the name.

They're both trying to sell you something, it's just that one is an energy drink and the other is the legend of the Prancing Horse.

Eventually, when Charles is no longer buying into Ferrari, he's going to go looking for another team to put his faith in, and plenty of signs point to it being Red Bull, who in my opinion has shown that they would be more than happy to accept him.

This still doesn't explain why Ferrari would also be posting Lestappen and it's entirely possible that it's all just a ✨ coincidence ✨, but in the meantime I will choose to be delusional!

If you've read to here, I salute you for reaching the end of my ramblings. Please drop by to let me know what you think! Have a nice day and stay hydrated <3

[f1-birb]

I love how A lot of ex McLaren Drivers nasilały adopted Lando and they love him. Lewis, Jenson, Fernando or Mika.

~ Nando adopted him from Daytona 24 onwards. With Daytona he was so impressed with little baby 18yo Lando during the race that he went on to borderline wax poetry, and then Lando was the test/reserve for McLaren and did his apprenticeship in 2018, so when he wasn't racing in F2 he was learning the ins and outs, doing all sorts of jobs from sweeping the garage to making tea, and he learnt a lot from Fernando (probably insane to him since it was Lewis and Nando in 2007 that got him into F1 and McLaren) ~ a little bonus:

EDIT: thanks to an anon for the additional info, these two go further back than I was aware of! Lando was doing his internship at with McLaren as well as doing some test driver duties in 2017. 2018 was when they were in a team for Daytona 24 together and he became McLaren's reserve driver. And even before that, he's known Fernando since he won the WKC in an FA Kart

~ Jenson seemed to love Lando basically from the start, this interview springs to mind in particular, they're both Somerset Boys, and then he seems to have grown more and more endeared. Jenson has usually vouched for Lando for things, and the feeling is clearly mutual too from how at ease Lando is during interviews with JB

~ Lewis was actually a bit of a surprise, but seemed (to me at least) mildly amused by the rookies and Lando, I'm distinctly reminded of Silverstone 2019 and the iconic press conference, but Lewis' fondness for Lando in particular seemed to come after Sochi and then grew from there, and there's been a lot of sweet moments since. There's a few instances over radio, Lewis checked on Lando when he was sick in Barcelona last year and sitting on the floor under an umbrella during the drivers parade, stealing Lando's bucket hat, a few drivers parades this year where we saw the two of them talk to each other for most if not the whole thing

~ I haven't seen too much with Mika and Lando, but I know he's been pretty complimentary about him, and also turned heads when he made the bold claim (at the time) that McLaren will be the ones to challenge Red Bull and then lo and behold Austria and then the upgrades since and here we are

[lewisinho]

✨lewis hamilton’s most underrated mclaren drives ✨

(with special dedication to: @l8tof1 & @sirlew44)

did a lil’ rewatch over the break and wanted to do a post about some of lewis’ most underrated wins/drives in f1 over the years; i realise that there are a lot of them and so i decided to split and do a post for his mclaren days and another one for his mercedes years.

a few words of introduction:

the thing about watching mclaren lewis and why it’s just such a privilege, is that this boy is special; babyfaced rookie picked from the crèche by ron dennis and who was told he’d be half a second off nando’s pace and that he shouldn’t worry, wasn’t just hungry he had something to prove, he will nawt be a second driver even if it’s to the reigning 2x world champion who has just come from beating THE michael schumacher, basically babes wasn’t having it and he put the fear of god into these drivers…and ron dennis (say what you want about that that man, but you can’t deny, he really girlbossed that one thing; giving lewis a car that was capable of winning, was a choice™️, but a very good one and we thank him for that); mclaren lewis is special because he’s hungry, he’s raw and fast, very fast, sometimes too fast and too reckless, but he’s learning, and when you watch these races and these seasons you see him learn and grow and change; all these seasons are different, but those mclaren years are just as important for the lore and who he is now and to witness the evolution of both the driver and the man is truly special; so this small collection of drives is a bit of a crème-de-la-crème if you will of those races that i think aren’t as mentioned in the pantheon of great lewis drives as much as i think they should, so let us begin:

fuji 2007 🇯🇵 aka the first rain dance of og bald baby mclazza rookie lewis, stunting on hoes since ‘07

people keep talking about silvo 2008 (and rightly so) but this one is a bit of a forgotten wet-weather masterpiece; talk about artistic sublimity, this is the racing sublimity of one 22-year-old rookie lewis hamilton; baby lewis was holding off his reigning world champion of a teammate absolutely majestically in torrential conditions, and executing the race and the restarts to perfection (race is also chaos personified so brilliant to rewatch). baby lew became a bit of a headache for the establishment™️ and one fernando alonso and it’s fun to watch.

germany 2008 🇩🇪aka mclaren pitwall terrorising baby lewis (the horrors started way before merc)

a race overshadowed by his brilliance in silverstone two weeks earlier (suffering from success and having consecutive masterclasses amirite), but it’s nearly as brilliant; this is lewis vs massa + the mclaren pitwall deciding to gamble with some fuckass strategy and leaving lewis out for a safety car restart, lewis having to pull massive gaps, driving the wheels of that mp4-23 and then overtake from p5 to take the lead; some brilliant overtakes and lewis displaying incredible race pace; this drive is the lewis hamilton special that massa had no answer for 

singapore 2009 🇸🇬 aka lewis decided to serve cunt

to truly appreciate the sheer extent of said cunt serving, you have to watch both quali and the race; mind you, the 2009 mclaren was nawt it, the post-updates mp4-24 was still dogshit compared to lil’ sister mp4-23 and very much an underperforming and unreliable shitbox; the updates also came too late for lewis to put up a proper championship fight; however this did not stop from lewis from putting 2 whole ass seconds on his teammate, take pole ahead of the red bulls and the brawns and then dominate the race, with brilliant tyre management and race pace (40 secs ahead of kova, nearly 10 secs ahead of timo glock in p2 in a truly fuckass mclaren)

brazil 2009 🇧🇷 aka the road to legend is long and twisted and the brazilian racing gods clearly have a plan 

p17 to p3; and no you may think this is one of those checo-esque recovery drives where you qualify terribly but have a rocketship so you overtake cars easily and finish the race in a position you should have started the race in; well, the mp4-24 actually qualified terribly in the wet (even post-upgrades, it was also set up for the dry) and was still very much mid on a sunday; lewis however babes was on yet another mission, overtaking cars *mwah* like please watch it; the brazilian racing gods truly picked a chosen one and his name is lewis hamilton i do not make the rules; his lil’ fist punching the air when he crossed the line says everything you need to know about what that drive meant to lewis (also like that boy was starving for a win around interlagos and to think the first one came only in 2016 jeez) the racing gods really wanted to make that man suffer biblically in true chosen one fashion before offering any type of redemption; you see interlagos and lewis is a special narrative, it’s about a boy achieving immortality in his hero’s homeland, and it goes all the way from 2007 to 2021 and beyond, and there are chapters in between, like 2009, that are worth mentioning, because the man is desperate for a win here and he’s getting so so close, hungry mclaren lewis you mean so much to me, he would eat anything and anyone and well,,,interlagos is lewis’ yearning personified

china 2011 🇨🇳 aka he WILL have his win and he will bite and claw his way towards it 

hungry lewis starving for a win with a car that is half-decent is dangerous; this race is *chefs kiss* oh my god, please watch it, baby mclaren lewis on a mission, babes after the race said he doesn’t remember when he last won a race, like wdym it’s only been like 8 months my guy (we’re on two years now); drama starts before the race even begins, because he’s got a fuel problem and is literally mere seconds away from a pit-lane start but no that team and that man were on a mission: three-stopper, overtaking both seb and jb, terrifying race pace! he also gets a bit emotional in the cool down room and hugs seb 🥹

germany 2011 🇩🇪 aka vintage lewis special 

another one where you have to watch both quali and the race, because baby goat was pulling quali laps out of his ass (imo probably one of his best non pole laps): he split the bulls and was only half a tenth from pole (also 1.2 secs ahead of his teammate); bear in mind we’re in the domination era of kinky kylie (rb-7) which took 12/19 victories and all but one pole position, which interestingly albeit unsurprisingly went to lewis in korea): that man was putting his entire lewpussy into those quali laps; now the race, ladies and gents (gn) this is where it gets tasty and spicy and if you want a three-car fight for the win this delivers on all fronts and provides lewis at his very best this is it;

a small (but important) tangent: i do find it slightly disappointing when people overlook lewis’ 2011 season entirely because of his getting outscored by jb; yes, it wasn’t a clean season from him, he made a lot of errors in the races and it’s quite a frustrating watch in general as a lewis fan, but he also had some absolutely brilliant races (i also can’t help but point out a similar trend that has happened with his 2022 season);

but anyway, this is lewis vs webber vs fernando, mclaren vs red bull vs ferrari for the entire race; overcut and undercut strategies happening simultaneously, lewis’ racecraft and defence on webber!!!!, and featuring a great overtake on nando!

+ honourable mention: australia 2009 🇦🇺 aka icarus flew too close to the sun 

you’re prolly wondering why i’m including australia 2009, which is rather infamously known for ‘liegate’; but lewis’ (and mclaren’s) post-race shenanigans overshadow an actually brilliant drive from p18 to 4th (momentarily 3rd bc trulli got DSQ’d which was then reversed lmao; it’s a bit all over the place) in an actually dogshit mclaren that had no right fighting even for top 5; this is pre-upgrades wheelbarrow mp4-24, this is the stuff that makes the w13 look like a prima ballerina, well guess what lewis was the prima ballerina and was putting that mclaren in positions it really did not deserve to even bear witness to; and then there was a bit of a kerfuffle at the fia office (please read up on liegate it’s acc really funny, mclaren spectacularly shooting themselves in the foot 🙄), someone got fired, lewis disqualified, but oh well, shits and giggles innit (hindsight's a wonderful thing)

hope you enjoyed and i also hope this provided some inspiration for a rewatch :) 💜🏎️

[dear-ao3]

could you explain the mclaren reputation era please I missed it

ok well i don't really understand it entirely so bear with me here as i fumble through this.

essentially yesterday mclaren archived (deleted?) every single one of their instagram posts (and there were Thousands) except for this kind of twist trap esque video of lando, oscar and their car with the tagline "whatever it takes" like the imagine dragons song, or perhaps a 15 year old boy posting selfies of himself in the gym.

this of course is exactly what taylor swift did however many years ago right before she dropped her reputation album, archived every single one of her instagram posts except for these three videos of a snake slithering around and i don't remember what the words were associated with it but it was foreshadowing her reputation album. this was the album that she released directly after she got a whole lot of shit for her 1989 tour, took basically 2 years off and came back with some s tier bangers about how basically she didnt really care what the media thought of her, but she was reinventing herself (remember the "im sorry, the old taylor can't come to the phone right now, why? oh! cause she's dead!" meme" but essentially, it was her comeback after awhile away.

mclaren, as we know, has not won a championship since 2008 with sir lewis hamilton. their driver line up, lando norris and oscar piastri, is the youngest pairing of drivers on the grid (lando is 24, oscar is 22) and while the 2023 season for them started off absolutely terribly (their car fucking sucked) they were able to do some major upgrades throughout the season and turned it around by the silverstone race (just under halfway through the year). from silverstone on (13 races total) mclaren finished in the top 3 nine times (with both oscar and lando on the podium at the qatar and japan races) and were consistently in the points. oscar also won the sprint race in qatar. and lando had i think 17 overtakes at the mexico race, starting 19 and ending 5th. which is kind of incredible. in a season of absolute red bull domination (lets remember that a red bull driver won ever race except for the singapore race, which carlos won with the help of lando) they were consistently challenging them and there was one time in texas (i think?) where lando almost was able to overtake max.

so yes, red bull is definitely the favored team at the moment and is coming off of quite possibly the best season they've ever had. however. mclaren have some distinct advantages going into the 2024 season:

they do not have to worry about silly season. as we know, 14 drivers have contracts ending at the end of 2024 which means the absolute mad rush to resign and offer contracts across basically every team. redbull is basically guaranteed to not resign checo and might even swap him for daniel ricciardo halfway through the season whereas lands contract with mclaren ends in 2025 and oscars ends in 2026. mclaren can spend all of their time worrying about the car and the drivers rather than who they are signing.

oscar piastri. oscar just finished his rookie season (and previously won the f2 and f3 championships and won rookie of the year this year). in terms of rookie years he had an outstanding one. people compared him to lewis hamilton's rookie year. as a refresher, lewis hamiltons rookie year was in 2007 (also at mclaren) and he won his first championship in 2008. oscar is the first rookie since lewis hamilton to get multiple podiums and win something in his rookie year. expectations are running high here.

lando norris's expiring contract. as we know lando has one more confirmed year with mclaren. cel of mclaren zak brown has announced that they want to extend landos contract with mclaren, but, hes starting to get really really good, which means that a top team like red bull or mercedes might also try to get him as a driver. this is the year for mclaren to prove to lando that they can give him what he wants (which is to win a race. in his 5 years of formula 1 he hasn't won anything. and once he starts winning then hes going to want to win a championship. but. there is max verstappen to contend with). so their absolute balls to the wall tactic could work pretty well for them here. pre season testing doesnt start for over another month and they are already clearly locked in to the 2024 season.

lando and oscar actually get along. sure, formula 1 is an individual sport, but there is the drivers championship (for the individual driver) and the constructors championship (for the team with the most points). so they do have to work together. drivers not working together in the past has led to some ... undesirable results for teams (the great brocedes civil war of nico rosberg and lewis hamilton that ultimately resulted in nico retiring after he won his first championship, whatever the hell was going with max and daniel for part of the 2018 season, the french civil war at alpine between pierre gasley and esteban ocon) they are also both very consistent drivers. neither are incredibly crash prone and seem quite willing to work together on the track to optimize results.

yes they do also have disadvantages. lando has never won a race, they only have one pole position between them (lando in russia in 2021) and they're not a red bull. clearly they're the underdog in the situation. but they did finish fourth in the constructors championship in 2023 ("best of the rest") (and after basically getting next to no points for the first several races on account of the fact that their car was shit) behind ferrari, mercedes, and red bull. they're coming for the top 3 and honestly it could be their season to lose.

if ferrari doesnt change their strategy approach then they could be out of a shot at top 3. also ferrari have to deal with the nightmare of resigning both of their drivers (or finding new ones). merc and red bull will both be giving it their all (lewis hamilton really really wants to win his 8th world championship before he retires and max is well. max.) but if mclaren has a competitive car from the start of the season and doesnt have to play catch up for the first several races, then they could easily finish in the top 3.

also they released their livery today? which really confuses me (is that different than the car unveiling? what is going on someone mansplain it to me please)

[umlewis]

Sorry if you have a tag for this, but, you said he talks or takes pictures with fans w disabilities? 🥺 i’d love to see some

(sorry i’m new here 🧏‍♀️)

that's okay, and welcome to f1blr! (: i sadly don't have a tag for that, but maybe i should start one 💜

here he is visiting great ormond's children's hospital in late 2022

he did the same in 2018 :) [more pictures here!]

at the track with kids from great ormond street back in 2007

here's an article about nicolas, lewis, and when lewis got nicolas into his seat in the mercedes (and driving the sim!) 💜 in 2019 lewis arranged to have his car and spanish gp trophy taken to a little boy with terminal cancer named harry shaw, which you can see here, dedicated the spanish gp win to him here, and paid tribute to him at the canadian gp after his passing he also had his car sent, along with a parade of supercars, to a 3-year-old boy named morgan riddler in the same situation who was supposed to attend silverstone and sadly didn't make it [here]

here he is with billy monger at the 2017 british gp after his accident, and here's his post from 2017 congratulating billy on his nomination for laureau's sporting moment of the year and encouraging people to vote for him

lewis with a fan at the factory this year

'nother picture with billy! and here's all the pictures of lewis and billy that motorsports images has (:

lewis became an ambassador for the invictus games in 2015 and playled some wheelchair basketball

with a fan at the u.s. gp in 2015

lewis and lewis! with lewis hammans in 2018

lewis with 9-year-old luca, who was visiting with other patients from great ormond, at the british gp

sir lewis taking sir frank williams on a hot lap of silverstone in 2019 🥺

and, of course, lewis always making sure nicolas is involved in his career. that, i do have a tag for (: also! only tangientally related, but if you would like disabled drivers to cheer on, nicolas (who has cerebral palsy) races in the british touring car championship and robert wickens (a paraplegic after a horrific indycar crash) drives in the imsa michelin pilot challenge (which is gt racing) 😊 everybody, abled and disabled, please feel free to reblog this! us disabled and chronically ill fans belong here and the goat said so 💜👑

[uwabbittuwabbit]

Colors of…the Repsol Honda Team

At the announcement that every team is dropping a vintage livery come Silverstone, I am taking it upon myself to dig into the history of each team’s liveries. We shall start with Repsol Honda, the much storied, and nowadays much troubled manufacturer. The HRC official colors of red, white and blue purportedly represent passion (red), purity (white) and calm (blue), qualities that can be ascribed to winning riders, to paraphrase. In fact, the origin of these colors is much simpler: the colors debuted on the bike of one Morio Sumiya, who participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans representing Honda. Little imagination is required then, to conclude as to why these colors were used.

Repsol’s current brand image is the work of the Wolff Olins consultation, only slightly altered in the passage of time. The change was brought on by the corporatization of Repsol, which as such needed something more commercially recognizable—an R encased in concentric circles just wouldn’t do anymore. The result is the orange and red sun motif with the white strike-through, which embody such ideas like that of “energy”, “professionalism”, “stability”, “strength” etc. Take of that what you will.

Nebulous brand concepts aside, what can be said definitively is that the bikes of the Repsol Honda team have become cornerstones of the grid, easily identifiable in their trademark orange (fun fact: they were the first team to paint the inside of their tires). Seeing as the Repsol partnership is due to end after this season, this may not be the case in the future. But we are concerned about the prospects of the past, so let’s round it up:

500cc Era Liveries

Pre Repsol

Not much explaining needed on my part because these are liveries that largely feature the HRC colors with a few other accents. This was probably their most experimental era as evidenced by the variation presented below:

From left to right, top down: Freddie Spencer circa 1983, Wayne Gardner circa 1990, Mick Doohan circa 1994, Wayne Gardner circa 1980 (exact date not sure)

Post Repsol

Back when Honda first partnered with Repsol their newly minted logo was in its first iteration, featuring a kind of teal color and some additional “speed” lines added on the bottom of the sun. All of Mick Doohan’s championship wins from 1995 onwards would be with some variation of the giant Repsol sun stamped on the side of his bike, the teal color permeating the rest of the cladding in an evocation of the sky. His last season in MotoGP would be spent with this livery too.

Top to bottom, left to right: Mick Doohan 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998

Honorable mention goes to Valentino Rossi’s Nastro Azzurro Honda! He wasn’t in Repsol Honda yet but I feel it would be remiss not to mention and certainly not hard to miss, considering that shade of yellow…

Valentino Rossi, 2000 and 2001

A special shoutout to the 2001 Hawaiian print bike!

MotoGP Era

For all of Valentino’s short tenure at Repsol Honda, he sure had as much fun as he could. Two championships aside, this did not apply equally to the livery—unfortunately, it should be seen at this point that the team already had a penchant for the same old thing.

Valentino Rossi 2002 and 2003

2003, running a special livery farewelling Honda

Honda would continue their successes with a retinue of talented riders, the likes of Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez all donning Repsol orange. Unlike their prodigies the livery had largely calcified into a fixed form, which saw no substantial changes in appearance aside from a scant few special livery runs. Iconic or not? Certainly for some it is not a sight for sore eyes.

Top to bottom, left to right: Nicky Hayden 2007, Dani Pedrosa 2008, Casey Stoner 2011, Andrea Dovizioso 2011, Marc Marquez 2019

Bonus: Mom I’m a star! Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner share the podium, Aragón 2011

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sources: On Honda // On Repsol (1) // On Repsol (2)

[raikkonens]

DANIEL RICCIARDO A1 Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, UK August 28, 2007

[alianoralacanta]

Fisichella Defence (21-12-2006)

Context: The flame wars one sees on Tumblr and other social media in 2024 are nothing new. Back in the mid-2000s, fora were full of them. In F1, these tended to go down a few clear lines: Michael Schumacher vs some people's version of how sport should be conducted Michael Schumacher vs Alonso Michael Schumacher vs Raikkonen (you may detect a theme here) Both Schumachers vs Montoya McLaren vs Ferrari Williams vs McLaren Villenueve vs whatever he was arguing about this weekend One forum-specific flame war that was none of the above. In one of the general forums I was in at the time, the specific flame war was manufacturer teams vs any independent not named Williams (it was that specific flame war which split the forum in the first place, due to its two admins being on either side of the argument). The Team Silverstone forum flame war was Team Silverstone vs people who thought that specific team shouldn't exist (I eventually ended that one in mid-2007, due to a typo). The forum where La Canta Magnifico Blog was based had Giancarlo Fisichella vs Juan Pablo Montoya.These days, people generally accept that it is possible to like both Giancarlo and Juan Pablo at the same time (this is often the eventual outcome of flame wars where there is neither a clear winner nor reason for long-term rancour). However, this particular corner of the internet had not yet come to that conclusion. Even after Juan Pablo Montoya had found his happiness elsewhere in motorsport, people on the forum still argued about whether he was better than Giancarlo Fisichella. I don't have the forum post that clearly prompted this blog entry, but the gist of it is that Juan Pablo Montoya was being defended on the basis that he had some great video clips on YouTube (back before FOM started issuing copyright notices to the platform, which started happening in summer 2007). As the most prominent Fisico fan on the forum (as well as its most long-winded), I felt the need to respond…

The reasons there are few videos of Fisichella doing great stuff (and some do exist, though copyright forbids me from linking to them) are the facts that he does his races quietly and has a tidy driving style. None of JPM's wheel-locking or massive slides are in evidence unless Fisi's having a really bad day, and it's always more difficult for a camera person to convey excitement when there is no feeling that the driver is out of control. While keeping just the right side of that boundary in a dramatic way is commendable and fan-attracting, the smoother, quieter method usually generates more race speed from the car.

It's no accident that the only top-level drivers using the just-in-control driving styles are Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villenueve and Fernando Alonso. Montoya got it to semi-work in a rather understeery McLaren and messy Williams, Villenueve's not managed to co-operate properly with a car since he went to BAR and Fernando Alonso has created a new variant of just-in-control driving that nobody else has yet managed to emulate.

Picking a single definitive race is tricky because Fisi has had so many really good races. Taking just those races starting from when I paid particular attention to Giancarlo's races, anything from the the start of 2001 through to about two-thirds of the way through 2003 (apart from Malaysia 2003), USA 2003, anything in 2004 after about race three except Monaco, Australia 2005, Canada 2005, the last third of 2005, Malaysia 2006, the American leg of 2006 and the last third of 2006 will show elements of why Giancarlo is in the top 5 drivers and has been for a long time. Simply because he doesn't have ten fifteen-second-long race incidents that summarise the true scope of his ability the way Juan Pablo or any other "just-in-control" driver will have doesn't mean there is nothing to summarise. Though if I had to pick the one that best shows why Fisi is better than JPM, it would be Brazil 2003. Notwithstanding the rain factor, there was also the part where the notoriously unreliable Ford in the back of Fisichella's car had been sounding slightly off since about lap 49. However Giancarlo got the car past the red flag before the engine finally blew up. Not only would Juan Pablo not won the 2003 race, he would have induced a technical retirement. However, the cameras missed most of Giancarlo's race as they were too busy keeping up with spinners at Turn 3 and Raikkonen passing everyone except Fisi.

This also helps to explain the video situation, as having a few widely-recognised key situations forming the videos is the quickest way of building up search ranking. That helps explain why JPM's best-known incidents are always going to be very high on the video search list.

As for the the part about it being only legend that the driver must make the team work, it's a fact. Everyone in a group has to support everyone else in the group to succeed, and teams are no different. Simply because teams are usually predisposed to helping their drivers and Ron Dennis clearly hadn't recruited Juan Pablo to be an "after you, Claude" No. 2, doesn't mean that Juan Pablo didn't need to do any work to maintain that. From the F1 Racing September 2006 article, Juan never took any time to gel with the McLaren team setup, which apparently was causing trouble long before the tennis incident. Juan should have known fitting in would take work and if he wasn't prepared to do it, he should have found another berth for 2005 (there would have been plenty open to him at that point on the open market!)

That is why I hold Juan largely responsible for his having to leave McLaren in the first place. In fact this is the second time it's happened, with Juan Pablo unable to co-operate with Williams enough to extend his original contract there either. The fact that he chose the timing of his leavetaking is great, but surely it's better to do what Fisi did and put some effort into nurturing the team that's giving you the car? That's why the Renault people have bent over backwards to protect Fisi where necessary when McLaren would do no more than it usually did to protect Montoya when he erred.

Team building may not be a major factor in driver ranking, but when the raw speed statistics do not help separate Juan Pablo and Giancarlo very much, and the differences in results almost entirely attributable to cars rather than drivers, then things like the ability to become a No. 1 in a team suddenly play a major role in the decision.

It's worth saying that in the olden days when cars ran close to each other, these skills were still necessary - it was simply that they were taken more for granted because the whole motorsport community was closer-knit back then - in fact the drivers had to do more back then to get into their teams' good books. Do you think it was an accident that a lot of the drivers back then had some background as a mechanic before reaching F1?

If Renault was not confident of Fisi, they'd've given Nelson Piquet Jr. his place. As it happens, Fisi is not only considerably more experience of Renault and F1, but also a very fast, consistent driver who is capable of leading a team - and of being a better driver than Juan Pablo Montoya was.