#this is just from what I've heard and saw in jeddah

[supermaks]

how do you rate the various f1 academy drivers?

Doriane Pin, Iron Dames wec graduate, wid Prema and representing Merc

Maya Weug, Iron Dames F4 graduate, wid Prema, rep Ferrari

Abbi pulling wid Rodin Motorsport, rep Alpine

Chloe Chambers wid Campos Racing, representing Haas

Lia Block wid ART Grand Prix, representing Williams

Hamda Al Quasabi , wid MP Motorsports team rep RBR

Bianca Bustamante wid ART Grand Prix rep Mclaren

Amna Al Quasabi, wid MP Motorsports rep visa carb f1

Aurelia Nobels wid ART Grand Prix + Puma, also rep Ferrari

Jessica Edgar wid Rodin Motorsports, representing the f1a itself

Tina Haushman wid Prema , rep Aston Martin

Nerea Marti wid Campos Racing, supported by Tommy Hilfiger

Carrie Schreiner wid Campos Racing, representing Sauber

Emely de Heus racing MP Motorsports Team, representing Red Bull , the company

Lola Lovinfosse wid Rodin Motorsports, supported by Charlotte Tilbury

[umgeorge]

george russell is interviewed after qualifying, australia - march 23, 2024 (transcript under the cut)

Natalie: "George Russell has walked very quickly from the back of the pen, behind Oscar Piastri there, to join us now! George, a bit of a mixed weekend for the team. How do you reflect on your qualifying today?" George: "Yeah, of course it wasn't the qualifying we were probably hoping for, but it's so tight out there and tomorrow there's gonna be so many unknowns-thard tire nobody's been on yet-and I think we'll be seeing a bit more of an exciting race here than we usually see." Naomi: "George, we heard from Lewis in the pen saying that the car felt as if it's on a knife edge and that's why we're seeing such mixed results from you guys. What are you experiencing in the car? Do you share the same sentiment as Lewis?" George: "From my side, it's… I've been feeling a bit more confident and consistency with the car on my side of the garage. We know where we need to improve; that's the high speed corners, and in Melbourne there's quite a few of those high speed corners, so I think we'll be in a much better place tomorrow when we've got the fuel in the car and the pace is a little bit slower from everybody. But yeah, this circuit's definitely not playing to our strengths." Karun: "George, everyone seems slightly surprised at the amount of tire deg from the long runs yesterday in practice. We're two days of evolution into the race. Do you still think that's gonna be an issue? Are we still looking at two stops, rather than the one-stop we perhaps expected from last year?" George: "Yeah, I think the soft and the medium's gonna be a really difficult tire tomorrow, but the hard is a real unknown. I think we saw the medium tire in Jeddah, which is the hard tire this week, can perform really well, but as I said the fact is nobody knows because nobody's ran it, so the team on the pitwall are gonna have to be really dynamic to see the tire deg and we're gonna have to be feeding back a lot to let them know how the tire's feeling." Naomi: "George, just a last one from me. I just wanna pick back up on what you were saying about your experience being slightly different on your side of the garage. Just for us to understand better, what does that come down to? Is that because you guys are running slightly different setups, or is it just because you demand something slightly different from the car than what Lewis does?" George: "I'm not too sure, to be honest. From my side, I'm just focused on myself, focused on my team and trying to maximize it, so to be honest I can't really comment on Lewis' feelings. But ultimately, as I said before, we're not quite where we wanna be. But we had a strong qualifying in Bahrain, P3, and if it wasn't for the problems in the race we would have been fighting for a podium. P5 in the race in Jeddah, so P7 is not ideal, but there's definitely a lot to play for tomorrow, and all to play for."

[justaredheadf1fan]

Will Formula 1 ever do something that matters to stop this?

Now is the time when something bigger than F1 or any other sport needs to be talked about thoroughly. Not that it's a one-day topic obviously, but you guys get the gist.

First thing I want to say before I dig into this is that I love these guys as much as the next person, I fantasize about them as much as any of you, I wish I could meet them or even work with them, see more races live and enjoy my favorites from up close more often I guess just as much as any of you, but I've noticed a few things today that I didn't like at all. And when it comes to this topic, I can't just turn the blind eye to the small things.

Apparently this isn't today's news but yesterday was the first time I saw people posting about it like crazy. Like Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok were flooded with this. So the thing is Nelson Piquet Sr. called Lewis the n-word in an interview who knows how long ago, was it actually in November? Nelson Piquet, an all-time bigot, always making comments insulting basically the same person all the time because of what now? Uh yes, the color of his skin. How bizarre? He's not the only one though, we also have Sir Jackie Stewart and so many others, but this time this took the cake.

Like at this rate, if it were something entirely different, we could be used to it, but the thing is: how the fuck can you get used to a single person being bullied constantly by the sport he loves so dearly and also by the people around it? It's absolutely outrageous. And like he says, he's being suffering this his whole life. 37 years of it. How can people be so fucking stupid?

It's something I've never understood, how can some people be so deeply ignorant. Closest example to what's going on around Nelson Piquet's comments are the RB bigots, for instance. You don't even have to make an effort and look further. You just need to look at the comments and accusations thrown around in the 2021 season alone. Like what the actual fuck? Murder, drug abuse, and those two are just the tip of the iceberg. And obviously all of it went unpunished, like we needed more proof that the FIA is enabling this behavior and they agree with it. It's so fucking sad.

I mean, look at what happened with Jüri Vips. They were SO quick to release a statement, a generic statement, condemning what he said and all racial discrimination and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, like we would believe any word coming from them. And now they don't say a single word about what that old shithead said, the exact same thing Jüri said on livestream. What's the problem here? Afraid much or it was easier washing your image kicking your reserva driver out than condemn Nelson Piquet Sr. because he's a World Champion, regardless of his idiocy? Because yeah maybe RB are not responsible for what that mummy said, but they sure as hell are responsible for paving the way in Formula 1. So it's truly no surprise, which is terribly sad.

What saddens me even more so than what I just said is that I've heard about Leclerc (whom I love dearly and you know it) saying he didn't support the Black Lives Matter movement and he didn't kneel because it was a violent movement, which is deeply disappointing since it shows how little he needs to care really as a privileged white boy, same as Daniel (whom I love as well) last year in Jeddah saying that he didn't watch news because of the vibes (I'm paraphrasing). These are just 2 examples of 2 people I like and respect a tone, which hits like a fucking brick, honestly. And there's a lot more of this going around coming from other drivers too, so yeah.

So far yesterday I saw Charles, George, Daniel and Esteban comment, apart from Mercedes, Ferrari and F1. They have one thing in common: they don't talk about Nelson Piquet directly, they don't name him blatantly, they are just vague. How does that do or achieve anything? I even saw that Zhou made a short statement also going along the same type of speech, which shocked me a little more, because I've heard the comments (racist or derogatory, that is) coming for example from the Spanish commentators at DAZN. They haven't even mentioned him in any post, story or comment they've made so that at least Lewis himself could see it, and taking into account he follows absolutely no one on social media, that's just idiotic. If you wanna look good, at least do it right, maybe?

I might even be reading too much into this particular point, but this is already too far gone to be acceptable at this point. The only person I've seen so far not saying anything ridiculous and tagging him directly is Mick, which is nice. I mean, yes he said nothing of substance, which is not okay either, but at least he didn't even try to say the "big thing" to look good and supportive out in the open and kept it straight to the point and without further bullshit. He should've said something straightforward, like the rest of the lot, of course. I do see more credibility in Fernando and Carlos not saying a word for instance. They should've said something too, I'm in no way excusing them or agreeing with them, but at least they haven't been hypocritical by saying something they clearly don't care about at all. Because they don't. Ultimately, they were true to who they are and their own opinions at least. They played it safer than any of the rest, honestly. No one can throw at them that they once said this or that and now they're contradicting themselves or saying empty words for the sake of appearances. Now they might do so today, but for now I've checked and nothing. Anywho, this is way too bad all around however we look at it.

Look, I'll never know the struggle. Ever. I'm a European white girl, I've even had the privileged of having a family that could give us vacation time every year, could buy us more things than the strictly necessary, so I am aware of how lucky I've been. I had it easy, despite all the shit I've gone through regardless, because I never was in a position of being treated as less because of my skin color. I've never experienced any abuse like this. And it's terrible that anyone should experience something like that, whether it's in the US, in the UK, in South America, anywhere in Asia or in Southern Europe when we see people who've fled their countries looking for an opportunity to live. TO LIVE.

And that indifference, that lack of empathy and interest on this subject, it's so ingrained in most of our societies that maybe most of the time we don't even notice that this is a problem that concerns everyone, regardless of the skin tone or nationality. It's sickening, honestly, and it should've been enough a long time ago. Disrespect should never land on anyone because of some ignorant decides to open their mouths to try and stay relevant. We need to do better. Each and everyone of us. To understand, to support, to learn, to help, call it what you will. We need to be better as a whole.

Lastly, I believe the FIA and Formula 1 should take action. Real action. Start working on measures to prevent people like Nelson Piquet ever setting foot anywhere near Formula 1 in any capacity, they should donate all of those cash penalties they've inflicted on drivers so far to causes or entities such as The Hamilton Commision or Mission 44, created by Lewis himself, or any other entity that handles initiatives to help increase representation or work to give more opportunities to people in communities that need it most.

In a post I just found on Tumblr, there was this article linked if you guys wanna read it. He words it much better than I ever could. I honestly have no more words at time to further talk about this topic, at least not in a calm manner anyway, it's too much. If it makes me this angry, I can't even imagine how people affected this kind of thing daily must be feeling, it's sickening.