#we're a second slower than the mclaren

[revcuse]

it just gets worse

[l-norris]

The last race of the triple header has blessed us, and now thou shall receive another recap, this time with a new(-ish) design!

(... It's literally only the header that's new but whatever)

DISCLAIMER: Remember that this is just for shits and giggles, I'm not trying to actually hate on any of the drivers cuz all (most) of them are very dear to me!

As always - numbers in brackets = lap numbers

- Pre-race anxiety is through the roof

- Checo starts from pitlane

- Logan starts from 12th!! Go funky American man!

- Lando and Max are starting next to each other

- God help me

- Rain hovering in the distance

- Ferraris are fucked

- Formation lap starts

- George speedy formation lap

- He wants to get this OVER with

- Pierre has issues with the car after 50-grid-place penalty rip

- He retires before the race even starts

- It's lights out and away go!

- Lewis instantly swoops over to protect George

- Lando bottles start again :(

- Lando struggles with tires

- DRS enabled

- What happened with Pierre? We don't know.

- Mans didn't even make it through the formation lap

- Alex loses pieces of his car (3)

- Logan reports it like he's scared they'll make him switch cars with Alex midrace

- I wouldn't put it past Williams tbh

- Talks of rain already (4)

- "Double stacking won't be a problem for Red Bull" SHOTS FIRED

- Alex and Fernando contact at the start of the race btw

- ... So that's why Alex' car is falling apart

- PSA: Checo is not last anymore! (7)

- "Hülkenberg, who was the fastest Ferrari powered car in Qualifying yesterday." CROFTY PLS😭

- Esteban classical dive-bomb

- Pierre had a gearbox issue btw

- Glad we got that outta the way

- So much for switching all the components in the car

- Alpine please get a grip (they won't ever)

- "Lando we'll keep it simple" what does that mean William

- William I don't like how this sounds

- "Rain in so-and-so many minutes" SHUT UP!! I'M SO FUCKING SCARED RIGHT NOW YOU SHUT UP!

- Guanyu pits (13)

- Charles overtakes Lance (14)

- Lando closes up to Max (14)

- I've seen this movie before and I didn't like the ending

- Lando overtakes Max! (15)

- Oscar now also closing in on Max (17)

- He overtakes him easily! (18)

- Holy hell the Red Bull is a tractor

- Lewis overtakes George! (18)

- And Lando swoops past too! (19)

- Switched to ORF bc F1 TV is behind by like half a lap

- People switched to inters and damn bro y'all were STUPID for that

- And before you ask

- Yes, there was a Ferrari involved.

- Yes, that Ferrari was Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc.

- Terrible day for Tifosi 4.0

- Red Bull sacrificed Checo

- "It's too dry for inters" We know Checo (unlike some teams)

- DRS enabled (24)

- The people on inters crying rn

- I'm crying too dw

- horrendous laptimes from the drivers on inters (we're talking 1:50 territory here)

- Max in 5th

- 30 minute rain cell incoming

- Checo lapped (25)

- Charles lapped (25)

- That's three in a row now Ferrari

- What the fuck are you doing Ferrari

- Sigh...

- Lando and Oscar fight (26)

- help me

- everyone pits except for the Top 4 (27)

- Lando pits (28)

- Mercedes double stack (28)

- They fucking forgot Oscar again😭

- McLaren when I catch you McLaren

- Charles pits AGAIN (28)

- This is worse than Spielberg

- I can't do this anymore

- Red Bull fumble Checos pitstop (29)

- Max can't keep up

- He's 1.3 seconds slower than Lando

- "It's not raining anymore mate" Okay Lewis

- George retires (34)

- Horrible day for GR63 fans (me)

- Kevin almost bins it in classical Kmag style (35)

- Lando wobbles a little and gives me a heart attack in the process (36)

- Max is suddenly somehow faster than the others (38)

- What a fucking surprise /j

- Slicks time (38)

- Lando stays out one lap longer

- Lando pits (39)

- Lewis leads (40)

- MCLAREN. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES?!

- That's like the fourth win y'all just fucking gave away

- Mr. Stella I'd like a (not-so-friendly) word or two

- Kimi Antonelli sighted! (45)

- Max is gaining on Lando🫣 (46)

- anxiety

- I'm sweating real hard

- Max swoops past Lando (48)

- man

- Lewis is still in the lead

- if it is one person who deserves the win it's Lewis

- At least they're keeping it exciting until the end

- This is fine

- last lap starts!

- Oscar fastest lap (51)

- Rooting for Lewis rn don't talk to me

- HE WINS IT!

- Carlos steals fastest lap btw

- BUT!!!

- GET IN THERE LEWIS IS BACK

- HE'S CRYING😭

- HE'S CRYING I'M CRYING EVERYONE IS CRYING

- LEWIS😭

- I wanna give him a hug so bad rn

- He deserved that win

- Also he's DotD!

- "Why didn't you go onto Mediums instead?" LEWIS PLEASE LEAVE THE CHILD (Lando) ALONE!!

- The cooldown room scenes are a blessing and a curse lmao

- ... Feel free to add on!

... Phew! What a race man. There were some classics (like Ferrari and McLaren screwing their drivers once again), but Lewis deserved this win so so much, I'm literally in tears. Sad that George had to retire, but at least we got two Brits on the podium🥹

[sistermclarens]

Hungarian GP 2024: McLaren Race Radios 2

We pick back up behind the scenes where both Lando's tires and tongue are heating up.

Laps 1-30 | Laps 31-39 | Laps 40-54 | Laps 55-70

Lap 31

TS: "And turn 1 exit last lap, don't use the rears quite that much."

Oscar has now gotten repeat tire feedback on turns 1, 3, and 7.

Lap 32

TS: "So Oscar there's some cars ahead now; they're all backmarkers that have come out of the pits, but you'll start to pick up some dirtier air. There's quite a few cars there."

WJ: "Gap to Hamilton now is 4.7. In turn--" LN: [interrupting] "Yep! I want the gap ahead; I'm gonna need a number to go quicker [cause I'm?] slower." WN: "I'm about to tell you. So Lando, mind the rear slips, turn 5, turn 7. Opportunity turn 4: early lift. And opportunity turn 13: early brake release."

This is a FASCINATING exchange. Lando interrupting Will and sounding frustrated, then Will giving a borderline snarky response back. His "I'm about to tell you" is very sing-song "I'm annoying you because you're annoying me" in a kind of sibling petty argument way. Then in the end he doesn't even tell Lando the gap to Oscar 😂 The whole exchange is definitely an indication that Lando was unhappy with the race WELL before the last pit stop strategy/fiasco came into play. Note that Lando is still asking for the tire advice for how to speed up, rather than being nagged about it. However, he's already framing it in terms of CATCHING OSCAR rather than LEAVING LEWIS BEHIND. He wants to win (of course of course, as professional athletes all do), but in doing so he's ignoring that Will has told him twice that "our race is with Verstappen [P3]" (lap 14) and "our opportunity ahead and behind is potentially to extend" (lap 23). In hindsight this looks to be where the seeds of the conflict are planted rather than the end of the next lap where Oscar goes off track. Lando here is already chafing against the team order to protect the 1-2 rather than race Oscar. Oscar going off the track just gives Lando an opportunity to take advantage of in terms of getting ahead.

Lap 33

WJ: "And Lando, opportunity: tight into apex turn 1 and turn 2."

Lap 34

TS: "Oscar is everything ok?" OP: "Yep." TS: "Ok we're in the window for a full safety car, in the window for a full safety car."

😂

WJ: "And Lando the full safety car window is open, just the full one. For your info it might mean a short soft stint at the end."

Lap 35

TS: "Kay pace is still good; make sure you stay off the astro cause that put a lot of temperature into the rears. Settle them back down; it's a really good place."

WJ: "And Lando both cars struggling with the rears. I know you know: you need to avoid those snaps."

So here what we get is Oscar fucked his rear tires by going off track. Between laps 33 and 36, the gap between Lando and Oscar drops from around 3.5 seconds to about 1.5 seconds. Lando has been concerned about his rear tires since lap 10. In Lap 27 Will specifically said that Lando was locking up his rear tires in turns 1 and 2.

This moment of Oscar going off track is literally the moment that changes everything. In Lap 33 we hear that Lando wants to fight Oscar for P1, but he doesn't really have any options to do so: too far behind to undercut, stuck in bad air and traffic. Oscar going off track closes the gap between them by SO much SO quickly that it suddenly becomes a new race. This is the moment where, if they were competitors, it would make perfect sense for Lando to take advantage of Oscar's mistake by undercutting him. And they ARE competitors to the extent that they are directly competing in the driver's championship. It makes sense that in this moment Lando spots a weakness in the competition and begins to focus on ways to exploit it. HOWEVER. Lando specifically is currently operating under the team's orders to defend P2, NOT challenge P1. Refer back to Andrea Stella's interview about potentially punishing drivers who disobey orders and you can see here the first hints of the future conflict between Lando and the pit wall.

Lap 36

TS: "Okay we're now in both safety car windows, safety car and virtual safety car." OP: "Copy, I think target level will be enough." TS: "Understood. We think we need target minus five, target minus 5."

Oscar is pushing for that (I think) lap 50 pit stop; the pit wall has already decided to move it up to around 45, probably because both cars are doing a shit job with their rear tires. At this point, given the pre-race decision that whoever lead into the last pit stop would be uncontested papaya P1, the pit wall is probably anticipating pitting Oscar first. He gets more specific instructions than Lando does (target minus 5 vs mid-40s) so it seems clear that they expect to maneuver Lando's pit stop around Oscar's rather than vice versa. Oscar is the priority driver at this moment.

WJ: "Lando, the key here will be to get to the mid-40s, and both safety car windows are open; please confirm."

That's not a typo; the radio recording has no response from Lando. THIS is why we get Will's cunty "is ur radio broke" message in lap 52, because LANDO HAS IGNORED HIM FOR 16 LAPS STRAIGHT.

Lap 37

TS: "Ok pace looks to be recovering a bit; how's the tire?" OP: "Yeah, recovered a bit now." TS: "Next few laps will be tricky with the traffic. You're doing a good job."

Lap 38

TS: "Ok you've got five seconds of clear air now, five seconds of clear air. And we're still putting a gap on Hamilton, and Verstappen is still stuck behind him."

Oscar can't make use of this clear air to pull ahead of Lando. Across laps 38 and 39, the gap between them hovers around 1.3.

WJ: "Lando, just be careful of the rears, turn 4, turn 11."

Here is where we get the beginning of the end in terms of specific Lando tire comments. He's known that his rear tires are not where they'd like him to be since lap 10. He's been warned twice in the first half of the race about using too much tire in turns 4 and 11. Now we put those two issues together: rear tires specifically struggling in turns 4 and 11.

Lap 39

WJ: "And Lando, gap now is 1.3; ok to race the papaya car, but still the mid-40s."

So now Lando has been given permission to race Oscar until the mid-40s pit stop. This I think we all assumed just from hearing the radio message over the broadcast. The key info that we didn't have on Sunday was that this is not just "race then stop." We now know from Baz's tweet that whoever lead INTO that pit stop was meant to be the uncontested winner. Of course I soooooo wish to have been a fly on the wall of that meeting so I could have the exact language of the agreement. Presumably "leading into the pit stop" is that whoever was P1 before either of them pit was meant to be P1 after they pit, or reestablished as P1. But I can easily see how, depending on the language of the initial instruction, this could be open the door for confusion re: Oscar being P1 but Lando being given the preferential undercut. Lando WASN'T P1 going into the pit stop, but by pitting him with an undercut, literally everyone knew he was going to be P1 coming out of the pit. Are you functionally P1 "going in" if you know you're going to be P1 coming out? I'm overthinking this way too hard and certainly thinking about it more than Oscar and Lando are capable of 😂 I think without the full story (which we'll never have), the most plausible explanation is "what conclusion is most likely to be reached by two under-educated rich white men" and the answer is of course the simplest conclusion: Oscar was leading into the pits, so Oscar should be reestablished as P1. The fact that Lando was so worked up about the situation is, in my view, more of a demonstration of the fact that he always assumed he would be winning, right from the initial pre-race agreement, rather than an indication that the instructions were unclear. But we can never really know 🤷‍♀️

[bunnytalksf1]

carlos sainz, master strategist

This post has been a long time brewing. If we're being honest, since Singapore 2023, but mostly since this year when this narrative has intensified and been propped by the official media within Formula 1.

The fan narrative, especially since Singapore 23, was that Sainz was a strategic genius for keeping Norris behind (in a slower car) in his DRS range in order to back up the queue: "yeah, it's on purpose". I'm not trying to downplay his role here: that was ultimately a smart thing to do, but it is incredibly common in terms of strategy around a track where overtaking is difficult. The Ferrari strategy team did something very similar at Monaco 2024 with both Leclerc and Sainz, backing up the pack to stop the McLarens from getting a free stop over Russell, who was driving slowly to preserve his medium tyres. In AD16, Hamilton backed up Rosberg to try and push him back into Vettel, and thus give himself a better chance at winning the championship. My point: this is smart, but not never-before-seen, or unheard of.

At AD23, Leclerc, trying to preserve Ferrari's hopes for P2 in the constructors' with Sainz out of the points, allowed Perez past him when he got a five second penalty, to try and generate a 5 second gap between Perez and Russell, pushing Russell back to P4 in the race and minimising the points total of Mercedes. It didn't work - Leclerc waited maybe one or two laps too late, and Perez crossed the line in P2 but still finished behind Russell with the five second penalty. This strategy was Leclerc's call, but I remember immediately after the penalty was called thinking "let him past" and I'm not a strategist. This should have been a team strategy call, not a drivers', but still. This was Leclerc's call. He was not lauded like Sainz was for doing this. Not arguing he should have been, just pointing it out.

In the same race, Sainz was put on a truly strange strategy that saw him in the points, then pitted for the same compound and waiting for a safety car despite the one-stop being possible and a preferred strategy. He was not blamed for this strategy choice, nor should he have been. Ferrari are a truly strange beast when they actually have a chance of winning something.

So why is Sainz lauded as a master of strategy? Drivers shouldn't be credited nor blamed for it overall, in my opinion. Strategy departments have a lot more influence than the fans see: in debriefs, meetings, painstaking long hours where every possibilty is considered. For every race, there is an ideal strategy, for every race there is an alternative, a safety car possibilty, etc. Drivers are involved, of course, but the main bulk of the work is done by the strategists, who are blamed if it goes wrong, and ignored if it goes right.

Where this gets bizarre in regards to Sainz, though, is that his fans had started crediting him for part of Leclerc's win in Monaco, despite him being down in third, unable to affect Piastri in front at all. I'll give Sainz his dues: he definitely played the team game, but not in a way where he had to sacrifice himself. His backing up of Norris, not allowing him a free pitstop, was just as much to maintain his podium as it was to maintain Leclerc's win. In fact, in the latter stages, Leclerc was able to check out and eke a gap of eight seconds to Piastri behind, which had nothing to do with Sainz at all.

(Meanwhile, in Singapore 2023, the strategy team put Leclerc on softs at the beginning of the race to give him a better launch, making up ground at the start to protect and defend Sainz in the first stint. He recieves very little credit for this at the end of the race, despite it probably helping a fair amount).

At Silverstone 2024, Sainz was credited for being given the better strategy regarding the intermediate/slick tyres, and Leclerc was battered pretty thoroughly for "making the wrong choice" to the point that Elkann got involved. Both drivers were fed entirely different information, but still, there was the narrative that Sainz had somehow contributed to the communication being more effective, despite his engineer, Adami, being Vettel's engineer previously and a hell of a lot more experienced than Bozzi.

Then, Monza. Leclerc drives a one-stop in a slower (ish, debateable), car to give the scuderia a win in front of their home crowd, something which no one thought possible on Sunday morning. I've already given Leclerc his flowers, and I'm his fan, so of course I'm recognising what was respected as an incredible drive. No problems there. Sainz also drove the one stop and moved up to P4, which was a solid result given that Ferrari wasn't too optimistic about fighting with the McLarens. There was some chatter about Sainz helping fight off Piastri just enough to help Leclerc to the win, which I somewhat agree with, from fans.

Bernie Collins then posted an article that credited Sainz with the strategy call to go on a one-stop, and fans somewhat latched onto it. Collins was a strategist herself, and I really like her commentary on both Sky F1 and F1TV, where she provides valuable insight. The article, however--

Leclerc's decision to one-stop wasn't split: it couldn't have been. The one-stop was the ideal strategy going into the race as the pitlane loss is high and overtaking in Monza is harder than other tracks, especially without tyre offset. His laptimes, from the outset of the second stint, were consistent with going for this strategy, despite realistically pitting too early for it in a botched strategy moment that had him complaining to the team about being undercut, and missing an opportunity to build a tyre offset as his mediums were fine. Sainz pitted AFTER Leclerc, and thus by this point both Ferraris and both McLarens were aiming for a one-stop strategy. The race came alive when the McLarens started experiencing pretty extreme graining that made the cars undriveable towards the end of their second stint. Sainz then played his role great in backing up Piastri and Norris, but couldn't keep up with or catch up to Leclerc despite the tyre offset. In post-race, Vasseur, Leclerc, and Sainz himself (!!) all said the plan from the start was the one-stop, and the two stop was only considered momentarily as the McLarens started experiencing graining. Ultimately, it would be entirely wrong to credit Sainz with the strategy decision, since it was not his.

I've been noticing more fans crediting their favourite drivers with good strategy calls during the race, and then blaming strategy departments when things go wrong. We cannot have it both ways. If drivers ALWAYS decide their strategy, and are "master strategists" then we also need to credit them when things go wrong. Whilst drivers have a hand in strategy, they are not strategists themselves, do not have the data, and shouldn't necessarily be praised for strategy that they enact during the race, given that its likely a possibility that was talked over, rather than an idea in the spur of the moment. The strategists for teams are underappreciated, despite playing an absolutely vital role week in, week out. They support the drivers, and drivers are nothing without good strategy: look at Red Bull.

Sainz is not a strategist, he's a driver. And we need to start remembering that more often. Even, seemingly, people in the paddock.

[sixdegreesofbali]

Omfg we're half a second slower than HAAS.

Edit: tbf so were the Mclarens.

[umlewis]

2007 Monaco GP, post-qualifying interviews

Interviewer: "Lewis, as we say, a clean sweep for the McLaren-Mercedes team. It looked as if you were held up by Mark Webber going through the tunnel." Lewis: "Yeah, I had a fantastic qualifying, I think. It was quite exciting, and then it started to rain in the middle part of the session. I think I was P1 at the time and I was hoping it would continue to rain, but unfortunately it didn't. It was a bit of a gamble, a bit of a lottery, really. I called in and said let's come into the pits on this lap just in case it rains towards the end. The lap was fantastic; it was really on the limit. I think I touched one of the barriers on the exit of turn four, and I was three tenths up on my previous best, and then I got held up by Webber. He was on an 'out' lap. I don't know whether he saw me or what, but he didn't let me past until turn eight, so I lost half a second behind him. I still managed to pull it back. I was only a tenth off my previous lap, but still, the tires were gone and that was that." Interviewer: "Lewis, you've won three times here before, twice in Formula Three, once in GP2. It just looks as if you love driving a Formula 1 car around here." Lewis: "I do. I do. It's an awesome track. It's my favorite, and just knowing that you're brushing the barriers all the time, that there's no room for error... It's extremely quick. You wouldn't believe how quick we're going round here, 180 miles an hour between… There's not really much room there. And to me, for my first grand prix, I'm really happy to be second. It's good for the team, and I think Fernando did a great job, but I think tomorrow is going to be interesting."

Press Conference:

Interviewer: "Lewis, very interesting time on your very first lap when, in theory, you've got a race fuel load which was only 0.2s slower than your fastest time in the first session. Does that tell us about your fuel strategy?" Lewis: "I don't think so. You can take what you want from it, but it definitely doesn't mean anything about my fuel load. I think we were just extremely quick and I felt great in the car. I thought it was almost exactly the same time as I did at the end. I thought I did 1m15.9s on heavy fuel. I think that's what I qualified second with. It was good, a good lap, but at the end… It was a really exciting qualifying session. I think we did a very good job. I thought the team was quite accurate with the weather conditions; they said it was going to rain when it rained, and mid-part of the last run, it started to spit. I was on a good lap and I was fortunate to finish it, but then we couldn't push for the rest of the laps. We came in, got the tires on and started the lap, and it was good. I was three and a half tenths up by turn four and then I caught Mark Webber and I lost half a second behind him but still managed to do exactly the same time. I'm really happy with it. It's good for the team and I think it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow." Interviewer: "You seemed to have a drama at the hairpin, Portier. Was that Webber-induced?" Lewis: "Yeah, well I caught him through turn four and I don't know whether he didn't see me or what. In the drivers' briefing he was saying they need to be hard on us for holding people up, and he came out and held me up. But I think it was the same for everyone. It doesn't really affect me; I still got second. That's good."

Journalist: "Rodrigo Franca, Racing Magazine. You three said Monaco is special because of everything. Ayrton Senna was remembered just yesterday and I would like you all to say something about him." Lewis: "Ayrton was my favourite driver, and when I first started watching Formula 1 it was the red and white car at the front, and as a little boy I was always dreaming of driving that car and I'm driving it now and, so, you know, when you come to Monaco… I have lots of memories of watching him win here and when he lost a race when he crashed, and I was definitely emotional when he passed away, but still... It's great to be racing here and to be doing as well as he always did when he was racing." Journalist: "Livio Oricchio, O Estado de Sao Paulo. For Alonso and Lewis, you're first and second on the grid and in the championship. All the drivers this year who led through the first corner went on to win the race. Will you talk to each other about the start?" Alonso: "The team will say to us something, I think. We respect each other, obviously, and want the best for the other one, inside the team, and we want to beat our opponent that this year seems to be Ferrari, and starting first and second at Monaco what we aim is to finish first and second because it is the most points, and apart from that I don't think there are any problems between us and it should be just a normal race." Lewis: "I agree. The team will speak to us before, but we're professional. We respect each other and we are teammates and we want to do a good job for the team, but we also want to win and we will go into that first corner probably not as aggressively as we would if we were going into it with a Ferrari. But we're going to be conservative and see what happens. We're on different fuel strategies, similar pace, so we'll have to see how it goes. It's going to be difficult tomorrow with the conditions, and also you never know when the pace car is going to come out. We'll see."

Journalist: "Frederic Ferret, L'Equipe. Lewis and Fernando, how is the pace of the McLaren in the long runs?" Lewis: "I think we've seen in the past the Ferraris have been extremely very quick, but I think if you look at it we've been the quickest this weekend. I think we have a great car, the best car, and I think on Thursday we had a very good long run, very consistent, so I have no worries going into the race." Journalist: "Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport. Kimi had a bad day. Do you think this will have an affect in the championship?" Lewis: "Sorry, I was in a daze therr. I didn't know if that question was for me! I think it was unfortunate, but I don't really know what happened to him. I thought he spun and I got held up by Felipe. He had to stop and I had to stop on one lap, but I think it's difficult for him at the moment. Obviously Felipe is doing a better job, and whether he's being more fortunate or what I'm not sure, but he's doing a good job. As Fernando said, it's a long season and there's a long way to go, so he has time to catch up if he needs to." Journalist: "Ian Parkes, The Press Association. Lewis, are you happy to curb your natural instincts at the start of the race tomorrow?" Lewis: "Yes. I think you have to run on your natural instincts and see how the start goes. If I get a better start and it looks like I can pass, then I probably will, but I won't do anything silly to risk pushing both of us out of the race. It's a long, long race and I think I feel good about our strategies, and I feel we can come away with a one-two, so it's important we're sensible." Journalist: "Malcolm Folley, The Mail on Sunday. Lewis, have you had a chance to put into perspective what starting the Monaco Grand Prix from the front row of the grid will feel like?" Lewis: "I think it's going to be, well... Driving this track every year is just something special for me. To come here and to drive for a team I always wanted to drive for in my first grand prix here, it's a very, very special moment for me. Tomorrow we just want to finish the race in the points, continue the way we've been going this season. It will be amazing to be sitting at the front there."

[ehcahache]

Heyy! Here's something you could ponder on while driving:

What will be the grid line-up in 2024? And will Alex ever leave Williams for another team? 🩵 Or Charles? ❤

Hope this can entertain you a bit 😁 Enjoy your trip!

Omg thanks, I really needed this! Imma go team by team for this 'cause I really have time to write a lot here ahahha

(spoiler: this occupied me for more than half of the trip, thanks really)

Red Bull

Max V. / Checo P. - Daniel R.

This might not make a lot of sense but hear me out, Max is obviously going to stay there because he has a contract AND the team would be stupid if they let him go before the end of it.

Now, Checo has a contract 'till the end of next year. Depending on how he keeps his performance this year and the start of next, they might change him in the middle of the season with Daniel. Why Daniel? Because Red Bull doesn't have anyone better to replace him with, not at the same level of performance and they already know Daniel. I don't think they see Yuki prepared enough for being in a top team and it's unlikely anyone would want to be the second driver to Max.

Checo performed well enough for what he should do last weekend in Spa, qualifying P3 and ending in the podium. Horner and Marko say that they are happy with his performance but qualifying P18 and then overtaking everyone WITH THE BEST CAR is not the flex they try us to think.

Mercedes

Lewis H. / George R.

This line up shouldn't change, there's no need to fire someone. The thing is, I am a bit weirded out by the fact that they still haven't announced Lewis' renovation, especially because of all the noise about him going to Ferrari at the beginning of the season. Mercedes should already have done the renovation to say "we're still here, keeping him, we still have the most successful driver and he still has us"

This makes me think of two options: Lewis is asking for too much, Mercedes can't give it to him and Lewis won't back down from what he asked OR Lewis might surprise us with his retirement sooner than later. Not next season but maybe if he can't achieve the 8th in 2-3 years

Aston Martin

Lance S. / Fernando A.

Another line up that I think won't change. Fernando supposedly has a contract until 2024 and we all know how Lance is there. I've seen English media say that Lance might retire by the end of next year, but I don't think that having a teammate like Fernando, who is winning by a far margin, would demotivate him so much. No more to add here.

Ferrari

Charles L. / Carlos S.

The team would be incredibly stupid if they didn't want this line up for next year. They have Charles, who might be faster in qualy but fails in consistency and Carlos, who might be a bit slower in qualy but has incredible consistency and reading abilities. From there, Charles might continue with them for years but I think Carlos would go to another team after next season. It's clear how Ferrari doesn't like Carlos and he should look for a team where he is appreciated.

McLaren

Lando N. / Oscar P.

Lando was the one who caused more controversy about this, with every team wanting him as soon as the car performed better. But that's exactly the reason why he won't leave the papaya team. He already said publicly if I'm not wrong, on the lowest of the team he thought about leaving and taking someone's offer but now that the team is working and the results show it, he won't leave now that they have success.

Alpine

Esteban O. / Pierre G.

I am not really sure about this one, after all, they are changing everything inside and thus could result in affecting the divers. Maybe it's because I don't like Pierre, but I don't think they'll keep him after 2024. He's not performing as expected (by the team) I think and has been involved in bug crashes. He's a driver with lots of points, on the verge of a race ban. If I were a team principal I wouldn't like a driver "problematic" as him. If they get to manage everything correctly, Jack Doohan looks like the best option for them from their academy.

Williams

Alex A. / Frederik V.

Okay, hear me out. Alex has a contract with Williams until 2025 (as Horner revealed) and Logan is a rookie who needs to be given opportunities but he should've stepped up next year, not this. He still needed a bit more experience.

I literally know nothing about how Vesti is doing in F2 apart from that he is second in the championship. My point is, Williams is powered by Mercedes and they could do a deal like they did with George, put him there to gain experience and then move him up to Mercedes. What could Williams get in exchange? Literally anything because that team has literally nothing, it is still surprising to me how good they are doing lately knowing how bad their installations are.

Haas

Nico H. / Pietro F.

Günther does weird things with this team, he loves drama. My only reasoning after this is that he loves to compliment a driver a lot during a year and the next year he'll fire him. He did this with Mick and I already see the same happening to Kevin.

Giving lots of content to Netflix as always.

Alfa Romeo

Zhou G. / Theo P.

Yesterday some rumours of the team renovating Zhou came out, that's the reason I keep him here. I'm not putting Valtteri here because I think this will be his last season in F1. Since the start of the season I've thought that he will retire this year and those rumours last month about him doing it kind of made this though stronger. That and the fact that he's doing all these "crazy" things that Mercedes wouldn't let him do in a thousand years. I think he's just enjoying this season as much as he can before giving us the last bye.

Alpha Tauri

Yuki T. / Daniel R. - Checo P.

Another year, another season Yuki will spend in AT. I don't think Red Bull will ever let him try a seat in their top team until Max retires ahahah. I would like to see him next to Max but there's some favouritism in the structure and Yuki is not the favoured one.

The second seat is already explained up.

Now, do I think Alex and Charles would leave their respective teams?

I think that Alex will. I don't see him as connected as Charles to Ferrari or Lando to McLaren. He's comfortable in the team because after all they are treating him correctly, with respect, not like the Red Bull structure. If he wants to be a champion he'll need another opportunity in a top team because I see it really difficult for Williams to step up their game in a short time. They need to renovate their facilities and that takes years (I do hope they can do it though, it'll be beautiful to have different teams between the top ones we've had the last 2 decades)

About Charles, I think he will realize he doesn't owe anything to Ferrari very late. Like, he loves Ferrari so much after everything they've done that I think that the only way he'll realize he won't achieve anything in there is if Carlos does well outside that team. Why Carlos? Because he'll be the only ex-teammate still in the grid, no other reason. He has too much confidence in that team and it will backfire on him. Probably the love the tifosi and the Italian media have for him won't help to make a decision.

[ninetqs]

imo charles hasn't had as many impressive overtakes because he hasn't really needed to overtake? a lot of his strategies this year have relied on going long, or being otherwise out of sync with everyone. he's made some excellent moves, including getting past george today, or alonso in singapore. in 2022 ferrari was neck-in-neck with red bull, so there were more opportunities for those big flashy overtakes for p1, p2, etc. idk, i've seen charles make a lot of excellent moves this year, but maybe that's because i have his onboard open. i think he can still pull off those vegas-style overtakes, he just hasn't had a chance to do it this year.

(also if this is about baku, there was no overtaking oscar with that rear wing)

idk if i'd agree getting past george today was impressive? merc and george in particular were horrible. george was over half a second slower than charles, i don't really see what's impressive about passing that much slower of a car. and i fully believe if he'd been smarter he could've easily been p2 (that is, pushing harder at the start so carlos never passed him and then he would be the one taking advantage of lando locking up at the end)

maybe that's because i have his onboard open

i also watch his onboard every race and while i think there's many areas he's excelled in this/last year, i don't think overtaking is one of them

a lot of his strategies this year have relied on going long, or being otherwise out of sync with everyone

i don't like rating things that haven't happened and so far this year, you are correct he's rarely been in a position to overtake, which means he has not done many overtakes, which means i'm not going to definitively say he can since they haven't happened. there's way more impressive things he has done this year IRT tire management, defending, and so on that should be praised rather than his mostly non-existent overtakes

if this is about baku, there was no overtaking oscar with that rear wing

my point about baku is about how he stayed out for one lap longer (returning to what i said about ferrari fixating on going long), nothing to do with him not overtaking oscar after. he lost a crazy amount of time on his in/outlaps bcs of the dying/cold tires that was just unnecessary. the entire situation of oscar passing him could've been avoided if he'd pit one lap earlier. the sf-24 and charles are both great on tires but those mediums were falling off a cliff

i also don't understand the logic of "if we let oscar pass we can pass him later" when 1. the mcl38 is notoriously good in clean air, 2. it's baku. like of course they couldn't have predicted the mclaren illegal wing so i don't fault charles himself for not passing back, i just don't get why it was even something they considered vs. the safer option of doing his outlap at the same time as oscar, therefore lessening the chance of oscar catching him on cold tires. i blame ferrari more for this than charles though, i only brought it up as an example of them not being proactive enough

ferrari's strategy has improved a lot this year though so i'm not too bothered by these kinds of failures. like i think it did lose charles the race but it was ultimately a small error with huge consequences, and i'd like to think they learned from it

and again i'll be happily proved wrong tmrw if charles decides to unleash the beast or whatever, i just don't think he's shown anything this year that points to him being one of the best overtakers on the grid atm. he's not bad or anything but he's not sending it down the inside either

i hope none of this sounds mean btw. i truly don't mind if anyone disagrees w me in the end we're debating bcs we all love charles and i think that's what's important 😁

[f1]

Hungarian Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc top in practice with Lando Norris second

The Hungarian Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and BBC Sport website Ferrari's Charles Leclerc headed McLaren's Lando Norris in Friday practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Leclerc was 0.217 seconds quicker than Norris, who surprisingly beat the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen's Red Bull. Leclerc was comfortably clear of the two drivers who will most likely be his key rivals this weekend. Sainz was 0.231secs behind his team-mate and world champion Verstappen 0.283secs off the pace. Mercedes appeared to be struggling. George Russell was their quickest driver in eighth place, 0.910secs slower than Leclerc and behind McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo, Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel. Russell complained of recurring brake locking going into the first corner. "What the hell is going on at Turn One?" he asked over the radio. "I just can't get around it without locking brakes." Lewis Hamilton was even worse off, in 11th place and 1.102secs behind Leclerc, and complaining the car was "unstable" on his race-simulation run. Leclerc had to abandon his race-simulation run when he felt a problem with the engine at the start of it, complaining of a lack of torque in fourth gear. He was told to pit, and he asked: "Is there a problem?" "We're checking it," his engineer said. But he managed to get out on track again, and he had a significant pace advantage over Verstappen, Leclerc as much as 0.3secs ahead on average with both running the medium tyre. Sainz's first run was on the softs and could not be compared. Mercedes were in as poor shape on the race run as on one lap, Russell lagging about a second behind Verstappen on average. Leclerc needs to win on Sunday after losing major ground in the championship by crashing in France last weekend. He trails Verstappen by 63 points with 10 races remaining. McLaren were running a tweaked diffuser design, but the two most intriguing upgrades were at Aston Martin and Haas. Aston Martin have introduced a design that reintroduces a form of end-plate. The 2022 regulations were written in a way that intended to prevent these parts of the rear wing being used, replacing them with a curved transition from the sides of the wing to the downforce-creating elements. This was part of a package of changes to reduce turbulence and make it easier for cars to follow each other. The other notable upgrade was on the Haas, which features an extensive package of changes and has been dubbed the 'white Ferrari' for its similarity to the car that has been the qualifying king this season. via BBC Sport - Formula 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/