#william villeneuve

[wollerjoseph]

baby leaf mic’d up (slight cut and edit by me for mints moments)

[hughesapalooza]

multi sport athletes

[couldawouldashoulda50]

[grebenkin]

[schumigrace]

jacques villeneuve, nigel mansell, jenson button & alain prost in Lap of Legends

[f1sweetheart]

they had graham hill's son + gilles villeneuve's son = NEPOTISM

just think about it, they were fucking nepo babies

[straightline-bow]

I know everyone is mostly joking with the whole ‘oh the GPDA should strike’ thing after their statement in instagram, but I really think we should be having a conversation about how actually, they can’t strike, and that lack of ability to use collective bargaining can be and may be incredibly dangerous.

The issue with the GPDA as a union is that it only covers the twenty current Formula 1 drivers. Now, many people see no issue with this - why would anyone else need coverage? - but this is what sort of hamstrings the GPDA as a union. Should the members go on strike, there would be backlash in the press, pressure on the FIA, FOM, Liberty and the teams - but there are other drivers, who have the super licences needed to drive an F1 car. And could you even blame them? We’ve seen how hard it can be for rookies to get a seat - Colapinto looks a lot like he may be able to get on the grid, either for next year or the year after, and that is a swansong MIRACLE that came out of nowhere for him. Lawson and Piastri had to wait on the sidelines, as did Doohan. The only Driver’s Academies that seem to be working are Ferrari’s (A Leclerc off to WEC, Bearman in Haas), Mercedes’ to an extent (They tossed Aron aside when he’s been doing fantastically, but Antonelli has a seat) and sort of Mclaren’s (Bortoleto was under them in F2, but he has now severed ties to sign for Audi.). And even then they CLEARLY have their failures. Can you truly blame young drivers for taking any and every opportunity handed to them when so few succeed at all?

A strike would be very easily defeated by the FIA and Co - and there would be no guarantee of contracts post strike, and although the WDCs and highest level drivers could probably weather the storm, there is no way the rookies and those from smaller teams would be able to, and they could likely lose their seats over it. Quite frankly, the only way for a strike to work in the drivers favour in this day and age would be for them to vote to include all drivers who have superlicences in the union, and then for all of them to strike together.

A reminder: every driver who has an official contract with a team entered into the F1 championship can apply for a superlicence, if they hold the other requirements (usually a certain number of points plus a driver’s licence pluse a competition licence plus a theory test on first sitting), which means drivers from IndyCar, WEC, lower formulas, Formula E and test drivers are all usually eligible, or can be. I think the official number is around 70ish drivers are eligible, plus any retired F1 drivers who keep up the fitness standard and 100km of practise across a year - so drivers such as Jacques Villneauve could potentially still have a valid superlicence, so long as he proved he did enough practise.

Aside from the sheer unlikelihood of the GPDA being allowed to vote to include all holders of valid superlicences - which could possibly lead to the core members facing severe consequences, possibly the same as striking on their own - there are a lot of drivers who would not strike for safety precautions, purely they don’t think they are necessary (Brundle on the halo) or because they know if they broke the line they could get a drive, and because the GPDA has so little political power it very rarely is able to intercede to set minimum wages etc the way other unions are able to, any drivers breaking the line would know they weren’t losing out on anything but a moral argument, and potential safety issues. Some people don’t think about safety until they need it.

The current state of affairs is just incredibly concerning, and I think that although it’s fun and fine to make jokes about it, we should definitely remember both the driver’s own lack of agency, and that even though some aren’t satisfied with the statement they put out, it is perhaps one of the only things they can do.

[gayish-potato-f1]

I know everyone's talking about how uneventful this race was in terms of actual overtaking, but can we take a moment to appreciate the amount of petty and amusing drama? Hamilton and Leclerc beefing with their engineers, Albon beefing with all of Williams, the FIA beefing with Sainz (for legal reasons, this is a joke). Not to mention the lawn mower McLaren, Red Bull 2nd seat curse, brutally honest Jacques Villeneuve commentary, and the general flamability of the first part of the weekend? IM LIVING! 😂😂😂

[penskecar]

these are the guys people say have a rivalry in the making btw

[britney-rosberg06]

Williams family in lap of legends you will ALWAYS be famous

[velvetsainz]

2023 F1 TEAMS ⟶ 7/10 ⟶ WILLIAMS RACING

“The first thing to remember is that all the really great drivers are bastards. They might come across as nice guys, and quite often they are—until the other nice guy beats them! I don’t hold that against them—it’s the way they’re made, and what makes them great: they must win." — Sir Frank Williams, founder of Williams Racing + longest-serving team principal in F1 history

[wollerjoseph]

this is soooo important to me

[hughesapalooza]

toronto marlies you are so important to me

[escapentropy]

this was so sweet

[theskyisthelimit06]

off to my shenags I go..

[i-am-church-the-cat]

So Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button both posted about Lap of Legends on their Instagram the day it came out but James, Alex, Logan, and the official Williams account did not. Idk if the Michelob Ultra account posted about it on their Instagram bc of weird things but I assume they did but according to their Twitter, there's a Michelob Ultra sweepstakes with secret codes from the show. Not that you would know that if you were following Williams.

I still just don't know how to process this. So much time, money, and talent. And you don't promote it because you don't like your junior driver anymore? What the fuck.