#lewis is never gonna get his 8th championship now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vro0m · 4 months

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Seeing how confident McLaren is about their car and their drivers makes me nervous. I saw that Toto extended his contract at Merc through 2026 and it just feels like same sh*t, different toilet. I think Toto should just be satisfied as the owner of the team and step aside and let another TP come in and change the culture at Merc. I think that could potentially attract new engineers that could help with the development of the car.

Lewis is struggling with his qualifying times and George is overconfident. At this point, it's starting to feel like Merc is just not that girl. Why are they starting all over again with their car? I'm fairly new to f1, but I thought it takes years to develop a championship-winning car, yet they're developing a brand new one over the winter? That doesn't feel right to me.

Also, I didn't understand TeamLH bragging about Lewis retaining Monster as his sponsor, when Monster jumped ship from Merc to McLaren. Isn't losing sponsorships a bad thing, since the team is losing money that it would likely use to develop the car that would help Lewis win his 8th WDC? A loss for the team is a loss for Lewis..unless I'm wrong.

I truly hope Merc proves me wrong, but something's gotta give. I just don't have confidence in them.

Do you think that Merc needs a major overhaul or do you think they're going to make progress continuing on the path that they're on?

Okay i was gonna answer this in the morning but i can’t sleep so here we go, sorry if it’s a bit unhinged.

Here’s the thing. In my book, the second rule of F1 is never ever listen to a team principal. (The first rule being, of course, you always, always have to do better than your teammate.) So I’ll believe McLaren’s confidence is warranted when I’ll see it. Hell, I’ll believe they really are confident and it’s not basic 101 PR when I’ll see it. And mind you, Toto seems pretty confident too. (The only thing I’m happy about here is that he also said they’ve been working on their pitstops but due to Rule 2, I’ll also only believe it when I’ll see it.)

They’re starting over with their car because, as you noticed, the past two cars were Not Working. So no real choice here but to get back to square 1 rather than spend a third year trying to make a car that doesn’t work, work. Building a championship-winning car is less a matter of time (I mean especially nowadays with the costcap and windtunnel allocation etc. it’s getting irrelevant), and more a matter of getting it right. RedBull got it right and they won. The problem is : the others need to develop to catch up to them because they didn’t get it as right as RB, and that takes time and resources and is very complicated. And if you have a bad starting point, it’s that much more difficult. Basically there were too many things that needed changing with this car concept anyway. So they’re starting over. But it's also not like they don't have data and experiments from the past two years. They know more about these regs and cars than in 2021. Are they gonna win the ‘24 championship with the W15? No. But they weren’t gonna win by keeping the last, dysfunctional car concept either anyway. At least now they have a chance to develop in the right direction.

I did not read anything about the Monster sponsorship because i really, really don’t care. I didn’t even know that was a thing. I don’t think Monster leaving Mercedes is gonna make a dent in their budget. First of all, there’s a costcap now, so they can’t throw money at a bad car to make it good anyway. Second of all, they have a lot of other sponsors. Third, they’re the second most expensive team in the paddock. And fourth, their parent company is worth 85 billions of dollars. Lewis’ 8th has pretty much nothing to do with Monster or any sponsorship.

To answer your main question : no, I don’t think Merc needs a major overhaul. Given that you’re fairly new to F1 I concede it might not look like it in the current context but changing TPs is actually Not All That. And it generally doesn’t really solve anything. If anything I’m against major overhauls. Imho a stable ground is the best ground to build up on. Toto is... Toto. But he’s not the reason why the car is bad. It’s a whole team. 2’000+ employees. You can’t pinpoint any of the problems they have on one singular person. I mean Ferrari has had 5 different TPs in the last 10 years and that has solved exactly zero of their problems, and they still haven’t won a championship since 2007.

They are making progress. All of them are. It’s just, it’s F1. We’re talking about such tiny tiny differences in performance now, millimeters off of a piece of carbon fiber, milliseconds off of a time sheet. The time the pecking order could be turned upside down from one race to the next has been gone for decades. It’s all about the long game when the differences are so subtle. Even more now that they, again, can’t just throw money and wind tunnels at issues. It’s frustrating when it’s not your driver/team on top but success is mostly cyclical in this sport. Right now it’s RedBull. Next who knows. Merc is just not that girl, at the moment. It is what it is.

ETA : btw I think firing Toto would really throw Lewis off so. Another reason not to imo.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #2023 winter break #vro0m's asks

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violetvettel · 2 years

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I don’t get how people took Sebastian saying massi shouldn’t be the only person to blame for a mess made by many, as him not caring about what happened in Abu Dhabi? As if he hasn’t spoken up so many times, before that mess even happened, about how the F1 organization cares more about the money and the show and sensationalism instead of racing and being clean and fair and following the actual rules. But I guess whatever floats peoples boats and puts words and thoughts into Sebastian’s head. I mean they can disagree with his stance on massi’s career specifically but I don’t know why they have to straight up forget things he has said and also make stuff up😤 Like I just want to say to them come on people, pay attention to him outside of the confines of when it’s convenient for you.

“I mean they can disagree with his stance on massi’s career specifically but I don’t know why they have to straight up forget things he has said and also make stuff up😤”

I mean, this has always been the general mob mentality. Jump to conclusions, throw accusations and abuse, and conveniently forget everything else because it doesn't fit the current narrative. With the internet, it's even easier to hide behind a screen and say whatever shit you want.

Let me be clear. I don't agree with what Seb said about Masi. In my opinion, he shouldn't have. But at the end of the day, he's a driver, he's in the sport, and I'm not. He knows more than I ever could. He's entitled to his choices and opinions and I don't have to agree with that just because he's my favourite. Both Lewis and Seb are two of the goodest guys; ultra talented drivers who really don't need to prove anything to anyone. They're A+++++ kind of people and I adore and respect them tremendously. But also, they're human and they're never gonna be flawless and faultless. And if some people think otherwise, I hope they can realise how utterly impossible that is and get some perspective.

As his fan, I disagreed with Seb and called it out too. But if I'm expected to stop being his fan because his opinion doesn't match mine entirely, that's unrealistic.

I'm also a Lewis fan and I speak for myself now coz I'm not a spokesperson for f1 fans and neither do I ever want to be. I firmly believe that Lewis Hamilton was robbed of his record breaking 8th championship for many reasons, some that go beyond “entertainment”. It's a shame that Masi not only misjudged but also misused his powers to redirect the results of a title fight deciding race. He must be held accountable for his incompetence! But I also hold Toto Wolff, Christian Horner and Jonathan Wheatley accountable for creating an environment where Masi took these steps. The circumstances shouldn't be overlooked.

You guys are free to disagree with me, but I'm not giving you any guarantee that I'm up for a discussion about the same.

Cheers xoxo

#answered #anonymous #finally decided to write the answer for a third fckn time ON MY PHONE AHRJSHDK #anyway as a woman of colour I can guarantee you I SEE THE RACISM. I'm not ignoring that and I'm not invalidating the possibility-#-of this decision being racially driven. but no evidence shows it is yet #I've always said that I'M TRULY ECSTATIC coz a BLACK MAN is at the pinnacle of a rich white people sport. and he's the one and only?!!!#and it makes me so so so angry that they took it away from him.#.....yeah #*when I say evidence i mean tangible evidence. but also I don't know enough about the same so I'll shut up now 👀

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alonsista · 4 years

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Tbf I'd definitely want to hear everything about "Germany 2010: the breakdown" so feel free to use this ask to share your knowledge with me 👀👀💕

thanks for the ask, anna!! i’m sure you already know all about it, though 😂 oh where do i even begin... to anyone who has never seen it, this race is a must watch! the iconicity..... the cultural impact.... the teammate drama.... the $100k fine....

germany 2010: how one of ferrari’s biggest ‘fuck ups’ was actually kinda worth it

the german gp was the 11th race of that season - lewis was then leading the championship with 158 points and fernando was 5th with 98 (1 win + 2 podiums). massa (whom i’ll be calling felipe from now on here bc it’s kinda weird for me to call him massa ngl) was 8th with 67 points (0 wins + 2 podiums). their podiums were both p2/p3 so the only difference between them at that point was fernando’s win in bahrain.

felipe led most of the race, jenson led some of the laps too but the brazilian took back the lead until lap 48. i rewatched it a few months ago and he was locking up for some odd reason i don’t know, which was clearly not helping at all. still, he was leading it, but if we look at the drivers standings, he clearly did NOT have a shot at the championship and a fernando win was supposed to be much more welcome to ferrari.

the sad unfortunate coincidence here was that that race was held on the same day as the first anniversary of felipe's accident; basically pretty much everyone wanted him to win because it would mean more than his first win in a year and a half, it would also mean that he’s still got it even after having almost died.

but ferrari made the (right yet fucked up, imo) decision to have them switch their places. although i think the most fucked up thing here was actually forcing (felipe’s then engineer and also the loml) rob smedley to do that instead of having literally anyone else do it (errr, dunno, maybe stefano domenicali himself). 8 y/o me energy raging over this = still unmatched. i swore to god i would never support ferrari again BUT HEY i was born a clown.

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...nevertheless, that was the birth of one of THE most iconic team radios aka felipe, fernando is faster than you. that’s simply poetic F1, it can’t get better than this. a team radio that cost ferrari a U$100.000 fine. why, one would ask... well, they had this stupid rule (after the 2002 season) that BANNED TEAM ORDERS. idk if any newer fans (or just anyone at all) are actually reading this but yeah, you heard it right. they unironically thought that banning team orders was gonna help this sport become more competitive. it still amazes me to this day, they thought no one was gonna come up with coded messages.

i could go on yelling about how the podium is yet THE BEST PART OF THIS RACE (because THE AKWARDNESS!!!!!!!!! the 2-min deafening silence! felipe looking like he could kill fernando in front of everyone!) but this post is already as long as it is. if some of y’all have never watched this race please do it and make sure to watch the press conference afterwards too. those were the 2 most awkward F1 moments i have ever seen during my entire life and i think nothing will top that.

welp, here’s the bbc coverage about it which features ferrari’s then team principal (stefano domenicali aka satan himself) who literally couldn’t give ANY fucks about it (istg this man still frightens me to this day. if i ever get rich RICH i’m not buying a Lamborghini - he’s the ceo) + the loml rob smedley (i’m a rob fan first human second) + schumi PREACHING THE TRUTH (that it’s the right thing to do for the championship, and it’s something that had been done several times before)

if you can’t watch the press con then this entire transcript will still give you a very good laugh. maybe i love it more than i should.

lovely. also completely worth watching felipe and fernando’s post race interviews (nando saying there were no team orders and he thought felipe had a gear problem <3).

but this is THE BEST video imo, you can cut the tension with a knife. vettel trying to run away because of how bad it was and fernando not letting him go. fernando answering shitty questions. felipe about to throw some hands in front of the journalists. a cultural reset.

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IN CONCLUSION, why was it worth it? well, it was a huuuge controversy and unfortunately fernando didn’t end up winning the championship, but he still finished 2nd with a 4-point difference from vettel. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#long post #asks #mclarenrenaissance #f1 #fernando alonso #felipe massa #ferrari #*#germany 2010 #ferrari fernando

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vro0m · 2 years

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vro0m’s rewatch - 46/288

2009 European GP

Recap + GIFs

So there’s been a 4-week break (not for me of course) and now they’re back in Valencia. Also this is basically mercato time, a lot of contracts are ending. AND. BMW has decided to pull out of Formula 1 so there’s that on top of it. In the meantime, all parties finally agreed to sign the new Concorde agreement re: the regulations for the seasons to come.

Now Eddie Jordan just forced Schumi out of the Ferrari garage to talk. Apparently Massa isn’t coming back after his accident even though he is better, and Michael was considered as a possible replacement, however he has neck pain and can’t drive the car.

So, quali report : some guy, I didn’t catch his name, is filling in for Massa and finished last which is a first for a Ferrari in F1 history, apparently. Luca Badoer, that’s his name. Piquet has been dropped by Renault and replaced by no other than Romain Grosjean. Jenson is 5th, Seb is 4th, Barrichello is 3rd and IT’S A MCLAREN FRONT ROW, LEWIS IS ON POLE!!!

He explains they were able to do only 1 hot lap in each quali too which shows how well they are doing. He describes it as a very casual, very relaxed session, but still tough. He says Heikki did an excellent job. He’s focused on the start of course, given both him and Kovalainen have KERS and he generally makes good starts.

According to him, it’s gonna be way harder for people to overtake them than for them to stay ahead, though. He says he and Kovalainen didn’t talk about racing each other, they want to finish together as a team. He’s gleaming and confident, you just love to see it.

Jake went to visit the factory with him over the break. They look at footage from his racing. He says the feeling you get when you win never gets old, also knowing it’s all thanks to the work the guys do here at the factory. He shows Jake the bay for his car, and he’s very proud of it. He says as he grew up there was Kimi’s bay, David’s bay, Mika’s bay... and now he has his own bay and he sounds like an excited little boy as he says it. “This is the bay for my car.”

They’re standing beside these screens that show his onboards as they talk and Jake notes that he can’t stop looking at it, so obviously he didn’t lose his love for F1 even though people doubted that last year and at the beginning of this season. Lewis says of course not, he’s not lost the love for speed, adrenaline, working with a huge team, the excitement building up.

Back to the factory bays, Jake asks about the changes they make to his car. He claims he notices every aero upgrade they ever did. First of all, he says, he notices everything. But also everytime he comes here he goes down to the wind tunnel and asks them about it : why aren’t we testing this, have you done this, have you tried that. He always makes sure he’s on top of things. In his opinion, to be the best you need to do the work all around, you can’t just get in the car. You need to be the fittest, you need to understand and know your car, everything.

Now they talk about the WDC. Jenson told him during the drivers parade at the last race that he could “do him a favour that day” = help him not lose as many points that mattered in the championship by winning, so they don’t go to a serious contender for the title. Lewis smiles. He says he’ll keep doing his part if he can.

He tells Jake you need to come to the factory for a whole week to really understand everything that happens here. “I could talk to you for ages about this car.”

Then he forces Jake to do pull-ups in the gym, and he can only manage one, lol. He makes fun of him.

We’re now on the grid and lmao, Brundle is talking to Zapatero I think?!

Formation lap.

And they’re racing!

Good clean start for Lewis and Kovalainen! Jenson down in 8th. One lap in, Lewis is already 1.5 seconds ahead of his teammate.

10 laps in, it’s almost 6. It’s gonna be a chill race, I guess. He’s so quick. So quick. Of course, we also know Kovalainen didn’t get all the aero improvements Lewis’ car got but still. Very fast.

He pits on lap 15, he’s now 6th. Oh, Seb stopped too but then the team figured the fuel thing wasn’t working properly so he has to stop again for fuel.

20 laps in, Barrichello undercut Kovalainen during his pitstop and is now 2nd after Lewis, who is back in the lead. The team tells him the temperatures (we guess it’s the brakes) are very high and he needs to lift up just a little. Seb is out of the race, he parks his car on the car near a gap in the wall so they quietly push him off the track and there’s no need for a Safety Car. It was a brand new engine on top of that. RedBulls seem to have issues with reliability.

30 laps in, no change.

With 21 laps to go, Lewis pits again but omg, the tyres weren’t ready and he’s losing time! What a mistake. I can’t believe what I’m watching. Now Barrichello who was in the lead pits too, and. Yep. He is still far ahead, what a shame. His team tells Lewis that Barrichello is 4 seconds ahead and he has the whole stint to catch him, plus his on option tyres which aren’t doing very well. Yeah well that’s just easy to say, to catch him is one thing (not easy to begin with) and then to overtake him is another thing entirely.

And yeah, with 10 laps to go, Lewis isn’t catching up to Barrichello, he’s losing on him. His team tells him he is bridging that gap, though, which. What. Anyway, he keeps the pressure on. People are starting to have serious brake issues because it’s so hot.

And it’s the end of the race!

Barrichello wins, Lewis is 2nd. Not far behind but he couldn’t catch him. Kovalainen is 3rd.

Look, it’s not ideal for Lewis, but Barrichello is literally crying and he has a helmet honouring Massa so I’ll allow it.

In the press conference, the journalist tells Lewis his team did miracles putting a winning car together this season but there’s no denying they costed him the victory today. Lewis answers, you guessed it, “we win and we lose together”. He says they can’t take second place for granted (fair point). They’re disappointed they didn’t get the win because they had extraordinary pace but these things (he means this kind of mishaps) happen, and they happen very rarely to McLaren on top of it. In the amount of races he did with them, overall they deserve a pat on the back, he concludes.

Later on, in the media pen, he reiterates that he’s happy to be here, but he does look disappointed. He’s not complaining, he says, it’s huge improvement even though they still have a lot of work to do. Weirdly, Whitmarsh keeps saying there was no issue with the pit stop, there was a pace problem. Mmmmh.

Lewis is like “yeah they never do pit stops errors these guys”. I mean we all saw them fumbling with the tyres while you were waiting there but sure, whatever you say. He explains they were unsure he had enough fuel for that extra lap and just as he was coming in they realised he did and told him not to pit but it was too late, he was already in the lane. So they did make a mistake and it wasn’t the pace, right? In terms of improvements, Lewis says they have to make sure they are quick enough even without KERS which isn’t the case at the moment.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #2009 #2009 european gp #vro0m's race reviews

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vro0m · 2 years

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vro0m’s rewatch - 28/288

2008 Hungarian GP

Recap + gifs!

It’s round 11, we’re on the grid where it’s hot and dusty.

McLaren front row I think? Yes, Lewis on pole! The commentator talks about how he made everyone wait for him for a few minutes to start the drivers’ parade and arrived “bouncing” down the stairs all confident and claims it’s a psychological game he’s playing. (I mean, maybe he’s just happy and had something to do or whatever?) Lol, Damon Hill is commentating this weekend and says yeah, that’s exactly it and maybe there was a good reason for him to be late but the effect is the same : it shows others that he stands out. (I bet he stands out for a couple other reasons to begin with, like the fact that he’s Black and very good at his job.) All the journalists are very preoccupied with the possibility of Kovalainen and Lewis crashing into each other for some reason.

Formation lap.

And they’re racing!

Oh wow, Massa jumped from the 3rd place and overtook both McLarens right away. Very impressive. He even locked up in the process but still made it.

10 laps in, Lewis 2.2 behind which isn’t a massive gap but it will all come down to how much fuel they have.

Lap 17, Massa pits from the lead. Lewis has to push now. Oh but he pits only one lap later... He leaves with slightly more fuel than Massa did though. He’s in 6th now. Not great. A little while later, Raikkonen and Alonso pit from in between them and we’re back on square one, Massa 3 seconds ahead of Lewis.

Lap 30, no change. Lewis is 3.6 behind and slower than Massa. Bourdais’ car caught on fire in the pit lane so they covered it in foam and sent him back out?

And now another fuel fire with Barrichello? Damon Hill says it’s the third of the race, I’ve only seen two but I admit I wasn’t paying close attention. Oh, it was Vettel’s RedBull right at the beginning of the race, and he had to retire. There’s probably gonna be some investigation to figure that out.

Lap 40, Lewis now 5 seconds behind. HE’S OFF THE ROAD! Left front puncture! Ohhhhh no. He’s getting to the pit lane. It’s dramatic, you can see all the cars passing by as he does. They’re putting him on the supersofts which is weird because it’s super hot and there’s a bunch of laps to go. He’s now all the way back in 11th. On the replay, we see he really didn’t do anything particular to get that puncture, it just kind of happened as he was in the middle of the track. However, one thing that comes up frequently is that he tends to overwork his tyres. I guess he learned a lot since then because now his tyre management is one of his forte imo.

Lap 50, Lewis is who knows where cause they never fxcking show the standings. 8th.

Lap 60, 10 laps to go, he’s up in 6th. Oop, as Sutil brakes in a corner there’s a literal cloud of black dust that comes out from his brakes and he has a puncture. In the meantime, Lewis has spent more time than anyone else on the supersofts that weekend and that’s a bit worrying for the end of the race. The broadcasters talk again about pushing or lifting up.

3 laps to go, Massa has an issue! Smoke at the back of the car! He’s stopped on the track! Oh that’s so unfortunate. It’s now Kovalainen first, Glock second, Raikkonen in third slowing down as Ferrari probably tells him to look after his engine.

And it’s the end of the race!

It’s Heikki’s first win! Also great job from Glock finishing second after his terrible crash in the last GP. Lewis is 6th but still leads the WDC. As Kovalainen goes past, he claps and gives him the thumbs up.

Lewis says he salvaged the best of the worst and that last year they lost a whole championship because of a puncture so it’s nothing new to him. He says it was a bit disappointing seeing Massa go past at the start but he just did a better job than him and he’s happy for Heikki.

Also it’s better if he and Glock get the points rather than the Ferraris anyway.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #2008 #2008 hungarian gp #vro0m's race reviews

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