2005 United States Grand Prix - aka Tiago Montiero having the best day of his life and everybody else having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

I think 2020 season could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Pre 2020 season, ferrari had a good car, and for once solid drivers. But behind the scenes, we can imagine the clusterfuck. Binotto in, maurizio out, and so on.

I think that was a warning sign for them. After all, it's ferrari we are talking about, if you haven't watched f1 you probably only know ferrari. And last year they were a laughing stock. (even Claire Williams was like in dts "happy to see them suffer"). That's why I think they decided to make serious changes at every department.

Improved pitstops yes, smart car changes yes, strategies with actual thought behind yes. Now the tyre issues, again they are working actively towards solving it.

As for seb, I think it was a right time to go. I don't think he would have accepted to be a kimi to charles. Because I truly think his performance in 2019 was a strong "I am ready" message to the team. It was either this year, or in two more years by mick. Sadly all things come to an end.

I also think ferrari probably got scared that Charles would leave if they don't get their shit together. Hence the extention of the contract. And it makes sense, he is after all the most talented driver a 4 time world champion every saw in his 15 years old career.

But I see a new ferrari, with fresh air. Even binotto stop talking shit in media. He was asked about the pit stop issue and all he said was that the fia should consult the teams first for such issues and then take decisions which honestly, it's kinda true.

So yeah, I think their pride and ego was hurt last year and this year they are preparing to come back stronger (hopefully) than ever.

Oh, I think it was definitely a major wake up call. Like you said, they're Ferrari and like it or not they really can't afford to just fuck around with the backmarkers. They had to prove that 2020 was an outlier, that it wouldn't happen again - and most importantly, that they would learn from it.

From Charles's perspective as well I think it was a really important year. I think when you come into a "big team" you naturally expect to start clocking good results and there can be a bit of...you know, you have your rose-tinted glasses on and think this is the best thing ever. And 2020 kind of showed him the ugliest sides of the team - internal discord, lack of performance on track, poor strategic decisions, media backlash, being the laughing stock of the grid, etc. So, in a way, he knows how bad it can get. He's got that out of the way. He's not waiting for the other shoe to drop because he's already experienced that. And I think knowing just how bad it can get and coming back from that will ultimately make him stronger. It already has, in a way.

Also, if he could drive a virtually undriveable car with no straight line speed to the podium not once but twice (it could've been three had it not been for his mistake on that final lap in Turkey)... that's impressive. That has to give him a confidence boost, knowing that came from him and not the car. He's outperformed the car on numerous occasions last year, and he's doing it again this year to put it on pole.

Honestly (and very selfishly) I would've liked to see Seb continue with Ferrari. I mean, seeing them both making progress after the year they had would've been goddamn chicken soup for my wounded soul sjdjefrj But unfortunately I get why things went the way they did. He and Binotto always seemed to have a strained working relationship, even before the whole contract debacle. Realistically there's a lot of things going on behind closed doors that also would've contributed to the split. It's not that Seb lost something or is less of a driver or anything - Turkey 2020 and Baku 2021 speak for themselves - but if he had issues with his higher-ups then obviously that could've impacted his performance and just soured the experience for him. Even taking all that out of the equation, six seasons is a long time to be with one team. If you think about it from a non-F1 perspective, I mean, people do get burned out at their workplace and go look for alternatives to stimulate them.

Speaking of contracts, Charles signed his extension in late December (or at least that's when the news broke, I guess he could've done it at any point before that, but we're just gonna say at the end of or even after the 2019 season.) So, before they knew the 2020 car would be a disaster, I would imagine. Maybe they had an inkling that something wasn't right, but I remember Charles saying they only discovered the true extent of the damage during winter testing and that obviously really hit the team and dampened spirits. But you're right in the sense that they know - they have to - that Charles is a generational talent and genuinely the best shot they've had at winning the championship in some years. If this is what he can do in a mediocre car, just imagine what he could do in a competitive--- *sniped*