Max Has The Opportunity To Do The Funniest Thing With Lando’s Trophy

Kmag could do the funniest thing in abu dhabi and podium-sandwich his career, as well as give haas a double podium finish

being an artist with free will means i can spend an hour of my life making extremely stupid shit like this

why i believe alex replacing logan is the worst possible decision williams could make

#1: logan’s confidence

we saw this exact thing happen with checo last year. after his brief stint of trading wins with max, max continued to consistently wipe the floor with him via the gap in their performances. this continued to eat away at checo’s confidence until, by the end of the season, he was t-boning alex albon in singapore for no reason and somehow retiring twice in suzuka. now that there has been an extended break and he has had the chance to grind and truly work on himself nonstop, he has returned with incredible form. but who knows how long this will last? as soon as there’s a race that isn’t a red bull 1-2, he will be completely torn into and i believe the downward trajectory of last year will repeat itself.

this is very similar to what logan went through last year. once he was announced, there was so much hope for an incredible debut season, but that never came his way. i think the first big nail in the coffin was getting his first p20 at his home race and i think the biggest hit was qatar. even though he should never ever be ashamed of putting his safety first, i understand why, from an athlete’s perspective, he would look at that race as a failure.

fortunately for him, he has had a team with incredibly strong leadership backing him up. giving him the opportunities he needed, never giving up on him, celebrating the single point he scored last year like he lassoed the fucking moon, and re-signing him because he has such incredible potential as a formula 1 driver. everything went wrong for logan, except for williams, who did everything right.

except now, williams has publicly stated that they have no faith in him to score points. now the only support logan has is random fans at races, strangers on the internet, and his own friends and family. that must feel fucking awful. logan has been so positive throughout the struggles of this year and last, but he has to be hurting right now. there’s no way he isn’t.

logan sargeant is not a bad driver. you can disagree with me as loud as you want to, but i won’t hear a word of it.

absolutely stunning junior career aside, logan showed incredible improvement towards the end of the season. not only did he score a point in austin, but he came unbearably close in mexico, and if it weren’t for a hydraulics failure, he very easily could have had two points finishes in a row.

this year may seem like it has gotten off to a bad start for him, but i heavily disagree. in bahrain he had great pace and was steadily climbing closer and closer to the points when he had a brake failure. the car switched his balance completely on its own and made it literally impossible for him to turn. even max couldn’t recover from that.

in jeddah his pace was wonderful again. i think his biggest struggle currently is qualifying, but he was overtaking beautifully and making his way up the field. while 15th isn’t a spectacular finish, he was matching alex quite well throughout the whole race. (also jeddah sucks so he gets a pass 👎)

george russell did not score a SINGLE point during his rookie season for williams and he is now a race-winning future championship contender and beating his 7x wdc teammate in the standings at p4. logan has already beaten that AND he has an experienced driver that he seems to get on with quite well as a teammate to mentor him, which george didn’t have; he was william’s number one driver from day one. logan has so much potential that is only being hindered by his lack of confidence, unpreparedness (reminder he was brought to f1 an entire year earlier than he was originally supposed to be; they planned for him to be a 2024 rookie), and a shitty car.

#2: alex albon

now poor alex is in the worst position of his life. brother already probably feels like shit for putting logan through this (even though it is NOT his fault and he has absolutely zero say in this decision) and if he doesn’t score any points this weekend, he will be torn to shreds by the media.

i have already seen multiple posts including alex in their list of fuck yous. this will do incredible damage to him pr-wise and will also make him feel even worse if he doesn’t somehow pull off a miracle performance.

#3: albert park

alex is an incredible driver, constantly pulling a back marker car into the points. however, this is a track that he has historically struggled at (in the exact same turn might i add!!) for multiple years in a row. who’s to say this mistake could not be made tomorrow or sunday as well? that will make everyone involved look and feel horrible.

not to mention that the fw46 is NOT SUITED for albert park. AT ALL. vcarb’s official website describes it as a ‘medium-high’ downforce track, which is exactly what the car is suited to struggle with, making it nearly impossible for albono to score points (which, like stated before, will be terrible for him) as well as making this gp a likely inconsequential race! meaning this is the perfect opportunity to let logan drive on the limit and really showcase his true talent and capabilities as a driver.

but now williams has chosen to do the complete opposite and ruined logan’s trust in his team as well as any other offers from rival teams for him for the 2025 season. if logan’s own team would bench him for his teammate, why should they take him over a talented upcoming rookie? (this is a rhetorical question; i truly believe he has the potential to, with a good enough car and team behind him, become a race-winning driver in the future.)

#4: james vowles and the future of williams

james has justified this decision by mentioning how every race counts and that a single point can make a world’s difference in the midfield. while this is true, james has also been on the record multiple times saying that he doesn’t give two shits about this season (as well as the next few). he has stated that his goal is long-term, to rebuild the team and return it to its former success of the 90s and early 2000s. so why ruin the reputation of your driver who you have been supporting since his junior career over the possibility of a single point or two? that is a short-term solution, not a long-term one. james is usually a wonderfully eloquent speaker, however, he has completely contradicted himself here.

in my opinion, the best decision would be to race logan. while i love alex to death, he’s the one who crashed his car, completely on his own with no fellow drivers or failures on the car’s side to blame. logically, he should be the one to sit out the race, no?

like i briefly touched on before, i also think this is a golden opportunity to put logan in a race where they will most likely come away with nothing anyways and give him the opportunity to pull off something incredible (which he absolutely can under the right circumstances). if he was able to have a good drive on sunday, he would be a star and williams would look like geniuses. with this decision, everyone just looks like an asshole.

final thoughts

to conclude, i am no certified expert, but this decision makes zero sense to me, as it also does to many others from what i’ve seen. i usually wholeheartedly agree with all of james’ decisions, but this one beats me. i cannot for the life of me figure out why williams would choose this.

there is a part of that hopes williams will reverse this decision before sunday in order to save themselves from all of the pr backlash they are facing, but i understand that that is very much wishful thinking. the only good thing that can come from this is williams finally learning how to be prepared and/or logan being able to channel his frustration into motivation (although i don’t think there’s any way for him to possibly work harder than he already has).

if anyone disagrees with me and thinks this is the right decision for williams to make, i would love to hear why. no one has to agree with me, these are just my personal thoughts on the situation.

-avis 🏎️💨

just wanted to say i can’t follow back from my main, but hi!! i’d also love to have some f1 moots to talk about the races with (or well, moots in spirit) since there’s only so often i can ramble on to my IRLs haha. personally, i’m all for the China Chaos Era here and i’m kinda hoping we get some more action in the rain this weekend. Ik some people have been saying Max is good in the wet, but he seemed to be genuinely having a difficult time in sprint quali, so it could get exciting at the very front (hopium)

- formulaposting

Me and you both.. i know some people who like F1 irl but it's always nice to have more!

Anyways it was so interesting to see him struggle during sprint quali because he didn't seem to have grip in some corners even though he was on a flying lap (so hypothetically the tyres should have been somewhat warm) but I'm not much of a engineering person so who knows. I'm a fan of his so obviously I wish him the best for the race but it was super interesting to see the shift after it started raining. If it rains during the race maybe we'll get to see more of a battle for the top3 which is always exciting :))

YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH!! It'd be so nice to see Max battling for P1 again because he's always so far ahead (good for him, but also I think it contributes a lot to people saying its just the car, which obviously isnt true)

Funnily enough tho the race starts at 5pm for me,, it's one of the few that isn't at some ungodly time (....unlike the saudi arabian gp)

just wanted to say i can’t follow back from my main, but hi!! i’d also love to have some f1 moots to talk about the races with (or well, moots in spirit) since there’s only so often i can ramble on to my IRLs haha. personally, i’m all for the China Chaos Era here and i’m kinda hoping we get some more action in the rain this weekend. Ik some people have been saying Max is good in the wet, but he seemed to be genuinely having a difficult time in sprint quali, so it could get exciting at the very front (hopium)

- formulaposting

Me and you both.. i know some people who like F1 irl but it's always nice to have more!

Anyways it was so interesting to see him struggle during sprint quali because he didn't seem to have grip in some corners even though he was on a flying lap (so hypothetically the tyres should have been somewhat warm) but I'm not much of a engineering person so who knows. I'm a fan of his so obviously I wish him the best for the race but it was super interesting to see the shift after it started raining. If it rains during the race maybe we'll get to see more of a battle for the top3 which is always exciting :))

alex saying the damaged cars wont be ready for the race... at this point 3 cars will finish the race

On the surface it's easy to understand why Williams picked Alex to drive over Logan for the weekend (better track record + more experience = more likely to get points for them) but the thing is NEITHER have gotten points yet and last year's AusGP resulted in EIGHT retirements, so this just puts so much pressure on Alex and probably destroys Logan's confidence in the team and himself.

It also means if Alex doesn't perform then he and the team are going to get a whole lot more criticism than they already have, which I don't honestly think is deserved (at least not on Alex's end). Time will tell if the decision pays off though.

I thought I'd give my two cents on how I think the Aus GP will turn out, since it's in a little less than a week. I'd like to think my predictions are pretty reasonable but the delusion never stops. Anyways,

For elaborations, look under the line :)

Oscar Piastri placing P5 or above: Self explanatory really. McLaren is good on fast-speed sections, as Lewis Hamilton pointed out while being chased down by Piastri in Jeddah, and Albert Park has a few. He's also been able to place in the top half of points before, so it's just a matter of whether or not he can do it again for his home race.

Daniel Ricciardo in points: He hasn't had the best start to the season, but it's Australia and he was able to do it in the McLaren even with all the DNFs and frustration so hopefully the car (and him) are good enough to get in some points this weekend.

Ferrari on the podium: They've got the second-best car this year, as most people have pointed out, and they've been on the podium in the last two races already. I've got no doubts they'll do it again. The only problem might be Carlos Sainz, who recently had surgery for appendicitis and might not be in top condition.

No Red Bull 1-2: We all know Verstappen will win, unless reliability issues or something else arises. So the real concern is whether or not Perez will make it onto P2 and join his teammate, since competition between him and the Ferraris has occurred the last two races. However he has the skill and the car, so I'm sure he'll at least be a podium sitter on Sunday.

Nico Hulkenberg in the points: I'll be honest I'm starting to become a Hulkenberg fan. Despite being in a HAAS, he's managed to pull in a P10 in quali (Bahrain) and in the Saudi Arabian GP. Obviously Jeddah was a team effort, but I think his season is off to a good start.

Max Verstappen wins with a less than 5 second lead: This is less of a prediction and mostly just me wanting to see his car broadcasted for longer. In all likeliness, unless Red Bull messes up their strategy, he's probably going to win with a larger lead.

Alex Albon in the points: Williams seems pretty promising this year! Albon has been able to pull points for them before, and he pulled some nice moves to overtake in Jeddah. The car has had issues, but they seem to mostly have been resolved.

Tell me your predictions!! I'm personally super excited even though I can't attend the race, and I hope everyone else is as hyped after one week of no F1.

vlad is never got gonna serve with his photos like he’s genuinely one of my favorite sports photographers of all time. what are your some of his favorite shorts of his?

Welcome back to another episode of What the hell is happening in Quali?

On today's episode:

- Alex Albon's crash in FP1 and Williams's lack of a spare chassis means Logan Sergeant will sit out this weekend, as his chassis will be given to Albon. So far, he's been knocked out of Q2 (P12), with the team choosing to save the softs for the race instead of getting a final lap in.

- Lewis Hamilton claims this week's FP2 was "one of [his] worst sessions" and that he's "used to [getting eliminated in Q2] now," just missing out and placing P11 for Sunday's race.

- Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q1 for the first time after his time was deleted for exceeding track limits, an unfortunate situation considering it was the lap that could've gotten him into Q2. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, got into Q3 and will start an impressive P8 for the race.

- Carlos Sainz manages a P2 start for today, showing a a spectacular recovery from his surgery. His teammate Leclerc, is less lucky, citing a "strange feeling in FP3" that didn't go away in Quali. "[He] struggled quite a lot with the front tires until the last run of Q3." He will start P5.

- Sergio Perez was handed a 3 grid penalty for impeding Hulkenberg, meaning he will start from P6 instead of P3. Everyone from P6-4 (Norris, Leclerc, Piastri) will all move up a spot.

- Of course, Max Verstappen tops the times and will start from pole today.