Hey! 🤗 Oh, thank you so much, you are very kind! I hope you have a wonderful day too, and may the odds be in our favour on the next weekend, haha.💜

Funny thing is I have had this blog for a pretty long time now, but only used it to occasionally look at fanart and whatnot here. However today made me completely lose my composure, so much so, that I'm still not over things completely lmao Considering it's a triple header and I don't expect McLaren to fix themselves in a matter of a few days, I reckon my rants will be more frequent here. Obviously as fans we are all biased, it's part of the game, but common sense should always prevail ahead of agendas based on misinformation, half truths and assumptions and as I have found, unfortunately this is very much not the case in the current F1 community.

Oscar claimed that he was faster. Oscar appeared faster, because he had DRS. I will give credit where it's due: it's clear that he had pace. After all, he caught up with Lando, and he was in his DRS for multiple laps. But was he faster? Well, according to ex-drivers, journalists and commentators featured in the post-race segment: no, he wasn't. According to the Mclaren TP, Andrea Stella: no, he wasn't. According to the data? No, he wasn't.

So, maybe, just maybe, you should stop taking Oscar's words as gospel while he is in a racing car going 280 km/h and willing to do anything and say anything in that moment to get a better result. This is what most drivers do in situations such as this. The difference is that if it's Lando (or George, or Carlos, or any other least liked driver) they are made fun of, bullied and labelled as crybabies, selfish people, whiners who want things handed to them. If it's Oscar (or Charles, Max or any other beloved driver - excluding Lewis, because as we all know a certain fanbase loves to call him 'Crymilton' for one very specific reason that has nothing to do with racing) they are being disadvantaged by their team and everything is true as they say, and the team, the weather and the whole world is against them.

Today Piastri had more radio messages claiming that he is faster, than actual overtake attempts on his teammate.

I'm just so tired of the hypocrisy, if anything. Last year, when Lando was in a position to fight for the WDC (even if it was not a reasonable challenge,imo) week to week the entire F1 community was screaming and crying at the thought of team orders. Everyone agreed that points, podiums and wins should be achieved on merit, and not with the help of a teammate. Hell, even this year there was constant discussion about the team orders McLaren told their drivers to hold position back in Australia for four laps while their drivers were passing backmarkers in a wet track, on a rainy day, where there were multiple DNFs. Yet suddenly, everyone thinks that Mclaren should have made Lando give up his second place to Oscar, because he got within his DRS and said that he was faster on the radio.

So, let me get this straight:

- Norris qualifies ahead of Piastri

- throughout the race the difference between the first three drivers (VER,NOR,PIA) is only about ~3 sec. In the first stint Norris keeps the same distance to Verstappen as he has with Piastri

- Mclaren pits Piastri first (even though their precedent has always been to pit the lead driver first bar Hungary - and we all know the shit show that followed it)

- McLaren decides to pit Norris on the same lap as Verstappen (this might be the most moronic mistake they have made in a while), completely alienating the chance to be able to undercut Verstappen

- for the most part the same difference settles between the first three (VER,NOR,PIA) drivers

- Piastri is able to get into DRS, but despite one chance he is not actually close enough to even attempt an overtake

- Norris at worst is ~ 2.5 sec behind Verstappen, but when Piastri closes up on him he reacts and catches up with Verstappen, making his difference to him between 1.1-1.4 sec

- While Piastri is in DRS range and Norris is 1.1-1.4 sec behind Verstappen Piastri starts radioing the team that he "has more pace" and "could fight Max". He continues to be 0.8-0.5 sec behind Norris, but only manages to get close once to attempt an overtake, which is easily defended by Norris

- Piastri continues to tell the team that he has more pace. For the most part he is still in DRS range, occasionally slipping out of it, meanwhile Norris is 1.0-1.3 sec behind Verstappen, just not being able to reach DRS

- Meanwhile Piastri continues to advocate for a possible swap with his engineer, Norris is not once told about this by his own engineer. In fact, Will Joseph doesn't even mention the gap he has to Piastri

- Despite having "more pace" according to Piastri he loses out of DRS in the last four laps

- Norris makes a mistake in the last part of the last lap, but it's still not enough for Piastri to overtake him, Norris coming in second, Piastri third as Verstappen wins

So, all this happened, and yet all I see is people losing their minds because Mclaren "didn't let Oscar win" and "took his chance away from a win" and "favours Lando", my question to these people is where?? Norris and Piastri were free to race today, there were no team orders - which is exactly what I thought everyone was advocating for? That every position, especially if it's a podium and most especially if it's a win should be fought for and achieved on merit? But now suddenly, because according to Piastri (who is well within his own rights to advocate for himself, mind you) he has "more pace" because of DRS, Norris should have just let Piastri pass.

The same Norris, who is leading the WDC, who qualified better on Saturday should give up his second place position for Piastri, so he could "fight Max", even though he wasn't even able to properly challenge Norris himself. If Piastri couldn't even overtake Norris, how would he challenge Verstappen (who was managing his race!)? And it's not even that Norris kept sweating blood defending from Piastri's overtake attempts, there weren't any attempts! Piastri was close yes, but not close enough to try anything? They were free to race, if Piastri truly had superior pace he should have been able to overtake him, or at least have more than one weak attempt of a manoeuvre. But he didn't! So quite frankly, I find it baffling that Norris is suddenly expected by everyone and their mother to give up his place just because his teammate behind him claimed to be faster.

Now, of course, if the Mclaren pit wall had any balls, they could have easily bargained with Piastri that he could have a chance at Verstappen, but if he doesn't manage to overtake him he has to give the place back to Norris. The question we all should be asking is why they didn't even dare to entertain the idea. Are they playing too safe? Most definitely. But truth to be told, I'm not sure if Piastri would have given back that position to Norris, and in my opinion Mclaren might have had the same idea. What I'm however dead clear on is there is no chance that Piastri would have been able to overtake Verstappen, there's simply no reason to believe that considering the performance he showed and what Max showed today. Mclaren fucked any chance they had with their pit strategies, it's simple as that. Obviously, opinions will differ on this one. The Piastri fans will advocate for their own driver, Norris fans for theirs, but what should be agreed by both fanbases is that this was, once again, a Mclaren pitwall disaster class.