On My Way To Make My Funny Little Guides With Nothing Except Free Trial Canva, Procreate And A Dream

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.

We return to Imola at last, so a blast from the past style poster 🇮🇹🏎️ Here's to race week!

DANIEL RICCIARDO IN THE POINTS OH MY GOD!!!!!

Bringing out all the prayer circles for tomorrow

Clearing up some Ricciardo Rumors™️

Over the last few weeks rumors have sprung up about Daniel Ricciardo, which is fair enough considering the lineup for the RB and Red Bull seats as well as the expectations of him, but I've done a bit more research to clear things up :)

Replaced at Miami? Apparently not.

The New Zealand Herald wrote an article that claimed "Ricciardo has been given an ultimatum" (tldr: if he doesn't perform in Japan and China he will be replaced by Liam Lawson) as well as other things like "Lawson is seen internally as Red Bull’s best option to partner world champion Max Verstappen long-term."

The source itself isn't too reputable since the NZ Herald hardly does F1 reporting to begin with, but also because it's clear they would be biased towards the kiwi driver (Lawson).

These claims have also since been disproven, first by F1 journalist Thomas Maher who reported "Sources say there are no plans to replace Daniel Ricciardo, from the Miami GP or later, with Liam Lawson," and also by Speedcafe, who put out an article saying "Trusted sources within Red Bull Racing, which has an overarching contract with Ricciardo, denied the rumours outright when approached by Speedcafe"

Liam's team have denied the allegations too, saying he hasn't been advised by Red Bull of any moves so I don't think it was intentional pressure but rather just bad journalism from the newsletter.

Helmut Marko has implied DR needs to be doing better, claiming both RBs are "too slow" and Ricciardo is "a bit behind,” but he's also said "Ricciardo needs a safe and confident car. I hope the team can give him that, so he can at least be on par with Yuki," indicating his dissatisfaction is less with the drivers and more with the car.

What about in Suzuka? Yes... but also no.

Daniel Ricciardo will miss FP1 as Red Bull junior driver Ayumu Iwasa takes his car for the practice session, but this is just because F1 teams are required to to bring in a rookie for at least 2 FP sessions a season. Usually teams do this a bit later but RB brought a rookie in earlier last year too, when they were still known as AlphaTauri.

So why not bring in Liam Lawson? Technically he's not a rookie anymore since he's driven in more than 2 GPs. That, and Iwasa is Japanese and it's the Japanese GP. Only makes sense to let him shine a bit in his home circuit.

So is he in danger of losing his seat?

As of now, it doesn't look like there's any plans to kick him out before his contract is finished. He clearly brings a lot of good PR to the team, as well as advice to improve the car. The team has also been admitting the car needs improvements, and there's much to be done. Ricciardo isn't too far behind Yuki's pace either, however he needs to be actively outperforming him if he wants to guarantee moving past the RB seat or even staying another season, since it's clear there's options Red Bull wants to explore.

TSUNODA MAKES IT PAST HULKENBERG ON THE PIT EXIT WAR IS OVER 🔥🔥🔥

Haas DRS train 2: Electric Boogaloo

Villeneuve saying all that just for Danny to get P5 in quali LETS GOO 💪💪

Can we normalize not asking drivers about the Christian shit, nobody but Christian and the head people of the Red Bull team should be answering questions about it, why the fuck are journalists asking Daniel, Max and apparently Checo about their thoughts on all of this? Like what the hell, they are drivers for a team at the end of the day they will back up their teams.

Also this isn’t some silly drama that max, Daniel and Checo should be talking about cause at the end of the day I don’t give a fuck about their opinions cause they probably know as much as we do, I think instead of looking at the drivers you should be looking at how the head people at Red Bull are handling this situation.

Also don’t ask about political shit to drivers cause like quite honestly I doubt any of them but Lewis watch the news (which most people don’t watch the news). Like why do people expect these drivers to have all the answers to anything going on.

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 🏎️💨

RICNATION WE ARE SO BACK!!!