2024 season preview
Mar. 9th, 2024 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
goaltender1) i seriously need to stop posting on tumblr
2) my brain has been complete mush these past few days... T__T i have non-sports posts i want to make on main but i'm too lazy atm and also i lost my draft for my very elaborate gbbo/jbo post which i don't think i can ever recover emotionally from 💔
3) this was supposed to be a pre-season post but now it is just a normal-season post because bahrain already happened ;__; and i'm watching the f2 sprint race... and CARLOS SAINZ HAS APPENDICITIS.......... GIRL HELP.
ok i'm finally writing this. where to begin...
1. MCLAREN
as per usual i am not a total doomerist about mcl's potential this season but i don't have inflated expectations either... i was actually quite satisfied with their performance in bahrain considering that it was always meant to be a difficult track for them & any points whatsoever were already a massive improvement over last year and the early-season unreliability issues further compounding the trauma of being a veritable tractor. hanging solidly near the top of the midfield while alpine continues to implode spectacularly and has in fact somehow REGRESSED in its winter development is the best form of early-szn schadenfreude a girl can receive atp, and i do believe that mclaren is capable of maintaining a steady rate of progression even if the specific jump from last season obviously isn't replicable because that was essentially building a whole new b-spec car and this season does not warrant such an overhaul.
i'll be honest that i did come into jeddah with more expectations, or at least a mindset of "i'm not going to judge us based off bahrain testing & bahrain results, but jeddah should be a better indicator of our pace given the layout & high-speed corners & relative tyre mercy from much smoother surfacing, so if they flop here then we can start calling them midclaren again" and although 3rd row lockout isn't The Best Ever Result i think it's still a decent showing, and of course i'm also satisfied that 814 basically maximized the potential of the car and that it's not like there was a spot left on the table that they weren't able to rise up to the occasion for. the only problem is our absolute dearth of STRAIGHT-LINE SPEED, AS PER. it's a shame this won't be addressed by australia because i really want oscar to do well there *__* but i do hope our first upgrades do something in the way of rectifying aero efficiency because man that top speed hurtsss. so basically if we can hang around am + merc for now then that's good, and we'll see how things progress over the course of the season......... i have no interest in sounding the alarm because i'm easily satisfied as an oscar fan (sophomore yr apprehension & still early enough in his career for me to not be desperate for race wins + podiums yet lol).
i was also really proud of oscar's improvements re: tyre management in bahrain and the fact that he didn't fall off lando too significantly, and watching them continuously qualify next to each other IS slightly anxiety-inducing wrt race starts but really promising & satisfying in terms of maximizing the car's potential and prioritizing mclaren's results as a team above all.... even if lando technically botched his quali in bahrain lol BUT YOU GET IT. supposedly lando's set-up in jeddah is more geared toward race pace so idk what that says of oscar only just qualifying over him, and it also makes me a bit anxious about how the race will be managed and strategized tomorrow, but altogether i think his growth is already showing to be quite promising this yr and i just hope he can continue 2 tangibly improve during long runs *__*
update: finishing this post after jeddah and WAHHHHH i'm so proud of and happy 4 oscar 🧡 p4 is the absolute best that car could have done barring another act of god. i'm so grateful to lance stroll for taking one for the team and putting ollie in a position to pass lewdo on the alt strat even though lewis staying out did hold up oscar significantly but like...... again our top speed is what it is, and even if he'd passed lewis tidily or kept behind sharl for a while i highly doubt he could have gotten him and our race was never rly with ferrari to begin with. right now we need to fight for 3rd best team and i'm ok with that 👍
2. F2 + F1A
waaaaaAaAAaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. WAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
this week has been insane as a dori + ollie fan... when i was originally going to write this post my thoughts were a lot more realistic & neutral, because coming into this szn i had a lot of anxiety about ollie's future, his championship battle with victor (or zane's illegal engine or whatever or whomever), even though the narrative has pretty much been that he's guaranteed the haas seat vs. whoever wins the hulk/kmag battle (read: rip kmag) for 2025 for a while now. but also!!!! i don't know. like 6 fps is INSANE, and i just feel like his junior career and trajectory have been so confusing in some ways that i'm like ?!?! he is rated SO so highly and for good reason, but he's definitely a product that's rough around the edges and it's interesting to see how much sheer belief ferrari & haas have placed in him because i do think a lot of that is based on data and testing results that we aren't fully privy to... in the end it's not that complicated but i just feel like his cv is so funny to look back on — from double f4 champ to 3rd in f3 after a very unlucky final round that cost him the title thanks to RED FLAG + F1 SCHEDULING WOES, to 6th in his f2 rookie season because of inconsistencies & high highs & low lows despite pulling off the double in baku and his 4 total wins to pourchaire's singular feature victory in bahrain. so it is clearly a case of like... "you're not quite there yet but you're notoriously adaptable and have what it takes to push to the limits" etc., and it makes sense that he's rated much higher than victor because of that even though they've both been touted as contenders for this season... but i'm just like !!! *__* icb 2 weeks ago people were writing thinkpieces on whether kimi would finish ahead of him in f2 and whether that could end his f1 aspirations and i've just been sooo careful to discuss his chances this yr and then IN JUST THE 2ND ROUND HE GETS CALLED UP AS RESERVE, IS ONLY ABLE TO RUN 1 FP, NEARLY QUALIFIES IN Q3 & MANAGES TO PICK UP 6 POINTS??? what the hell.
he literally has 6 more points in f1 than he does in f2 lmfao. how are you going to be last in f2 and 10th in f1 like this has 2 be a new stat. i'm literally sooo so proud though like that's the best work audition a guy could ask for and i'm relieved to think of how well this bodes for his stock no matter what happens next in f2 ;__; i really do believe in him. the fact that he kept it clean and didn't bin it in jeddah in a car that he isn't remotely physically conditioned to handle over a long distance is incredible and i really do hope some measure of consistency & awareness is visibly elevated in his race craft this szn.
also it's highkey so funny to see him get pookified like omg he's the mini charles omg [lewis / lando / jenson etc. brit narratives] because in my mind he will forever be an edgelord meme gremlin at mild risk of getting canceled....... but it's nice to see how much people like him :')
as for kimi... i'm quite pleased with his 2nd weekend and i think he'll only get stronger, he's had some rough patches but he recovered well during this week's sprint after a poor start and he's in a decent place points-wise going into australia. this grid has its unserious aspects & art is shocking atm but it's a really fun distribution of talent otherwise. wah!!!!!!
anyway before i move on - miss DORIANE 🥖 THE GOAT THAT U ARE!!!!!!!! the start of f1a has been wild because for those of us who followed her foray into f4 uae and obviously knew of her experience in wec, it was evident from even before testing that she would wipe the floor with her competition and that this series was in some ways a bit below her, but also a necessary step in terms of driver academy support and garnering mainstream support and visibility.... so it's a tough thing to balance. i'll wait a few rounds before i draw too many conclusions about the grid but it's like. the clear gap between doriane to abbi and maya to the rest of the grid... also hope maya can come a bit more into form because i do rate her above abbi so You Know. man. f1a trying to nerf her with the checkered flag thing is truly so ridiculous because it's liekasfasdfalkhsfd she'll just win again next round. it's fine 😭
in the end...... i don't know. it's a frustratingly constructed media circus in a lot of ways but i do think the intentions and execution are the best they've ever been for a female-only racing series, certainly more comprehensible than w series which is kind of the only bar we have atm. for doriane at least, i have a LOT of hopes that she can be competitive in a more respectable series next season, whether it's freca first or straight to f3, although i don't dare really expect much more from her than that... putting in solid performances in f3 would already be such a massive win and a great show of her talent.
3. other f1 thoughts
1. the joys of ALPAINE! so funny to watch jack doohan die inside having to discuss the team's struggles with miss laura like bro you guys are cooked
2. i already made my peace with rb dominance for this season wayyyy way long ago, so testing really didn't make me despair at all and neither have any of these first few rounds or results. in fact i feel quite good! i have other narrative threads to follow during this season anyway, and the tight battle btwn mcl/am/merc is fun to watch and although bahrain fell off massively in entertainment factor in the 2nd half jeddah was a pretty entertaining race overall (though i will say that ollie qualifying the car well below its potential definitely contributed to some of the fun of his performance lol)....... so ❤️
3. truly cackling that people genuinely believed he'd ever replace checo in rb by mid-szn. i won't make assumptions on checo's future while rb seems to be imploding (which i'll get into) but when your #1 driver is capable of winning the wcc entirely on his own, checo's middling performances are perfectly serviceable, relatively, and there is no true urgency to give him up for any Middery currently stinking it up in a vcarb backmarker. if i think too much about last week's yuki incident i'll get a stress headache...
4. the rb stuff is like... man. if i'm really honest then the situation itself is not in any way shocking or inconceivable or Haha Funny Silly Szn!!! amusing to me, and i'm not naive enough to misunderstand the underpinnings of a power struggle etc., but what genuinely actively pisses me off is more so the reactions & discussions people (read: mostly male fans) have had surrounding horner's allegations, and to some degree also the endless wank & discourse propagated for moral victory points by people with zero consideration for how much it distinctly Sucks Ass for some of us to engage with this material directly on a d2d basis. though in the latter case i am obviously more sympathetic to seeking a community space to share your frustrations with and understand that the intentions are usually good but... *__* idk. i just facking hateeee more than anything to seeguys on reddit GLEEFULLY misunderstand the inherent imbalance of workplace power dynamics and completely dismiss the disorienting amount of influence & privilege ch has not just as "someone's boss" (which would already be horrific) but as THE boss to THE most dominant race team in the highest level of motorsport. like jesus fucking christ. to me "the photos are shocking but i think they're fake" is genuinely a less horrific & abhorrent take than the "the photos are probably real but they're honestly fine" line of thinking that mistakes self-preservative compliance for complicity. fuck all of you very much!!! anyway.
5. i really do not care about ferrari or the ferrari narratives or lewis going to ferrari but it'll be interesting to watch the exodus of engineers & personnel (notably newey) across the top 3 and how everything shakes out with the 2026 regs. 🤷♀️ we shall see
4. 814 dynamix
i am literally so insane about 814 and i have 193284 reality checks about this every single day like can you please do anything else with your life? get another hobby? etc. etc. (unfortunately i have recently adopted other Online Interests but they are not socially acceptable so that's even worse. guess i'll die)
i had an epiphany the other day that unfortunately landoscar are a DYKECORE SHIP. as a lesbian they are palatable 2 me because oscar's total resignation to his fondness for lando is a microcosm of the tragic repressed dyke experience, i.e. how the totality of his Awareness of lando's existence & particularities & his happiness to accommodate him contradict his simultaneous refusal to ever consciously surface his feelings or demand lando's attention or seek any reciprocity... girl you're facking insane. so many of us self-isolate out of preservation because we all subscribe to the same semi-tragic framework of inevitability, or i should say preemptive fear of manifestations of this inevitability (be it rejection or incompatibility or even WORSE - codependence)... anyway why is oscar like the perfect dykebait when he's literally just some guy. but also when you're a DykeTM isn't the best guy to like kind of always just a guy? i feel like lesbians are very prone to either liking guys with ~MAXIMUM GENDER~ or guys who are just nonthreateningly guys because in some ways the Void of genderness in the latter archetype often aligns with our own personal identities & presentations, the vague unplaceable mascness & the ways we don't really have any tangible concept of our own self-image. like to me oscar exists in this neutral space of Guyness... he has girlmoments but they're not built up in a binary way like sharl "experiencing misogyny" (no comment on that lol) is or just like... lando's entire existence & universal perceptions of his "femininity". which is kind of funny because in a lot of ways i would say lando is not any more "feminine" than oscar is lmfao??? but again i realize that the way i approach Guyness is its own unique subjective thing and anyywayyyYYYYY.
814 are so crasyinsane to me because they make no sense and they don't know each other but they know each other SO well in the most subconscious, natural, unintended ways, and where have i heard this song before...? but unlike 2124 there is one half of the pairing who is obsessed with the other in the most open and unashamed manner, and yet the one who is regularly considered hyperneurotic and "bleeding-heart" and incapable of hiding his emotions is the one on the receiving end of this constant adulation. and ISN'T THAT A DYNAMIC TO CHEW ON!!!!!!!!
i have been thinking of writing a primer or making a video edit or doing SOMETHING but it's all so much. i have endless thoughts on why they work for me but i have to relax........ ;____; if anyone has 814 song edit suggestions pls lmk. it would truly save me life
-
ok i feel like there was a lot more i should have discussed but i'll stop here. will perhaps update with chat screenshots for posterity later on so i can look back on what we were saying at the start of the season but i'll do that another time 🧡🧡🧡 WAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a weekend. TT
2) my brain has been complete mush these past few days... T__T i have non-sports posts i want to make on main but i'm too lazy atm and also i lost my draft for my very elaborate gbbo/jbo post which i don't think i can ever recover emotionally from 💔
3) this was supposed to be a pre-season post but now it is just a normal-season post because bahrain already happened ;__; and i'm watching the f2 sprint race... and CARLOS SAINZ HAS APPENDICITIS.......... GIRL HELP.
ok i'm finally writing this. where to begin...
1. MCLAREN
as per usual i am not a total doomerist about mcl's potential this season but i don't have inflated expectations either... i was actually quite satisfied with their performance in bahrain considering that it was always meant to be a difficult track for them & any points whatsoever were already a massive improvement over last year and the early-season unreliability issues further compounding the trauma of being a veritable tractor. hanging solidly near the top of the midfield while alpine continues to implode spectacularly and has in fact somehow REGRESSED in its winter development is the best form of early-szn schadenfreude a girl can receive atp, and i do believe that mclaren is capable of maintaining a steady rate of progression even if the specific jump from last season obviously isn't replicable because that was essentially building a whole new b-spec car and this season does not warrant such an overhaul.
i'll be honest that i did come into jeddah with more expectations, or at least a mindset of "i'm not going to judge us based off bahrain testing & bahrain results, but jeddah should be a better indicator of our pace given the layout & high-speed corners & relative tyre mercy from much smoother surfacing, so if they flop here then we can start calling them midclaren again" and although 3rd row lockout isn't The Best Ever Result i think it's still a decent showing, and of course i'm also satisfied that 814 basically maximized the potential of the car and that it's not like there was a spot left on the table that they weren't able to rise up to the occasion for. the only problem is our absolute dearth of STRAIGHT-LINE SPEED, AS PER. it's a shame this won't be addressed by australia because i really want oscar to do well there *__* but i do hope our first upgrades do something in the way of rectifying aero efficiency because man that top speed hurtsss. so basically if we can hang around am + merc for now then that's good, and we'll see how things progress over the course of the season......... i have no interest in sounding the alarm because i'm easily satisfied as an oscar fan (sophomore yr apprehension & still early enough in his career for me to not be desperate for race wins + podiums yet lol).
i was also really proud of oscar's improvements re: tyre management in bahrain and the fact that he didn't fall off lando too significantly, and watching them continuously qualify next to each other IS slightly anxiety-inducing wrt race starts but really promising & satisfying in terms of maximizing the car's potential and prioritizing mclaren's results as a team above all.... even if lando technically botched his quali in bahrain lol BUT YOU GET IT. supposedly lando's set-up in jeddah is more geared toward race pace so idk what that says of oscar only just qualifying over him, and it also makes me a bit anxious about how the race will be managed and strategized tomorrow, but altogether i think his growth is already showing to be quite promising this yr and i just hope he can continue 2 tangibly improve during long runs *__*
update: finishing this post after jeddah and WAHHHHH i'm so proud of and happy 4 oscar 🧡 p4 is the absolute best that car could have done barring another act of god. i'm so grateful to lance stroll for taking one for the team and putting ollie in a position to pass lewdo on the alt strat even though lewis staying out did hold up oscar significantly but like...... again our top speed is what it is, and even if he'd passed lewis tidily or kept behind sharl for a while i highly doubt he could have gotten him and our race was never rly with ferrari to begin with. right now we need to fight for 3rd best team and i'm ok with that 👍
2. F2 + F1A
waaaaaAaAAaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. WAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
this week has been insane as a dori + ollie fan... when i was originally going to write this post my thoughts were a lot more realistic & neutral, because coming into this szn i had a lot of anxiety about ollie's future, his championship battle with victor (or zane's illegal engine or whatever or whomever), even though the narrative has pretty much been that he's guaranteed the haas seat vs. whoever wins the hulk/kmag battle (read: rip kmag) for 2025 for a while now. but also!!!! i don't know. like 6 fps is INSANE, and i just feel like his junior career and trajectory have been so confusing in some ways that i'm like ?!?! he is rated SO so highly and for good reason, but he's definitely a product that's rough around the edges and it's interesting to see how much sheer belief ferrari & haas have placed in him because i do think a lot of that is based on data and testing results that we aren't fully privy to... in the end it's not that complicated but i just feel like his cv is so funny to look back on — from double f4 champ to 3rd in f3 after a very unlucky final round that cost him the title thanks to RED FLAG + F1 SCHEDULING WOES, to 6th in his f2 rookie season because of inconsistencies & high highs & low lows despite pulling off the double in baku and his 4 total wins to pourchaire's singular feature victory in bahrain. so it is clearly a case of like... "you're not quite there yet but you're notoriously adaptable and have what it takes to push to the limits" etc., and it makes sense that he's rated much higher than victor because of that even though they've both been touted as contenders for this season... but i'm just like !!! *__* icb 2 weeks ago people were writing thinkpieces on whether kimi would finish ahead of him in f2 and whether that could end his f1 aspirations and i've just been sooo careful to discuss his chances this yr and then IN JUST THE 2ND ROUND HE GETS CALLED UP AS RESERVE, IS ONLY ABLE TO RUN 1 FP, NEARLY QUALIFIES IN Q3 & MANAGES TO PICK UP 6 POINTS??? what the hell.
he literally has 6 more points in f1 than he does in f2 lmfao. how are you going to be last in f2 and 10th in f1 like this has 2 be a new stat. i'm literally sooo so proud though like that's the best work audition a guy could ask for and i'm relieved to think of how well this bodes for his stock no matter what happens next in f2 ;__; i really do believe in him. the fact that he kept it clean and didn't bin it in jeddah in a car that he isn't remotely physically conditioned to handle over a long distance is incredible and i really do hope some measure of consistency & awareness is visibly elevated in his race craft this szn.
also it's highkey so funny to see him get pookified like omg he's the mini charles omg [lewis / lando / jenson etc. brit narratives] because in my mind he will forever be an edgelord meme gremlin at mild risk of getting canceled....... but it's nice to see how much people like him :')
as for kimi... i'm quite pleased with his 2nd weekend and i think he'll only get stronger, he's had some rough patches but he recovered well during this week's sprint after a poor start and he's in a decent place points-wise going into australia. this grid has its unserious aspects & art is shocking atm but it's a really fun distribution of talent otherwise. wah!!!!!!
anyway before i move on - miss DORIANE 🥖 THE GOAT THAT U ARE!!!!!!!! the start of f1a has been wild because for those of us who followed her foray into f4 uae and obviously knew of her experience in wec, it was evident from even before testing that she would wipe the floor with her competition and that this series was in some ways a bit below her, but also a necessary step in terms of driver academy support and garnering mainstream support and visibility.... so it's a tough thing to balance. i'll wait a few rounds before i draw too many conclusions about the grid but it's like. the clear gap between doriane to abbi and maya to the rest of the grid... also hope maya can come a bit more into form because i do rate her above abbi so You Know. man. f1a trying to nerf her with the checkered flag thing is truly so ridiculous because it's liekasfasdfalkhsfd she'll just win again next round. it's fine 😭
in the end...... i don't know. it's a frustratingly constructed media circus in a lot of ways but i do think the intentions and execution are the best they've ever been for a female-only racing series, certainly more comprehensible than w series which is kind of the only bar we have atm. for doriane at least, i have a LOT of hopes that she can be competitive in a more respectable series next season, whether it's freca first or straight to f3, although i don't dare really expect much more from her than that... putting in solid performances in f3 would already be such a massive win and a great show of her talent.
3. other f1 thoughts
1. the joys of ALPAINE! so funny to watch jack doohan die inside having to discuss the team's struggles with miss laura like bro you guys are cooked
2. i already made my peace with rb dominance for this season wayyyy way long ago, so testing really didn't make me despair at all and neither have any of these first few rounds or results. in fact i feel quite good! i have other narrative threads to follow during this season anyway, and the tight battle btwn mcl/am/merc is fun to watch and although bahrain fell off massively in entertainment factor in the 2nd half jeddah was a pretty entertaining race overall (though i will say that ollie qualifying the car well below its potential definitely contributed to some of the fun of his performance lol)....... so ❤️
3. truly cackling that people genuinely believed he'd ever replace checo in rb by mid-szn. i won't make assumptions on checo's future while rb seems to be imploding (which i'll get into) but when your #1 driver is capable of winning the wcc entirely on his own, checo's middling performances are perfectly serviceable, relatively, and there is no true urgency to give him up for any Middery currently stinking it up in a vcarb backmarker. if i think too much about last week's yuki incident i'll get a stress headache...
4. the rb stuff is like... man. if i'm really honest then the situation itself is not in any way shocking or inconceivable or Haha Funny Silly Szn!!! amusing to me, and i'm not naive enough to misunderstand the underpinnings of a power struggle etc., but what genuinely actively pisses me off is more so the reactions & discussions people (read: mostly male fans) have had surrounding horner's allegations, and to some degree also the endless wank & discourse propagated for moral victory points by people with zero consideration for how much it distinctly Sucks Ass for some of us to engage with this material directly on a d2d basis. though in the latter case i am obviously more sympathetic to seeking a community space to share your frustrations with and understand that the intentions are usually good but... *__* idk. i just facking hateeee more than anything to see
5. i really do not care about ferrari or the ferrari narratives or lewis going to ferrari but it'll be interesting to watch the exodus of engineers & personnel (notably newey) across the top 3 and how everything shakes out with the 2026 regs. 🤷♀️ we shall see
4. 814 dynamix
i am literally so insane about 814 and i have 193284 reality checks about this every single day like can you please do anything else with your life? get another hobby? etc. etc. (unfortunately i have recently adopted other Online Interests but they are not socially acceptable so that's even worse. guess i'll die)
i had an epiphany the other day that unfortunately landoscar are a DYKECORE SHIP. as a lesbian they are palatable 2 me because oscar's total resignation to his fondness for lando is a microcosm of the tragic repressed dyke experience, i.e. how the totality of his Awareness of lando's existence & particularities & his happiness to accommodate him contradict his simultaneous refusal to ever consciously surface his feelings or demand lando's attention or seek any reciprocity... girl you're facking insane. so many of us self-isolate out of preservation because we all subscribe to the same semi-tragic framework of inevitability, or i should say preemptive fear of manifestations of this inevitability (be it rejection or incompatibility or even WORSE - codependence)... anyway why is oscar like the perfect dykebait when he's literally just some guy. but also when you're a DykeTM isn't the best guy to like kind of always just a guy? i feel like lesbians are very prone to either liking guys with ~MAXIMUM GENDER~ or guys who are just nonthreateningly guys because in some ways the Void of genderness in the latter archetype often aligns with our own personal identities & presentations, the vague unplaceable mascness & the ways we don't really have any tangible concept of our own self-image. like to me oscar exists in this neutral space of Guyness... he has girlmoments but they're not built up in a binary way like sharl "experiencing misogyny" (no comment on that lol) is or just like... lando's entire existence & universal perceptions of his "femininity". which is kind of funny because in a lot of ways i would say lando is not any more "feminine" than oscar is lmfao??? but again i realize that the way i approach Guyness is its own unique subjective thing and anyywayyyYYYYY.
814 are so crasyinsane to me because they make no sense and they don't know each other but they know each other SO well in the most subconscious, natural, unintended ways, and where have i heard this song before...? but unlike 2124 there is one half of the pairing who is obsessed with the other in the most open and unashamed manner, and yet the one who is regularly considered hyperneurotic and "bleeding-heart" and incapable of hiding his emotions is the one on the receiving end of this constant adulation. and ISN'T THAT A DYNAMIC TO CHEW ON!!!!!!!!
i have been thinking of writing a primer or making a video edit or doing SOMETHING but it's all so much. i have endless thoughts on why they work for me but i have to relax........ ;____; if anyone has 814 song edit suggestions pls lmk. it would truly save me life
-
ok i feel like there was a lot more i should have discussed but i'll stop here. will perhaps update with chat screenshots for posterity later on so i can look back on what we were saying at the start of the season but i'll do that another time 🧡🧡🧡 WAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a weekend. TT
