Race So Wild I Had To Colour Code It. Anyways The Quality Is Terrible So You'll Have To Click To See

Red Bull will do anything but let Yuki get that RBR seat huh

"Im happy with second" What the hell did they do to Max over the summer break????

*clawing at the bars of my enclosure* I DONT HATE LIAM BUT YUKI DESERVED IT MORE I DONT HATE LIAM BUT YUKI DESERVED IT MORE I DONT HATE LIAM BUT YUKI DESE

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.

I spent too long on this so I figured I’d post it here! Just smth I made for fun. I’ll probably make one for the GP itself but no promises lol

Hey so the parallels are killing me

Daniel: we belong there. We belong towards the front.

let's FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

Thinking about how Logan will be practically erased for the rest of the season...there's probably a ton of content he filmed for COTA and grill the grid, etc. that won't ever be released now :(

I was lowkey hoping Logan would get to see out the rest of the season and do the funniest thing (be a menace to the team) but oh well

Another chaotic race, another race summary! Usually I'd make these digitally but I got a new set of pens and really wanted to use them,, anyways I love this circuit and GP a lot so I'm glad it was at a normal time for us Aussies :'))