DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2021

This weekend was one of the greatest weekends I've ever had in Formula 1. Orange everywhere, just as it should be.

All the practice sessions were constant red flags and I was ready for a terrifying start, braced for carnage. But ultimately the race itself was actually completely free of bad luck for Max for once and it was just a perfect day and now Max is king of the Netherlands. The whole thing was absolutely so classy and it went as well as it could have possibly went. This was such a dream.

Free Practice 1

• WOOOOO IT’S MAXY WEEKEND

• Right away you can hear the 70,000 Dutch fans chanting when they start the coverage! There’s more fans coming!

• NO WAY this track is sooo insane and I haven’t seen it before!!

• Kimi announced his retirement after 20 years in formula 1 this week!! He started in 2001. We need him to keep us grounded otherwise F1 just flies away so I will miss him so much

• Yuki has already spun for seemingly no reason

• Ocon takes to an escape route

• This is the first time I’ve heard them mention the rumor that Bottas might go to Alfa Romeo

• These cranes going over the track are the craziest and tallest I’ve ever seen

• The banking on this track is like NASCAR ovals or something

• Gasly lost the left mirror somehow, like it just fell off

• This is Charles’ 50th race at Ferrari

• They aren’t wearing masks here in the crowd! Haven’t seen that in a long time!

• SO MANY MAX FANS, it’s AMAZING!!

• There terrain is like grass and sand dunes and right by the sea

• Seb has an engine failure and the back is smoking and he gets out of his car and there is some confusion about getting the fire extinguisher to shoot and Seb does it all himself and there’s been oil on the track too from the engine failure and the car is still smoking and Seb is obviously mad, seemingly at the fire extinguisher, throws it on the ground and it pulls a red flag

• They’re trying to clean up the oil on the track

• I just love seeing Seb always taking things into his own hands and has to do the fire extinguishing himself because he is so wisened and had seen so much

• Seb is a man of many talents including caring for his car on fire

• They had to make sure Seb’s car wasn’t electrically active so it took forever to clean up

• SOME AMAZING FAN wrote #33 in the sand on the beach and the helicopter showed it and I am SO INSPIRED by it

• The last seven minutes that they let them go back out were so crazy and it was like the end of Q3 because everyone was rushing to get out. Some of the highlights of that were that Ocon was super in the way and then Lando went into the gravel

Free Practice 2

• the start of the session will be delayed! Why??

• I just found out that Zandvoort means "sand on" so like it’s near the sand I think

• They didn’t penalize Ocon for nearly hitting and swerving towards Lando and he only got away with a warning

• Some AMAZING person had a stretch of grass near the track and they painted a Dutch flag and "welcome home Max" huge in the grass and I LOVE THAT

• As soon as they green flag, Hamilton goes out and has a power failure before Max is even able to put in a fast lap and it red flags the session and so this is the second Mercedes power unit to fail in the two sessions so far

• Max gets on a fast lap again and then Mazepin loses it into turn 11 and beaches it into the gravel and causes another RED FLAG

• Max just cannot get a fast lap without a red flag interrupting him

Free Practice 3

• Kimi tested positive for Covid and is asymptomatic but Robert Kubica replaces him for the rest of the weekend

• Apparently there was an investigation on Max for not slowing on red flag yesterday but the stewards ruled that no further action was necessary because he slowed down as fast as humanely possible

• Seb has a little off

• Carlos sainz has a big crash into the wall but is okay and it causes a red flag and they clean it up pretty quick

• Some heroes arranged the beach chairs to say Go Max and 33

• People can’t get a clean lap in because of the constant red flags

• Lando and Schumacher each have little offs but good

Qualifying

• late in Q1, George Russell gives a couple of fastest sectors

• Well all the sudden Gio is doing fastest sectors which says major track evolution at the end of the session to me

• Out in Q1: Perez, Vettel, Kubica, Schumacher and Mazepin

• This Perez being out is SO UPSETTING and it’s a result of the queuing at the end of the pit lane at the end of the session and it’s a complete shock

• Mazepin drove super dangerously and and nearly collided with both Schumacher and Vettel so he is gonna get a penalty

• Charles fastest at end of Q1

• You can just hear the fans roaring whenever Max goes out

• With four minutes left of Q2, George Russell is on a fast lap and has a big crash and it goes in backwards and it throws a red flag. BUT it turns out that he is able to keep going and drives out of the gravel back to the pit and it is still a red flag so he may be able to get into the car again and go out again which would be amazing

• Oh no George’s car isn’t okay so he is out of qualifying

• As soon as the session was restarted, Latifi goes out first and then A SECOND WILLIAMS CRASHES in a big impact this time and it was a scary one at a high speed and he is okay but it red flags the session with a minute left and it’s red flag and it’s not going to be reatarted

• Out in Q2, Russell, Stroll, Norris, Latifi and Tsunoda

• Red Bull report Mercedes to the stewards for putting their tire blankets on for too long

• They interview Mazepin about his dangerous driving and he blames it on Schumacher and says that Schumacher overtook him when he was supposed to be first!!! Outrageous

• THIS WAS SO SCARY, I was so worried about the whole end of Q3 like I couldn’t even watch and was so scared something would happen to Maxy

• MAXXXX ONNNNN POLEEEEEEEEE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and it’s the first Dutch Grand Prix in 35 years since 1985 and Max is on pole in his home Grand Prix

Race

• This was the most scared I’ve been for a start in SO LONG because I wanted everything to go well for Max SO BADLY. I WAS SURE this start was going to be full of carnage because we saw so many red flags all practice sessions but then it went BEAUTIFULLY and Max had an amazing start and sailed off into the distance and was already way ahead of Hamilton by lap 2 and amazingly no one crashed, I cannot believe it truly

• Ricciardo’s McLaren is smoking and dropping oil, and it looks like it’s over for him but then he just makes some adjustments and keeps going! Somehow manages to not retire

• Hamilton is SO SHAKEN by the Max advantage and atmosphere this weekend and keeps just saying “repeat” on the radio cause he can’t focus

• Ocon complaining that Alonso is slower than him in front of him so Alonso just speeds way up and is way faster than him! Ha!

• Mercedes pit Hamilton first and Max responds on the next lap and all is good, but then they leave Bottas out to try and hold up Max and it does a bit but not significantly thank God

• Perez making you places trying to move up from the back

• Everyone got pretty strung out quickly in this race

• This is apparently the second race where there’s that pit stop timing limitation for "safety" and it was supposed to start in Spa but we didn’t really race there, no real noticeable difference of the stops so far

• The passes are happening on crazy banking curves

• By the time Bottas pits, Hamilton is within .7 seconds of Max, but by the next lap, he’s 1.6 seconds ahead, so all fine

• Lewis complaining SO MUCH this race, as usual, but this is so much. He says Max is getting “lucky” with traffic

• George Russell gets a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, laaaaame

• 37/72 we have a Seb spin on one of the banking turns but he manages to avoid the barriers and keeps going but the real miracle is that Bottas avoids hitting him

• 40/72 Mercedes pit Hamilton again to try and overcut Max BUT THEN IT DEPOSITS HIM INTO TRAFFIC and it’s glorious, it’s totally not worked and he’s stuck again

• Max pits again and he puts on a set of hard tires and it’s a flawless stop

• Mazepin retires and no one knows why and no one cares

• Now Yuki has to retire and no reason given

• Wowwww so much Hamilton complaining about his tires, it’s comical

• All the sudden at lap 68/72, they pit Bot which is super weird. It’s a long stop and it also will take the fastest lap away from Hamilton but THEN they order Bottas not to do the fastest lap because it will take away from Lewis and Bottas asks why they stopped id they aren’t doing for fastest lap and they say PRECAUTIONARY. Yeah, right.

• But BOTTAS IS STILL GOING FOR FASTEST LAP until James gets on the radio and orders Bot not to!!! What!!! And even though Bot aborts lap at last minute he still sets the fastest lap and even sets a new lap record!!

• Hamilton says he needs that extra point so he pits again so he can get the extra point back!! Hahahah

• MAX WINS THE DUTCH GRAND PRIX!!! MAX WINS AT HOME!! THE FANS ROAR, JUST LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THIS WHOLE RACE!! I mean the scenes at the this race with all the fans were INCREDIBLE and the scenes were even more amazing than when Charles won at Monza!! They have so much orange smoke everywhere!!! You can’t even see!! It’s one of the best day I’ve ever seen in F1. The music and roaring of the fans and they stood up every time he went by and it is just the kind of people I want to be around and I am so inspired by their passion

• Hamilton in second and Bot in third

• A stirring Dutch national anthem

• The interviewer wanted a picture with Max and took a selfie

• The king and royal family is the Netherlands is there to see Max at the podium!!

P.S. This was Charles' 50th Race at Ferrari this weekend

F1 FOODS: BELGIUM

We had breakfast for dinner in honor of Belgian waffles! In addition to waffles, we also had eggs with cheese, blueberries and sausage.

BELGIAN "GRAND PRIX" 2021

This was the weekend when it was consistently down-pouring at Spa (which, as a track, is terrifying enough without it being all wet).

During the wet qualifying, Lando Norris had a huge, high-speed crash that spun him around a million times. Qualifying was the best part of the weekend by far, though, when it looked like Hamilton was going to get pole, and then ALL THE SUDDEN, GEORGE RUSSELL started setting purple sectors at the last minute and shot to the top of the timings. Then Max, God bless him, finished his fast lap and took pole. It was awesome.

George Russell started second! Max on pole! Raining all weekend!

As for the "race" itself: it was delayed for nearly FOUR HOURS because of constant rain, then they only ran 2 laps behind the safety car and that was it. I'm glad they didn't run, though, because safety for these boys comes first.

The whole situation was completely confusing though (has the race started or not? Can Perez, who crashed on his way to the grid, rejoin the race if his car is fixed? How long until the rain clears? Will it clear? How much can these poor, soaking, freezing fans take?) I have never seen so much confusion in my life.

So overall, calling it a "grand prix" is pretty generous. I've never seen anything like this weekend.

Emoji of the week: rain cloud.

Notes:

Free Practice 1

• here we are back at iconic Spa!!

• WOAH ITS RAINING, and there are tons of drivers who have never driven Spa in the wet and it’s a 90% risk of rain for FP1

• It’s that time of the year when you have all of your Usual Suspects where you already know, as soon as a yellow flag comes out and based on who is out there, who messed up. In this case it keeps being Yuki

• Yuki has a spin and Kimi has a spin, both in the same place at different times

• Kimi lightly hits the very slim pit entrance wall

• Bottas will still start this race with a 5 place grid penalty for causing that HUGE collision at the start of the race in Hungary

• They discuss the engine penalties and Paul roasts Lance Stroll for hitting Charles last race and damaging his engine although Charles did nothing wrong and yet Charles is the one being punished for it

• Hamilton is on a fast lap and Latifi gets in his way and totally impedes him hahahahah

• Charles has a scary moment dipping a wheel in the gravel but keeps it all good and no damage, just gravel in the track

Free Practice 2

• Sergio Perez signed a contract extension for another year at Red Bull!! Yay!!!

• First ever visor camera angle where we can see what Alonso sees as he drives

• Ocon has a big spin and could have totally put it into the wall but doesn’t and it was so lucky but I am hoping this will calm Ocon down from his race win high

• Oh NO Charles hits the wall but it wasn’t too high speed and it was a small mistake, so red flag to clean it up but it’s so sad to that it was Charles who crashed out

• OHH NOOO Max crashes out at the same corner as Charles did in Turn 7 and causes a red flag NO Maxy!!

Free Practice 3

• Max’s car is totally fixed from the crash, but Charles had to take a new chassis

• It’s still super rainy this session so lots of spray and we have to see what kind of running we get

• This Alonso helmet cam at Spa is so actually terrifying

• They’re talking about why Seb was disqualified last race for apparently his fuel evaporated from race conditions and it was less than they needed to test at the end and they just disqualified

• Gasly has a spin and does really well to keep it out of the wall

• Charles has to go back into the garage because there’s something loose in the cockpit

• Lando does a test run of the slicks in the wet and he manages to keep it together but it is SUPER slippery

Qualifying

• DELAYED SESSION because of so much rain!! There is too much standing water on the track for even wet tires and we get a five minute warning before the start

• Everyone goes out on the wets except the two Williams who are on inters which turn out to be the right choice cause they are smashing everyone else’s times and George is going fastest and everyone needs to box for inters

• Latifi screws up one of George’s laps by going off in the inters ahead of George and causing a yellow so he has to slow

• Everyone realizes they have to box for inters cause they are getting smashed by the Williams

• Rain to sun to rain to sun so what are they gonna do

• Power supply to the pit wall failed during the start of the session to reset everything

• Crazy track changes and it’s a total toss up who will get out

• Ocon is in 15th again at the end of Q1 after all this talk about Ocon winning last time

• Out in Q1: Gio, Yuki, Kimi, Lil Schu and Mazepin

• Stewards looking at a Sainz and Ocon incident in Q2

• Out in Q2: Charles, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll

• Now it’s full wet conditions again for Q3! This is a wild qualifying session

• Seb says red flag, it’s too wet out here

• They ask Lando how conditions are and he says there’s some aquaplaning

• LANDO HAS A HUUUUUUUUGE WET WEATHER CRASH and a LOT OF SPINNING and ends up taking almost all four wheels off and thank GOD he is okay but man that was terrifying and we just were watching in horror

• SEB pulls up beside Lando after the crash to MAKE SURE HE’S OKAY by giving a thumbs up and Lando gives a thumbs up and THAT IS THE SEB I LOVE and he is furious on the radio that they didn’t stop the session earlier so that a crash could be avoided

• They finally restart and it’s suuuuuuuper scary

• it looked like it was all over and that Hamilton was gonna get pole again BUT THEN GEORGE RUSSELL got a fastest lap!!! AND IT LOOKED LIKE GEORGE RUSSELL WAS GONNA GET POLE IN THE WILLIAMS AND HE NEARLY DID

• BUT THEN MAX GOT POLE IN THE LAST SECOND AND GEORGE IN SECOND AHHHHH

Race

• SERGIO PEREZ CRASHED ON HIS WAY TO THE GRID AND WILL NOT RACE NOOOOOOOOOOOO

• DELAYED START BECAUSE THE RAIN IS SO BAD AND it has been such a miserable wet weekend. They said ten minute delay but it looks AWFUL out there and they keep delaying it by 5 minutes every time

• Of course Lewis gets out of the car first when they announce the delay and why is he out of the car and then he has someone wiping off his feet before he gets back in the car barfff

• This just promises so much chaos and I am so frightened

• It will be a safety car start when it does get going

• They start formation lap 25 minutes after the start time but they should NOT be starting this race in this wet conditions

• It’s completely blind out there

• Everyone complains except Max who is ready to go but it’s suuuuuuuuper dangerous and they report Start Procedure Suspended and then they pull a red flag and take everyone into the pit lane and we are not starting for the foreseeable future

• Now they are not even sure if they are going to get this race run this afternoon because it is SO RAINY

• This is just the most insane thing because nobody knows if the race has actually started or not because of the formation lap

• Okay SO - after 3 hours and 10 minutes, they are getting back into their cars but there is no change in conditions and it’s raining just as bad so it seems like they are going to just have 2 laps to have 50 percent points so geeeez, who knows what is going on right now

• The delays have meant that Red Bull fixed Perez’s car and he can start from the back but that was actually a point of contention as well

• So they put them out for two laps behind the safety car and they brought them back in with a second red flag so now the race has officially started and the timer is ticking down and we have an hour to wait and see if they will go back out but honestly they will not be doing that for sure, it’s actually worse out there than it was on the first 2 formation laps originally

• No one got to race, so the winners were the order from qualifying: Max won, George Russell in second (!!!) and Hamilton in third. They still had a podium. But it was half-points for this race, apparently, rather than full. That’s why they ran two laps. Because half-points are given if you run at least two laps.