ITALIAN GRAND PRIX 2021

This was the Italian Grand Prix where Lewis and Max collide halfway through the race and end up both retired. Then Daniel Ricciardo wins the race with Lando in second and it became McLaren weekend.

It was such a super scary moment between Max and Lewis.

This weekend was an experimental format again with a sprint. It looked dull compared to the Dutch Grand Prix the weekend before cause there was so much fan energy, until this huge drama happened mid-race. It is being called the defining image of the season with Max’s car flying over Lewis. I’ve got to say, Monza somehow always does create drama.

Practice 1

• okay buckle in it’s another experimental format weekend

• AWWWWW they renamed the Parabolica! That was my favorite name awwwww

• Kubica is still in for Kimi this weekend since Kimi is still out with Covid

• This was the week of all the driver market news!! Bottas from Mercedes to Alfa Romeo, George Russell from Williams to Mercedes and Alex Albon to Williams!! Wowwww what changes. I know George was going to go to Mercedes and he deserves it but I wish it had been after Lewis was gone because I dread him having to play second fiddle to Hamilton and I just hope they will give George his fair chance to compete even though I don’t think they will. I would have rather Ocon went to Mercedes because Ocon would have been a perfect second fiddle for Hamilton

Qualifying

• there’s an adorable kid yelling his face off about Ferrari and it’s great to see

• There’s something wrong with Charles car and he asks about it in the radio and as usual ferrari doesn’t know what it is

• Charles is cut off on his way out of the pits by Mazepin and the stewards note it

• And then there’s ANOTHER Mazepin incident noted with Kubica

• Mazepin complaining that Mick Schumacher “needs to get a move on” ughhhh how dare he address little schu

• Wow this traffic is unbelievable every single year

• Out in Q1: George Russell, Latifi, Mick Schumacher, Kubica, Mazepin

• Latifi almost hit some wildlife on the track

• OH WAIT Yuki had a lap time deleted so now Yuki is out instead of George and George is still in Q2!!

• It’s the first time we’ve had Jost Capito of Williams on the pit wall and he seems like a lot of fun

• Ferrari found a problem in Charles car and they’re not telling us what it is but it is not looking good

• WOAH there was just nonsense getting out onto the track at the end of Q2 and an Aston almost hit a Mercedes and they all almost took out an Alpine mechanic directing a car and Max was so mad about the whole thing that he shot out of the pits and overtook 4 cars

• Pit lane incident will be investigated after the race

• Out in Q2: Vettel, Stroll, Alonso, Ocon and Russell

• What in heck is Gio doing in Q3 again

• At the last second Bottas goes fastest!!! Taking it away from Hamilton for the sprint!!

• Bot on pole, then Hamilton and then Max, Norris, Ricciardo, Gasly

Free Practice 2

• Carlos Sainz has a big crash and causes a red flag. Front end of the Ferrari is really broken and they have to figure out how to fix it before the sprint race later. Big impact for Carlos and it sent his head forward a lot more than you usually see and he reports he’s a little hurt but he’s okay. Went to medical center.

• Charles has to bring the Ferrari into the garage because there’s something wrong he can’t say on the radio so it’s very secret. It could be something that would get the team into trouble if he said it on the radio. Oh Ferrari

Sprint race

• oh RIGHT the weird floating graphics, I forgot

• Oh RIGHT the weird photos for the drivers on the grid lineup

• MAX AND BOT have GREAT STARTS and HAMILTON GETS EATEN UP AT THE START AND LOSES 4 PLACES YESSSSSSS

• WOAH Gasly is in the wall and it was cause he clipped the back of the McLaren in front of him and his front wing shot under him and put him in the gravel but luckily the impact was minimal

• Kubica also spins out and it turns out it was YUKI who hit him!!!

• Safety car to clean up Gasly

• Stewards rule no investigation necessary in Yuki hitting kubica

• Charles transponder broken and it appears at the end of the field but he is still near the front, it’s wrong

• Perez gets by Stroll but goes over a corner and gains an advantage and won’t give the place back but then he does and gets Stroll again on the next lap

• Stewards note the Perez and Stroll incident

• Lando is defending against Hamilton brilliantly and keeping Hamilton behind, go child go

• Hahahaha Hamilton still can’t get past Lando AND Hamilton has a squirrelly moment and almost loses the car

• Aw geez now they are investigating the Perez and Lando thing, why

• Okay no investigation necessary

• This is just 18 laps but very exciting

• OKAY SO Bottas wins, BUT HE HAS AN ENGINE PENALTY so HE STARTS FROM THE BACK, which means MAX STARTS ON POLE, then DANIEL Ricciardo in second!! And LANDO Norris in third!! Fantastic

Race

• Yuki having brake problems so they start from the pit lane

• Eeeee Daniel and Max starting next to each other

• Ferrari starting in a different by tire than everyone else like usual

• Charles wasn’t feeling well yesterday so that was what the mysterious radio call was

• UMM DANIEL IN THE LEAD off the line and then Hamilton makes up a place to third getting past Lando but then Gio reenters the track and Carlos Sainz hits him and puts him in the wall but somehow Gio keeps going and it’s a virtual safety car

• then there’s an incident where Hamilton goes off and Hamilton accuses Max of pushing him off but it was just a racing incident

• Gasly retires because of something in the back and Yuki also isn’t going to be in the race so both Alpha Tauris are out basically right away

• No investigation necessary on the thing where Hamilton says he was pushed wide hahaha I know right

• Max reports he can’t get close to Daniel

• Daniel getting track limits warning

• Gio getting a 5 second penalty for unsafely rejoining the track, I totally thought they would give Carlos the penalty for hitting Gio

• Perez making up places and gets past Sainz to sixth with some great racing

• 12/52 Lando keeps Hamilton behind him!!

• It’s helping Hamilton in fourth that Daniel is keeping Max behind him so that is very upsetting

• Ocon completely pushes Vettel into the gravel and it’s so typical, giving Ocon a race win makes him worse on track. Being investigated by the stewards

• Max is having problems harvesting energy for a pass

• HA Esteban Ocon gets a five second time penalty for the move on Vettel

• Max has to go over the chicane and rejoins but it doesn’t give him an advantage or disadvantage. They investigate it but no investigation necessary

• 23/53 daniel pits!!

• 24/53 OHHHH NOOOOOO MAX PITS AND IT IS A COMPLETELY UNEXPLAINED LONG PIT STOP AND IT WAS 11.1 SECONDS NOOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS RUINS EVERYTHING FOR MAXY AND THIS BAD PIT STOP COULD NOT COME AT A WORSE TIME

• Hamilton has a little longer pit stop of 4.2 seconds but it’s still

• MAX AND LEWIS HIT EACH OTHER IN A BIZARRE INCIDENT WHERE MAX’S CAR IS LAUNCHED ONTO HAMILTONS CAR AND IT ENDS UP WEDGED UNDER MAX’S RED BULL. Max did nothing wrong and Max had earned the weight to some space and Lewis did not leave him a cars width!!!! It all put Lewis in huge danger and the incident is too scary to watch and it launched Max right in the air

• Max is so furious he just walks away and he doesn’t even want to go to the pit stand and is going back I to the garage and Max says he doesn’t leave me any space to Helmut and he is completely right

• Max and Lewis incident investigated after the race

• First time Hamilton hasn’t finished in like 63 races or something

• Charles pits under the safety car and it helps him IMMENSELY all the sudden and he’s in second!! WOAH

• After safety car start, Lando gets past Charles and there are scraps everywhere, Perez gets past off the track and will it be an advantage

• Vettel hits little Schumacher and then Schumacher is spin around by Mazepin, for goodness sake

• Bottas is on a FEARSOME charge all the way from the back and it’s overtaking everybody and he’s in fourth now

• There is so much crazy racing behind the restart I cannot even keep up

• 37/53 both Mclarens are in 1 and 2 and are in danger from Bottas creeping up to get the lead eventually

• Charles is always such a fair racer

• 37/53 THE STEWARDS give PEREZ a 5 second time penalty for gaining an advantage off the track and its added to his race time at the end UGHHHH

• 39/53 Now Charles is back charging at Bottas and just found a ton of pace

• HA a 5-second time penalty for Mazepin hitting Schumacher!! TAKE THAT MAZEPIN

• Mazespin hits one of the styrofoam barriers on the chicane and Lando will do it as long as it’s best for the team

• Team orders telling Lando not to try and overtake his teammate for first

• Bottas pace has just gone away suddenly after his crazy charge

• 41/53 double yellows to replace the styrofoam blocks on the chicane but it scared me

• 43/53 Perez and Bottas scrapping and Perez manages to stay ahead from Bottas mistake

• 43/53 Mazepin stopped on the side of the track and it’s double yellows and hopefully they can just push him away but they pull a virtual safety car and they push Mazepin’s car into the opening and it appears his engine just lost power and retires

• If McLaren wins it’s the second longest gap between an ever present constructor cause their last win was nine years ago? And now they’re in 1 and 2

• 51/53 lance stroll under investigation for failing to slow under yellow flags hahah

• DANIEL RICCIARDO WINS, the first time since Monaco 2018, LANDO IN SECOND, Perez crosses third but drops to fifth for the five second time penalty, so Bottas takes third, Charles in fourth!!!

• The celebrations for McLaren are absolutely just heartwarming in every way

• I can’t believe it’s finally a Daniel win again. Wow!!

• Daniel does a shoey! And then does one with the other shoe for Lando and Zak brown!

• Bottas did an awesome drive all the way up to third from the back and he’s just fantastic

POST RACE UPDATE: THE STEWARDS GAVE MAX A 3-PLACE GRID PENALTY FOR THE NEXT RACE IN SOCHI EVEN THOUGH IT WAS TOTALLY CLEAR IT WAS NOT HIS FAULT

F1 FOODS: THE NETHERLANDS

For the Dutch Grand Prix, we had Dutch Babies with homemade whipped cream and sausage links. We also had orange chicken on Saturday night specifically in honor of the orange army and Max Verstappen.

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