Where To Watch F1 Live (in Australia, At Least)

In case you haven't seen it already: The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GP will be held on Saturday NOT Sunday!! Unless you're Australian like me. Then they're on Sunday... 2am/4am 🥲🥲

If he doesn't get a seat after his contract ends I don't know what I'll do ngl. It's insane to be able to understand a driver when he speaks his native tongue, to see him racing at his home race and see him be so supported. Lots of love to Zhou for the rest of his racing career.

Zhou in tears infront of his crowd at the Chinese GP 2024

daniel's like that one friend who says some fucked up shit out of nowhere and ruins the vibe bc the whole gang's depressed again now 😔

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.

the scream i just let out…

I’m gonna need Vcarb to come out immediately and take the blame for this as soon as this race finishes. Stupid stupid strategy yet it’s going to be DR who will get all the backlash.

What's happened so far at pre-testing?

Pre-testing can be pretty boring to watch, but luckily for me I was studying so I had it on as background noise the whole time. So here are some notable moments since testing week is over:

Albon stops on track

Alex Albon's Williams stopped on track on the first day of testing, bringing out a yellow flag (but not a red one! because he stopped on a safe side of the track). Luckily for all Williams' fans (yeah all four of us) it was an issue with the fuel pump and was resolved.

Leclerc hits drain cover, testing suspended

Leclerc's bad luck streak continues after he hits a loose drain on the track, and Day 2's morning testing is discontinued with an hour left to go. Hamilton's Mercedes also hit the drain cover, hence the photo.

George Russel pose 'filmed for everyone'

Alex Albon makes an appearance in the commentary box on night 2! He gave us valuable insight, like how apparently everyone was filmed doing the "George Russell pose" and they just went with George....poor guy. On the other hand, I think Alex would be a wonderful commentator and should absolutely try after he retires (which, hopefully, is no time soon)

The drivers started racing each other??

The end of night 2 saw the first 'lights out and away we go' of the season, with all the cars lining up for a practice start. Leclerc went first, Russel second and Zhou Guanyu third (!!!!)

And that's it!! My highlights of the f1 pre-testing week :)

Anybody that's feeling worried about Daniel's current quali performance and in particular his gap to Yuki (especially after having to listen to Will Buxton repeat every ten minutes on last weekend's broadcast that "Daniel's average quali gap to Yuki is the exact same as NDV's") needs to have a look at this brilliant data analysis by u/tomedunn on reddit.

Obviously Daniel ideally still needs to find a decent chunk of time vs Yuki in quali, but it's nowhere near as dire as Buxton (and many others) are making it out to be, and I think it does also corroborate Daniel's claim that this is not in any way a McL situation.