ATG Increasing Difficulty (team 4 - McLaren, reduced weight)

[unborn stratus]

Lap 14: Kevin pits and emerges P19 (both Alpines get by), he needs to pit early because he's sue a spec 1 suspension with horrible tyre preservation, we only have one good one

Lap 17: Hulk's first pit, down to P11, everyone ahead hasn't pit

Lap 19: the first AI drivers pit, Hulk is back up with the red Bulls, Ferraris and McLarens

Lap 24: now everyone has pit at least once, Hulk is P2 and Kevin is P8

Lap 27: Hulk leaves Perez and Piastri fighting with each other as he breaks the second barrier to secure P2

Lap 30: Magnussen pits again and has a better exit position, P13

Lap 33: The Alpines being annoying lets Perez and Piastri past Hulk, he's isolated in P4

Lap 37: FIVE RACES IN A ROW (it was Ricciardo's fault and he got a penalty)

The red flag lets Hulk catch up to Perez and Piastri, but has ripped a hole in our tyre strategy

Lap 40: Hulk climbs up to P2, Verstappen gets away

Lap 43: Piastri and Perez get past Verstappen, but Hulk stays behind

Lap 44: one less threat for us as Leclerc locks up

Lap 46: Piastri and Perez get a breakaway, Hulk is fending off Perez for P3

Hopefully this helps us

Lap 47: we get away form Perez, but Norris gets past him and now he's the threat

Lap 49: anyone that cna get past Perez is also getting past Hulk, meybe he had an issue before it showed

Lap 58: Hulk exits his final pit P8, somehow perez undercut us

lap 65: perez is in the dust, after a few more pits Hulk is P5 with no one around

And Ocon parks

Lap 70: Hulk catches up to Piastri

Sainz wins

How did a tractor get the fastest lap?

In the last two races we've approximately halved the debt, hopefully in the next two we can do the same, then profit

[unborn stratus]

Sauber bring up an affiliate

In a move that was widely advised to do last year, Sauber have confirmed Theo Pourchaire for an F1 seat alongside Sainz, he's expected to perform well against Sainz, but time will tell

Now on the grid: Rosetta Gambling's odds on each driver's chances of beating their teammate next year

[unborn stratus]

We are in Brazil, for our final sprint of 2024 - this is our usual position now

Lap 2: Hulk gets up to P5, Kevin is fighting Piastri for P6

Lap 3: one-sided fight, we're going for Sainz now

Lap 7: Sainz gets ahead of Perez, we're running on his tow, in P5-6, I'm not sure if we'll gain any more from here

Lap 8: both Mercs spun leaving them at the back, this is good for us as they're our only WCC battle

Lap 11: Hulk gets past Perez and advances towards the podium positions

Lap 14: Perez fights back, getting ahead of Hulk and Sainz

Lap 17: Hulk retakes P4 by getting past Sainz

Lap 21: Hulk gets on the podium by overtaking Verstappen

lap 24: the Sainz and Verstappen have a better final assault than Hulk, they retake P3 and 4

Piastri gets Magnussen at the end too

Leclerc wins, our result is decent

What happened in the main quali... will blow your mind

That's what Ricciardo gets for crashing Kevin out last race

It's a shame this happened now of all times, because Hulk needs a new engine but we can't afford to give him one, him parking will be no surprise

Lap 2: Hulk breaks the second barrier already, Kevin up to P5

Lap 3: Sainz and Verstappen catch up again

Norris and Magnussen are in an isolated fight for P4

Lap 4: Magnussen slows down, letting Norris get away as Leclerc and Perez attack him

With the spec 1 suspension, Kevin basically has to run one notch lighter at almost all times

Hulk still leads but for how long?

Lap 6: Norris attacks and breaks the second barrier, Hulk is fighting Sainz

Lap 9: Hulk and Sainz use DRS to catch back up to Norris

Lap 10: Sargeant rear ends Bottas, Bottas has damage Sargeant doesn't but has a penalty

Lap 13: Leclerc has a push and joins the frontrunners

And Kevin gets past Verstappen for P5 again

Lap 17: Perez has a problem

As Kevin finds himself Past Norris in P3

Hulk also gets past Norris, so 3-4

lap 22: Hulk has a pit issue allowing Norris to jump him, he's P8 ahead of Piastri

Lap 24: Kevin exits the pits P4, Hulk has gotten up to P5 overtaking Sainz and Leclerc P1 is the only driver yet to pit... classic Leclerc

Lap 26: Ocon does the Brazil special and crashes into Zhou causing a red flag, Zhou gets penalised

Unfortunately this saves Leclerc

And Sainz got past us just before

lap 30: We and Norris are P4, 5 and 6 with no one else around

Lap 32: Norris invites Piastri and Alonso to the fight, we take a beating from this

Lap 37: Hulk is still trapped, but Kevin broke free and is now fighting Norris

Lap 40: Hulk joins them

Lap 43: Hamilton clips Stroll, we love seeing the Mercs doing badly

Lap 49: We pit, Hulk emerges P5 ahead of Norris, Magnussen P9 (pitted the lap before, no issue, don't know what happened)

And Verstappen in the lead has a mechanical issue too

lap 56: Norris gets away from Hulk, we're both isolated now

Lap 58: Magnussen catches up to Tsunoda

Lap 60: Norris fights with Verstappen, letting Hulk catch back up

Tsunoda did a terrible lap and Kevin got past easily

lap 61: Hulk gets past Verstappen, but Norris is already too far away

Lap 62: Piastri on softs catches up and gets by Hulk

Lap 63: Piastri's tow helps Hulk catch up to Norris

As Magnussen catches up to and gets by Verstappen

Lap 64: Hulk gets a fault

Lap 66: Verstapen is P17, only running car behind is Sargeant, he's got it rough

lap 71: Hulk begind a final assault, but Piastri and Norris can hold it off

Only Sargeant was lapped, don't ask me what happened here

Maybe Verstappen caused a red flag? I didn't see

P3 is unobtainable, but P5 could happen, in our state of finances I'd rather take P5 then all the new PU components I'd need

Thankfully there seems to be a glitch where the board don't recognise this - let's hope it lasts, getting fired on easy would be so embarassing

In Vegas penalties push us up the grid a little

Lap 2: this must be a good track for RB if tsunoda can overtake Hulk, we're 5-6

We also breka DRS from Norris, which on this track is huge

Lap 6: Norris uses Russell to catch back up

Lap 13: Hulk finally gets past Tsunoda

lap 15: Kevin pits alongside most of the frontrunners, no one jumps him, he's p10

lap 16: those who haven't pit yet get in the way of Kevin as Piastri gets away and we're back to fighting Norris

Norris does the insane lap thing and leaves Kevin behind

Lap 17: Tsunoda crashes, threat eliminated

Lap 19: Hulk and perez pit, Perez exits just in front of magnussen, Hulk just behind

Lap 22: the Haas boys and Perez are P4-5-6, away from everyone else

Lap 26: Kevin falls behind

Lap 28: Hulk and Perez catch up to the McLarens in the fight for P2

Lap 30: we seperate into twos again, but Norris and Hulk are ahead

Lap 31: now being in the battle for the lead, we do what anyone would do: pit

And Magnussen develops a fault

Hulk exits P6, staying ahead of Piastri and fighting Sainz, who hasn't pit yet

Lap 36: Magnussen pits and comes out P8, all the frontrunners are ahead and Alonso just behind has already pit too

Lap 38: as Perez refuses to pit, Hulk takes the lead

Lap 39: we battle Piastri for the lead now, not long to go

Lap 40: Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc join up too

Hulk's final assault was successful this time around

Crazy

Verstappen now has the 2024 WDC, which Croft incorrectly called his third

[unborn stratus]

Speeding this up as there's two races to go

Stroll retained

Aston Martin boss Lawrence Stroll has elected to retain his son for 2025 and beyond, Mike Krack has praised Stroll's performances while tapping "help" in morse code on his desk

VCARB announce a double rookie lineup

In an interesting turn of events, both Ricciardo and Tsunoda won't have VCARB seats in 2025 - Tsunoda has an Aston Martin drive, but where will Ricciardo go?
Ayumu Iwasa has been waiting on the sidelines for quite a while, and has finally secured a seat for 2025 at VCARB

Water has a sprint, and looks like it works well for the McLarens

Luckily they and Leclerc have opted for softs - you can't do a sprint in softs here, they'll have to pit

In the worst start I've seen, Hulk stsys P6 but Kevin falls to P12

Lap 4: Hulk inexplicably falls to P8

Lap 11: it gets worse, Ricciardo can get by Magnussen

Lap 15: Albon parks

Lap 16: Magnussen reveals he has a fault that's probably the reason why he's dropping back

Mysteriously the soft runners didn't pit, and that worked

Perez got pole but that was thanks to a new engine

It was a better start than last time, Hulk P3 Kevin P5

Lap 5: Leclerc gets ahead and leaves us behind, fighting off Sainz

Lap 8: we're slow, everyone is getting past

Lap 14: Kevin has a different gearbox, but same problem

Lap 16: Magnussen boxes, no one jumped him, P13

[unborn stratus]

Lap 22: everyone has pit once, Kevin is P7 Hulk P8

Lap 30: we are firmly isolated from anyone else

Lap 31: Kevin's fault gets worse

Lap 40: we've pitted twice, P8 and P10, Tsunoda ahead of Hulk hasn't pitted yet

Zhou spin count: 3

Lap 45: Kevin's only real threat is Stroll, who is on older tyres and will struggle at the end, but with his fault it's possible

Lap 49: tsunoda catches up too

Qatar just ain't our track

Sargeant parked right at the end

Best of all, debt no more

Haas confirm Hulkenberg's return

Nico Hulkenberg will stay at Haas for 2025 and beyond, getting his and the team's first podium and win proved he was a good choice, and they're sticking with him for hopefully the first championship for both of them in 2025

Gasly sticks with Alpine

Gasly has declared before an Apine affiliate will race with him for 2025 - with Alpine the only space where this is possible, Gasly has to be there

Two seats left

We have also secured our position in the WCC, so Abu Dhabi doesn't matter for us

If Russell outscores Magnussen by 11 points he overtakes him in the WDC, but that won't happen

This is the first race in a while we didn't double Q3

Yeah Kevin is safe

7-9 at the start

Lap 3: Magnussen is struggling, I feel another failure is imminent

Lap 8: Kevin has two faults

Lap 14: Kevin pits and comes out P14, only Ocon Albon and Bottas have pit too and he's in front of those

Lap 18: Kevin's gearbox fault gets worse

Sargeant mistake count: 4

Lap 22: everyone has pit, Hulk P8 Kevin P14, does Hulk have a problem too maybe?

Just as I ask that he says yes

Lap 25: Kevin has two oranges

Lap 40: Kevin pits again and emerges P19, only ahead of Sargeant with lots of mistakes and also orange problems

Sargeant mistake count: 5 (run wide)

Lap 44: Hulk pits and emerges P10, everyone ahead has already pit

Lap 46: with superior tyres, Hulk promply catches up to the pack

Lap 52: goodbye Kevin, while other spark in the pits, he parks in the middle of the road

This summons a safety car

Lap 56: just before the safety car comes in, Hulk's fault becomes orange

Sargeant mistake count: 6 (and under safety car)

The VCARBs and Hamilton get ahead at the restart

Piastri wins

This was the best we could do with Ferrari engines

It was a title fight to the wire, but Red Bull are victorious

I work the pit stop time mostly, Haas just really suck at that

Isack Hadjar is the F2 champion (I don't know why Bearman has a Haas suit here, it's Ferrari)

The F2 champion comes to F1

Isack Hadjar completes VCARB's lineup as Red Bull believe the F2 title is worthy of him getting a seat

Victor Martins takes final seat

Jack Doohan has been snubbed for fear of underperformance in tests, 5th place finished Victor Martins will partner Gasly in 2025

2025 lineups, with expected chance they beat their teammate

And now it's time for:

Rosetta Gambling's biggest flops of 2024

5. Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Antonelli came straight into F2 expecting results... but they didn't really come - with best results of 2 P2s and 2 P3s, Bearman got 1.5x the points he got

4. Kevin Magnussen
Seeming like a great matchup to Hulkenberg at the start, Magnussen hasn't beat Hulkenberg since Monaco, including a streak of 5 crashes in part of it

3. Alex Dunne
MP proved to be a top team in F3 in 2024, with Sztuka performing best of the non-Premas and Tramnitz just behind in 6th... then there's Dunne who didn't score any points at all...

2. Juan Manuel Correa
In a similar fashion, Crawford was often at the front - in fact, Crawford has over 7x as many podiums as Correa points finishes, he just couldn't keep up

1. Franco Colapinto
Is it Hauger being good or Colapinto being bad? Regardless, even the best drivers make mistakes - Perez could take that fight to Verstappen a few times, but Colapinto has always been at the bottom of the table, frequently in the 20s, the only driver in every formula to never beat their teammate this year, ever

[unborn stratus]

Lineups of F2 and F3 and chances of beating their teammate(s) based on previous observation (ie. as we've not seen F2 Trident's drivers in action, who knows what will happen)

And because it's never too early for a silly season, this is F1 2026 - who goes where? No one knows

2025 starts in 2025

[unborn stratus]

Back to Bahrain it is - it's no 1-2, we have Kevin's crashes to blame for that, but we're up there

Hulk leaves Piastri behind as he fights Verstappen for P1, Ollie stays P7 for now

Lap 5: hamilton and Norris come together pretty badly, they and the safety car are out, Norris penalised

The Haas' and lawson don't pit, leaving the aformentioned 3 on the podium

Lap 8: Hulk and Ollie get a decent lead to everyone else

lap 9: Lawson drops to P8, letting the faster cars catch us up

Lap 11: Bearman gets pushed off and falls to P7

Meanwhile Verstappen takes the lead

Lap 13: as those who pit overtake, Hulk falls to P5

lap 20: Ollie pits and comes out P16

Lap 22: Hulk pits, P8, behind Leclerc ahead of Lawson

Ollie is fighting Stroll for P10

Lap 27: Stroll and Ollie get past lawson and catch up to Hulk

Lap 30: we escape Stroll, leaving us P2 and 3

But not for long as verstappen catches up and brings Stroll with him

Lap 35: Verstappen gets ahead, Piastri comes up behind

Lap 38: Ollie pitz and exits P8, I think everyone ahead has to pit again, maybe not Piastri

Lap 39: Hulk pits too and comes out alongside Ollie, Leclerc ahead has also pit

Lap 41: Leclerc and Tsunoda come together, Tsunoda is the worse off, no penalties

lap 45: those who pit under the safety car are now mostly regretting it, as we double team Russell

Lap 51: evident no one else will pit, we overtake some cars to get P4-5, the podium runners are far away but are suffering

We gained 6 seconds on them, but it was not enough by far

Great start

[unborn stratus]

In Saudi we're up there too

At the start, Verstappen breaks away, Hulk goes to P3, Ollie stays P7

Lap 3: Ollie lost the front runners and now has two Ferraris to fend off

Lap 5: Piastri invites Norris up with him as they double team Hulk to secure the final podium spots

Meanwhile Leclerc is gone, but Ollie can fight Hamilton

Lap 14: Ollie has a pit issue, allowing Alonso and Tsunoda to jump him, P14

Lap 17: Hulk also has a pit issue, but no one jumps him, he's P6

Lap 31: after nothing interesting, Ollie pits again, P11, no one around, 4 people ahead still need to pit, one's Hulk

Lap 35: Hulk exits the pits right behind Russell, Verstappen ahead still needs to pit, P8

Meanwhile ollie battles with Tsunoda for P9 - Having pit stops so slow means everyone can get by on strategy, but if I go all in on gym training they don't get much faster or even become a bit slower, I just can't win

Lap 38: Hulk and Russell catch up to Lawson, who is in the three way fight for P6

Lap 40: Hulk successfully breaks away from the fight

Lap 41: that fight is over anyway, as Lawson crashes into the wall, out comes the safety car

Hulk P4, Ollie P10

Antonelli spins during a safety car

At the restart Hulk gets past Norris for P3, Ollie stays P10

Lap 50: Leclerc makes a last second overtake to snatch the podium

That safety car saved our race - and Landos

Ouch for us

[unborn stratus]

In Australia we could finally afford all the upgrades to the car... disappointing all things considered

Hulk makes it to the podium in P3 at the start, Ollie stays P11

Lap 2: Ollie gets the Australia curse, this sucks

Meanwhile Lawson is last

Lap 3: the podium runners are firmly out of reach of the McLarens

Lap 4: Alonso locking up is a free position for Ollie

This also leaves his teammate hanging for an attack

Lap 5: Antonelli got in the way of Bearman's attack plan with his own attack

Lap 8: Antonelli gives up and Ollie is back on Russell's tail after he was dropped by Hamilton

I'd say it's an inter-engine rivalry but Williams now have Ferraris and we have Mercedes

(also McLaren have Mercedes engines, every other customer on Renaults)

Lap 11: Piastri, Hamilton and Tsunoda caught up to the front, in calssic Mclaren fashion they somehow take the lead

Lap 16: Ollie pits, P11, behind Norris and Tsunoda, in front of Alonso

Lap 17: Hulk has a pit issue and gets jumped by Norris, Verstappen, Tsunoda and Leclerc, P8

After everyone pit, It's Hulk P6 Ollie P9

Lap 21: two people have the Australia curse and they're the two Haas drivers, even on low aggression, screw my luck

Lap 24: Hulk catches back up, he wants revenge

Lap 43: after the final pits, we're 6-10, Hulk is close to Hamilton and Ollie close to no one

Lap 55: Hulk vs Hamilton was the most one sided battle I've ever seen, it's like he's not a 7 time WDC

6 cars ran out of fuel over the line

Piastri wins which sucks because I want a championship and he's likely the biggest threat

[unborn stratus]

Top 10 score BORING

[vagrant frigate]

I have never seen that many cars out of fuel

Most I've seen is 4

[unborn stratus]

As I say 6 - it's definitely 5, not sure if the Sauber actually did but it did park behind them under the red flag that it caused, but 6 sounds good for dramatic effect

[vagrant frigate]

I say 6 too cause that has to be a new record

[unborn stratus]

Japan was much better for us

Hulk maintains the elad, but the Ferraris get past Ollie as he drops to P7

Lap 3: Ollie is crazy slow, don't know what's up with him

Meanwhile Verstappen and the McLarens caught up to Hulk

Although they need to push more to do that

Lap 8: Norris drops out of the fight, he can't handle it

Lap 10: McLaren tey to use Piastri to get Norris back up, but it led to him dropping back instead

Lap 16: Ollie drops Stroll and Alonso, consolidating himself P7

Lap 23: it starts to rain

The McLarens opt to box instantly

Hulk boxes the lap after and emerges P1

Ollie emerges still P7 but closer to the Ferraris

And Lawson crashes into Gasly, the Red Bull, the Alpine and the safety car are out - Lawson penalised

Albon spins under the safety car

Lap 28: on the restart, Iwasa shunts into Russell, red flag

Lap 30: Hamilton hits Bearman off, Bearman has front wing damage - doesn't get a penalty

At least Hulk remains in the lead

Lap 34: The McLarens attack and get past Hulk

Lap 40: it will be wet for a while, some drivers think it'll be good to come in for wets, I don't I hope that's not a mistake

Lap 42: Ollie defended like a lion, thanks to him the extra stop was not worth it

Lap 53: classic Ferrari, hamilton's tyres wear down to 0

And the little tussle past Hamilton allowed Tsunoda to get by before Ollie

It could be worse, much worse

In China, so other teams brought upgrades, but we're still on top

We maintain poditions at the start

Lap 3: Piastri gets the fastest lap and the lead

Lap 11: Ollie amkes some moves past the Ferraris

Lap 14: Hulk finally retakes the lead

Lap 17: Ollie is past Verstappen, just the Mclarens left

Ollie tried but couldn't get them, still great result

Nico fumbled Q3, but it's not the worst

[unborn stratus]

Never mind, we're doing the race again

Once again, 4-5 at the start

Lap 4: Lawson turns in on Russell

Both at the back, Lawson penalised

Lap 5: Tired of waiting for Ollie to get past Leclerc, Hulk gets past them both

Lap 6: Ollie makes the same move a lap later

Lap 8: Hulk takes the lead for the first time

Lap 10: The Haas' and Norris have a comfortable lead over everyone else

Lap 14: we drop Norris, Haas 1-2

Lap 16: Ollie pits, P6, ahead of Verstappen by quite a bit

Lap 17: Hulk exits the pits, P6, undercut by Ollie

But he catches him that lap

Lap 20: everyone pit, haas 1-2, Verstappen 7 seconds behind

Lap 21: this gap is only increasing

Lap 35: both our drivers have pitted, Hulk had an issue, Ollie P3 Hulk P4, neither of the two ahead pit yet

Lap 38: Ollie took the lead from Piastri before he pit

Piastri's DRS meant Hulk could catch up to ollie too, easy 1-2

Lap 52: Tsunoda has a massive crash, out he goes

Ollie Bearman: only driver in history to win in every season they've competed in

And it didn't crash, the game wanted this

[unborn stratus]

Miami sprint quali wa sokay, rather be further ahead, beaten by the McLarens

No changes for us at the start

Lap 2: Ollie overtook a Ferrari and Nico got overtaken by a Ferrari

Lap 7: The AI are fighting well, but at the cost of tyres

And all that saving is down the drain as iwasa causes a red flag

Lap 10: Hulk gets into P2 quite comfortably, Ollie makes it to P5 on mediums (I don't have enough softs for quali and the race otherwise)

Lap 12: Verstappen slows down as everyone catches up, Hulk battles for the lead

Lap 15: Ollie gets past Piastri to join the fight

Despite playing more aggresively we're still building a tyre advantage

Lap 18: I missed the replay, but Sainz crashed into someone and got penalised, Pourchaire maybe?

Would be nice if events said anything

What a drive from Ollie it was

Quali was more of the same, hopefully the race can be too

At the start, Hulk and Ollie prioritised fighting each other over the front row

And Sainz gets shunted in a wall

What is the AI thinking tho

Side note what did Aston Martin cook Stroll is P17 Tsunoda P19

Lap 5: Hamilton tries to squeeze by Russel and leaves behind him with half a front wing

Lap 7: Piastri is going very slow, we should catch up to him soon

Lap 11: took longer than I thought, but here we are

Lap 12: Hulk getting DRS meant Ollie dropped from behind him, but there's no one near him and the closest is Lawson, I see no problem

Lap 13: Hulk clears Piastri, Ollie catches up to him now

Lap 22: Hulk pits, P5, behind Leclerc, Verstappen and Piastri

Lap 23: Ollie pits, P6, behind Norris

Lap 30: Hulk and Ollie have both overtaken who they exited behind and have caught up to the next car, Piastri and Leclerc respectively - we got undercut but we have much better tyres which we're buring for an undercut on the second pit in return

Lap 33: Hulk catches up to verstappen and takes the lead

Lap 34: Stella is reading this chat, the McLarens randomly pit as a hard counter to my intentions

Lap 38: both drivers pit, Hulk P2, Verstappen jumped him but we denied the undercut, Ollie P5

Lap 41: Hulk catches up to Verstappen but brings Piastri with him, the final battle for the lead begins

Lap 42: Verstappen tries to get away but Hulk keeps up, as a result Piastri gets dropped

Lap 47: lapped cars screw Hulk over and verstappen gets ahead

But he catches up again on the very same lap

Meanwhile Bearman just can't shake off Leclerc even with an issue and worse tyres

Lap 55: Hulk could use a lapped car to his advantage and ditch Verstappen

Piastri and Verstappen ran out of fuel at the line, but the FIA saved their butts with a red flag

The standings feel good

[unborn stratus]

Since I can't do a race today

Rosetta Gambling presents: drivers who are most likely to beat their teammate

Red Bull: Verstappen (77.31%)
Ferrari: Hamilton (50.34%)
Mercedes: Alonso (80.55%)
McLaren: Norris (54.23%)
Alpine: Martins (64.77%)
Aston Martin: Tsunoda (81.26%)
Williams: Albon (86.23%)
Haas: Hulkenberg (58.43%)
Sauber: Pourchaire (61.26%)
VCARB: Hadjar (68.71%)

[unborn stratus]

Haas are speed: and Lawson remembered he has a Red Bull

Leclerc was 10th so probably Q3 engine went kaput

I'm not sure how well this can go because I can't think of a better strategy than the default

We maintain position at the start - most people do, Tsunoda, Russell and Pourchaire gain a place, that's it

Lap 3: Verstappen initiates a battle for the lead

Meanwhile Lawson is taking the fight to Bearman, Piastri and the rest are close behind too

Lap 6: Lawson's tyres have hit a state where he can't get past Ollie, his DRS is now being used to block cars behind

Lap 9: Piastri attacks and gets past both of us

And in this time Leclerc does the worst overtaking move in history sending him and Leclerc out

Safety car comes out, Piastri Antonelli and us stay out, 1-3

Hulk gets away at the restart while Ollie remains P3

Lap 16: Bearman gets past Piastri right before they get in Hulk's DRS for a 1-2

Lap 18: we drop Piastri but Verstappen caught up

We get totally cleared next lap

[unborn stratus]

Lap 24: Lawson catches up wanting a piece of the action

But he fumbles so hard

Lap 28: we both pit,emerging P16 and P17, Piastri also pit and exited P18

We are the fastest drivers on track by far, and everyone else has to pit again, the question is will their softs be quick enough to make up the difference when we have old hards?

Lap 40: lawson is the first frontrunner to pit and he exits P11, Hulk is P8 and Ollie P6 at this point

Lap 42: Ollie overtakes Russell for P5 before he even pits

Lap 43: Hamilton's tyres are dead, classic Ferrari

Lap 46: Hamilton is crying on the radio but Vasseur refuses to pit him, Ollie overtakes

Race leader all this time Verstappen pits and exits P7, ahead of Lawson and behind Hulk

Lap 48: Hulk fended off Verstappen for 2 laps, let's hope that was enough for something

Lap 49: current race leader Norris' tyres are dead too, Ollie takes the lead

And Ferrari finally let Hamilton pit

Lap 50: Piastri and verstappen catch up to the lead

Lap 55: a mistimed DRS entry sends Verstappen 3 seconds into the lead and that will only increase

As expected, Max wins and McLaren do way better than they should, there was a time Ollie and Piastri caught up to Hulk and lawson then they seperated with Hulk in front

I'm not sure why Antonelli got a penalty for Martins crashing on his own

[unborn stratus]

Hulk is in a great position for Monaco

[unborn stratus]

Again are you kidding me

I do not have time to repeat the race today, nor tomorrow probably

[unborn stratus]

Actually I do have time today, let's do this

The start is the same - Hulk stays P1, Ollie up to P5

Lap 11: took this long for Ollie to get past Piastri

Lap 13: Ollie leaves Piastri in the dust and targets Hamilton

Lap 16: Ollie does the same move as before to get past Hamilton

This is probably because we have softs, I don't think the AI know rain is soon

Lap 20: Verstappen catches up to Hulk

Lap 26: Ollie has a classic Haas stop, letting Hamilton jump him, back to P4

And right at that time Pourchaire causes a red flag

Lap 31: Hulk keeps the lead as Ollie gets Hamilton back at the start for P3

Lap 34: Charles says the thing

Lap 43: the VCARBs collide, Iwasa and the safety car are out, Hadjar penalised

Elsewhere on the grid, Antonelli has a decent shot at points now

We maintain position at the start, Ollie can't get past Verstappen in the wet

Lap 53: Leclerc (around the corner) and Gasly hit each other, no penalties

Lap 64: the track dries, Hulk and Ollie pit for slicks, P4 and P9

Lap 67: hardly anyone else is pitting and we're surging ahead, Hulk is almost in the lead

Lap 68: Verstappen pits and Ollie gets ahead of Piastri, it's a Haas 1-2

Twice the result came better after a game crash, I assure you it's not intentional I would've happily had the previous 1-3

[unborn stratus]

And now, I'll answer a burning question nobody asked:

Who are the top rated drivers right now?

So I decided to take a look and the result will... shock you

5. Nolan Siegel
A top 5 entry that turned up in 2025 and immediately performed - Paul Aron was considered one of the top performing drivers of 2024 but now Nolan is dominating over him in 2025

4. Taylor Barnard
Another F2 driver, and another one to have a clean sweep over his 2025 teammate Luke Browning - it's not as great an achievement as Siegel, but his 2024 season counts too

3. Nico Hulkenberg
Nico carried Haas in 2024, Bearman carried Prema in 2024: it was expected to be an even match in 2025 but Hulkenberg has risen above - he's the favourite for the 2025 title

2. Jak Crawford
An F2 driver better than an F1 driver? Yep, that's right - Crawford has been carrying DAMS so hard, he's at the top of the most one-sided rivalry in F2, very rarely losing

1. Dennis Hauger
What's better than very rarely losing? Not losing at all - Dennis has always beaten his teammates, never lost once, making a mockery of Franco Colapinto and Kush Maini, get this man an F1 seat already

Honourable mention - Goethe, 6th on the list and the best F3 driver, although he's in a heated rivalry with a mid tier driver Maxwell Esterson now, his great 2024 keeps him rated high

Honourable mention 2 - Bearman, 7th on the list, the top 2 drivers belong to Haas, which may be why they're doing so well in the championship with the 3rd-4th best car depending on the track

[unborn stratus]

Is it Canada time? It's Canada time

At the start, Hulk gets up to P1, Ollie gets up to P7

Lap 2: make that P1 and P6, as Ollie gets past Lawson easily

Lap 4: Lawson pushes Ollie off as down to P8 he goes

Lap 5: Hulk loses to the lead to... Leclerc? Where's Verstappen?

Oh, that's where

Lap 6: Ollie back past Alonso and Lawson for P6

Lap 7: Ollie gets up to P4 before Verstappen pushes him off the same way as Lawson did

Lap 10: Gasly crashes to bring out a safety car

Everyone decides to pit which is a bit of a worry, but a 1-2

Hulk: "Where are we currently?" while staring at the safety car

Norris is in the queue 14th if you're wondering

Lap 15: the restart, we stay ahead but it's close

Lap 17: Leclerc makes a mockery of us with fresh mediums, although our mediums are still in great condition

Lap 22: more and more drivers start to get by

Lap 25: Our fight after fast cars zip by is for P4 with Tsunoda

Lap 32: rain started and everyone pit, in haas fashion many cars jumped us and we're P6-9

Lap 41: we advance past slower cars, Ollie P4 Hulk P7

Lap 43: make that a 4-5, unfortunately the podium seems unreachable

Lap 49: Ollie is speed, podium acquired

Lap 53: Verstappen parks

Lap 58: Ollie struggled to stay ahead of Russell, so I let Hulk get ahead and he got Lawson too, P2

Lap 62: Albon crashes out

Lap 64: thanks to a VSC charging opportunity, Ollie getting past Russell was a whole lot easier

All things considered it went really well, Ollie caught up to Lawson at the end but just couldn't do it

Let's do Spain too

We made some moves to get to 2-4 at the start

Lap 4: Hulk took the lead at the wrong moment before being double teamed by Max and Lando in the main straight

So on the next lap, Haas double team Norris and Hulk also gets ahead of Verstappen

Lap 7: Ollie does another double overtake to elad a Haas 1-2

Lap 22: our drievrs pit, P3 and P5, Vertsappen undercuts them both, Norris undercuts Hulk

Lap 25: the game of "how do I set up a double team on Norris" is actually pretty fun

I solved it the lap after

Lap 32: a lapped Gasly completely ruined it

Lap 37: Norris very generously leads us to Verstappen so we can fight at the front again

Lap 44: we pit again, 3-4, undercut by Verstappen and Norris

But I think those mediums will suffer at the end

Lap 49: Ollie catches up to the duo ahead, he's conserving before a final assault when those mediums are dead

lap 51: Verstappen gets dropped from the fight

Lap 60: Norris drops back too, Ollie is P1 on his own

Lap 63: Hulk catches up to and easily gets past Verstappen

Lap 66: same with Norris, Haas 1-2

What a race, what more could one want form this

I didn't see anything happen to Alonso, strange

10 races, 5 wins, it's all coming together

[unborn stratus]

Austria's sprint looks great for us

Hulk remains P1 as Ollie reaches P3 at the start

Although it is a fight with verstappen for the lead

Lap 4: Ollie gets pushed off by Norris, down to P9

Lap 5: Ollie gets pushed off AGAIN, P11

Lap 9: Hulk gets pushed off, P3 ()what is it with my drivers and getting pushed off?

And Lawosn spun, to the back he goes

Yeah that was horrible

Hulk bottles the main quali, Ollie has a worse underfloor bacause his got damaged

Albon and Verstappen get turn 1'd

Ollie leads at the start, Hulk P5

Lap 3: it's a battle for a 1-2 but the opponent is Lawson

Took to lap 6, but a 1-2 is ours

Lap 8: Bearman gets turn 1'd letting Norris past

Lap 21: Ollie pits, P7, both Mclarens ahead

Lap 22: Hulk pits, P6, both McLarens and Ollie ahead, Ollie also got past Piastri and is P3

Lap 24: Hulk gets pushed off, P8

Also of course Ollie gets underfloor damage again

Lap 34: Piastri shunts into the back of Verstappen, beautiful

Lap 41: Norris pushes off Ollie, he's far back in P2 now

Lap 47: both drivers pit, with Ollie having an issue, 3-5, Hamilton ahead has already pitted for the last time

Lap 48: Norris pits and emerges in the lead

Lap 58: both drievrs get past hamilton, Norris has had DRS on lapped cars and is too far ahead

Lap 69: Albon parks (no replay, this is Antonelli)

[unborn stratus]

It could be worse

I don't remember how Lawson got penalised

Our lead is looking nice

[unborn stratus]

Britain had a worrying quali - we don't want McLaren doing well

2-4 at the start, we're starting on softs unlike the other 5 in the top 7

Also Pourchaire is 12 seconds at the back

Lap 10: Hulk and Norris are fighting for the lead, Hamilton attacks to get past Ollie for P3

Lap 15: Bearman cleared Hamilton, but Piastri got past them both

Lap 21: Haas pitstops, P2 and P5, Norris 6 seconds in the lead

lap 34: failing to catch anyone up, we try our own undercut, P3 and P7 for now

Lap 36: Piastri pits, Ollie is 3 seconds ahead, our idea worked

Lap 37: Norris pit, and Hulk is 3 seconds in the lead, Ollie P3

Only Stroll can spin on a straight

Lap 44: Norris caught up to Hulk, but had to sacrifice his tyres to do so

Safe to say he wasn't keeping up, double podium yay

What happened to Red Bull

[unborn stratus]

Hungary is a worry, both McLarens ahead of us

RIP Martins spinning turn 1

Ollie went beast mode getting up to P3, Hulk fell to P6

Lap 6: Ollie secures P2, Leclerc is far away

Lap 9: Hulk got ahead of both McLarens too, so far so good

Lap 13: Hulk gets past Verstappen for that double podium

Lap 17: Ferrari refuses to pit Leclerc, so we're in the lead

Sainz spins and rear ends the barrier on the last turn, out comes the safety car

In Haas fashion, Leclerc jumped Bearman and Norris jumped Hulk, 2-4

Leclerc gets away, we don't make up any positions at the restart

Lap 24: Norris catches up to and overtakes Ollie

Lap 43: Hulk catches up to Norris, we'll pit him now to avoid an undercut and do one ourselves, they work great

Hulk pits and emerges P6, Leclerc is ahead

Lap 45: the undercut worked, Ollie also pits and emerges P7, behind Norris

Lap 48: lando attacks and easily gets past, despite Hulk attacking too

Lap 51: Norris got stuck behind Verstappen on old tyres, Hulk caught up

Once again Albon parks and doesn't show it

Lap 63: Ollie is suffering a bit on old hards after undercutting everyone ebfore, he's getting passed back

Lap 67: I looked at Ollie for a bit and Hulk pulled a 4 second lead on Norris... huh?

Ollie ended up where he started which is fair, and we beat McLaren so really no complaints

Yeah I think I'm doing well

Before the summer break... big news:

The undefeatable has been defeated

Dennis Hauger, known as the best driver in the game for never losing to a teammate, has finally fallen
Hauger had a terrible experience in Hungary as Kush Maini got the better of him in both the sprint and the race
The humiliating defeat caused Taylor Barnard to take the top spot in driver ratings as Hauger slides to P2

[unborn stratus]

And now in Belgium... ah
Hulk topped Q2 but then RAIN

It's 6-8 at the start, Hamilton keeps the lead

Lap 4: making up for lost positions, we're already P4-6

Lap 11: Ollie is first to box and emerges P17

Lap 12: Hulk pits, p13, only martins and Pourchaire bit too and they're way behind

Lap 14: some big names like Verstappen and Norris pit, Hulk is a ahead of them Ollie isn't

lap 17: in McLaren fashion, Norris sets the fastest lap to pass Hulk

Lap 26: we pit again. Hulk P5, Ollie P14 after an issue

Lap 29: Piastri pit and emerged right next to Hulk, Norris pit and exited behind

Lap 38: with help from the McLarens, we catch up to Hamilton

Lap 39: Hadjar drives into a wall

Hulk got past Hamilton after the restart to fight Norris

Ollie struggled to recover from the pit issue and currently sits P6

We tried

[unborn stratus]

Let's start talking about 2026

Let's start with some rumours:

Red Bull

Lawson is really not cutting it is he? The Red Bull fold seems to be upset at rookies so don't want to hire any, but they're unsure if Lawson will develop further

Mercedes

Alonso was expensive, now Mercedes are in a bit of a financial crisis - let's hope the drivers they hired can bring in sufficient money to the team

Alpine

Martins has been performing well against Gasly, but some talent has been knocking on their door for that seat...

Aston Martin

It's definitely become team Tsunoda since his arrival - that's not what Lawrence wants, so Lance will team up with a worse driver next year

Williams

Antonelli has been a bit of a flop, not being there when Albon has struggled - a former driver returns to keep them moving up, and as for Albon... he's been the centre of a lot of attention

VCARB

Iwasa and Hadjar have one point each... that's not exactly where they want to be, and with Red Bull beginning to say no to rookies, are they safe?

[unborn stratus]

So who are currently, the biggest flops of 2025?

5. Zane Maloney
Zane Maloney went into 2025 the clear favourite of the ART pairing... but Zak O'Sullivan has just been destroying him, he is tipped to turn it around in the second half of the season, but how realistic is that?

4. Sophia Florsch
The other 4 on this list are all F3 drivers, as every race but 1 is done they've had the most opportunity to flop, relatively speaking - Florsch was teamed up with Cordeel coming down from F2 and Van Hoepen, she was rated the highest out of them but now she's the lowest, by far, she's just been nowhere this season

3. Nikita Bedrin
Bedrin is in the same boat - a clear favourite turned into doing next to nothing, I suppose that's what hype putting you in a good seat gets you, look at De Vries

2. Teresa Munoz
Munoz has come on the Motorsport scene expecting it to be a lot easier than it was - even in a Prema, she doesn't come close to Juan Manuel Correa or Mari Boys - that's saying something, in fact she hasn't scored any points at all, in a Prema

1. Willoughby Watson
Same story, but Watson doesn't even have the former F2 driver excuse - teaming up with Dunne and Tsolov, and getting thrashed by them, isn't the best look in the world

[unborn stratus]

Oh yeha it's all coming together on Zandvoort

Straight up to 1-2 at the start

Unfortunately the McLarens are in our DRS, but they need to push more for that

Lap 3: Sainz in the wall, lots of damage, expect him to be the last finisher

Lap 7: Norris decides to be annoying and gets in the middle of things

Lap 9: Norris continued his attack and took the lead, Ollie was sacrified for Hulk to keep up

It's also worth noting Piastri started on used softs, I don't think he has any

Lap 13: Piastri being so slow allowed Leclerc to cling onto DRS, so he's Ollie's fight now

Lap 21: say it with me... Ferrari refuse to pit Leclerc - this allows verstappen to catch up

Lap 24: Ollie pits and emerges P5, Mclarens both ahead, Leclerc and Verstappen behind

Lap 26: Hulk pit, P2, Norris got far ahead

Meanwhile all Ollie's efforts to shake off Leclerc and Verstappen proved futile

Lap 28: Piastri pits for the second time, what is this strategy

Lap 32: With better tyres and pushing, Hulk catches up to Norris

[unborn stratus]

After the race

Lap 36: Norris gives up, Hulk clear

Meanwhile Ollie and Verstappen have cleared Leclerc

Lap 38: Albon gets a puncture

Which worked wonders for Antonelli, puncturegate?

Lap 44: Hulk pits again, P4, no one else ahead pit (and Albon still has the puncture visuals)

Lap 47: Norris and Bearman pit, holding them both up, but Hulk could get far ahead, net P2 and 3

Lap 48: So Mclaren's plan all along was for Piastri on old tyres to hold up Bearnam while Lando gets ahead - genius

Lap 54: Pourchaire has lapped Sainz... twice... while being lapped himself once

Lap 55: a pushing Verstappen gets past Ollie

It crashed but I save on the last lap now, so no worries

Have I really never done this before? Well that's cool

Could be worse

Could be Sainz

Albon remains at Williams

Despite links to other opportunities, including higher ranking teams, Albon has committed to the Williams project for the time being, he's scoring a lot more points compared to last year and hopes that will remain on the up... but will it with a new, much better teammate coming alongside him?

[unborn stratus]

Hulk's up there in Monza, shame about Ollie but we can take it back

At the start, Piastri turns in on Lawson and sends him to the back

Hulk broke DRS to Verstappen - though it is monza, I'm not expecting it to stay that way long

Ollie meanwhile is up to P4 already

Lap 2: yep, Hulk double teamed on the straight

With the Ferraris dropped, it's a battle for the top 4

Lap 6: Antonelli ploughs into the back of Martins who clips Albon too, Antonelli and safety car out

The AI do the AI thing of all pitting when we have 85% tyres, what's the point

This did allow the order to spice up, including Stroll emerging P4

Lap 11: the safety cars ends and we maintain a 1-2, Norris sticks with us but Stroll held Verstappen back too much

Never mind he's here out of nowhere

Lap 12: Hulk gets pushed off to P6

And Ollie gets underfloor damage

This causes Ollie to fall back as the podium breaks away

Lap 17: out of nowhere, Alonso parks in the middle of the road, safety car

We pit, which put Ollie P11 and Hulk P14 after being jumped by Russell and Iwasa

[unborn stratus]

On the restart Ollie gets knocked off the road, safety car out again and also gasly is out for some reason

Hulk is P12 after Piastri pit and went to the back

I may add Sainz is presently 5th

CARLOS NOOOOOOOOOOO

Lap 26: Hulk is working his way past some slower cars, P9 already

Lap 27: Hulk is P7 and caught up to the leader DRS train

Only us and Verstappen pitted on the second SC, so everyone else has pretty old tyres

Lap 31: Hulk got up to P2 but too late, verstappen is far ahead in the lead

Lap 43: Verstappen pits, Hulk P1, can he catch up in time?

Considering he emerges P6, probably not

Yeah, no competition, we won

Shame about Ollie tho

Red Bull's Nikola Tsolov is F3 champion

[unborn stratus]

Valtteri Bottas returns

After a year on the sidelines, Valtteri Bottas will return to F1 to support the rebuild of a former great team - that's right, he's going to Williams to partner Albon, which may worry Alex as it's tipped to be a close rivalry

[unborn stratus]

Yukierre reunited

As well as Victor Martins has been performing, Yuki Tsunoda is seeking refuge after being cut from Aston Martin... And Alpine just couldn't say no to that

Looks like team Tsunoda is set to be Alpine next season

[unborn stratus]

Oh shoot I forgot about this

Alonso makes history

What do you think of when you think: "all time great team"? Ferrari? McLaren? Mercedes? Red Bull? Williams

In 2026, one driver will have raced for all four of those

Fernando Alonso will drive for Red Bull in 2026, hoping to keep up with Max better than Lawson has

[unborn stratus]

Anyway, Baku - quali was okay I guess, we're starting to receive PU penalties and I'm nowhere near that mark thanks to Mercedes engine and anti-wear strats

I also want to point out the suggested strats suck

Our totally better strategy of starting on hards put Hulk in the lead, Ollie remains P6 after an early attack from Piastri

And it crashed, I didn't even do anything

It's because it doesn't want us winning, second time around we remain P3 and P6

Lap 2: Russell drived backwards into a wall and he's out

This sucks because Norris was just outside Verstappen's DRS allowing Hulk to use it on both straights to get past both, but now they're together

Lap 8: The ferraris and Ollie catch up to Hulk

Lap 11: The DRS allows them to catch up to Verstappen and Norris again

Lap 14: Hamilton gets far ahead as Leclerc and Ollie fall back, Norris has pitted

Lap 16: Tsunoda crashes into the wall... beyond the wall

Conviniently Ollie is by the pits, so he comes in and emerges P6... with 5 ahead already pitted

Hulk also comes in, emerging just about P3

Unfortunately with softs Hamilton can just get out of Hulk's DRS

Our top speed really sucks, Hulk with DRS is only slightly faster than Hamilton without

Lap 23: Ollie finally has a battle, he catches up to Verstappen who is in P5 for some reason

Lap 25: Ollie catche sup to Leclerc to battle for P4

meanwhile Hamilton and Hulk have passed Norris and bettle for the lead

Lap 27: with tyre advantage, Hulk pulls away

Meanwhile fastest lap somehow went to Pourchaire

Lap 32: Lawson was doing a great job, getting back to P7... and blew it, safety car out

This was right when Hulk was in front of the pits, so we boxed both cars a little early, Hulk remains P1 Ollie P4

We maintain position on the restart

But on the very next lap, Hamilton and Norris get ahead

Lap 43: Gasly parks in the middle of the road and brings out another safety car

We currently have: Hadjar P6

Sainz and Martins P9 and P10

And Verstappen P14

Lap 46: 8 laps to go, Hamilton and Norris on mediums, Hulk and Ollie on softs, who will win?

Not Norris, he has a terrible start

Not Ollie either, he falls behind

Lap 47: Leclerc makes apush and joins ollie and Norris' fight for P3

Lap 49: Leclerc's charge continues as he takes the lead

On the final lap Hulk catches up to leclerc but it cost all his energy

And Ollie gets ahead of Norris and Hamilton for P3

It wa sso close, but Leclerc just got it

What a race - both McLarens beat, double podium, Hadjar Antonelli and Sainz points, craziness

[unborn stratus]

In Singapore we are looking okay, hopefully Hulk can keep up and snatch the win and Ollie a podium

Do not trust the AI strats, they suck

The start sees Hulk remain P3 but Ollie is up to P5

Lap 4: Ollie makes it past Hamilton for P4

Lap 6: Tsunoda puts his new PU to good use by wrecking it in the barrier

Lap 9: Leclerc, Verstappen and us now fight for the top 4

[unborn stratus]

Lap 20: Ollie pits, P10, Verstappen and Leclerc ahead, Leclerc gained 2 seconds despite pitting on the same lap

Lap 21: Piastri jumped Hulk, P9

But Hulk gets past on the out lap

Lap 27: Pourchaire crashes and causes a red flag

Lap 30: we restart 2-3, unfortunately it's Norris at the front

Also Antonelli said "I got hit quite badly" when shunting into the back of Hadjar, VCARB is more furious than you'd expact

Lap 32: we attack, leaving Norris in the dust and achieving a 1-2

Never mind Verstappen is here too

Lap 33: Verstappen leads, but he has betetr tyres so we have no compalints for now

Meanwhile Norris has fallen to P6

Lap 48: Hulk pits and exits P6, no one around

Lap 49: Ollie pits and takes the P6 spot

Lap 50: Verstappen pits, both Haas' ahead

Lap 56: We caught up to the Ferraris on hards that won't pit again

Lap 60: Hulk gets ahead as a clear winner

Lap 61: Ollie breaks free too for a clear P2

We are gaming

[unborn stratus]

We're on top for the sprint at COTA

Hulk sails off into the disance, Ollie gets up to P5

Lap 3: Verstappen claims the lead, but his tyres paid the price

Lap 14: after a mishap from Hamilton, Ollie works his way to P3

Lap 18: with tyres and energy, ez 1-2

Yep we win

It's just one place lower for the main race

Like last time, 1-5 for us at the start

Lap 4: the others catch up to Hulk

But we have tyre advantage

Lap 12: the pack seperates, Hulk and Verstappen fight for the lead, Ollie P3

Lap 24: we are last to pit, Hulk P3 Ollie P6, we have ahrds but they're good hards

Lap 26: Ollie makes quick work of Piastri and Leclerc for P4

Lap 36: Hulk retakes the lead

Meanwhile what happened to Lawson, Verstappen lapped him

Lap 40: Hulk pits and remains P1, Ollie pits and emerges P4, hamilton ahead has 79% tyres tho

Alonso runs out of fuel before the line

Anyway, great result

[unborn stratus]

Red Bull confirm Lawson demotion

Liam Lawson is not performing sufficiently against Verstappen and as a result, will drop to VCARB in 2026 - Alonso's signing indicates they're not satisfied with anyone in the Red Bull family for that seat, so he stays there for this season

[unborn stratus]

Antonelli joins the Red Bull fold

In the hopes of finding a successor to Alonso, Red Bull are putting Antonelli alongside Lawson to see which one is better - if he succeeds, could a Red Bull seat be in line?

[unborn stratus]

Perez also set for return

Mercedes are hoping to get their funds up with some high-profile sponsors - and who better to do that with than arguably the best pay driver available: Sergio Perez

And another piece of news because it's relevant:

Mercedes do not confirm their second driver

As Mercedes announce the return of Sergio Perez, they also announce they haven't found anyone else to sign yet - rumours suggest they're looking through the children of big CEOs and lobbying the FIA in who can get a superlicence... with obviously no luck

That other Aston seat drops tomorrow

[unborn stratus]

This is a new one - it crashed AS I SAVED

What's more, the autosaves for the quali and race went kaput and it reverted to practice

I do not have time to do this again today, unfortunately

[unborn stratus]

Alright, we're back - quali kinda sucked, but if last time repeats itself, this'll be easy

Death, takes and Pourchaire penalty

Ollie gains 4 places at the start to reach P3, Hulk remains P5

Lap 2: Ollie and Hulk make up a place each for a 2-4, Leclerc gets away

Lap 5: Hulk charges through a closed up pack to take the lead

Lap 16: Ollie breaks away to secure P2

Lap 21: Ironically, Alonso did not leave the space, neither he nor Iwasa have a front wing

Lap 22: this is actually going better than last time - Ollie pits and exits P2, only Hulk ahead

Lap 23: Hulk pits and exits P2, this will be a quick and uninteresting race

Lap 39: P3 Hamilton got bumped off by Martins... yeah this all i can really say, he stays P3

Lap 50: we pit 1-2, we exit 1-2

Lap 53: Tsunoda parks

Meanwhile Iwasa and Alonso never recovered, they've been at the bottom this whole time

Ez clap

Speedy Kimi

There is no stopping him now, Nico Hulkenberg is your 2025 champion

And there's no stopping us either: Haas are the 2025 champions

[unborn stratus]

Russell seeks refuge at former team

Remember when Russell tested for Forca India? Well it happened
And he's going back there - after Mercedes couldn't afford him, he jumps ship to Aston Martin, where Lawrence Stroll hopes he doesn't destroy his son as much as Tsunoda does

Stroll has double odds to Russell compared to Tsunoda, but he's still probably getting destroyed

[unborn stratus]

Brazil time, the sprint is looking good, not that it really matters, but I like to do Well

We stay put at the start, Ollie got ahead but was pushed off

Lap 5: Ollie snuck into the lead again

Lap 11: up to 1-2

Lap 14: Antonelli locked up, waited patiently trackside to rejoin, then Iwasa slammed into him

Yeha it was no contest

No one was actually lapped, it was red flagged after we both ran out of fuel after the line

The main event was more of the same, but looks like some PU changes are coming

Ollie must be good here, straight into the lead no contest for him, Hulk remains P4

Lap 9: Alonso shunted his teammate, to the back he goes, Russell penalised

Lap 27: Hulk pits, P8, Norris, Piastri and Verstappen have undercut him

Lap 28: Ollie pits, P8, Leclerc jumped him as the previously mentioned 3 and Hulk are ahead too

Lap 40: after trying to play catch up to cars on softs, Hulk finally retakes the lead

Ollie meanwhile has not been able to shake Leclerc

Lap 46: thanks to a lapped Hadjar, Ollie finally gets rid of leclerc and can start a redemption

Lap 48: we box again, 6-7, once again the McLarens got the better of us

Lap 58: Hulk reclaims the lead

Lap 63: Ollie is fighting Verstappen for P4, catching up to the McLarens isn't realistic

It's not a double podium, but still a win

I forgot this, oh well

Win number 11 for Hulk

[unborn stratus]

A new suspension for Vegas, out last upgrade, has done us well - I see Williams doing surprisingly well too

[unborn stratus]

Leclerc opted to start in the pits

Lap 1: Russell, Hamilton and Albon get in a big crash and they all go poof into a red flag

This leaves Antonelli in P6

We secure 1-2 at the start

Lap 5: for a career first, Lawson leads a race

Took 9% tyres but he did it

Lap 10: Stroll does a Stroll

Lap 16: Hulk pits and exits P8, no one ahead has pit, Norris and Lawson failed to jump him

Lap 17: Ollie pits, P9, Vertsappen jumped him and he's not part of the leader pack no more

Lap 18: Antonelli leads

Lap 19: Hulk and Norris battle for P1, lawson trails behind in P3, and their teammates are fighting for P4

Lap 30: upset Lawson is beating him, verstappen wanted a justification - so he went through the wall and out of the race he goes

Lap 32: we pit again, P5 and P9, no one ahead pit

Lap 36: everyone pit now except Piastri who's doing a 1 stop, we're 2-4

Ollie has Lawson to fend off, the McLarens aren't close by, but Hulk will probably catch up to Piastri

Lap 40: Piastri has to pit again, but Norris on the softs caught up and took the lead, so 2-3

Lap 44: Piastri catches up to Ollie and Lawson, ending on softs may have been the strat

Lap 47: Hulk hits the wall and drifts off the track, only damage to tyres

This meant Piastri could catch up, McLaren 1-2

At least Hulk can help ollie stay past lawson on the final lap

Could be worse

Can Sauber get another point pls, I want to take on Alpine next season

[unborn stratus]

In my stupidity, I went to save over the practice save, but loaded the save instead

Can't complain too much, twas a better sprint quali

Ollie had a little tussle with Verstappen but we maintain the 1-2

Yeah there's not much to say

In a universe where Tsunoda doesn't do a goofy strategy... he does a goofy line on the last turn

Anyway, no contest

Main event soon

[unborn stratus]

Yes Ollie

That's a lotta penalties

[unborn stratus]

I have to do the race again because while my F1 Manager didn't crash... my entire PC did

Ollie maintains the lead after Verstappen gets passed by Hulk

Lap 3: Norris attacks and takes the lead

Lap 5: Hulk clears Piastri and sets his sights on the front

Lap 7: distracted by Hulk, Ollie clears Norris to secure the lead

Lap 12: Hulk also clears Norris

Lap 19: Norris jumps Hulk in the pits, he exits P4 with Verstappen in between the two, he's already pitted

Luckily, ollie pits next lap and emerges P1

Lap 23: a Hulk attack sees him get past Norris and pursue Verstappen, who did the same

Lap 27:Hulk clears verstappen to secure P2 for now

Lap 37: both cars pit, 2-3, Norris ahead hasn't pitted, it's looking good

Lap 42: Ollie gets ahea dof Norris before he pits

That went well

One race to go, Ollie P2 is possible

Sauber score again prayge

3 engines? No problem

Even 3 gearboxes wouldn't be a problem

[unborn stratus]

For the last race... not the ebst, but it doesn't matter much

It's 3-5 at the start as Piastri lets Norris go into the distance

Lap 4: doesn't take long for Hulk to catch up to Norris

Lap 6: Piastri does a goofy

Lap 12: Haas' and Norris are 1-2-3, for ollie to be P2 in WDC he needs to win and Norris P3 (or lower) and Norris can't have FL

So naturally we set this up then attack

Lap 18: Ollie pits, P4, no one ahead pit, Norris pitetd on the same lap but remains behind

Hulk pits next lap, emerging P1, Ollie right behind

Lap 41: both of us have pitted again, 2-3, Verstappen ahead hasn't pitted but Leclerc and Norris caught up to Hulk

Lap 53: in a notable send off, Hadjar clips martins and send them both into the wall, Martins survives Hadjar doesn't, red flag

We maintain 1-2 but Piastri gets ahead of Norris

Ollie did everything he needed... but Hulk fumbled right at the end :(

But still, we did it with Haas pitstops

Aston Martin's David Malukas is the F2 champion

[unborn stratus]

And now: Rosetta Gambling's 2025 award ceremony

** Driver of the season F1: Nico Hulkenberg**
Pick your 2025 title favourite in 2024: Verstappen? Norris? Piastri? Nope it was Hulk - with a great car, he was able to show off his ability and win a fair share of the races

Driver of the season F2: Nolan Siegel
Paul Aron is a driver that's held in very high regard... Until Hitech gave him a tractor to drive around in 2025 - in a car Aron could get no points in, Siegel was occasionally fighting at the front, that's gotta be worth something

Driver of the season F3: Rafael Camara
Camara came from the same place as teammate Liv Nyman: nowhere - yet, he was able to Carry Jenzer and put in strong performances when others of his kind couldn't

Biggest flops of 2025

5. Dino Beganovic
   After an okay F3 season, he went up to F2 and was pretty meh there too, it was a questionable decision, will we see him back in F3?

4. Liam Lawson
   What were Red Bull thinking? Red Bull might have had a decent shot even with Perez in the car, his demotion is justified

3. Teresa Munoz
   Opposite of Camara, came from nowhere to the worst team in F3, very low bar, didn't hit it, nowhere near, she's even rated worse than Colapinto now

2. Zane Maloney
   Aron can't be that embarrassed after struggling when someone completely new does well, he may be some sort of Hulk level driver - but not when it's Zak O'Sullivan doing that, Zane has his head held very low

1. Willoughby Watson
   Munoz was rated worse than Colapinto... And Wilson is rated lower than her - he was just nowhere most of the time, I hope he brought a lot of money to Hitech, they need it with these cars

ATG Increasing Difficulty (team 2 - Sauber, standard)

So, Sauber - our drivers are looking pretty okay

We got some affiliates to do car and PR stuff with

And JOHN WHEATELY YES - he's a saving grace of this team

Mercedes have confirmed their last driver and it's spicy...

After the first few parts, the car is looking good at least

[unborn stratus]

I'll present all the teams and drivers soon

[unborn stratus]

Rosetta gambling presents: ranking the 2026 F1, 2 and 3 lineups

This may be an interesting season - the lineups in F1 are questionable, bad drivers with second chances, decent driver ousted, F2 is faster than F1 now...

31. VCARB
    The worst lineup in the game is an F1 lineup, that says it all - two flops given second chances together, what can they do? Antonelli is tipped to win this matchup

30. PHM AIX F2
    Wow, Beganovic is still up here, and Stanek joins him, well you know mow much AIX loves their money. Beganovic is the projected winner here, and that's saying something

29. MP F3
    Wasem is decent, Maini has been demoted from F2 after defeating Hauger, and our boy Watson is the worst driver in the game... what is going on here? Maini has an edge over Wasem, Watson is nowhere

28. Aston Martin
    What do you do when your son is being defeated badly? Hire a worse driver to make him look good. It hurts to call Russell bad, and he's still tipped to beat Stroll, but not as badly as Tsunoda did

27. Trident F2
    Losing the F2 champion Malukas, Trident made a questionable signing to join Foster. Foster has gone from being destroyed to being tipped to win a close battle against Maloney

26. Prema F2
    Rocha definitely deserves an F2 seat... but Colapinto doesn't, not in this game. Rocha will wipe the floor with him

25. VAR F3
    Goethe is a great choice, 4th best driver in F3... it's a shame he's going to destroy the other two combined

24. Trident F3
    It's a similar story here - Mansell is beating the other two combined. The "bad two" are better than VAR's but Goethe is better than Mansell

23. Sauber
    Pourchaire has settled in well to being a second driver to Sainz, who's close enough to bang-on mid. It's set to be the same story this year, with many predicting it to be Pourchaire's last

22. Campos F2
    A double Ferrari lineup, consisting of a decent F2 driver and one of the worst - Fittipaldi is the clear winner of these two

21. Mercedes
    After getting the Perez money, HERE COMES SEBASTIAN VETTEL - anyone would say Vettel is the better driver, but is that the case since he hasn't raced at all for 3 years?

[vagrant frigate]

Is that Vettel's 2020 face scan? Just curious

[unborn stratus]

No, it was created as part of the extra driver pack

Anyway

20. ART F2
    Miyata and Mini are two decent picks, Miyata has a bit of an edge now, but Mini showed promise in the final two rounds of last season, the ART fight could be both interesting and not at the same time

19. DAMS
    Verschoor and Tramnitz are adjacent in driver rankings, albeit in the lower half - Verschoor has a little advantage, but the fight will be close , interesting one to watch here

18. McLaren
    Performing well with a great car, anyone would say this ranking is too low - I'd agree, but this is what the data says giving the fact they've kept the same duo this whole time so comparisons couldn't really be made. Norris is a title favorite again

17. Rodin F3
    Slater is the clear number 1, but Voisin and Wurz can both provide support where necessary, don't rule them out of a title fight yet

16. ART F3
    While Nyman will be at the back, we have two great drivers here - out of the two, Montoya is tipped to perform better, but it may be an interesting one

15. Prema F3
    Esterson is the third best driver in F3, and he's tipped to beat Van Hoepen and Boya combined - but they're alright too, it shows how good Esterson is for singlehandedly bringing this ranking into the top half

14. Rodin F2
    Regular winner Marti has jumped ship from Campos and even after an abysmal 2025, Aron still has potential - these two could see a title fight this year, at least from marti, who is set to destroy Aron considering what happened last year

13. PHM F3
    Meguetounif makes a return, alongside two complete newcomers there is no data on - they're higher than McLaren because Meguetounif is higher than average and therefore tipped to beat these newcomers

12. Campos F3
    These three are evenly matched, with Loake just ahead - three decent picks is tough to come by in this society it seems

11. Hitech F3
    Virtanen was a surprise last year, and is set to beat a demoted F2 driver and last years F3 champion combined, that's saying something

10. Jenzer
    Bringing another newcomer alongside an Okay Casari and Camara who is the best F3 driver, Jenzer could have a great time this year. Camara is more of a favorite than the other two combined, but with newcomers that can change quick

9. Williams
   We're back to the F1 lineups, and Williams have made a great choice in swapping out Antonelli for Bottas - Bottas could even beat Albon, although it's close

8. Ferrari
   Leclerc and Hamilton are the most evenly matched lineup in the game currently, and both are great. Leclerc has so little an advantage you may as well call it 50/50

7. Red Bull
   Like Williams, ditching the rookie was a great idea. As for who will win out of those that always win, it's tipped to be Verstappen

6. Alpine
   Yukierre returns, the rookie was ditched again, in 2025 these were two drivers with a clear advantage over their teammates, Tsunoda moreso - but could the tables turn? Gasly is projected to take the lead, just like 2021-22

5. Invicta
   Two incredible drivers here, Lindblad moreso later in the season and Crawford all over - because of this, Crawford is predicted to be ahead and may even fight for the title

4. MP F2
   The GOAT of 2024 teams up with a remarkable Bortoleto, Hauger dominance is expected to continue but Bortoleto is his toughest teammate yet

3. Hitech F2
   Siegel is the best driver in the game currently, and O'Sullivan looks good after destroying Maloney - of course Siegel is predicted the title, but O'Sullivan is strong too

2. Haas
   It was a clash of titans at the front of the grid last year, Hulkenberg and Bearman are a formidable duo - Both could go for the title, but Hulk is predicted to come out on top out of these two

1. VAR F2
   Yep, F2 is faster than F1 - Sztuka finally got the F2 seat he deserves and Barnard is the second best driver of them all - he's set to come out higher and go for the title

[unborn stratus]

It is time for F1 2026 - all of a sudden I turn up and sauber can get into Q3, strange that

Ferrari and Mercedes fumbled the regulations it seems

At the start we gain a position each - Carlos P5 Theo P11

Lap 2: Tsunoda fumbled the DRS train, Theo gets ahead and he's in the points for the first time

Carlos can see a podium, but is struggling to keep up - Verstappen and Bearman have cleared the rest

And sadly Vettel locks up and is at the back (I'll give him 5 after this race)

Lap 4: Carlos drops off, now fighting Piastri for P5

Theo is also struggling, Tsunoda cleared him and Hamilton is past too

Lap 7: drivers are settling now, Carlos is back to fighting a McLaren (Norris) for P5,

Hamilton is now P10 and Theo's pack caught up to Tsunoda

Lap 10: Bearman fell back, carlos and Norris could catch up to the front minus Verstappen

Lap 11: Theo clears the pack, P10 secured for now

Lap 12: a Sauber is in P2, never thought that would happen at race 1

Lap 15: Verstappen pits so now I can say a Sauber led a lap - not only that, Carlos has cleared the McLarens

Theo meanwhile has a fight with Stroll for P5, although neither pit yet, a lot of drivers have

Never mind, that lasted one lap

Lap 18: first crash of the year - Bottas shunts into Gasly

Lap 21: we're the last to pit, Carlos emerges P5, Theo emerges P13 after an issue

Lap 23: Carlos clears Russell and Norris who were tailing him, his sights set on Alonso

Meanwhile theo can't shake Albon

Lap 26: Theo got his mojo back and is on an overtaking spree, P11 already

Lap 29: Carlos is aiming high, fighting with Bearman for a podium

meanwhile Theo cleared his original pack and is sitting P9

Lap 36: We pit again, Carlos P6 Theo p11, top 2 Piastri and Russell haven't pitted yet

Lap 40: Theo cleared Antonelli and Stroll for P9

Whereas Alonso cleared Carlos who is fighting Norris for P5

On the very next lap they both pass Alonso, fight is for P4 now

Lap 48: Carlos clears Norris, 4-9 probable

Lap 49: looks like Carlos wants that podium, Haas have dead tyres so maybe even P2?

Lap 52: Hulkenberg pits, Carlos is P2

And Carlos is gradually catching the lead, not sure it's possible

That went a lot better than I imagined

This might be a one season wonder with a few more car parts

[unborn stratus]

Saudi time - this went shockingly well

Great start, Carlos keeps the lead as Theo moves up to P6

Lap 9: top speed is an issue, all 3 of us have DRS and Norris does a double overtake

Lap 20: the planned strat really isn't working, I've had to pit early and Carlos got undercut by Russell... great

Lap 22: why is Theo fighting Albon again after he pit

Oh never mind ez

Lap 30: current state of affairs is a 4-6, cars that have pitted again are catching up and getting ahead, this was a strategic fail on my part

Lap 35: after our final pits it's an 8-10, once again fighting with Russell, something went terribly wrong

Lap 38: Stroll turns in on Pourchaire, bringing out a red flag

Lap 41: we rightfully cleared Russell, Norris faltered, 6-7 for now

Lap 43: McLaren bias is real, Piastri turned in on Carlos but no red flag, no penalty

Instead the replay triggers automatically and he acts like nothing happened

Oh and Theo got an ERS fault

Piastri is coming in for a new front wing though

Lap 47: Hamilton triggers another red

Two lap showdown: we're P5 and P9, Albon P7 Antonelli P8

That was unfortunate - but mark my words, this is our worst result this year

[unborn stratus]

Actually our worst result may be here - you all know the Australia curse