#man LITERALLY JEPORDIZED HIS OWN RACE FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM

[dear-ao3]

can you pls do an f1 race summary from this weekend i'm literally living for your f1 lore stories

ABSOLUTELY

ok so while i will not go into Everything from this weekend (cause there was a lot) i will do my best to talk about the last 10 laps because wow.

so!

here's what you need to know:

heading into the last race of the year (abu dhabi), the standings for the constructors championship were as follows:

red bull: 822 mercedes: 392 ferrari: 388

so while redbull had secured the win several races ago, ferrari and mercedes were still duking it out for 2nd (keep in mind, were talking several million dollars difference in prize money here)

heading into the race the two teams were about even. charles leclerc was starting p2 on the grid with his teammate carlos sainz starting an abysmal p16 after crashing in practice (this is the same guy who ran over the manhole cover in vegas and narrowly avoided getting royally and permanently fucked). on the mercedes side george russell was starting p4 (mostly thanks to lando norris fucking up his qualifying lap but landos abu dhabi race is another story entirely) and lewis hamilton was starting p11.

heading into the final 10 laps the two teams were neck and neck for second in the constructors championship. but, carlos sainz had once again been fucked over by ferrari strategy because while he had already pitted once, he was on hard tires both times (you have to run two different compound tires during the race as per rules) so he still needed to pit again to put on a set of medium tires. so while he was hovering around p10ish, ferraris baller strategy of "wait for a safety car to pit" was looking grimmer and grimmer as no one crashed into each other and therefore there was no safety car. so heading into the last 10 laps, it was pretty clear that carlos was not getting any points to help the team (points are scored if you end p10 or higher), leaving it all down to charles leclerc.

sainz ended up pitting on the last lap and finishing in a horrendous p18 (tho technically it was a dnf because of the tire thing).

charles leclec was chilling up in p2, about 16 seconds off of max verstappen (the least important person in this story). behind charles was george russell, lando norris, then sergio perez.

lap 47. perez tries to pass lando norris. he is unsuccessful and they bump into each other. its kind of unclear who causes the accident (the announcers debated fiercely over it) but lando gets pushed off the track, still ahead of perez. race control debates it and end up giving perez a 5 second time penalty.

perez passes norris, then moves on to pass russell. hes now in 3rd. but, he still has the 5 second time penalty, meaning that if he wants to be on the podium he needs to be at least 5 seconds in front of george russell. perez zooms on, now trying to pass leclerc.

lap 58. the last lap. george russell is in 4th (but will end 3rd because of perez's time penalty) and hamilton is in 9th. this will put mercedes just 3 points ahead of ferrari and they will take second in the constructors championship. charles leclerc, who has been getting fucked left right and center up the ass with a fork by ferrari strategy all season long says fuck it what do i have to lose. he has no chance in hell of passing verstappen (who is still 16 seconds ahead of him) but he may have a shot at knocking russell back to 4th (with perez's time penalty) and if he knocks russell back to 4th, ferrari will just narrowly take second in the constructors championship.

so, with all the rage of a man who was deemed ferraris golden boy but hasn't won a single race all year, charles gets on his radio and says the following:

"tell me the gap between checo (perez) and russell. if theres less than 5 seconds ill give him the place (?) and i will let us switch for the last sector. hes got 5 seconds anyway."

the gap between russell and perez is 2.7 seconds. at this rate, russell will still get third and mercedes will take second.

ferrari doesnt exactly tell charles to let checo take p2, but they also don't tell him to not let checo take p2. and boy, charles has already been through the wringer this season, its the last race, he might as well give it everything hes got.

and right now, everything hes got is to let checo pass him, increasing the gap between him and russell. because, 5 seconds will be added on to checos finishing time, and, if he is more than 5 seconds ahead of russell when he finishes, this will keep russell in fourth place. charles will still take p2 with checos time penalty and if all goes according to plan he will be able to singlehandedly secure ferrari second in the constructors championship.

its so genius that you wonder why the ferrari strategists didnt think of it themselves.

but alas, the plan does not work. checo only finishes about 3.7 seconds infant of russell, meaning that with his penalty russell still takes p3, and allowing mercedes to come second in the constructors championship by only 3 points.

charles, rightfully, is fucking pissed. hes done the job of himself, carlos, and the strategists and it still isn't enough to pull out p2.

after the race is over and charles curses spectacularly that they come in 3rd overall, he thanks everyone at ferrari for "this difficult season" (he doesnt sound very thankful at all) and ferrari don't really even acknowledge him

if you want to hear his radios from the last lap they are here

#rip #f1 #charles leclerc #abu dhabi gp 2023 #not a tag #from saph #man LITERALLY JEPORDIZED HIS OWN RACE FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM #whos doing it like him literally no one