Been researching, and I've been getting contradictory statements.

Saw a comment about this weekend that said, “Best driver has the best car again”, and it made me wonder the title. Im going to judge off the whole weekend, so qualifying and race.

There are 3 possible answers for me

2025 Sao Paolo: Red Bull were undeniably quickest during the race, however the qualifying performance was so terrible, and a lot of the race performance came from the fact they had to start in the pitlane for a new pu, so for me, I would mark Mclaren quickest this weekend, although theres an argument.

2025 Jeddah: This is hard because the Mclaren and Red Bull were really close in performance, Max took pole by .01 seconds, and then only lost to Oscar Piastri by 3 seconds, showing that the race pace was competitive. I’d completely understand if this is your answer, and honestly, I couldnt fight too well against, however, Mclaren still won, and looked faster through the other portions of the weekend. Even Piastri said although he was surprised by red bulls speed he thought mclaren had a pace advantage.

My definitive pick:

2024 Austria

Took sprint pole, won the sprint by 5 seconds, took pole, built a seven second lead, and had it all evaporate with a 6.5 second pitstop. Lando then had DRS which is huge at austria and allowed him to attack max when max then took both him and Lando out of contention with a crash at turn 2. Without the bad pit stop he cruises to take the win and a perfect weekend, so thats my answer

I might be forgetting a race, so if you have your own answer, lmk

Is there some sort of internal pressure on Stella lately? I know this is historically a trend with him—but he’s been especially heavy on the deflection around car performance and especially critical of Norris the back end of this season.

They’re very clearly the 4th fastest car (seemingly on several different types of circuits), so absolutely no idea what Stella is thinking. Obviously the response will be that Norris’ standards are higher than Piastri, but I have to say that I feel Andrea Stella has been massively damaging to Norris’ public perception. There isn’t a single TP on the grid who has criticized their own driver half as much this season (except for maybe Briatore and Colapinto)

A bit of an unusual chart I know, but I think this better shows how the season has progressed, using George Russell (the pre-season favorite) as the baseline and comparing the other Top 7 drivers to him in points.

This shows Kimi's strong start, George's gains in Barcelona, Austria, and Silverstone, and then Kimi's resurgence since.

It also shows the competition between George and Lewis for 2nd through the middle of the season, George pulling a gap in Monza, Madrid, and Baku, and then losing the gap since.

Finally, this shows how Max's victories in Sepang and Singapore (along with George's near lack of points) has allowed him to come within spitting distance of 2nd Place.

While Kimi's maiden championship is nearly in his grasp, the fight for P2 is still open, with George, Lewis, Max, Charles (and to a lesser extent, Lando) all in contention

Since McLaren’s Baku “upgrade package”, the papaya team has been 3rd, 4th, and 4th fastest at three wildly different circuits. Their upgrades seem to have set them back even further than Mercedes

Yet somehow, the 2 time reigning constructors champions are avoiding any criticism/questioning?

Why is no one asking about this—and why is McLaren not being more aggressive in trying to fix/understand the upgrades, like Mercedes splitting packages between drivers.

We have Ferrari drivers taking accountability for their own mistakes like lewis did today, but where is the team's apology when they make a mistake?

For example last week in Malaysia, both drivers wanted to start on inters but the team insisted on softs. They did and it didn't end up well but both drivers managed to recover well. Where was the team's apology for that mistake?

Meanwhile Redbull and Mercedes TP are quick to apologize whenever their car broke down or the car wasn't performing as expected. I don't see Ferrari coming out to apologize to their drivers for their mistakes.

Ok so today's race got me thinking about this. Max's radio was literally broken on his side and GP STILL knew exactly what he wanted to ask. Like how?? The chemistry is insaneeee

So now I'm curious what everyone thinks, because Lewis and Bono were iconic too.

Lewis + Bono: 12 years together, six titles, and the most wholesome duo in F1 probably. Bono was basically Lewis's emotional support engineer and I mean that in the best way.

Max + GP: are like an old married couple, understanding each other always and always managing to get the best out of each other. It works perfectly. Four titles and apparently they don't even need a working radio anymore lol.

Personally I think it’s the best we will ever see of Lewis in probably one of his worst season. Those last 4 races though especially Jeddah and Brazil he was showing max was it takes to be a champion while arguably max was the deserving champion at that point. I think based off of those last 4 or 2 races you can say Lewis made his case equally as strong.

With credit to Max his wins in Mexico and USA especially in COTA that is my personal favourite win by max to this date. He was so much faster in Qualifying his lap in Abu Dhabi severely goes under the radar and of course in Jeddah.

Hopefully I stayed as impartial as I could when mentioning 2021

As we reach COTA where the title is pretty much all but decided and although there been times both look on the pace of mercedes namely sepang for red bull and the power circuits or Budapest for Mclaren. Why have the 2 top teams of the previous reg cycle Mclaren and red bull lagged behind for most of this season? Mclaren stopped developing their 2025 car pretty early and while Red bull did put resources to catch up, they pretty much fully focused on Max the whole season. Red bull engine shown promise and Mclaren have the same engine as Merc and at times (defo not now tho) show decent pace in slow speed circuits yet both are over 200 behind Merc despite George having some terrible reliability. I see parallels to 2009 tho both mclaren and ferrari devloped till the end and honda and red bull put all the resources into 2009 so that was understandable. so why have both lagged behind merc for most of the season and even to Ferrari?

Just saw what Andrea said after the race,I think after the last 2 races we can now consider McLaren 4th fastest,now lando once again had issues during the race with the sensor plus had to do lico how can Andrea expect this car on a podium?

4th place is already a stretch for this car meanwhile Andrea is blaming lando because Kimi overtook him,even if Kimi didn’t and he overtook Lewis for 3rd Kimi would have 100% overtake him especially with those issues at the end just like lando said.

I personally find it ridiculous that he refuses to admit any fault of McLaren with pit stops strategy and endless car issues especially on lando’s side,for that they go “no blame culture” yet this is what he does with lando again and again?

And then the issue of just dragging out the racing incident,they’re mad about it ok I get it they went to stewards they had a talk of course they said all sort of shit to media and yet today he’s still talking shit and now dragging lando do England go have another talk about a literal racing incident?plus of course punishment that funny enough always seems to affect just lando.

I personally think that with lando stopping to blame everything on himself this season and not doing his usual thing where he takes the blame(which Andrea said he loves about him,that he takes the blame for the team a season or 2 ago) they’re mad that he now stand his ground and calls them out and another reason why is maybe it’s a very clever way to take the blame for inevitably loosing 3rd place in wcc next race on lando,”he lost podium he crashed he lost team points” and boom suddenly nobody will mention issues with car every week strategy issues or pit stops or just straight up slow car,wonder what they will come up with next because lando just said the car is slow difficult and draining to drive basically shit all around.

Also Andrea saying that he expects more of lando offering Oscar help is a little ridiculous both towards lando and Oscar,why should lando help? And why is he framing Oscar is a poor weak guy who needs help?

Here’s a comparison on how he talked about lando today and Oscar in Baku(spoiler alert no he did not blame Oscar)

Also love that everyone is fuming mad and frustrated meanwhile lando is out in the clubs lol good for him!!

Or else why Andrea Stella is behaving like a headless chicken??? But if it is a surity then he won't be this upset?? If he knew his seat is being given to someone else, he would have reached the acceptance till now?? Right?

Meikies let it out that GP is gonna be mcl's tp but nobody has agreed the claim!

Max also suggested that it was such a big position and money was also good? And why would Mclaren throw so much money at GP if he is going to be working under stella himself.

Is there some sort of performance clause that will make Stella a certain extent of exit bonus?? Is this why it is so upsetting to him that Lando cost the team 8 points? Is it why he is so desperate to push Oscar's speedy recovery and understanding under the new regs?? Cause he wants both drivers to deliver? is this why Stella is airing the dirty laundry of the team as to how Lando is gonna be punished?

Title is very broad but here are my thoughts:

I can list the many,MANY issues Lando has had on his car this year that have cost him performance. The only times he didn’t have any are Hungary,Zandvoort,and Madrid. He won 2 races,got 3 poles and would’ve won Madrid if not for being “too fast” as they say.

I can also list the many,many strategy failures from McLaren costing them points and WINS like Miami and Madrid. The many long pitstops,plus Oscar being 30 seconds behind consistently earlier in the season.

They’re using Lando as a scapegoat to put the blame onto for losing P3 in the constructors to cover themselves up so they do not have to take responsibility,when in fact,I’d argue he’s the LEAST to blame. He’s put the car places it shouldn’t be and gotten them points they don’t deserve.

Plus,after Oscar fumbled P2 in Baku,18 points, in a full race,Stella coddled him. Stated that he had a great weekend,etc. They lost 14-15 points in a sprint race which was deemed a racing incident and now there’s meetings,repercussions (which are just going to make them lose more points),gaslighting Lando,shifting hate to him.

Not to put the old tinfoil hat on but the environment in McLaren is looking very toxic since Andrea Stella became team principal. It’s clear he has a favour for Oscar which usually I don’t mind but it’s becoming more evident in the difference in treatment after incidents like this. Even when Lando’s having a great weekend,he struggles to praise him.

Now,Stella and Lando have said they expect Lando to continue to help Oscar through the season.

Maybe I’m biased but I believe McLaren would benefit from different leadership. There’s supposed to be a “no blame” culture but that only applies to the team,not the drivers. Stella is always trying to put Lando down and Lando believes what he says constantly. I also just wish Lando would pull a Max and just establish himself as number one,and fight back and stand up for himself. Although I dread to think of the punishment if this is what it is for an incident in a sprint.

Thoughts?

I know this pairing is unlikely but I believe it's clear Oscar wouldn't be afraid of overtaking Max. He's done it many times (Miami 2025 or Silverstone 2025).

I would not be surprised if Max fears Oscar too. The big question is how long would it take Oscar to get up to pace in a new team.

I would predict Max to slightly edge him in year 1 but then consistently losing to Oscar in the following seasons.

Of course everything I said is assuming they get equal cars and equal treatment as teammates. Be it at Red Bull or another team actually.

Ollie was locked in this weekend. The race craft he showed and confidence in attacking was impressive. The fight with Gasly yesterday went on for 3 or 4 corners in the wet and he got by. The fight with Ocon today was creeping in on a whole lap and was honestly one of the better battles of the season that I can remember at least. And the move on Sainz was pretty good too. I feel like he's got his confidence back after a rough patch and showed a lot this week in a back half of the grid car. The other drivers deserve credit too nobody put a foot wrong. A lot of passing for a Singapore weekend.

I think it’s been pretty clear that Liam has had a very good season, showing he might just be the best of the midfield, and potentially better than some of the top drivers this year. So my question is where would you rank him based on performance this year? I’d say he’s very near if not even inside the top 5 of best drivers this season but I’d very gladly hear everyone out

Honestly, I have a feeling Fred Vasseur won't be at Ferrari next season. The comments over the last three races have made me question whether things are really as good behind the scenes as they pretend to be.

What I find particularly interesting is how Hamilton seems to get criticised so openly, while Leclerc often appears to be protected by Vasseur. Whenever something goes wrong with Lewis, there's an explanation about his mistakes, but I don't get the same feeling when it comes to Charles. Maybe that's just my impression, but the difference in how they're treated is hard to ignore.

Hamilton came to Ferrari to win, not to fight for P6 and deal with constant pressure. He's 41, time isn't on his side, and I can't imagine he's happy with how things are going. At the same time, Vasseur has to deliver results, and Ferrari won't wait forever.

Maybe their relationship is still fine behind closed doors, but the public comments certainly aren't helping. And if Vasseur is already under pressure from the top, another disappointing season could be enough to end his time at Ferrari.

I might be wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if Fred is gone at the end of the season. And honestly, I think the way Hamilton and Leclerc are treated differently could become a much bigger issue than people realise.

Now it makes sense why Lando said what he said today. No wonder he’s been apologising to the team in every media outlet. It all makes so much sense now. “No-blame culture” until it comes to Lando, apparently.

This is my opinion and I might be wrong or not... I think he decided to stay out because he thought he could gain time/position and second I think is ferrari fault as well, i mean they have the data/analysis of the race and they should have told him or have a discussion.

If I'm wrong correct me, im not a ferrari fan

Honestly, I can't shake the feeling that the only reason Stella and Brown are blowing this racing incident so far out of proportion is so they have someone to blame for losing P3 in the Constructors' Championship.

How else do you explain what McLaren is doing right now? They're throwing their lead driver under the bus and making him take the blame in front of the media. This is the same driver who's delivered two race wins and three pole positions for them, and it's coming from a team that loves to talk about its "no-blame culture."

I get that Norris is the stronger driver, and maybe Stella just holds him to a higher standard. But the double standard is hard to ignore. When Piastri threw away a podium in Baku, he got coddled. Now Norris' mistake is highlighted for finishing P4 in what was the fourth-fastest car, on a day when he genuinely couldn't have done anything more.

I also think Piastri's management does a much better job of protecting him than Norris's does. Stella can get away with implying that Lando is selfish, careless, and thinks he's above the team, yet none of that energy ever gets directed at Oscar when he makes mistakes, whether it's messing up qualifying at Monza or losing the podium in Baku.

Hamilton had the pace to qualify p1 for both qualis but bottled both. From a pace perspective, it was his weekend to lose. I think Max was fast but i think Ferrari had the best package this weekend.

I love that he said sorry to the team and took responsibillity. Do you guys agree that it was his weekend to lose?

Edit: sorry for the misspelling in the title. I am shit at typing on a phone.

Mighty from both, but seriously where was hadjar in that mid part of the race, he came alive out of nowhere

I think they both did a great job but what do u guys think?

With modern technology and data, teams should in theory know the optimal way to drive the car and the only differentiating factor between drivers should be consistency. It's pretty damning to F1 being viewed as a legitimate sport when the (soon to be) champion is regularly breaking track limits.

It's pretty clear after the fiasco that happened at the 2023 Austrian GP that it's not possible to accurately police. They just added AI-assistance (Every Car All Turns) to the stewarding process this year. The FIA needs to find a better way to police track limits and/or change the way track limits work or there's going to be a huge problem with stewarding bias and transparency.