#vnb26

MONTRÉAL 2026:

qualified sixth! started on softs: grid didn't agree on tyre strategy, every tyre but hards and full wets represented. got a difficult launch on the tyres because there's three formation laps.

held position at the start, improved to p5 when piastri pitted lap one and p4 when norris did the same a lap later.

cars on inters swapped to mediums, majority of the field is now on softs w/mclaren alpine bottas and lawson on mediums. everyone's one-stopping, including us.

sets fastest lap on lap three and five.

overtook hamilton for p3, hamilton reporting energy issue on the radio right after. he stays close behind, chasing.

gap to antonelli, ahead, is 3.5, by lap twelve it's 4.5: merc pace does merc pace things. antonelli and russell are in a battle of their own at the front, alternating lead, while we try to catch.

yellow flag for laps thirteen-fourteen. hamilton gaining time on us during; max reports on radio. after yellow lifts we're steadily dropping a tenth or so every lap in what seems to be the same issue plaguing our energy deployment that struck during the sprint too.

at lap twenty-three, antonelli 7 ahead. merc position swapping gets increasingly edgy across laps twenty-four-ish to thirty. a crash seems likely but instead on lap thirty something in russell's car gives out and he's forced to retire.

vsc called while russell's car is dragged off; nearly everyone dives into the pit lane. we take a 2.7s stop, coming out in p2 with medium tyres that we'll ultimately take to the end. vsc ends on lap thirty-three.

hamilton overtakes eventually &starts putting in fastest laps, behind us again in p3 on lap fourty-two

second vsc called on lap fourty-six and the pit entry closed while a marshall sprints across track to clear a broken piece of car, and then the vsc ends on that same lap.

gap to antonelli, ahead, is 5, and hamilton, behind, 2.2, on lap fourty-nine.

third vsc called on lap fifty-three for more debris recovery, lifted one lap later.

hamilton one second behind and closing. lap fifty-six nipping at our heels, both cars dancing on the limit of grip. nearly into the wall of champions: saved. next corner, lewis lunges: fended off. gap is less than a second, max holding hamilton JUST out of range.

insane sicko 3344 magic across laps fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine... hamilton, struggling with power again, drops to 1.1 behind on lap sixty in order to charge battery but remains within threatening range. seven laps to go.

second yellow flag that lasts half a blink.

hamilton overtakes for p2, passing neatly on the straight. and okay guys i'll toneswap suddenly and say the conclusion of this battle was such a ruined orgasm bc the overtake happened after max's car took a cue from hamilton's and stopped deploying power. the onboard looks like his motor isn't even on. really frustrating artificial end to a genuinely great w2w fight.

gap to hamilton 0.5 with four laps left in the race; max hurls himself at it. nearly overtakes again on lap sixty-seven, just too far back in the corner to make it stick, and then the car locks up on the straight and goes wide into t10, giving hamilton a few tenths of breathing room. right until the last second max is clawing for it, but at the checkered flag—

finished p3! first podium of the year!!!! 💫⭐️✨️🏆🌷

teammate: qualified p7, finished p5. sprint result: qualified p7, finished p7 - teammate: qualified p8, finished p21.

SUZUKA 2026:

qualified eleventh (persistent problems with downshifting all through fp &both q1+q2; car has understeer but also oversteers in corner entry)

medium tyre start (two-stop plan, hards next, everyone but bottas on same strategy)

held position at the start; up to p9 in two laps, overtaking occon and hadjar

brief lap two battle with hadjar who tries to gain position back, gets alongside quickly, max keeps ahead

into p8 on lap five, gasly ahead. ~0.5 gap which we struggle to close, car significantly lacking pace compared to alpine.

you read that right!

lap sixteen norris (ahead) pits and we artificially gain track position, lap eighteen leclerc (also ahead) does the same. p6, gap to gasly 5.8

piastri comes through pits and comes out behind us but overtakes again easily

bearman has a bad crash on lap twenty-two (he's okay). safety car. we take the free pit along with the rest of the field (onto hards as planned). exit pits in p8.

safety car ends lap twenty-seven. right at restart we pressure gasly, coming alongside twice, but gasly peels away on pace without even having to really defend.

max is able to keep the gap close (~1.4) for eight-ish laps but we drop away on every straight, no opportunity to overtake, and then gasly's gone into the distance again.

lap fourty-nine max claws past pierre for roughly one eighteen-hundredth of a second but ofc this used all our battery and then gasly retakes. max waves as he passes... we're cooked. pierregatory.

max attempts last second overtake attempt on final straight and the car locks up :]

finished p8!

MONACO 2026:

qualified second!

car failed to start after lights out; everybody passed as we stalled in place (engine failure)

limped to the pits and retired.

mechanical dnf! (lap 1/78)

BARCELONA 2026:

qualified fifth! started on soft tyres, got a decent launch, fighting up alongside norris for the first few corners but not quite making it stick. held position until lap thirteen until we pit for medium tyres and came out into p10.

improved to p6 within three laps as cars ahead also pit (temperatures were so high the strategies were two and three stoppers) and we overtook hadjar painlessly.

leclerc, ahead, also pit on lap seventeen and we inherited p5. uneventful stint there until hamilton did the same on lap twenty-eight and we improved to p4.

we had a slow pit stop on lap thirty (onto hard tyres, which everyone but hamilton is now running) and fed back out into p7, behind piastri; piastri pit six laps later and we took over his p6, moved up another spot to p5 after leclerc pit too.

virtual safety car called on lap fourty, after alonso crashed (he's okay) (as okay as you can be after crashing the nerve-eating aston martin at your home race right in front of your own grandstand).

used the vsc to get a free stop onto medium tyres and came out where we went in, p5. racing resumes on lap fourty-two.

set the fastest lap on lap fourty-three ✨️ you might've noticed the only thing impacting our race was pit stops, amid long stretches of nothing, so this was major.

long stretch of nothing: no action until antonelli has a mechanical dnf on lap sixty-three and another vsc is called while his car is recovered. we move up into p4. the vsc ends on lap sixty-five, race ends uneventfully.

finished p4!

MIAMI 2026:

qualified second! started on medium tyres (alongside entire grid): got a better start than previous races but was still a little sluggish off the line compared to others

after moving to cover off norris behind, leclerc hit us. car spins, max intentionally encourages the spin for a 360° result, winding up 'facing forward' and saving the car. dropped seven places.

immediately started recovering position, overtaking; on lap 4 "stabilised" into p8. briefly p7 after passing colapinto but he takes it back.

safety car on lap six: hadjar took a curb badly and sent it into the track's opposite wall, crashing himself out, barely thirty seconds later gasly also crashes after lawson's brakes lockup and he hits gasly while cornering. everyone is okay.

we were the only driver to pit under the safety. changed onto hards; came out in p16.

racing resumes on lap 12; overtook stroll for 15th at the restart, got borteleto a couple corners later and perez after that. linblad checked off next lap. we're up to p12 on lap 14.

overtook ocon for p11, chased bearman through a couple corners and down a straight, passing him and getting back into the point. p10!

receive a note that an investigation will be conducted after the race for failing to follow race instructions by crossing the pit lane's white line under a yellow flag.

lap 14 jaws attack on albon followed quickly by lap 18 t-rex attack on sainz, clearing both williams; lap 21 we get colapinto (this time actually) and wind up in p6.

bizarre ferrari strategy pits leclerc and moves us to p5.

attempted overtake on hamilton on lap 26, fended off initially but then made to stick.

the field started to respond to threats of rain, apparently coming down in some places but never manifested on track as a relevant force. antonelli pits and a lap later norris, putting us p2 (back where we qualified) later again, piastri, and max inherited the race lead ^-^

... for about twelve seconds because antonelli overtook max's twenty-two lap old hard tyres quite easily and on lap 30 norris did as well

things finally Stopped Happening and this p3 holding pattern, norris ahead leclerc behind, held until lap 47 when leclerc overtook. max got the position back but then leclerc took it again.

this mini-battle allowed piastri, behind, to close, and pass on lap 49, sending us back to p5. the tyres are fourty-two laps old and the deg is quite an issue.

russell is gaining and gaining: lap 55 he makes a couple attempts at passing, getting alongside, and is fended off twice. he made contact with max's car and dropped back with front wing damage. lap 56 overtakes us again but we claw it back, again.

lap 57: final lap of the race. russell catches us this time for real. at the same time he's overtaking us charles loses the wheel of his car and spins. a safety car is called then immediately cancelled within about three seconds time.

charles' damage dropped him into our range, and max was able to lunge and pass him on the final corner of the last lap.

investigation result for crossing the white line: five second time penalty. this doesn't effect our final standing.

won driver of the day

finished p5!

SPIELBERG 2026:

qualified fifth! started on medium tyres (everyone did barring bortoleto and sainz on softs); good launch, kept position.

overtook antonelli lap two, then leclerc at the next corner, improving to p3 by lap three.

took the fastest lap on lap five.

on lap ten over took hamilton for p2, then hamilton took it back a corner later, then the two were alongside again before max (brakes protesting) dropped back, still in p3. ultimately inherited the position on the same lap when hamilton pit.

split the mercs, russell in front. shaved little chunks out of russell's lead, improving by a few tenths each lap. interval on lap eighteen was 4.9.

pit on lap nineteen, came out p6 on hard tyres, hamilton in front; inherited p5 as piastri, ahead, pitted too.

started hunting down hamilton again. norris pitted, max took p4. lunged late on turn three to try and overtake hamilton but couldn't make it stick, then tried the same lunge on turn six, kept the position this time. p3 on lap twenty-three!

yellow flag called on lap twenty-four after sainz suffered a breakdown, virtual safety car called one lap later, lifted on lap twenty-seven. gap to russell, leading, remained 4.9.

kept a streak of fastest laps from lap twenty-eight, to thirty-one (after which gap was 4.1), to thirty-five (2.3), to thirty-eight (1.4)... streak ended on lap fourty-two, but russell pit on lap fourty-three and we inherited p1.

pitted on lap fifty for new hards. we saved fresh mediums in quali but on raceday their window was small &the interval to the mercs meant it was better to not have to pit again. this means we stayed out longer than we should've, losing time to antonelli, while timing a stop for mediums that ultimately never went on. exited pits in p3.

on lap fifty-two antonelli pit and we improved back in p2. gap to russell 10s: vsc called on lap thirty-two for debris reclamation and terminated one lap later.

kept clawing time out of russell, chipping in and in on the lead. lap sixty-two, gap was 5.2, lap sixty-five, 4.3, sixty-nine 3.0... weren't enough laps to overtake after the pit for hards, but max got close.

antonelli narrowed in at the same time, doing his best to close from behind. for the tense final lap he was a sub-second back. although we didn't have enough laps to overtake russell, max was able to fend off antonelli, who crossed the line 0.3s behind.

won driver of the day.

finished p2! second podium, and best result, of the year! 💫⭐️✨️🏆🌷

teammate: qualified p8, finished p6.

SHANGHAI 2026:

qualified eighth

bad start again results in six positions lost during launch

tyre strat (softs w/presumed two-stop) fucked bc of bad start

car handling so bad (bc of tyre deg) f1tv broadcast package put together a new "oversteer" calculator and only used it one time the whole race (for us)

pitted (clear strat re-eval; hards)

vsc opens up right after we left the pits

clawed up through haas/alpine battle and recovered to p6

car broke

yeah

energy reclamation system (in corner entry we lost all power and the ers wasn't there when braking so in corner exit we also had no throttle)

mechanical dnf! (lap 45/56)

SILVERSTONE 2026:

qualified seventh! also started seventh, instead of in the pit lane, despite requesting major changes to the car after a disappointing qualifying (seventh place), citing issues primarily with the power unit, but also the balance, and handling. entire field (barring albon) launched on medium tyres for a one-stop strategy.

got away well, immediately gaining a place. on lap three overtook hadjar for p5. uneventful stretch: on lap thirteen noted a problem with the downshifts, then lap seventeen caught george for p4, before pitted for hard tyres, and came back out where we started in p7.

string of fastest laps from laps twenty to twenty-five. virtual safety car on lap twenty-two (umbrella blew onto track) but it was too short for anyone to take advantage of.

hamilton and russell pitted and we inherited their track position, into p4. on lap thirty-four russell caught up and made an overtake attempt that didn't land, then one lap later fought it again, but was held off, before russell dove into the pits.

lap thirty-six found hamilton in attacking distance. max defended carefully all lap thirty-seven and then in thirty-eight he and hamiton danced, before hamilton overtook on pace and then immediately a vsc was called.

red bull swapped to a two-stop strategy and pitted under the safety for brand new mediums, exiting pits in p4. antonelli pits and we improved to p3. shifting problems from earlier worsened.

crashed on lap fourty-nine due to another issue with the rear wing not opening correctly.

mechanical dnf! (lap 49/52)