re: 2024 Formula 1 season Thread

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I’ve never liked Yuki… loose cannon with a little man complex.

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A couple of years ago Marko commented that Yuki was not the typical polite Japanese driver, and I think Marko was criticized for stereotyping Japanese drivers. But I agreed with him, I like my Japanese drivers well-mannered as well. I'm part Japanese and I've been waiting for decades for Japan to produce a great driver on the international stage. I was a fan of Takuma Sato despite his wild ways (in both F1 and IndyCar) and I was happy to see him achieve the glory of two Indy 500 wins. I was also a fan of Kamui Kobayashi, whose F1 career ended sooner than it should have. However I was indifferent to Nakajima, who was very forgettable.

On a personal level I've never really liked Yuki for the obvious reason, his lack of emotional control. But last year I started to become pretty defensive about people's comments about him, because a lot of people seem to think that he's a terrible driver who is only in F1 because Honda has coerced Red Bull to keep him on. While Honda may be the reason Yuki made it to a second season, there's no evidence that Honda was the reason he was kept for a fourth season. I followed AlphaTauri very closely last year. Yuki earned a fourth season. His on-track performance has improved every year and he had a good year last year.

This issue has been compounded by delusional Danny Ric fans, who couldn't admit that Yuki beat Danny last year, and who believe Danny will easily dominate Yuki this year on his way to a Red Bull seat. So how did the first race go?

1. Yuki beat Danny in qualifying
2. Before the last pit stops, Yuki had around an 8-second gap on Danny. For some reason, three out of the four Red Bull drivers were put on soft tires late in the race, but Yuki was kept on hards. It seems like they knew the softs were good tires that would do well on a low fuel load, but perhaps kept Yuki on hards because they weren't sure. So it was only a team strategy decision that allowed Danny to catch up to Yuki.
3. Danny only finished ahead of Yuki because of team orders.

Like I said before the race, I don't think either driver is going to make it to Red Bull.

TBH, I've been rooting pretty hard for Yuki since last year largely because so many people have delusional takes on his actual performances over the last year, and I will continue to do so. My true rooting interest is in seeing Albon do well.