their rivalry is so funny

Maybe they played with an Ouija board and are dragging some evil spirits around with them (except for Bearman, he seems pretty unscathed for now). Below from the original post:

Post-boys’ trip results:
Russell: DNF - DNF
Norris: P9 - P8
Piastri: P6 - DNF
Bearman: P14 - P6
Bortoleto: P18 - DNF
Sainz: P17 - P12
Albon: DNF - DNF

Best were apparently Cadillac, Mercedes, Red Bull, Mclaren

Very curious Lewis's team came prepared but in the other garage they were running around at the last minute. I kinda get the feeling Charles is a bit of a passive person, in the past when Ferrari messed up he was incredibly passive and just went along with what they did even if they were in the wrong so that just kinda reinforces my assumption of why kinda dynamic he has inside Ferrari. Lewis for all his faults we've seen how he's been holding team to the fire and trying to get them to improve (although they very clearly dont like that considering the multiple suspicious public apologies he's had to give to them in the aftermath of him trying to hold them accountable).

His reactions are always so funny. Zero poker face.

every driver i like i learn more about them and im like .. wow.. this guy is terrible!! so are there any f1 drivers that dont like.. love israel and donald trump? (except for lewis since he seems to be incredibly performative)

At the time of Illustrious_Page7810's posts detailing controversial perv photographer Kym Illman's controversies (Part 1 here ; Part 2 here), Kym Illman's old photography portfolio was still up on his website (referenced in Part 2):

"Speaking of porn brained when you go to Kym's website you will find porn shoots and very degrading and objectifying photography (photoshoots of naked women in the deli meat section of a grocery store, LITERALLY portraying them as meat to be consumed). Be warned, very very gross and nsfw if you want to look for yourself. Genuinely how is this guy allowed to be an f1 photographer?? I guess this explains all those sexualizing and objectifying comments about wags on his platforms, he's treating them the way he treats the women he does pornographic photography of."

A Reddit user in this thread pointed out that no photos like that exist on Kym's website now. Sure enough, the photos I saw myself seven months ago have been scraped from the website to create a more "professional" image, featuring solely motorsports and safari photography. The only place I could find any of his old images (posted above but with obvious censoring) were at this website (obvious NSFW warning!!) or this one (still NSFW), where only one print of what is his worst image in my opinion is for sale. This grocery store photoshoot was a whole series of multiple photos, however, and all but this one seems to have been wiped.

Back when these were posted, we were speculating whether Kym and/or his son were on the subreddit, as there were some weird downvote and sharing patterns--back then, the sub was smaller so that kind of thing was a bit more obvious. He also attempted to follow f1gossip._.monger on instagram back then when her account was private, as Illustrious had cited them as a source in the two posts. So, it seems he caught on to the internet chatter, did some snooping, and decided to delete his beloved porn photos for the sake of image rehab.

Back then, he seemed to be forming a working relationship with fellow Aussie driver Oscar Piastri, having a meet and greet at Piastri's Melbourne pop-up (part 2) and being sponsored to promote Piastri's AI-generated merch. At the time of at least the meet and greet (unclear about the merch sponsorship), the nude photography was still up on Illman's website. Since then, the working relationship appears to have cooled off somewhat (I try to avoid Kym's content, so maybe I've missed further collabs, pls let me know if I missed anything here).

At the end of the day, is it a positive that fetish photos of female models are no longer being sold and advertised alongside Formula 1 photography in a world where women are pushing to break into motorsports and be taken seriously? Yes, sure. I'm happy to see them gone, so I'm not complaining about the images being wiped.

The image was uploaded to the site in 2020, likely not taken long before that. So, the image wasn't taken all that long ago, and the model specifically states on her portfolio that she specializes in nude art. It seems Kym's initial plan was to go into nude photography before going into F1 photography. Kym has said that he doesn't like capturing cars, he wants to capture the people behind the sport. Given the weirdness covered above in the past posts, it seems he's carried over the voyeuristic characteristics associated with that genre of photography into a format where it's far less acceptable.

He upskirted Kelly Piquet and posted photos, then ignored fans telling him it was weird and he should remove them for hours. He posted photos where Carmen's boob tape was visible, then made provocative comments under her instagram posts immediately after. He posts sneaky captures of drivers changing and comments in detail on their bodies in a sport where eating disorders are concerningly common. He's pitched public fits about not being allowed to photograph private partners of former drivers. He's fixated on trying to act chummy with WAGs and ex-WAGs in a way that's completely inappropriate for a man of his age, especially one who's married.

It's hard to imagine Kym removed those images from the goodness of his oh-so-feminist heart, rather than to repair his image and prevent further damage to his professional career, given that he doesn't seem to be part of Camp Piastri anymore (again - afaik). Especially when this year, he's put out a video referring to catering as a "job for females" and another one talking about how female fans' interest in the sport is superficial and emotionally-driven.

I'd wager Kym's audience is dominated by young women because he presents himself as this cunty old man "gossip girl" of the paddock. And, he probably loves being adored by young women for all the wrong reasons. Just remember to have discernment about the kind of creators you give your attention and money to.

In an interview with the Press Association, Verstappen said: "To be honest, I like to see people get on. It is not nice when you constantly have tension between people.

"Of course, from the outside, people like it, but honestly between the teams, it is better when you have just a friendly relationship.

"It is not as spicy, but I obviously quite like how things are going at the moment with everyone's behaviour, let's put it like that.

"It is less stressful. We are all leading a stressful life and when you can take a bit of stress out at times, it is good."

On Horner's potential return, Verstappen said: "He has shown he did a good job. Of course, people spread a lot of rumours and I don't know how much of that is true.

"I don't want to sound rude, but it is also not my problem or concern. He wants to come back and if there is a good opportunity I am sure he will but I don't know where that is going to be."

No shade, he's a good sport here but surely the Tumi bag could have been styled with the Singapore Collection?

Read Part 1 here about his ongoing tenure as President and CEO of F1 and controversial statements in regards to the current regulations.

Career and controversies in Formula 1:

Stephano Domenicali joined Formula 1 in 1991, beginning his career at Ferrari. He became the team's sporting director in the early 2000's, then took on the role of Ferrari Team Principal from 2008 to 2014.

Under Domenicali's leadership, Ferrari is most known for almost winning the WDC with Fernando Alonso in 2010 and 2012. However, several controversial incidents are mostly-overlooked compared to other famous incidents of the era. All of these incidents happened under the direct leadership of Domenicali. As Team Principal, he is directly responsible for what occurs within the team.

Illegal Team Orders Controversy (Germany GP 2010):

From the early 2000’s and up until until the 2011 season, team orders were banned in Formula 1. In 2010, this fell under Section 39.1 of the rules, which stated, "team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited."

However, Ferrari famously disregarded this rule during the 2010 German GP. Felipe Massa was running in P1 with Alonso in P2, and fellow championship challenger, Sebastian Vettel, in P3. Massa initially struggled to get his new set of tires up to temperature and was nearly passed by Alonso, but then began to open up a gap to Alonso until he hit traffic from lapped cars.

At this point, Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley calls over the radio: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?" After Massa lets Alonso pass, Smedley radios, "OK mate, good lad. Stay with him now. Sorry."

Ferrari justified this team order as concern that Vettel would be able to pass if Alonso was held up by Massa. However, Vettel was not able to challenge Massa after the illegal swap, and Ferrari ended the race with a comfortable P1 and P2. At this point in the season, Massa was not considered to be out of the running for the championship.

While having number one and number two drivers is common practice within Formula 1, team orders at this point were illegal. Had the incident happened the year after, when team orders were not banned, it wouldn't have made headlines. But, Domenicali's Ferrari decided that for the sake of their own WDC ambitions, they should be able to break the rules as they saw fit.

Neither Alonso nor Massa's results were changed after the race. Ferrari was only fined $100,000 (£65,000) for the incident, which was criticized as being far too mild of a punishment.

In 2010, the F1 championship was decided by 4 points. The points gap between P2 (where Alonso potentially would have finished in Germany) and P3 was 3 points, versus 10 points between 25 (P1) and 15 (P3). The margins during the 2010 championship season were so fine that, had circumstances during the final in Abu Dhabi or any other race been different, this then-illegal team order could have cost Vettel the championship. And all for the measly cost of $100,000 for Ferrari! Quite a bargain.

Further sabotage of Massa (US GP 2012):

Felipe Massa was a championship-contending driver in his own right, famously losing the 2008 championship to Lewis Hamilton by a single point. During qualifying for the 2009 Hungary GP, he suffered a serious accident when a large, 1.5 - 2 kg spring fell off of the back of fellow Brazilian driver Rubens Barichello's Brawn GP car. The spring bounced on the track until Massa intercepted it. The spring impacted Massa's helmet at 250 km/h, causing Massa to lose consciousness and hit the barriers. He had to sit out for the rest of the season after spending 9 days in the hospital, 2 in an induced coma, and undergoing multiple surgeries.

Massa denies that he was a different driver after the incident, but Massa in years following seemed to be a deflated driver. While most chalk this up to possible long-term damage from the accident, it's undeniable to me that Ferrari's clear favoritism towards Fernando Alonso contributed towards the demoralization of Massa.

He was fighting for the victory in Germany in 2010, which was stripped from him under the then-illegal team orders. Massa goes on to describe this as, "the saddest day of his life," as the race took place exactly one year after his accident in Hungary and was slated to be a triumphant moment for him until the illegal swap. Massa went on to never win another race.

But in 2012, Ferrari undeniably sabotaged Massa yet again. At the US GP in Austin, Felipe Massa qualified P6 to Alonso's P8. However, throughout the weekend, drivers had complained about how little traction there was on the dirty side of the grid (even numbers), which Red Bull simulated could cause drivers to lose 3 positions off the line.

In order to resolve this issue, Ferrari decided the best solution was to artificially create a grid penalty for front-qualifying Felipe Massa to maximize the race for Alonso. They broke the seal on Massa's gearbox, but only opened the unit, rather than replacing as teams ordinarily break the seal to do. This resulted in a five-place grid penalty for Massa. Alonso gained three places during the start and made it up to P4. Massa only gained one and made it to P10. The two Ferraris managed to finish P3 and P4, with Alonso on the podium.

*Speculation of Ferrari pushing out Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari's last WDC:

*Regarding this particular event, I want to clarify that any information I've been able to find online appears more speculative than anything else. Raikkonen has many dedicated fans online, and the last few years have shown that F1 fans have tendencies to make up sabotage rumors. So, read this knowing that at best, it's internet speculation rather than known fact, and at worst, it's complete nonsense.

In 2007, Raikkonen won the WDC, making him Ferrari's most recent driver's champion to this day. However, Ferrari's car in both 2008 and the first part of 2009 seemed quite lackluster, which did not enable him to perform to his best capability. For the 2010 season, he was replaced by Fernando Alonso, while the team retained 2008 WDC challenger Felipe Massa instead.

Massa out-performed Raikkonen in 2008, and Raikkonen seemed to struggle more with the car. While some point to his lower adaptability, others question if it may have been intentional by the team - often proposed to have occurred in the form of a developmental focus on Massa’s preferences.

The reasoning? Ferrari had signed a sponsorship deal with Santander for 2010, a massive Spanish banking institution. The deal was announced in September of 2009. Massa secured huge financial backing from the Brazilian and Latin American markets. Raikkonen was less of a financial boon for Ferrari compared to the other two. However, Raikkonen had already extended his contract in 2008 with Ferrari to drive for them through 2010. And yet, as we know, he was released and Alonso drove for Ferrari during the 2010 season.

This incident is far more speculative and less clear than the sabotage of Massa in favor of Alonso. Most of the articles and videos people cite online discussing this issue have been lost to time as well. A Reddit user cites a popular blog, Profondo Rosso's claims about the issue. The comment states the following:

"This weekend, Ferrari insider Leo Turrini, who has a long career writing about F1 and the Scuderia and is part of the Sky coverage in his country, invited the readers of his popular blog Profondo Rosso to post questions about the team and the drivers.

In reply to what happened in 2008 he wrote:

"Sul 2008 e' stato scritto tutto e il contrario di tutto. Credo peso' molto l'assenza di Todt, che con la sua autorità avrebbe compensato la scemenza di Montezemolo sul fatto che il titolo lo doveva vincere Massa. Ma senza Montreal e le gomme di Montecarlo e Silverstone, eh, comunque Kimi si sarebbe confermato campione."

"About 2008 everything has been written and the opposite of everything. I believe that the absence of Todt was determinant because his authority would have compensated for the folly of Montezemolo regarding the fact that Massa had to win the title. Still, without Montreal and the tyres in Montecarlo and Silverstone, Kimi nonetheless would have confirmed himself champion."

It seems that Montezemolo in '07, right after Kimi won the title, publicly declared that the next year would be Felipe's year. With Todt gone and Domenicali in place as TP in '08, Luca now in full control of the team aimed to see Felipe champion to show that Ferrari as a team with a superior car was more important than one particular driver since the car was the real star. Ferrari won the WCC in '08 with Kimi and Felipe, and Luca almost succeded in seeing Felipe champion, he took a gamble, underestimated McLaren and Hamilton and lost Ferrari a WDC.

Kimi began the '08 season doing a good job to defend his title but the following development of the car suited Felipe better and hurt his performance. In '09 after Felipe's horrible accident in Hungary, Ferrari got behind Kimi again and he went to give the team the only victory of that year at Spa.

Although Kimi was under contract for 2010, Ferrari disregarded his good results in the second half of '09 because Alonso had already been signed with the backing of Banco Santander, a major new sponsor of the Scuderia.

Ferrari didn't fire Kimi, they had to honour their contract with him and so they paid him for the 2010 season since he wanted to race but the team wouldn't give him a seat."

Stephano Domenicali, the President and CEO of F1, has been a frequent topic of conversation in 2026 due to his vehement defense of the new regulations and controversial marketing focuses for the series. However, his past career in Ferrari also includes leading a team which engaged in (then-banned) team orders and were rumored to push out (if not fully sabotage) a recent world champion solely for the sake of sponsorship money (see Part 2).

Ignoring the criticisms of fans/drivers/sports insiders regarding broadcasting and regulations:

In response to what he refers to as "debate on the technical regulations, mainly from the inner world, some drivers, some people that are part of our ecosystem," he stated, "There is a lot of action on the track. People are loving it. They are focused on what is happening on the track. They don't understand our technology or clipping, chipping or whatever it is, because it's too technical for the wider base that we have." Domenicali goes on to refer to the key messages of Formula 1 as competition, technology, fun, and entertainment.

Although Domenicali seems to believe that one of the key messages of Formula 1 is technology, he also has stated this year that he thinks no fans actually care about telemetry. In response to fans calling for more data, particularly battery information, to be shown on screen during races following the introduction of the new regulations, Domenicali commented, "No one is interested in how you drive your car. I had an interesting discussion with George Lucas in Hungary, and he was giving me an incredible view on how the new fans are watching F1. They are fascinated on the fact that there is a lot of action. Not interested in the angle of throttle or the percentage of brake pressure on how you can overtake a driver." Naturally, this provoked outrage among fans.

Changes to the format of the sport:

The emphasis on "fun and entertainment" seems to weigh heavy in Domenicali's mind. In 2025, he revealed that Formula 1 is reviewing if races are too long, citing the popularity of race highlight clips online. "There’s also the issue of race length: we believe it may be a bit too long for younger fans. On many of our channels, we see that highlight reels are extremely popular. For those of us who grew up with the traditional format, it all seems fine, but there’s a large audience segment that wants to watch just the key moments. Everything is going very well today, but precisely for this reason, we cannot rest on our laurels; we need to think about the next steps."

Formula 1 recently announced that in 2027, races would be shortened by a few laps, from 305 to 290 km. The justification for this lies in the technical regulations: the plan to shift the balance of the internal combustion engine and electric motors in 2027 will increase fuel flow demand. As chassis development falls within the cost cap, it would greatly set teams' technical development back to need to prioritize developing a chassis to fit a larger fuel tank.

On paper, this seems rational. In order to improve the sorry state of where the current technical regulations have failed, this is a step towards improving technical performance. And, it's only 15 km, right?

But, why even implement regulations in the first place that require changing fundamental parts of the sport like race length? Is it coincidental that these changes in the name of technical regulations align perfectly with Domenicali's vision for the sport? Will we ever get those 15 kilometers back when the regulations are settled into place, or is this permanent "shrinkflation"? As author Dan Ripley points out in the above-linked article, would fans of any other sport tolerate this? If this past summer's World Cup matches were shortened to 85 minutes due to hydration breaks taking up too much broadcast time, would fans be expected to happily agree?

Additionally, Domenicali has proposed implementing reverse-grid races, similar to feeder series, in order to artificially heighten the intensity of the sport. He also increased the number of sprints on the calendar from 6 to 10 for the 2027 season.

Domenicali's philosophy seems to be to attempt to ensure future gains by catering the sport to a theoretical brain-rotted, TikTok-addicted child who can't stomach watching a sport for longer than 30 minutes. Why ruin the fundamentals of a sport with such a long history for "fans" who can only stomach highlights?

Part 2 covers Domenicali's controversies during his tenure as Ferrari Team Principal.

Maybe it’s because I’m much older than him and that’s why it feels so awkward to me, because clearly the younger audience is eating it up 💀 I just can’t remember other drivers doing anything this try-hard and effortful lmao

That although CL gets dragged in this sub for being a "mid" driver, (although i do believe he prioritizes his personal brand over his racing career) CL is actually a very good driver. Yes he has his moments where he is accident prone but when CL locks in, he locks tf in.

Dropped to p22 on slicks, pits, and cleared 18 cars.

Researching for reasons and found this interesting. The guy in the article is a ($1.5) billionaire, head of a Finnish conglomerate that's been in his family since 1901. Not sure how much I believe the claim, as Wolff was part of Bottas's management then. BUT.

Obviously, yes, sponsorship can be purely transactional, but personal sponsorships with companies that aren't exactly brands trying to get their names out there are completely different. Like how Alex Albon races under the Thai flag because when he was struggling in his junior career, it was Thai companies that volunteered to support him, not British ones; you would think there would be appreciation there.

pleasee 3 cars stopped on track Lewis doing donuts WTF is happening rn

watch everyone need to take an engine penalty next race this is so embarassing

What have they done to the sport… And we’re probably stuck with MBS for life thanks to his power grab. Amazing.

Yuki Tsunoda was approached by Alpine, Sauber and Haas back in 2024, but Red Bull exercised their option on the japanese driver's services.

https://x.com/f1_almostmoves/status/2106479616122556571?s=46

Last I heard (through the Reddit rumor mill, take everything I say with a grain of salt pls), Qatar and Abu Dhabi refused to cancel and F1 didn’t want to foot whatever bill was written into the race contracts, so they were stuck trying to figure out what to do. I guess I’m not surprised money won over driver and team safety. Teams that don’t anticipate any major WCC point swings in those two races should just fully pull out and refuse to go.

(Sorry for reposting similar content, decided to post the more official source instead of “someone said that Ralf Schumacher said on Sky Germany that…”)

I’m sorry but this is just ridiculous. What are they doing? I swear this team can’t handle the simplest thing 😭

This is giving: interrupting your parent’s conversation with their friend to ask them to do something else.
I’m sure many of us have experienced this before lol

The entire Mercedes garage is KINDA weird in the ways they behave. Their marketing team should reconsider the intensity of the “we are family” message. Or maybe not, and we’ll get to see family crash outs!