Daniel Disrupting Charles Interviews Always 😂 Poor Charles 😳

“To be honest it honestly feels like the first podium all over again.”

Daniel Ricciardo grabs his first Renault podium at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix.

president zelenskyy is a stronger man than me because if two ignorant and deluded men like trump and vance started demanding i say please and thank you and calling me disrespectful like im a naughty child instead of a very traumatised and frustrated man trying to save his country from putin id have put them both in the ground with a single fucking punch

On the Reality of Dating a Famous/Wealthy Man:

I was going to post this on Twitter but decided I wanted to a do a long form post. So an explanation of this tweet, which was inspired by the screenshot just below it:

First a disclaimer: I am not at ALL saying Mick is anything like the men I'm about to talk about (I genuinely doubt it). I'm using this response to him hard-launching his relationship as an example of the mindset I see in a LOT of the young female F1 fans. If you read the gossip blogs, you've seen posts like this and worse, particularly on Charles, Pierre, Danny, and Carlos's gfs.

As I said in my tweet, if these young girls knew what it can be like behind closed doors for the WAGs of the rich and the famous, they probably wouldn't make statements like this.

I see a lot of younger fans here on social media posting their imagines and fan fics, and as someone a bit older than them, it does worry me. I know for most people it's simple fantasy and fun, but when I see things like the above I know there are some younger girls that really just don't get it.

My aim in posting this is that maybe it'll be a bit of a reality check for some of those girls. And I don't mean that in a bullying way, I mean that in a "please don't look at these smiling pretty girls with the closet full of designer, perfect body, and seemingly perfect life and feel bad about yourself" way.

Lastly, how do I know any of what I'm about to talk about? I wish I was just chatting shit, but I have lived through all of what I'm posting below as the daughter of a "man" of wealth. His money came from corporate life, not fame, but when you have as much as my "father" did/does, you rub elbows with the famous. Everything I detail below happened to me, my mother, and the wives of my "father"'s coworkers. I'm now watching history repeat itself as I've moved up the corporate ladder and find myself around millionaires and billionaires on a regular basis.

1. The "Starter Wife" Phenomenon

In wealthy circles there's the concept of a "Starter Wife". This is the woman wealthy/famous men marry because they were high school sweethearts, worked together early on, or they dated before the man had his "come up". Sometimes men marry these women and have kids for the SOLE purpose of having the "Family Man" persona. For famous men, this can be good PR. For wealthy men, this can boost their career.

A lot of these men fucking HATE their wives. By the time they have money, they want the freedom of single life back. They can now afford their "dream woman" and loathe being "stuck" with their current wife because of it. Leading to:

2. Serial Cheating

These men have all the money and resources they need to live a double life. Not to mention built-in time and an alibi: They're on the road all the time for their job, work trips, events, etc. No time unaccounted for because they're always working.

Some of those work trips to wine-and-dine clients include runs to the local strip club, escorts, and in some cases some of those escorts are of INCREDIBLY questionable age (in reality, they are victims of trafficking). Again, I wish I was talking out of my ass, I have seen this shit with my own eyes and wish to the Gods I hadn't. Then there's also:

3. Domestic Violence

This is bad enough when it's a wealthy man whose built that "Family Man" persona to protect himself, but it's even worse when they're famous. No one believes the victims, in some cases the woman is financially stuck and can't just take the kids and run when it happens.

And for some women it hard to leave the man they thought their partner was and, yes, to let the lifestyle go. Speaking of the lifestyle there's:

4. The Loneliness

This is a big one for the F1 girlies I see posting their imagines and fanfics and what not. The fairytale of "he'll make time for me because he loves me and I'd be special. I'd be different."

These men are busy as shit. That Cartier Bracelet you envy on these girls is often a "sorry I missed your birthday". The big bouquet of roses is a "sorry I had to leave our trip early." Yes, we know the joke "well at least I can cry in a Ferrari", but that shit will wear on you more than you can believe. I can't tell you growing up how hurt I was when my performances were missed, major dates were forgotten, or my proud life updates were met with "yeah, uh-huh, hold on I have to take this call."

Of course there are good times, of course there's memories you'll cling to, but when you're out, you often realize how alone you felt in the relationship. Lastly, and most poignant with this F1 WAG nonsense:

5. Keeping Up Appearances

You're no longer your own person in a relationship with these men, you are an extension of them. With famous men, you're a part of their "branding".

You have to look a certain way, act a certain way, talk to the right people, have the right friends. In the corporate-wealth world, that means making your partner look good, playing the part of the trophy wife and perfect mother. Smile in front of those coworkers that you know just spent the last business trip drinking, gambling, and cheating on their wives. Wear the right dress to the corporate dinner to make his coworkers envy him, but don't dress too sexy or he'll grow angry and think you're trying to cheat.

If you're dating someone famous, by the GODS, you better look immaculate in every post. You better be there to support him at his events, but if you're there too often you're "attention-seeking". You better have model good-looks, but if you ARE a model, you're "a jobless loser trying to profit on him". Don't post him on your IG, but if you happen to post that you're in the same city as him, you're "dropping hints". If he posts you, it's only because you "probably begged him to".

It's a maddening dance where you cannot win for losing. And once you break up, enjoy letting the world decide if he should have stayed with you, or if they're relieved that he finally got away from "that selfish bitch".

Do what you will with the above. I just wanted to get it off my chest. But I do hope that maybe, MAYBE, it'll give someone that needs it some perspective.

So are we not gonna talk about Andrew stopping smoking bc he was not fast enough to reach Neil and protect him after Jean literally told him so??????

He stopped smoking for Neil.

"“You are an idiot,” Jean accused him. “You were barely fast enough to save him last time. The next time someone takes a swing at him, you and your brisket lungs will have to watch him die."

AND ALSO, ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE "I wouldn’t have given him to you if I’d known you would just throw him away so carelessly.”

MY FOREVER MISPLACED PARTNERS IM GONNA SCREAM.

There's so much to unpack here.

isn't this exactly how Derek healed his wolfsbane wound in season 1?

I call this the create a new problem technique

Unpopular opinion but Charles didn't drive horrible today? Like if that was dangerous, what do we call his performance last year? Lol Apart from the lap 1 incident, all the others were just racing to the limits. People accuse him as if he caused dnfs here and there.

If he was racing with the same mindset as last year, in Baku he would have cause an accident with seb but he didn't. Today, after many races ferrari had the best pace comparing to the McLarens, so it was a chance to get points.

Was it risky? Yes. But it's ferrari, we won't see another enjoyable race like this probably😭

ansjdjd, oh anon, I don’t think he drove horrible today at all either!

Quite the contrary, his dirve was impressive today, especially given how little confidence we had in the SF21 after Paul Ricard, or just given its confusing performance over the season — I just wish it could have been a bit cleaner (Lap 1 the obvious one I wish he avoided, also wish he didn’t clip Kimi’s front wing during overtaking but looking back I don’t think that’s entirely on him?, or I think there might’ve also been a touch with Alonso??). Babette, one of the sanest people here whom I trust, took a look at those incidents, so I’m going to link the posts here: On Pierre-Charles incident in Lap 1. On Kimi-Charles & Fernando-Charles.

Tumblr generally is…just such a reactionary place, and people are quick to come to their own judgments. I don’t get it. I admittedly get a bit confused since I definitely haven’t watched F1 long enough to be able to judge drivers’ performances/FiA penalties so well. So I can’t comment on whether or not he deserved to get some penalties today for any of that, I just know people seem to have the impression that he has more leniency from the FiA — whether that claim is substantiated or not, I don’t know. I didn’t watch the 2020 or 2019 seasons when it was happening, nor do I have like the data or knowledge to compare to other drivers. But the FiA, to my knowledge, has never been…the most consistent body with any of this in the first place 🤷🏻‍♀️ I digress, I just. generally would prefer it if Charles can keep out of these controversies COMPLETELY so I don’t have to go through extra psychic damage of seeing bad takes on his driving.

Still, I agree that his driving this year is not comparable to the magnitude or seriousness of errors he made in 2020, so I am glad for that progress! In some ways, you could say I am probably just having sky high expectations for him, given his talent and also how he’s always had an attitude of learning from mistakes. He’s probably my favorite driver on the grid right now, of course I want him to be ironing out his mistakes ASAP and having smooth, clean drives where he can go apeshit without consequence or comment.

But, yeah, as you said, he is driving on the limit. I think with the SF21 not being the most consistent car and also losing so many places from the Lap 1 incident, he absolutely had to push it above and beyond, especially when Paul Ricard was such a dismal result for him personally and for the team, plus how they need those points from both cars to keep up the competition with the McLarens, as a precious anon said! Of course, he’s taking risks and of course he’s willing to get a bit of his elbows out if needed. He’s lucky that most of the dents in his drive weren’t detrimental, so this is a really good result for the team, and I think that’s super important to have good drives like his recovery drive today to keep the team going through tough times (same as how his almost miraculous performances last year must’ve sustained the team through an intensely painful season). It’s not just a recovery from lost positions from the first lap but also from last weekend, honestly.

Also, I think people really forget every once in a while that Charles has always been capable of taking these risks that don’t always pay off but are arguably largely necessary gambles when you have a subpar car. Or the fact that he has always been capable of being a bastard on track (the aggression came out in F1 because of Austria 2019) — but hello? 2012 “just an inchident”? Even in F2, where I always thought he drove most beautifully, aka cleaner and more calculated imo compared to his post-Austria 2019 style or 2020 “high risk high reward” mentality, he was absolutely capable of being really “racey.” For example, the last race of the F2 2017 season in Abu Dhabi, Charles already won the championship two races ago? but he still fought very on the limit with Alex Albon to win this last race and even made contact, which did screw up Alex’s exit in a corner and allowed Charles to take the lead on the last (or penultimate?) lap and win. Mind you, the Prema he was in was a dominant car. I think that also makes a lot of difference when it comes to how he drives. When he has a shitty car like SF1000 and less shitty but not great not consistent car like SF21, I can understand how he can’t afford to not drive to the limit. Regardless of the car though, I think Charles has always been explicit about enjoying driving on the limit like this. So guys, just accept him for the demon he is and has always been, or like spray holy water on your households to repel him from your space.

But take heart, anon! I weirdly think that Ferrari is going to be okay. Charles seems a lot more motivated this week in all his interviews after the free practices compared to Paul Ricard, where he really looked like he was struggling and also how dead inside he looked whenever someone asked him about the race 😂 It’s a good sign that he was disappointed for P7 in quali and for the race. It means he was expecting and aiming for a lot more. I think if Ferrari can figure out what they did right (God, what a sentence lmao), there’s some hope that they can keep up the performance (I really hope). I feel pretty encouraged honestly, even though I said I was prepared to drop the whole season just last week. Ferrari is weirdly taking everything in well, staying calm and pretty energized to fix its problems. So, as I said before the race weekend, we should just take it chill and treat it as extended testing sessions for Ferrari. I’d rather they be flailing now than after 2022 hits. The earlier they can figure out their problems, the better next year’s car can be.

Besides, Charles managed to drag ShitboxFerrari1000 into some pretty unbelievable places last year, so I wouldn’t rule it out for him to do something batshit this year either with a better though not great car (and he already parked it on back to back poles) 💖💖

i want to tell you guys a story from my life, about something that really happened in my family, & then i want to talk about that story in relation to what happened between ray & sand in ep10. let me be very clear -- this post is not intended to scold people for disliking ray. part of the reason i waited so long to write this was so i could have confidence that i was being fair & not letting my affection for the character colour what i wanted to say. i would really appreciate it if people who feel negatively about ray in particular took the time to read this & take it into consideration, as a sincere appeal from someone who has alcoholics in her family to really consider some of the ways i've seen this fandom talking about ray's addiction.

so. the story. some half-dozen years ago my uncle was trying to get sober. his marriage was on its last legs & no one wanted his kids to be living with their father while he was going through withdrawal if that could be avoided, so he came to stay with us for a while. my mum did her homework, understood enough to know that he shouldn't have easy access to alcohol in that time, & so we moved all of the alcohol we had to hand into a locked room in the cellar & gave the key to a neighbour for the duration of his stay. it went okay for a little while, & then my uncle had a fight with his wife over the phone, or something to that effect. in one night, he drank three half-bottles of prosecco which we'd forgotten we had stored in the garage.

we didn't even know that alcohol was there. we'd totally forgotten about it. but because we missed it, what should have been a bad night turned into a relapse. keeping alcohol in close proximity to a recovering alcoholic, especially in the early days of sobriety, makes it so, so easy for them to backslide. partly because constantly knowing it's there can wear on them, sure, but mostly because no matter how strong anyone's commitment, there will always be moments when they falter, & the easier it is made for them to relapse in those moments, the likelier it is that they will. & maybe not everyone in this situation would relapse, but you cannot know whether a person will or won't until it happens. most of it's up to factors far beyond your control. it is not worth taking that risk with someone you love.

so trust that i am speaking from bitter experience when i say that sand's home-brewing was always, always going to be a problem. they put it in the opening credits, for god's sake. i was absolutely certain from ep2, when we first found out about the plum wine, that whether ray ultimately tried to get sober or not, the easy access to alcohol that a relationship with sand granted him was destined to be point of conflict between them. sand was always going to have to confront the tension between his relationship with an alcoholic & his main (?) source of income being home-brewed alcohol, & he was always going to have to choose between them. & it is not fair to sand that he has to make that choice, i know. it's fine if you think that he made the wrong choice, or that he shouldn't have had to make that choice at all, but it was inevitable that he would have to, fair or not. because if you have an alcoholic in your life, you are most likely going to have to change your behaviours around them, in big ways & small, for their benefit. this is just how it goes.

i was astonished that there were people who seemed caught off-guard by this fight -- the only thing that surprised me was that it happened before ray was really taking rehab seriously, because i fully expected that this fight would happen after a relapse, likely one involving the plum wine, a couple months into sobriety. there was no version of this show that could both be honest about ray's alcoholism & fail to highlight this conflict at some point. they gave sand this source of income specifically so that sand & ray would have this problem down the line. it was so obvious to me that this was coming, i just took it as a given that everyone else saw it too. & again, this post is not intended to judge anyone for how they have interacted with this show or with this character, that's not what i'm here to do. but i do want to address an element of the way that i have seen some people talk about ray & his addiction.

it is fine if you don't like this character. i am not going to scold you for being understandably mad about the way that he has treated the people around him. but it is very frustrating, & sometimes downright upsetting, to occasionally see people speaking with great confidence on alcoholism despite saying things which i know from lived experience to be inaccurate, or worse, unfair. i am not here to judge you, but i am going to ask you extend a certain amount of grace to this character, & more importantly to all the people who see themselves or their loved ones in him. if you're going to talk about alcoholism, or the aspects of ray's character & actions which are intimately linked with his alcoholism, i would ask you to take some time to make sure that you do actually know what you're talking about. if you're criticizing ray -- & there is plenty to criticize! -- i would ask you to take a moment to think about whether you're really just holding him accountable, or if maybe you're being unduly harsh on him. i think there's more than a few people in this fandom who have some unexamined biases around addiction & those who suffer from it; this is an excellent opportunity for all of us to educate ourselves on this subject. i've been learning a lot about what different structured recovery programs look like; neither my uncle nor anyone else i'm close to ever pursued one, & i'd never sought out information on that before.

ray isn't real. none of the people he's hurting are real, either. but he & the people around him are a very well-written reflection of a very common, very difficult experience. you don't have to like him, but if you want to understand more about addiction i think he could be a really good starting point for that. if you don't want to, i genuinely get it -- sometimes you just want to watch a show & enjoy it without having to do homework. that's okay. but if that's your position, then please think twice before making public posts passing judgement on the show's representation of an incredibly complicated & sensitive topic.

i'll reiterate one last time that this post was not intended to judge, scold, or otherwise castigate; i hope that i've managed to maintain an acceptable level of the objectivity i was aiming for, & if i haven't, then my apologies, i definitely tried. if you're going to disagree with some of what i've written, that's fine, but please remember that i wrote all of this based on my personal experience with a family member, & be kind.

Perfect fit