drive to survive CF1 AU

S1 EP 2: the good, the bad, and the very bad

'Of course, when you say F1, you say Ferrari.' Will Buxton said.

Cars race over the camera making for a very good-looking shot.

'That's something certain wether they are in first or in last.' Jennie Gow said. 'But they aren't the only long term team with a lot of History in Formula one.

'Famous names like Lauda, Hunt, Ayrton Senna. Even Lewis Hamilton won his first championship there.' Will Buxton said.

"I'm sure that he's gonna claim fifth place, which is all he needs to do to become the 2008 Formula one world champion."

'Guys I'm speechless!' Lewis said emotionally.

'This season does not compare in anyway to what McLaren has achieved in the past, and not in a good way.' Jennie Gow said.

'We had a lot of sponsors back out before the start of the season and we had to cut a lot of budget, that is visible on our cars.' Zac Brown said.

'For the fourth time in a row, Lando Norris finishes last of the finishing drivers. He has not finished higher then 15th all season!'

'Yeah, nothing I could do guys.' Lando Norris reported over the radio as he crossed the line.

'Lando Norris especially has got the worse end of the deal. Oscar Piastri seems to be having more luck with his equally bad car then Lando has.' Jennie Gow said

Both McLaren cars are plain horrible and the fact that Oscar has been able to get points is a miracle by itself.' Will Buxton said.

'On this far from normal second weekend of the season, Oscar grabs four points to bring smiles to his team members.'

'OSCAR PIASTRI GETS ONTO THE SPRINT PODIUM, what a sprint for him!'

McLaren mechanics cheer in the pit box and hugged each other.

'I've seen it before that drivers absolutely destroy teammate after teammate, but then suddenly one comes along that they can't beat. They hate that, couldn't be worse.' Christian Horner said to the interviewer.

'The problem in CF1 is that it's hard to compare to your teammate because your teammate most likely doesn't have the same exact car. Only one team has that scenario and that is Red-Bull. It makes it difficult for drivers and team to realize, is this the car's fault, or is this just very bad driving.' Jennie Gow said.

'From the start of the season it looked clear that those McLaren cars weren't gonna be fast compared to the rest. It's plain simple, those cars were old and very used. Also the build, especially on Lando's car was not fit for the style of race that CF1 uses.' Will Buxton explained.

'We received an e-mail that CF1 would use two different styles of racing, by the time we got the e-mail that that was cut and almost all of the races would be only one style of racing, we didn't have the budget to adjust our cars to that.' Zac Brown said with an annoyed look on his face.

'CF1 is one of the only sports where there are possibilities for very different styles of racing. The two main ones are launch races and slide races. Launch races is what is used the most and it means that cars are launched one after the other and who gets the furthest wins. Car control, good car quality and very helpful, a good car design that fits well into the launcher so you can be launched further at greater speed are of great importance.' Slide races on the other hand are 1v1 races where two drivers race down the slide together, the one who exists the slide first wins. Unlike launch races where lighter and thinner means a better chance, slide races require heavier, longer and thicker designs. McLaren wanted to give Lando a good slide car and Oscar a good launch car so at least one of the drivers would get points and the drivers wouldn't meet on track as often as other teammates do.' Jennie Gow explained.

'I find it weird that a team with so much resources in the palm of their hands, finds a way to get in financial issues because according to them the FIA didn't announce the change to the roster that saw only one slide race added to the calendar instead of the eleven they promised earlier. On the other hand McLaren seem to be the only team who has struggles with that "sudden change." Will Buxton said.

'We really wanted to keep the racing varied so the design of your car would matter more. What we saw in the one slide race we did though is that the points system for such a weekend is very chaotic and teammates come against each other a lot which lowers the chance for a team to score high with both their drivers. The system wasn't fair at all so it was removed from the calendar.' Mohammed, FIA president said.

'In my eyes the removal of those slide races where justified, that whole event was confusing, I hope it never returns.' Christian Horner said.

'Was that because both your drivers were eliminated first round?' The interviewer asked.

Christian smiled. 'Did Frederic ask you to roast me like that.' He said

'Yeah, it was bad for everyone. It gave good opportunities for some drivers who normally didn't have such a good chance like Yuki Tsunoda for example. But even winning the event it wouldn't give you 25 points, no it was only worth eight points. Not worth it for teams who wanna dominate championships.' Fred Vasseur said.

'It is not an excuse from us to say that it's the FIA's fault, we should've build better cars. I just think that it has out Lando on the back foot because he simply has a car that can't finish higher then fifteenth place.' Zak Brown said.

'Another problem for Zak is that he can't give their drivers new cars until the summer break. This because the FIA has prohibited to do it at any other time and around midseason is when a lot of good new cars come in stock that McLaren can build from.' Jennie Gow explained.

'It's only thanks to Oscar who has performed many miracles with his car throughout the first half of the season that we are still somewhat competitive, but we do lack behind massively.' Zak concluded. 'We need to hang on until the summer break. from there I think we can at least make an improvement.'

'I'm happy that I've been able to pull together these results, but I do have bigger fish to catch.' Oscar Piastri said.

'Do you think you can do that with McLaren?' The interviewer said.

Oscar smiled very obviously at that question. 'That is up to them.' He said.

Up next in drive to survive

'MAX VERSTAPPEN finishes second in the first race, that will set himself up well for the season ahead. Sergio finished behind him in third place.'

They poop their pants more over the new challenge then they even think about how to actually get their drivers to fight for the championship.' Fred Vasseur said.

'Red-Bull really need to put their head in the game or other teams might start hunting them down.' Will Buxton said

'The season is long, I believe I can catch up.' Sergio Perez said with confidence.

'Alex Albon, ANOTHER podium for him.'

'Even more title contenders are entering the scene, this is really starting to become a guess who game.' Will Buxton said excitedly.