I think Perez was serving a penalty ahead of the next race.
Sargeant is like...he has a resume but it didn't scream "prospect". Believe this was more of a financial recovery move after the incentives of keeping GOATifi went away. Pair this with Albon being the clear priority - Sargeant had to use the old parts at Singapore as a test comparison to Albon - I can't say there was ever a real bar to measure him against, sorry to say.
Oscar and Lando...I think both were a little excited with starting to have good races as a team. In all fairness, Oscar has had to shove his way into a good situation. Alpine to McLaren, and such.
Merc to me seems like a case of the team being unable to have a solid plan because there's never a guarantee that Lewis is going to continue with every forthcoming season at this point. They had to pick up a talent before that supply went dry, and I imagine Russell had some fair expectations. It doesn't help that he's been able to outpace Lewis in some runs.
Sad to see Aston go flat. Was kinda rooting for Stroll to break out of the Daddy's Money mold, and he honestly puts in the work. Whether or not his talent is legitimate, that team just needs more than that to continue having a worthwhile place in F1. It's not really fair to benchmark him against Fernangodo Alonso, but that team needs a likewise talent to continue progressing.
Ferrari drivers seem like they'll take anything to have a non-garbage race and build team points.
Alpine and Ocon don't rub off in a good way, stemming from last year. This weekend had some layers to it, like the speculation Gasly technically wasn't faster than Ocon on equal conditions. I could see how that could go hand-in-hand with the plan....if they actually communicated it to him, let alone not on the last lap. The conditions were underhanded regardless. And the way they let that pan out just looked stupid.
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