Okay, after winning the drivers championship in 2025, I was excited to go back to back, but I had to be reasonable. I was unfortunately just lucky to win. It probably wouldn't happen again, but I was of course going to try.
I don't know why we had a rough car, but Nick was 10th in pre-season testing and Stef was 19th. Apparently the engine wasn't delivering full power for her.
At Black Sea, Nick qualified 8th and Stef 10th. This was a good start, as I feared the worst when I read those pre-season results. Nick squeezed a result out of the car, and Stef bombed with her shocking tyre wear. The 2025 and 2026 seasons made it clear to me that she was going to get replaced with Nassor if she didn't improve somehow. Nick was 9th and Stef 18th.The lowest target I had for teams results was 4th, and that made it a very concerning time.
At Munich, Stef qualified 17th and Nick 14th. It was an intermediate race, and we simply lacked race pace. Nick finished 9th, and Stef 13th.
At Milan, we got lucky with a half wet qualifying session. Nick was 2nd and Stef 7th. It was a half wet race, and Nick crashed out on lap 6. I did my best and got Stef to finish 9th.
At Tondela, Nick qualified 15th and Stef 19th. It was a shocking race. So bad that I only have a handful of screenshots. My rule about screenshots is that I only make them when my team or drivers are mentioned, and in this one I didn't bother to screenshot the results. Maybe there were mixed conditions or tyre failures, but Stef finished 16th and Nick 18th. The team chairman's happiness was now at 10%, compared to 32% after the previous race. I was so sure that I was going to lose my job and have to find another team.
We went to Ardennes, where Nick qualified 5th in the dry. Stef started from 19th. By some GOD DAMNED MIRACLE, Nick won the race!!! 🏆 I have no idea how it happened, but he did it! Stef finished 16th of course... I was so relieved by Nick's win, and how the chairman's happiness was back out of the danger zone, at 32%.
We went back to Munich, and in a half wet qualifying session Nick was 7th and Stef 10th. Then in a dry-wet-dry race, Nick wins again!!! 🏆 You've always got to back yourself in strategy and go with what you know, but we went from heaven to hell and back again in the space of 8 months. Champions to losers to geniuses!!! The team shot from last in the teams championship to 4th in 2 races!!! Nick went from 9th to 3rd in the drivers championship, Stef's 7th place helping the team heaps even though she was now 19th in the championship.
Stef rewarded our hard work with qualifying 4th at Vancouver. Nick was 17th. Stef's pace was insane and she scored her first podium in ages with 2nd place! 🏆 Nick crashed out on lap 5!
At Tondela 2, Stef led Nick in qualifying and they started 6th and 9th respectively. Then Stef pulled another one out of the hat and finished 3rd, 🏆 with Nick 10th! I must have stuffed up Nick's strategy because he wasn't doing that badly. I just pitted him 4 laps from the end, so maybe that did it. It's crazy how we went from nowhere to podiums every race!!!
At Black Sea 2, Nick qualified 11th and Stef 13th. Our advantage had disappeared. Our race pace was gone too. Nick finished 14th and Stef 18th.
Pheonix happened. Nick started 10th and Stef 13th. Somehow our race pace there wasn't bad. Nick finished 7th and Stef 12th. We focused on the medium tyres to aim for long race runs.
At Doha, Nick started 9th and Stef 19th, and they finished 8th and 13th respectively. The team was now 7th in the standings.
Cape Town was us qualify well in another intermediate session. Nick was 5th and Stef 9th. Nick held position throughout the dry race, while Stef dropped out of the sky like a ton of bricks and finished 16th. Her tyre wear continued to be her biggest downfall, and it could end up being the thing that loses me my job.
So I dropped her to reserve driver and she hated me for it. Nassor was now in her seat, his incredible stats now hopefully going to push the team up to a good position. I ran he and Stef in Sydney practice for the boosts that her stats gave to car setups. Nick qualified 7th in the dry session, and Nassor was unfortunately 12th. They both ended up holding position, Nassor disappointing me a lot with those results. I thought that he was going to mix it with Nick, but apparently not. I even had to switch Nassor to softs from super softs to try and keep him in the hunt.
At Beijing, some clever strategy in another intermediate qualifying session put Nick in Pole Position, with Nassor 4th. I thought for sure Nassor would be mixing with Nick during the race. It was an intermediate race, and maybe there was a bad pit stop or I made a bad pit stop call for Nassor, but when Nick won the race Nassor finished 7th. 🏆 I couldn't believe it. It wasn't the first time that a reserve driver had disappointed me, but this one had won a race from Pole in his last race for my team.
At the final race in Dubai, Nick qualified 10th and Nassor a shocking 19th in dry conditions. Nick ran a strong race and finished 5th, with Nassor 14th. It could be that his Adaptability of 3 was the big issue, but isn't jumping into a car you aren't 100% confident in the ultimate adaptability challenge? He won a one-off race! It's beyond me.
So Nick finished the championship in 3rd, Stef in 14th, and Nassor way down in last place. The team finished in 5th place. Not terrible, but we were supposed to get 4th, so I was worried that it was over for me.
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