Formula Lego: Season 06
Out of all the seasons thus far, Season 6 of the EotLP GP was by far the most controversial. Kira Sanchez once again showed incredible skill, winning 5 of 6 races. However, during Race 3, she crashed out when she hit a large chunk of debris that fell off of Debra Edgar’s car the lap before. Sanchez' Crash ended her 11 race Win Streak, and took Josep Vikalkin, Jacob Norris, and Avayah Osborne out with her as they all skidded across the track. Lily Gasly went on to win her first Grand Prix, and many unfamiliar names were seen in the top ten. However, that 75-point deficit cost Sanchez the title; Evangeline Sayll, who raced from Season 1 - 4 with Octan, moved to National in Season 5, and managed to scrape the title out, only 5 points ahead of Sanchez.
Osborne still won the Constructor's Title, in a dominating fashion.
Team Rosters
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Josep Vikalkin | 5 Seasons Osborne |
| 54 | 21 | Terence Ricciardo | 1 Season Osborne |
| 3 | 3 | Jacob Norris | 5 Seasons Osborne |
| 46 | 17 | Kira Sanchez | 2 Season Osborne, S4 & S5 Champion |
| 26 | 18 | Logan Latifi | 2 Seasons Osborne, 3 Seasons Octan |
| 47 | 19 | Sean Vettel | 2 Seasons Osborne |
| 7 | 7 | Avayah Osborne | 5 Seasons Osborne |
| 29 | 16 | Ava Raikkonen | 3 Season Osborne, 2 Seasons Octan |
| 9 | 9 | Nocah Tsunoda | 5 Seasons Osborne |
| 10 | 20 | Hannah Stroll | 4 Seasons Osborne |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | Vance Lewison | 5 Seasons National, S2 Champion |
| 33 | 16 | Denise Perez | 2 Season National, 1 Season Osborne |
| 55 | 26 | Carl Shwartzman | 1 Season National |
| 59 | 31 | Sara Caldwell | Rookie |
| 2 | 32 | Kyle Giovinazzi | 2 Season Octan, 1 Season National, 2 Seasons Osborne |
| 27 | 27 | Eva Sayll | 1 Season National, 4 Seasons Octan |
| 60 | 33 | Fernando Doohan | Rookie |
| 61 | 34 | Evelyn Novalak | Rookie |
| 62 | 35 | Russel Perez | Rookie |
| 58 | 30 | Ella Fader | 1 Season National |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 1 | Salem Hoods | 5 Seasons Octan, S1 Champion |
| 22 | 2 | Mikael Cagne | 5 Seasons Octan, S3 Champion |
| 23 | 14 | Lily Gasly | 4 Seasons Octan, 1 Season Osborne |
| 63 | 18 | Benjamin Urgan | Rookie |
| 64 | 19 | Julia Young | Rookie |
| 35 | 15 | Pierre Zendeli | 2 Season Octan, 2 Seasons National |
| 58 | 17 | Lily Octan | 1 Season Octan |
| 65 | 20 | Thomas Hauger | Rookie |
| 45 | 13 | Debra Edgar | 3 Season Octan |
| 30 | 10 | Jeremy Cohen | 5 Seasons Octan |
Season Progression
Eva Sayll's Tight Title Victory caused a lot of uproar both within the EotLP GP, and with their fans, as everyone-including Sayll-agreed that Sanchez was a better driver. Many people demanded that the governing EotLP GP Commission make a change to the way points were awarded, since most people agreed that coming 1st in 5 of the 6 races should be enough to show that you are the best driver, and therefore should win the title. The governing body decided against changing the scoring system, however, they did issue a statement-in conjunction with both Sayll and the National Team-that said they apologized to Sanchez for her misfortune, but justified their point scale, since Sanchez’ crash put her in 27th place, it was clear that her average finishing position throughout the season was lower than Sayll’s average position by 2 places ( 5 1/3 as compared to 3 1/3). Sanchez accepted that she had lost her third title, telling Michael Osborne in a leaked text conversation that
[Osborne] shouldn’t fight their result.
I already have 2 trophies, and Eva won this one exactly how she’s supposed to: by scoring more points than me.
Things could have gone differently.
But i did hit that piece of carbon fiber on the track. thats my own fault.
i made a mistake, and thats got to be ok with [Osborne] if you want me to race for [Osborne]
Sayll, on the other hand, also continually reminded the press that really she had-in a way-exploited a loophole in the rules, saying in an interview that
“Sanchez is a much better driver than me. No doubt about that. In three seasons of racing she’s won 14 races. That’s more than every other title holder combined over six seasons. She’s amassed 1100 points over her career so far, already 8th place out of every driver ever. She’s incredibly talented; far more than I ever could be. I think she’s more deserving of this title than I am, but we’ve met up with each other, and discussed it, and we’ve both concluded that we respect the rules, and she’s said on numerous occasions that she’s not going to challenge these results. Personally, my respect for her grows at that. If I were in her situation-the best driver of all time, who missed a single race, and some random girl who’s never won a race before comes up and beats me for the title-personally, I don't think I’d be able to show the grace that she has shown me.”
Both drivers were shown immense respect for their actions, and their grace towards one another.
Interestingly, the season results did change the way that some things were structured within both the National and Osborne Teams; by the time the last race rolled around, Sanchez was sitting at 300 points, and Sayll at 320. In order to win the title, she had to win at least 25 more points than Sayll, which is equivalent to coming at least 4 positions better than her opponent. She qualified with pole position, and with the superior Osborne vehicle, she stayed ahead by quite a lot throughout the race. By the 32nd lap, Sayll and Vance Lewison, who were both National Drivers, were fighting ferociously for second place, which cost them both nearly five seconds on their lap time, and by lap 40, world title holder Mikael Cagne managed to sneak around the inside of both of them, and secure himself in second place. National Team boss Jenny Spalding began to get nervous at this point, as Sayll had just dropped 2 positions, and she needed those positions badly; if she dropped one more position, Sanchez would win the title. It seemed inevitable that Sanchez was barely going to win as Josep Vikalkin quickly gained on Sayll. However, Avayah Osborne, shooting up from 12th to 6th over 24 laps, believed she had the momentum to get past Sayll and put her teammate Sanchez in possession of another title. Unfortunately, Vikalkin had other ideas, believing that Osborne’s aggressive strategy wouldn’t work, and communicating as much to his race engineer, he began to defend against her attempts to pass him for several laps, and both lost almost 2 seconds on Sayll. By lap 48, ¾ of the way through the race, Cagne was +15.987 on Sanchez, followed by a +20.611 Lewison, +20.704 Sayll, + 25.203 Vikalkin, and +25.567 Osborne. Eventually, Michael Osborne called for his daughter to stop attempting to pass Vikalkin and let him chase down Sayll, but by then, it was too late. He narrowed the gap between him and Sayll to under half a second by the 62nd lap, but it was too late. Sayll finished Race 6 in 4th, putting her 5 points ahead of Kira Sanchez, and securing her title. Vikalkin later expressed regret over not being able to shave off those last few fractions of a second that his team needed for Sanchez to win, and Avayah Osborne also expressed that she wished that she’d had better communication with the race strategists, since she believed that Vikalkin would’ve caught up to and passed Sayll if he hadn’t been defending against Osborne. Vance Lewison also expressed that he wished that he had let Sayll past him, and put herself one step away from opponent teams. Both teams began to implement new systems of communication to try and prevent a repeat of the same situation. Both Michael Osborne and Jenny Spalding said at points all throughout the race, they were entirely sure that the other was going to win, then sure their own driver was going to win, flip-flopping such throughout the whole race.
The other major thing that happened during season 6 came during race 5. National Driver Denise Perez was in-between Vance Lewison in 12th, and Avayah Osborne in 11th. During the 60th lap of the race, she attempted to pass Osborne on the outside of the 20th turn, putting her two left wheels up onto the curb violently as she shot down the second straight. But, as soon as she hit the curb, her wheels jumped slightly, causing her car to begin to turn slightly inwards, towards Osborne’s car. She compensated for this shift quickly, spinning the steering wheel back left, quite a bit, feeling the under-performance of her steering wheel. However, her speed greatly reduced as her car bounced, and she turned all over, which caused her left wheel to fall back to the ground, giving her more turning power. Before she could react, she shot through the barriers at more than 275 km/h, plummeting into the waters of the Cagne Island Bay. By the time that Emergency Personnel managed to get to the relatively shallow wreck, Denise Perez was dead. The race wasn’t called off until after the safety car had been out for two laps, and emergency personnel reached Perez’ corpse. With just two laps to go until the end of the race, the team officers unanimously agreed to stop the race, and award points for current standings.
These events, too, caused many fixes to be made to both the cars and the track. Although the track wasn’t moved from being right next to the water, the barriers were reinforced, and another layer of barriers were added behind that. Each car also became required to carry at least half an hour of oxygen with a mask easily accessible for drivers to use in the event of a crash into the water. Finally, the seatbelts were made spec parts, which the EotLPGP commission designed to protect against all kinds of stress, but still allow drivers to easily detach themselves from their car in the event of an accident. The 6th and final race of the season (described above) was delayed by three days to allow for time for the memorial service for Perez, which was unanimously supported by the teams.
Technical Details
During season 6, development of the aerodynamics of the cars was focused on by all the teams after the freeze on chassis and aerodynamic packages during season 5. However, this didn’t stop any of the teams from making significant upgrades to their gearboxes and regenerative electric systems. For this Season, Osborne Racing ran on the Osb25L Chassis, and the OsbA2P Power Unit. Octan ran on the OE28C16 Chassis and the UX8 Engine. National was supported by the OE28C16D Chassis and the UX8C Power Unit.