Formula Lego: Season 14: Difference between revisions
BKWikiSysop (talk | contribs) |
JabicAdmin (talk | contribs) |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 460: | Line 460: | ||
|1 | |1 | ||
|Julia Young | |Julia Young | ||
|Team Rookie, 8 Seasons Octan | |Team Rookie, 8 Seasons Octan, Season 10 Champion | ||
|YOU | |YOU | ||
|- | |- | ||
| Line 466: | Line 466: | ||
|2 | |2 | ||
|Eva Sayll | |Eva Sayll | ||
|Team Rookie, 4 Seasons Octan, 9 Seasons National | |Team Rookie, 4 Seasons Octan, 9 Seasons National, Season 6 Champion | ||
|SAY | |SAY | ||
|- | |- | ||
| Line 552: | Line 552: | ||
== Technical Regulation Changes == | == Technical Regulation Changes == | ||
Mostly as a response to workarounds of the [[EotLP GP Commission]]'s Ban on over-wheel mounted Aero Devices, the [[WFL Commission]] (also known simply as the [[WFLC]], or [[FLC]]), forbade Aero Devices from being attached to the wheels, or in front of the wheels if they affected airflow over the wheels and wheel-wells by more than a certain threshold of performance. This was a response to [[Windsor FL|Windsor]] & [[Dragon FL|Dragon]]'s ingenious aero devices that they used to increase grip and decrease degradation over the wheels. In addition, any Aero devices that might impair the drivers view were banned, as a response to the [[Erit FL|Erit]] Safety System's unnecessarily large, and hugely visibility-limiting cockpit-debris protectors. All Aero infractions were also redefined to constitute potential disqualification, rather than a fine - as Erit and [[Osborne GC FL|Osborne]] had blatantly violated aero rules for several seasons now, and had merely been fined, despite the problems their Aero may have caused for their own drivers and others. Sidepods were also re-defined to have a maximum distance from the steering-wheel mounting point of 3 studs to the front. This was a | Mostly as a response to workarounds of the [[EotLP GP Commission]]'s Ban on over-wheel mounted Aero Devices, the [[WFL Commission]] (also known simply as the [[WFLC]], or [[FLC]]), forbade Aero Devices from being attached to the wheels, or in front of the wheels if they affected airflow over the wheels and wheel-wells by more than a certain threshold of performance. This was a response to [[Windsor FL|Windsor]] & [[Dragon FL|Dragon]]'s ingenious aero devices that they used to increase grip and decrease degradation over the wheels. In addition, any Aero devices that might impair the drivers view were banned, as a response to the [[Erit FL|Erit]] Safety System's unnecessarily large, and hugely visibility-limiting cockpit-debris protectors. All Aero infractions were also redefined to constitute potential disqualification, rather than a fine - as Erit and [[Osborne GC FL|Osborne]] had blatantly violated aero rules for several seasons now, and had merely been fined, despite the problems their Aero may have caused for their own drivers and others. Sidepods were also re-defined to have a maximum distance from the steering-wheel mounting point of 3 studs to the front. This was a pre-emptive measure taken to make sure that teams would not try to use sidepod extensions to achieve what had been banned with over-wheel aero changes. | ||
Overhead and Rear Facing Cameras were standardised, and Required from Season 14 Onwards. | Overhead and Rear Facing Cameras were standardised, and Required from Season 14 Onwards. | ||
| Line 669: | Line 669: | ||
==== Race ==== | ==== Race ==== | ||
From the get-go, all eyes were on Osborne and Cyne. Although there was some variation expected in strategy across the grid, both of Fire's front-running drivers were put onto #3s, meaning that they would have to pit around the same time, which would inevitably add tension into a situation that didn't need any added. The two traded Lap Times nearly identical throughout their first stint, staying locked to each other, trading the lead twice in the first 12 laps. Finally, Camilla Cyne, who was running in P1 on Lap 12, was called in, and received a brand new set of #1s. Osborne stopped on the next lap, and was fitted with a new set of #4s, and began to lag slightly behind her teammate's faster tires. Adrienne De Leon, who had started the race on #4s, passed Both Fires during their pitstops, and thanks to a quick pitstop by the Angel pit crew on Lap 15, held 2nd from Osborne when she switched to #2s on Lap 15. On Lap 18, Qauntos' Muqyabzal Svetak, Flames' Arid Mahles and Clarke's Pas Mali came together at Corner 3, with the Quantos and Clarke crushing the Flame from either side as all three drivers attempted to go ahead through the corner. With huge amounts of Debris scattered through the corner and the wreck of Mahles' Flame just off the edge of the track, a red flag was thrown immediately, sending all cars back to the pitlane. Quantos & Clarke's engineers managed to get the cars of theirs that had suffered damage road-worthy again during the 30 minute pause in the race. Meanwhile, on the Fire | From the get-go, all eyes were on Osborne and Cyne. Although there was some variation expected in strategy across the grid, both of Fire's front-running drivers were put onto #3s, meaning that they would have to pit around the same time, which would inevitably add tension into a situation that didn't need any added. The two traded Lap Times nearly identical throughout their first stint, staying locked to each other, trading the lead twice in the first 12 laps. Finally, Camilla Cyne, who was running in P1 on Lap 12, was called in, and received a brand new set of #1s. Osborne stopped on the next lap, and was fitted with a new set of #4s, and began to lag slightly behind her teammate's faster tires. Adrienne De Leon, who had started the race on #4s, passed Both Fires during their pitstops, and thanks to a quick pitstop by the Angel pit crew on Lap 15, held 2nd from Osborne when she switched to #2s on Lap 15. On Lap 18, Qauntos' Muqyabzal Svetak, Flames' Arid Mahles and Clarke's Pas Mali came together at Corner 3, with the Quantos and Clarke crushing the Flame from either side as all three drivers attempted to go ahead through the corner. With huge amounts of Debris scattered through the corner and the wreck of Mahles' Flame just off the edge of the track, a red flag was thrown immediately, sending all cars back to the pitlane. Quantos & Clarke's engineers managed to get the cars of theirs that had suffered damage road-worthy again during the 30 minute pause in the race. Meanwhile, on the Fire Pit wall, Cyne and Osborne were debating with the team Strategists over the best path forwards. Osborne, whose tires had an estimated 10 laps left in them, felt as though she could continue without taking a [[Red Flag Pit Stop Time Penalties|Red Flag Pit Stop Time Penalty]]. Cyne's tires, on the other hand, were only estimated to last another few laps. With not much hope of gaining a pitstop's worth of time in 2 laps, she elected to take the 5-second penalty, and switch to #5s. Osborne and Cyne also both agreed to support each until the next pit stop, to prevent De Leon from gaining an advantage over them. The Race restarted led by Cyne on a brand new set of the Hard #5s, followed by De Leon partly used #2s, and Osborne with even older #4s. De Leon and Osborne were running on Inverse Strategies, and were set to pit around the same lap, so between the two of them, any position gained or held over each other was for true position. Osborne wasted no time in taking the fight to Angel's newest driver, forcing her to drive defensively from the first corner of Lap 19. Josep Vikalkin, running in P4 at this stage of the race, was busy defending from Aurora Kryze and Zarya Ilic and so couldn't put pressure onto the two drivers battling for 2nd. Cyne attempted to use their battle to build herself a gap to make up the 5 seconds she lost during the pitstop, but her slower #5s kept her from being able to realise that potential, and couldn't break fully free from Osborne and De Leon's battle behind. De Leon pitted first, on Lap 27, taking on #5s, and was followed just 2 laps later by Osborne, who bolted on new #4s. De Leon's out lap had been slow, impeded by traffic further back where she emerged in P7, leaving Osborne's in-lap just an amazing second faster, allowing Osborne to slot into P5, a position farther ahead of De Leon, allowing her to extend her lead slightly over De Leon, and begin chasing down Zarya Ilic ahead of her. Ilic's Slower Car and Older Tires were no match for Osborne, who quickly began re-approaching the front of the field, where Vikalkin had finally broken free of Ilic and Kryze, who had been chasing him on faster tires all since the red flag. Despite having taken one less pitstop than Cyne, she remained ahead of him due to the sheer speed difference the top three had held before the red flag, and the battles he himself had been embroiled in before the same red flag. Osborne Passed Zarya Ilic on Lap 31, moving to P4, the same lap that De Leon passed Deitsch for P6. De Leon moved to P5 the next lap, arriving back behind Osborne, although significantly further behind her than Osborne had been before the Pit Stops. On Lap 35, Cyne Pitted for #5s, intended to carry her to the end of the race, and served her Red Flag Penalty at the pitstop, promoting Vikalkin to the lead of the race. Osborne also passed Aurora Kryze this lap, moving to P3, then to P2 when Cyne pitted. Vikalkin pitted the following lap, promoting Osborne to the lead, and De Leon back into the podium positions. On Lap 38, De Leon finally passed Kryze, moving herself to P2. Both Vikalkin and Cyne began to claw their way back towards the front, however their hard #5s made that task difficult in the waning stages of the race. Both Osborne and De Leon pitted for #1s on Lap 44, dropping the two to P5 and 6 respectively. However they both immediately began to make up time, Osborne passing Aurora Kryze with ease, who then also let her Angel teammate past with no resistance. Their pit strategy, banking heavily on an uninterrupted final few laps of the race to make up good places with fast tires, had led to Zarya Ilic inheriting the lead at the same track she had first won at in Season 10. With a several second gap between Ilic and Camilla Cyne behind her, Ilic was well poised for a win, but her tires didn't have the life left in them to make it to the end of the race, leading to her pitting on Lap 48, handing the lead back to Cyne. However Vikalkin, with ageing #5s, found himself in the jaws of Osborne, who he let pass on Lap 47 with little trouble, not long before he was also passed by De Leon the following Lap. On Lap 49, Avayah Osborne, in incredible form, passed Cyne for the lead of the race. Cyne lost P3 to De Leon on the penultimate Lap of the race, where she remained until the end of the race. Avayah Osborne claimed her first victory of Season 14 decisively, with significantly better tyre strategy than Camilla Cyne, the two of whom were expected to be title rivals throughout the season. Pundits debated over whether Osborne simply had a better tyre strategy than Cyne, or whether her drive was genuinely better than Cyne's. | ||
Thanks to her double-poles, Camilla Cyne left Rennia still on top of the standings, with 150 points. However, Avayah Osborne lurked just 5 points her. Vikalkin also maintained P3 in the title fight. De Leon jumped from 6th to 4th. | Thanks to her double-poles, Camilla Cyne left Rennia still on top of the standings, with 150 points. However, Avayah Osborne lurked just 5 points her. Vikalkin also maintained P3 in the title fight. De Leon jumped from 6th to 4th. | ||
| Line 717: | Line 717: | ||
==== Post-Race Media ==== | ==== Post-Race Media ==== | ||
[[Anna Aster]], [[Julia Young]], & [[Eva Sayll]] discussed in the media their experiences being former Title Champions now driving for backfield teams, as many in the media had speculated that they were struggling due to skill deficit. Anna Aster discussed how she felt that she was doing better than she had the previous year, citing her beliefs that the ASG was significantly less competitive than the [[National Chasses|S13 National]], and compared to her teammates she was performing extraordinarily, and said that she felt like her Season 9 Title & Season 10 Title fight proved at least to herself that she was competitive and capable as a driver. She noted that she felt being teammates with Aleks Rosya had overshadowed that as he was in a different category entirely once he joined National. Aster also jokingly said that she was sure the Season 10 Title battle had been much more interesting because Rosya hadn't been racing a top car during that Season. She also discussed her thoughts on the effects of [[Kira Sanchez]]' death in [[Formula Lego: Season 09|Season 9]] on her own title, echoing what she had said about Rosya. Aster said that<blockquote>"I don't think I unjustly won my Title at all. The S9 National was undeniably the best vehicle on the grid that year, and Kira [Sanchez] had pushed the Osborne beyond what it was capable of to keep me, [[Vance Lewison|Vance [Lewison]]], and [[Lily Gasly|Lily [Gasly]]] on our toes. But even before the crash, I was leading after Race 3 and 4, and Vance had her tied at Race 2. If that crash hadn't happened I don't know that I would've still been on the podium, but I do know she wouldn't have been able to pull the heroics she did in Race 1 and 5. [[Josep Vikalkin|Joe [Vikalkin]]] won that last race, which she probably would've if she had been there, but I was completely off that day; my emotions were a mess after everything that happened during the race that put me in the lead to win the championship. Who's to say that If I hadn't been emotionally distraught I wouldn't have done better? Kira was the best that ever was, but we know she wasn't unbeatable. In the same way, Aleks [Rosya] is the only other racer to win a second title, but He's, what 11th this year? So far? Just because he's probably the best driver on the grid right now doesn't guarantee anything if he's not driving the dominant car. In the same way that Aleks was 200 points over his Quantos teammates in Season 10, Kira was only ever beat within her team by Joe, who's another one of the best."</blockquote>Sayll agreed with the assessment that her S13 performance had been sub-par, a point she felt was important to look at in the context of racing against a generational talent like Aleks Rosya. She also highlighted that although she still considered herself a high calibre driver, she would be remiss to believe she was still the same driver she was in Season 6 when she won her title. She highlighted the fact that she considered herself to be just as hungry for victory as she once was, but felt that the younger competition put her at a disadvantage in that field. She commented that she was aiming to score more with | [[Anna Aster]], [[Julia Young]], & [[Eva Sayll]] discussed in the media their experiences being former Title Champions now driving for backfield teams, as many in the media had speculated that they were struggling due to skill deficit. Anna Aster discussed how she felt that she was doing better than she had the previous year, citing her beliefs that the ASG was significantly less competitive than the [[National Chasses|S13 National]], and compared to her teammates she was performing extraordinarily, and said that she felt like her Season 9 Title & Season 10 Title fight proved at least to herself that she was competitive and capable as a driver. She noted that she felt being teammates with Aleks Rosya had overshadowed that as he was in a different category entirely once he joined National. Aster also jokingly said that she was sure the Season 10 Title battle had been much more interesting because Rosya hadn't been racing a top car during that Season. She also discussed her thoughts on the effects of [[Kira Sanchez]]' death in [[Formula Lego: Season 09|Season 9]] on her own title, echoing what she had said about Rosya. Aster said that<blockquote>"I don't think I unjustly won my Title at all. The S9 National was undeniably the best vehicle on the grid that year, and Kira [Sanchez] had pushed the Osborne beyond what it was capable of to keep me, [[Vance Lewison|Vance [Lewison]]], and [[Lily Gasly|Lily [Gasly]]] on our toes. But even before the crash, I was leading after Race 3 and 4, and Vance had her tied at Race 2. If that crash hadn't happened I don't know that I would've still been on the podium, but I do know she wouldn't have been able to pull the heroics she did in Race 1 and 5. [[Josep Vikalkin|Joe [Vikalkin]]] won that last race, which she probably would've if she had been there, but I was completely off that day; my emotions were a mess after everything that happened during the race that put me in the lead to win the championship. Who's to say that If I hadn't been emotionally distraught I wouldn't have done better? Kira was the best that ever was, but we know she wasn't unbeatable. In the same way, Aleks [Rosya] is the only other racer to win a second title, but He's, what 11th this year? So far? Just because he's probably the best driver on the grid right now doesn't guarantee anything if he's not driving the dominant car. In the same way that Aleks was 200 points over his Quantos teammates in Season 10, Kira was only ever beat within her team by Joe, who's another one of the best."</blockquote>Sayll agreed with the assessment that her S13 performance had been sub-par, a point she felt was important to look at in the context of racing against a generational talent like Aleks Rosya. She also highlighted that although she still considered herself a high calibre driver, she would be remiss to believe she was still the same driver she was in Season 6 when she won her title. She highlighted the fact that she considered herself to be just as hungry for victory as she once was, but felt that the younger competition put her at a disadvantage in that field. She commented that she was aiming to score more with Mostafa during Season 14 than the 35 points she had during Season 13 with National, and felt she was doing decently well compared to that goal. | ||
Julia Young echoed a lot of what had been said by the two others, commenting that she felt [[Adrienne De Leon]] was a driver of the same calibre as Aleks Rosya and Kira Sanchez, but in her four seasons of FL had so far failed to be in a team properly placed to take advantage of that. She also echoed what Sayll had said about Season 13 being particularly challenging, a fact that she blamed in part on the newer design of car, which she felt she had learned a lot slower than the S9-12 cars. She questioned if she could beat the 45 points she had scored at Octan the previous year, but jokingly mentioned she was willing to accept Sayll's challenge to do so. On the topic of her Mostafa Teammate [Sayll], she said she felt that Sayll had an advantage in the current gen of cars, which [Young] believed to be harder to overtake in, considering Sayll's incredible qualifying record (at this point 13 pole positions, the most of any driver). | Julia Young echoed a lot of what had been said by the two others, commenting that she felt [[Adrienne De Leon]] was a driver of the same calibre as Aleks Rosya and Kira Sanchez, but in her four seasons of FL had so far failed to be in a team properly placed to take advantage of that. She also echoed what Sayll had said about Season 13 being particularly challenging, a fact that she blamed in part on the newer design of car, which she felt she had learned a lot slower than the S9-12 cars. She questioned if she could beat the 45 points she had scored at Octan the previous year, but jokingly mentioned she was willing to accept Sayll's challenge to do so. On the topic of her Mostafa Teammate [Sayll], she said she felt that Sayll had an advantage in the current gen of cars, which [Young] believed to be harder to overtake in, considering Sayll's incredible qualifying record (at this point 13 pole positions, the most of any driver). | ||
| Line 742: | Line 742: | ||
==== Race ==== | ==== Race ==== | ||
Starting from P3, Josep Vikalkin suffered from cold tires, causing him to drop back through the field over the opening laps, finally settling around P6, trading the position back and forth with Dragon's Sarah Martins throughout the first stint. As both moved to pit on Lap 23, they collided, blocking the pitlane, and forcing a Red Flag. This handed an obvious advantage to Cyne & Osborne, | Starting from P3, Josep Vikalkin suffered from cold tires, causing him to drop back through the field over the opening laps, finally settling around P6, trading the position back and forth with Dragon's Sarah Martins throughout the first stint. As both moved to pit on Lap 23, they collided, blocking the pitlane, and forcing a Red Flag. This handed an obvious advantage to Cyne & Osborne, neither of whom had pitted yet by that point. Polesitter Adrienne De Leon, on the other hand, had just pitted moments before the accident, and lost several positions due to it. Cyne would go on to win the race over Osborne, followed closely by Dragon's Zarya Ilic, while Flame's Sofia Deitsch would surprise the grid by improving on her P6 starting position to finish just off the podium in P4. | ||
The trio of Cyne-Osborne-Ilic had finished in the same order at Fortrionale the previous year, making S1407 the first [[Duplicate Podiums|Duplicate Podium]] at a track besides Cagne. Cyne's victory ahead of Osborne brought her within 5 points of the Title Leader. Although Vikalkin went Pointless across the weekend, he maintained P3 in the Title Standings over Dragon's Zarya Ilic. Perko's DNF in PQ (-1 points), and Ilic's P4 Qualifying (+1) points, saw their teams switch positions in the standings, with Octan dropping to P4 in the Constructor's Title. | The trio of Cyne-Osborne-Ilic had finished in the same order at Fortrionale the previous year, making S1407 the first [[Duplicate Podiums|Duplicate Podium]] at a track besides Cagne. Cyne's victory ahead of Osborne brought her within 5 points of the Title Leader. Although Vikalkin went Pointless across the weekend, he maintained P3 in the Title Standings over Dragon's Zarya Ilic. Perko's DNF in PQ (-1 points), and Ilic's P4 Qualifying (+1) points, saw their teams switch positions in the standings, with Octan dropping to P4 in the Constructor's Title. | ||
| Line 771: | Line 771: | ||
==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ||
[[Oscar Windsor]], owner of [[Windsor FL]], who had been unable to enter into Season 14 due to financial constraints, was in attendance at the Dryzakyl Race, and held a joint press conference with [[WFL Commission|WFL Commissioner]] [[Milla Sovoce]] & Aventador Bank CEO Parro Restead, announcing Windsor's return to Formula Lego for Season 15, thanks largely to a huge sponsorship deal with Aventador. In addition, he announced that Windsor would be exercising its option on Zarya Ilic (who was still technically signed to them on a 3+2, and was just "on loan" to Dragon), and bringing her back to the team she had seen such success with during [[Formula Lego: Season 13|Season 13]]. | [[Oscar Windsor]], owner of [[Windsor FL]], who had been unable to enter into Season 14 due to financial constraints, was in attendance at the Dryzakyl Race, and held a joint press conference with [[WFL Commission|WFL Commissioner]] [[Milla Sovoce]] & Aventador Bank CEO Parro Restead, announcing Windsor's return to Formula Lego for Season 15, thanks largely to a huge sponsorship deal with Aventador. In addition, he announced that Windsor would be exercising its option on Zarya Ilic (who was still technically signed to them on a 3+2, and was just "on loan" to Dragon), and bringing her back to the team she had seen such success with during [[Formula Lego: Season 13|Season 13]]. | ||
The announcement of Windsor's return raised many eyebrows in the paddock, as credible sources had begun to report that the WFLC had intended to prohibit new teams from joining the sport, and slowly move the total number of teams back to 10, to prevent them from having to do pre-qualifying, as drivers missing out on racing hurt broadcast ratings, and devalued team entries, considering the fact that many newer teams frequently failed to even qualify for races. By extension, the announcement of Windsor raised new options. Either this proposed ban would be starting later than expected, Windsor was exempted, current teams were planning on leaving the sport for Season 15 onwards, or some combination. Rumours began that any combination of Halbeck, Clarke, and Mostafa were considering leaving the sport entirely, and the driver market began to sit on edge: Several notable drivers remained out of contract for the upcoming season, including Anna Aster, Eva Sayll, Julia Young, Diana Perko, Ani Novak, as well as the impressive rookie Evacio Torra. Several other stars contract situations remained very murky, including both Camilla Cyne and Avayah Osborne, as well as their Flame sort-of-teammate Sofia Deitsch. Expectations amongst paddock insiders as well as journalists solidly agreed that following Race 9, the first dominos would fall, and the majority of the driver market would immediately follow, in what was expected to be a once-in-a-lifetime driver switch-a-roo and journalistic bonanza. | |||
=== Race 9 - Verskaell === | === Race 9 - Verskaell === | ||
==== Qualifying ==== | ==== Qualifying ==== | ||
Flame's Arid Mahles, Halbeck's Daniil West, Quantos' Muqyabzal Svetak, Clarke's Pas Mali and Visna Ederg, and Mostafa's Dino Pisto all failed to qualify for Race 9. | |||
Sofia Deitsch qualified in Q1 for the second time in S14, having previously qualified P6 in Fortrionale. She failed to set a Q1 time, crashing on her push lap before setting an official time. Avayah Osborne also crashed without an official time, having qualified into Q2. Fire Teammate Josep Vikalkin qualified on Pole, ahead of the Dragons of Zarya Ilic and Sarah Martins. Camilla Cyne qualified P4, followed by the final Dragon of Evabria Capio. | |||
Angel, which had always been faster at Verskaell compared to other races on the calendar due to the high altitude (every non-electric team suffered a power drop, while they suffered no performance drop) saw an uncharacteristic performance gap, with De Leon and Kryze qualifying in Q2 (P8 & 9, respectively), while Ella Fader qualified P17 in Q3. This continued the trend of them underperforming against expectations compared to their previous pace. | |||
==== Race ==== | ==== Race ==== | ||
Despite a strong Pole from Vikalkin, the concentrated and coordinated efforts of the two Dragons behind quickly put him on the back foot, and he was overtaken by both before the first pit window. Vikalkin was running a 2-4-2, and pitted from P2 on Lap 20, as Ilic pitted before him. Cyne, who started P4, did not make progress on the first stint, and struggled against Evabria Capio, who forced her to be defensive. Behind her, Avayah Osborne was making serious progress, having risen from P12 to P8 by Lap 18, when she pitted to replace her aged #1s with #5s. Cyne pitted on Lap 21, on the same 2-4-2 as Vikalkin. Zarya Ilic, who had started on #1s, on the same strategy as Osborne, pushed them slightly farther than her, and pitted on Lap 19. Her #5s worked well under the Dragon, and she made progress back towards the front. Ilic, Cyne, and Osborne converged on each other, reaching the front in that order on lap 48, Cyne, on #4s, made a move around Ilic at Corner 13 on Lap 49, and took the lead from Ilic. Cyne attempted to open the gap as much as possible in the next two laps, before pitting on Lap 51, followed the next lap by Ilic and Osborne. Cyne requested to switch to #1s, rather than #2s, but the team didn't have the time to switch the prepped tires, and she received #2s, while the other two, who pitted just a single lap later than her, received #1s. Although Cyne put in a hero's effort, Ilic caught her quickly, and passed her with little difficulty given the tire difference. Osborne faced more difficulty passing Cyne, as Cyne began to make increasingly daring moves to defend against her. Ilic began to build a safe gap to the feuding Fire pair, even as they in turn pulled away from Sarah Martins - running in P4. Osborne repeatedly instructed the team to tell Cyne to let her pass, as she felt she had better pace. Cyne, in turn, told the team to tell Osborne not to attempt to pass her. The team instructed both to "keep things clean, and focus on Ilic." However, both refused to listen to this instruction. On Lap 64/70, while Osborne was attempting to pass Cyne on the inside of the 7-8 Chicane, Cyne turned sharply in, and the two collided. Although both continued in the race, both lost pace, with Cyne's Left sidepod suffering damage, and Osborne losing the right end plate to her front wing. The team instructed Osborne to stop attempting to pass Cyne, and the two finished the race in the same order. | |||
With a commanding performance, as well as a well-executed race from the team, Zarya Ilic took home Dragon's first ever win, ahead of Camilla Cyne and Avayah Osborne, who all but refused to acknowledge each other on the podium. Sofia Deitsch also produced an excellent performance in the Fire, finishing P6. The Angels, which had been expected to perform exceptionally well at Verskaell, finished P7, P9, and P20. | |||
Finishing ahead of Osborne, Cyne extended her Driver's Title lead to 15 points, sitting pretty on 625 points. Ilic passed Vikalkin for P3 in the standings, with 525 to Vikalkin's 510. | |||
Fire's 2-3-5 finish gave them a weekend total of 13 points, bringing them to 123 points. Angel's disappointing Weekend saw them take home only 4 net points, coming to 63 total. Dragon closed the gap to second-placed Angel massively, scoring 13 points across the weekend, the same as Fire, to bring their total to 58, now just 5 points behind Angel. Octan scored 0 net points across the weekend, remaining P4 overall, with 32 points. Deitsch's excellent finish, only slightly lessened by Arid Mahles' failure to qualify, saw Flame net 3 net points, bringing them to 22 total. Spalding had a solid weekend, filling the gaps where once only Octan and Angel could've finished, and taking home 3 points over the Verskaell Weekend, coming to 13 total. A P12-P13 combo from Aster and Bosko brought ASG to 11 points overall. Although Ani Novak finished P11, Veliki Osoba's P27 finish left ACAE with no points across the weekend, leaving them with 8 overall. Mostafa dropped 2 points across the weekend, totalling -10 across the season. Quantos lost just a single net point, coming to -11. Halbeck lost 2, coming to -17, and Clarke lost all three possible points, coming to -22. | |||
==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ||
The First Domino in the chain fell after Race 9, with Dragon announcing the renewal of Sarah Martins' Contract, and Ani Novak as their replacement for Zarya Ilic for S15 onwards. | |||
ACAE followed up by announcing that Season 9 Champion Anna Aster would be taking Novak's place at the team. | |||
ASG filled the hole created by Aster with an announcement just hours later, replacing her with Season 10 Champion Julia Young. | |||
Following Young's departure from Mostafa, Windsor announced their hiring of S6 Champion Eva Sayll, Mostafa's other star driver. | |||
Following the very public battle between Osborne and Cyne on the racetrack, team insiders leaked to the press that the reason neither driver had been resigned was that both refused to sign unless the other would not be at the team the next season, and the Team management was torn between which driver would produce a better result. Camilla Cyne had been the lead driver since the team's inception, but she had been beaten over a season by Josep Vikalkin several times, and there had been virtually no difference between the two the previous season. In addition, Osborne's relationship with Vikalkin, who had already been re-signed earlier in the season, was to be considered in the discussions. | |||
Angel Manager Mara Powers reiterated the criticisms she had for her team at the previous race, saying that they weren't acting as though they wanted to be the second best team in Formula Lego. She reminded everyone that Verskaell was somewhere that they had been able to win absurd victories in previous seasons, and there was no pace reason they shouldn't have been able to do the same in Season 14. | |||
=== Race 10 - Jutvyrda === | === Race 10 - Jutvyrda === | ||
| Line 787: | Line 812: | ||
==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ||
With three races left to go, Fire finally announced a contract extension for Avayah Osborne, one of their title protagonists. Within minutes, Camilla Cyne announced that she would be departing the team, and signing with Windsor for Season 15. | |||
Fire responded to the Driver's Title Leader leaving their team by promoting Sofia Deitsch, who had just come off of an excellent weekend, qualifying on pole and finishing P3, from Flame, their Junior Team, for the following season. | |||
Flame Manager Iris Wilkins announced the hiring of Evabria Capio from Dragon to fill the new hole in their roster. | |||
Dragon responded to this by announcing the signing of a Flame Driver, Ilyn Laham, for Season 15. | |||
=== Race 11 - Karebyr === | === Race 11 - Karebyr === | ||
| Line 795: | Line 827: | ||
==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ||
Following the Conclusion of the Race | Following the Conclusion of the Race, Octan and Diana Perko announced the unsurprising, but well overdue, contract extension for Diana Perko. She would be resigned on a three-year contract. | ||
=== Race 12 - Tavergrad === | === Race 12 - Tavergrad === | ||
| Line 804: | Line 836: | ||
==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ==== Team and Driver Announcements ==== | ||
Angel Manager Mara Powers held a press conference following the conclusion of Race 12, confirming that Ella Fader would not be returning to Angel for Season 15, and her seat would instead be filled by Evacio Torra, moving from ACAE. | |||
ACAE confirmed Torra's departure, and announced her replacement in Quantos' Romil Brojar. | |||
=== Race 13 - Cagne Island === | === Race 13 - Cagne Island === | ||
| Line 832: | Line 867: | ||
Halbeck had none of their three drivers - [[Sarah Aither]], [[Daniil West]], and [[Zimas Vilkas]] - under contract for Season 15. | Halbeck had none of their three drivers - [[Sarah Aither]], [[Daniil West]], and [[Zimas Vilkas]] - under contract for Season 15. | ||
Dragon started the year off with no drivers set in stone for Season 15, as both [[Sarah Martins]] and [[Adrjana Gutnik]] joined the team in S12 on 1 year contracts, with an option to extend for 1 additional year, an option the team took for Season 14. However, this did leave both open for Season 15. [[Zarya Ilic]] joined | Dragon started the year off with no drivers set in stone for Season 15, as both [[Sarah Martins]] and [[Adrjana Gutnik]] joined the team in S12 on 1 year contracts, with an option to extend for 1 additional year, an option the team took for Season 14. However, this did leave both open for Season 15. [[Zarya Ilic]] joined on loan from Windsor, who she was technically contracted to through the end of Season 15, event though they didn't have an entry during the present season. | ||
Spalding had all three drivers confirmed for Season 15 before the start of Season 14, with [[Aleks Rosya]], [[Diego Gonzalez]] and [[Jakov Franjic]] on 2 +1 deals, the only difference being Rosya's +1 option being held by him, while the others' were held by the team. | Spalding had all three drivers confirmed for Season 15 before the start of Season 14, with [[Aleks Rosya]], [[Diego Gonzalez]] and [[Jakov Franjic]] on 2 +1 deals, the only difference being Rosya's +1 option being held by him, while the others' were held by the team. | ||
| Line 845: | Line 880: | ||
After an abysmal run of failing to exit Pre-Qualifying, [[Avans Drone]] was replaced at [[Mostafa FL|Mostafa]] by [[Dino Pisto]] following Race 5, in Krajinograd. Both were as-of-yet unproven young drivers. To conclude Drone's contract, he was moved to Mostafa's [[Formula National]] entry, where Pisto had been racing, at the [[Kezmedza FN|Kezmedza]] team. This meant that Pisto would not complete the second 2/3 of his season in Formula National, as Drone would take his place on the grid from FN Race 3 onwards. Pisto was signed onto a contract that lasted only until the end of the season, and his appearance on the grid the following season was assumed to be very much a question of performance. | After an abysmal run of failing to exit Pre-Qualifying, [[Avans Drone]] was replaced at [[Mostafa FL|Mostafa]] by [[Dino Pisto]] following Race 5, in Krajinograd. Both were as-of-yet unproven young drivers. To conclude Drone's contract, he was moved to Mostafa's [[Formula National]] entry, where Pisto had been racing, at the [[Kezmedza FN|Kezmedza]] team. This meant that Pisto would not complete the second 2/3 of his season in Formula National, as Drone would take his place on the grid from FN Race 3 onwards. Pisto was signed onto a contract that lasted only until the end of the season, and his appearance on the grid the following season was assumed to be very much a question of performance. | ||
After [[Adrjana Gutnik]] crashed in Q5 at Race 7, having scored only 10 points the entire season so far, [[Dragon FL]] [[Team Manager (Formula Lego)|Team Manager]] [[Valerie Keplerus]], well known as being one of the masterminds behind [[Osborne GC FL|Osborne]]'s generational run of [[Constructors' Title|Constructors' Titles]] from [[Formula Lego: Season 04|Season 04]] to [[Formula Lego: Season 08|Season 08]] decided that Gutnik was not living up to her expectations. While Gutnik had scored only 10 points in the first 6 races of the season, [[Sarah Martins]], not generally considered to be a superstar, but a reliably decent driver, had already scored 185, and [[Zarya Ilic]] (who was | After [[Adrjana Gutnik]] crashed in Q5 at Race 7, having scored only 10 points the entire season so far, [[Dragon FL]] [[Team Manager (Formula Lego)|Team Manager]] [[Valerie Keplerus]], well known as being one of the masterminds behind [[Osborne GC FL|Osborne]]'s generational run of [[Constructors' Title|Constructors' Titles]] from [[Formula Lego: Season 04|Season 04]] to [[Formula Lego: Season 08|Season 08]] decided that Gutnik was not living up to her expectations. While Gutnik had scored only 10 points in the first 6 races of the season, [[Sarah Martins]], not generally considered to be a superstar, but a reliably decent driver, had already scored 185, and [[Zarya Ilic]] (who was definitely considered a star) had scored 320. While a large gap to Ilic was expected, and not a concern (although there were suggestions that Martins was not as competitive as the car was, and was under-scoring, even compared to Ilic), the gap of 175 points to Sarah Martins in 6 Races was considered unacceptable. With Gutnik also having failed to Qualify for Race 1, with no reasonable explanation (the highest visibility team to miss a race to date), her performance was considered unacceptable, and she was dropped before Race 7 started. [[Evabria Capio]], the Formula National points-leader at the half-way point in the FN Season, was promoted to fill Gutnik's position. The [[WFLC]], unsure how to handle switching drivers in a season with Pre-Qualifying, as there were no regulations for that (and very few regulations regarding promotion of drivers, considering that the practice had been banned until [[Formula Lego: Season 13|the previous season]]), made a ruling that they would let her promotion after qualifying stand, and she would start from the back of the Grid, provided that she could beat the time required to not be cut in Pre-Qualifying. To accommodate that, a special session (15 minutes long) was held, where Capio was given the opportunity to qualify for the race. She did so, making the cut-off with seeming ease, and her best time would have allowed her to go on to Q4, had she been in the regular qualifying session. She started the Race from the back of the grid, but in a legendary debut drive, recovered 17 positions to finish P13 at the flag, giving her 15 [[Driver's Title]] points, more than Gutnik had scored yet the entire season, immediately justifying Keplerus & Dragon's Decision. Similar to Pisto at Mostafa, Capio held a contract with Dragon only to the end of the season, although they did hold an option to extend her contract by 1 year or 2. | ||
Latest revision as of 20:34, 20 June 2025
The 14th Season of Formula Lego, Which ran for 14 weekends between the 33rd of Ibil and the 14th of Actaber, 257.
Driver Changes
Octan, having lost huge amounts of performance, and seeming somewhat unlikely to regain them in the near future, found two of their drivers not wishing to renew for Season 14, and so replaced Julia Young and Adrienne De Leon with Ariadne Stryke - a strong driver with a history at several large teams - and Anon Cino, who had been one of their Backup Driver for Season 13. For their backup drivers, they looked to the grid, where they contracted Milena Markovic (concurrently racing with ASG) and Visna Ederg (concurrently racing with Clarke, as well as being Angel's Alternate Driver). This shuffle led to Diana Perko being the most senior member of the team, a role she professed great excitement to be moving into
Fire kept the same line-up of main drivers - Camilla Cyne, Avayah Osborne, and Josep Vikalkin - but with the introduction of their new Junior Team, Flame, their reserve lineup became the drivers of Flame - First Sofia Deitsch, then Ilyn Laham.
Quantos kept Muqyabzal Svetak and Kaz Gacesa for their second and third seasons, respectively, but promoted Romil Brojar (The 254 Cklserolvan Jr. Karting Series & 255 Cklserolvan Sr. Karting Series Champion) to their final seat. His sister, Zora Brojar, the reigning Cklserolvan Sr. Karting Champion, and a previous Cklserolvan Jr. Karting Series Champion, was promoted to their first reserve, and Dani Pacot, the reigning Cklserolvan Jr. Karting Series Champion, was listed as their second Reserve Driver.
Angel's Lineup stayed mostly unchanged, with Aurora Kryze and Ella Fader continuing their tenure at the Electric Team. Adrienne De Leon moved from Octan to take Angel's third seat for Season 14. Evacio Torra, who had been their second Alternate Driver for Season 13, became their first Alternate Driver, and Visna Ederg - A rookie at Clarke - became their second Alternate Driver.
ASG (formerly known as Erit) had a completely new lineup from the previous season, with Season 9 Champion Anna Aster joining them, alongside Konstantin Bosko and Milena Markovic. For the second season in a row, their Substitute Drivers mirrored Quantos' - whose power trains they used. They, too, went into S14 with Zora Brojar and Dani Pacot as their Substitute Drivers.
ACAE retained only Ani Novak from the previous season, with Sofia Deitsch finding a Flame drive, and Aca Larsen not performing well enough to merit another year at the team. To fill the gaps, they hired their S13 Support Driver - Evacio Torra - who had proved a good driver when filling in for Ani Novak across three races the previous season. Veliki Osoba performed decently well at Quantos during Season 13, and was hired by ACAE on a one-year, renewable contract. With both of ACAE's Season 13 Support Drivers on the grid, they needed new Support Drivers. Dani Pacot, a Quantos Reserve Driver, and ASG Substitute Driver, found his role as an ACAE support Driver, alongside Arid Mahles, a Flame Driver, and Halbeck Stand-in Driver.
Halbeck, having dropped the "Tikam" portion of their name between seasons, also lost Konstantin Bosko to ASG, and replaced him with Zimas Vilkas, who had been racing with Erit for a season. He would race alongside the returning Sarah Aither and Daniil West. Arid Mahles returned as a Stand-in driver for a second season, while simultaneously performing duties as an ACAE Support Driver & Flame Racer. Skyler Lopez, a Flame Reserve, joined him on the Tikam-Halbeck Roster.
Dragon kept Adrjana Gutnik and Sarah Martins for a second season, but replaced Kravjs Mileny with Windsor star Zarya Ilic. They also kept their Injury Driver line-up the same, with Avans Drone - who had found a race-seat at Mostafa - and Dino Pisto. However, Drone was promoted to being the first backup, whereas Pisto had been their first backup for Season 13.
Spalding - the new identity and structure of the National Team, maintained only one driver from their previous guise - the 2-time Driver's Title Champion Aleks Rosya. Diego Gonzalez, who had been a reserve driver for National the previous season, wound up at the team, alongside Jakov Franjic, who had 3 seasons of experience with Angel, and a rookie season at Fire. Petar Fransjs, the reigning EotLP Jr. Karting Series Champion, was pulled up to be Spalding's primary Reserve Driver, in addition to Zora Brojar, who was Quantos' first reserve driver, and ASG's first Substitute Driver.
Flame, Fire's junior team, started their tenure in FL with a strong lineup of Sofia Deitsch, a proven young talent with history at Tikam and ACAE, alongside Ilyn Laham and Arid Mahles. For their "Partner Drivers," they hired Skyler Lopez and Nina Delic.
Mostafa, the third new team of Season 14, found a balance of experience and rookies, hiring Season 10 Driver's Title Champion Julia Young and Season 6 Champion Eva Sayll, the two of whom brought a strong amount of experience to the team, and paired them with Avans Drone, the 256 EotLP Sr. Karting Series Champion. Mostafa's Development Driver Lineup consisted of Dino Pisto, and ASG driver Milena Markovic. Pisto and Drone later switched Roles
Clarke, the fourth and final new team of Season 14, found themselves with a very young driver lineup, consisting of Kravjs Mileny & Pas Mali, who each had one season of experience at Dragon and Erit, respectively. They topped this off with Visna Ederg, a complete rookie. Evacio Torra, an ACAE racer and Angel Alternate Driver, joined them as their primary Reserve, alongside Nina Delic, who also performed duties as a Flame Partner Driver.
Team Rosters
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97 | 28 | Diana Perko | 1 Season Quantos, 3 Seasons Octan | PER |
| 84 | 30 | Ariadne Stryke | Team Rookie, 3 Seasons Fire, 2 Seasons Windsor | STR |
| 119 | 31 | Anon Cino | Rookie | CIN |
| Backup Drivers | Notes | |||
| 110 | OB3 | Milena Markovic | Currently racing with ASG, Mostafa Development Driver | MAR |
| 124 | OB4 | Visna Ederg | Currently racing with Clarke, Angel's Alternate Driver | EDE |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 1 | Camilla Cyne | 1 Season Octan, 5 Seasons Fire, S13 Champion | CYN |
| 1 | 9 | Josep Vikalkin | 9 Seasons Osborne, 3 Seasons Fire, S7 Champion | VIK |
| 7 | 12 | Avayah Osborne | 12 Seasons Osborne, 1 Season Fire | OSB |
| Fire F1 Partner Drivers | Notes | |||
| 112 | FFP1 | Sofia Deitsch | Currently racing with Flame | DEI |
| 121 | FFP3 | Ilyn Laham | Currently racing with Flame | LAH |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 119 | 12 | Romil Brojar | Rookie | RBR |
| 114 | 11 | Muqyabzal Svetak | 1 Season Quantos | SVE |
| 111 | 9 | Kaz Gacesa | 2 Seasons Quantos | GAC |
| Reserve Drivers | Notes | |||
| - | R2 | Zora Brojar | Reigning Cklserolvan Sr. Karting Series Champion,
Currently ASG Substitute Driver, Spalding Reserve Driver |
ZBR |
| - | R3 | Dani Pacot | Reigning Cklserolvan Jr. Karting Series Champion
Currently ASG Substitute Driver, ACAE Support Driver |
PAC |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | 1 | Aurora Kryze | 2 Seasons Fire, 2 Seasons Angel | KRY |
| 58 | 7 | Ella Fader | Team Rookie, 3 Seasons National,
3 Seasons Octan, 2 Seasons Osborne, |
FAD |
| 106 | 8 | Adrienne De Leon | Team Rookie, 3 Seasons Octan | DEL |
| Alternate Drivers | Notes | |||
| 118 | AA2 | Evacio Torra | Currently racing for ACAE, Clarke Reserve Driver | TOR |
| 124 | AA3 | Visna Ederg | Currently Racing for Clarke, Octan Backup Driver | EDE |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 6 | Anna Aster | Team Rookie, 3 Seasons Octan, 7 Seasons National, S9 Champion | AST |
| 99 | 7 | Konstantin Bosko | Team Rookie, 2 Seasons Quantos, 1 Season Tikam, 1 Season Tikam-Halbeck | BOS |
| 110 | 8 | Milena Markovic | Team Rookie, 1 Season Quantos, 1 Season Windsor | MAR |
| Substitute Drivers | Notes | |||
| - | S2 | Zora Brojar | Reigning Cklserolvan Sr. Karting Series Champion,
Currently Quantos Reserve Driver, Spalding Reserve Driver |
ZBR |
| - | S3 | Dani Pacot | Reigning Cklserolvan Jr. Karting Series Champion
Currently Quantos Reserve Driver, ACAE Support Driver |
PAC |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 108 | 1 | Ani Novak | 1 Season Quantos, 2 Seasons ACAE | NOV |
| 118 | 5 | Evacio Torra | Rookie | TOR |
| 113 | 6 | Veliki Osoba | Team Rookie, 1 Season Quantos | OSO |
| Support Drivers | Notes | |||
| - | S3 | Dani Pacot | Reigning Cklserolvan Jr. Karting Series Champion
Currently Quantos Reserve Driver, ASG Substitute Driver |
PAC |
| 122 | S4 | Arid Mahles | Currently racing with Flame, Halbeck Stand-in Driver | MAH |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 4 | Sarah Aither | 1 Season Osborne, 1 Season Erit, 1 Season Tikam-Halbeck | AIT |
| 102 | 5 | Daniil West | 1 Season Osborne, 1 Season Tikam-Halbeck | WES |
| 116 | 6 | Zimas Vilkas | Team Rookie, 1 Season Erit | VIL |
| Stand-in Drivers | Notes | |||
| 122 | SID2 | Arid Mahles | Currently racing with Flame, ACAE Support Driver | MAH |
| - | SID3 | Skyler Lopez | Currently Flame F1 Partner Driver | LOP |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | 1 | Adrjana Gutnik | 3 Seasons Quantos, 1 Season Dragon Dropped After Qualifying 7 | GUT |
| 76 | 2 | Sarah Martins | 1 Season National, 4 Seasons Fire, 1 Season Dragon | MAT |
| 95 | 4 | Zarya Ilic | Team Rookie, 2 Seasons Quantos, 2 Seasons Windsor | ILI |
| 126 | 5 | Evabria Capio | Rookie Hired After Qualifying 7 | CAP |
| Injury Drivers | Notes | |||
| 123 | I2 | Avans Drone | Currently racing with Mostafa | DRO |
| - | I1 | Dino Pisto | Currently Mostafa Development Driver | PIS |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98 | 1 | Aleks Rosya | Team Rookie, 1 Season Quantos, 3 Seasons National, S11 & S12 Champion | ROS |
| 93 | 2 | Diego Gonzalez | Team Rookie, 2 Seasons Octan, 2 Seasons Erit | GON |
| 94 | 3 | Jakov Franjic | Team Rookie, 1 Season Fire, 3 Seasons Angel | FRA |
| Reserve Drivers | Notes | |||
| - | RD1 | Petar Fransjs | Reigning EotLP Jr. Karting Series Champion | FRN |
| - | RD2 | Zora Brojar | Currently Quantos Reserve Driver, ASG Substitute Driver | ZBR |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112 | 1 | Sofia Deitsch | Team Rookie, 1 Season Tikam, 1 Season ACAE | DEI |
| 121 | 2 | Ilyn Laham | Rookie | LAH |
| 122 | 3 | Arid Mahles | Rookie | MAH |
| Flame FL Partner Drivers | Notes | |||
| - | PD1 | Skyler Lopez | Currently Halbeck Stand-in Driver | LOP |
| - | PD2 | Nina Delic | Currently Clarke Reserve Driver | DEL |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 | 1 | Julia Young | Team Rookie, 8 Seasons Octan, Season 10 Champion | YOU |
| 27 | 2 | Eva Sayll | Team Rookie, 4 Seasons Octan, 9 Seasons National, Season 6 Champion | SAY |
| 123 | 3 | Avans Drone | Rookie Dropped After Race 5 | DRO |
| 125 | 4 | Dino Pisto | Rookie Promoted after Race 5 | PTO |
| Mostafa Development Drivers | Notes | |||
| -- | MDD1 | Dino Pisto | Currently Dragon Injury Driver Promoted after Race 5 | PTO |
| 110 | MDD2 | Milena Markovic | Currently racing with ASG, Octan Backup Driver | MAR |
| 123 | MDD3 | Avans Drone | Currently Dragon Injury Driver, Demoted after Race 5 | DRO |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience | Acronym |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 115 | 1 | Kravjs Mileny | Team Rookie, 1 Season Dragon | MIL |
| 117 | 2 | Pas Mali | Team Rookie, 1 Season Erit | MAL |
| 124 | 3 | Visna Ederg | Rookie | EDE |
| Reserve Drivers | Notes | |||
| - | CR1 | Evacio Torra | Currently racing with ACAE, Angel Alternate Driver | TOR |
| - | CR2 | Nina Delic | Currently Flame F1 Partner Driver | DEL |
Sporting Regulation Changes
Worried about potential conflicts of schedule, every driver was limited to performing a driver or support role for no more than three teams in a season from Season 14 onwards by the WFL Commission, meaning that no reserve driver could be contracted with more than three teams, and a full-time driver couldn't be contracted to more than two other teams as a reserve driver.
With 6 more drivers on the grid than the previous season, the Qualifying Format had to be re-formed, since the Sporting Regulations Prohibited more than 30 drivers starting a Race. In order to fulfil these options, a new "Pre-Qualifying" Session was run before Qualifying, with all drivers who did not score points in the previous race (21 of 36 drivers). The slowest 6 drivers would be eliminated, and would not take part in Qualifying. In addition, the team of those who didn't proceed to qualifying each received -1 Constructors Points. The final change to Qualifying was the addition of driver points for qualifying on Pole: the Driver who Qualified on Pole (not Started on Pole) would receive 5 Driver's Title points.
A change was also made to time penalties. To add more strategy around how teams responded to penalties, teams would now be allowed to serve time penalties during pit stops, allowing teams to leave the car untouched in its pitbox either before or after all other work was complete for the duration of a penalty they had previously been given. This affected Red Flag Penalties as well.
Technical Regulation Changes
Mostly as a response to workarounds of the EotLP GP Commission's Ban on over-wheel mounted Aero Devices, the WFL Commission (also known simply as the WFLC, or FLC), forbade Aero Devices from being attached to the wheels, or in front of the wheels if they affected airflow over the wheels and wheel-wells by more than a certain threshold of performance. This was a response to Windsor & Dragon's ingenious aero devices that they used to increase grip and decrease degradation over the wheels. In addition, any Aero devices that might impair the drivers view were banned, as a response to the Erit Safety System's unnecessarily large, and hugely visibility-limiting cockpit-debris protectors. All Aero infractions were also redefined to constitute potential disqualification, rather than a fine - as Erit and Osborne had blatantly violated aero rules for several seasons now, and had merely been fined, despite the problems their Aero may have caused for their own drivers and others. Sidepods were also re-defined to have a maximum distance from the steering-wheel mounting point of 3 studs to the front. This was a pre-emptive measure taken to make sure that teams would not try to use sidepod extensions to achieve what had been banned with over-wheel aero changes.
Overhead and Rear Facing Cameras were standardised, and Required from Season 14 Onwards.
Schedule
One Race was added to the Season 14 Calendar - the 0.96 Kilometre Tavergrad National Speedway, in Kurazistan. This track was neither interesting nor innovative, as it was a pure, short, Oval. However, it was a notable diplomatic move, and one of the last moves thus influenced by the Rennian Government, before their release of FL to the WFLC for Season 14 and Beyond. The other tracks that had been run in Season 13 all ran again for Season 14.
| Race | Location | Race Date | Winner | # Held at Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cagne | 33-35 Ibil, 256 | Camilla Cyne | 64 |
| 2 | Rennia | Avayah Osborne | 6 | |
| 3 | Monta Roblov | Josep Vikalkin | 5 | |
| 4 | Mezhdograd | Avayah Osborne | 4 | |
| 5 | Krajinograd | Avayah Osborne | 4 | |
| 6 | Makendonkovo | Adrienne De Leon | 3 | |
| 7 | Fortrionale | Camilla Cyne | 5 | |
| 8 | Dryzakyl | Camilla Cyne | 4 | |
| 9 | Verskaell | Zarya Ilic | 5 | |
| 10 | Jutvyrda | Camilla Cyne | 3 | |
| 11 | Karebyr | Avayah Osborne | 5 | |
| 12 | Tavergrad | 4 - 6 Actaber, 257 | Avayah Osborne | 1 |
| 13 | Cagne | 12-14 Actaber, 257 | Avayah Osborne | 65 |
Season Progression
Race 1 - Cagne Island
Qualifying
Every Driver competed in the Pre-Qualifying for Race 1. Halbeck's Zimas Vilkas suffered an engine failure on his first lap, and therefore failed to set any time. His teammate Daniil West didn't manage to qualify either. Alongside them, new team Clarke driver Pas Mali, rookie team Mostafa's Rookie Driver Avans Drone, and Quantos' Muqyabzal Svetak all also failed to qualify. In an unexpected turn of events, Dragon driver Adrjana Gutnik also failed to qualify.
Reigning Driver's Title Champion Camilla Cyne took pole position at her first title-defending race, ahead of Angel's Aurora Kryze. Both other Fire Drivers made it through to Q1, with Season 13 Title Protagonist Avayah Osborne qualifying P3, and Season 7 Driver's Title Champion Josep Vikalkin qualifying P4. Angel's newest signing, Adrienne De Leon, qualified P5, and the lead Octan of Diana Perko rounded out Q1, taking P6.
Race
Cyne dictated the race well, and kept her lead throughout the whole race, except during the pit window, to finish the race a comfortable 3 seconds clear of 2nd place. Aurora Kryze's Angel was no match for the Fires behind her, and within the first 20 laps, both Avayah Osborne and Josep Vikalkin had passed her, and they continued on to bring Fire a 1-2-3. However, the Angel team still produced an incredible result, with Kryze finishing P4, Adrienne De Leon P6 in her debut with the team, and Ella Fader finished P9. Octan, while demonstrating decent pace - Diana Perko finished P7, and Rookie Anon Cino finished P13, but Ariadne Stryke suffered a massive Engine Blowout, and escaped her vehicle after it lit on fire. This understandably scared Octan technicians and engineers, as they had not expected reliability concerns across Season 14. The two Dragon drivers that qualified for the race, Zarya Ilic and Sarah Martins, both scored well, finishing P5 and P11. Fire's new team, Flame, finished very well, with Sofia Deitsch finishing P8, Ilyn Laham finishing P14, and Arid Mahles finishing P16.
Fire's triple Q1 showing in addition to their 1-2-3 saw them leave Cagne Island with Maximum points - 16. Angel finished the weekend out in second place, with 10 points. Although Octan scored a point from Diana Perko's Qualifying Performance, they only scored marginally better at the actual race, finishing out the weekend with 3 points. Flame also capitalised on everything they could, finishing out the weekend with 3 points as well. Dragon started out the weekend by having a driver fail to qualify for the race, losing them a point, but a good drive from their other two drivers saw them bounce back, and tie Octan and Flame with 3 net points by the end of the weekend. Spalding scored 2 points in the race, to end the first race weekend in 6th. ASG proved how far they had come in just one off-season as compared to their previous guise as Erit, by finishing the weekend with a net 1 point, in 7th. ACAE scored a net 0 points across the weekend, with Evacio Torra's P12 finish countering out Ani Novak's DNF. Mostafa's Avans Drone failing to qualify saw them end the weekend with -1 net points. Quantos and Halbeck both finished the weekend with -2 points. Rounding out the standings, new team Clarke finished with the minimum points possible at a race weekend: -3.
Race 2 - Rennia
Qualifying
The 15 Drivers who scored points in Race 1 were exempt from Pre-Qualifying in Rennia, leaving a much smaller, more competitive group competing for the ability to drive in the upcoming Race.
Avans Drone and Daniil West both failed to qualify for the race for the second time in a row. They were joined by Clarke's Visna Ederg, Quantos' Kaz Gacesa, and the ASGs of Konstantin Bosko and Milena Markovic. Markovic failed to set a pre-qualifying time after a brake issue was detected by her team in the minutes leading up to Pre Qualifying. Bosko was on track to complete a lap fast enough to exit Pre-Qualifying, but carried too much speed into Corner 12, and found his ASG sliding across Corner 12, where the high-deg high-grip pavement on the 11 - 12 straight faded into the smoother rest of the circuit. He struck the barriers travelling nearly parallel to them. His car suffered no real damage, but he damaged his lap time enough to fail to make it through
Zarya Ilic qualified well, putting her Dragon in P3, behind the Dynamic Fire duo of Avayah Osborne and Camilla Cyne, who took her second consecutive pole, in search of her second Driver's Title. Adrienne De Leon, in only her second race with Angel, out-qualified both of her teammates, taking P4 on the Grid, while Aurora Kryze qualified P6, and Ella Fader P9. Josep Vikalkin, in the Final Fire, split the top two Angels, taking P5. Sofia Deitsch qualified in Q2 for the second time, taking P7. Anna Aster, the only ASG remaining after Milena Markovic's Brake Issue and Konstantin Bosko's Pre-Qualifying Mistake, managed to Qualify in Q2 as well, placing herself in the P12 Grid Slot.
Race
From the get-go, all eyes were on Osborne and Cyne. Although there was some variation expected in strategy across the grid, both of Fire's front-running drivers were put onto #3s, meaning that they would have to pit around the same time, which would inevitably add tension into a situation that didn't need any added. The two traded Lap Times nearly identical throughout their first stint, staying locked to each other, trading the lead twice in the first 12 laps. Finally, Camilla Cyne, who was running in P1 on Lap 12, was called in, and received a brand new set of #1s. Osborne stopped on the next lap, and was fitted with a new set of #4s, and began to lag slightly behind her teammate's faster tires. Adrienne De Leon, who had started the race on #4s, passed Both Fires during their pitstops, and thanks to a quick pitstop by the Angel pit crew on Lap 15, held 2nd from Osborne when she switched to #2s on Lap 15. On Lap 18, Qauntos' Muqyabzal Svetak, Flames' Arid Mahles and Clarke's Pas Mali came together at Corner 3, with the Quantos and Clarke crushing the Flame from either side as all three drivers attempted to go ahead through the corner. With huge amounts of Debris scattered through the corner and the wreck of Mahles' Flame just off the edge of the track, a red flag was thrown immediately, sending all cars back to the pitlane. Quantos & Clarke's engineers managed to get the cars of theirs that had suffered damage road-worthy again during the 30 minute pause in the race. Meanwhile, on the Fire Pit wall, Cyne and Osborne were debating with the team Strategists over the best path forwards. Osborne, whose tires had an estimated 10 laps left in them, felt as though she could continue without taking a Red Flag Pit Stop Time Penalty. Cyne's tires, on the other hand, were only estimated to last another few laps. With not much hope of gaining a pitstop's worth of time in 2 laps, she elected to take the 5-second penalty, and switch to #5s. Osborne and Cyne also both agreed to support each until the next pit stop, to prevent De Leon from gaining an advantage over them. The Race restarted led by Cyne on a brand new set of the Hard #5s, followed by De Leon partly used #2s, and Osborne with even older #4s. De Leon and Osborne were running on Inverse Strategies, and were set to pit around the same lap, so between the two of them, any position gained or held over each other was for true position. Osborne wasted no time in taking the fight to Angel's newest driver, forcing her to drive defensively from the first corner of Lap 19. Josep Vikalkin, running in P4 at this stage of the race, was busy defending from Aurora Kryze and Zarya Ilic and so couldn't put pressure onto the two drivers battling for 2nd. Cyne attempted to use their battle to build herself a gap to make up the 5 seconds she lost during the pitstop, but her slower #5s kept her from being able to realise that potential, and couldn't break fully free from Osborne and De Leon's battle behind. De Leon pitted first, on Lap 27, taking on #5s, and was followed just 2 laps later by Osborne, who bolted on new #4s. De Leon's out lap had been slow, impeded by traffic further back where she emerged in P7, leaving Osborne's in-lap just an amazing second faster, allowing Osborne to slot into P5, a position farther ahead of De Leon, allowing her to extend her lead slightly over De Leon, and begin chasing down Zarya Ilic ahead of her. Ilic's Slower Car and Older Tires were no match for Osborne, who quickly began re-approaching the front of the field, where Vikalkin had finally broken free of Ilic and Kryze, who had been chasing him on faster tires all since the red flag. Despite having taken one less pitstop than Cyne, she remained ahead of him due to the sheer speed difference the top three had held before the red flag, and the battles he himself had been embroiled in before the same red flag. Osborne Passed Zarya Ilic on Lap 31, moving to P4, the same lap that De Leon passed Deitsch for P6. De Leon moved to P5 the next lap, arriving back behind Osborne, although significantly further behind her than Osborne had been before the Pit Stops. On Lap 35, Cyne Pitted for #5s, intended to carry her to the end of the race, and served her Red Flag Penalty at the pitstop, promoting Vikalkin to the lead of the race. Osborne also passed Aurora Kryze this lap, moving to P3, then to P2 when Cyne pitted. Vikalkin pitted the following lap, promoting Osborne to the lead, and De Leon back into the podium positions. On Lap 38, De Leon finally passed Kryze, moving herself to P2. Both Vikalkin and Cyne began to claw their way back towards the front, however their hard #5s made that task difficult in the waning stages of the race. Both Osborne and De Leon pitted for #1s on Lap 44, dropping the two to P5 and 6 respectively. However they both immediately began to make up time, Osborne passing Aurora Kryze with ease, who then also let her Angel teammate past with no resistance. Their pit strategy, banking heavily on an uninterrupted final few laps of the race to make up good places with fast tires, had led to Zarya Ilic inheriting the lead at the same track she had first won at in Season 10. With a several second gap between Ilic and Camilla Cyne behind her, Ilic was well poised for a win, but her tires didn't have the life left in them to make it to the end of the race, leading to her pitting on Lap 48, handing the lead back to Cyne. However Vikalkin, with ageing #5s, found himself in the jaws of Osborne, who he let pass on Lap 47 with little trouble, not long before he was also passed by De Leon the following Lap. On Lap 49, Avayah Osborne, in incredible form, passed Cyne for the lead of the race. Cyne lost P3 to De Leon on the penultimate Lap of the race, where she remained until the end of the race. Avayah Osborne claimed her first victory of Season 14 decisively, with significantly better tyre strategy than Camilla Cyne, the two of whom were expected to be title rivals throughout the season. Pundits debated over whether Osborne simply had a better tyre strategy than Cyne, or whether her drive was genuinely better than Cyne's.
Thanks to her double-poles, Camilla Cyne left Rennia still on top of the standings, with 150 points. However, Avayah Osborne lurked just 5 points her. Vikalkin also maintained P3 in the title fight. De Leon jumped from 6th to 4th.
Fire left Rennia having won 15 of the available 16 points, thus extending their lead significantly, now with a total of 31 points. Angel, with 2 Q1 appearances, a Podium, and P5, tallied a sum of 8 net points in Rennia, leaving them stable in P2 with 18 points. Octan left the race with 5 points, bringing their total to 8. Despite Mahles' DNF, Flame's Star, Sofia Deitsch scoring a P8 finish brought their total points to 4. Dragon grabbed 1 point in Qualifying and 5 in the race, taking them to 9 points, and P3 overall. Spalding scored no points, leaving their total at 2. Despite both Milena Markovic and Konstantin Bosko failing to make it out of Pre-Qualifying, a stellar drive from Anna Aster to P10 left the team with the same amount of points they had entered the weekend with - 1. A strong drive from Ani Novak to P15 brought ACAE their first point of the season. Despite Avans Drone not qualifying for the race, Evangeline Sayll's P13 finish helped Mostafa score a net 0 points across the season. Quantos' Kaz Gacesa failing to qualify left the team with a net -1 point across the Rennia Weekend, lowering their total to -3. Halbeck struggled through a weekend to forget, with Daniil West failing to qualify, and Zimas Vilkas finishing P26, bringing their total points down to -4. Clarke suffered another weekend of minimum points, with Visna Ederg failing to qualify, and Pas Mali and Kravjs Mileny finishing directly at the back of the field, taking their total to -6 points.
Race 3 - Monta Roblov
Qualifying
In a horrifically wet qualifying session, that saw nearly an inch of rain fall on the warm coastal city of Monta Roblov, the Clarkes of Visna Ederg and Kravjs Mileny failed to Qualify, alongside Mostafa's Avans Drone, who had not yet managed to qualify for a FL Race. ASG's Konstantin Bosko had a good early run, being safely out of danger of the PQ cut, but he lost control during his second flying lap of the session, and ended with the 18th fastest time in PQ, not nearly enough to see him progress. Quantos' Muqyabzal Svetak failed to qualify as well. Veliki Osoba suffered the same fate as Bosko, and also failed to set a second time, resulting in him not making it out of Pre-Qualifying either.
The rain continued to harass drivers throughout the session. Q5 saw Halbeck's Daniil West and Pas Mali DNF in the rain, as well as the Mostafas of Eva Sayll and Julia Young. However, both Young and Sayll had previously set times good enough to make it through to Q4, where they couldn't set a lap time. Spalding's Diego Gonzalez DNFed in Q4. Between Q4 and Q3, Race officials discussed whether the rest of Qualifying should be postponed or cancelled, due to the high rain. However, since no major damage had been done to any car, and not even a slight injury had been suffered by a driver, they decided to continue the session. Ariadne Stryke failed to set a time in Q3, after a electrical problem in her car was discovered between Q4 and 3, likely also caused by the excessive water. Ella Fader Spun out of Turn 12 on her flying lap attempt, and struck the barriers, bending her front suspension, thus being unable to continue on. Fire's Camilla Cyne also spun at the same location on her first flying lap, losing her rear left wheel, and being unable to progress to Q2. Sofia Deitsch and Romil Brojar also DNFed during Q3, but both had previously committed a flying lap, and thus progressed to Q2, where neither managed to set a time. Zarya Ilic, Josep Vikalkin, and Diana Perko all Crashed during Q3, however Perko's previous lap time was good enough to progress to Q1. The Octan engineers managed to quickly substitute a new Wheel mounting, allowing her to continue on in Q1, eventually qualifying P5. As the rain lightened up slightly during Q1, and the 6 drivers were more spread out, there were no incidents in Q1. Avayah Osborne, the only Fire left on track, qualified P3, behind the Angel duo of Aurora Kryze and Adrienne De Leon, who took her 3rd Pole at the track. The Angel team, who had expected to be less competitive due to the lower elevation, were pleasantly surprised by their front row qualifications. Sarah Aither qualified an impressive P9, the team's best qualifying result since their entry into the sport in S11.
Race
Josep Vikalkin, incredibly adept at the Monta Roblov Circuit, having previously won 2 of the 3 races he had participated in in Monta Roblov, started his race off incredibly, shooting forwards from where he started in P7, making it to P2 before the field (almost all of whom were on #1s to start the race) began pitting. Vikalkin went long on his first stint, going to Lap 17 before pitting for #2s. Vikalkin, having kept the lead he gained during the pitstops, then held onto it throughout the second stint, where he again went long, realising that there might be a chance of rain. While most of the grid pitted for newer tires around Lap 33, Vikalkin held off, putting far more laps on his #2s than they were rated for. It seemed as though once he (and the few others who had stayed out with him) pitted, they would have significant work to do if they wanted to regain their positions, as the tire wear was harsh around Monta Roblov. However, on Lap 37, rain began to fall, and Vikalkin, along with Diana Perko and Zarya Ilic - the only other drivers who had stayed out for long stints, all pitted for #W tires immediately, doubling down on their expectations that the rain would be heavy, as it had the day before. Most other drivers elected to wait a few laps to see if the rain did, indeed, get heavier, or just remain light, hoping to use this data to decide whether they should choose #D or #W tires. Unfortunately for them, the rain came hard and quick, and nearly instantly made it impossible to drive on slick tires. As the entire grid pitted for Wet tires, Vikalkin, Perko, and Ilic moved to the front of the field, with a healthy lead of nearly 3/4 a pitstop length. The race continued for the final 17 laps with nearly no changes, as the heavy rain made it difficult to drive, and even more difficult to race significantly. Thanks to the improved Wet tires, only Adrienne De Leon and Ani Novak suffered race-ending incidents, although Adrjana Gutnik and Pas Mali, both of whom had been running a decent race up to that point, both slid off the track and lost significant time returning to the track. The chequered flag fell, with the third Fire Driver winning in as many races, Octan's first podium of the season, and Dragon's first Podium Ever.
Vikalkin's strong performance, and his Teammates' sub-expected performances, brought him level with Cyne, tied for P2 overall, with 200 points. Avayah Osborne narrowly squeaked out P1 overall, now with 205 total points. Aurora Kryze and Zarya Ilic found themselves tied with 170 points in an equal P4. Diana Perko jumped to P5 with her exceptional P2 finish, and a new total of 150 points. De Leon's unfortunate crash left her P6 overall, with 125 points. Sofia Deitsch's continued exceptional performance, having finished in the top 10 at every race so far, saw her in P8 overall, with 110 points, 10x that of her nearest teammate, Ilyn Laham, with 10 points in P18 overall.
Despite seemingly being off their normal stride, Fire still left Monta Roblov with 12 points more than they came with; the most of any team. This left them where they had been, in P1 overall. Angel only scored a net 3 points during this race, partially because of their power-train's less competitive nature at Sea Level, and also De Leon's crash. However, they held onto P2 overall by a decent margin. Octan took P3 overall from Dragon, scoring 8 points across the weekend, bringing their total to 16. Flame scored a net 1 point for the second race in a row, leaving them at 5 overall, and tied for P5. Dragon scored 6 points overall, with Adrjana Gutnik finishing in P27, losing them a point. With a new total of 15, they dropped behind Octan, into P4. Spalding, with Aleks Rosya's strong performance (Qualifying P4 and finishing P8), scored a net 3 points, bringing them to a total of 5, and tying them with Flame for P5. Both ASG and ACAE scored an overall -1 point across the weekend, bringing them to a total of 0, and remaining tied for P7. Mostafa lost a point in Qualifying, bringing them to P9, with -2 points overall. Quantos scored a net 0 points across the weekend, retaining -3 points. Halbeck's Sarah Aither managing to hold onto P13 brought them up to -3 points, and tying them with Quantos for P10. Clarke once again scored the minimum possible, bringing their total to -9.
Race 4 - Mezhdograd
Qualifying
A massive crash at turn 6 between Veliki Osoba and Diego Gonzalez saw both drivers eliminated from Pre-Qualifying before either had set an official time, consequently eliminating them from competing in the following day's race. Kaz Gacesa (Quantos), Zimas Vilkas (Halbeck), Pas Mali (Clarke), and Avans Drone (Mostafa) all failed to qualify as well, making this the first race of the season where every driver who failed to qualify represented a different team. Drone, who had failed to qualify at every Race so far across the season, received some harsh words from Team Manager Nikola Veruci, who told a journalist that
"Avans is an extremely talented driver, but he's not competing on the level we know him capable of doing. We're seriously concerned about this run of form. He's nearly a third of the way through Season 14 and still hasn't taken a single race start. It's unacceptable for a driver of his calibre to do so, and we are expecting better in the coming races. If we don't see better very soon there might be some difficult decisions that we have to make.
Sofia Deitsch of Flame, who had previously not yet failed to qualify in Q2 this season, qualified a disappointing P21 in Mezhdograd. All three Fire's qualified in Q1 for the third time in the season, and Avayah Osborne took her first Pole of the season. Camilla Cyne, her undeniably closest rival qualified P4, right ahead of Josep Vikalkin.
Race
As a cause of the relatively slow, thin nature of the Mezhdograd circuit, Pole Position has been notably stronger than other tracks, with the pole-sitter winning the race at every instance of the race since it's debut in Season 11. Osborne saw no reason to change that streak, and drove a clean, simple race to victory. Unlike the previous year, the Fire pitwall chose the sensible tire option - a three stop - for all three of their drivers. On the relatively low overtake-able circuit, Camilla Cyne still managed to moved forwards to join her teammate on the podium, followed by the Angel of Aurora Kryze. Vikalkin just missed the podium for a second time in the same season, a hugely disappointing result for his S14 title hopes. Mostafa's Eva Sayll and Flame's Ilyn Laham both crashed throughout the race, bringing out the Safety Car for Sayll but no more than a Speed Reduction signalled after Laham's Crash.
Osborne stretched her lead slightly, taking home the weekend's max points, bringing her total to 285, now 15 points ahead of her nearest rival, her teammate Cyne, with 270. Cyne herself had a lead of 10 points to Vikalkin. Kryze found herself in a strong P4 overall after the race settled, with 235 points.
Fire continued with strength, scoring a total of 15 points in Mezhdograd, taking them to 58 total, and extending their lead to 27 points over Angel, who bounced back well from their lower-scoring Race 3 outing, with an 8-point Weekend, bringing their total to 31. Octan scoring 9 points made this their best weekend yet, and narrowed the gap slightly to Angel, and significantly widened their lead over 4th place Dragon, who scored just 4 points across the weekend, lower than any race except the season opener, where they scored just 3 net points. However, the gap between them and 5th place (now tied between Flame and Spalding) continued to grow drastically. Flame and Spalding both lost a point across the weekend, bringing their totals from 5 to 4 each. ASG saw a remarkable weekend, with two points-finishing drivers, and no failed qualifications, which rewarded them with their biggest points haul of the season, bringing their total from 0 to 2. Although they lost a point during qualifying for Osoba's crash, ACAE's Ani Novak finishing the race in P11 kept their overall total at 0. Mostafa fell 1 point to -3, Quantos fell 1 point to -4, and Halbeck fell 2 points to -5. Clarke - for the first time ever - did not take home the minimum number of points, instead only losing 2 points across the weekend, brining their total to -11.
Race 5 - Krajinograd
Qualifying
All 3 of Clarke's drivers failed to qualify during Pre-qualifying, a new all time low for the team. Two of Halbeck's drivers, Zimas Vilkas & Daniil West, failed to qualify, and Mostafa's Avans Drone missed qualifying for the 5th consecutive race. Aleks Rosya made up for lost time, Qualifying P7, and only barely missing out on Q1. Octan saw their form slip backwards slightly, Diana Perko, Anon Cino, and Ariadne Stryke qualifying P10, P16, and P18 respectively. Camilla Cyne took her third pole of the season, continuing to demonstrate her excellent qualifying pace. Zarya Ilic qualified P2, splitting the two title protagonists, with Avayah Osborne just behind her.
Race
Despite an early spin into the barriers from Quantos' Kaz Gacesa, all the front-runners stayed in their original order through most of the first stint, except Aurora Kryze, who's front left driveshaft gave way during lap 12, leading her to limp back to the pits where her car was retired by the team. Notably, everyone in the top 10 had started with #3s. However, on Lap 21, as the front-runners began to switch tires, several different factors began to come into play simultaneously; Zarya Ilic's Dragon responded poorly to the #5s she put on (hoping to complete a 1-stop race), and she was quickly passed by several others. Meanwhile, Aleks Rosya's Spalding began to shoot forwards on #1s, reaching P2 by Lap 35 when he pitted for another set. Josep Vikalkin, who took the same strategy as Rosya, also moved forward significantly, passing both his teammates and reaching P1 - ahead of Rosya - by Lap 32. Camilla Cyne, who took a risky bet on a second pair of #3s, didn't pit for those newer tires until Lap 24, significantly over the recommended lifespan of her first set of #3s. Avayah Osborne also stretched her #3s, not pitting until Lap 23, when she took on #4s, aiming to take the 23-lap rated #4s for 26 laps, a much less demanding goal than Cyne's. Vikalkin pitted from the lead on Lap 35 to take another set of #1s, promoting Rosya to P1, although he pitted the next lap. Both Rosya and Vikalkin would continue to make good progress through the field after their second pit, Vikalkin ending up behind P3 Adrienne De Leon on Lap 45, and Rosya behind P5 Zarya Ilic the same lap. De Leon, Cyne, and Osborne, all working on a 1-stop strategy, were getting closer and closer to those behind them that had taken a 2-stop strategy. Osborne, who's tires aged slightly slower than her teammates' closed the gap between them down to under a second by Lap 48, and began to pressure Cyne. Rosya passed Ilic to take P5 on Lap 45, and Vikalkin passed De Leon to take P3 on Lap 46, after which he clawed off nearly 2 seconds of the 2.7 between him and the lead pair. Osborne took several shots at passing Cyne across Laps 44-47, edging the nose of her car past her teammate several times, but being unable to hold the position from the Defending Driver's Title Champion. However, approaching the Tight corner after the straight on Lap 47, the relative age of their tires began to show, and Osborne slipped out to Cyne's right, and managed to get ahead by the first corner, denying Cyne the racing line and causing her to bounce across the curb, and nearly lose P2 to Josep Vikalkin as well. Suddenly distracted by now having a much faster Vikalkin behind her, Cyne fell away from Osborne, and managed only to finish P2, keeping Vikalkin at bay for the final Lap.
Cyne coming second to Osborne for a second race in a row caused quite a few raised eyebrows across the paddock, as she seemed to be losing the edge she had comparing to Osborne the previous season. Despite those concerns, she scored the same number of points across the weekend as Osborne, thanks to the 5 points from her pole. Vikalkin continued to somewhat trail behind the two leaders, with 325 points, making him 20 behind Cyne and 35 behind Osborne. Kryze's DNF dropped her from P4 overall to being tied for P5, With Zarya Ilic jumping the Angel with her strong P6 finish. Kryze's teammate, former championship contender Adrienne De Leon, also began to close in on Kryze's P5 overall. Diana Perko, Octan's lead driver so far through the season, also scored well enough to now be tied with Kryze.
Fire took home max points (16) from the weekend for the second time this season, extending their lead yet again. Kryze's DNF hurt Angel, who nevertheless managed to score a respectable 6 points through the weekend, lengthening their lead over Octan slightly, who themselves only scored 4 points in Krajinograd. A strong performance from Laham and Deitsch rewarded Flame with 3 points in Krajinograd, barely edging them ahead of Spalding for 5th overall, with 7 total points to Spalding's 6. Dragon scored well, matching Angel's 6 points, and closing Octan's P3 advantage to just 4 points. Spalding, although outscored by Flame, still scored a strong 2 points. ASG managed to score 1 point as well. ACAE scored a net 1 point, with Sofia Deitsch scoring in the points while Ani Novak lost one, thanks to a braking issue during the race that saw released back from the pitlane a lap down from the rest of the grid. Mostafa lost 1 point for Drone's failure to qualify, brining them to a total of -4 points. Quantos also lost 1 point during the race, leaving them with -5 overall. Both Halbeck and Clarke managed to score -3 points, bringing them to -8 and -14 respectively.
Driver Market
After the conclusion of the race weekend, Mostafa Manager, Nikola Veruci, announced that Avans Drone would be moving to a development role to improve his skills before being allowed to drive the FL Car again. He would be replaced by their as-of-yet unproven 18-yr-old Development Driver, the Mezhdomnovene Dino Pisto. Many people considered this to be extremely harsh on the Rookie Drone, who had almost no open-wheel driving experience larger than a Cart. However Veruci assured the press that they were not giving up on Drone, and would be registering him for the inaugural season of Formula National, and would use that as a gauge to see if he would re-join the team the following season.
Post-Race Media
Anna Aster, Julia Young, & Eva Sayll discussed in the media their experiences being former Title Champions now driving for backfield teams, as many in the media had speculated that they were struggling due to skill deficit. Anna Aster discussed how she felt that she was doing better than she had the previous year, citing her beliefs that the ASG was significantly less competitive than the S13 National, and compared to her teammates she was performing extraordinarily, and said that she felt like her Season 9 Title & Season 10 Title fight proved at least to herself that she was competitive and capable as a driver. She noted that she felt being teammates with Aleks Rosya had overshadowed that as he was in a different category entirely once he joined National. Aster also jokingly said that she was sure the Season 10 Title battle had been much more interesting because Rosya hadn't been racing a top car during that Season. She also discussed her thoughts on the effects of Kira Sanchez' death in Season 9 on her own title, echoing what she had said about Rosya. Aster said that
"I don't think I unjustly won my Title at all. The S9 National was undeniably the best vehicle on the grid that year, and Kira [Sanchez] had pushed the Osborne beyond what it was capable of to keep me, Vance [Lewison], and Lily [Gasly] on our toes. But even before the crash, I was leading after Race 3 and 4, and Vance had her tied at Race 2. If that crash hadn't happened I don't know that I would've still been on the podium, but I do know she wouldn't have been able to pull the heroics she did in Race 1 and 5. Joe [Vikalkin] won that last race, which she probably would've if she had been there, but I was completely off that day; my emotions were a mess after everything that happened during the race that put me in the lead to win the championship. Who's to say that If I hadn't been emotionally distraught I wouldn't have done better? Kira was the best that ever was, but we know she wasn't unbeatable. In the same way, Aleks [Rosya] is the only other racer to win a second title, but He's, what 11th this year? So far? Just because he's probably the best driver on the grid right now doesn't guarantee anything if he's not driving the dominant car. In the same way that Aleks was 200 points over his Quantos teammates in Season 10, Kira was only ever beat within her team by Joe, who's another one of the best."
Sayll agreed with the assessment that her S13 performance had been sub-par, a point she felt was important to look at in the context of racing against a generational talent like Aleks Rosya. She also highlighted that although she still considered herself a high calibre driver, she would be remiss to believe she was still the same driver she was in Season 6 when she won her title. She highlighted the fact that she considered herself to be just as hungry for victory as she once was, but felt that the younger competition put her at a disadvantage in that field. She commented that she was aiming to score more with Mostafa during Season 14 than the 35 points she had during Season 13 with National, and felt she was doing decently well compared to that goal.
Julia Young echoed a lot of what had been said by the two others, commenting that she felt Adrienne De Leon was a driver of the same calibre as Aleks Rosya and Kira Sanchez, but in her four seasons of FL had so far failed to be in a team properly placed to take advantage of that. She also echoed what Sayll had said about Season 13 being particularly challenging, a fact that she blamed in part on the newer design of car, which she felt she had learned a lot slower than the S9-12 cars. She questioned if she could beat the 45 points she had scored at Octan the previous year, but jokingly mentioned she was willing to accept Sayll's challenge to do so. On the topic of her Mostafa Teammate [Sayll], she said she felt that Sayll had an advantage in the current gen of cars, which [Young] believed to be harder to overtake in, considering Sayll's incredible qualifying record (at this point 13 pole positions, the most of any driver).
Race 6 - Makendonkovo
Qualifying
Angel and Fire locked out Q1, with De Leon finally taking Pole at the circuit she had won at twice, ahead of her teammate, Aurora Kryze in P2. Behind the Angelic duo was the lead pair of Fires, Josep Vikalkin and Camilla Cyne. Title leader Avayah Osborne qualified P6, behind Ella Fader, who had her best qualifying of the season. The Quantos' of Kaz Gacesa and Muqyabzal Svetak failed to qualify, along with the Clarkes of Visna Ederg and Kravjs Mileny, the Halbeck of Sarah Aither, and ACAE of Veliki Osoba. All three Flames qualified in Q3, alongside 2 Octans (Diana Perko and Ariadne Stryke) and Dragon's Adrjana Gutnik. The remaining 2 Dragons joined Octan's Anon Cino, Spalding's Aleks Rosya and the ACAEs of Evacio Torra & Ani Novak in reaching Q2.
Race
Vikalkin, having a very good record around the Krajyna Central Speedway, chose to start, as the lead Fire driver, on a fast set of #1s, while De Leon started from pole on a set of #4s, intending to pull off a riskier 1 stop, while still keeping her options open to a salvageable two-stop. Aurora Kryze, who even already seemed to struggle compared to the talent that was De Leon, started on #1s, hoping to gain an early edge on her teammate. From the start, Kryze took the lead from De Leon thanks to her much grippier tires, and was followed by Vikalkin, who also managed to get past De Leon in the initial laps. Cyne and Osborne found themselves in P4 and 5, but by then the edge on their #3s had worn off, and they lost the advantage compared to De Leon, allowing her to stay in position through the first stint. As Vikalkin and Kryze pitted - both donning #3s - De Leon shot to first, followed by Osborne and Cyne, who pitted as well not too long after. They both took on #1s. As Vikalkin and Kryze began to once again close down on De Leon for first, she finally pitted, taking on a set of #5s, aiming to finish the race on them. The four drivers behind her, having gone on opposite strategies (1-3 for Vikalkin and Kryze, 3-1 for Osborne and Cyne) were approaching the second pit window at the same time, and would likely all be finishing the race on #2s. All four drivers pitted on Lap 45
De Leon crossed the line first, bringing an end to Fire's 8-race win-streak, and taking her first victory as an Angel driver. Osborne maintained her lead in the Driver's Title Standings, finishing the weekend with 415 points to her teammate Cyne's 405. Vikalkin also closed down the gap to his teammates, remaining behind the two "goddesses of Racing" (as a commentator dubbed them), bringing his total points to 395. Zarya Ilic, the nearest competition to any of the Fire Drivers, was a full race win's worth of points behind Vikalkin, with 320 points. With Octan's abysmal performance, Diana Perko went from being tied for P5 after R5 to P7 after Race 6, and was now 65 points behind the P6-overall placed Aurora Kryze.
Angel, having won the race, and with their other two drivers finishing P3 and P8, took the most points home from the race weekend, with a total of 14 points, taking them to a total of 51 points. Fire did not lack behind far, though, still scoring 13 points across the race weekend, now 87 points. Octan, with just 1 points finished (Anon Cino in P7), took only 2 points across the weekend, remaining in P3 overall (with 31 points), but losing valuable ground to the overall P4 team, Dragon, who scored 5 points, and now had 30 points. Flame's double-points race gave them a stronger weekend than Octan, as they scored 3 points, brining their total to 10. The Fire Jr. team remained in P5 overall, but their closest rivals, Spalding, lost a point across the weekend, and finished the weekend with 5 overall, giving Flame a valuable 5 point buffer. ASG had a 0-point weekend, remaining in P7 overall, with 3 points. ACAE continued to bounce between 1 and -1 points, as they had a net 0 point weekend, with Veliki Osoba failing to qualify, but the negative point being balanced out by Evacio Torra's P11 race finish. Mostafa had their best-ever weekend, scoring 2 points, bringing their total to just -2 points, while they remained in P9. With two Quantos drivers failing to qualify for Race 6, they slipped even further into the negatives, finishing the weekend in P10 with -7 points. Halbeck suffered a second consecutive max negative points weekend, losing 3 points across Qualifying and the Race, brining their total to -11 points. However, far behind them, in P12, dead last, Clarke also scored negative points, lowering their total to an appalling -17, just a single point above the minimum possible 6-race score.
Race 7 - Fortrionale
As Round 7 would be the midpoint of the season, a huge number of technical upgrades were finalised before racing in Fortrionale. As some teams stepped forwards and some fell back, the drivers having to learn new styles of racing added the expected chaos of a major technical weekend.
Qualifying
For the first time in the team's history, all three Clarke Drivers managed to get out of prequalifying, and qualified for the race, to jubilation by the team & its sparse fans. Both Quantos & Halbeck suffered in PQ as well, each losing two drivers to the grip of Pre-Qualifying. Angel's Adrienne De Leon, took pole ahead of Fire's Camilla Cyne & Josep Vikalkin. Points Leader Avayah Osborne started from P5.
After Adrjana Gutnik crashed in Q5, qualifying dead last amongst all qualifying drivers, while her teammates Sarah Martins and Zarya Ilic went on to qualify P7 (Q2) and P4 (Q1), respectively, Dragon Team Manager Valerie Keplerus, known best for managing Osborne during their legendary five-season Team Championship run, announced that Gutnik had been let go from the team, and that the Formula National Points Leader, 19-year-old Evabria Capio, from Mimodera (At this point an annexed region of the Nakorentan Union), would take Gutnik's position from Race 7 onwards. Due to regulations on switching drivers, Capio would have to start the race from the Pitlane, provided she could set a qualifying time fast enough to exit Pre-Qualifying, which she did in a special, 15-minute session the in morning before the race.
Race
Starting from P3, Josep Vikalkin suffered from cold tires, causing him to drop back through the field over the opening laps, finally settling around P6, trading the position back and forth with Dragon's Sarah Martins throughout the first stint. As both moved to pit on Lap 23, they collided, blocking the pitlane, and forcing a Red Flag. This handed an obvious advantage to Cyne & Osborne, neither of whom had pitted yet by that point. Polesitter Adrienne De Leon, on the other hand, had just pitted moments before the accident, and lost several positions due to it. Cyne would go on to win the race over Osborne, followed closely by Dragon's Zarya Ilic, while Flame's Sofia Deitsch would surprise the grid by improving on her P6 starting position to finish just off the podium in P4.
The trio of Cyne-Osborne-Ilic had finished in the same order at Fortrionale the previous year, making S1407 the first Duplicate Podium at a track besides Cagne. Cyne's victory ahead of Osborne brought her within 5 points of the Title Leader. Although Vikalkin went Pointless across the weekend, he maintained P3 in the Title Standings over Dragon's Zarya Ilic. Perko's DNF in PQ (-1 points), and Ilic's P4 Qualifying (+1) points, saw their teams switch positions in the standings, with Octan dropping to P4 in the Constructor's Title.
Team and Driver Announcements
Following his DNF, Fire Manager Lila Abeke held a press release with Josep Vikalkin, where the two announced that they had come to agreement for Contract Terms for a one-year extension, guaranteeing his presence at the in-form team through Season 15.
Race 8 - Dryzakyl
Qualifying
Dryzakyl Qualifying saw some of the most electric action in years, with massive upsets, and variability within teams like had never been seen before. All three Mostafas failed to Qualify, joined by the usual suspects in Halbeck's Aither and Clarke's Ederg, as well as one shock disappointment, with Angel driver Ella Fader failing to qualify.
Title Protagonists Avayah Osborne and Camilla Cyne both made it only to Q2, with Osborne Qualifying to line up P8, and Cyne just behind her in P10. Both were out-qualified by Fire Jr. Driver Sofia Deitsch (Flame), who barely missed out on Q1, qualifying P7.
For the first time since the introduction of the Q6-Q1 qualifying format, all six Q1 drivers came from different teams, as Dragon's Zarya Ilic qualified on pole for her first time in the season, and for her team's first time. Josep Vikalkin was the only Fire driver to make it to Q1, lining up next to Ilic in P2, followed by Ani Novak (ACAE), Adrienne de Leon (Angel), Alex Rosya (Spalding), and Anna Aster (ASG).
Race
From the start of the race, Avayah Osborne and Camilla Cyne were the main attraction, as both moved up the field quickly, both starting on #1s, planning a relatively standard 1-3-1. With the obvious pace difference between them and the surrounding cars, both were instructed by the team not to race each other until the standings had stabilised, which Osborne (leading at the time) agreed to and which Cyne begrudgingly acquiesced. By the time of the first pit (both on Lap 22), they were running 3rd & 4th, and continued to make progress against Ilic and Vikalkin ahead. Vikalkin, who had been struggling to close within three seconds of leader Ilic, was instructed by the team not to defend against either, an instruction he questioned, before being granted 5 laps to defend. Both passed him on Lap 27, before beginning to close down the gap to Ilic. Ilic, for her own part, was racing on aging #3s, planning a slightly risky 3-4 (which the team believed she could pull off thanks to remarkably good tyre wear they'd observed throughout the weekend), and pitted on Lap 33, avoiding facing down the raging fires, and re-emerging in P5, behind both Vikalkin and teammate Sarah Martins, who was going long on #5s, planning to do a 5-2. Martins let her through, but meanwhile Cyne and Osborne finally began to spar, now more than halfway through the race. Cyne passed Osborne with a risky pass that Osborne defended equally risky, causing both to leave the track near an artificial chicane. They were both chastised by the team, who reminded them that their battle had no other competitors, and there was no reason to take unnecessary risks. Cyne held the lead, but both wore down their tires pushing hard, and Cyne was given the option to pit before or after Osborne (standard practice for the team when two drivers needed to pit in a similar window was to offer the lead driver the option for the order). She opted to pit after, intending to put a push lap or two in that would get her out at the right time. Osborne pitted on Lap 54, and Cyne pushed, prepping to pit Lap 56. However, before she could manage it, Quantos' Kaz Gacesa lost control on the main straight, and crashed into the Turn 1 exit wall, spraying debris everywhere. A Safety Car was immediately called, and several drivers, including Cyne and De Leon, were able to pit immediately, gaining massively on their pitstop time. Cyne re-emerged in P3, behind only Ilic, Vikalkin, Martins (all on Aging tires but without the gap to pit, even with a safety car), and ASG's Anna Aster. At the restart on Lap 60/72, Cyne began to shoot back up the field, followed by De Leon. As the flag fell, Cyne took her third win of the season, and second in a row, followed by Angel's Adrienne De Leon, and Dragon's Zarya Ilic. Osborne finished P4, simply not being able to make the extra positions back in time.
With the 15 points more than Osborne that Cyne scored, she passed her teammate for first in the Driver's Title Standings, leaving Dryzakyl with 555 points to Osborne's 545. Ilic and Vikalkin were now tied for 3rd overall, 450 points each. Sofia Deitsch had yet another admirable performance (P9), and now tied Octan's Diana Perko for 7th overall.
Fire pulled away even further into the lead, scoring 12 points across the weekend, coming to 110 total points. Second placed Angel scored only 3 net points across the weekend (with Ella Fader DNQ and Aurora Kryze DNF weighing down De Leon's Podium), while Dragon, which had passed Octan for third overall at Race 7, scored 10 points across the weekend, coming to 45 overall. Octan had a third disappointing race in a row, scoring only 2 net points, coming to 32 overall. Flame scored well again, sitting in a lonely 5th overall, with 2 points bringing them to 19 overall. Spalding was the third team to score 2 net points at Race 7, coming to 10 total and barely maintaining their position in 6th overall. ASG scored 3 net points, totalling 9 across the season, and holding onto 7th, ACAE scored the same, totalling 8, and holding onto 8th. Mostafa, with 3 DNQs (-3 total), came to -8 overall, and 9th. Quantos lost just a single point, summing to -10, and holding 10th. Halbeck also lost just 1 point, coming to -15, (11th), and Clarke lost 2 points, totalling -19.
Angel Team Manager Mara Powers was critical of the teams performance across the weekend (De Leon P2, Kryze Mechanical DNF, Fader DNQ), saying that the team as a whole needed to "get [their] heads down and focus," referring to Dragon's sudden increase in form, and the diminishment of the gap between the two teams from 21 points following Race 6 to just 14. She continued that "We scored a podium this week and yet we still didn't look anything like a team that wants to win, that wants to challenge." Although many considered her somewhat alarmist, considering the next two races were on Electric-friendly ground (the high altitude Verskaell and Jutvyrda tracks), their long-time team leader Aurora Kryze and points-leader Adrienne De Leon both echoed her sentiments in a later interview, Kryze commenting after her DNF that "We can't sit back and wait for someone to bring the fight to us for second place. The best team on the grid still makes mistakes, still slips up. We had two on the podium in Makendonkovo in a race where all three Fires were healthy and fast. We have to look at every race they win as if we lost it, not they won it." De Leon concurred, saying "I got lucky today. The pits came at the right time for my tires, and at the wrong time for some others'. I'm happy for the team that we got another podium, but that wasn't a second-placed team today. Our operations weren't tight, other teams found ways to dial their car in better than us."
Dragon manager Valerie Keplerus commended her team's results, saying "After Race 6 we were the fourth best team, and now we're putting pressure on second. We can't let up, we can't slow down. The team did well today, a bit unlucky with the pitstops, but you can't control luck. We maximised everything we controlled, and we're going to do it again next race."
Team and Driver Announcements
Oscar Windsor, owner of Windsor FL, who had been unable to enter into Season 14 due to financial constraints, was in attendance at the Dryzakyl Race, and held a joint press conference with WFL Commissioner Milla Sovoce & Aventador Bank CEO Parro Restead, announcing Windsor's return to Formula Lego for Season 15, thanks largely to a huge sponsorship deal with Aventador. In addition, he announced that Windsor would be exercising its option on Zarya Ilic (who was still technically signed to them on a 3+2, and was just "on loan" to Dragon), and bringing her back to the team she had seen such success with during Season 13.
The announcement of Windsor's return raised many eyebrows in the paddock, as credible sources had begun to report that the WFLC had intended to prohibit new teams from joining the sport, and slowly move the total number of teams back to 10, to prevent them from having to do pre-qualifying, as drivers missing out on racing hurt broadcast ratings, and devalued team entries, considering the fact that many newer teams frequently failed to even qualify for races. By extension, the announcement of Windsor raised new options. Either this proposed ban would be starting later than expected, Windsor was exempted, current teams were planning on leaving the sport for Season 15 onwards, or some combination. Rumours began that any combination of Halbeck, Clarke, and Mostafa were considering leaving the sport entirely, and the driver market began to sit on edge: Several notable drivers remained out of contract for the upcoming season, including Anna Aster, Eva Sayll, Julia Young, Diana Perko, Ani Novak, as well as the impressive rookie Evacio Torra. Several other stars contract situations remained very murky, including both Camilla Cyne and Avayah Osborne, as well as their Flame sort-of-teammate Sofia Deitsch. Expectations amongst paddock insiders as well as journalists solidly agreed that following Race 9, the first dominos would fall, and the majority of the driver market would immediately follow, in what was expected to be a once-in-a-lifetime driver switch-a-roo and journalistic bonanza.
Race 9 - Verskaell
Qualifying
Flame's Arid Mahles, Halbeck's Daniil West, Quantos' Muqyabzal Svetak, Clarke's Pas Mali and Visna Ederg, and Mostafa's Dino Pisto all failed to qualify for Race 9.
Sofia Deitsch qualified in Q1 for the second time in S14, having previously qualified P6 in Fortrionale. She failed to set a Q1 time, crashing on her push lap before setting an official time. Avayah Osborne also crashed without an official time, having qualified into Q2. Fire Teammate Josep Vikalkin qualified on Pole, ahead of the Dragons of Zarya Ilic and Sarah Martins. Camilla Cyne qualified P4, followed by the final Dragon of Evabria Capio.
Angel, which had always been faster at Verskaell compared to other races on the calendar due to the high altitude (every non-electric team suffered a power drop, while they suffered no performance drop) saw an uncharacteristic performance gap, with De Leon and Kryze qualifying in Q2 (P8 & 9, respectively), while Ella Fader qualified P17 in Q3. This continued the trend of them underperforming against expectations compared to their previous pace.
Race
Despite a strong Pole from Vikalkin, the concentrated and coordinated efforts of the two Dragons behind quickly put him on the back foot, and he was overtaken by both before the first pit window. Vikalkin was running a 2-4-2, and pitted from P2 on Lap 20, as Ilic pitted before him. Cyne, who started P4, did not make progress on the first stint, and struggled against Evabria Capio, who forced her to be defensive. Behind her, Avayah Osborne was making serious progress, having risen from P12 to P8 by Lap 18, when she pitted to replace her aged #1s with #5s. Cyne pitted on Lap 21, on the same 2-4-2 as Vikalkin. Zarya Ilic, who had started on #1s, on the same strategy as Osborne, pushed them slightly farther than her, and pitted on Lap 19. Her #5s worked well under the Dragon, and she made progress back towards the front. Ilic, Cyne, and Osborne converged on each other, reaching the front in that order on lap 48, Cyne, on #4s, made a move around Ilic at Corner 13 on Lap 49, and took the lead from Ilic. Cyne attempted to open the gap as much as possible in the next two laps, before pitting on Lap 51, followed the next lap by Ilic and Osborne. Cyne requested to switch to #1s, rather than #2s, but the team didn't have the time to switch the prepped tires, and she received #2s, while the other two, who pitted just a single lap later than her, received #1s. Although Cyne put in a hero's effort, Ilic caught her quickly, and passed her with little difficulty given the tire difference. Osborne faced more difficulty passing Cyne, as Cyne began to make increasingly daring moves to defend against her. Ilic began to build a safe gap to the feuding Fire pair, even as they in turn pulled away from Sarah Martins - running in P4. Osborne repeatedly instructed the team to tell Cyne to let her pass, as she felt she had better pace. Cyne, in turn, told the team to tell Osborne not to attempt to pass her. The team instructed both to "keep things clean, and focus on Ilic." However, both refused to listen to this instruction. On Lap 64/70, while Osborne was attempting to pass Cyne on the inside of the 7-8 Chicane, Cyne turned sharply in, and the two collided. Although both continued in the race, both lost pace, with Cyne's Left sidepod suffering damage, and Osborne losing the right end plate to her front wing. The team instructed Osborne to stop attempting to pass Cyne, and the two finished the race in the same order.
With a commanding performance, as well as a well-executed race from the team, Zarya Ilic took home Dragon's first ever win, ahead of Camilla Cyne and Avayah Osborne, who all but refused to acknowledge each other on the podium. Sofia Deitsch also produced an excellent performance in the Fire, finishing P6. The Angels, which had been expected to perform exceptionally well at Verskaell, finished P7, P9, and P20.
Finishing ahead of Osborne, Cyne extended her Driver's Title lead to 15 points, sitting pretty on 625 points. Ilic passed Vikalkin for P3 in the standings, with 525 to Vikalkin's 510.
Fire's 2-3-5 finish gave them a weekend total of 13 points, bringing them to 123 points. Angel's disappointing Weekend saw them take home only 4 net points, coming to 63 total. Dragon closed the gap to second-placed Angel massively, scoring 13 points across the weekend, the same as Fire, to bring their total to 58, now just 5 points behind Angel. Octan scored 0 net points across the weekend, remaining P4 overall, with 32 points. Deitsch's excellent finish, only slightly lessened by Arid Mahles' failure to qualify, saw Flame net 3 net points, bringing them to 22 total. Spalding had a solid weekend, filling the gaps where once only Octan and Angel could've finished, and taking home 3 points over the Verskaell Weekend, coming to 13 total. A P12-P13 combo from Aster and Bosko brought ASG to 11 points overall. Although Ani Novak finished P11, Veliki Osoba's P27 finish left ACAE with no points across the weekend, leaving them with 8 overall. Mostafa dropped 2 points across the weekend, totalling -10 across the season. Quantos lost just a single net point, coming to -11. Halbeck lost 2, coming to -17, and Clarke lost all three possible points, coming to -22.
Team and Driver Announcements
The First Domino in the chain fell after Race 9, with Dragon announcing the renewal of Sarah Martins' Contract, and Ani Novak as their replacement for Zarya Ilic for S15 onwards.
ACAE followed up by announcing that Season 9 Champion Anna Aster would be taking Novak's place at the team.
ASG filled the hole created by Aster with an announcement just hours later, replacing her with Season 10 Champion Julia Young.
Following Young's departure from Mostafa, Windsor announced their hiring of S6 Champion Eva Sayll, Mostafa's other star driver.
Following the very public battle between Osborne and Cyne on the racetrack, team insiders leaked to the press that the reason neither driver had been resigned was that both refused to sign unless the other would not be at the team the next season, and the Team management was torn between which driver would produce a better result. Camilla Cyne had been the lead driver since the team's inception, but she had been beaten over a season by Josep Vikalkin several times, and there had been virtually no difference between the two the previous season. In addition, Osborne's relationship with Vikalkin, who had already been re-signed earlier in the season, was to be considered in the discussions.
Angel Manager Mara Powers reiterated the criticisms she had for her team at the previous race, saying that they weren't acting as though they wanted to be the second best team in Formula Lego. She reminded everyone that Verskaell was somewhere that they had been able to win absurd victories in previous seasons, and there was no pace reason they shouldn't have been able to do the same in Season 14.
Race 10 - Jutvyrda
Qualifying
Race
Team and Driver Announcements
With three races left to go, Fire finally announced a contract extension for Avayah Osborne, one of their title protagonists. Within minutes, Camilla Cyne announced that she would be departing the team, and signing with Windsor for Season 15.
Fire responded to the Driver's Title Leader leaving their team by promoting Sofia Deitsch, who had just come off of an excellent weekend, qualifying on pole and finishing P3, from Flame, their Junior Team, for the following season.
Flame Manager Iris Wilkins announced the hiring of Evabria Capio from Dragon to fill the new hole in their roster.
Dragon responded to this by announcing the signing of a Flame Driver, Ilyn Laham, for Season 15.
Race 11 - Karebyr
Qualifying
Race
Team and Driver Announcements
Following the Conclusion of the Race, Octan and Diana Perko announced the unsurprising, but well overdue, contract extension for Diana Perko. She would be resigned on a three-year contract.
Race 12 - Tavergrad
Qualifying
Race
Team and Driver Announcements
Angel Manager Mara Powers held a press conference following the conclusion of Race 12, confirming that Ella Fader would not be returning to Angel for Season 15, and her seat would instead be filled by Evacio Torra, moving from ACAE.
ACAE confirmed Torra's departure, and announced her replacement in Quantos' Romil Brojar.
Race 13 - Cagne Island
Qualifying
Race
Final Results
Post Season
Driver Market
Pre-Season Landscape
Octan entered the Season with two of their three drivers already under contract for S15; Anon Cino and Ariadne Stryke had both moved to Octan for S14 on Octan's standard 2-year starter contract. Diana Perko, who's 2+1+1 was coming to a close in S14 was expected to agree to a new contract with the team, but this was not yet certain at the start of the year.
Fire, rather unusually for a dominant team, had no official statements on the length of their driver's contracts. However, Teams, Officials, and fans alike considered it unlikely that Fire would let go of either Avayah Osborne or Camilla Cyne, in light of their strong Title Rivalry (and Cyne's only narrow title victory during Season 13). Josep Vikalkin, the 4th place finisher overall from the previous season, was also considered a strong driver choice, and despite his comparative lower performance across the season compared to the two title protagonists, it still seemed unlikely Fire would let go of a driver who had won 2 races in S13, and had led their team in points (over Cyne) for the two years prior.
As usual, none of Quantos' drivers held long-term contracts, and each would have to be re-upped at some point during the season. This also meant that Muqyabzal Svetak, Kaz Gacesa, and Romil Brojar were all also free to sign to other teams for S15.
Adrienne De Leon was committed to Angel at least through S15. Aurora Kryze had re-written her contract with Angel during S13, guaranteeing her stay at the team for at least three more years (until S16). Ella Fader, on the other hand, had failed to come to agreement with the team over a similar contract re-write, and thus was only left on contract with Angel until the end of S14.
ASG's Konstantin Bosko fulfilled the first of three years he was contracted to in S14, having been confirmed to be at the team until S16. Milena Markovic also joined for S14, however she held only a 2 year contract with the team. Their Star Signing, though, Anna Aster, was under contract just for Season 14, although she did hold the option to add one year to her stint with the team.
ACAE's Veliki Osoba had a two year contract with ACAE, confirming his stay at the team through the end of Season 15. Ani Novak, who had performed acceptably at the team, did not have a contract for Season 15, but was nonetheless expected to continue with ACAE unless a better option was found by the team. Evacio Torra, on a one-year contract with the team, was expected to impress in her Debut Season, and many considered her continuation at ACAE to be more dependent on available positions elsewhere and the relative performance of the ACAE.
Halbeck had none of their three drivers - Sarah Aither, Daniil West, and Zimas Vilkas - under contract for Season 15.
Dragon started the year off with no drivers set in stone for Season 15, as both Sarah Martins and Adrjana Gutnik joined the team in S12 on 1 year contracts, with an option to extend for 1 additional year, an option the team took for Season 14. However, this did leave both open for Season 15. Zarya Ilic joined on loan from Windsor, who she was technically contracted to through the end of Season 15, event though they didn't have an entry during the present season.
Spalding had all three drivers confirmed for Season 15 before the start of Season 14, with Aleks Rosya, Diego Gonzalez and Jakov Franjic on 2 +1 deals, the only difference being Rosya's +1 option being held by him, while the others' were held by the team.
Flame's three young drivers - Sofia Deitsch, Ilyn Laham, and Arid Mahles - were all contracted on 1 +1 contracts, the option on which was held by the team for all three drivers.
None of Mostafa's driver lineup - Julia Young, Eva Sayll, and Avans Drone - held contracts for Season 15.
Clarke's three signings - Kravjs Mileny, Pas Mali, and Visna Ederg - were only contracted to the end of Season 14.
Mid-Season Switches
After an abysmal run of failing to exit Pre-Qualifying, Avans Drone was replaced at Mostafa by Dino Pisto following Race 5, in Krajinograd. Both were as-of-yet unproven young drivers. To conclude Drone's contract, he was moved to Mostafa's Formula National entry, where Pisto had been racing, at the Kezmedza team. This meant that Pisto would not complete the second 2/3 of his season in Formula National, as Drone would take his place on the grid from FN Race 3 onwards. Pisto was signed onto a contract that lasted only until the end of the season, and his appearance on the grid the following season was assumed to be very much a question of performance.
After Adrjana Gutnik crashed in Q5 at Race 7, having scored only 10 points the entire season so far, Dragon FL Team Manager Valerie Keplerus, well known as being one of the masterminds behind Osborne's generational run of Constructors' Titles from Season 04 to Season 08 decided that Gutnik was not living up to her expectations. While Gutnik had scored only 10 points in the first 6 races of the season, Sarah Martins, not generally considered to be a superstar, but a reliably decent driver, had already scored 185, and Zarya Ilic (who was definitely considered a star) had scored 320. While a large gap to Ilic was expected, and not a concern (although there were suggestions that Martins was not as competitive as the car was, and was under-scoring, even compared to Ilic), the gap of 175 points to Sarah Martins in 6 Races was considered unacceptable. With Gutnik also having failed to Qualify for Race 1, with no reasonable explanation (the highest visibility team to miss a race to date), her performance was considered unacceptable, and she was dropped before Race 7 started. Evabria Capio, the Formula National points-leader at the half-way point in the FN Season, was promoted to fill Gutnik's position. The WFLC, unsure how to handle switching drivers in a season with Pre-Qualifying, as there were no regulations for that (and very few regulations regarding promotion of drivers, considering that the practice had been banned until the previous season), made a ruling that they would let her promotion after qualifying stand, and she would start from the back of the Grid, provided that she could beat the time required to not be cut in Pre-Qualifying. To accommodate that, a special session (15 minutes long) was held, where Capio was given the opportunity to qualify for the race. She did so, making the cut-off with seeming ease, and her best time would have allowed her to go on to Q4, had she been in the regular qualifying session. She started the Race from the back of the grid, but in a legendary debut drive, recovered 17 positions to finish P13 at the flag, giving her 15 Driver's Title points, more than Gutnik had scored yet the entire season, immediately justifying Keplerus & Dragon's Decision. Similar to Pisto at Mostafa, Capio held a contract with Dragon only to the end of the season, although they did hold an option to extend her contract by 1 year or 2.