I absolutely loved your analysis on carbono and the other team dynamics. I know you are mostly Williams so can you give your thoughts on Alex and Logan, and Alex and Franco partnerships. I always got the vibes that Alex didnt get on with Franco but would love your expert opinion. Also do we think Hulk and Gabi ever fucked bc they cannot keep their hands off each other. Side note I know you felt neutral about Vcarb and I agree that they dont hang out outside of media duties but also I think they genuinely get along really well and have so much fun doing media which is so confusing to me. Basically I loved your analysis so much I want more
So I know you sent this ask like a decade ago… sorry lol I am a gold medalist at cherry picking asks to answer with detail. I’m glad you like my posts, but I will disclaim that I am not an expert. In fact let’s just say I have a clinically significant inability to perceive social cues, so I try to bring solid evidence into my judgments but as always I may be way off because I don’t know these people, I don’t know what I’m talking about, and the evidence I see is filtered through media teams, algorithms and my own biases etc
Anywho LONG commentary ahead
I’ve seen some really bitchy takes on sargebon (for some reason when the galex/russtappen wars were going on sargebon kept catching strays lol) but I liked their dynamic. There were a few things I find notable, but the first is that they both fit well into their pre-specified roles and these roles played off each other well. Alex was the rebellious older brother and Logan was the strait laced foil. My perception of this is heavily tainted because of my cultural background as a usamerican who is generally culturally unaware of European cultures in particular, but the white boy Floridian being the polite serious one and the silver(ish) spoon British one being the shithead was kind of enjoyable in terms of expectation violation and at times it felt like they leaned into this a bit. I really enjoyed Alex repeatedly teasing Logan (and Oscar because of his association with Logan; for example about their golf skills or about having a crush on the girl car from cars or Logan being a usamerican) and sometimes trying embarrass him in front of JV (for example, he suggested Logan was hiding that he was at a nightclub), but also defending him (by saying things both to JV and the media like specifying to JV that Logan doesnt party and therefore wasnt at a nightclub- that Alex was just joking- and in a different video defending the fact that he said Logan was the less funny one of the pair by saying that ‘Logan is in his first year and can’t afford to be funny’). Logan does a great job of playing into this. He playfully tattles on Alex to JV, calls out his bluffs, and draws attention to when Alex is being chaotic or trying to pull a fast one on someone (for example saying Alex is the one who causes the podcast to be a mess, says that he is pretty sure Alex shouldn’t be trusted with a pumpkin carving knife, and turning the tide back on Alex about the girl crush cars incident). Both of them seem comfortable in these natural roles (Alex’s media strategy is to be chaotic and messy and there is some truth to Logan not having the stability to goof around) and I think they work well together. (Lowkey I think one of the reason carbono feels odd and forced to me at times is that they don’t have any predetermined roles so they try on new ones every so often which is obviously fine on it’s own but I think it’s part of the instability I pick up on between them)
Along with these roles, we see Alex sort of bid for Logan’s affection a few times, trying to get him to hang out- and my personal favorite, insisting that he’s “good to” Logan unlike everyone else-and as someone who has led competitive teams, that team bonding role makes total sense to me. They’ve hung out at least a few times although they simultaneously insist they would never. Logan is also (compared to Carlos who is older and has more of an established career, life, and pack of people) younger and less tethered to anything, so it makes sense for them to interact more.
Something else that is important is that Alex was fairly defensive over Logan at times, expressing that he had more talent to show and that getting his car in Australia was a situation they shouldn’t have to be in. I think this has to do with the specification of that Williams car. People think slow cars are good for new drivers and this can be true as they are less likely to pressure the driver. However, that Williams was very unpredictable which is the worst for an unconfident driver, and Logan was unconfident-if not at the beginning, undoubtedly by the end. Alex (who yes, loves crashing) got caught out by the car behaving unpredictably a lot and he has a lot more experience in f1 and specifically with wrangling unruly cars than Logan did. Even Carlos when he first tested the Williams asked Alex how he was able to drive it. Pair this with the fact that Alex himself had been chewed up by his teammate and spit out of the sport his second year because he was unable to work around an unruly car (and had some bad luck), I think Alex was aware of the fact that he would be unable to wash Logan’s blood off of his hands as he was forced to either sandbag or perpetuate that cycle. One could argue it was for appearances, but Alex seemed particularly downtrodden when Logan was kicked. This imo impacts his relationship with Franco which I discuss later.
Essentially, this to say that I think some of their relationship was carried by Alex feeling pity or guilt about Logan’s career, and also trying to be there for him. I think if Logan is performing better and isn’t about to be shamefully kicked from the sport at any moment, Alex may open up to him less.
Regardless, compared to carbono, I think sargebon has these predefined roles that genuinely work well for them and that even if they aren’t the most laugh out loud funny or best bromance or whatever pair, that there was at least some level of liking between them.
My main take on Alex and Franco is that situationally they had no chance to hit it off. They both knew that they were only going to be teammates temporarily (if not Carlos, Esteban was in late stages of negotiations with Williams I believe) and the swap happened so late into the season, there wasn’t time they could wisely spend outside of getting Franco uo to speed. I also think that early on Alex wasn’t pleased with the swap (more likely in my opinion he wasnt pleased with his role in it) so he wasn’t exactly keen on becoming buddy buddy with Franco (more because he was frustrated avout what happened and not really because of Franco in particular). Also interestingly, Alex seemed surprised by how calm and collected Franco was, so I wonder if some of the “team bonding stuff” I presume he was doing to help along Logan wasnt needed as much with Franco who seemed much less in his own head than Logan. So I think they had less time to get to know each other, it’s also later in the season and Alex always gets worn threadbare at the end of the season, and they both know it’s permanent so there’s no real desire to get close- and it may even be a disadvantage to do so. In terms of a personality matchup, I think they have some opportunity for chemistry, but I think they need someone more uptight to balance them, and also, something weird kept going on conversationally between them where Alex simply was not listening to anything Franco was saying and when he was, he wasn’t actually understanding it. He does do this to many people, but it seemed especially notable with Franco so it might have been something about Franco’s personality but idk. As a last point of Franco vs Logan, I imagine that Alex is more culturally similar (by socioeconomic status and country) to Logan than to Franco, so I wonder if some small but present cultural barriers existed.
Your question on Gabico is out of my purview but um something is going on there…. They have a category 5 rpf moment exactly weekly? They regularly publicly display intimacy that I would be uncomfy doing with my partner of many years. Idk what’s going on exactly but like I do think Gabi is exactly where he wants to be and is not in need of rescuing
For vcarb I think liam has accepted his role as tiktoker but Isack was very resistant because he seems sensitive to embarrassment wrt how he is perceived so it makes sense to me that he was constantly distancing himself to it
(we don’t know these ppl obv) i think alex and logan were closer than uve said, if you watch their montreal team torque alex apparently invited logan to go to joe beef together (which didnt seem like a pr thing since logan had to cancel) logan also mentions the size of alex’s apartment so i’m assuming he’s been over? idk i feel like they work better and their conversations flow better than any of carbonos
I believe I had said that I thought Logan was closer to Alex than Carlos but idk I probably hedged it a lot because sometimes people get mad at me when I hedge and sometimes they get mad at me when I don’t hedge. To me it has always felt like he was at least somewhat closer to Logan even if this took on a more mentorship role. Like even if they weren’t besties, they seemed to at least like each other somewhat and I agree with you that they had hung out a few times even if they enjoyed clowning on each other by saying they don’t want to see each other. I didn’t have the evidence in response to that ask that they had hung out more but it was the vibe I had gotten.
Idk I feel like I’m saying a lot of words that aren’t really anything
well hello! This is my humble logan fic request/prompt: Sargebon, and the song "Hanging On" by Falling In Reverse. it's angsty, it hurts, but it fits them SO well, so have at it (and don't break my heart too much please..)
I ADORE YOU (BUT NOTHING LASTS FOREVER)// SARGEBON
alex across the year and a half he had with logan
Logan was a pleasant surprise to Alex's life. He was sweet, even under the cocky persona he sometimes took on. Under all of it, he was shy, soft-spoken with glittering green eyes that watched Alex like if he hung the moon. It made something twist inside of Alex when Logan looked at him like that, like if Alex could really offer him the moon if he just asked.
He looked out for Logan in ways he never would have with another teammate, offering encouraging words after a bad race, dinners shared between the two in Alex's room or a shoulder to lean on when everything seems impossible. Logan took everything Alex offered with hesitation, but he never denied Alex, a relieved expression on his face when Alex commiserated in their joint misery.
The year moves slowly, points barely within reach for Alex but always further away for Logan. He continues with a smile, the edges of his eyes crinkling and a toothy smile on display. It makes Alex want to keep him close—it's a dangerous thought.
There's a sense of victory in Austin, when Logan gets his first point via two disqualifications. Alex remembers the pride that had bloomed in his chest when Logan got the news, the two sat across from each other on the plane, Logan's foot in between Alex's.
The touches had started small, handshakes and shoulder nudges, the lightest of touches on the small of Logan's back. Alex's mind sings when he gets to brush against the sliver of skin that gets exposed when they're stuck doing media, a strange mix of it being enough and not being enough.
Qatar changes things, shifts them until it's Alex coaxing Logan to drink room temperature water hours after the race had ended. It's Logan, still pale and shaky and so upset with himself that all Alex ca do is hold him while he cries.
"I tried to hard to finish," Logan says tiredly, nose just a bit congested, voice thick and raspy, "They're going to drop me, I know they are."
For the first time in a long while, Alex feels the real terror of losing someone.
:::
The winter break comes and goes, the uncertainty of Logan's career a distant storm threatening to roll in until he signs a one-year extension. It's not enough time, not with the car they're testing, not with the undercurrent of rumors of their team principal sniffing around for a second driver.
Alex tries to keep his head about him, focusing on the Logan he got to experience over the break, the Logan a select few know. He's loud and sweet, sarcastic and annoying—every bit of a younger brother that was never denied love, and Alex had him for those months.
The Williams don't start off well, Logan gets P20 in the opening race and scrapes by with a P15 in the Saudi.
It goes to shit in Australia.
Alex crashes and Logan's without a car, watching from the garage with a hole in his chest as Alex fights like hell but ultimately gets nothing; a sinking reminder that it was all for naught. Logan tries not to blame him, tries to keep the resentment to himself and it works until the resentment turns away from Alex and instead onto his team.
Alex lingers, never fully away, entitled to Logan in ways no one else could be. He's a shadow, a hand on his elbow or back, trying to memorize the give of his body, the way Logan curls up next to him when they're in bed or his steady presence in the garage.
Logan continues to struggle, barely finishing races in the scrap car they gave him. The media gets harsher and harsher, digging under Logan's skin until Alex has to hide his phone away. He gets thinner, gaunt in a way Alex hasn't seen him since Qatar.
Alex tries to keep him, tries to figure out ways to keep Logan beside him in the paddock, his name on the garage beside Alex's—23 and then 2, one beside the other like it has been for the last year and a half.
Miami had been brutal and every race after that forgettable; Silverstone loved Logan enough for him to scrap to P11, nine seconds off of Yuki.
Something like acceptance sinks into Logan before summer break, the few weeks the two spent sequestered away on an island. Its days of laying in the sun, eating to their heart's content and losing themselves within each others body, trying to engrave every inch to memory.
Logan's end comes in Zandvoort, under Dutch rain and on the side of the track. Logan's heart breaks with it, the car smoking and filling his lungs with a dead dream done and dusted.
Alex knows what it means when Logan disappears off the face of the Earth, knows that it could be days or months before he gets a response to the birage of the messages he had sent. In a way, Alex knows that the end of them had happened in those seconds when Logan slammed into the barriers.
Even now, with the humid Miami heat on him two years after Logan crashed, he can still feel the weight of him. He mourns what they were, mourns what they could've been and dreams of what they were.
Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and the scent of Logan's cologne haunts him, the scent no longer existing physically but only in the way a phantom limb exists.
Alex existed long before he met Logan, he can find a way to exist without him again.
