Nobody in Season 7 has covered more of the IMS field than xAQxFr. D2 victories, D1 podiums and a D0 trophy have made him the only driver this year to stand on the podium in three divisions.
That achievement belongs to a very small club. Across the first seven IMS seasons, only MilitaryMaple18, quenooo29 and Her Wet Cat had previously managed podiums in three divisions during one campaign. XAQ is the fourth—and the first to do it across D0, D1 and D2.
It should feel like the cleanest proof of versatility in the league. The awkward part is what happened immediately after the result that confirmed it.
One driver, three different seasons
| Division | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 30 |
| D1 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 66 |
| D2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 97 |
XAQ's first two weekends set the pattern. Austria brought second in D1 and fourth in D2. Great Britain followed with third in both divisions. One driver was already operating in two different fights and looking comfortable in each.
Round 4 made the experiment look even better. He won D2 from second on the grid and finished fourth from pole in D1. The 30-point D2 return put him on top of that championship, 13 clear of CONNOROCE.
The season never stayed that tidy. A P10 and P9 followed in D1, while Qatar produced P16 in D2. By the time IMS reached Baku, xAQ's three-division programme had become less a smooth climb than a weekly test of which version would appear.
Baku supplied the whole contradiction at once
Baku was his season in miniature.
In D0, xAQ started sixth and finished third. In D1, he started second and finished 13th. In D2, he took pole, victory and fastest lap for the full 32 points.
One weekend produced a podium at the top level, a scoreless collapse in the middle and a perfect result below it. The D2 win also pushed his seasonal dominance score over the promotion threshold, moving him from L2 to L1.
The promotion was earned by the strongest result available. It also marks the point at which the season turned.
Japan gave xAQ sixth in D0 and another 13th in D1. At Monza he qualified sixth in D1 and finished 17th, a lap down despite setting the fastest lap. Across the three starts after his Baku promotion, he has scored 11 points. Only one of those races paid anything.
His last three D1 classifications now read P13, P13 and P17. Zero points.
Range is secure; momentum is not
It would be easy to let the ending swallow the achievement. Two D2 wins, two D1 podiums and a D0 podium do not become less meaningful because the final stretch has been ugly. Fifteen starts across three divisions have asked xAQ to keep changing opposition, team-mates and competitive context. Six podiums survived the experiment.
The promotion does change how the season reads. Before Baku, every strong result expanded what xAQ appeared capable of doing. Since Baku, the question has become whether he can make any of it stick at L1.
He is listed for Ferrari in D1 at Brazil, the division that has given him both his first two podiums of the season and his last three zeroes. There is no fourth division to add and no new licence step to chase. The job is simpler now: stop the slide.
Nothing in Brazil can take the three-division record away. It can stop the final line of xAQ's season being P13, P13, P17.
