I'm going to channel my malaise into writing. Either going to give Max all the joy he deserves or put him through the wringer so someone can comfort him. Or both. I haven't decided yet.
Apparently (according to autoracer) Red bull will be selected as the “benchmark” and are said to have the best ICE on the grid, there fore granting Mercedes 2% AUDO, Ferrari 4% and so one
AFTER TODAY WITH THE ICE FAILURE @/FIA REALLY?? WE’RE GIVHNG MERCEDES REASONS TO BE BETTER???
FIA once again showing that they are, indeed, a fucking clown organization.
My husband is watching the full complete 2021 season. I could go into another room, but am I able to walk away when Max is racing? No obviously not. But last weekend was Silverstone and now we're watching Hungary. Ugh. Why does my partner want to cause me so much pain?
I think I've probably missed the 30 minute window and also I'm asking to do more with the same dynamic so I totally understand if it's a no go. But anyways the prompt is Max finding out that Ole is leaving the team. Totally up to you how this goes - maybe he tells him, maybe it's leaked, Anything will be loved. Cheers.
"Max." Ole grabs Max's forearm and stops his path through the garage. Max follows the pull easily.
Max's face, which had been twisted into a tired kind of half-scowl, softens. He smiles. "Hey, Ole. What's up?"
Ole releases his hold on Max. Doesn't follow his fingers' urge to card through his own hair, adjust the hem of his shirt. He has no reason to be nervous. Or—he shouldn't have a reason to be. Max is just a coworker. Just another coworker that won't be soon.
Just a coworker he's known for over a decade; seen grow up in front of his eyes; seen at his lowest and his highest.
Just another person he's leaving, but it's not just another person—it's Max.
Ole crosses his arms to satisfy the energy in his hands.
Max's smile twitches. His already tired eyes dim just a bit.
"Max, there's something I need to te—"
"You're leaving," Max interrupts. His frown is back, etched into his brows, settling into the twist of his lips. "That is it, yes? You are leaving?"
Ole uncrosses his arms. His fingers tap at the fabric of his pants—Red Bull team kit, uniform dark wash jeans.
A thousand tiny explanations and excuses run through his head, but Max wouldn't want to hear them. Max asked a question, even though he already knows the answer, really. Max wants to hear him answer it.
"Yes."
Max exhales. Ole watches as he takes a brief second to close his eyes and bite the inside of his bottom lip. He looks so tired.
He opens his eyes again, his mouth in an intense line. "Is there anything I can do to convince you otherwise?"
In this moment, Ole's afraid that all it would take from Max is for him to say, please, eyes wide and bright and hopeful.
But Ole's doing this for a reason. He is.
"No. Sorry, Max—I think it's just time to move on."
A smile returns to Max's lips, even smaller than before. Still twisted at the edges, bittersweet. His fingers tap at his dark wash jeans.
"Yes," he says. His accent curls around the single syllable in just the same way it did the first day they met. He's not the same boy as he was back then—he's older, and he's wiser, and he's much more tired—but he smiles at Ole with the same freckle on his upper lip, and for a moment, all the years past don't matter. "Maybe it is."
why does it feel like a billion years since i posted. it's been. under four days.
but nothing like a thursday to bring me back! gbb babeyyyyy.
week 14: Traditions / Arranged Marriage
mostly below the cut
---
As soon as Max steps down from the top step, the weight falls back onto his shoulders, heavy. The cider is light and sweet on the podium, but off of it, all it is is sticky and grubby on his skin, dampness pulling his racesuit down.
The trophy is heavy in his hand, no longer gleaming bright. Up there, he's a winner, and the trophy represents victory, but later, it will only be a symbol of how lucky he got. Will only be an effigy to every mistake he made and got away with by the skin of his teeth. How easy would it have been to let it fall into any other hands? Max can't let it. He almost did. He's never far enough up the road to keep it firmly in his hold.
His father makes him carry it—makes him bear the weight. Doesn't let him carry the pride alongside.
It's a routine Max knows well, by now—the circuit grounds not always familiar, but his feet carry him easily regardless. He's pulled forward.
His father is by the karts that have been left temporarily abandoned while the podium ceremonies beckon everyone else, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl heavy on his brow. Max squares his shoulders and tries not to let the trophy drag him down.
Without speaking, without congratulations, his father's eyes flit towards the track. This time, it's Turn 8. Last time, Turn 3. The time before: Main Straight. Every time, it's just a flick of the eyes, and Max shouldn't be able to tell where he's looking, but he doesn't need to track his eyeline. He knows. He always does.
When Max is feeling hopeless, he stays silent. Looks at the ground and waits for the yelling to begin; tries to ignore the flowing stream of people around them, packing up their karts, celebrating a race well done, heading home. His father will storm off to the van, a whack on Max's head for good measure, and Max will drag the kart to the parking lot alone. The breeze will cut through his cider-damp suit and make him shiver.
When Max is feeling reckless, he hoists the trophy in his hand up high. Says that he won in the end, and it doesn't even matter if he makes a mistake, because he's so much better than everybody else anyway that he can still pull out the win. When his father's fist comes, Max stands defiant, and he doesn't prod the forming bruise on his long walk back to the hotel.
But right now, as he does most of the time, Max is feeling tired. And oh so heavy.
"I took too much kerb on lap twelve." He says what his father wants to hear—tells the truth. Brings into the light what they both already know. "It cost me time. If the kart behind had been any closer, he could have made an overtake attempt."
Not he could have overtaken—his father would get angry at the idea that Max would let himself be overtaken. Not I'm sorry—apologies are a weakness. Tell me how you're wrong, but don't admit fault. Show me your underbelly but never your neck. Don't do it next time.
But next time, there's always another mistake.
The win is the most important thing when Max has lost it. But when he has it, trophy gripped in his hand, it suddenly doesn't seem to matter so much. Not when he took too much kerb at Turn 8 and lost half a tenth.
It's a routine he knows well by now—he's never good enough.
Max's father accepts the explanation with a huff, and then snaps at Max to make himself useful and grab the kart. Max sits the trophy in the driver's seat before he bends down to grab the front. He can never tell if the kart is heavier with the extra weight of victory or without.
Still. It sits heavy on his shoulders as he retreats backwards to the parking lot and the cider-sticky podium disappears out of sight.
We discussed in Part 1 some of the adversity that Max has faced that might incline people to be protective of him. But that surely can't be the only thing. Other drivers have faced a great deal of adversity without engendering the same apparent feelings in people. I think in the end what actually does it is not the negatives he's encountered but the positives that make him who he is.
Personality
Innate Sweetness/Kindness/Gentleness
As is true of all of us, Max's personality is a mix of things, positive and negative. This isn't about saying he is just sugar and spice and everything nice. He is a perfectionist, he is uncompromising, his is stubborn, and he is aggressive. Though actually maybe he is sugar and spice - the spice is the perfectionism, tenacity, the obstinacy, and the aggression. The part that I think draws protective people to him and brings out the protective urges in others is the sugar. His sweetness. I think if you were to describe Max as sweet to one of his haters they'd think you were crazy as how can sweet and aggressive exist together they would say. They've watched the races, they've watched DTS. Max is angry, violent, aggressive. He can't be sweet they would say. The problem is that the people who know him and those who get to know him always seem to use these sorts of words - sweet, gentle,
Victoria Verstappen - “Max is a very sweet person. I'm also quite sweet, but he can tolerate a lot more than I can. He got that from my mother. I'm more like my father, a bit more ‘spicy’. It takes a really long time for Max to get mad at people and be done with them. I'm done with people faster than he is."
Jos Verstappen - “Max has a lot in common with Michael: uncompromising on the track, but sweet, sensitive and caring as a private person.”
Liam Lawson - “He’s also so nice like as a person. He’s such a nice guy. Like through everything that happened last year with Red Bull, he was so good to me. He was super nice and you know, he was just helpful, really helpful."
Christian Horner - “Max, as a person, is just a really nice 26-year-old young man, who is passionate about his racing, and uncomfortable with the level of fame or notoriety that he has now. He just wants to do his job and race a car hard, he is very, very straightforward, and very honest. He loves spending time on his PlayStation if he’s not in a race car. So, outside of the car, he is quite a gentle character."
Gianpiero Lambiase - "Here at the track, Max, he’s portrayed as the villain of the paddock, but away from the track, he is the complete opposite. He’s the most sincere, gentle giant and a very likeable character. I consider him a top friend."
Pia Ramos - “The one who's the best with the kids is Max Verstappen. He looks them in the eye, he's super attentive to everything they ask, he never gives them a dirty look. You really don't know what it's like to see the face of a little boy who's burned, and Max is looking at him with such kindness"
I have not studied psychology, but from rudimentary research there are a slew of reasons why people desire to protect 'gentle' people. There are the mirror neurons in our brain that allow us to see a particular characteristic we will mirror it back. Therefore someone behaving gently and kindly receive that kindness back. It is also posited that gentle people have a natural ability to absorb stress from others, creating a calm and caring atmosphere. Lastly there are some biological urges to protect the most gentle members of society because they are seen as necessary for society and therefore needing of protection. Providing that protection may in fact release powerful bonding hormones like oxytocin.
Authenticity
One of Max Verstappen's most praised qualities is that he is straightforward, down to earth, honest, real etc. This all boils down to a strong core of authenticity. All of us wear a variety of masks in our daily life. It's necessary for ones sanity to be honest. And I won't say that Max doesn't have masks. Clearly he does or more precisely I would say that he does a fair amount of code switching both linguistic and sociocultural. I make the distinction because at no point does he wear a mask that changes his fundamental truths. For example for the press he might describe the 2026 regulations in terms that are more technical or in relation to his career in general. If he's on a stream with team Redline he might describe them using darker or crude humor. Same honestly, same dislike for the regulations, different language and style. There isn't one answer about the regs for the press and a different one for his friends. There isn't one for a winning weekend and another for a losing weekend. He just might be a bit more frustrated when he has two things to be frustrated about. In fact he usually errs on the side of truthfulness/authenticity rather than caring about the situation. "The car was fucked." The car was fucked and he clearly didn't see a reason to coach the thought in polite words.
Karen Chandhok - “Max just says exactly what he thinks. There is no filter, no PR version. You might not always agree with him, but you know it is genuine. That honesty is rare. People sometimes confuse honesty with arrogance. But those are not the same thing.”
Peter Hardenacke - "I really appreciate that about Max, he is so clear and keeps eye contact all the time. I think that's what makes him so unique. If you talk about authenticity, he is one of the most authentic people in the paddock."
Being someone who is known for speaking their mind and doing so with honesty engenders trust in others. And once people trust Max they are also distrustful of people who criticize him for the very thing that made them trust Max in the first place. I think one only has to look at recent comments by Juan Pablo Montoya and more importantly ho people reacted to them. You had Jolyon Palmer quickly and decisively coming to Max's defense against him on a technical criticism, but more importantly for our discussion here, you had Dani Juncadella coming to his defense against him on the issue of his honesty. As Chris Harris said, Max doesn't need to be 'parented' because he can take care of himself and yet people will time and time again defend him in a intensely protective way. Dani knows Max doesn't care what JPM thinks. That's not why he did it. He responded because it mattered to him. He protected Max because he wanted to. He is probably privy to Max's honesty in a very particular way being a teammate and having the man as his TP. He probably knows the depth of the authenticity/honesty and furthermore depends on it in the good times and the bad.
Soooooo there's most of what was on my mind when we were talking in that comment section @sage-daze and now I'm actually thinking of adding a third part which is more personal and just explains my own protective feelings. So unfortunately there will be a 3rd, hopefully shorter yap about how I feel just in my own little brain pan. Sorry for going off on so many tangents. Tangents that I'm not even sure came together. lol.
Did anyone else listen to/watch the High Performance Nico Rosberg interview? Wondering what people thought. I went into it with no real feelings about him one way or the other so was I hope open to just listening to him. I found him to be really honest and open about his emotions and thought processes. It as refreshing. However I was also struck by a certain black and white way his mind seems to work. I was fascinated by the way he seemed to absolutely connect confidence and arrogance. He mentioned both when he spoke about Michael and Max and again contrasted how Lando doubts himself but that he isn't arrogant. I don't think most people link confidence and arrogance inextricably. And also, in a little throwaway fact, was depressed that his company funded Anthropic and Space X and he was proud of it. All in all it was interesting.
ok, hmm, prompt...
Ok, Max is sick, scared, injured and turns to one or more of the mechanics or possibly another less expected team person to help. Or they find him. Would love to see Ole Schack, Matt or Jon Caller, Greg Reeson, Callum Nicholas, or even all of them!!
Don't know if this appeals but if it does, I hope it's fun to write.
Max has been with Red Bull for a few months, now, and everybody has been incredibly hardworking and supportive (especially, he thinks, since he gave them such good reason to be, winning his first race with them, getting a few podiums throughout the season), but just because they're there to help him set up the car well and score good points doesn't mean they want to be burdened with him.
He already caused enough of a disruption on Friday, when he passed out after FP1 like a fucking idiot. He knows better than to be fucking weak in front of everybody like that, and it's not as if he had meant to collapse in the middle of the garage after climbing out of his car, but he should know how to stay on his fucking feet like a man, too, so it's really no excuse.
His father trained him better than that.
He had brushed off everybody's concerns the best he was able, convinced them to stay hush to the media about it (which Helmut had backed him up on instantly, thank fuck), and got back into the car for FP2.
And when that session finished, and the world was going dark at the edges again, he'd stayed on his feet like a fucking man until he could collapse in the safety of his own driver's room, away from all the eyes.
Everybody at Red Bull has been incredibly hardworking and supportive, but that's because Max got them a win on his first race with them, and because he's been getting them podiums, and because he gets in the fucking car and gives them points to knock them up the championship order. They're not there to coddle a kid who can't even stay on his feet.
Max isn't a kid anymore. He's nineteen now. Happy fucking birthday.
So after the race, he pulls into parc fermé in front of the P2 board, next to Daniel, and he ignores the dark shadows in the corners of his vision, and he gets to his feet. Goes to the cooldown room and, despite the name, doesn't stop sweating.
His voice cracks when he asks for a sugary drink—curse him. In front of the cameras—in front of everyone. But he asks again because, fuck, it's better than passing out on the podium.
He makes it through. The champagne does nothing to cool him, feeling instead like it's evaporating as it comes into contact with his burning skin. His father's eyes are the only thing that cools him—shivers down his spine when he sees him in the crowd, staring silent.
Max stays on his feet like a fucking man until he makes it back to the garage. His champagne isn't in his hand anymore—who knows where the fuck it went. It doesn't matter. All that matters is getting open the stupid door to his driver's room so he can collapse in peace.
(If he was more of the man his father wanted him to be, he wouldn't need to collapse at all. At the end of the day, maybe all he is is fucking weak.)
His sweaty hands can't get a grip on the knob. His knees buckle, his weakness catching up to him. Fuck him, honestly. He got a podium today, but it could have been the win—Daniel proved that—and now he can't even keep it together enough to get into his room. Red Bull took him in mid-season; they'd have no problem throwing him away. Carlos could be in his seat by next race. His father reminds him every day.
He remembers the gentle hands on him when he had blinked bleary eyes open the other day, drenched with water, finally cool. The kind eyes that swam into focus, mouths twisted with concern.
Max isn't used to expressions like that. Kindness. Concern. They must think he's so weak. Fragile, to need to be handled like that. It's a miracle they let him back into the car. It will be even more of a miracle if they do again, if they find him like this.
Groaning, breathing as deep as he can, Max tries to push himself to his feet. Braces his hands against the door to help him. Wishes it would just fall open and he could tumble to the floor in peace.
Instead, the loud voices from the main garage start moving closer. Max slams his head against the door as they round the corner, finally standing, but shaking violently, clinging onto the doorknob he still can't twist for dear life.
Back in the Toro Rosso by next week for sure. His father is going to kill him.
The raucous voices halt. "Max?"
Max should really lift his forehead from the door. He should turn and say, "Hey, guys! Great race—thank you," and then twist the doorknob and go into his room.
He doesn't do any of that. He pants heavy and tries desperately to stay standing.
"Max, mate. Are you okay?"
There's a voice next to his ear, soft—Callum's. A hand on his back, between his shoulder blades—warm, but not scalding. Gentle. God, he's so weak. They must think he's so weak.
"Okay, let's get you into your room," another voice says—Ole. The steady pressure on his back shifts—a hand envelops his over the doorknob. Gently, they twist it open.
Max starts to fall forward. The hands don't let him.
He ends up on the couch. His couch. His head is in someone's lap, and his feet are in someone else's. He should get up. Tell them he's alright, beg them not to tell anyone—no, not beg. Demand. Begging is weak. Begging gets you nowhere—gets you nothing but more pain.
He should get on his feet like a fucking man.
Greg's voice, from somewhere, says, "You did good today, kid. Real good. Get some rest."
Max isn't a kid. He's nineteen now. And besides—he hasn't been a kid in a long time.
A hand—gentle and warm, cards through his hair.
"Attaboy, Maxy."
He can't help it. At the end of the day, all he is is fucking weak.
otherwise known as some mega yapping for the lovely @sage-daze. It might not be very interesting to anyone else or even to them lol because it grew so large that it required two parts lol. Anyway, I'm putting this under a read more because dang I do ramble.
So it all started with a discussion in the comment section of this post from the also lovely @caprifiles. I mentioned the way Chris Harris spoke about Max during his podcast after filming the Ford GTD video and how he talked about feeling parental toward him. And there is actually a lot that can be unpacked around that sentiment that I believe goes a long way toward explaining how a great many of his fans, fellow drivers, and press end up feeling about him. Before we unpack here is a transcript of a bit of that discussion to give a bit of context to his comments.
I think it also reminded me that when people have judged Max, and he deserved to be judged at times, some of it was, you know, close to the bone at the beginning, we forget two things. He was so young and he was so inexperienced. He hadn't come up, he hadn't graduated through years and years of racing. He I'm not sure he really knew a lot of the what what you could and couldn't do in armed combat in a car. He just went he was just given a Formula 1 car at the at an age where most people are trying to do their GCSEs and told to go out and fight. You forget and he's he's effectively matured into young adulthood as a world champion in the full view of a very very critical media. And I suppose I I almost felt parental towards him. He doesn't need it. Good god, can he look after himself. But I I just felt I just imagined if that was my boy how protective I would have been towards him. Jos comes in for a lot of shit but he basically sent his kid into the Viper Nest at an age when most of us wouldn't trust them to go for one night out on the piss in their local town. And look what he's achieved. I think it's remarkable.
(Sorry for the wall of text. The video is here if you'd rather listen. The section is labeled 'CH and Max' in the timeline)
So what is he saying here? And is it indicative of a larger trend of people in Max's orbit. I think it maybe boils down to 5 reasons all of which can be grouped under 2 main truths. I'm not including his absolute talent and dominating competency into any of this. There are many who admire his talent (sometimes grudgingly) but what I'm talking about is more personal than that so we'll leave his talent out of it for the time being. So that out of the way, buckle up for some epic yapping my friends.
Adversity
Isolation
*Max was so very young when he entered Formula 1. Most people have gotten used to the idea that Max was young when he joined. It's just one of the F1 factoids. But if you think about it for just a moment it becomes more than just a trivia night fact to keep in your back pocket. I think about this quote from Jamie Alguersuari who was the the next youngest driver before Max:
"No, everything was bad," Alguersuari continued. "Even when you win, you could not be happy. Nothing was enough. [It was] push, push, push, push, and you felt that anxiety. You were living with that inside... That was the feeling I always had inside Red Bull. They were designing [drivers to be] machines."
That was the situation that Max was thrown into. That was the world that they expected a 17 year old to navigate when a 19 year old couldn't.
And at the time, for whatever cultural or personal reasons most of the drivers on the grid were uninterested in helping him with that navigation. I direct you to these responses from the other drivers when asked in Max's first press conference if they had any words of advice:
Lewis Hamilton - I don't really have any words of wisdom. He'll learn on the way.
Sebastian Vettel - I think uh despite the fact that he's still young I think he has a lot of experience. He's quick otherwise he wouldn't be here so uh I don't think... I don't think he needs much uh advice.
Now in that same interview Danny Ric did give him the advice of just enjoying the race which is fine as far as it goes, but isn't true mentoring.
I think that people like Chris Harris can see pieces of that boy in the man they meet now. I've heard Jenson Button remark that you leave F1 the same emotional age that you went in. Now I don't think Max is immature, but that being said I don't think he was an immature 17 year old. But there are ways in which he carries himself even now that seem tinged with a youthful innocence - perhaps a foul-mouthed, smart assed innocence but those things are just the window dressings of jadedness. Max isn't actually jaded and when people experience that up close it triggers a desire to protect, much like you would any young person.
Criticism
*We'll never know if drivers offered Max support behind the scenes but we do know that he faced an avalanche of criticism during the first years of his time in Formula One and the criticisms followed him and even increased after he became the World Driver's Champion at the end of a hard fought season with Lewis Hamilton. Crashtappen, Mad Max, etc. etc. Did he deserve the criticism? Well, deserve is a crazy loaded word to use. He was young and making young mistakes. Obviously it is valid to point that out whether as a journalist, team, or even as a fan. What is not valid is dog piling without consideration for the facts on the ground. Fans and the Formula One community more broadly seemed to buy into a narrative that was pushed by publications and not unimportantly the growing juggernaut that was Drive to Survive. Max was talented, aggressive, dead honest, and uncompromising - all perfect ingredients to mold the villain the story needed.
And to admit that it was just that... a story, would topple more than just Drive to Survive. It would threaten a new kind of fan that the sport was and still is courting. So the criticism continues. Max races dirty. Max is violent. Max is a teammate killer. On and on it goes. And I know we've all cataloged all of the criticism fair and unfair and downright stupid that has been leveled at Max, so I won't go to into depth with this. Honestly I couldn't deal with having to find specific quotes because it depresses me how horrid people have been.
Some don't buy it at all. Some buy it hook line and sinker. And then there are those that don't think about it too much until they meet Max himself and have all of those preconceptions challenged. I can only imagine being a teammate, motorsport athlete, a reporter etc who thought they were getting one thing them meet Max and find it couldn't be further from the truth. You might I think be forgiven for wanting to right the wrongs that you yourself might have believed. Chris says that Max was the person many people told him he'd be, I believe him, but when he goes on to decry the way British media sees him and wanting to change it, I wonder if he'd been a bit worried about who Max would be. When he found a young man who simply loves motorsport and had no affectations other than how he liked to drive close to the steering wheel because he felt more connected to the driving, it flipped any preconceptions the press had given him.
Possible Child Abuse
I feel the need to tip toe around this one, though even when I am my most generous to Jos Verstappen, I can't see Max's upbringing as anything other than abusive and traumatic. Would he see it that way? Not entirely. He clearly sees that it was hard. Knows that it was hard. "Nothing could be worse than what I experienced back then." But he is also deeply bonded with his father and an intensely loyal person. Nothing can change that. None of us will know the extent or depth of what happened and it's none of our business in reality. However what is important to know is the 'open secret' nature of it. There have been multiple people inside of the karting world who detailed actual physical and emotional abuse. People knew for sure something was going on. Others could infer. Sometimes it's framed as tough love, necessary training, a father wanting the best for his son, toughening for the future... all kinds of things, but we all know deep down when something was abusive. And yet they also meet Max and see something in him that is resilient and kind. In this case the hurt dog doesn't always bite. But sometimes it does. (see those earlier mistakes/aggression on and sometimes off track) People want to love, care, and protect that hurt puppy, not to strain the metaphor. He was harmed in the the process of becoming who he is and is therefore seen as needing a certain amount of protection. I think often of Fernando Alonso pinching his cheek. It's obviously just my own emotional response, but I see it as a cherishing gesture. He hadn't been cherished, but now certain people want to do so.
Part 2 will explore the second main truth of why there seems to be an urge on the part of many, including all of us here on maxblr, to protect this grown ass man. I'll hopefully get to it tomorrow. Also please excuse any typos, grammatical errors, or places where my brain worked faster than my fingers.
actually it shouldn’t even be necessary for drivers to have fluent english to be able to make it in f1 but i fear people aren’t ready for that conversation
I forgot to ask before, but where do you find the stats on the pace advantages of past WCC winning cars?
I have to admit to letting Google do most of the work for me. But since you can't trust them not to be letting AI hallucinating answers for them, I did a tiny bit of digging to confirm. A lot of roads lead to Reddit which is also wavers on accuracy. I found a lot of good data at The Race. They also have charts in some of their articles which is helpful too. So once I had an idea of the accuracy, I went ahead and used the spread that google suggested. Since I figure I don't have time to go to all the sources and the one that I went to might be on one end of a spectrum. I'm including a chart from The Race since they are colorful and attract my monkey brain. Sorry not to have a more conclusive all in one place source. I'll keep looking to see if I can find something : )
Editing to add this link because this has some nice info too:
The season there has been plenty of media hyperbole about the red bull being the "most dominant car ever" (or similar statements). This got
So I've been scrolling through your account, and oh my god I agree with everything u say! I've been thinking the same things for soo long. Thank you for actually pointing out the actual problems. I admit, my own account is definitely biased towards Max, but I love to read like proper thought through opinions like yours.
Especially the scapegoat stuff abiut Max The fia just loves to Max the bad guy and punish him, the swearing debacle proves it. leclerc got a fine, while Max got community service. For most people a fine is worse. But these are f1 drivers, so taking the very less free time they have for "community service" Is soo much worse than some fine.
And now Russell who threw a HEADREST on TRACK during a RACE got a suspended fine!? Because he apologized. It's really absolute bs.
They really just hate anyone speaking up, while George is their precious teacher's pet.
Has other stuff like this happened?
Won't! Twinsies! But seriously, thanks for messaging. I love connecting with people who look at F1 with Max tinted glasses. 😊 I never lie about that. I do come at this with a bias. I just happen to think that is alright. Especially since when dive into things you just end up feeling more justified, right?
I think the FIA and FOM are weird and conflicted about Max. He is the type of driver who could drive (no pun intended) engagement with the sport but he is also the type of driver who will use his power to drive (on intended this time lol) the sport in the direction he thinks it should go. They don't want drivers to have power. And even in the days before he had any power at all just his very being was a threat because, like I said in that whole scapegoat thing, he was/is a person who can't help but highlight the flaws and dysfunction within a system. They have always been trying to control him and control the narrative around him. I have recently wanted to do some thinking about why Horner didn't stand in the way of that a little more. A topic for another day.
Hmm, I had something on the tip of my tongue that was specific with George but I can't remember now. Ugh, sucks getting old. But I will say this there have been very few drivers who are held as responsible for the whole team and team decisions as Max is. This is again something I need to do more research on. I know it has a lot to do with the whole second seat curse thing. But in short you look at McLaren and even a Lando fan who dislikes Oscar will say 'oh the team is favoring Oscar and that's why Lando is losing'. With Max the implication is that he is driving the favoritism and perhaps even demanding it. I would have to dive more into McLaren fan spaces to solidify this though and I'm not sure I'm up for that lol.
This was probably way more than you wanted as an answer. I talk too much. Thanks for reading all of my yapping!!
Sorry for bothering you (again), and this isn't necessarily related to anything specific that's happened recently, but can we talk about how there seems to be a trend within the F1 fandom where hypothetical championships are treated as a more valid metric of a driver's true abilities than their actual performances? Every excuse under the sun is used to discredit Max's actual, bona fide achievements, and yet we're supposed to just nod along and accept it when someone says that drivers like Charles or George are on the same level as Max and the only reason it doesn't show is because of the position of Mars or something like that.
Hypotheticals are fine and all, but if you're going to use them to prop up a driver over another, they should at least somewhat be based in reality. Now, I won't deny that I'm obviously biased, but this is why Verstappies can say that if Max had a car on the same level as the W17, we would be seeing a repeat of 2023 because we actually have the evidence to back it up.
And that's not even addressing the amount of cognitive dissonance required to claim that Max is actually a midfield-level driver who has his stats unfairly boosted (an actual argument that people love to make) while also claiming that other drivers should be treated as F1 greats because they would apparently be able to match Max's stats if they were given the same treatment.
Ok, this got waaaaaayyyyyy too long lol, so I'll put it under a read more for those that want to scroll on past the without a wall of text assaulting them.
Not bothering me at all. I LOVE talking about this stuff. I absolutely know what you're talking about. I haven't been watching for all that long. (I started watching in 2024) The entire time I've been watching there is this notion about 'deserving' the championship. So and so deserves the championship. No. That's not how this works. The person with the most points wins. There is a whole season in which you must optimize every single point because there will be situations that go in your favor and situations that go against your favor. That's true in motorsport in particular where you are dependent so completely on a piece of machinery and also on less that optimal refereeing. I think Max is particularly good at articulating that. It's never about a particular race, but it is about every single performance. You have to fight for every win and every point. That's what I think he does even better than Lewis tbh. You have to be a scrapper in sports. So many times I see people discredit Max by saying he wins because he's dirty. Fuck that noise. The the teams actually thought that they would have the rules changed.
Don't even get me started on the 'Max wins because he's in the fastest car' trope. Actually do get me started because I bring receipts. You are 100% right that if Max was in that car he'd be wiping the floor with them, even taking new regs into account. Here's how we know that.
2014 - 2020 Mercedes had a performance advantage of .5 - 1 second per lap fluctuating from year to year but always within that amount. They won every one of those races. In fact Lewis Hamilton won every one except 2016 when Nico won. Only once did Lewis win by over 100 points. And only twice was there a non mercedes car in 2nd place
2021 Mercedes had a performance advantage of .05 - .07 seconds per lap over the course of the season. Max won by 8 points.
2022 - Red Bull had a performance advantage of .2 - .4 seconds per lap. Max won by 146 points
2023 - Red Bull had a performance advantage of .3 - .6 seconds per lap. Max won by 290 points.
2024 - Mclaren had a performance advantage of .05 - .3 seconds per lap over the course of the year. Max won by 63 points.
2025 - Mclaren had a performance advantage of .2 - .5 seconds per lap. Lando won by 2 points.
So in short 2 of Max's wins were in dominant cars and he won by over 100 points and 2 were against dominant cars.
2026 - Mercedes has a performance advantage of up to .86 seconds per lap!! And obviously this means nothing yet, but Kimi has 83 points lead over Max and a 43 points lead over George and a 56 points lead over Charles. Kimi has come closest to what Max did in 2023. But even with his wins he is not actually having the level of drives Max did that year. We need to stop pretending that Max wouldn't have crushed everyone in last years Mclaren and we need to stop thinking he wouldn't be doing something stunning in this years Merc. It's simply a simple conclusion when looking at the numbers. Now is that to say Max would be winning in this year's Aston Martin? Of course not. There are limits. We're mostly joking when we say he could win in a Power Wheels Barbie Car (though he'd give it a go and make that shit look good while he tried). What we really mean by that is that he wrings every bit of performance from a car and that it is a skill that is unique to a very small, specific group of drivers. This isn't difficult to understand y'all.
I think another metric that I'd like to dive into at some point is his recovery drive statistics. We know that he holds the record for most wins from the most grid places. 3 of them from P10 or below. But this isn't the whole picture. There are podiums from recovery drives, falling down places once a race has started, sprints, and other such things. I'll have a look at that and see how it compares to other drivers.
And to your last thing... those other drivers would crumble if they were held up to the level of scrutiny Max had to endure. This is not a 'poor Max' thing either. Like it's just how it is sometimes for people with preternatural talent. But in this current era I cannot picture any driver other than Lewis Hamilton (because he had to face some pretty awful racism from when he was quite young. I imagine he had to grow really thick skin and I never want to negate what he had to go through) who could stand up to it what got thrown Max's way. And still does from time to time.
Thank you so much for the question. I think we have pretty similar takes on these things.
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