okay so I saw you talking about cognitive functions in the tags of a lando post and I am SO HERE FOR IT if you feel like sharing your F1 MBTI thoughts... two separate interests coming together 👀
(even people who talk about MBTI are usually wrong/boring because they're going off of the test letters and not the functions! tell me about Lando's Ti!?)
hi!! your ask finds me at a perfect time bc i recently fell back into the mbti rabbithole and spent a feverish late night a couple days ago writing a document on lando's type....
i'm not sure exactly which post u saw bc i think i mentioned Ti on multiple? but essentially i've been documenting lando's dom Ti for years now bc he was actually v hard to type so it was v satisfactory to finally figure it out & see it demonstrated again and again
i think it's pretty clear if you're going by the functions that lando is an ixxp - his independence, his deep desire to be understood for who he actually is, insistence on honesty at the expense of everything else, outspokenness (or as i call it, foot-in-mouth syndrome), contrarian streak, etc., all point to the fact that he leads with an introverted judging function. but it was actually difficult at first to figure out which one, out of Fi and Ti. i guess lando just vibes like an Fi user, which is why pdb (useless evil website) universally types him as an Fi user (they actually type him as an enfp which is. silly silly). but over time it's become more and more obvious to me that he's actually a Ti dom
i think nowadays it makes a lot more sense than when i started typing him back in 2020-2021, because he's made his doggedly-realist / argumentative / pedantic nature a lot more visible than when he was put in the silly goofy clown-rookie-baby box back then. u can generally spot his Ti (if you're looking for it) in pretty much all his answers to interview questions. whenever he rambles or elaborates on anything it's very rarely about his personal feelings on a situation, and very often overexplaining and overclarifying logical processes / his own reasonings / his understanding of why something happened. when he's asked when he first decided he wanted to go into f1, he doesn't elaborate at all on any strong 'feeling' that he had to do it, or self-belief (of which he says he didn't have much), or anything of the sort; instead, he explains why at 13-14, because you're moving into single seaters, and getting into gcse age at school, and have to commit to missing a lot more time from school, the combination of factors makes it the obvious age to make a proper decision about whether to actually stick to the f1 goal. it was actually so obvious in the little post-race summaries on the mclaren app when he used to be paired with daniel, because daniel would inevitably open with his own feelings on the race / sessions / country they were in, while lando kept it mostly factual all the way through
anyways. short list of Ti things lando does that make me smile:
1. pedantic correcting of questions / spotting hidden premises behind questions / specifying and clarifying questions; i think maybe the post you saw me reblog was the one where he answers google autocomplete questions, and he's asked if he can sing, to which he replies "i mean i can sing, anyone can sing, but can i sing well? no". another recent interview where he does it a lot is this 'hot or not' interview he did a couple weeks ago, where he clarifies almost every single prompt and points out so many caveats that even the ppl in the comments notice. this is not broad strokes 'efficiency and usefulness' Te. it's the endlessly detailed and exception-riddled labyrinths of Ti logic
2. being a general menace because he refuses to compromise on what he sees as the 'truth', even if it's not appropriate / polite. like when he insisted in multiple interviews that he had no sympathy for daniel, or the fantastically pessimistic early 2022 interviews ("well, the only way is up, lando" "no it’s - no. the only way is not up, for us it can also be down")
3. gaming the system on so many mclaren games / challenges because he figures out how to cheat the game instead of actually using any general knowledge (he does this in the estrella galicia quiz with carlos where he figures out multiple questions based exclusively on the game itself rather than actually knowing the answers) (also does this in the naomi schiff gulf quiz, where he clocks that he just needs to be closer to the real number than naomi, so he only goes one up or down) (also does this in any true or false game ever, especially truth or phish with daniel)
4. driving max fewtrell up the wall by engaging in stupid arguments that involve building a jenga tower of logic based off a single premise (like when he used 'you're only as good as your last game' to argue that he is a better golfer than max based on a single game where he won) (or insisted that a hot choc mix can't expire because it's a powder). he's wrong in both of these arguments, and he knows he's wrong - he's doing it to rile max up, because he knows max (who i believe is an Fi/Te user) cannot stand it. his comfortability manipulating logic / being able to trace the logical steps from a premise to a conclusion / focusing on the building blocks on logic rather than the accuracy of its result matches (my understanding of) high Ti
anyways, the dom Ti becomes extremely obvious once u identify his Fe, which is soooo much easier to spot. the way i generally identify the fourth function is by trying to see what function the person has anxiety about / wants to be better at / has identified as an area of growth especially as an adult. and eeeevery time lando talks about wanting to improve (not in the context of racing), it's about social impact. it's either speaking out about mental health, or trying to be a more collaborative teammate, or learning to communicate more clearly so his mum won't see headlines that paint him as a bad guy, or even just calling his friends more often. his relationship w the team is a source of constant anxiety but also fulfilment for him, where he wants so desperately to make them proud & speaks often abt how uncomfortable he feels that he has so many people relying on him. he says having to speak to the entire factory (1000+ people) brings him more anxiety than race day
anyways i personally type lando as an istp, which sounds kind of unrealistic if i don't motivate it bc the istp stereotype is so far removed from lando's personality - lando isn't quiet, or stoic, or unemotional, or particularly macho (compared to his racing peers). but as i am also a Ti dom who also happens to be very social / enjoy partying / cry easily, i feel like it's a bit easier for me to spot the real Ti through the fog
