#iwtv#interview with the vampire#the vampire armand#assad zaman#amc tvl
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Charles’ latest Instagram post is perfect. Charles with the tifosi, adored by the fans, vs. the near soulless corporate LH pictures … the pictures with of the 16 and the car … aura
After seeing a lot of the recent asks, Im really pleasantly surprised to find out im not the only one who's been feeling weird about Charles recently. Because on a lot of others platforms, namely twitter (and insta as well on the rare blue moon I visit insta), no one is really bothered by Charles' overwhelmingly pr personality that has somewhat taken over his whole character. And i was wondering if maybe im js reading into it way too much but it looks like everyone else has noticed too
im a die-hard verstappie first and foremost. Have been since Ive started watching and that has only grown overtime. however the almost-similar level of adoration i felt for Charles at the beginning continues to fade more and more as he becomes less and less authentic. Being a max fan and a major rbr fan, i know that my preferences r kinda stacked against him so this is obvi pretty biased as all opinions r. ofc every single driver is made up of PR to some degree. hell even max's pr is ridiculously well-crafted, even more so than others id say, but he like. has a personality. and it's visible, most of the time. He messes around with interviewers and PR events bc it's well known he's not the biggest fan of them, his twitch streams showcase him as a person and his passion for racing beyond f1 r all things he actively shows. The thing is, I KNOW Charles has a rlly likeable personality as well, we've seen it in the past and it's what sucked me in at first! But as that one anon mentioned, he's like a walking ad now. Im not getting into his driving rn, bc we know ferrari is to blame for that majorly. But purely on an off-track level, i used to see him as someone who could maybe blend in with the "old-school" drivers, like how Max is pretty much the last of the old-school kind imo. Nowadays, he's kinda becoming everything i dislike about f1. The avant-garde over-glamorized Monaco aesthetic, every piece of content being advertising, robotic-corporate pr trying to resemble something akin to authenticity. Personally it's really hard for me to even care about him outside the car anymore, and it sucks but im not gonna waste my time watching ads even if he's featured. It's pointless to wish for him to go back to who he was, so im not gonna. I think there r ppl like max, who have long since embraced the brashness of their pr and stay on that train, and then there's Charles who's clearly trying to blend in with the newer, more sanitized F1. I still want him to do well on track, and id like to see him win a wdc one day, but for now his off-track person has completely fallen off for my personal tastes
I think Charles has had this pattern for a while where when the season isn't going well, he's leaning heavier into the ads to "make up for it" and create some sort of safety net, I guess. It's just that this season has been awful, so the ads are even more noticeable, as there's even less racing content he posts.
I do think he bet a lot on this season. This was supposed to be his year. The car was supposed to be really good, and he did go into this season thinking he could win the wdc and wcc. He probably made the very fair assumption that no matter what kind of rocketship McLaren built, a solid car would give him the chance to beat both McLaren drivers on skill. Instead, Ferrari somehow yet again went back on their development, and beating Lewis means nothing if it doesn't get him a title.
But it does feel like the pressure of having Lewis as a teammate got to him a little not in terms of driving but more so in terms of popularity and him feeling like he needs to do even more to keep up – somewhat to his detriment, I fear, precisely because he was so liked for having his "own" personality, and being shady and feral, despite all that training. Now he just feels so ... subdued, and I hate to see that. Fuck Ferrari. And you're right saying that this development feels more like the "new" f1, and that before, he was more one of the "old school" drivers.
The most frustrating thing with Charles right now is that, as you say, we KNOW he has that really funny personality, and he IS this fantastic talent, but you wouldn't be able to tell from his socials. He's publicly turned himself into a product, and due to Ferrari being a disappointment once again, he can't counterbalance it with racing results, as he would do otherwise.
It's just incredibly frustrating and heartbreaking to see, especially when it's a driver you're rooting for so much to succeed. Other than Max, there's no one on the grid who I want to do well as much as Charles, and who deserves this title as much, but year after year, he remains stuck in this situation.
something interesting ab ferrari’s pr as someone who isn’t that much of a ferrari fan is the duality of the fan perception of them
I mean, on the one hand you have the historic, legendary team that brought the first 7-time wdc to be. The red team so iconic the sport wouldn’t be here without them, that has so much history and legacy you can’t separate the concept of f1 from it.
On the other, you have the meme ferrari. The incompetent italian team that cannot do radio comms and can do strategy even less. The laughing stock of the paddock whenever a drop of rain hits the track, who are good but never good enough (#nextyear)
And this year especially it felt like ferrari was throwing everything to become that first image, and leave behind the unseriousness. We didn’t get teammate challenges at the beginning of the year, we got parades and photoshoots and big public declarations of intent. We got a big presentation (and a big merch launch), and tons of articles hyping up what should’ve been the most iconic team lineup of the grid.
And then… nothing happened. No wins, barely any podiums, two depressed drivers and a tp desperately trying to salvage the team’s image. But they’d been pushing the image so hard that walking that back and going for the ‘funny haha’ team content feels… hollow, in a way. There’s no monaco win to celebrate, no “first lewis win” to squeeze for reactions, no “title fight”. And when you can’t laugh at ferrari and you can’t celebrate with them, you get… nothing.
So you have two superstar drivers who have built their image from being hot, immense talents and fierce competitors. But they’re not competitive, they don’t have a car to show their talent, and being hot only gets you so far when the dynamic between both drivers isn’t that compelling (at least imo) compared to Everything Else going on.
I’m rambling, but my point is ferrari relied too much on their success when building their narrative for this season. And their drivers also don’t really have anything to play off of this season either, besides their own teammate. There’s no “il predestinado” narrative when he doesn’t win, and no “7 time wdc” aura when he’s running on his own for most of the races.
Like, compared to the george/max saga, charles doesn’t have any rival this season beyond some scraps with the williams, which is more sad than anything. And lewis is too busy fighting with his own race engineer to build any dynamic with someone else. There’s just.. not much to work with, beyond a couple of dogs and a very pretty girlfriend. Because ferrari didn’t prepare anything that didn’t require success first.
Yes, so true!!
It’s also very telling to me that Charles has stopped posting after races as much. He used to make posts even after bad races, but now it’s just … nothing much, really. It just feels like overall the morale at Ferrari is really low right now, so the “funny” stuff falls completely flat. Especially since there’s no chemistry to begin with.
I think one of the biggest crimes of this season is genuinely the fact that Charles is no longer perceived as the talent that he is, and as a worthy championship contender. But I do also think that there are opportunities for him to highlight his love for racing and his obsession with it rather than to fully turn into ads - which is something he tends to do frequently when the season isn’t going as well, but there’s no good results to really snap him out of it again.
I’m a big fan of Max actually cutting down on his media duties.
He’s been this circus for long enough to not have to do every silly thing anymore. Sure, we love the content, but it’s completely legitimate for him to cut down on the media duties (not to stop doing them!), and it would be fantastic if he got the chance to actually talk about what he’s more passionate about (since his fans clearly love it, too).
I also love Max entering his main character, 4x world champion era of clearly caring significantly less about what he has to do, and actually being able to get the benefits his status gets him (do more of what he wants to do, which is racing).
Lewis dragging Roscoe today… Leave that fucking dog at home. Its so clearly pr when the dog doesnt even live with him. Poor dog can hardly keep up.
Its so obvious that he has seen people eating up Leo so we are getting more content of the two dogs. And personally why?? Who cares about two random dogs? Are they cute? Sure. But this amount of pr (both of them) is ridiculous, even more when anyone with eyes can see that the dogs dont enjoy being in the paddock. Why are you dragging your dog to a noisy and crowded place?
Maybe its just the amount ive seen them in the last few days that annoys me
They flew the dog in from LA for ... what exactly?
My feeling is that Ferrari has been heavy on the "happy family" and dog(s) narrative this season since they pretty much have nothing else to sell, or work with. The season has been, if we're being honest, quite abysmal, especially after the big claims of a possible WDC and WCC contention. Every single thing we've heard about the 2026 car has been negative. Charles and Lewis aren't really creating the iconic moments one might have hoped for.
I remember receiving an ask after the contract was announcement, with an anon asking how that pairing could play out given the pr power of that duo. I can't find the answer right now, but I do recall being optimistic about the potential, especially to get into spaces beyond the sport. But that simply hasn't materialised. All we got were a few LH covers before the season had even started, and looking at the season now it feels like it might have been better to ... not do them. Even Charlos did more fashion things together, like that Vogue story.
Again, despite their popularity, they simply aren't really selling, especially not together. In fact, on most days, you could easily forget that they're even teammates. And I hate to say it, but it also feels like Charles' popularity is stagnating a bit this season. He's everywhere, and yet he's still not breaking into the spaces outside of f1, and his fanbase remains largely as it was in terms of geography. I'm also not sure whether new fans would necessarily choose him as their favourite driver, given that the results aren't fantastic right now, and his socials and overall presence aren't entertaining as they were before. There's no more novelty in Leo, in fact, people are starting to criticise him for that, and despite the good image his relationship has, it's also hardly a major new sell anymore, either.
I am shocked
Agree with what’s been said re: Charles, Ferrari and PR. I’ll just add that I’ve also had…complicated feelings about Charles since the past year or so. I love him as a driver, I love watching him drive and give his everything on track and that hasn’t changed since 2019, but as a public persona or “personal brand”... it’s just not landing for me anymore
I know it’s inevitable that drivers and sports stars in general will lean into the ads and sponsorships as their status and popularity grows (plus the obligations stemming from the team’s sponsors) but for the past few years, maybe since 2023 or so, it’s felt… increasingly heavy on that front. And then the Leo oversaturation which, sure, cute dog will boost your visibility/popularity but it’s also invited some (warranted) criticism and scrutiny
The more it’s being pushed, the less genuine it feels. Maybe foolishly I thought Leo would be a Jimmy and Sassy-type pet; very loved but mostly staying back home. And then he started being brought absolutely everywhere, to events, to the paddock, flying halfway around the world and for what… Idk that kind of 2000s celebrity dog flaunting behavior rubbed me the wrong way
I guess it also doesn’t help that we basically get the same few lines all the time. It works when you’re a new fan, but when you’ve been hearing the same rehearsed marketing lines for like 3+ years it gets a bit tiring. Like the GQ 10 Essentials video people were so excited for, and then it turns out to be stuff we’ve already heard before, and most of what he’s showing is ads (either for his own brand like the ice cream or sponsors like Eight Sleep) or the dog (which has kind of become a vessel for ads or at least commercial practices, like the Ferrari clothing collection including branded dog clothing and accessories). Again I understand it has to be quirky and digestible and an “introduction” for new fans and a wider audience, but as a long-term fan it just feels kind of hollow and generic :/ Probably doesn’t help that all of this isn’t backed by on-track results which is what the focus should really be on (that’s not Charles’s fault of course but Ferrari’s aggressive aura farming before the start of the season only to be mid definitely didn’t help the optics)
I know the Twitch days are long over and we’ll (probably) never get anything like that again, but those were the glory days in terms of relatable, accessible down-to-earth content where you could learn more about him and get a glimpse into how he actually is without it feeling like a conscious performance. Max seems to be balancing the sponsor obligation/public persona vs real self better, like with the streams and endurance outings, things you know he has a genuine interest in and it doesn’t feel performed or scripted
Anyway sorry for the rant!
I actually had the exact same thoughts about him always repeating the same phrases! I do also wonder whether maybe that has to do with him not being a native speaker, but it’s true that unless you’re a new fan, you’ve already heard the same thing many times, which in turn decreases the interest in watching this content, since you won’t really learn or see anything new. What’s interesting, I think, is that the most genuine and engaging parts that people are actually quoting and have enjoyed are not the ads, but him talking about his eyesight or Leo. And then you sort of lose interest in the content.
And, unfortunately, while I fully recognise Charles won’t and doesn’t have to go back to who he was years ago, I do wonder whether this is really going to attract new fans in the same way that his “old era” did. Anyway, I blame the team and the sport in general for a lot of it.
Max obviously never had to rely on pr as much as Charles, which has impacted his public persona, and the fact that he more or less has always been the same.
Hi! Love your blog and I feel like I’ve learned a lot more about the sport and drivers!
In your opinion, which driver has the most effective PR and/or communication style? Effective can be determined many different ways but however you want to interpret it, I’d be interested to hear.
P.s sorry if you’ve already answered a similar question! If so, please ignore
Thank you so much for your kind words!! And for the fun ask!!
There's obvious examples of drivers like LH who has obviously built a brand larger than life, or Charles, who's extremely popular, so it's effective, but I think with them it's very obvious that they're good at pr, if that makes sense? Their reputations are built on that understanding. Yet, they've built images in a way where many think that what they see is who these people are rather than a carefully constructed idea of authenticity.
Though, as I said, with them you expect the pr. Overall, and I'm of course biased, I think Max is up there in best pr. Why? Because most people don't realise how good his pr is. Look, he's not the most popular driver, but as I've mentioned before in similar asks, he's never needed that popularity the same way as he become very successful very quickly. But because of his personality, if you like him, you like him. Of course he has fans that only like him when he's winning, but all in all fanbase is loyal to him, and being now the face of f1 gets him recognition and a status others don't have.
Max also comes from a certain background, which has meant that his success in the sport didn't depend on how noticed and liked he was by sponsors. With Max, you would always bet on success backed by both talent and the opportunities.
In a way it also helps, I think, that Max comes from a smaller country with less competition in terms of celebrities or even athletes as compared to, say, the UK. There's plenty of very successful Dutch athletes, but few get the recognition Max has, and few compete in sports as globally popular as f1, so he by default has sort of become his nation's ambassador. And I think he's done well with this responsibility and privilege.
So Max has always gotten away with more or less being himself. Which is also not to say that he doesn't have a public and private persona, but pretty much anyone you talk to will confirm that Max is essentially the same you see as a stranger, and the "just a guy" isn't just a front he puts up to be perceived as such. But as discussed before, you don't become as successful as he is without knowing how to play the game – and he does. Max really is just that blunt, but he also knows how to weaponise that. How often do people underestimate him because they don't realise the bluntness is as much of his personality as it is his strategy? I also think people massively underestimate just how savvy Max is when it comes to contracts and business overall. People so often assume he's just about the racing, and doesn't care about anything else, but again, you don't get to the top – and stay there for this long – if you haven't mastered the rules.
Just look at how he's interacting with the press. He knows how to deal with the media on his terms. People want headlines, he knows this, so he makes sure they don't get these headlines – or they get them on his terms. Equally, back in early 2024 he's publicly dealt with the CH affair much better than so many other drivers. He's been in the spotlight for so long – longer than most drivers – and yet there's no scandals, few ripples here and there, most of which happened when he was younger.
Him and his team are running a tight ship when it comes to his image, even if they sometimes choose odd paths to pursue. As discussed prior in my essay published in 2024 (it's somewhere in the tags) on Max's image, I think his team struggled a little in finding their footing for a while, but it feels like that's settled more now, both as he's grown even more distant from social media and as he's become even more private with being a father now. They did the smart thing and let his success speak for him, and stopped pushing a narrative that didn't make sense. It also helps that over the last couple of years, people have started to like Max much precisely for his success, the personality he's showing, and the fact that Max as a champion is much more interesting than whatever is happening in f1 now, and even last year.
So I guess I'll simpy end this with linking another piece on Max I wrote that's very dear to me personally, and which also sort of shows who he is and how people perceive him now.
