Hey!

What is this? Two emails in one week???

Explanation the first: I’ve just moved us over to Buttondown and this is the lucky first email from there (here). [Ain’t it cool? I love this editor so much I can’t even tell you.]

Explanation the second: The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is coming up this weekend where EvErYtHiNg will be decided and I wanted to get some last minute comments out before that. Comments that I don’t think I have the energy to put into podcast form.

(You might think just talking is easier than writing, and sometimes it is. But editing audio is so much harder for me. Alas, I do love the sound of my own voice ;) )

The Commentsessz

As you may know, I’m not a Max Verstappen fan. I can, however, appreciate his talent, so if he wins it won’t be an undeserving champion who wins. But, if he wins, the media hype around him that is so overbearing now will become simply unbearable.

Even if he doesn’t win the hype will likely somehow increase from where it currently is. It’s like watching a Drive To Survive story line be written in real time. There’s promo graphics from F1 going around that if Max wins he’ll be the “most successful driver of all time.” But he’s not the first driver to win 5 titles, nor the first to win 5 titles in a row.

Then there’s the toxicity from RBR. Twice now we’ve seen comments from Red Bull Racing broadcast during the race that have produced huge levels of hate. First at Monza when Gianpiero/GP and Max had a laugh at McLaren trying not to fuck over one of their drivers, and then at Qatar when GP accused Kimi Antonelli of giving a position to Lando. RBR have since said their comments about Kimi were “incorrect” but didn’t actually apologise. Kimi got death threats over this.

The numbers of fans watching will go up for the last race of the season, the title decider. I won’t be surprised if RBR/GP/Max say something accusatory which is then broadcast for public consumption/outrage. Yea, the radios are open anyway, but most folks don’t have access to that, in contrast to putting up the comment on screen and playing it out.

Further, if Oscar Piastri doesn’t win those who claim he’s being sabotaged by McLaren will get louder and possibly overshadow a Lando Norris first championship.

And if Lando wins the championship the narrative that he’s mentally unstable and whiny still won’t go away. But hey, the same is said of Lewis Hamilton and he’s only the most successful driver F1 has ever seen.

Maybe Oscar winning would create the least bad vibes around the championship?

It’s a weird place this time around. That a competition that has such financial investment and (often manufactured) drama like Formula 1 has become abundant with toxic fans is not surprising.

But I don’t like this.

Before Max got back in the fight it was almost a “feel good” battle. And now he’s the cartoon villain who is also getting mega hype. At this point I’m unsure if I’m going to tune in live for the final race. I might just wait to find out the winner.

No matter who wins I will be very glad to see the end of the ground effect era with the hyper finicky set up windows, the sensitivity of the floors to even stones on track, and the fucking plank wear being a gamble.

I plan to write some silly stories to make up for all this negativity in the future.