Tag: max-verstappen

Watching the midfield

~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

I had my alarm set for 5.30am this morning. On a Sunday, a day I am not working. It was because the City of Las Vegas was hosting the 22nd Formula 1 race of the 2024 season. This was only the second F1 race at this track in Vegas, well I say track, it’s a street circuit. It was a dream for a long time, the flashiest cars racing down past the flashiest hotels in the world. It felt like ultimate optulence.

Spoiler alert: the race was pretty interesting. I felt there was action everywhere. I am a Lando Norris and McLaren fan, and it was an okay race. Like, both Lando and Oscar Piastri got in the points, it was a solid performance at a track where the car struggled. George Russell won his second race of the season, third in his career. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton was second, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third. And Max Verstappen won his 4th world title. There was a lot of quality overtaking during the race, with Sergio Perez doing a wonderful overtake of Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnussen. All three were wheel to wheel, and Checo came out in front. It was so so good.

Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez taking over Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnusson (f1.com)

Lando and McLaren, had a relatively uninteresting race, so I do what I have always done. I look towards the lower half of the grid to find someone to watch. Kick Sauber driver, Zhou Guanyu is out of contract at the end of the season, with nothing decided on his future. He has struggled all season, and when he reached q2 during yesterday’s qualifying, I decided to follow him for this race. I was manifesting points for him, for the first time this season. He started 13th. A fantastic start. He battled really hard, and did some great overtaking. He got himself into the top 10, and was maintaining his place, and matching the pace of the cars around him. I was so happy. He was one of the last drivers to pit for a second time, and that pulled him right down the ranks. And he ended up 13th, overtaking Franco Colapinto on the last lap. Not quite a points finish, but a rather magnificent effort. He obviously has a point to prove, and did brilliant. Showed what he is capable of.

Zhou Guanyu in Vegas (https://www.zhou-guanyu.com/en/news/detail/274)

Watching Zhou really made the race super exciting for me, even though my favourite didn’t have the greatest day. I think a lot of fans only follow what is shown on the cameras, the top teams, the winners. But, over half the grid don’t feature in any coverage, they simply drive away in the background. To see how these drivers are doing, you have to watch the timing screen, watch the seconds of gaps between other drivers. It can be so exciting. Because, big things happen, and if it is to a lower placed driver, it is ignored. For example, Sky Sports reported (Ted Kravtiz notebook) that Lance Stroll had driven the race without his radio. Which is the first time I’ve heard of the radio failing all race this season. It wasn’t reported on any of the main reporting, in fact, Ted is the only media person I’ve heard mention it.

In summary, the mid-to-lower field is great. If you are bored watching the front runner, there is always something going on further back. I grew up doing this, and think more fans should, it gives you more appreciation on the work all the drivers do. Also, well done Zhou Guanyu.

Hate Mob

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Today a post has been made online by Kelly Piquet, the girlfriend of Formula 1 driver and current champion Max Verstappen. It is in relation to the hatred, and rumours spread by many people on social media.

People have been spreading accusations about infidelity, photoshopped conversations, and more. Things, that can affect the lives of real people and their families. And it is awful, and as a formula 1 fan, I would like to believe that most people don’t want such bullies to be a part of the community.

It’s a thing that seems to be on the rise. People hide behind anonymous accounts spreading hatred and bullying people. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t anything new. I remember having to change Twitter accounts a few years back because I was getting dogpiled on, and every message was telling me to kill myself. Now, fortunately I was mentally capable at the time to close my account, and start again. There are times in my life, where such comments would have been enough to push me over the edge. Because one or two you can ignore, but when it’s hundreds of accounts, it’s horrific to try and deal with.

Now the problem is that a lot of well known people (sport stars, musicians, politicians, etc) and their families are being targeted. They get that hate that normal users do, and get the added issue of people using things like AI to generate fictional content. It has been warned about previously, with the rise of AI, but no one took it seriously. Now people are creating fiction where they allege known people are cheating on their spouses, sometimes with ‘fans’. They can make A-list stars say whatever they want. And it is very scary. Or I imagine it is for anyone with any kind of public image.

The truth is, as it always has been, that you never really know who you are talking to online. As as much as we can build true friendships online, some may act maliciously. Protect your online space. If you see negativity and ‘rage farming’ block the accounts doing so. If people react angrily and try to start a fight, block them. These people who are hateful online, usually hide behind anonymity, and are not worth your time. Report and block when you see abuse occurring, don’t turn a blind eye. Don’t engage, because these people, crave engagement. It all seems like a game because it is online.

Today I have been on TikTok and threads, and I honestly have never felt so detached from an online community. It’s been building over the last few months, in the formula 1 community. Last week I posted on Threads thatl wanted Lance Stroll to get points at his home race, and I had r*pe threats sent to my Instagram inbox, with others telling me to die. What kind of person does that? Obviously there were from ‘bob3482’ kind of bot accounts. It’s horrible. And every person who uses online environments to make friends and build communities should be in agreement.

Report abusers. Block haters. DO NOT ENGAGE. And most of all, support one another.

Girl’s World

~ Sue ~ 1 Comment

I am a huge Formula 1 fan, and over the last few years there has been a push to include women more in the sport. From the female-only grid in the F1 Academy, to female mechanics. Not to mention, that it is estimated that women watching the sport is nearing 50/50 with men, with a lot of young girls watching races. This makes sense, because I remember when I was at High School, during the Michael Schumacher/ Ferrari era, all of my group of friends loved f1, and it was really popular amongst a lot of girls in my class. Over the years, with the shift to online, that has only helped the audience get bigger. And, that is without even mentioning the Netflix f1 documentary, Drive to Survive.

Recently, news broke that Christian Horner, the boss of current champions Red Bull Racing, was being investigated over inappropriate contact with a female member of staff. This happened about 3-4 weeks ago, and the news just keeps getting bigger and bigger, with this week it being leaked that the female complainant was suspended from Red Bull. This has lead to the volume of gossip that I have never seen involved in F1 before. And the female fans, who are incidentally the largest growing market for F1, are understandably peeved at the lack of transparency provided by Red Bull. This has lead to many questioning whether F1 is actually really about equality between genders, or is it all just a cover story, whilst everything that matters, stays the same.

This bad feeling has increased, when the teams arrived for media day in Saudi Arabia last week, and some of the drivers were a bit dismissive of the ‘Red Bull’ situation in their comments. With the drivers who were quizzed on it saying things like ‘it doesn’t affect me, I am concerned about what happens on the track’. This, angered a lot of fans, because it felt that they were treating the issue of sexual harassment or abuse as something trivial, that can be thrown away. Which, for victims of such abuse, is completely not true. For generations, women have struggled to get somewhere in their field, without men of a higher position trying to take advantage. You can think of Hollywood, and the idea of the ‘casting couch’, where women were expected to deliver certain ‘favours’ to get roles they desired. Whilst the idea of the ‘casting couch’ has bitten the dust, it is still common occurrence that men take advantage of women in lower positions that them, and then threaten their careers or even life, if they were to tell anyone. It happens with business leaders, politicians, celebrities, even senior members of someone’s own family.

I have had discussions with work colleagues, friends, and family over sexual assault and abuse. And there is a pattern that has formed. I don’t think that people want to believe that such crimes are so widespread, so they don’t believe them. It’s always ‘they are looking for money’, or ‘they are a homewrecker’. Whilst comments like these seem to come from a place of malice, I believe that they instead come from a place of ignorance. Sexual crimes are a very hard thing to understand unless a person has personally gone through it, or knows someone who has. Especially when it comes to harassment, where someone has said something that crosses a woman’s personal boundaries, and makes them feel devalued and uncomfortable. From my own experience, I have been told that I am ‘too precious’ if I let silly comments upset me. And that is from other women. Just because one person felt okay, doesn’t make things okay with every person.

I don’t really know how F1, the FIA, and the teams, make this right. It doesn’t help that the head of the FIA is getting investigated for a cheating scandal, which is being hidden behind the news and upset of the Horner scandal. Is it that the powers that run the sport want the focus to be on the fracturing state of Red Bull Racing, rather than themselves, no matter the consequences? That the issue of female safety is being trivialised as a scapegoat for the FIA to get away with cheating on their own races? It’s an ever changing situation. But I believe the powers in charge of F1 know exactly what they are doing in stretching out the Horner scandal. The situation has been manufactured to be so big that it is an insult to every woman who has anything to do with F1, the FIA, and all its parters.