Remember To Drink

I am coming to discover now that this season has been quite interesting already. As an Italian, even if I am not the type to put an emphasis on my nationality in global affairs and success, it would have been interesting to hear first hand the Italian medias coverage of Antonelli, Ferrari and the promising road to F1 from the feeder series with Leonardo Fornaroli and Gabriele Minì. Been following F1 since 2020, this could have been the most interesting season (so far, or at least second to Verstappen’s first championship). And I predict the future ones might be as well.

But I guess, if I ever want to justify me watching the sport I first must level myself up and be consistent with it. Maybe next season.

I think that RBR is more interested in not committing to any driver and getting them at their peak. They “understood” that all people/athletes have eras, some in which they might be unremarkable or might loose their spark, let’s admit that this is definitely a thing. RBR doesn’t want to waste time or “build them up” for longer than 4 races.

That sounds slightly immoral but I understand it better now.

I mean mentally, or at home.

Honestly, as soon as he was announced a 2 year extension, I was diffident because maybe 1 year was better as many great drivers are outside the door and might leave Redbull because of this. But I understand that he probably tried to negotiate and did well, also his sponsors might have helped him.

But literally as soon as they announced it, he started underperforming terribly and is now on a continuous streak.

I wonder if there is something happening that has affected his performance heavily.

I heard that his wife announced another pregnancy now (already bump showing). I wish them well.

Chain Bear put the words I have been struggling to come out with quite gracefully.

It is one thing for drivers like Alonso and such to do this as they were born and little when Senna passed away, but it gets a tiny bit weird when drivers born 20+ years after his death do this. It feels “forced”. I don’t blame them for this, especially not individually. I am referring the broader aspect of it.

And surely I do not want the F1 community to forget about it! But the more time passes, the more this level of dedication gets weird. By “this level of dedication” I mean multiple drivers doing this almost every anniversary (or similar milestones of Senna).

I also want to add that although it is very much reasonable for companies and brands that once were affiliated with Senna to do this, it is…interesting when it’s a regular yearly thing to make projects to show respect to him. I indeed suspect that many brands in general (not just F1!) do some stuff to make it look like they have something going on for them, to look nice and respectful and I believe that some are genuinely wishing people a good Chinese lunar year and care about Bees, Earth, Friendship day etc or even I understand if they do these things “just because, but with a innocent nice thought behind”; but why would brands/people that have nothing to do with Chinese lunar year or Ramadan other than MAYBE affiliations with countries that believe in those make multiple posts, projects and products? Weather they sell merch/products with this concept or not, it feels first of all an excuse to “celebrate” and public display of “You see? We have things in our calendar, we are not a doormat company”, in this case of gratitude, sometimes it feels like a way to remind people that at least at some point, they had things going on within themselves, and they still can come back; I assume it’s maybe for the workers there, not just the public. Also to remind others of their own greatness and legacy. When products are involved it gets more obvious; they use the opportunity like a party+to release limited edition designs when they could do that any other day but they want to bank money from minimal red T-shirts for CLNY. Just to make the designers do something different (good for them) and showcase versatility. But no concrete belief or thought behind. -Assuming none o few of the people in the board don’t share the culture one bit and are just being nice. But you can be nice without making it your image for a week when don’t care that much deep down. That’s what performative means. Surely, it is different for individual people, but you get the message.

I don’t blame anyone one bit, especially it is the 25th (?) anniversary since he passed away. And it is public knowledge that the multiple of 5 are milestone years for ANY brand or person. So the emphasis this year is normal, especially considering the Netflix documentary about his story coming out soon.

I have been wondering this for at least the past 2 weeks: Would X person would want to be remembered to THIS length by individual people twice a year every single year? Because it’s kind of okay and “personal” if not every year.

In general, many public figures have been doing a lot of public over gratification. Especially the more famous the other person is. Sometimes they enhance it in the period in which the other person is getting “viral” again. Over gratification is a problem beyond late celebrities. I have been seeing it a lot in MANY ways. A lot of times pushed by the expectations of the public, seeing as the result in not publicly displaying it to them, results in nasty responses from them. This is a broader discourse for another time. But yes, in (I think) all of these many cases of different types of over gratification which has risen in the past 7 years, it feels performative. Even if they genuinely care, it always seems a bit performative for the public, to “humble” themselves. (Nowadays, people seem desperate for celebrities to get humbled-but once again, this is another long topic for another time on another blog).

Also, who did people want back in 2021? No other driver was available and good enough for at least a 1 year contract. At the moment they went for an upper middle field driver and after the first year, he was quite great in 2022 and performed well in 2023 too.

These are 2 comments under this post on the Formula1 Reddit page with whom I share opinions and made their point better than I could have.

Personally, when I discovered about what happened, I was confused. Then I thought about it and I agreed with Williams’ decision.

Then I thought about it some more and I did a full 360°! Why? Because in past Albon has crashed multiple times in that same turn. Almost every season there - In 2019, 2023 (and maybe another year? But I can’t find/remember it). Unfortunately, he might be likely to do it again during the feature race. But I imagine he would be extremely careful (more than usual considering the situation) BUT, this extreme carefulness might hold him back from getting into the points and/or worse: make him crash again.

Therefore, it might have been a crude but good idea in another racetrack, but not in this one. Absolutely not. The Albert Park circuit might be his weak point.

I heavily disagree with people shaming the situation. Just because Williams didn’t choose Sargeant, who is at the start of his second season and did little to nothing compared to Albon in 2023.

They literally do not even have spare chassis. This is how “desperate” they are. There are many people and teams who work day and night for all that, not just the drivers. It’s a bit unfair to Sargeant but what is it to the entire team then?

This situation wouldn’t have happened if they were somewhat on the same level of points scored last year. But they weren’t, they had a drastic distance between one another.

Sometimes drivers have to make sacrifices for the better outcome. I am not referring to other times when driver Y is just protecting driver X’s position for the entire season (All those 1th and 2th driver stuff we all collectively hate). But if driver Y has a problem with his abilities or car and can’t be as fast as driver X that exact weekend; instead of messing everything up, why not do the most with what you have got instead of pushing the limits or pretending to? (This is the same if the drivers were the other: If Y was Perez and X was Verstappen, but V broke his wrist and can’t be as fast as usual, at least he can cover for Y and not harm himself too much). That’s what teamwork is.

This was not meant to be an easy decision.

Everybody crashes and makes errors, but the main difference between P11 and P20 is the amount of sponsors to back up the teams in hope that they get even higher. Sponsors that pay the teams and help them stay in the sport. If 1 chance might turn the leaf for them even if they don’t get in the points.

We all say it ourselves, all or nothing and that drivers and teams must dare, and that’s what Williams is doing.

I 100% am sure that no team would ever do that multiple times if the driver they give the seat to has crashed multiple times too. It would only worsen their image. This is a one timer thing and I don’t view how Williams might lie on that. Maybe it will happen again in 7 years with completely different drivers but that’s up to the future to reveal. It was never supposed to happen.

Once again though, for the reasons I already stated above, I believe that this is too risky of a choice, considering Alvin’s history with the Albert Park, the pressure and possible guilt, the hyperconsciousness (more than usual) that he must be careful with the car and the difficulty to enter the points in general in a Williams. I know that nothing is given for granted but this is too risky the more you think of it. I personally would have preferred Sargeant to drive his car. It would have been understandable in another racetrack but Albert Park.

Original post where I found the comments:

Lando Norris’ hardships in basic academics as shown in Grill the Grid isn’t solely the fault for training for F1 and dyslexia but also probably his lack of interest regarding educating himself and/or how he was academically educated growing up.

Because it’s interesting how this argument comes up only when it’s about Norris and sometimes some others too. But all drivers are pretty much average and Verstappen who is known for being the Top 1 at the moment, has a shocking pre F1 victory strike since Karting days (LITERALLY NEVER ARRIVING SECOND!) , countless stories about his hardships with his father coaching him since he was about 3 years old and making F1 all of his life, is often one of the best at these same games.

Fernando Alonso and Sabastian Vettel too.

The truth is that one might not me much intelligent and that’s about it, I completely understand it and struggle with it myself even when I was pushed academically more than my classmates.

But it becomes inexcusable when you don’t know where your country is. Something a 7 year old can do. He, like the others, travel the world as a job, even in their karting days.

We can sympathise with it and him, but don’t make excuses ,come up with theories or put the blame on motorsport. It shows that you are trying to sugarcoat it because you are aware that there’s no defence for it. He’s just … uneducated on basic geography but you don’t want to think about it because you like him. But you don’t have to “unfollow” him because of it. You can still like everything else about him while admitting that it can be better and surely without shaming him!

I believe that formal institutionalised academics are to ensure a certain level is reached. You actually can learn everything alone but of course, can’t or are not allowed to do some things without certification, for everyone’s safety. So it doesn’t make sense that just because someone didn’t complete high school, they are illiterate and completely stupid. As someone who comes from countries with actual illiterate people and is the daughter of one (who is now literate but you can see the struggle when one reached a certain age and the brain has harder times correcting some errors). So please stop theorizing that just because he or other drivers haven’t attended university or maybe have not finished high school, they are uneducated.

Edit: I saw the replies and rechecked my post, you are right and I modified the term. But I want to explain that I did not mean that he is actually stupid. I was just lacking of words and terms to explain what I meant. Now I replaced it with “Uneducated on basic geography” because I know very well he has other theological knowledge that would be hard to me. The “illiterate” part is misunderstood, I meant that as a way to indeed say that I believe the contrary: People can be literate without high school. I added it there because a pet peeve of mine is people actually being convinced that without a minimum of 3 years of university makes you illiterate all of a sudden. It’s a silly mentality to me, and it’s always an ick when a “fan” of him uses this “excuse”. I wanted to be understood but I messed up and I am sorry, but I hope you people understand what I meant in general with the post. I did not make it to shade him or point it out unlike many people in various social medias and comments under these videos;