i eat kids

Yeah anon I feel this way honestly about all of the drivers, not just Seb. And I've definitely seen a Seb blogger openly acknowledge his flaws before so I don't wanna mischaracterize his fans as a whole, but he works as a good case study. I think there's this interesting phenomenon that occurs with fans who call themselves "critical" of f1, where either they're only critical of one driver that's deemed "the bad one" (MV33) or they treat the concept of F1 being inherently problematic as a free pass to dismiss other fans with grievances, as long as they occasionally go "yeah this place sucks lol". For the latter, I want to flat out say that I agree with the truism of "Formula One will never be a moral sport". You should not look to F1 for moral justification there is none to be found there. That's why everyone needs to draw their own lines in the sand on what they will tolerate and what they will not. This is where I think the "F1 is inherently immoral so stop fighting" crowd goes wrong, in that they assume their own lines in the sand should apply to everyone else. If you've determined that you can tolerate one driver, but another person decides they can't, then you have to live with that. You have to live with the idea that your internal code doesn't align with another's. Obviously you don't deserve to be harassed, but claiming that they're approaching the fandom wrong is just dishonest to your own integrity. I don't disrespect you for liking (to refer to the case study) Sebastian Vettel while acknowledging his flaws, I disrespect you for acting as if anyone who has a problem with him is causing infighting. Just block them for both your sakes and move on with your life. For the former. Well. I think there is a trend of people who only reblog or acknowledge criticism of Max Verstappen, and then turn a blind eye to the complicated politics of their own drivers. I also think this betrays the integrity of a so-called "critical" fan. To take myself as an example, my whole fucking brand is hating MV and everything he stands for, but as a Lewis fan I'm not going to pussyfoot around about his role in making the F1 movie. He produced that shit and therefore he implicitly condoned not only Known Abuser Brad Pitt's Hollywood redemption arc, but also the sexist writing. I don't feel compelled to hand-wring and make excuses for him, I think that was misogynistic of him and I'll say it with my chest. I'm always hoping he goes to bed guilty about it. I don't think we as a fandom should pretend the problematic elements of F1 start and end with drivers we already hate. There are many other drivers who have done much worse than Lewis, but their fans conveniently sidestep their flaws to paint them as mischaracterized in fandom. And just for the fun of it let me hit Oscar too, it's not a coincidence that Oscar's "nothingburger" persona leads to him not having any strong public opinions. In my personal opinion he's gearing up to be F1's ideal apolitical figure, who caught onto the "anger still reveals" bit before Verstappen did. Not that I think Oscar is a bad person for that, but it does play into F1's desire to ignore anything contentious within its own culture. Again, if you're going to be critical of F1, have some integrity. I don't mind if you like a driver who isn't perfect, but be transparent about that fact. I guess all this is to say I wish more people were comfortable having actual thoughtful discussion about the realities of Formula 1 without having their egos bruised. I think I'd hate a few less drivers if their fans weren't so sanctimonious about them. But oh well. I'm the tiger.