#f1 2016

Lewis: Fernando Alonso. My old archenemy

Nico: I thought I was your archenemy!

Lewis: I have a life outside of you, Nico

Fernando: I was his archenemy before you :)

Why anyone would want someone to be the way Max Verstappen was when he was 19, or 18, or 17?

At 17, Max was the youngest driver on the grid with an incredibly notorious parental figure who we know was always with him while racing. We know from drivers' books, interviews, and stories that the paddock was not always kind to him. We know he was isolated in ways many other young drivers were not.

On top of that, Max was 19 in 2016. We joke (and commiserate) about Brocedes and the silver war because that was, primarily, the focus of the racing world in 2016. But that was Max's season when he was 19. He was present for several of those increasingly volatile moments between a driver who, in some ways, mirrored his early life (Nico being the son of an F1 driver who grew up in and around the sport in a different way than most competitors), and the other driver who mirrored his more current life (the upstart rookie, the early champion, the contender, Lewis). He was making podium, driving better, driving faster, driving angrier.

And he was angry.

The thing is, all drivers are angry.

They swear. They complain. They yell on the radio. They say things in the heat of the moment that sound ridiculous when played back three hours later.

The difference is that some drivers are allowed to grow out of it.

Others become targets.

Why are Ferrari radios a meme but Kimi's an insane overreaction from a 19 year old who is put in a championship winning car? Why are Max's radios now a meme but the version of him in 2016 was relentlessly torn apart?

I wonder if it is not the next generation of driver that people want, not the 19 year old superstar, but the 19 year old target.

People want someone contentious. Someone easy to criticize. Someone they can project onto. Someone who can absorb the frustration that used to be directed elsewhere.

And it is disgusting.

We have already seen the consequences of that. We have already seen the death threats. We have already seen people treat a teenager making a mistake as though he committed some unforgivable act.

These same people seem to forget that, at 19, Max Verstappen was not Max Verstappen.

He was a race winner. A very talented driver.

A teenager.

At 19, Kimi Antonelli is perhaps the future of Formula 1. Perhaps.

For now though, he is simply a race winner. A very talented driver.

A teenager.

The difference is that one of them has already survived being the target.

Also here’s a picture of Kimi with a panda stuffie

ㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤtake you to the garden of eden.

ㅤㅤㅤpoison apple, take a bite!

ㅤ