#prastri

(in reference to my tags about the uptick in lily being featured on oscar’s ig)

lmao, i think oscar has really adjusted his pr strategy over winter break. and yes, i do think mark stepping back plays a role in that.

his online presence since he joined mclaren has been very focused on racing, its been detached and impersonal in my opinion. and originally, i do think that was to combat the alpine fallout, but then i think it morphed into trying paint a certain picture of where oscar’s focus is (that mark would have been invested in).

lando’s strategy over the years has been a much more obvious one to me! it likely became clear very quickly to his team that lando has an appeal beyond traditional motorsports audiences, and he entered f1 at the perfect moment to capitalize on that with dts propelling the sport into the zeitgeist at the same time.

they used things lando already had interest in, starting with streaming then expanding that to youtube with landologs, even things like lando.jpg, and eventually quadrant to cement him as a personality. the way into caring about lando the driver was via caring about lando himself and feeling like you have access to him. honestly, it was hugely smart bc when you get into f1 you dream about a career with longevity, which i’m so grateful lando now has, but you never actually know the hand you’ll be dealt. and having a dedicated fanbase who likes you for you vs. you tied to your sport, set him up to have a fallback (that he’s never needed).

access and humanity was always central to the strategy around lando. there are certain people who i fully believe would have tried to media train lando to be less forthcoming with his emotions, and paint a picture of that traditional champion, but his team knew there was power in letting him be open.

this doesn’t come without its drawbacks though, and the evolution we’ve seen over the past year i think is a result of those, which sadly manifests less “real” access to lando. however, i think the other piece of meaningful change we saw last year was an emphasis on wanting to enjoy himself over winning. and while i do genuinely think lando cares about enjoying his life, i also feel strongly there was a concerted effort to push that narrative during a time where it looked like the championship might be slipping out of his grasp. it felt like it was a shift to set the stage for people’s investment in him not being impacted by the sport.

so, we know alex has a social media manager because he's mentioned before that lily sends this person content. that's exactly what got my wheels turning about alex being the direct comparison to oscar's strategy. i think that is EXACTLY what oscar's lily has been asked to do (and is doing) this year. i feel fairly confident her personal oscar content is being fed to a social media manager to curate these dumps to craft this new boyfriend image— just like alex.

guys you can’t keep stroking my ego like this, i love being right and influential too much (don’t stop)

yes!! the boyfriendism is the crux of it, but also just in general trying to paint him as having a life outside of racing. i swear every day i sign onto this website and there’s something new that feeds the theory.