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Still find it difficult to like him but fuck me if he isn't an incredible driver.
It's an odd one, personally, I just think he's pretty damn amazing, but so many just don't like him.
Now, for sure a lot of them it'll be subconscious racism (I'm sure not the case on here), but I just don't get why the non-racists also don't like him.
Team player, worked hard, came from relatively little, fights fair, owns up to his faults and tries to be a leading role model. I mean check out his reply to George Russell a couple of weeks ago on Twitter.
The man is a class act and an inspirational racing driver.
Poppy-
It's an odd one, personally, I just think he's pretty damn amazing, but so many just don't like him.
May as well make it a hat-trick of disagreements here today ;)
I think there's a few obvious reasons why people don't like him (to reiterate, these are not reasons I have for disliking him).
- Racism, don't think there will be many arguments there. On top of the normal amounts of racism present these days, motorsport is very much a white-man's game.
- On a related note, he's probably the prime target for people venting at this year's 'We race as one' slogan for F1, as well as speaking up on the BLM movement
- Domination in the sport, reduces the spectacle and enjoyment for the fans. Same thing happened when Schumacher and Vettel were winning.
- Dodgy tax stuff, a favourite for people to complain about, nothing new in F1 where most drivers 'live' in Monaco.
- Veganism, silly reason to dislike someone, but a stance that many people hold.
- General putting his foot in his mouth on social media, the thing about telling his newphew(?) that it's wrong for boys to wear dresses or some such thing.
- He's a British sports star, the British have quite a strong tradition of being the worst critics of their sports stars.
While it's easy to list the reasons why he's disliked, I think it's also important to look at the flipside. Which of the current flock of drivers are actually 'liked' by the majority? Is there anyone other than Raikkonen & Ricciardo?
Personally I tend to flip-flop on my overall opinion on him. It's clear that he has a lot of respect for his fellow drivers which is great to see, but then he comes off with the usual 'tyres are dead', 'we really struggled with the car today' and chucking in fastest laps and running away with the championship.
He's undoubtedly one of the greats of all time, and I think it's a shame we don't get to see him having proper battles in the field anymore.
- Racism, don't think there will be many arguments there. On top of the normal amounts of racism present these days, motorsport is very much a white-man's game.
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The man is a class act and an inspirational racing driver.
He wasn't when he was young that's for sure but those days are a long time behind him. That said I think it's not unusual for a young person with rapid, earned, success to be arrogant. Jesus, even without success that applies. It's how they grow out of it and he's seemingly matured into as well rounded a human as you can be when you're insanely rich and famous.
mmccarthy
atz
Surprised all the chat here is about Vettel (who got super lucky), Sainz and Perez and not the 7 time world champion who managed to win the race on 51 lap, bald, intermediate despite having a demonstrably worse car than others on the grid yesterday. Bottas managed 14th with the same car...
Still find it difficult to like him but fuck me if he isn't an incredible driver.