Sir Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg (2008)

Sir Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg (2008)

What Could Have Been 😭

HELPPPPP NICO GOT RECRUITED FOR GERMANYS NEXT TOP MODEL AS A COACH IN 2017 😭😭

Nico Rosberg talking about Checo’s mental health, how important a driver’s mentality can be, how it would be stupid to put a rookie in the other red bull, how Hulk has deserved better cars than he got and Hulkstappen friendship, how Hungary has always been one of Lewis’s favourite tracks and talking about his records once again, how he only calls James Vowles by his surname because that’s how James referred to him, how he’s consistently praising drivers rather than criticising them (especially George).

Real F1 commentary is back. Here’s hoping we see more of him this weekend!

COUNTDOWN TO SEASON 2  — day two: targaryen aesthetic

Rhaenyra and Jacaerys mourning Lucerys House of the Dragon 2.01 - “A Son for a Son.”

I've been thinking about F1 fans who feel like they missed out on golden ages and I want to say a little more about that.

Firstly it's a real thing and it's legit to feel feelings about it.

And I get it. Part of me wishes I had seen Hunt and Lauda race, or Senna and Prost, or even Fangio, but back that far I probably couldn't have had a bank account since I'm a woman so that's less tempting.

But when I watched Seb dominate at RBR, I wasn't watching Seb the mature eco-aware social justice warrior that we know and love today. I was watching a slightly more polite and much less racist Max and I didn't like him. He was the RBR golden child who Helmut Marko protected, his dominance was boring to me, and I was one of the people complaining that the racing wasn't good in 2011 and 2013 (his other years, 2010 and 2012, were great). Seb would do an amazing quali lap, get himself out of DRS range in the first two laps before it was enabled, and breeze to the end of the race. It was not that fun to watch. (Plus I was a Mark and Fernando fan - it's hard to believe now, but Mark was far more popular than Seb in a lot of segments of the fanbase back then).

And when I watched Fernando driving the fucking wheels off the 2012 Ferrari only to lose the title by a flicker of points, I didn't know that would be his last chance to contest a championship. I thought Ferrari would get it right in 2013 or 2014 (I know, I know...I was young and naive). I didn't know that was the best opportunity Fernando would have for the rest of his career to date, so I didn't think "omg, how amazing, Fernando in contention for a title, driving at his best." I thought the next season would bring more similar drives.

(I remember when Fernando signed with Ferrari for 2010, thinking we were in for another boring period of Ferrari dominance like the Michael era. Hahahahaha)

When Lewis and Nico went head to head in 2014 and again in 2016, I didn't know that Nico would retire days after securing his WDC. I didn't know Lewis would later allude to having been a less than good teammate to Nico or that Nico would talk about Lewis incessantly for years. I didn't know Lewis would go on to equal Michael's number of titles and come within a single human error of exceeding it, while Nico closed the door to more than one.

And retrospect is part of what makes the story. You can appreciate the legacy and contextualise someone's contribution.

Part of why we love the story of Hunt and Lauda (and why it made for good cinema) is because we know that they both became exactly the champions they wanted to be and we know that their career performances and stats are broadly in keeping with the story we tell about them (Hunt the blaze of glory, Lauda the workhorse, even though this is a huge oversimplification). The tragedy of Senna's death changes everything about his rivalry with Prost. Sebastian Vettel's dominant years take on extra power because he took that dominance to Ferrari and failed to live his dream of bringing the title to Maranello and he met that defeat with such grace and maturity. When we know the ending, the pieces start to take on a trajectory, and we can knit them together to make a story.

So while it might be sad to miss out on the great rivalries and come to the stories later, you have a different experience when you can contextualise everything and really appreciate it. You can see the whole arc and appreciate all of it, which isn't possible in the moment. And it certainly doesn't make you any less of a fan.