Isn't it clearly the opposite? He seems to have no ego, no desire to be liked, no care for being disliked, and little sustained happiness or frustration. He is uber-direct and says whatever he thinks, regardless of whether it's in his best interest or not, and certainly isn't bothered by upsetting people or trying to sustain some sort of marketable image. I do think this really does not translate well to many British people's expectations of public behaviour! I can't really imagine why people would like him in any personal capacity (maybe he is different when he's not working), but I love watching this completely pared-back behaviour. It's massively more interesting than the buddy-buddy sort of crap that many drivers practice, when we know deep down they'd all do anything for a championship.
Kimi and Zlatan Ibrahimovich are perfect examples of that. Max is just a deluded prick, there is Calling it as it is then there is the world according to Max. I would accept his attitude more if it was grounded in some sort of physical reality not the unicorns and rainbows of his and Honers heads. I see a lot of Parallels between Max and Homelander in the boys. He wants to be adored but thinks everyone is worthless beneath him. Yet he needs them to feed his ego so by crushing and dominating them they will accept him as god and give him the adoration he "deserves".
Yeah, that's how Ferrari fix things - sack the guy who couldn't get it done with one arm tied behind his back.
Only too happy to brief the board against Arrivabene, found it much more difficult to be the guy in charge. Standard Ferrari career path really. The impression I get of Max is one of insecurity. The flat, give no sh**s persona buckles the second something goes against him. This weekend was a prime example of that, he threw a full on tantrum over being asked to help his team mate. He stood to lose nothing, but he still began shouting and telling off his superiors, then he seemingly started bringing up conspiracies about Perez' qualifying crash in Monaco. That's not the reaction of a confident person, that's someone seeing spiders behind the bathroom mirror. He reminds me very much of young Alonso in that regard, it wouldn't surprise me if in a year or two we're reading about meltdowns behind the scenes. Also (putting tinfoil hat on), the manner of his two championships has to have hurt his ego. He 'won' in 2021, and all the press talked about was Lewis Hamilton and Michael Massi, even in the Netherlands it quickly became all about Hamilton. Then this year he wins again, just in time for thre press cycle to be dominated by Red Bull's cheating. I'll bet there's plenty in the F1 circus that simply don't acknowledge him as champion, or they're intentionally needling him over it to undermine him. If was a rival driver I certainly would, constantly.
It's not that he gives no shits, he obviously gives very many shits about racing. It's that he gives no shits about the openness of his ****-giving in public (that's not a sentence I ever imagined having to write). It is that which is refreshing. Many racers get angry, smash up rooms etc, but keep most of it behind closed doors. How much more exciting it is that Max puts it out in the open! Kimi, yes, but Zlatan is incredibly deluded! I do think he is treated differently to the many other c***s that have been serial F1 champions. It might be because of the Drive to Survivication of the sport, but I also think a lot of it comes from the fact that he is racing the sacred cow of the UK motorsport scene (on whose shoulders rests a lot of its popularity). Merc have of course deliberately tried to drive this as well, very successfully. Probably overthinking it here though - give it a few years and like every F1 controversy, big or small, it'll fade away as people forget.
I like that. They haven't seen in Mick what they want or expect, and despite the name and whatever that brings, they've made a decision for the benefit of racing.
Haas is a terrible place to be a rookie, no close connection with a top team (like Williams, Sauber), no chance of moving forward on the grid, risk averse. Hopefully he gets that reserve role at Mercedes and they can help him become more consistent. On the other hand, Sprogmacher hasn't exactly set the grid on fire. Steiner gave him plenty of time to move forward.
And yet KMag has stuck that CNC Machine in places no-one thought it capable of, not always through sheer dumb luck either. Sprogmacher is probably hoping what happened to de Vries happens to him, sit in merc development driver purgatory for a few years and hope there's an opportunity to shine.
De Vries at least won FE championship Sprogmacher seems slow to adapt to anything new. Couple that with when opportunity arose to steal a point he never was in a position to do so. If Schumacher had of brought the car home or scored close to his teammate Haas would be going into the last race with a chance to overtake Aston Martin in the constructors. That would be worth 2million extra in prize money. Looking back at those championship wins how much was luck vs actually improving far beyond his opponents? Even then, was his dad a truly great driver or did he practice and hone his craft and develop deep technical understanding until perfection back at Maranello? I do wonder how the rules about testing would have impacted him and other drivers during the unlimited spending days.
If you walk to the end of the plank and turn to see the plank is now on fire, jumping is your only option.