Small Rant Because This Has Been Bothering Me

small rant because this has been bothering me

seeing people complain about the drivers - in this case, max and lando - complaining about having to attend the F1-75 event / making jokes about not going, by using arguments such as, “they get paid millions of dollars to do this, they should shut up and do their job,” “it’s an insult to the fans who are paying to see them,” and, “they shouldn’t complain about the show, since without it they wouldn’t have their job” is SO incredibly annoying.

can’t believe I’m out here defending millionaires, but:

They don’t get paid millions of dollars to go to PR events. They get paid millions of dollars to race in the fastest motorsport on earth. They get paid millions of dollars to compete in a sport that is one of the most dangerous recreational activities humans participate in, risking their lives for competition and entertainment. If they have to do PR on the side, fine, but don’t act like Max gets fifty million because he’s an influencer. He gets paid to race, and he gets paid a lot because he’s good at it.

Just because they don’t want to go to a corporate event - which is a fairly normal thing that we can all surely relate to: complaining when your workplace puts on unnecessary events you have to go to - doesn’t mean they don’t care about fans. Come on now. They see fans at the track every race weekend. They do plenty of extracurricular activities already on top of their already busy weekends. They acknowledge and meet with fans constantly and yet ONE event is made fun of and you’re going to take it that personally?

The show doesn’t pay for the sport, sponsors do. Sponsors pay by having their brand advertised and plastered everywhere. This has occurred throughout the history of the sport. A one off event is not tipping the scales. Them complaining about one specific event doesn’t mean they don’t understand that they need sponsors and that sometimes to promote those sponsors they need to do PR. They know how it works, much better than you do!

I swear, some of these people just hate that these guys speak their minds, and yet when they say anything remotely PR sanitised they’ll complain about that and call them, ‘PR robots.’ I’d much rather hear drivers saying they don’t want to attend than watch them say they do want to while knowing that they’re lying through their teeth.

these fans are also defending the “show” when this is a sport. That is why we’re all here, right? Why are you out here arguing with the athletes who just want to participate in the sport which is what we all signed up for to watch and enjoy? It’s completely fair to criticise F1 media for these types of things when it’s very clear they have been more interested in getting cash in their pockets than they are in the sport itself.