I laughed out loud when Verstappen started complaining about being pushed off. Piastri's great start definitely rattled his cage a bit.
Yeh, it is going to be interesting to see how this escalates. Max complaining with Horner in full whinge mode is entertaining although for drama rather than pure sporting interest. I am a little worried about Max getting dirtier on track in the next few races but perhaps we will see something new.
I would make the argument he has single handedly lowered the driving standards of the sport to a farcical level. If he left the sport tomorrow I wouldn't miss him one bit.
Most narcissistic driver driving for the most toxic team in racing. Great combo.
Agree except for "single handedly", he been a significant actor in the downward trajectory of
Fl in my opinion.
I totally agree with this, but the reason I've quoted it was in memory of Hamilton's 2010 campaign; throughout the year, Lewis was subject to harsher and more stringent punishments each time above the normal amounts in order to try and temper his behaviour and it's something which Max needs - he's been close to the limit of his penalty points for years, he's shown that, left to his own devices, he's simply incapable of driving in a sportsmanlike manner and is willing to bend/break the rules/cheat (delete as applicable) instead of race cleanly when wheel-to-wheel.
We could see that the rot started with Senna and got worse with Schumacher, but Max takes it to a much more dangerous level. As Famine mentioned above, an unwillingness to take more action above what the rulebook says (considering we had a 'great reset' and created the rules of engagement) created an environment where cheating is given an inconsequential slap on the wrist.
Some really good points, I think it's interesting how the sports rule application severity swings back and forth... cynically there more $ in sensationalism than in sport?
I think Senna becoming a martyr for the sport is such a tragedy and a double edged sword as even the sport organisers and commentators perpetuates the idol-worship and tries to hide problems against sportsmanship. I cringe at repeats of "never go for a gap" quote as oft used as justification for win-at-all-cost behaviour and seen as a positive when in context he was making a potentially disrespectful childish selfish retort to a genuine question of racing safely asked by a triple world champion and legend of the sport.
I don't think it necessarily got worse with Schumacher, unless you mean the inconsistency of action / reaction by stewards and media. For most of MSC career there was a massively negative tone from Brit-centric commentary that I found equal entertaining and annoying - including a bit of vitriol such as the never ending perpetuation of single sided views of grey area things, such as Adelaide 94 where "MSC stole Hill's championship by crashing him" where by modern standards Hill would probably be penalised for causing a collision as his wheels didn't get far enough alongside (a day and dollar late whatever could be a modern reaction). Nevermind that title was only in contention due to 3 race disqualification for obeying the team instead of the stewards which was a pretty extreme penalty... imagine anyone in the last 20 years having a 2 race ban - he overtook a driver on the warmup lap (that has zero impact on the race), then got a penalty and the team said keep driving we will dispute it... that is exactly type of thing RedBull would do with Max but can you imagine them getting disqualified
and a 2 race ban? Maybe eventually a modern driver would obey stewards because of the 1994 precedent, but probably not Max.
I think the inconsistency got worse, but I genuinely think MSC resorted to win-at-all tactics as a last resort only a few times in his career. For example, in 1994 Schumacher didn't run Hill off the road and had done a big portion of the race trying to win fairly, and in 1997 he had at least tried to win for many laps before he seemed to be under too much pressure and resorted to the unsportsmanlike action. While in 1990 Senna didn't even try to race fair and he took the cheap shot to take out rival to win the title.
Max is more like Senna - must always win or be the victim. Max will cheat on turn 1. The commentator used to incessently repeat hyperbole "Schumi chop" but that was more vitriol than anything and it was not commenting on anything against the rules.
Max on the contrary enjoys lions share of benefit the majority of adoration from the commentators, who largely say "isn't he clever for lifting off the brake to get his wing ahead at the apex to draw a penalty for his rival!" and only draws their ire if he really goes over the line.
Although the stewards will eventually penalise him, however, the majority of the time if there is room things seem to go in his favour.
