Is this wrong?

[k0d3g3ar]

Is it wrong to give up following your driver who is associated with the country of your birth (Australia) in favor of some Mexican guy who blew the stuffing out of the races last year, winning from last position to get his ride in Red Bull? I'm having a hard time blending national loyalty when #$(t like that happens.

K

[Klon]

Well, as long as you aren't becoming a Hamilton fan, it's all good.

Okay, jokes aside, in the end there's no need to root for drivers from your own country. Child me hated Michael Schumacher and was all aboard the Mika bandwagon. As long as you don't jump from driver to driver, depending what the fresh, new hotness is, I doubt there is much to judge you for. Even if you did, it's not really that big a deal.

[dr-baker]

Just so long as you say no to Marzipan, you can't go too far wrong.

[yannicksamlad]

I was 10, English, and it was 1976. Emerson Fittipaldi had a cool name, had been world champion, and had a great helmet design. I had just discovered F1. There was no way James Hunt was getting my support when there was this Fittipaldi bloke.
Who cares where heroes are born?

[rachel1990]

Don't worry. I'm British and I don't really take much of an interest in Lewis Hamilton (Never have)- was more of a Button and Alonso fan (though watching ITV in 2007 and 2008 was like watching the Lewis Hamilton channel. Awful) These days I prefer Charles LeClerc and okay George Russell who is British (But I would have liked him anyway) but I have never gone, I must support that driver because they are British.

And anyway it was Michael Schumacher who got me into f1 in the first place, not David Coulthard.

[Rob Dylan]

I'm not anti-patriotic, but funnily enough I find myself more critical of the British drivers than of other nationalities. Maybe I want them to be better than other nationalities, so I'm more annoyed if they bathplug up. I don't know if that makes sense.

Also sportsmanship and underdogs is a huge thing for me. Drivers that are dickheads and can't handle having a teammate don't interest me. Likewise, drivers who get given everything as opposed to hard-working journeymen don't interest me. Therefore, in spite of the fact that Hamilton is obviously a more successful driver than Jenson Button, I always supported Button when he was driving. Button was way more of a gentleman and triumphed over adversity, whereas Hamilton has hardly suffered "adversity" during his Formula 1 tenure therefore if "manners" and "politeness" are a part of British identity, I'd say that Button fit that category more than Hamilton has. But then again this opens up the whole philosophy of "what does it mean to be of your national identity?", which is far far farther down a rabbit-hole than I'm sure the original post was intending

[Nessafox]

I do support Belgian drivers generally, because they're so rare. But not passionately. I also don't care that Verstappen, Norris and Stroll all have Belgian moms.

[mario]

Is it wrong to give up following your driver who is associated with the country of your birth (Australia) in favor of some Mexican guy who blew the stuffing out of the races last year, winning from last position to get his ride in Red Bull? I'm having a hard time blending national loyalty when #$(t like that happens.

K

As others note, many wouldn't consider it wrong when it should be about what bring you enjoyment - it shouldn't be the case that you follow a driver simply because of national loyalties. If anything, I would suggest that some of the increased toxicity in the motorsport fan base does seem to be coming from those who become excessively aggressive towards others because they feel that they must root so much for their "home driver" that they become hostile towards those who are beyond the pale, as it were.

Equally, we are talking about a fairly international sport - in the case of Ricciardo, whom I presume you were referring to, you are talking about an Australian-Italian dual national who drove for a French registered team based partially in the UK and partially in France, such that national lines are somewhat blurred.

I'm not anti-patriotic, but funnily enough I find myself more critical of the British drivers than of other nationalities. Maybe I want them to be better than other nationalities, so I'm more annoyed if they bathplug up. I don't know if that makes sense.

Also sportsmanship and underdogs is a huge thing for me. Drivers that are dickheads and can't handle having a teammate don't interest me. Likewise, drivers who get given everything as opposed to hard-working journeymen don't interest me. Therefore, in spite of the fact that Hamilton is obviously a more successful driver than Jenson Button, I always supported Button when he was driving. Button was way more of a gentleman and triumphed over adversity, whereas Hamilton has hardly suffered "adversity" during his Formula 1 tenure therefore if "manners" and "politeness" are a part of British identity, I'd say that Button fit that category more than Hamilton has. But then again this opens up the whole philosophy of "what does it mean to be of your national identity?", which is far far farther down a rabbit-hole than I'm sure the original post was intending

It does also raise questions of the complexities that arise between discerning between the public persona of an individual and what they might be like in a more private environment - the two do not always align, as there can be an element of putting on a facade for the public.

I do recall one ex-Mercedes employee who'd been in the strategy department and mostly worked with Nico Rosberg, but sometimes with Hamilton, who talked a bit about the character of the two drivers and what they were like to work with in private. Out of the two, it seems that Rosberg was the one who was a lot more difficult to get on with and could occasionally be downright unpleasant to work with, whilst Hamilton came across as caring quite a bit more about the mechanics on his side of the garage.

[LadyMarussia295]

I think we should feel no pressure to necessarily support a driver or a team from our country. Support should be something we actually feel and we shouldn't think we have the duty to support someone due to a shared nationality.