Londoner wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 18:51
Evening everyone
It's time for our latest edition of The Gravel Trap, which provoked fierce discussion on the Discord when it was published a few days ago. Controversial
Klon stuck his neck on the line to ponder, why exactly do midfield drivers like Johnny Herbert and Nico Hulkenberg provoke such intense fandom within Formula 1 fans. Read the analysis and rant away right here!
From Herbert to Hülkenberg - Why Casual Fans Love Average Drivers
I can imagine that it will provoke further discussion here too, and indeed I do have some questions to raise about some of the points raised in that particular article.
At the very least, I do find it kind of odd that Klon was citing Giovinazzi as a driver whose departure was quite lamented, because that wasn't the impression I had from those commenting on his departure from the sport.
Most of the comments that I saw about Giovinazzi seemed to tend more towards a sense of indifference with regards to his departure - it seemed to be more of a case of ambivalence, in that most didn't seem to think he was bad enough to deserve sacking, but equally they also thought that he hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy to justify keeping him on either.
I'm also a little wary of some of the nationality arguments that were put forward around the examples of Sirotkin and Mazepin, because I would say that there are other aspects that made both of those figures less popular.
In the case of Sirotkin, I would suggest that perhaps it was more because he denied Kubica a chance at racing - with so many wanting the fairytale story of Kubica coming back through such adversity to race again, Sirotkin's promotion rather spoilt the narrative.
In the case of Mazepin, I would say that there were a far greater number of reasons for the hostility towards him. Firstly, his father has been involved in a long running legal dispute over TogliattiAzot, or ToAZ, with an active investigation into accusations of bribery, fraud and getting individuals imprisoned on false charges so Mazepin could take over ToAZ - I don't think it would have made any real difference what his nationality was when there are allegations of serious criminal conduct swirling around his family. Secondly, there was the rather unedifying legal fight that Dmitry then got into with Stroll over Force India, which again painted the Mazepin family in a rather negative light.
You also had Nikita facing accusations of sexual assault, and rumours, when the lady he'd been with later played down the complaints, that she had done so under duress (i.e. that Dmitry, being a particularly close ally of Putin, had threatened to make things very difficult for her and her family if she didn't quieten down). Added to that, there were the complaints that Mazepin had been directing homophobic abuse towards Russell in the past, not to mention posting racist comments about Chinese people and supporting fans of his who had been directing racist abuse at Tsunoda.
It's not to say that there was an element of bias about his nationality - but, rather, that a lot of people felt that Nikita was a particularly unpleasant character and that he was considered a decidedly less appealing character than just about any other possible driver whom Haas could have hired at the time.
That's not to say that there may be some merit in the arguments put forward in the article, but I would contend that some of the examples are perhaps rather badly chosen and undermine the arguments being put forward.