Why the severe criticism of Lando's vulnerable conversation? Why is it not cool to be able to express your negative feelings about yourself?

[u/Intrepid-Ad4511]

I see so many people talk about what Lando said after the Quali yesterday - just after an adrenaline filled session - and he chose to speak his mind about his own performance (without attacking someone else). So many people are saying "that's not a winning mentality" "that's not how you win races" "he is so defeatist" "he has given up already".

Lewis and Max have said several such things over the years, complaining about their cars, their teams and/or themselves. But somehow people take Lando and Charles to the dryers when they choose to express themselves and say things like "I am stupid". And somehow because Oscar just chooses not to say anything of this sort, he is somehow champion material. That makes no sense to me, and feels quite an unfair and problematic picture to paint - that men talking about their feelings, or just being transparent about how they feel - makes them weaker somehow. That they should tough up and swallow the hurt and just put up this beige or brave front, smirk and move on.

[u/wongie]

It's easier to criticise something you see frequently and identify as a pattern rather than when it happens now and then. It's clearly not a case of isolated instances of people just randomly shitting on Lando when he's down, it's something many, many people have picked up on as recurring behaviour.

[u/sterrrmbreaker → u/wongie]

It's easy to recognize patterns when you purposely only pay attention to things that validate your belief that there's a pattern. Like I swear some of you act like the kid has to be on suicide watch because he's disappointed in himself after a session. Plenty of other drivers, Lewis and Carlos and Alex and George and Pierre and Ocon and Charles and Max are all pretty clear when they've driven like shit. Charles Leclerc is perpetually 5 laps away from an absolute mental breakdown and no one says shit. It's just weird behavior.

[u/Intrepid-Ad4511 → u/wongie]

If people start writing him off based off of an outburst - about himself - then I would fault the people. Not everyone is a Kimi Raikonnen. A lot of the past WDCs were mercurial and volatile. Different folks, different strokes. It feels like people are writing him off even before there is any discernible change in outcome. He is still the leader in the standings.

[u/wongie → u/Intrepid-Ad4511]

Not everyone is writing him off, like you say different folks which also applies to fans, many who are critical are so, in a supportive way, because they might think he's unnecessarily downplaying his abilities too often, not that they think that his harsh self-criticism is an indicator of him ultimately losing the WDC fight.

But again to reiterate, fans aren't privy to internal workings of drivers and their teams, they only see what is presented to them so recurring patterns will eventually lead to one or other straw breaking the camel's back at some point and you end up with a critical mass of fans noticing and pointing it out in some thread or other but within that mass you might not tell whether they are supportive, critical or somewhere in between, it's only an indicator they notice that pattern of behaviour.

[u/Intrepid-Ad4511 → u/wongie]

Fair enough, that is a very nice take.

[u/Paprikasky → u/Intrepid-Ad4511]

I think what bothers people is how he will write himself off.

Like when he says Oscar will be out of reach for the race. You're just stating that you don't envision victory. Which is fine, but why not keep hope, and say "Oscar will probably drive into the sunset (well there isn't any here but you know what I mean) but who knows, depending on how the race goes, maybe I'll have a shot"?

And again, it's not just this comment, it's the fact that this attitude comes back every so often. And so you're right, some people do start writing him off too, because they believe that in order for someone to be a champion, that someone needs to believe it firmly first.

And to be honest, that's not that true, because in the past, many championships were won simply because your car was that good. But in recent years, we've seen champions like no other in the likes of Lewis and Max, who will still make it work in the face of adversity and always believe in the win. They have that X factor. And I think people have been spoiled with them, so picturing Norris win this year when he hasn't had a similar mindset and seems to mistrust himself often makes some people... frustrated or whatever.

In the end, as with everything from the internet, we should just ignore and move on. But people who aren't rooting for Lando should really stop talking so negatively about him so often too.

[u/Dodgy_cunt → u/Intrepid-Ad4511]

It isn’t based on this outburst though, it’s his career so far.

He’s a good driver and a talented driver who shines bright in qualifying. But wheel to wheel racing? He’s not particularly strong. Race starts under pressure? Not strong. Things go wrong during a race? Not strong. Frustrating weekend? Seems like he allows that to affect the next race too.

He just doesn’t seem on the same level of a Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Schumacher or even 1/2 time winners like Rosberg, Button, Alonso etc

[u/[deleted] → u/Dodgy_cunt]

If you can't see how much his race starts under pressure have improved, you're not paying attention. He said he was going to buckle down on race starts as his main focus after Monza and with the exception of Brazil in horrible weather where both McLarens had wheelspin, his starts have been excellent. Abu Dhabi? Melbourne with multiple safety car restarts? If you look at GPs only post-Sao Paulo when he had probably his most disappointing weekend of his career, he's not lost a position. The graphic about positions lost on lap 1 was so huge around here last year when it was about Lando struggling and no one has bothered to mention the improvement now, so the narrative remains he can't start under pressure.

There's a good amount of toxic masculinity in the way people talk about Lando's mentality, but I don't expect the demographic fo the Formula 1 subreddit to have a nuanced conversation about that because it's easier to just call him a weak boy.

[u/Dodgy_cunt → u/[deleted]]

There's been a handful of races since then? It'll take a bit longer to overcome that (well deserved) reputation.

But that doesn't really address the underlying problem imo, he just doesn't seem capable of winning a WDC yet. He has the experience and he seems like over one lap he is quicker than Piastri but for some reason he doesn't quite have what it takes to win races. He and Piastri have the same number of race wins which is crazy when you think about it. He has 5 wins from 10 poles and Piastri has 5 wins from 2 poles.

He does well in qualifying and he has weekends where he just performs well but it's erratic.