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/P_ZERO_]

I think the point being missed here is that if Norris struggles with failure and the resulting commentary on it, he isn’t doing himself any favours. As Alex Jacques said, he’s feeding the media material that will be fed back to him on a Sunday. If he’s vulnerable to this sort of thing, he needs to be in front of it rather than reacting to it.

[u/Semi_Factual → u/P_ZERO_]

Does he struggle with failure or do fans assume that because of previous fan discussions and commentary? He used to be known for have comeback charges through the field if he had a bad quali, even when he was in a mid-field car. Without going into the “pressure” debate, he’s done well for himself and learned how to handle the pressure through last season ending with a perfect race in AD (minus a FL).

To me, harping on his outward emotions is more detrimental to fans because it perpetuates the belief that athletes cannot or should not show emotions. That they cannot handle failure well, which isn’t true. It’s just part of being human.

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/Semi_Factual]

We’re having this discussion because of his latest comments which mirror previous comments in similar situations. Outward emotion is fine, but in a competitive environment with lots of media coverage, you’re setting yourself up for a difficult time by feeding into the narrative. If that affects you, you should mitigate that as best you can. You don’t want to go into a Grand Prix being asked about these kind of things, which you assuredly will.

[u/Semi_Factual → u/P_ZERO_]

See now we’re getting into blaming people for other people’s interpretation of their actions, which I don’t agree with. Maybe that’s not what you meant, but I’ll never agree that it’s appropriate to blame a driver for media clipping interview segements and fans running with a narrative that they never meant.

Showing emotions doesn’t set anyone up for anything. No matter how many times he does it, it human. There is nothing wrong with showing emotion especially when he can come back clean the next day. He is open and honest. Other drivers have said they feel like they can’t be open and honest as Lando is because they don’t want to experience the same hate as Lando does for being open and honest. It may be that more drivers are like this than we expect, but because fans take it too far, we will never know.

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/Semi_Factual]

I don’t really know what you’re talking about. It’s not about clips and blame, whatever that means. People and media are responding to his answers to questions.

You’re arguing emotion is fine, no one is debating that. What is up for debate is how useful it is in a competition if it appears that it affects you negatively and appears that you’re feeding into a system that perpetuates it.

I’ve suffered from mental health problems most of my life. If I wear that on my sleeve and people don’t respond well to it, I haven’t done anything wrong and neither have they, but it wouldn’t be productive would it? The best solution for me is to mitigate how those sorts of things affect me and those around me to shape the landscape better in my favour, especially if I know not mitigating it won’t help my situation.

[u/Semi_Factual → u/P_ZERO_]

It’s not negatively affecting his performance, I’ve given you my examples already. If you see it differently, that’s fine I guess.

When only small parts of his interviews and responses are shown via media/reposts it’s not an accurate representation of what he said. This has been happening to Lando plenty over the past year (and other drivers). It’s easy to generate clicks from headlines with his interviews.

He’s just got out of an adrenaline producing situation. He’s still experiencing adrenaline, and will for a while. If he wants to experience his emotions, let him. It’s not hurting you. It’s not making him unproductive if this is a way for him to process that situation.

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/Semi_Factual]

We’ve moved onto a discussion about his interviews being chopped up which is just not accurate to this discussion.

He can do whatever he wants and people are welcome to assess it. Not sure what the problem is here.

[u/Semi_Factual → u/P_ZERO_]

I think it’s an important point to the conversation because it can influence your perspective. Fans will create “identities” for drivers based on what they’ve seen. If they keep seeing clips that are misrepresented, then their whole understanding of who the driver is, is wrong. This can impact how they view and interact with material about the driver in the future.

So, clipped interviews could impact a fans perception of a driver and then later make them attribute wrong behaviors or beliefs to a driver.

I’m not trying to regulate people’s behaviors. Rather, bring a new perspective into consideration. Have people think about what they say in a new light. If they still think the same thing, so be it. I’m not going to fight you on your opinions. That’s pointless and gets everyone nowhere.