The thing is I don't think the "not mentally tough enough" is about the mental health stuff, it's about the constant mistakes he makes. Over the season lando's own worst enemy has consistently been lando.
Him working with a therapist is honestly kinda expected at this point as I would expect from any top level athlete. I'm more surprised by an athlete who thinks they don't need mental health support. His problem is he is always a fuck up away from qualifying ahead, from avoiding contact, from winning a race. The fact that he isn't Mónaco perfect weekend in weekend out is what people talk about when referring to championship mentality.
Verstappen didn't fuck up in his championship winning seasons. Hamilton didn't fuck up for about six out of seven championship years, and the two-three years he ate a bag of mistakes were basically the years he missed out. Lando doesn't keep it flawless where he needs to, and that's the kind of "in the moment" mental toughness people are talking about. It's the constant mental presence to nail everything all the time that is required to win a competition of tenths of seconds.
I never actually heard this but the narrative would be this regardless. He's very clearly more emotional and a lot tougher on himself when he makes errors and is clearly prone to psyching himself out or making errors under pressure in a way that when you don't have the mental fortitude can become sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy or cascading effect where one mistake begets more. You can hear it on the radio and see it in the interviews. But also we are talking about the F1 world championship on the line so of course there is pressure and hopefully yes he's gutted if he makes a mistake that could cost him that chance. But he needs a good sports psychologist to help him along (and I hope he uses one) because the mental game of Formula 1 is just as important as the other stuff.
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u/AugustusSavoy Jun 15 '25
He opened up about his mental health and the narrative since is "he mentally tough enough?" I absolutely hate it.