#and what f1 fandom on tumblr proved is

[reigningm4x]

The way the same people who scream and cry about Max not being passionate and is bored of winning, are now screaming and crying about him voicing his frustrations with the car because ...he wants to keep winning... please do you know how stupid you sound

[valyrfia]

You know what i have kind of being afraid lately that charles and max becomes a bit more distant and cold, because of how much lestappen started to get talked. Because before it was just fans, but now even f1 media uses the lestappen thing a lot

Like that video where they asked max "it seems like you explain things to max a lot"

The RPF curse unfortunately, the more popular the thing becomes, the more it spreads to people who aren't as strict with boundaries about it as they should be (because it gets them engagement!) and the more likely it becomes that someone who should NOT know about the RPF finds out about it.

The comments underneath Max's latest instagram post left me feeling uneasy, to be honest. Far too much "omg Lestappen!" or something along those lines making jokes that I would almost believe were lifted straight from the tag on tumblr. It's disconcerting. All I can do is warn about how I've seen other popular RPF go south in my time which is that people either a. end up trying to play into that content so much that it gets noticed by the people involved or b. conspiracy theorist begin to be incredibly invasive in an attempt to 'prove' that they are into each other/the ship is real etc. etc.

The issue isn't tumblr, it's fandom culture which historically was concentrated on tumblr going mainstream and people who I'm sure ten years ago would've bullied our ilk on whatever playground suddenly using fandom terminology or speaking openly about ao3 and shipping or using ship names in spaces where it's not appropriate. I've seen the complaint with Lestappen that it's full of 'ex-larries trying to do the same shit' when in my experience, it couldn't really be further from the truth. All the people who watched Larry happen either from within the fandom or as an onlooker (as I was) know full well how south RPF can go if you don't put in place strong internal and external boundaries. As a result, we may have some ex-larries or similar among us on tumblr, but in my experience the 'trauma' (for lack of a better word) and hindsight enables us to set down boundaries quite well and keep the RPF on tumblr and ao3. The people who are pushing romantic Lestappen past boundaries are those who have NOT witnessed something like Larry in real time, and indeed may not have had any real fandom experience in their more formative years and as a result have no idea how to interact with fandom etiquette or fandom culture. This applies to fans, but also to social media and media teams as well, who come across fandom terminology, see that it gets interaction, and choose to use it. It is a massive problem, and I'm so afraid to say that at the rate we're going at it's a matter of when Max and Charles discover what we mean by Lestappen, not it.

[alexjcrowley]

Hey I just want to know something: am I the stupidest person on the planet or the f1 fandom is built differently?

Everytime I go on a social media to look up f1 content I see cute/horny (let's be honest) edits and everybody calling the drivers pookie or making memes. And that's alright, I guess.

I most definitely know that a bunch of (mostly white) men in a very competitive male-dominated sport rooted more than many others in capitalism are probably going to have scandals around them. I am not that dumb. I also know that because probably none of them is scandal-free and people who get crushes/hyperfixation on them just learn to live with them, but I didn't think they just...ignored them? Swept them under the rug? Let me explain.

When I so much as stumble on a TikTok with a song by The 1975 or McCafferty- or hell even Lovejoy recently- I see comments flooding with "bUt DoN't YoU kNoW tHeY'rE pRoBlEmAtIC?". Same happened with content about cinema or books. And on Tumblr happens less but still happens. As soon as you mention something that has ties with sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. people will soon point it out to you. Maybe because they're some of those people with the obsession of only consuming "morally pure" content, maybe they genuinely want to inform you, maybe they fucking hate that song/book/movie and want to give YOU a reason to dislike it.

But can someone tell me if I'm fucking dumb and I managed to stumble in the wrong part of instagram/tumblr/TikTok or NOBODY fucking talks about the shit some drivers have done? Because I am stumbling on a LOT of shit done by drivers I really liked lately even though I have been interested in F1 for a while now. Not too long, but enough that I think I would have heard some stuff.

Like, if I spent like 6 months on the hashtag of Guy Who Drives, why am I now finding out that they said something really discriminatory? I am just confused, I simply thought it would have popped out sooner, but apparently it was buried under 500+ posts about their abs? Like what?

I get that anyway it's not like you can cancel a driver, no matter what shit they say they'll probably still going to be racing the next weekend, but why people don't talk about it? Was my socials' fault for showing me horny posts everytime I simply looked up the name of a guy or do people don't talk about this stuff in the f1 community because "what are you gonna do anyway"?

I am leaning towards the second option because there are a few things that happened while I was already watching f1 (not in order: Lando's comments about, Trump, Hornergate, most drivers saying Hornergate was just noise) and at first people were talking about it but then they just...stopped? Like, I don't know, personally the words of disenterest many drivers expressed about Hornergate made me change my opinion about them at least a little and people seemed so outraged at first but now...it's like it never happened. Everybody back thirsting on main for Ricciardo, Norris, etc.

Genuine question, is the general response of the f1 community to these behaviours "forgive and forget in time of the next gp"? Am I missing something? I don't think they should be crucified but why I have not seen more people talking about this stuff? The "serious sport bunch" seems to be uninterested in "gossip" or whatever happens outsid the tracks, the good old fashioned fandom is writing fanfiction/making edits/funny posts, who keeps tracks of this stuff?

I have never been interested in a sport before. In the artistic world (cinema, literature, etc.) some scandals can get you out of a job and a long lasting hatred from the community. In motorsports, because the success of a driver does not depend from his fans' engagement but can be "objectively proved" by results and victories, do people just...make peace with the fact that some athletes are pieces of shit?

I want to specify it one more time, I am NOT saying LET'S CANCEL ALL THE DRIVERS AND BOO THEM BECAUSE THEY HAVE DONE SOMETHING QRONG AT SOME POINT, I am asking:

how do you deal when an athlete you cheer for does something really fucked up, and you know other athletes in the same field are no saints?

[bright-and-burning]

got tagged by @albonoooo !! thank u <3

what colour are your eyes?: i have (very mild) heterochromia!! they’re mostly green but my left eye has a little brown stripe :) i guess u could call them hazel (or at least the left one) my mom certainly did for ages idk picture below u decide

(cont under the cut)

tell me about your pets/your dream pet: i (well. my family) have an orange cat and a porgi (pitbull corgi mix [he’s really just a mutt but we’re like 95% sure he’s got corgi in him somehow]). they are the lights of my life and also the goofiest lookin mfs. i’ve posted pics of my cat before but my dog is like. really distinct looking (see: porgi) but i love him so much … ask me for photos of him n u shall receive…

my apartment is pet free unfortunately. but also taking care of another whole ass being is A Lot so. i’m very chill w not having my own rn

share some interesting fact about yourself: i went to a spanish speaking daycare when i was really young (like toddler aged) and then when i was like 7 i invented my own language (as one does) and half the words were just. spanish. my parents spent ages trying to convince me that i did not just come up w the word espagnol . i swear to god. and i was a stubborn know it all kid and i wasn’t gonna believe them on anything without irrefutable proof (and how do u prove that??) so their efforts were largely fruitless LOL

what was the first fandom you were a part of?: for SURE harry potter. 9 year old me had unsupervised internet access and went craaazy

do you have any phobias?: hm. i Really Really Really don’t like things going near my eyes. it was wayyy worse before i started wearing contacts. like someone waving their hands around within three feet of me would freak me out. i do still get like. inescapable visions of pencils being waved around and accidentally put in my eye when i think abt it/when ppl wave pencils around that i have to physically shake out of

are you a picky eater? if so, what food can't you stand?: YES! texture issues my beloathed… i DESPISE melted cheese. blergh. bad bad vibes. and other funky textured cheeses… i literally just physically shuddered.

do you eat the burger and fries at the same time or one after another?: i consciously choose to eat burger first to get protein in. and THEN fries. if burger too hot then i get to eat two (must be even number) fries at a time until it cools enough to eat

winter or summer: summer <3 i love the beach i love the sun i love 6am runs where it’s already 75° i love swimming i love fun festivals. but also summer is a mindset . if it’s 65° in march im walking around in shorts and a tank top and sitting in the sun the entire day

favourite fanfiction tropes: oh gosh… best friends to lovers… idk i read it all baby. also gonna be honest the f1 interpretations of a/b/o are FASCINATING!!! and have really increased the draw by Far for me

are you studying or working? what do you study/is your job?: working! i am a silly little analyst

what is the last country you visited: canada in june to get drunk by the lake for a week <3

what country would you want to move to after retiring?: france… maybe not. but also maybe yeah. idk i don’t have any other strong connections to places, u kno? and i’d like to travel (fingers crossed i Can retire at an age where i can still travel easily lol)

who was your first crush?: gene kelly in singin in the rain and on the town… formative movies for 3y/o me

how did you get into f1 fandom?: web weavings on tumblr + like three random instagram reels (the mclaren wavelength video being the only one i remember lol) + the empty hole unemployment left me with inside = instant obsession

no pressure tag…. @oscarpiastriwdc @ocontraire @crimsonicarus @lafaerie @mecachrome

[chillicoded]

Publicly shipping and sexualising F1 drivers is STRANGE.

This isn't targeted and I'm not trying to start anything, I'm just utterly bamboozled and wanted to put my thoughts out.

I don't know if it's just because I came to the F1 community fresh from mcyttwt, where it was pretty much standard for people to get doxxed and reported into oblivion for shipping youtubers/streamers or even daring to imply that they were attractive in any way, but I've been here for a year now and I'm honestly still dumbfounded at how normalised hardcore shipping between and sexualisation of the drivers is. I didn't see much of it on Twitter while I was active there, I imagine because most of the F1 accounts I followed were in the exact same boat as me, but I see glimpses of it on other platforms like Instagram and Threads, and over my last few days of using Tumblr, I've noticed it's very prevalent here.

Admittedly, mcyttwt could take the notion of protecting creators' personal boundaries a little far sometimes. Especially in the peak of the DreamSMP in 2020/21, you couldn't even compliment a creator's new haircut or lightly blush their cheeks in fanart without someone in the replies calling you out for "sexualising" the creator, and like I said above, doxxing and mass reporting was commonplace. At points like that, it really did more harm than good and it was borderline puritanical. That level of internal policing and constantly walking on eggshells to avoid getting lumped in with Those People is not what I would want for the F1 community, or any fandom. It's normal to find drivers attractive (including sexually attractive) and it's okay to talk about it to a reasonable, respectful extent. It's normal to appreciate their dynamics with each other and it's okay to point out and joke about the bromance-y moments they have with each other.

I think it's also okay to exaggerate those dynamics and bromances for the sake of fanfic. There's no way to fully capture a whole person in words, their whole 20-, 30-, 40-something years of life including everything you haven't seen and everything under the PR-polished persona they put on for the media. No matter how accurately a writer can portray a real person, they're ultimately still writing a character. For that reason, I feel like fanfiction is where the line in the sand can be blurred a bit. I still find hardcore smut about F1 drivers strange, but that is a much more subjective take from me.

What's really strange is describing your sexual fantasies about a driver explicitly and in detail on public platforms. What's strange is watching a driver's every interaction with another and psychoanalysing them to prove or imply that they are sexually or romantically involved with each other. They are real people, and you're putting that on the internet for anyone, including the drivers, to see. I can't even imagine how violating it would be for them to be aware that every time they interact with a colleague or friend, their body language and their every word is being scrutinised by people who want to imagine that they're fucking their fellow driver. How humiliating it must be for them to be aware that if their shirt sits like this or they bend down like that, there will be a slew of strangers on the internet drooling over how badly they want them and commenting on their bodies.

Yeah, sounds pretty horrifying when it's put like that, doesn't it?

It's even more bizarre to me that the people who are completely unashamed of all this weird shit will go on for days about how hateful comments and death threats aren't okay. I'm not saying they're wrong for that or shouldn't be speaking out about it - anyone can and should be calling those things out - but the hypocrisy is baffling. Hate and death threats aren't okay because, aside from the fact that it's just not cool to talk to or about people like that, there's a non-zero chance that the drivers will see those comments and it could seriously affect them mentally and emotionally, especially when it's on every platform, coming from countless people. You can recognise and understand that, but you don't think even once, let alone twice, that maybe speculating about drivers' personal relationships, sexuality and bodies and publicly objectifying them could have the same effects? Seriously?

I get that every fandom has Those People, and it's usually a bigger portion of the fandom than people like to think. Even while I was on mcyttwt, That Side of the fanbase was an elephant in the room; we all knew it was there, but no one really spoke about it or engaged with it because 1) nobody wanted to give them any attention or waste any time on it, 2) we knew there was nothing we could do to stop those people from being Strange, and 3) it was an ugly, shameful part of the community that we were all happier pretending wasn't there. The side of the fandom that didn't care to respect the basic boundaries and personal lives of people they claimed to support were very distinctly separated from those who did. I think that was for the best, and I wish it was the way things were done here. Here, it seems completely unabashed and it's intermingled with blogs that aren't like that at all. When I see a cool piece of fanart or a post I agree with here, there's no way for me to know what I'm going to find when I look at the rest of the blog. The amount of times I've clicked on a blog I thought looked cool and started scrolling only to find some weird shit like "I just KNOW (x) and (y) have explored each other's bodies" with no warning has been jarring, and seriously offputting.

I'm not expecting to pull up on Tumblr, write this a few days later and completely change the culture here. I'm sure other people feel the same way as me and have spoken about it before, and I'm sure the people who do all this aren't bothered at all. I just find it so baffling that it's everywhere here and I wanted to talk about it. In an ideal world, people would learn the difference between an outside thought and an inside thought and know that these are definitely inside thoughts, but ultimately, that's not going to happen anytime soon. Maybe if you're going to put that kind of content out there, at least be aware that other people don't necessarily want to see it and make it clear that it's on your blog for our sake, so we don't have to encounter it if we don't want to? Please?

And by the way, if you're wondering why I don't just ditch Tumblr if I don't like the culture here, I'm mainly here because this is the best place for me to post the kind of content I want to make, not necessarily because it's the best place to find the kind of content I want to see (and also because my housemate convinced me to start a blog and now I'm slightly addicted). I just want to be able to follow blogs that don't post stuff that makes me seriously uncomfortable, and so far, that's been difficult to find. With that said, if you're active here and you're not into Posting Weird Shit, please let me know so I can follow you xoxo

(PS "daily" drawings will be back soon, i keep getting peer pressured to go to the uni library and spending my entire evening there so i run out of time to draw </3)

[formulatrash]

While we are loosely on the topic of IndyCar, I've been getting into other racing series and am planning to actively follow some more this year and the culture shock as a fan is real. I can actually ask questions about IndyCar and FE without getting some smart ass "DTS fan" response, coincidentally with them still being unable to answer my question themselves though. Generally people just stay in their lanes and focus on the teams/drivers they support instead of wasting so much time and energy on the teams/drivers they passionately hate. Death threats and harassment aren't normalized. Maybe the haters aren't the only ones who want to see my favs get "demoted" to IndyCar or FE because they're genuinely so much more chill to follow as a fan. With F1, you can do all the blocking and unfollowing not just on Tumblr, but on websites with a lot of grown 50+ year olds and still come across some of the most file shit you've ever encountered. I've met some great friends through F1 and as a STEM student, love the engineering aspect, but the 24/7, 365 fighting and drama amongst fans doesn't make it fun to follow, it gets old and annoying pretty quick.

in all honesty, it's that lack of exposure thing. people are excited to see other people getting into the smaller series we like cus there aren't very many of us, innit. gotta have people to blorbopost with. love to get the moots in on my nonsense.

(this was, in short version, how I ended up writing about Formula E for years)

the sheer scale of F1 fandom has always been one of its issues, like football fandom. there's no sort of curated community areas where everyone's decent to each other cus there's so many people involved. and there's lots of ways in which the media is responsible for that

I'm glad you mentioned the 50+ year olds cus honestly, it's always been this way. and particularly if you're from any of the demographics not assumed to be somehow naturally an authority on F1. I say 'any of the demographics' - you know exactly the one that gets the pass and then the rest of us can waste our lives proving we know anything and drive ourselves insane or just accept you have to love it in spite of it all.

ultimately, it's on F1 to actually call off the dogs in the sense you can absolutely start effective comms campaigns that address harassment and exclusion. you can breed healthy dialogue, you can put a less combative and rage-fuelled version of the sport out there. but what's happening right now is doing numbers for a series that - and remember this was as recently as 2018 - was absolutely on its knees.

shrinking, ageing viewership was impacting sponsorship while costs escalated, manufacturers all threatening to pull out, brands questioning the point of being involved, media coverage that was shrivelling up and dying, no social and digital presence to speak of, very little visibility outside specialist channels.

F1 has, by a combination of luck and a sort of 'try pressing every button at once and see if something works' managed to reverse those fortunes and now the influencers it didn't understand 5 years ago are clamouring to get in the paddock. that's a good thing! F1 desperately needs attention or else, like a Tumblr user, it will literally die because sponsors are only interested in paying for exposure and F1 needs such vast amounts of money.

so: I'd love F1 to have more fans. my friends who've suddenly got into or back into it the last few years rock. but with great capacity for sponsorship deals comes a huge hot mess of governance, calendar bloat and subterranean discourse.

although Extremely Online F1 Fandom is only a small slice of it all, regardless, which I kinda try to remember.

main thing is: enjoy things how you want to! engage with and boost content you like! block everyone annoying, life is too short.

(I genuinely wish more people would just block me when they find me annoying on Twitter or whatever rather than turn it into a strange obsession. think I'm an idiot? cool, block me. massively more peaceful for us all)

[nieded]

I posted 1,680 times in 2022

That's 135 more posts than 2021!

52 posts created (3%)

1,628 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kookaburra-laugh

@tut557

@kedreeva

@flantasticclaude

@trebornosnibor

I tagged 938 of my posts in 2022

Only 44% of my posts had no tags

#queue away! - 96 posts

#good omens fanart - 96 posts

#ofmd - 41 posts

#sebastian vettel - 39 posts

#good omens - 35 posts

#rainbow road - 35 posts

#formula 1 - 34 posts

#ni speaks - 31 posts

#daniel ricciardo - 29 posts

#good omens fic - 29 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#but just imagine for a second that they did and what that would be like knowing that he threw a party on the day of her husband's funeral

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I've love a little teaser from Accept a Little Spin!

Have some tumblring! This Part Two of #Rainbow Road

@ajconstantine & @kookaburra-laugh

13 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

#4

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Good Omens (TV) Relationship: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), Sandalphon (Good Omens), Gabriel (Good Omens), OCs Additional Tags: Alternative Universe - Human, Alternative Universe - No COVID, Alternative Universe - Sports, Screenplay/Script Format, Rainbow Road

Summary: Hey babe, wake up. New season of Drive to Survive just dropped.

S5: E6 "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Ezira?

Synopsis: Newcomers, GO Force 1, bite off more than they can chew when signing on former Formula 3 champion and Formula 2 veteran Ezira Phale as their second driver.

------

Yes, it's here! I got inspired after watching S4 of Drive to Survive, so now you get their episode with some additional behind the scene insights.

Thank you to @the-bentley for the beta!

15 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

#3

Hey, for any #rainbow road followers, I was thinking of writing up a post explaining how the Russian invasion of Ukraine is directly affecting Formula 1. It ties into the concerns addressed in the author notes about F1's decisions to continue holding races in places like Russia, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Obviously, the concerns of a multi-billion dollar international sport is low ranking compared to everything else happening right now, but looking at how other nations and corporations respond to the situation can help determine how it affects operations globally.

So, I'm just putting feelers out there. It's been a rapidly changing situation while F1 starts pre-season testing. Shoot me a comment or ask if you want to know more. I am tentatively drafting a post.

Eta: let me know if you want to be tagged so you see it, thanks!

17 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

#2

Accept A Little Spin

It's the 2023 season, and sophomore driver, Ezira Phale, is out to prove he's worthy of his seat at McLaren F1 as the world tests the boundaries of his confidence and his relationship with IndyCar driver, AJ Crowley.

This is Part Two of a three-part series. While this story does cover some difficult topics and has challenging moments, I promise you that the reward is utter fluff. Part Three is in progress. I have written about 10k and will be spending NaNoWriMo completing it. It will most likely be shorter. And sweeter.

Again, this story uses CSS so it's important to read it with the 'creator's style' or work skin on. The story is COMPLETE and will be updated on a routine schedule. Massive thanks to @the-bentleyBentley for beta-reading and cheerleading, @dustandhalos for the wonderful artwork, and the F1 Discord server for giving me an opportunity to scream about F1 literally every day. Special thanks to @kookaburra-laugh for the you-know-what at the place with the thing.

74 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

TOP TEN FICS OF 2021

All right, after reading @kookaburra-laugh's fic rec list of 2021, I decided to make my own. This is in no particular order, my favorite stories I read this year (even if they all weren't written in 2021).

1. The Way We Are by @entanglednow, E, 2k

I personally enjoy stories about real sex, which is weird to write about snake!Crowley, but it certainly feels real and loving. This story is less sexy and more just romantic and supportive. It changed how I view and write Aziraphale.

2. Omens of Another Kind by WorseOmens, NR, 189k

Do you want an immersive setting with high stakes, a rich fleshed-out alternate universe full of magic and wonder? This story is so good, I couldn't put it down.

3. (Slow) Burn, Baby, Burn by orchidlocked, E, 279k

This is maybe my favorite story I have ever read, ever. I love the setting. I love that it could easily slide into a canon timeline. I love that they are still supernatural, but the emotion and stakes are so very human. This story doesn't shy away from difficult themes, and it makes the universe so rich. It doesn't hurt that it also comes with a fantastic playlist. Please, please give this a go. You will not be disappointed.

4. Curse of the Witchfinder by KitschyKit, M, 2k

I have this story under a tag in my bookmarks called, Makes Me Feel Seen. It's a story I come back to again and again about an unusual protagonist, Shadwell, and the burden he's carried throughout his life grappling with his queer identity. It's a love letter to the older generations in the LGBTQ+ community, and I love the role Crowley plays here as well.

5. out here making news by sabinelagrande, G, 1k

Featuring bastard!Aziraphale, this is the Untitled Goose Game/Good Omens crossover you didn't know you needed.

6. side effects by darcylindbergh (@forineffablereasons), E, 7k

This gut-punched me and falls under the tag Makes Me Feel Seen in a big, big way. I come back to this on the days I'm feeling my worst not because it makes me feel better but because it makes me feel less alone.

7. Faster Than a Speeding Bentley by nightbloomingcereus (@moondawntreader), M, 76k

God, this story is delightful. It has all the best comic book archetypes while still feeling true to Crowley and Aziraphale. This story scratched a huge itch I had for a good superhero AU.

8. A Shifting Spectrum of Grey, by PenroseSun, E, 21k

I can't fully express how this story makes me feel. It's aching at times and so beautifully written and explored.

9. Part and Parcel by sabinelagrande, E, 2.5k

If you haven't noticed, there's a theme in my list about identity and acceptance, and this is a very hot, hot way to go about it. I just love anything with Crowley and gender feels, and this hits the spot.

10. Dinner and Diatribes by KitschyKit, E, 8.5k

Please heed the tags. This is a love letter to consensual non-consent. It's well-written, excruciatingly hot, and so loving, but of course, it's not for everyone.

104 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mcmuppet]

okay i never actually post on here but i saw something yesterday on  @illegalferrariengine page and specifically one of the tags set me off on a rant to @daniallricciardo during my class yesterday, and i am now going to form that rant into an incoherent tumblr post bc im bored at work and still mad about this

so here it goes: a two part rant about f1 fangirls and DTS fans; and why the f1 fandom is actually ostracizing itself and harming the sport it so very much loves, because of how it treats female & new fans

basically, what fully set me off was a tag along the lines of a lot of “fan girls” go into full seb vettel f1 knowledge mode when talking about history, and even know more than a lot of guy fans, and as a new fan, this is something i have noticed in myself. i’m a pretty big sports fan in general, but im new to f1 and unlike any other sport i watch/follow, with f1 i dove head first into not only the current grid/era, but also the general history, which i have not really done for any other sport. (i’ve been watching tennis since i was like 8 and i could not tell you anything in detail that happened on either the men’s or women’s tour since like, pre 2005, i just never cared to learn). but with f1 i did. and for a long time i chalked that up to “its a new sport to me and im fascinated, and my adhd hyperfixation really set in (during a time when im living alone and have nothing else to do)” and i went wild with it.

but yesterday really got me thinking, did i just become so into the knowledge because of how much i like the sport (and don’t get me wrong i LOVE f1 now) or did i get so deep into the knowledge because the general online discourse (especially on twitter which is its own toxic ecosystem) is that if you’re  a female fan, you have to prove that you’re a fan of the sport and not just a “superficial fan girl” and like THATS SO PROBLEMATIC. i realized yesterday (and maybe this is a super obvious thing and my brain was just slow at fully grasping) that even subconsciously, i know that i would be categorized as a shallow fan girl unless i proved my knowledge, especially since, i am a girl! and i am attracted to these silly attractive men driving fast and being silly in press conferences! sue me! but i shouldn't have to justify being a fan of sport!

i was trying to compare this to tennis and soccer (my other two fave sports) and  while obviously there is still bias and misogyny in those fandoms as well, it really does not reach the levels that i’ve seen in the f1 fandom. personally i think that because there are so few drivers (in comparison to soccer and tennis where there are literally thousands of athletes) so we know more about each driver and really get to know their personality (at least the public personality that they portray), which makes the connection feel more personal. it also doesnt help the inherent bias that , yea , a lot of the drivers are conventionally attractive and could probably be models if they didn’t want to be driving. but it just doesn’t sit right with me that i’m being forced to become an encylopedia of f1 knowledge just to show that i am in fact into the sport because i enjoy the strategy calls, the on track drama, and the absolute power that is the merging of a man and machine to create basically a hyper-athlete. you don’t get that in any other sport and i think thats the genuine beauty of f1.

the other part of the toxic f1 fan culture that has frustrated me is the perception of fans that got into the sport because of drive to survive. now, i didn’t get into f1 because of the Netflix show. i started watching because i had a friend who was a huge fan, and she convinced @daniallricciardo to put on a few races, and i decided to stop making fun of the fast cars going in circles and watch a few races with her. and it got me hooked (this is my formal apology to my boss who i used to make fun of relentlessly for watching f1, you were right Doug its a great sport). but i digress. just the fact that i feel the need to clarify that i did not get into f1 because of DTS is PROBLEMATIC IN AND OF ITSELF. to quote @daniallricciardo “it feels like a badge of honor that we got into it without DTS and it SHOULDN’T” 

the point of drive to survive was to attract new fans to the sport, and guess what! it worked! shocker! but the fact that fans who have been watching f1 for years before the Netflix show consider “DTS fans” to be fake fans literally contradicts the whole point of the show and the sport in general. f1 will only continue to succeed as a sport if the fanbase continues to grow. more fans mean more money which directly correlates to the ability to put on races and provide the entertainment that we sign up for as fans of the sport.

this whole rant basically boils down to: misogynistic f1 fans who reject new DTS fans as “fake fans” are literally ruining the sport they claim to love so much. not just by creating a toxic community, but even in a more tangible way, they could end up affecting the f1 bottom line if they continue to ostracize fans in the way that they currently are. i have never felt more insecure as a fan of anything in the way that i have found in the f1 community. and while i will admit that i also love the knowledge side (seb is literally one of my absolute favorite people so a part of me wants to be just like him, f1 history wise), but i wish i could just enjoy randomly knowing who the 1984 wdc was (niki lauda - of course), without thinking that knowing that will put me in better standing with the f1 community. 

this all seems like, super obvious and not at all some kind of big breakthrough and i recognize that. im not pretending to say i got to the root of toxicity in the f1 community and now in gonna work on solving that. but i think, at least for myself, i needed to put this out there, so that, personally, i can start overcoming the internalized insecurities i have about being a fan in a new sports community which has a very interesting little ecosystem, unlike any other sports fandom ive encountered. 

if you got this far 1. im sorry that i took up 1.2k words of your time and 2. thank you for letting me rant, i def needed it 

[rbr-seb]

so look

i'm not saying we should normalize toxicity in sports fandoms, but screenclipping 'toxic' fans doesn't really do anything. Like it or not, you're always going to be biased (it's natural to like one team and not others) and by creating this public platform to showcase some of f1's 'toxic' fans all you are doing is indirectly encouraging the 'hate'.

You can't change another person's opinions, but by creating this page, you're inspiring LOTS of so called 'toxic' fans to create more 'hate-content' (and I'd know; one of my goals for this blog is to get featured by that one page I'm referencing LMFAO) You're literally making the problem worse.

By going through the anti tags and trying to fill them with positivity about the tag-subject, you're only going to make them mad and get more hate posts. If that's your aim, you're petty and you suck (but hey, you've just proven yourself to be part of the problem, and you're a stereotypical sports fan. We get you) but this holier-than-thou attitude ain't fooling anyone.

Hating on an entire platform and calling them a cult is pretty hilarious in itself but you're just proving you don't get the culture here. Tumblr is a place where YOU can be a bitch. there's no agenda that needs to be followed. Targeting tumblrinas is the least effective way to generate noise cause we're not going anywhere. You can't bully us out of here. We're here to stay, and if you mess with us, you're going to pay. That's also why the block feature on Tumblr is perfect- don't like? don't interact.

These 'hate comments' are not intended for fans of the other driver. They are not meant for the actual driver in any way. They are simply opinions, and having opinions doesn't make you toxic.

You know what is toxic though? Sorting through anti tags for clout and starting up drama. THEN, defending your points with ad-hominem attacks and having ZERO evidence to actually back them up. Dude at least do some research. Stop being stupid in an unfunny way?

There's no algorithm here. You only see what you follow. Stop seeking haters! If you think we're toxic just block us!

You want to reduce toxicity? Stop broadcasting hate. You're only inciting more people to put forth their opinions, which you classify as hate. Just ignore them and move on. Use the tools Tumblr provides to curate your fucking experience.

[f1-unpopularopinions]

the f1 fandoms incessant need to bash Paul di Resta is really frustrating. they all say he was a 'washed' up driver, that he did nothing in his career. but the man actually proved that he was worth it in a very shit car. he had an unlucky set of circumstances that effected his F1 career. he was in the top three for the majority of the 2013 Bahrain GP, getting overtaken by Grosjean about 6 laps from the end because of a risky strategy. He would have had a podium in Singapore, but his team told him not to push. he was disqualified in one of his best qualifying sessions because of an issue with the teams weighing system, he finished that race in the points. he lost his manager (because the guy fucking lied) at the moment where he needed one the most (Lewis leaving McLaren). Then he got dropped form the team after the first half of the season Bob Fearnley saying that he's signed for 2014, but they needed money so took on Perez. the year FI were doing good because the team focused on the tyres, then because teams decided to break the rules and change pressure and put tyres on the wrong side and they started exploding, they changed the make-up and it fucked them over. there's some pretty wicked defending he did, in a mediocre car, against some very good cars. THE GUY WON A DTM CHAMPIONSHIP TOO!! Loads of drivers who have gone to DTM have commented how hard it is in DTM, and in his first four years prior to F1 there he finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, and 1st. and then he finished 3rd in 2018, the person 4th nearly 70 points behind, and his team mate finishing 15th.

and on his commentary/punditry he knows what he's talking about to, he is friends with these drivers, he lives in the same apartment building as most of them, he cycles with them etc etc, so just because you think you may know what you're chatting about, remember he knows a lot more, and also remember that he will have a producer in his ear telling him or urging him to say something to make a pretty dull race more exciting.

and also please remember, when you're spreading absolute shit about him on Tumblr/twitter and saying some nasty stuff, remember how you want to 'race as one' and stop racism, discrimination, hate, you are hating on him to. and remember the guy has two young children, a wife, and a career. think about them before you wish him dead.

Send us your unpopular F1 opinions!

[vetteldixon]

10, 15, 36, 75 xxxx

10. What were your first thoughts when you got into F1?

“Oh this is like World of Warcraft” ...I was doing cutting-edge, hardcore raiding at the time okay everything was like world of warcraft to me. i’m a fucking nerd

15. Is there a driver you disliked in the beginning but now like?

Lewis for sure. My understanding of racing has grown while he’s proved to the world four times over just how completely, ridiculously skilled he is. In 10-15 years I’m going to be bragging to new fans that I got to watch Lewis fucking Hamilton in his prime and I’ve grown to genuinely enjoy it. I think he’d also agree that his confidence has grown and that’s let more of his natural personality shine through. When he was paranoid about Nico, he wasn’t exactly...easy to like.

36. What were some of your favorite races?

Oh shit. [editing that I zoned out while I tried to figure out what races I really remember watching...] Let’s see...Turkey 2020, Singapore 2019, Brazil 2016... I’ll leave it at that.

75. Are there any F1 blogs that made this fandom more welcoming or better for you personally?

YOU for one I think you’ll understand what I mean when I say I saw you doin your thing and I realized, oh okay cool thank god I’m not the only hot mess who’s in love with Sebastian Vettel 😅

in no particular order, and without prejudice for anyone else this is just like. people i can think of, especially early on?

@sebsluckycoin @babettevdw @myheartwillgrosjean @seriously-sebvettel @formulabarbi oh god oh jeez i feel like there should be more but yeah those are some?!?!?! also literally every neurodiverse and/or LGBT person on here...wow! so many! 🥰 and everyone who interacted with me when i first started this blog and i had no fucking idea how tumblr worked. no really didn’t know

sure lob a couple more of these numbers at me if you don’t mind waiting til tomorrow probably

[komkommertijd]

have you ever tried having an original idea rather than just ripping off what other writers have done? because all I ever see is you copying what other writers do or say that you’re going to do something that a writer has an original idea for? simplyverstappen already mentioned doing an assassins creed au and you mentioned doing it five hours later like it was completely your idea. try being original then you’ll be better rather than whining all the time

Good evening, dear anon :) 

Congratulations, first of all, on being my first ever anonymous hater - it’s a memorable day for me 😌 I didn’t really plan on replying to you but I usually try to reply to everything people throw my way, and like everyone else, you shall receive a message longer than what you’ve asked for, we’re in for a ride 🤠

To start this whole thing off I can say that yes, I have tried but considering the huge amount of fic and books out there it is rather difficult to prove and find out whether the stuff my brain produces in the middle of the night has been done before. In all honesty, I’d be damned if I tried. I’m surely not the first person to write a Coffeeshop AU and I certainly won’t be the last, yet no one has had the idea to complain about those fics yet. I’m sure that someone has had an idea similar to my Tumblr fic before but the thing is, I just don’t know and it’s not my job to know it - I’m just here vibing with the things that come to my mind and it’s fanfiction, in the end, it’s all not that deep really. (It is one thing to have a similar idea and another to plagiarize though, please keep that in mind.)

Additionally, I might suggest checking AO3 and you may or may not notice that hey, there’s Assassin’s Creed AUs there already. That doesn’t mean that @verstappened or I or anyone else can’t write that anymore because it’s not our original idea. Hell, you’ll find tons of rather similar works in all big tags, may it be the Omegaverse, Coffeeshop AUs, Royal AUs, or literally any other tag and that’s fine! Have you never read a fic before and thought “I wish there was more of this”? Because it’s great to see someone else write something similar to what you enjoy and it’s great as an author to read about things that you want to read about instead of having to provide that content for yourself all the time. 

Concerning the Assassin’s Creed issue I just want to point out that I really haven’t seen Mone’s post(s) about her fic ideas before and I sincerely apologize if I pissed you off that way, it was not my intention. Furthermore, I’d like to bring attention to the fact that I clearly said something about “rewriting and translating old fics” (you can find that here), which indicates that I have, in fact, previously written those fics, back when I still wrote my fics in German and before I started writing for the F1 fandom, which I started doing a year ago (holy shit, by the way). The work I was talking about is originally from 199 weeks ago, according to Instagram, which was in December 2016. If we use our brains for a quarter second we may figure out that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey didn’t come out until October 2018, which is the game Mone mentioned (proof can be found here). I have never played Odyssey yet, sadly, and all the fiction I’ve ever written about Assassin’s Creed was inspired by Syndicate. As a result, I was very much not trying to copy Mone’s idea four years ago.

I know, digging a bit deep. It’s unnecessary (just like the hate you’re throwing my way) but I’m trying to get you to understand that I meant absolutely no harm by that. I’ll gladly read Mone’s AU in the future but I won’t let you make me feel guilty for translating my own (!) work that I’ve come up with, written, and published years ago.

Now for the last sentence because while it is just another unjustified statement I kinda want to address it. I do apologize should I ever come across as whiny or ungrateful, I have never appreciated anything more than the support and the possibilities this fandom has provided me with since day one. Still, I’m just human, and sometimes things can be a bit much, right? I have the right not to be optimistic all the time, and I am allowed to express my feelings even when I’m frustrated or unhappy about my work. I’m not forcing you to look at it and this blog, as well as my work, is first and foremost for me. I don’t write to please anyone and certainly not people who love to leave rude messages. So if you don’t want to hear me whine, leave. No one’s forcing you to listen (I sure as hell don’t want you to, anyway, if this is how you will address it). 

Getting better is not about how much I complain or about “how original” my work is. I know people who write impeccable Coffeeshop AUs, even if the plot is somehow always vaguely the same in one way or another. If more people want to write about Italian King/Prince Daniel, fucking go for it, I’ll be there in the first row to yell about how much I love the image it creates in my head (I’m not trying to imply that I was the first one to come up with that either but this is about principle more than anything). 

The point is, I love reading about things that are similar to mine (if they’re not, you know, too suspiciously similar) and it’s so nice and exciting to see how other people approach a topic, to see their way of thinking and their opinions expressed in how they write about it, and I’m always happy to read the fifth million Pack verse fic about cuddling or mating or whatever. If you don’t, that’s fine, don’t read it but please, for the sake of all of us, keep that to yourself.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to send me some highly subjective criticism, I’ll still write whatever I want to write as long as I’m not harming anyone 💛