#idk if ‘playing along’ was ever an option ykwim

[supermaks]

i am re reading ur old posts and the one where you talk about how sky dislikes max not because he beats lewis but because he put an end to """british dominance"" in the sport and how max is the opposite of the person they would have liked to be the replacement bc he isn't from a nice little family and won't bow down to them etc. i think also part of that is max's family IS allowed to talk back to everyone and give their opinions because of their past qualifications which means they can disagree loudly and publicly which feeds the cycle. jos very much chartered max's own path for him, which had the benefit or disadvantage (depending on how u see it) on max not having to rely on the media for anything and not playing along with them on anything.

That's true i c your point but I still don't think they ever made themselves any favors, past qualifications or not. Like Jos wasn't 'allowed' to say or do things because he was a former f1 driver, we're not really talking about a Schumacher type of surname here. I don't think Max represents a dynasty or that anybody has ever seen his career that way. I agree with u that Max was never put in a position where he had to 'play' the media game but that kind of circles back to my initial point ig?? Like he didn't have to rely on that because he was Max Verstappen and he was a dutch child driving an f1 car. He wasnt some polite oy mista climbing his way up the ranks and humbly appreciating every opportunity thrown his way. Helmut was literally like ok I'm gonna put this child in a single seater hes gonna win the wdc one day or whatvr yall can deal with that PERIOD. and everyone was like❓umm okay. Oh grandpa is serious 😐 Nobody knew how to tackle a character like Max and especially not a media establishment that was just starting to accommodate Lewis Hamilton as its hero. Which wasn't easy for them because Lew wasnt what they wanted either. They were fucking annoyed. And I mean annoyed. Like u watch early Max races and the tone of the commentary is jarring, even now. Lil bro was mocked and dismissed relentlessly, from the get go. And when they couldn’t dismiss him anymore they got even more annoyed. Like u said, I think its well put, it became a cycle. Rbr tried to shelter Max by refusing to engage, media use that gap in the narrative to build their own, Verstappen camp reacts, rinse and repeat. Last year u had something interesting happen, which was Ted getting a lil too bold and Max and rbr very pointedly telling him to tone it down . It wont change anything but at least it drew the lines in the sand yk.