#my original (rpf) thesis was that seb is weirdly possessive about facts about charles

[presdestigatto]

sebastian vettel has this philosophy of only being confident about speaking on a driver's skills and abilities if he's been teammates with them, and it honestly makes the way he describes his former teammates very weirdly charged :p

anddd im putting the rest under dropdown because its sebchal waffle and kinda. long. so here if u wanna read my brainrot:

i'm specifically thinking about how he likes to emphasise (in interviews) that he knows charles sort of inside out as a driver because of their two (!!) years as teammates. the way he speaks about his abilities and talents and specifically, this year when he very quickly asserted that charles will be easy for lewis to get along with, even though seb was last teammates with charles four years ago!! when seb was the first driver!! and also his interview from suzuka last year when he said that he can't speak on max's skill because he hasn't been teammates with him, unlike charles, who he can totally 100% talk about, if only charles wins that championship one day (he did not say this second bit but it was heavily implied imo. he did say the first half re: max). sort of feels like he's always speaking from a "foremost expert on charles leclerc, the driver" position, and if i were to go on a limb i would say that he always speaks of charles with pride. big like. proud dad vibes.

also a minor digression but the indelible mark seb left on charles' career is undeniable and IMO the more illustrious charles' career is the better it reflects on seb (like the 2020 shame can kind of be washed off if charles becomes a wdc. a compelling reason to be a fan of both.)

my last note on this is how re: the most talented driver in 15 years note, seb clarifies in his f1 podcast episode (which is a very nice listen. he also talks about mark and kimi in that) that he would consider kimi the most naturally talented driver he's seen, but charles' ability to find laptime over a single lap is special. so seb is a charles leclerc generational qualifier truther. an og.