Formula 1's Nice Guy Problem

[Anonymous]

If you've been paying any attention during the now done and dusted 2024 season of Formula 1, you will notice a trend---nice guys don't tend to last. Sargeant, Riccardo, Colapinto, and now potentially Perez, all considered well liked in the paddock and by fans, but what doesn't win F1 races, is being nice. Now I'm not saying nice people aren't good for teams, but what I am saying is, personality, as good as one can have one, isn't going to save a warm seat for you on the grid.

Now granted Colapinto was always slated for an exit at the end of the season, he saw his fortunes rise and eventually dribble away as he suffered the rookies curse of making friends with the barriers. The same fate and in his case, lack of performance, also quickly dimmed the light of nice guy Nyck Devries a few seasons back, and what about the infamous "Goatifi?" All super nice guys to all who knew them, but teams don't actually care too much about that if you aren't winning.

Ask a team member of any team, in earnest, would you rather have a nice driver performing poorly that's not going to win you the constructors, or one that's kind of a jerk, but gets you right to the top and helps hand you a sweet bonus at the end of season.

Yeah...Formula 1 is and always has been a performance sport. Currently Checo hasn't been performing well, especially not against Driver's Champ Verstappen. Yes, drivers can absolutely blame the car, and as we saw with Riccardo and now Checo. McLaren wasn't even trying to deny his seasons car sucked, but if your teammate can still drag it across the line to points and podiums and even championships, and you consistently can't, then the problem boils down to the driver and his driving style being incompatible with the car.

Checo has been given so many chances, but as Red Bull has found out this season definitively, they've been demoted to third place which might as well be last to them because they don't have a second driver who can consistently at least get into Q3. Now with the other teams having made massive strides to improve their cars after a lackluster 2023 season for the rest of the field, Red Bull cannot afford to just hope Checo will improve unless they have zero faith in either Yuki or Lawson being handed the keys to the kingdom.

Checo might be headed for a Riccardo style payout that sees him doing meet and greets and pundent activities in Mexico or by some miracle, Red Bull might save him (though probably maybe unlikely right right?!?), but it's best he get the axe sooner rather than later so that they can start training a newbie ahead of the 2026 season because if the 2024 season has been any indication, it's mere hundredths of seconds that now separate the best of the best.

[virgo2267]

Bro… there are relationships that last along time within every organization or any competetive sport… being nice doesn’t mean you aren’t trying to win… it means you understand the need for mutual respect in both winning and losing.
..”even when I lose I’m winning”…. That right there is better than any bro code that exist

[paledreams]

It'd all about the cars and the brands and fuel brands 🤩😊

[myTake Owner]

Aka, all about the money. Don't have it, can't get it, can't get it, can't get enough sponsorship for your team, can't keep it, gotta go get it even in a lot of cases, through sponsors who aren't on the up and up.

[strateguy632]

Good pictures