Formula 1 races taking place right now chained to the screens a noble part of the female audience - it is believed that this is the most masculine sport in the world. In men participating in F1, a girl unfamiliar with the world of competition is usually attracted by the brutality of her participants and eternal victories. Professional racers still seem to be strong, real men who effortlessly fly in an hour three hundred kilometers on the track, and then immediately go to the nearest bar to drink beer. However, the situation began to change: Susie Wolff, the first woman behind the wheel of a car in a very long time, will participate in Friday training. Moreover, myths about the brutality of male pilots are also tested for strength. Understanding how the winners behave in the men's sport itself.
year 2013. Formula 1 Grand Prix in Malaysia, the race is coming to an end. Then only three-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is second, and his team-mate Mark Webber is in the lead. Cebu is only 25 years old at that time, and Mark is already 36. Both riders receive a radio order to maintain their positions until the finish line in order to save rubber and engine life. This tactic of the team is quite understandable - both of its riders will still end up on the top steps of the podium, what could be better? However, the young champion decided a little differently: he violates the order of his own team, which raised him and in which he received all his titles, overtakes an older partner, who, according to the same order of the team, drives in an economical mode, and wins the race. The childish "want-want-want", probably throbbing in Vettel's head at that moment, turned out to be stronger than years of training and psychological hardening. As a result, we have seen one of the saddest podiums in Formula 1 in recent years:
For those who do not see anything wrong with violating the instructions of the command, it should be explained. Throughout the race, the pilot is told on the radio: what exactly should he do, how to drive, at what speed, when to overtake, and when, on the contrary, to skip. More or less everything depends on the strategy in motorsport, so a decent pilot is simply obliged to obey the orders of the team. After the incident in Malaysia, Vettel publicly apologized, and then publicly withdrew his apology back. The team forgave him, Mark Webber left Formula 1 for good at the end of the season.
You can find many such examples of desperate childishness of pilots, hung with titles and records. World champion Lewis Hamilton easily tweets screenshots of his team's closed telemetry to prove his fictional superiority over his teammate. This, in addition to the fact that he records rap albums, desperately cosplays black gangsters and is the only one in the world to have an F1 pass for his dog. And to justify the next mistake on the track, he can always safely say that this is all "because he is black."
The same Vettel, despite the terrifying number of cups, is still sometimes quite deservedly called Baby-Shumi, with an emphasis on the word "Baby". Sebastian is very expressive, much stronger than other pilots, rejoices at his victories: he sings German children's songs and is able to shout "Juhuuu!" Eight times in a row. or, for example, to sob so that any decent lady would want to adopt him. He does his best to hide his personal life from the public eye, like a teenager - porn from his parents, and every year he gives very interesting nicknames to any psychoanalyst to his fireballs, for example, "Lustful Mandy." Seb already has four titles, but it seems that in his desire to be the youngest always and everywhere he will definitely give two hundred points ahead to anyone.
Do not lag behind the leader of recent years and other titled members of the club of the fastest pilots in the world. Even Fernando Alonso, despite his carefully maintained super-masculine appearance and two whole championship titles, quite often breaks out with real tantrums, and even complains about his difficult life, where every day conceals another reason for truly royal dissatisfaction - in general, his standard behavior.
A favorite of Russian speed fans, Kimi Raikkonen is widely known for his reputation as a pilot partially frostbitten by the Finnish snows. The combat set of our hero includes laconic interviews, a constantly absent facial expression, as well as a unique superpower to consume alcohol in any incomprehensible situation - for example, within 15 minutes after taking off from the track. At first glance, it seems that here he is - a real man, thumps when he wants, speaks little and does a lot. But after watching Kimi a little longer and more closely, you quickly come to the conclusion that all this behavior in the style of a Lapland lumberjack is in many ways just a game for the audience: once a year he gives a normal interview with detailed and logical answers, in addition, a constantly thumping slow-witted person would never could not perform so well and consistently in modern races. Kimi is like a teenager desperately screaming to the whole world: "Leave me alone, I am already an adult."
You can simply endlessly sort through the pantheon of modern Formula 1 pilots for puer aeternus. Roman Grosjean? This owner of an infant smile communicates with his racing engineer, it seems, with exceptionally loud screams of an offended child. Pastor Maldonado? A Venezuelan with the appearance of a killer is always ready to write off his own mistakes on everyone in a row - from team managers to engineers - except himself. Having delved into the image of any top-level pilot, you can easily find Peter Pan syndrome in an advanced stage.
Today's pilots may well burst into tears of defeat
Moreover, against the background of such luminaries of hysteria and other serial teenagers, real youth in F1 looks almost like a model of masculinity. For example, Russian pilot Daniil Kvyat, who is only 19 years old, but he already has a public image at all 30. His reserved serious interview, focus on work beyond his years and thunderous voice of the commander of at least a company could envy the best machomen of the peloton. But even in this case, we can say that Kvyat has not yet turned around in full force, and who knows what kind of nicknames he will give to his cars, if he suddenly becomes a champion someday.
So what's the deal? Where have all these James Hunt gone from the races, smoking a cigar and drinking champagne in an embrace with a new half-naked beauty each time? After all, the main difference between current pilots and heroes of the past is precisely in the absence of all these attributes of an international class playboy. Pilots of our day do not allow themselves frivolous behavior towards the opposite sex, but they may well burst into tears from defeat. They don't smoke cigars, but they play video games all day long. They don't drink, they eat ice cream. And whoever drinks, he either hides, or, on the contrary, does it not too convincingly for show to support the image of a tough kid.
The answer is simple and boring: "real men" disappeared from everywhere. Times changed, society changed, and races, at first the lot of daredevils and desperate men, ready to take mortal risks wearing a helmet without a visor at all, gradually became show business. Today "Formula 1" is a world-class sports entertainment show. Yes, there is sport, technology, rivalry, speed and even the danger has not disappeared anywhere. But modern racers are no longer obliged to be "men", to correspond to some myth about their own exclusivity and innate coolness, just as ordinary men in ordinary life are not obliged to be. Modern racers can afford to be just people and do normal human deeds, although they are located behind an almost impenetrable bastion of political correctness and marketing departments. Now look around and count the number of thirty-year-old men who hang a poster of their favorite superhero on the wall, watch children's cartoons about colored horses and ask their wife for Han Solo's Lego ship for her birthday. You will surely find many of these. Our society has nothing against adult boys, so why shouldn't Formula 1 drivers keep up with the times, so to speak? After all, even the greats knew how to relax sometimes.