Enrico shark wrote: ↑03 Sep 2017, 18:48
This has nothing to do with Instagram. I based this out of the Sky Italia interviews and is not actually my opinion, but the opinion of friends and other people with whom I talk about F1 when it comes to Lewis. My opinion is that, okay I don't love the guy, I recognise that if he would be driving for Ferrari I would be cheering him as well, but not in the way I'm now cheering for Vettel. He's too much of an enemy. The one and only pilot in Ferrari has been Michael and I feel like still has to come one like him and probably it will never come.
I very much appreciate your honesty. I am not going to argue with you or try to convince you of something else. I was just very interested, because your sentiment and the sentiment of your friends and other people match up with many of my own friends too (those that do follow F1).
Truth is - I've always wondered why. I do have some ideas however. From my friends at least, it seems most of them follow F1 from far more superficially. They are happy to watch the races, maybe some of the post-race interviews from their native broadcasts, but that's about it. They rarely go beyond that, as I do. Then again, I'm probably more "hardcore" than some. If you do follow the sport from that distance though, some drivers do come across as quite different.
I know for example that Hamilton comes across as cocky to some because of the "bling" he carries, the extravagance he portrays and the image he has built (is building) on his name. This doesn't carry over well to some people. To be honest, it's the things I least like about him too. But I suppose I follow him closer to be able to look beyond that to not have that impact my view of him. Sadly, most of my friends or people who I know that follow the sport, rarely show enough interest to go beyond their prejudice to actually give him a chance. To be fair, most of the people I am referring to are German-speaking. Hamilton rarely gets even some coverage on TV broadcast, I assume because most of his interviews need to be translated and thus are kept very short to the bare minimum. Vettel and others on the other hand get to talk to our local broadcasts in their native language. As such, they somehow get portrayed as the "local boy" being covered by the home team, if that makes any sense.
I would assume things to be quite similar in Italy, even if you get to watch the Sky broadcast. Vettel is the local hero, he even goes through the effort to speak Italian (lots of plus points in my book). My best bet is that Hamilton would be portrayed as the "the black horse" to some extent, just as Vettel and Ferrari are, I suppose, portrayed in the British press that way.
Following all drivers quite closely, I think Hamilton is great. He always comes across as very humble in pretty much all interviews I've seen. Vettel similarly, to be fair, though I think (and appreciate) that Vettel is far more diplomatic which is sometimes a very valuable quality. Hamilton on the other hand wears his heart on his sleeve, for good and bad. Having said that, I don't dislike Vettel. I think he is an extraordinary driver, as is his personality. Being a Hamilton supporter doesn't make me blind of that.
I do think though that most fans are very much influenced by the selective media they consume.
