I find it interesting that Max has made a career out of doing what he wants and not giving a **** about anyone else. He has aggressively closed down any questions on his driving and physically pushed around and threatened another driver following his own mistake. That's his thing- and it seems to work for him.
Yet when someone returns the courtesy he cries foul.
I'm neither a fan of MV or LH to be honest, but out of the two I find Lewis more tolerable. Whilst Max is making progress with his development, I can't help feeling that fundamentally he has a level of immaturity that he simply tries to mask rather than him actually doing any "growing". Having said that, Lewis was similar in his younger years, so there's hope for Max yet. But I genuinely feel he would be better off away from RBR and driving for another team. RBR seems a bit toxic and I have to place that at the door of the TP. Max is a young man and is no doubt manipulated daily by the likes of Marko and Horner. I think it would do him good to experience another team and a different management style / outlook.
Mercedes on the other hand, seem to be about finding solutions rather than pointing fingers and placing blame.
There is no doubting that Max is fast and capable. But I fear he has not got a steady hand moulding his outlook and his journey in his best interests.
His attitude is very much "I'm right, that's all that matters" and it's difficult to know how much of that is down to the environment and a team who seemingly don't challenge his attitude and how much is down to Max himself. Marko is no Lauder though, not in my view anyway.
Max's mindset kind if reminds me of people who cross the road at a zebra crossing without looking out for traffic. Yes they have right of way but will that be of any consolation, and will they be any less dead if a car comes flying through that cares not for the "right of way" of pedestrians? Or motorcyclists who don't ease off at crossroads with waiting cars in the junctions......
As others have touched on, this seems to be a key notion that Max seemingly cannot grasp. In my view - his only hope of winning the WDC is if RBR consistently have the faster car by some margin. I feel he will struggle if Merc close the performance gap as he is simply not as good as Lewis and by good I'm not just talking lap times, I'm talking everything else; the whole package.
In addition, it's likely Max is going to be driving angry, and that is never going to end well.
For the record, on reflection, I feel the crash on Sunday was a racing incident. I feel both drivers were driving hard and both could have done a little bit more to avoid it. The margins at that speed are tiny, but nevertheless an unstoppable force met an immovable object. On the day it was Max that came off worse. On another day it might be Lewis. Yet another it could be 2 DNF's. That's the kind of hard racing most people advocate for.
Seems its all fair in love and war with the fans until its their preferred driver in the barrier! But people are going to people as sure as eggs are eggs!
