F1 Fanatic

I think unless drivers get in a fight on the camera or repeatedly make negative remarks about a fellow driver (unlikely given this PR age) then it’s hard to know which drivers really don’t get along. I think most rivalries and friendships are probably hyped up by the media and fans (including myself) who want a story. It’s a hugely competitive sport and drivers will spend most of their time with their teams -whether travelling, testing, in the motor homes, in debriefings or in the pit lane- so I doubt how much time they have for other drivers. There are probably those who get on well and within the little bubble that is F1 would probably be classed as “friends” but actually don’t spend as much time together as what the average Joe and his best mate would do.
Take Hamilton and Sutil for example; they seemed like good friends but Hamilton didn’t really give Sutil the support he wanted when his career burst into flames, or how Kimi and Massa seemed to get along but Massa commented that Kimi didn’t even send him a card after his accident, or how Rubens and JB seemed like good friends but Rubens was clearly upset at Brawn once or twice and then you never saw him and JB on camera together again once they both left Brawn. My point is that the competition is always going to come first. I imagine plenty of drivers do get along as has already been listed and pointed out but they probably aren’t together that much for them all to either me best mates or arch rivals. If I was a driver I’d definitely be a little hostile towards Pastor though esp if he ever came near my car…

Oh and Kimi is also supposed to get along with Heikki iirc but that was back in 08/09.

@matt90
awwwwww you just broke my illusion of the both of them jumping from a plane while yelling “cowabunga”

@raymundo999 I have never heard that Webber- Rosberg were close…

The last time two F1 drivers were legitimately to a point of clearly disliking each other were Hamilton and Massa last year, it looks like they’ve put their issues behind though. Before that, back in the early to mid 2000′s, I remember that Schumacher and Montoya strongly disliked each other too.

I haven’t really seen anything from Vettel and Webber to suggest they don’t get along. I think any element of that relationship has been blown out of proportion by fans reacting violently to the team’s favouritism.

Which could easily be a product of their current mood.

If things are as bad as your posts imply, why would Webber continue to stay at Red Bull?

If I were/do look at the situation at RedBull and I’m not talking about public deception, I believe that there is no love lost. As a person if someone 10+ yrs my junior implied to the world (turkey incident) that I was stupid/mentally ill, what ever you my call it, I would be offended and this is just one example of Vettel undermining Webber. Although I now believe Vettel has matured, much like I believe Hamilton has, as we have all experience in life, egotistic outbursts are often regretted. Some damaged cannot be reversed. A great example would be Msc and Rubens, despite the differences in there careers as team mates they still managed to maintain a civilized relationship. However Michael nearly driving Rubens into the wall ended all of that.

Yeah. Mark is old and mature enough to understand that. I’m sure he has also had his own regrets of saying things in the heat of the moment.

Does Maldonado have any buddies?? How about Perez? Do you think it’s hard to crack it in the social circle of F1?