Is the frosty treatment of Max by his race engineer a recemt thing, or am I only noticing it now?

I know Max said that if GP retires, he will stop racing, but it seems to me that GP has been less than diplomatic in his comms with Max this year.

Notable today was the “we all got that from your previous message” response to Max complaining about his tyres. Is it maybe a case of that’s just what works between them?

I don’t think I saw GP at the podium celebrations, but again it could just be me.

Would love some insight from you guys.

  • PriorProject@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    There’s no notable change here, that’s just how Max and GP prefer to communicate. Many driver/engineer pairings have the engineer prefer a calming communication style, but Horner has described Max and GP as a bickering old couple, and the analogy is apt. Max doesn’t want to hear that he can do this or to keep his head down, he wants to hear that there are no strategy options and nobody cares how bad the tires feel until the laptimes fall off.

    You mostly don’t hear these radios except from the dominant leader and if the radio messages get truly spicy (hi Yuki!). It’s a very different style from Lewis and Bono, which was the last pairing we heard a lot of these messages for. But it’s how the two of them prefer to communicate and doesn’t reflect diminishing respect or satisfaction with the relationship.