Max or Charles: who is more in control of his anger?
Anger is an intense emotional state, one of the basic human emotions, but how to control it is a skill too as how to drive the F1 car.
Let's remember the whole season together where we have seen how drivers manage their anger and control it during a GP IN and OFF the track in this article, I've chosen Max Verstappen vs Charles Leclerc:
In this season we could say that Verstappen has managed his anger inside the car but not in front of media where he made some comments this year, including accusing Ferrari of "cheating", so can we agree that the Red Bull driver approved that have matured enough this year?
Max says: "When I was very angry, sometimes I skipped the media altogether. That was a problem, but I don't do that anymore,"
"That's just being human. But if I am angry, I have learned to wait before I go in front of the cameras. he said.
I think the young dutchman still can't control his anger when accusing a big team in F1 such as Ferrari in front of media as he referenced the Ferrari's drop-off in a form with the remark that it was "what happens when you stop cheating". Meanwhile, Four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel said that Verstappen's claims at Austin which says Ferrari had been "cheating" were not "professional or mature" action from the 22 years old man. Verstappen thinks he is particularly good at handling the pressure of being one of the top drivers in Formula 1.
Well, let's remember together when Max had been in complete control of the Interlagos race last year (Brazilizn GP 2018), following a fantastic performance in which he passed all four cars, both Mercedes and both Ferrari cars, only to be taken out of the lead when Esteban Ocon, a lap down, dramatically crashed into his Red Bull after wheel-to-wheel action, after the race was finished, we all saw him seething with rage after the incident running to Ocon who's five inches taller than Max to revenge.
Max says that he learned something from his father admitting to Ziggo Sport: "Generally that works better. I never throw things anyway as my father has never allowed it, but sometimes you cannot help being angry," Verstappen, 22, added.
"That's just being human. But if I am angry, I have learned to wait before I go in front of the cameras". Well, at the end of the day Max is right, we are all human after all.
On the other hand, we have Charles Leclerc, the other Monégasque young man who is the same age as Verstappen. We will lie if we say Leclerc does manage his anger, Leclerc who finished his first year with Ferrari this year failed to control his anger when his team favored Sebastian Vettel during the Singapore Grand Prix.
Leclerc said he needs to “shut up” to himself over the radio next time he said: “My reaction was well over what it should be and that shows I’ve still got a lot to learn,”
“That won’t happen again in the future. In the car, it’s always very difficult. There’s a lot of adrenaline. I wake up in the morning thinking about victory, I go to sleep thinking about victory, so sometimes it might be hard.
“But I need to control myself more and, how can I say it politely? Just shut up instead of speaking on the radio. I’ll learn from it, and try for it not to happen again.” he said after Singapore GP.
Sometimes the young man blames himself and gets angry with his own soul. Let's remember when he blamed himself and said he made a "stupid" error when he crashed out of qualifying in Azerbaijan GP this year. "I am stupid. I am stupid," he said on the team radio immediately after. His anguish was evident as he came down from his heavily damaged car.
In F1 history, we have witnessed Nelson Piquet punching and kicking Eliseo Salazar after they collided at the 1982 German Grand Prix. We have listened to thousands of ANGRY team radios all over the yeas. we also witnessed many angry fingers showed from the cockpits during races or to the cameras. But that doesn't mean we should lose our mind every single time. Anger is an intense emotional state, one of the basic human emotions, but how to control it is a skill too as how to drive the F1 car.
However, Max and Charles are from the new generation of Formula 1 and the future of it, I believe they are learning stuff from their mistakes whether it's verbally or deedly and they should admit their mistakes if they want to avoid repeating them. The other thing is to learn how to control anger which is an important skill that may save your sanity and your relationships with teams and teammates.