It's always me.
Muse #176 - it is humbling to lay it out on oneself
It is that time of the year in Formula 1. The time for the British Grand Prix. This year it is back with 90,000 fans in the stands with no masks (pre-requisite being a negative PCR test or both rounds of vaccinations) and the fans are out there in full.
Today was qualification rounds with the new Sprint Qualification beta being tried out tomorrow. The sport is always changing. But I want to talk about sportsmanship.
The qualification rounds were grueling with a lot of competition. But at the end of the day, the two leaders in the championship Verstappen and Hamilton when interviewed had a similar attitude and similar message. They congratulated their competition and squarely laid out all performance deficits on themselves alone. And focused on talking about their responsibility to improve. Improve their driving. Improve working with engineering to improve the car. And try harder tomorrow. That is humbling to see that there is no blame game. It was a synchronous chorus that said “It’s me. It’s always me” and it was fantastic to see that.
When one lays the onus on themselves to improve, it is feasible to actually execute the change, since they have taken on the responsibility for that improvement.
Contrast this will the junior and inexperienced team members and even some beyond-the-curve people ready for retirement who are always blaming someone else for their poor performance.
Drivers like Lewis and Max make this sport worth watching and I eagerly look forward to the Sprint tomorrow and the Race on Sunday.