Who do you support, JBanana? 🏁

(Ooh, someone else posted about F1! 👋)

When people find out that I watch F1, they often ask who I support. The straightforward answer is, no one. OK, the more nuanced answer is that I like to see the underdog beat the usual suspects. If Schumacher, or later Hamilton, or now Verstappen wins yet another race, I might admire their dominance, but it's not fun to watch. I'm hoping for an entertaining race where the outcome is genuinely in doubt. I'm hoping for someone to fulfill their potential; to prove the doubters wrong, at least this once. I want something unexpected to happen; for the race to be memorable; to see something I haven't seen before. It was very pleasing when Vettel won a race for Toro Rosso, the only race they've ever won. When he won races by the dozen for Red Bull, it wasn't much fun. When he won a few for Ferrari it was nice to see that he could still do it.

There are a few people I find problematic. Horner's dismissal of allegations of "inappropriate and controlling behaviour" was unpleasant, and pretty controlling. He now has a "reporting restriction order" that prevents the press in the UK reporting on the progress of the case which is supposed to come to court in January. (Ooh, does the order cover me writing that last sentence? "Geminaut receives heavy fine for gemlog post" would be a first!) And it's hard to warm to Lawrence Stroll: "Billionaire buys F1 team for son to play with" - yuck. I've previously decribed Verstappen as sometimes a bit of an arse, both on and off track.

Some people just seem like they're... nice. No one could be upset when Barichello won a race, and everyone felt bad for Massa when he got *so* close to a championship. I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about Adrian Newey, despite his extraordinary career as a car designer.

So, I'm not supporting anyone in particular, but there is a scale I'm measuring them against, and it's not points gained on the racetrack.