Do you think that fans should know ....

[Thorstone]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

As a journalist, I'd say the public are generally interested.

Although it's really none of our business.

Maybe generally , not me
the drivers private lives are theirs own business.

I am a racing fan. I like the drivers who race hard, and that's make me happy
but everybody knows Kimi is the best,since Mika H did quit in F1

[Jordi]

Originally Posted by okeefe

I guess I need to get a life - I like to know how they live their lives -- not so much whether they are married, attached, or whatever but I really do believe in sportsman/womanship becoming and that they have a duty to the fans and the sport to a certain degree to protect and promote the goodwill of the sport itself for future generations to enjoy. It must be the tree-hugger human rights promotion in me that makes me believe anything you involve yourself in - leave it better than how you found it......Merry Christmas everyone, by the way!

Hey, I don't think you need to get a life Merry Christmas. I wasn't really thinking about you... I was thinking more about obsessive fans. I'll admit I'm a huge fan of Villeneuve and I do like to know what goes on with him, but not to an unbearable degree...

[okeefe]

Well here it is Christmas and I'm here reading and posting about racers in the dead season - I'd argue that I need a life...............LOL. Yeah, I like to know what some of them do - Villeneuve, Tag, Bessette, PT - but not in a school-girl fanatical fantasy sense like "oh my, they're so hot" -- but I like knowing of things that they do with their life - I take the time to follow their careers some; so I like to think they are doing some good things with the fame too I guess. I've very proud that Villeneuve does his charity ski stuff I know.

[R59]

Back to the start of the thread...

Where was Kimi found drunk (again)? Had he been out doing what young people do? Drinking, dancing, and sh*gg*ing? Shock horror.

If I were in their position, I'd do the same.

As for reporting it every 5 minutes, why? what's the point? A bit like printing "man crosses road - shock report". or "Sun comes up again - what will happen tomorrow morning?"

It's a sad state that the current cream of the crop F1 drivers are all being groomed by the PR companies, except for Red Bull drivers, and not left to get on with driving. Which means that when the step "out of line" that the press are there to pounce.

I remember back in the late 70's when Kork Ballington was the top man in the world on 250 & 350cc bikes, and to find him in my local pub with a bottle of brandy, and a crate of coca-cola ( I would have said coke, but these days it'd be in a bag! ) with his chief mechanic was not an uncommon site. He knew how to let his hair down!

Rob.

[okeefe]

The method of reporting has sure changed thought too in that we can receive news every 5 minutes now rather than wait for the old 6:00pm news as once was the case. That coupled with the potential addictiveness of the internet I think can make our "interests" more of a "rush" than an actual real interest. That very aspect probably, too, makes racers think twice before going out into the public as they may have in the past - because it would be splashed all over the internet or captured on someone's cell phone camera within minutes! Perhaps moderation is the key all the way around - it's nice to know what the racers are doing that make them great in their sport and good people; but I don't think we need to know - each time they get drunk, fight with their girlfriend/wife, look hot or look not hot, etc. If we find ourselves wanting to know each and every single move they make or how they look each and every minute like that every 5 minutes, I think then it has become our own obsession/rush/fantasty rather than a legitimate interest in them in the sport.

[Andrew2001]

Yeah I agree too, it is BS that a driver can't go out and have fun! I turned 22 last month and have done similar shenanigans to what Kimi (or any other bloke for that matter), famous or not, human beings are human beings. It is the journalists that have yet to find their own lives, many simply take their job too far. And that goes for world politics as well, everyone has an opinion, but as a journalist, it is your job to convey someone in neutral light, but that never happens, thus the bull**** and controversy that surround us...because of the media.....
I am not old enough to remember, but I have read some real entertaining stories from back in the 60s-70s, of drivers getting up to all sorts, James Hunt and Mike Hailwood being the names which seemed to popped up the most....

[BootsOntheSide]

If drivers are committing really serious crimes against the person, we have a right to know. If they are driving dangerously, iuntoxicated or similar, again, they have a responsibility to be role models regarding driving, and breaches of that should be public knowledge. But in general, they are young successful athletes and should be entitled ot a private life. Kimi getting drunk in a strip club is a matter for Kimi and his wife, nobody else, as long as his driving is unaffected.

[Hein]

Personally, I would like to hear about all the stuff the drivers are doing (outside of their home, don't care what they do in the privacy of their houses).

If Kimi was drunk in some stripclub - Yes I find it interresting to read about (and kinda makes me feel better about all the crap I did).

I am not saying they should be stalked or something, but it does kinda come with the job to be in the public eye. At least they have it better than most Hollywood stars.

[ASCII Man]

Would you like to be followed around by paparazzi and your drinking exploits displayed on every cheap gossip magazine?
Don't do/wish unto others what you don't want to be done/wished upon yourself... or something to that effect.


So no, I don't need to or want to know what happens in drivers' personal lives.

[foreversideways]

Bring it on. If your fav football star can get himself involved in a R******G why not your favourite F1 star. Bring back Hunt the Shunt.

[Bononi]

Oh, yeah ! Bring some fun to our "boring to death" lives... We need to know what's going on with yours, specially if it's a bad one !

[foreversideways]

Better still if you want to read about a blokes bloke who knew how to live life to the full, read the Hunt book. I think the most amusing story must be the one about Hunt being introduced to a bloke and his girlfriend at a GP. The bloke was obsessed with the cars and was being given the guided tour around the pits, looking at the car etc. The girl was less impresesed by things mehanical and somehow our hero Hunt taked her into the back of a convieniently parked ambulance for a quick one.