My take on the handsome Gaunt ♡

thank you for saying what you did on that last ask about the fandom babying lando. this is not meant disrespectfully and is not aimed at that anon, it's meant in a general sense, but i wish people would stop doing it & projecting the image of this insecure, helpless, needy young boy on him. even from the little we see of him on screen & social media and not personally knowing him at all, it's obvious he is not those things and that he has a core of steel in there - they all have, however nice they may be, or they wouldn't survive in f1. for instance from things daniel has said in recent interviews, one of the things that has done him over this year & put him out of the sport is the mental side of things for him just as much as his physical struggles with the mclaren car. some fans really underestimate just how mentally tough & self-sufficient these guys have to be to do what they do, even though they have support teams around them (like lando has john & mark b & his parents).

lando is not a child, he's a grown ass man who is succeeding & thriving at the top of one of the most ruthless sporting environments in existence. even when he was shy & anxious by his own admission when he first entered f1, he never came across as someone who NEEDED support from his teammates (doesn't mean he didn't appreciate support they gave but there's a difference). if anyone's support was NEEDED (I use needed loosely), and i'm only going here on things he himself has said on streams & in interviews, it was mclaren giving him a safe environment to grow & be himself and also to talk about & work on his mental health without fear of rejection or ridicule, which anyone who has mental health struggles knows is so important. like most people in the world, he probably does draw a lot from his friendships just like his friends probably draw a lot from him in return - look what max fewtrell has said on streams about how lando is his ride or die & how much lando supported & helped him when fewtrell was at his really low point in the last couple of years. carlos has hinted a few times both last year & this year that he & lando are each other's sounding board in f1 and from the very little we see of it, their friendship appears to be very much mutually supportive. and though we don't know if this is actually the case, for all we know daniel may well have drawn on their friendship/kinship/whatever when things were bad at mclaren for him this season, as most people tend to draw on those immediately around them when times are rough, even if it's just to have a laugh with someone and lighten the load for a little bit.

i find it weird that we have all watched lando quite clearly mature & branch out this year, throwing himself into & publicly sharing new hobbies without giving a shit whether people think he's good at it or not, visibly more confident & comfortable voicing what he wants to say in front of the camera even if he still ties himself in knots or gets himself in trouble at times (his speech about seb on sky after the abu dhabi finale was just wonderful & such a sign of how mature he's becoming) and him very much thriving in the proxy-team leader role at mclaren. and yet some people still view him as a needy insecure child. sorry for the rant, i've been wanting to say this stuff for ages as it's something that really bugs me.

There's not a lot I can add to this but

- Lando is a snippy, sarcastic, elbows out little gremlin now and I love that for him, the comments he's made to shitty interviewers, or said in response to certain comments from other drivers (looking at two in red recently ngl) show he's not there to take bullshit lying down and he's standing up for himself

- Lando speaking up about mental health the way he did, especially as a young male in a high performance sport, was amazing of him and I'm glad he's only been even more encouraged by his fellow drivers doing the same (the way he looked to Seb and Seb gave him that proud little nod as if to say 'we all know you've spoken out about it and that's great')

- His maturity when being asked about his long contract with McLaren, the conviction he has and the dedication to the team even when comments from interviewers have been doubtful - more of him sticking up for himself and his decisions

- His entire interview with Sky and George and Seb, and his little speech when asked about what Seb's done for him and the sport and young drivers - I was so so proud and emotional because he said about needing to find his voice and he is and he's done it on his own, not being babied to it, but he's grown as a person and done it himself

Don't be sorry, I've said I'm always open to lend ears to rants, but it's something I agree on. I may look at him and go "baby, baby boy, he's so cute" but there's the full acknowledgement that he's a grown man (pretty sure I've even spieled before about his evolution from 2019 Lando to now)