Open Letter to Formula 1 drivers: Stand up for your rights refuse to be silly clowns and merch pimps

No matter where you are on the Formula 1 championship table, the fact that you're there is an honour and took blood, sweat and tears, whatever the route. It's an amazing profession, that deserves massive respect. 

Furthermore, as a veteran fan for the past 50 years, I can say with a hand on my heart, having watched the best of the best over decades on the telly and even first hand for a spell, that we are now gifted with perhaps the most talented eight to ten drivers ever assembled on a Formula 1 grid.

In the past, it would be three or four characters who dominated a season. Rarely would you have such a spread and depth of talent on the grid as we have today. There's Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, and of course Kimi Antonelli.

And let's not forget the likes of Ollie Bearman, Isack Hadjar, and Gabriel Bortoleto - all stars in the making. These are huge talents, some generational, the kind we have never had together on one Formula 1 grid.

Enough with blowing smoke up your asses. Now for the other truth bombs. I ask you to look deep inside yourselves every time you're told to do some putrid social media photo op, like this overhyped, ridiculous LEGO racing thing.

Seriously, you guys are too big for that. They demean you. They undermine you. One day, 50 years from now, when people Google your name, they'll see you in those ridiculous gokarts and think this is what you were famous for. Honestly, I cannot believe how much Formula 1 is punting this LEGO thing. The first two posts for most of the day on Tuesday were you guys in LEGO cars! FFS!

You have to stop this rot. Collectively, the GPDA has to sit down and say, "No, we cannot carry on doing this stuff." The silly clips for clicks, the stupid quizzes, guessing games, riddles, and ridiculous bullshit that these social media perverts make you do. It's enough.

Get a grip on yourselves because modern Formula 1 is a joke, a circus actually, with these ridiculous 2026 real cars. We all know it, and with it they're turning you guys into clowns. Milking your image, turning you into LEGO pimps for now. What next? Dress you up in team coloured condoms becuase Durex becomes yet another a F1 sponsor.

Or maybe next they will be shooting you from human cannons into the crowds to hand out merch and sign autographs! Please get a fucking grip on yourselves. Look in the mirror! Stomp out this madness.

Can you imagine Ayrton Senna doing this? Can you imagine Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Gilles or Jacques Villeneuve, Ronnie Peterson, Mika Häkkinen, or Michael Schumacher. Or Jules Bianchi most of you knew. demeaning themselves in LEGO go-karts in front of the world? 

I cannot watch it anymore. It makes my eyeballs ache. Next they will bleed with the silliness. Who the hell in Formula 1 thinks this is a good idea? Fire it's ass. Send it to fucking Legoland! This is the idea of a marketing moron, not someone with racing in their blood. Seriously, boys, you have to start a campaign where you put your foot down on how stupid they are making you all look.

I get it. The modern generation of current 'F1 fans' perhaps demands this kind of stupidity. But is this what you signed up for? Did you sign up for driving around tracks in LEGO cars? Is this what the sport that so many of our heroes have died for has come to. Cheapened it into the state it is in now. Sure you all make lots more money, but they are selling the soul of what makes this sport so great. Our drivers, you! Is it really worth it?  Are you for sale so cheaply?

So, in this first open letter to you boys, at a time when our sport is really in a terrible place as a sporting endeavour with these inappropriate new rules, I implore you to listen to your soul. The only thing that saves us from misery every Sunday is the fact that you, all 22 of you, give it your best shot for us, and we, the real fans, see that. And love you for that.

But, high priority, you have to stop the rot, and the rot starts from within your teams. Sit down with your social media guys and say: "Enough. You're perverting us. You're turning this into Formula 1 pornography. Making us do stuff that we would never do in normal life. Undermining us when we ought to be respected, to be admired, to be adored as race drivers. Not to be laughed at, not to be made fun of. We are not clowns. Show us some respect."

Call me old school with this poll for you drivers: Those of you having fun doing all this stuff, put your hands up and carry on doing it. Those of you who hate it, put your hands up. And just stop. Refuse. Tell them to f@ck off. With immediate effect. We're with you guys.

And, if indeed it's not the majority of you drivers that are dismayed with what you are forced to do to pimp merch and/or garner clicks, then this Formula 1 is increasingly no longer for me. A money making whorehouse of clowns with no qualms. Is it for you?

So, come on, boys, regain your status. Your dignity. You're heroes. You're fighter pilots. Your legacy is important. Save our sport. Your sport.

Can you imagine our heroes sitting on the Formula 1 cloud in heaven every Grand Prix weekend, watching down on your shenanigans? What would those greats of the sport think if they see the mockery you have colluded that is turning our Sport of Kings into a Sport of Clowns?

Please, refuse to be the clowns. Stop!

Thank you, boys. Be safe. Love and hugs,

Cheers