Where does Nico Rosberg go from here?

[Nitrodaze]

That is a completely objective thing though. What you call bland, is the normal behaviour for a German. You have to understand that for Germans it was historically not a good idea to stand out. For East Germans that was true until as recently as 1989. The best way to ensure a trouble-free life was to conform to the given norm. As a result that cultural trait has survived in most Germans to the present day, especially for people like me, who were born and grew up in a dictatorship.

Many Germans consider Lewis' extroverted antics annoying, which is why he has not many fans over here except for hard-core Merc fans, who like him by proxy, and the reason for that has nothing to do with race or nationality (as is often insinuated if one dares to criticise Hamilton), it's just that many Germans dislike such extroverted antics. I'm sure there are other ethnicities for which that is true as well.

What you call extroverted is the hall mark of the pop culture. It is a movement that has gripped the British youth and mainstream since the sixties. Evidence of it is still prominent in the US, France, Spain, Canada and even Germany etc. To a certain extent, pop culture has waned in recent times but still has a strong presence in the performance arts; music scenes and is making in roads into sports.

Your typical sport personality is very serious and professional like. Mostly politically correct and primed for media interactions. This unfortunately makes almost all sport personalities very boring outside their sporting duties. Take tennis for instance, besides the entertainment of great athleticism of the show, the tennis players are usually very bland. Gone are the days when tennis players let their hair down and reveal their human nature, God l miss John McEroe, Connor, Boris Becker etc. Except a small few not afraid to make fashion statements like the Williams sisters and their earrings etc. I am sure you can name a few others.

The case is very much the same with F1 drivers. Most are quite uninteresting outside the car. Most very rarely show any hint of individualism beside asserting their thoughts during media interviews. Any display of individualism is frowned upon and dismissed as childish and not serious. Or immature.

Hamilton has dared to bring about a cross between the racing world and the arts world. Two paradigms at opposite ends of the human spectrum. A mix of the serious world of F1 and the playful but expressively extravagant culture of the performance art world. It is a daring experiment and certainly challenging the typical F1 culture to dare letting their hair down for a little bit. The great thing about it all, is Hamilton has demonstrated that his individualistic lifestyle has little impact on his abilities to deliver championship winning performances as witnessed this last two years.

There are enough socially conformant [politically correct] drivers on the grid, hence one non conformant individualistic pop culture driver among these lot is most welcomed in my book. Kind of like a modern day Hunt, but different.