49 replies to this topic

[icewest07]

OK I was reading the Merc W04 thread where I saw that post from BillBald joking about Hamilton as a possible Autosport forumers and I thought they (f1 drivers) are probably among us reading or even posting under exotic nicknames and none of us would eventually know.

Now imagine that they would tell their true identity... So there it goes with this poll !

Mods, please feel free to delete this thread if you judge it's not worth it.

Edited by icewest07, 06 March 2013 - 12:47.

[Sakae]

When would they find time to post? They might occassionally read threads that relate to their area of interest, perhaps, but otherwise I doubt it. They do have their own physical and mental regimes outside of hours with the team, then PR, etc. I gather they are really busy.

[naiboz]

I'd have presumed they were too busy too be on forums reading **** being talked about themselves

but I suppose they must have some downtime while travelling etc

[halifaxf1fan]

I'd have presumed they were too busy too be on forums reading **** being talked about themselves

but I suppose they must have some downtime while travelling etc

Some of them find the time while hanging out on the pitwall.

Edited by halifaxf1fan, 06 March 2013 - 13:16.

[Shiroo]

Rosberg is doing vblog so I see him here, similart to Hamilton and Alonso.
Webber cuz I find him amusing and he is Australian (don't ask me how it is connected with Autosport forum) and Grosjean cause he want to know which his crash is rated in Top 5 of the year.

[ToXiCiTy]

One thing im positive about, is that Kimi and Vettel dont post here. They dont seem to care about social media.

[eronrules]

One thing im positive about, is that Kimi and Vettel dont post here. They dont seem to care about social media.

kimi for sure, vettel ... dunno, he's more than social, just he's not as public as the Twitt-thumbed LH and FA

BTW, i'm pretty sure our beloved Taki Inoue is with us here, but don't know with which alias.

[William Hunt]

There was a case in Belgium, +- 2 years ago, about a soccer player (Stijn Stijnen), the goalkeeper of Club Brugge, who was posting on their popular fan forum under a nickname. He was hyping himself, attacking his competitor goalkeeper who was replacing him at that time since he was injured and basically behaving very childish. The team traced the IP adress of this forum user, found out it was their keeper and they fired him. It was all over the newspaper at the time, I found it funny since I've Always strongly disliked Club Brugge.

[Slackbladder]

Ok, ok... I'm Lewis Hamilton, and I hate Croydon, it's true.

Edited by Slackbladder, 06 March 2013 - 13:33.

[icewest07]

Rosberg is doing vblog so I see him here, similart to Hamilton and Alonso.
Webber cuz I find him amusing and he is Australian (don't ask me how it is connected with Autosport forum) and Grosjean cause he want to know which his crash is rated in Top 5 of the year.

[maverick69]

Mark Webber was on here or PF1 (can't remember now) - but he got hounded off once he got identified. I'd bet a big shiny penny that he's still a lurker - or is still posting.

I heard that Lewis was told not to look at BB's due to the nature of what was being said against him - and the nature of threads involving him going mental. I reckon his brother is on here though. Mind you - attitudes towards Lewis have mellowed some what........

I'm sure that guys like Heikki, Karun and Ant Davidson are lurking about

[Ross Stonefeld]

Most people who work in racing, of those that are even aware of the BBs, think they're insane and ignorant. So...

[gillesthegenius]

If Seb or Kimi was here, I would expect them to be winding people up just for a little bit of fun, while I expect the likes of Alonso and Hamilton to defend themselves to the hilt if they were ever going to post here.

[Markn93]

I'd be interested to see how fans of myself and others interacted , good to see how those who criticise you do so, and all the more so those who defend you.It gives you a bit of perspective of fans in the F1 world, how else would you know? Twitter? Unless of course you dont care, but i think everyone cares about how they are perceived to some degree.

[Buttoneer]

There is a reason that people use nicknames here and that is because they are seeking anonymity, so we should respect that. It is fine to speculate that drivers and team members may be on the forum, but not which of our membership they are.

[Markn93]

If Seb or Kimi was here, I would expect them to be winding people up just for a little bit of fun, while I expect the likes of Alonso and Hamilton to defend themselves to the hilt if they were ever going to post here.

Nah I reckon they would sit back and let their respective army of fans do it for them.

[Smile17]

Vettel Vettel and def Vettel. Hamilton too but not as much as Vettel. Alonso? No way Button same

[trogggy]

It's easy to narrow it down.
Look for people who know every detail of a driver's career - they always know what was going through his mind in a situation. They always defend their driver. There's always a good excuse or someone to blame when he cocks up.

Cross that lot off the list for a start.

Edited by trogggy, 06 March 2013 - 14:36.

[jonpollak]

Most people who work in racing, of those that are even aware of the BBs, think they're insane and ignorant. So...

So...If they need to validate their suspicions...this would indeed be the place.

Jp

[Kingshark]

Some of them find the time while hanging out on the pitwall.

Is that picture real?

[Kingshark]

I already know a few drivers who have accounts on here.

http://forums.autosp...?showuser=64605

http://forums.autosp...?showuser=79279

Edited by Kingshark, 06 March 2013 - 14:54.

[KnucklesAgain]

I wanted to vote only "Now YOU are one of those top 10 F1 drivers...: I won't waste time reading these kind of forums", but it was not allowed

[NotSoSilentBob]

Mark Webber was on here or PF1 (can't remember now) - but he got hounded off once he got identified. I'd bet a big shiny penny that he's still a lurker - or is still posting.

I find that very, very hard to believe. If you know Webber, you'd know he doesnt give a rat's arse what fans think of him.

[ToXiCiTy]

I didnt notice it was Top 10 drivers. Actually its Top 5 teams drivers.

[Smile17]

Vettel does this, I know it. Not necessarily this forum, but he's definitely interacting with fans online on forums behind a hidden identity of course.

Edited by Smile17, 06 March 2013 - 20:32.

[mattferg]

Okay okay, alright I admit it, I'm Narain okay! I can't live this lie anymore!

[Wander]

If I was an F1 driver I don't think I could help myself, but that's just cause that's me. Don't know if I would reveal my identity though, don't know what would follow from that. Could be fun to watch.

[Zoetrope]

What if we all are drivers or mechanics and there is virtually no F1 fan-base here?

[eronrules]

What if we all are drivers or mechanics and there is virtually no F1 fan-base here?

then it's the Matrix and we're all Duracell batteries

[SUPRAF1]

Somehow I don't think drivers have the time for it. They rarely get free time as it is. I sure as hell won't spend it on a forum .

[John B]

Good possibility Kimi would be suspended/banned for language in short order anyway, but it would be entertaining.

yesyesyesyes.............

[Afterburner]

Is that picture real?

It's a photoshop; look at the portable TV next to the laptop and you'll see the images don't match up.

[maverick69]

I find that very, very hard to believe. If you know Webber, you'd know he doesnt give a rat's arse what fans think of him.

Well it's true..... So there

[spacekid]

I think far too many of the comments on here are ignorant of the sport - my own included if I'm honest, I don't know as much about as F1 as I'd like to think I do - for them to bother.

It would be pretty masochistic of them to even try to debate with us the details of the sport.

Frankly I don't understand why any sports person/celeb would want to open themselves up to interaction with the general public via messenging boards or twitter and such like - there is so much mindless vitriol and thoughtless bile spilled over the internet... who needs it?

[spacekid]

Mark Webber was on here or PF1 (can't remember now) - but he got hounded off once he got identified. I'd bet a big shiny penny that he's still a lurker - or is still posting.

I heard that Lewis was told not to look at BB's due to the nature of what was being said against him - and the nature of threads involving him going mental. I reckon his brother is on here though. Mind you - attitudes towards Lewis have mellowed some what........

I'm sure that guys like Heikki, Karun and Ant Davidson are lurking about

If it really really really was Mark Webber why would anybody hound him off? If I found out I actually had a conduit to discuss F1 with a man like Mark Webber I would want to learn as much from him as possible in as respectful a way as possible. It would be fascinating.

[Zippel]

Jacques Villeneuve used to post at his website forum for a time there. I think it was just after he was dumped by BMW. Not sure if that's the case now or even if the website still exists. HHF used to make rare appearance on his website's chatroom but that's a long time ago.

I have no doubt F1 drivers have posted here at one point or another but they would be crazy to expose themselves, especially the popular drivers.

Some famous people have gotten into a situtation where they start posting as themselves on message boards. Kevin Smith made two trips to rottentomatoes.com and faced off against an army of fanboys/haters. Didn't last long in either case but made for good entertainment. Roger Ebert admitted posting anonymously on the same site in one or two of his reviews, which led to the same speculation as here.

Sometimes if a celeb has a moderate fanbase it can work and things don't turn stir crazy. I know Michael Biehn posted on his imdb.com profile for a bit and things didn't turn bad, at least for the time I saw him post.

Edited by Zippel, 06 March 2013 - 22:46.

[Wander]

I know of various semi-popular musicians interacting with fans on their own forums, but that's a bit of a different case than a famous athlete posting on a forum that is dedicated to their sport. It could get a bit messy with trolls, over-enthusiastic fans and all that over here if Vettel or Hamilton came here to share their views.

[SUPRAF1]

If you guys have seen the public messages on Button's and Alonso's twitter for example, you'll find a lot of scary female fans (Based on what I saw. There are male equivalents for female celebs ). They're usually middle-aged and pretty much tweeted every part of their lives with the drivers' @ tag, as if they lived in some fantasy together .

After reading the tweets from those followers I realized that it wouldn't be smart for top celebrities to interact with fans in such a manner .

[Coops3]

http://forums.autosp...howtopic=117167

[RoutariEnjinu]

I'm pretty sure if a driver had an account here, he'd quickly grow tired of what is said quite explicitly about drivers and their relationships and personalities, and how personal insults and inferences can be, without ever having met or spoken to them, and find yourself just lurking the more informative topics. This forum is complete trash for discussing drivers, worse than any tabloid. It is sometimes good during testing or before races as it acts as a centralised store of information that some lazy press people might not think important or bothered to notice.

[DrF]

Jason Plato's an AS forum member.

[Afterburner]

No idea which of the current crop might be here, to be honest. Seems a bit far-fetched to think that any of them would favour Autosport specifically over another forum.

If they were on here, though, I probably wouldn't treat them differently from any other forum member. In fact, I'd probably judge them on what they added/subtracted from the community regardless of their status as a driver.

Even if I were a racing driver, I'd probably be active on here. I'd make it a point to not discuss anything pertaining to my career, though; I'd be here because I like to talk and read about racing with others, not to talk about myself. I might give a little inside perspective every now and then, but let's be honest, it'd put the PR team on overtime and I think those guys keep themselves a little too busy as it is.

[eronrules]

I'm pretty sure if a driver had an account here, he'd quickly grow tired of what is said quite explicitly about drivers and their relationships and personalities, and how personal insults and inferences can be, without ever having met or spoken to them, and find yourself just lurking the more informative topics. This forum is complete trash for discussing drivers, worse than any tabloid. It is sometimes good during testing or before races as it acts as a centralised store of information that some lazy press people might not think important or bothered to notice.

how's that different from Twitter???

in a Forum like AS, most of the fans, however jackA** they are, are quite sensible, i've rarely seen shi* throwing, most of it is mild and well disciplined. Twitter on the other hand is more harsh, direct and insulting (when it needs to be).

Edited by eronrules, 06 March 2013 - 23:55.

[Eff One 2002]

When would they find time to post?

If they can find time to dick around with that Twitter crap (and they do) they could find time to post on a forum.

[Kingshark]

Okay okay, alright I admit it, I'm Narain okay! I can't live this lie anymore!

I don't believe it.

You like Vettel!

[rijole1]

Voted for Raikkonen - this is totally his kind of thing.

[mattferg]

I don't believe it.

You like Vettel!

It's a secret hidden passion I can never admit to him in person

[Imperial]

If you're including ex-drivers, then Martin Brundle has certainly been a lurker here. He made several comments in interviews following and regarding Jonathan Legard's commentary departure, the content of which made it obvious he'd read the vile and bitriol posted here.

Whether he was doing it out of interest or in a professional capacity is another matter.

There are journalists looking here, because I've had two contact me direct moaning about comments I'd made about their articles.

[Buttoneer]

Brundle is an interesting one, I agree. Gareth coined the name 'Teflonso' in one of his posts and the very next weekend Brundle used it on air. Could just be coincidence that they are both bad, bad people.

[TheUltimateWorrier]

Whether he was doing it out of interest or in a professional capacity is another matter.

I think the drivers, current and ex, on this forum are the mysterious ones who post a handful of times in a short time then disappear altogether. There was a poster, who I won't mention, who made a very coherent, well measured post about fanboyism of Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel, and has now disappeared altogether from this site.

I like to think it was a driver who said his piece, then wanted no more of forum shenanigans. Although I could be wrong

Edited by TheUltimateWorrier, 07 March 2013 - 10:54.