40 replies to this topic

[Piif]

Todays press conference again highlighted the thing with Alonso saying how they wanted to be on pole and how third was the best they could do. At least Räikkönen speaks this way too. It sounds stupid as hell so I was just wondering if they really talk about themselves in 3rd person or wtf is up with them?

[noikeee]

I think it's odd too, my interpretation is that the PR masterminds must have figured out that saying "*I* did this, *I* did that" looks self-centered and selfish, therefore they use "we" to refer to driver + the mechanics that work on that car, giving credit to the team.

[Rexx Havoc]

we is the team
they function as a unit
one is nothing without the other
the car is nothing without the driver
the driver is nothing without a car that makes it to the finish
the mechanics are nothing without the guidance of engineers
engineers are nothing with out the technicians that make the parts
the technicians are nothing without the engineers that design and dream up the bits
and the whole mess is nothing without the sponsors
and finally the sponsors are nothing without the fans

hence ... WE

unless of course they are referring to themselves and the mouse they keep in their front pocket

[robnyc]

I think that they are referring to me and my car. "we"

[prty]

I don't know about Raikkonen, but in Spanish it's very common to use 3rd person when being asked questions, maybe because otherwise it looks too selfish in spoken language. So Alonso translates literally.

[Leyser]

Hamilton corrected himself to "I" when he spoke of his problems in T1.

[David M. Kane]

American team sports players always refer to themselves as we as the man said "we the team".
It's a modesty thing...

[macoran]

I recall Jos Verstappen always using the Dutch "we" during interviews as well.

[Rexx Havoc]

Originally posted by Leyser
Hamilton corrected himself to "I" when he spoke of his problems in T1.

because the team furnished the goods in order to get the job done

he took the rap for the car stepping out

much like Wurz did a few races back he knew exactly where and by how much time he lost in certain corners without looking at the telemetry

[Topweasel]

Originally posted by Rexx Havoc
we is the team
they function as a unit
one is nothing without the other
the car is nothing without the driver
the driver is nothing without a car that makes it to the finish
the mechanics are nothing without the guidance of engineers
engineers are nothing with out the technicians that make the parts
the technicians are nothing without the engineers that design and dream up the bits
and the whole mess is nothing without the sponsors
and finally the sponsors are nothing without the fans

hence ... WE

unless of course they are referring to themselves and the mouse they keep in their front pocket

Yeah but in this case WE being the team wouldn't fit. I mean the Team portion already got pole, I mean unless he is suggesting Dennis wanted Alonso and not Lewis on Poll. If he wanted to be neutral with the whole team WE then he would have said something like "we were hoping for a one two in qualifying" or "we were hoping to get both cars on the front row". If I was a driver this would be the PR way to say it, " I was trying to get pole but wasn't able to pull out that extra 2 tenths during the last lap, we are disappointed to have not secured the front row".

[Rexx Havoc]

Originally posted by Topweasel


Yeah but in this case WE being the team wouldn't fit. I mean the Team portion already got pole, I mean unless he is suggesting Dennis wanted Alonso and not Lewis on Poll. If he wanted to be neutral with the whole team WE then he would have said something like "we were hoping for a one two in qualifying" or "we were hoping to get both cars on the front row". If I was a driver this would be the PR way to say it, " I was trying to get pole but wasn't able to pull out that extra 2 tenths during the last lap, we are disappointed to have not secured the front row".

I hear what your saying
but the context of "we" I was implying was, we the team inside the team
as you'll often hear certain announcers say "Micheal Schumacher's team" when referring to Kimi's car since I assume he is working with Micheal's crew and Fillipe is working with the guy's he did last year

[genespleen]

"We" often means "myself and my set of engineers." Not hard to figure out...

[Cypher]

I remember Mark Webber used to say "Mark Webber" instead of "I" when talking about himself.

It was very strange and made him sound like he was talking about someone else. :

[noikeee]

Originally posted by Cypher
I remember Mark Webber used to say "Mark Webber" instead of "I" when talking about himself.

It was very strange and made him sound like he was talking about someone else. :

Jardel (the brazilian footballer) was famous for talking like that all the time too.

[united]

This "We" thing may sound a bit strange sometimes. I noticed it in JV comments after Canadian GP'06:

"We were competitive all day [that's OK - we = the team], we fought hard [passable] but had a problem in the pitstop, which meant Nick jumped us [that is strange]. This was very a shame as we had been ahead of him the whole race [sounds like there was a passenger in JV car], and then lapping Ralf was very frustrating. This is always a tough race and sometimes it doesn't work out".

[K-One]

They use we when they messe up, I when they succeed

[indian]

Originally posted by K-One
They use we when they messe up, I when they succeed

I think the opposite is true.

[Dudley]

Nigel Mansell always used to use we to refer to himself and his family on the grounds he wouldn't be there without them.

[kismet]

Because it's oftentimes the proper pronoun considering the context?

[Jerome]

Originally posted by David M. Kane
American team sports players always refer to themselves as we as the man said "we the team".
It's a modesty thing...

It has nothing to do with modesty, I fear. Otherwise Jos Verstappen would never have used it... It has nothing to do with 'the team', because Jos Verstappen... nah, now am I creating flamebait.

No, the 'we' expression is a way of avoiding 'I'. And that's out of basic fear of putting yourself on the line, even if it's only a conversation.

Interestingly enough, a lot of Dutch soccerplayers also seldom use the word 'I', but 'je', which is Dutch voor 'you'. 'You know that the Germans stay dangerous untill the last whistle...'

[jb_128]

Isn't it obvious? Drivers and race engineers work very closely to get time out of the car.

[roger44]

Mansell started it, to give some degree of credit to his wife

[slapstick]

More interesting would be why some bulletin boarders write "we" when their favourite team/driver has done well.

[kodandaram]

This is a no brainer . They always refer to "we" as in the driver and all the rest of the team (incl sponsors). Most drivers will speak as "I" only if they are talking about something that is personal - like say describing how he ****ed the lap or how he likes this and that et al.

[brunopascal]

Originally posted by K-One
They use we when they messe up, I when they succeed

Kimi from the press conference: "...unfortunately I ran off the circuit exiting the last corner, so we lost a lot of time..."

[mdecarle]

Hahaha. It's cracking me up as I watch the interviews ...

Kimi, Alonso, Massa: we, we, we
Kubica, Hamilton: I, I, I

By the way:
Q: Robert, since your accident you seem to be driving better?
A: Maybe it's my car that's better?

[biercemountain]

Maybe they think they're royalty.

[kismet]

Heh, apparently race engineers like their plurals, too.

Chris Dyer: "But we had a lot more fuel on board, and then towards the middle of the stint I think his tyres started to go away. The lap times evened up and we could match his pace with more fuel on board and then make the jump at the second stop."

Funny how the personal pronoun keeps switching from plural to singular and back depending on whether he's referring to Kimi or Fernando.

[Lifew12]

Originally posted by roger44
Mansell started it, to give some degree of credit to his wife

You can find examples of it used by the likes of Caracciola in the 30's, and many drivers in the 50's.

'We', as was pointed out earlier, is the whole package - driver, car and team.

[ensign14]

Pfft, the so-called "royal we" goes back 8,000 years to Proto-Indo-European. It is indeed, as Mr Kane pointed out above, a modesty thing.

[Mauseri]

It was pretty funny when Kimi talked in press "a couple of times we almost won here". Who we? Is McLaren still 'we' for you

[pUs]

I think many of the times they use "we", it's referred to each driver's respective car crew. That's the only logical explanation I can think of. The mechanics, the race engineer etc..

[pUs]

Originally posted by micra_k10
It was pretty funny when Kimi talked in press "a couple of times we almost won here". Who we? Is McLaren still 'we' for you

Yeah, I noticed that too. A bit weird. Apart from that I thought Kimi almost spoke up a little bit, compared to what he's done before.

[TT6]

Originally posted by brunopascal

Kimi from the press conference: "...unfortunately I ran off the circuit exiting the last corner, so we lost a lot of time..."

Basically "I ****ed up but the whole team suffered".

Originally posted by micra_k10

It was pretty funny when Kimi talked in press "a couple of times we almost won here". Who we? Is McLaren still 'we' for you.

Good point. However "we" as McLaren did win in 2005 by Montoya but "we" as Ferrari won last time in 2004. "We" as himself gt pretty close a few times so maybe it was a royal we in that sentence.

[Visionz]

It`s polite to say "we" instead of "I" when talking about a team effort.

[vroom-vroom]

Originally posted by Lifew12


You can find examples of it used by the likes of Caracciola in the 30's, and many drivers in the 50's.

In more modern times, I sem to recall that Tom Sneva was the only one always using "we" in referring to his performance in early CART days, unlike the other drivers, to the point that it was noted and explained by the commentators.

[Deeq]

Originally posted by genespleen
"We" often means "myself and my set of engineers." Not hard to figure out...

Originally posted by pUs
I think many of the times they use "we", it's referred to each driver's respective car crew. That's the only logical explanation I can think of. The mechanics, the race engineer etc..

Ding ding

Its a drivers way of differentiating from his side of the garage[engineers plus pit_wall tactitians] from the other drivers side GENERALY...needless to say its not always valid/relevent to use.

"I screwd up by crashing out and we lost so many points" This is a good modest example...
..but they usually say "we lost so many points because of accident", the statement is technically correct but missleading neverthless.. through omission

[ex Rhodie racer]

I like the use of we rather than I. There is nothing worse than listening to some fellow going on about something he´s done using the words I, me and my. I watched an interview given by the ultimate I, me, my, man, Gary Player, once, and as it was recorded, I replayed it in order to count the number of times he used, I, me or my, because it was so striking. His diatribe lasted 42 seconds and in that time he used the words no fewer than 34 times. Quite amazing.

[Ciao]

In F1 you don't win alone and you don't lose alone. We, the team, do.

Sometimes the technical side fails, sometimes the driver makes a mistake. Sometimes a new part or design makes the difference, sometimes a daring pass gets the goods. Sometimes the right strategy wins the race, sometimes a mechanic raising the lollipop creates disaster. It is a team effort, just like football, we just don't see them all at once.

[FordFan]

I've always had difficulty with the view of the team as plural. "We. the team, lose" doesn't seem grammatical. It's either "We lose" or "The team loses". "Ferrari are . . ."/"McLaren are . . " drives me nuts. It's like saying, "Portugal are. . ."

In the US it seems to work both ways. "The Miami Heat are the best team" seems grammatical, but so does "Is the best team the Miami Heat?"

I can't stand it, I tell you.

[JohnH]

It's an extremely irritating piece of BS that was started up in Nascar about 15 years ago by team publicity people. I understand the sports psychology of why it is used, but at times it reaches incredible heights of stupidity with it's MISUSE. "We" spunout???? Drivers describing comebacks from the injury "we" suffered, "we" broke our leg...etc... "We" is one of the reasons I skip most post race interviews. I skip alot of stuff, I only care about what happens on the racetrack under the greenflag.

John