It's disgusting. And what's worse-- I was a huge Max fan when he first came onto the scene. But his fandom and the way RBR and the media coddles him like he can do no wrong has turned me off from him. When he fails to deliver, there's either some excuse pushed by RB or himself to explain it away. And people sop that shyt up as long as they dream of one day seeing their Great White Hope topple Lewis. In some ways I feel bad for Max; he's definitely aware of the pressure on him and part of it is visible in how complimentary he's been of Lewis over the past two seasons, whereas before he was sometimes a little dismissive. It's even worse this year now that the car can no longer be used as an excuse. Six races with the best car over one lap and only one pole to show for it.
I still like Max. Still think he is a phenomenal talent, second only to Lewis in pure ability, but I am also aware of the coddling from Red Bull. The fans are bizarre, but as you said, the great white hope will always have fans out of touch with reality.
Red Bull is scared shytless of him leaving for Mercedes.
Marko's excuses after this qualifying session about them waiting for the final run to put everything together is bullshyt. Max ALWAYS goes hard. The engineer telling him he had the fastest S1 and S2 but got beat due to the tow is also BS, the fact is, if the tow was worth so much time it would have been stupid for red bull NOT to use it. I think their downforce levels simply don't give them the tow down the back straight that the other cars have, but it also means they will protect their tyres better. Those are the trade offs you make to try to win the race. Dirty air is the great equaliser though, so protecting the tyres means less when you aren't in the lead in Baku. That's why Lewis needs to get past Leclerc sooner rather than later.
All this smoke and mirrors and coddling just to please Max will be moot if Merc win this year and get next year's formula right, Max will leave anyway.
. When Lewis pitted that freed up Verstappen to push. On top of that are the tire warm up issues of Mercedes. On top of THAT was a slow pit stop because Mercedes had to wait for Gasly to pass in the pits. Checo reaped the same benefits.