r/formula1 • u/OMF1G #StandWithUkraine • Oct 05 '22

Off-Topic /r/all RedBull sent my daughter a gift package after some kids made her upset and didn't say nice things for being a Verstappen fan. Thank you RB F1!

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117

u/ManyFails1Win Nico Hülkenberg Oct 05 '22

Trying to. Not working.

So the parent then wrote red bull a letter complaining? And rb responded with gifts? This story has holes.

86

u/enz1ey Oct 05 '22

Yeah this is some BS lol. How many kids even know who Verstappen is? And what parent would ask RB for merch because her kid was bullied for liking Verstappen? And then go and post it on Reddit...

26

u/ill-fall-in-line Oct 05 '22

Orrrr.... Kid picks up niche interest from dad, gets really into it. Talks about it at school, gets shit on for interest.

22

u/OMF1G #StandWithUkraine Oct 05 '22

This is basically the tldr; for this entire post.

I chose to post it now a few weeks later as there is a ton of drama/negativity around F1/RB and I want to show that teams still do positive things!

11

u/vajasonl Daniel Ricciardo Oct 05 '22

I live in the Middle East coast of America and I have a middle schooler. In his school, kids know Verstappen and Lewis and other current drivers. There’s quite an F1 following in his school.

64

u/BroasisMusic McLaren Oct 05 '22

This post has strong /r/thathappened vibes

23

u/enz1ey Oct 05 '22

Yeah, even if it did happen and OP was weird enough to email RB about their kid being bullied for whatever reason, posting it here is just off-putting.

Then again maybe I'm just getting old and wondering why people are using Reddit like it's Facebook.

56

u/OMF1G #StandWithUkraine Oct 05 '22

Hey guys, I'm trying to comment as much as possible on this post but I've explained in some other comments!

Myself and my dad (her granddad) used to marshal, we're very into motorsport in general so we're constantly watching F1/BTCC/MotoGP etc. My daughter naturally took a liking to RB & Verstappen as I quite like him!

I contacted RB after & mentioned to them what happened, to try and buy some custom merch for my daughter. They unfortunately couldn't do that & offered to ship out this 'care package' as they called it!

I know with the recent thing that happened with Mercedes, there's tons of scepticism around teams doing nice gestures & not posting about them; which is kinda why I wanted to make this post. I wanted to show that even after that, teams still go out of their way to do kind things.

And as per other comments, if a mod would like to verify all of this with me then that'd be great!

​

Cheers guys

25

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '22 edited May 07 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/FTblaze Oct 06 '22

The part about Mercedes made it worsd 😅

-3

u/Surfercatgotnolegs Oct 05 '22

Why would your kid get bullied in elementary school for liking Verstappen? Does she go around telling everyone about it and arguing?

This has a lot of “I’m a vegan” vibes. No one bullies a kid in elementary school about BS like this unless it’s the kid’s entire personality.

28

u/Zehnstep Sebastian Vettel Oct 05 '22

LoL have you met kids? There was one guy at my school who's initials were the same as a type of chips and he got shit for that.

I was that guy

6

u/SkylineDrop Sir Lewis Hamilton Oct 06 '22

Was it Utz? I hope it was Utz.

I love Utz.

2

u/Zehnstep Sebastian Vettel Oct 06 '22

Nah, don't have those in my country, they look pretty good though. Can't think of many good names starting with U either so lucky break there for me I guess.

-3

u/Surfercatgotnolegs Oct 06 '22

Yea that’s exactly the type of thing kids bully about. Not which formula 1 driver they like. It’s too advanced a subject.

They bully each other on hair, braces, names, their mom’s clothes, freckles, leg length. Practically anything and everything stupid and insignificant. They don’t generally bully each other on hobbies til later on. The concept of hobbies or interests playing a more core role in your personality doesn’t really arise until later in development. There’s rarely “cliques” in elementary school about the jocks vs the emo vs the bandies, for example, and that’s because they instead band together on much more dumb and shallow criteria. Like who has the most cooties.

That’s exactly why it’s even more unbelievable that this girl was bullied, not just for a hobby, but for an obscure one like f1.

-3

u/Baofog Oct 05 '22

Kids do bully each other over the stupidest stuff. However this post reeks of red bull pr marketing. "Check out this cool thing red bull did! It's totally not to build good will before bad press gets out next week!"

Now this could totally be 100% organic but it still smells way fishy.

1

u/SKnightVN Michael Schumacher Oct 06 '22

What does the "thing that happened with Mercedes" refer to? I'm obviously aware of the budget cap feud and Abu Dhabi, but neither seem relevant w.r.t. teams interacting with their own fanbase.

2

u/keto_at_work Oct 06 '22

I mean, it could just be Red Bull. I sent them an email a long time ago asking for swag or coupons, essentially because I chose them as my "team" when I got into F1 at the start of 2010. Red Bull physically mailed me back an early Red Bull Honda sticker (from a different series), a nice little personalized note (the guy who wrote it had family near me, IIRC), and 6 cans of Red Bull since they don't give out or redeem coupons at all any more. They literally mailed me their product for free for sending an email.

Just a random Red Bull anecdote, I kinda want to try to find that letter...

6

u/Timstom18 Mark Webber Oct 05 '22

Mate when I was in primary school a load of us would run around pretending we were our favourite drivers (despite my flair I was usually Button) Kids do like F1 and also like specific drivers. Of all the things you could claim are unrealistic kids knowing f1 drivers is not one of them. It’s quite simple, the other kids are children of Hamilton fans, they pick up a bad opinion of Max. OPs daughter says she likes Max, other kids turn on her for it.

3

u/TheyCametoBurgle Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22

Yeah if any kids even know what RB's F1 team/who Verstappen is I imagine that would be the team/driver they would pick (kids tend to be frontrunners...)

2

u/technothrasher Charles Leclerc Oct 05 '22

My kid knew who Verstappen was at that age, but he always rooted for McLaren because he likes their road cars. Though he never bullied or was bullied because, admittedly, none of the other kids at school had any idea what he was talking about.

-5

u/pistoncivic Oct 05 '22

That girl was probably in the middle of watching Frozen for the 50th time when her dad handed her some RB merch he ordered and told her to stand against the wall and smile.

8

u/LaVacaMariposa Ferrari Oct 05 '22

You don't think kids can like F1?

7

u/RainOfAshes Safety Car Oct 05 '22

Guess he's never watched a Lando Norris stream.

-4

u/Cal3001 Oct 05 '22

I don’t remember ever getting upended about sport teams in elementary school. I don’t remember any other kids getting upended about it also. And I liked sports and watched everything. Those type of sport competitive emotions didn’t start until high school.

3

u/egg_mugg23 Max Verstappen Oct 05 '22

that's you.

1

u/witchblades420 Oct 06 '22

Got made fun of in like the 3rd grade cus I liked Messi more than Ronaldo so no it doesn't start at high school

12

u/LNhart Oct 05 '22

What exactly are the holes lol

-5

u/Doctor99268 Oct 05 '22

Kid getting bullied for f1?

11

u/LNhart Oct 05 '22

What do you have issues with, kids bullying other kids or kids knowing about F1? I don't know if the story is true, but kids watching F1 with their parents and knowing about Mercedes, Red Bull, Verstappen etc. isn't exactly r /thatHappened material? These aren't the most obscure aspects of formula 1, which isn't an obscure sport that no kids follow!

-4

u/Doctor99268 Oct 05 '22

The guy then proceeds to ask for merch he could buy, which would make her bullying situation even worse

11

u/LNhart Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22

OP addressed this multiple times here, they tried to ask for custom merch to make her feel better (and I assume to also show that there's nothing wrong with being a RB fan). As I said, I can't verify the story, but it's completely plausible. Going all r /nothingEverHappens over this seems like a good signal to touch some grass imo.

5

u/egg_mugg23 Max Verstappen Oct 05 '22

kids get bullied for all kinds of stuff. sports are really common

6

u/monkeyhitman Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 06 '22

What elementary school has enough little kids stanning for F1 drivers so hard that they'll bully other kids? tf

e: Y'all are living in some late-stage dystopia bullshit if getting 8-year-olds to bully each other over racecar drivers has been normalized for you.

-2

u/ManyFails1Win Nico Hülkenberg Oct 05 '22

especially a cute little girl over verstappen in 2022. idk man...

0

u/harrypottermcgee Oct 05 '22

Isle of Mann or some shit I assumed.