X/@F1
Formula 1 has released a promo image bringing attention to the four World Champions already confirmed for the 2026 grid: Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, and Lando Norris. The moving picture that shows off each driver’s number of titles has fanned the flames of a debate among fans about the order of the drivers and the validity of the recently awarded championships. The post could not have been better timed with the sport gearing up for an extremely competitive season featuring several winners of the title racing all at once.
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The official Formula 1 account presented an image that was not complicated at all yet was still quite heavy in meaning. The snapshot had the four reigning champions lined up with their respective championship numbers: Max Verstappen (4x), Lewis Hamilton (7x), Fernando Alonso (2x), and Lando Norris (1x) next to each. The text read ‘The World Champions of the 2026 grid.’ But in the world of Formula One, nothing is that simple ever.
The graphic’s very arrangement was the cause of the conflict. A person did not mince his words, he was very candid and said, ‘Max should not be in front of Sir Lewis or at the same level with him, it is disgusting. You cannot disguise it even: worse, you do it in public. Lewis should be much more in front of that picture.’ This concern around Hamilton’s legacy and Verstappen’s present-day superiority was reiterated by another user who simply changed the order of the champions: ‘1x 🏆 3x 🏆 8x 🏆 2x 🏆 —— fixed it.’
By taking into account the title he won in 2025, the public reacted to Lando Norris’s being depicted as a recent champion in a mixed manner. Some people completely rejected his position. A person expressed, ‘I don’t consider Norris as the champion.’ Another viewer, however, found it all a joke; in his opinion, ‘Norris: a friend invited me’ is just the English translation of the Spanish phrase ‘me invitó un amigo,’ which implies that he was an unworthy guest among the racing legends.
On the contrary, there were some fans providing arguments for the arrangement of the place occupied by the McLaren driver. One of the proponent’s recommendations was: ‘Every great one had to start from just one. Lando is just taking his first one—give it a couple of years and we’ll be calling the rest the odd ones not so long ago.’ The back-and-forth shows the ever-present rivalry in sports between the old and the new.
Nevertheless, the most severe debates, however, turned to the 2021 season and its lingering effects. One tweet echoed the sentiment of many: ‘It should be x8,x3,x2,x1…the scheming and theft of 2021 is hard to bear when realizing how much it distorted the truth and the future of these 2 drivers.’ This persistent narrative implies that Verstappen’s first title is still not legit which, in turn, directly influences the supporters’ opinions about the current championship count.
Even an AI chatbot was involved—the Grok, in the English phrase quiz. After one user pressed the demand that he ‘erased the fraud that only got one world title because of English bias,’ Grok obliged in a conversation that was deleted between the two, which included a repost of the image in which Norris had been omitted. This peculiar exchange highlighted the fact that the politically biased and technology-based fan disputes have become very heated.
As the dust began to settle, the historical perspective started to be seen by some fans. ‘The first time after 2021 and maybe even longer than that we have 4 world champions on the grid,’ was the statement of a fan who was referencing the last season when Hamilton, Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Räikkönen were all competing together. This line of thought makes 2026 not merely a rivalry competition but a unique and elite gathering of winning legends.
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The marketing post that was initially meant to draw in the audience to the new season has, unexpectedly, revealed the sport’s fractured psyche. It is a battle being fought where the fans keep rewriting history, the layout of a graphic is examined for implied meaning, and every championship win is still a topic of debate. As Formula 1 continues to inch its way to 2026, the drivers who will be the kings of the track have already been named, but the battle for their legacies is obviously a high-speed one that has already begun. The event also drew interest from celebrities like Chace Crawford. Off-track activities remain popular, as seen when Max Verstappen went holiday golf cart racing. Looking ahead, Sergio Perez joins the Cadillac Formula 1 team. Off the track, Lewis Hamilton also hosts a drivers’ dinner.