Danica Patrick the target of cruel ‘standards’ dig by former Red Bull man

Former Red Bull engineer Blake Hinsey has criticised Sky F1 pundit Danica Patrick, revealing he “immediately” turns off the television when she appears on screen due to “standards.”

Patrick, the former IndyCar and NASCAR racer, has regularly appeared as a pundit since bringing her racing career to a close in 2018.

Has Danica Patrick been a good addition to the Sky F1 coverage?

The 43-year-old, who famously became the first female winner of an IndyCar race in 2008, is a divisive figure among fans.

Patrick joined the Sky F1 team for the first time at the 2021 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, with the Wisconsin native a familiar face on the broadcaster’s coverage over recent years.

She has also covered a variety of different forms of motor racing as a pundit, including endurance racing and the Indianapolis 500.

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Taking to Twitter, Hinsey, who spent more than seven years at Red Bull between 2014 and 2021 after a spell with the Force India (now Aston Martin) team before becoming an internet personality, has criticised the broadcast coverage of endurance racing.

And he could not resist a dig at Patrick, revealing he “immediately” turns the coverage off when she appears on screen.

He wrote: “I think endurance racing (and all other championships) are missing so much on the broadcasts.

“There are a few things that I usually see that go a few different ways:

“1) Imagine someone’s asked you to come to a party because it’s awesome, and it looks awesome.

“No one talks to you, no one acknowledges you’re there, and all of the conversations no one bothers to explain what’s going on because they are all mates anyways.

“2) HEHE RACECAR VroORorooom

“3) The commentators have no clue what’s going on and are bulls****ing the whole way through and every ten minutes tell you ‘oh wow these hybirds [sic] are cool’ or ‘such technology wow!’ (which is basically the same as 2)

“4) Danica Patrick is on the broadcast so you immediately turn it off, because you have standards.

“I know I’m an engineer (or something) and I consume things differently than a lot of people, but I think there are some common threads between me wanting to enjoy a race I’m not working and my dad, who likes turning on a race now and then, but he won’t come back because it’s so far up it’s [sic] own ass and nuanced to get that interested.

“People are extremely visual.

“The timing towers on the side of the screen are garbage (F1 and Indycar are notoriously bad) (the energy meter in WEC is pretty useful actually).

“But for endurance races, EXPLAIN the strategy and the gambles visually.

“I have to use graphical means to show my dumb brain how strategy is likely to play out, and I do this more or less every day.

“Use some graphics to explain how the race has unfolded and how people have gotten to where they are at HOUR TWELVE in the race.

“Use some graphics to show the pace of different cars and drivers and how that’s had an impact.

“Give the people a better reason to watch longer! Or give them a better way to understand what happened in the race.

“For the dude that’s watching F1 and can’t get into endurance racing. I get it… but if they’d explain more of this stuff and how it works, more people would buy in.

“But the cost of admission is just a bit more, but the broadcast and supplementary content is so poor in this area, you’re just going to have to rely on ‘2) hehehehEHeh RaceCaR’ which isn’t a useful method for growing the fanbase.”

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