the point that @tayIordp made is 100% right and @Enya_SV5 also touched briefly on the underlying issue, let me try and explain because i feel like everyone is arguing about the wrong thing

this saga isn't about a solitary birthday tweet, in fact it has *nothing* to do with that, it's about the very clear and blatant favouritism that the admins of official f1 accounts show towards certain fans - this literally does not happen in other sports and is a genuine problem

f1 literally has ***millions*** of fans - it is totally unfair for popular twitter accounts to be picked out for special treatment

on this occasion it was just a tweet but if you've been in the community a while you'll know that if you interact with the admins long enough you will literally get paddock access, driver access, you will *randomly* (yeah right) win competitions worth big ££ - this is ridiculous

and the people who spam tweet these accounts know this, and their behaviour is bloody reinforced by the f1 teams as the reward tiers just get bigger and better

this has nothing to do with dts btw its been happening since 2013/14 - it's perhaps amplified by dts bc young fans use twitter whatever but it's absolutely not a dts problem

I've been supporting blessed LH for 13 years and let me tell you I know in my heart I will never get within 10ft of that man and I'm okay with that - but the idea that the Mercedes admin has literally gifted paddock access *to the same people* *multiple times* makes me sick

the experience of going to Jerez/Barcelona on a cold February day with your union jack flag flying from the grandstand, only to open twitter and see the same people are once again "backstage" snapping selfies with your literal sporting hero is totally demoralising

and btw in the same way that someone's "length of service/loyalty" or "knowledge/memory of races" has NOTHING to do with how much of a fan they are, we must apply the same logic to "frequency of twitter interactions". sending loads of tweets doesn't mean you deserve anything

i appreciate f1 has a problem w young fans and engagement but they have way overstepped the mark in trying to remedy this - so much so they are alienating the silent majority who don't have time or simply don't care for cosying up to some rando twitter admin

i could elaborate a little further but thats the main thing and that's why it strikes a chord with so many people