Some supplemental material. A thread at MetaFilter. F1 fan Greg Storey:

It doesn’t take a Harvard professor to take a step back and wonder what Road & Track was thinking when they green-lit this adventure. They sent a socialist to one of the most over-the-top celebrations of celebrity, glamour, wealth, and greed on the planet. What in the hell did they think was going to happen?

To be fair, Kate’s article makes plenty of jabs at the absurdity and stupidity of the pageantry and celebration of wealth, but when it comes to covering the sport itself, her writing is vastly different from most, if not all, coverage I have read on this sport to date—and vastly better.

Nick Heer, also an F1 fan:

I have followed Formula 1 with varying levels of dedication for about twenty years, and this is one of the best things I have ever read on the subject. It is a fascinating contradiction to many of the values I hold dear: it is an environmentally devastating product of unimaginable wealth, positioned with a level of glamour I cannot see in myself. But it is, as perfectly captured by Wagner, a precise orchestra of mechanical, digital, and human control.

(Uh, why didn't I make this an actual post instead of a Quick Link?)

Kate on Xitter... "apropos of absolutely nothing at all if you want me to go on a 5000 word experience for your magazine you can email me kate @ mcmansionhell dot com"

Her description of Lewis Hamiliton is (was?) really good.

I am a huge F1 fan and found this to be simply some of the best writing on the sport ever. She captures the tension between values here so well — the huge, exorbitant wealth that supports what she calls the most-studied machines on earth.

It makes me wish I liked cycling, and that she'd write McMansion Hell more often. And like the best writing, it makes me want to be a better writer.

I've been a F1 fan for years, and even watching Martin Brundle walk his way through the grid before the race starts on ESPN is always a bit of a parade of horrors. The closest parallel I can draw from my own experiences is not one of sport but of dining at Sketch, a 3-star Michelin restaurant in London. It was awesome, in the truest sense, but also grotesque and off-putting. What a great piece of writing.

Would love to hear the story of how this article got pulled. Fantastic writing made better because it struck someone's nerve.

I'm a big fan of Kate Wagner — I first learned about her through her cycling writing, but she can make you fall in love with just about anything on the planet. I don't know why Road & Track took it down. Despite her fully fair jabs at the outrageous money consumed by this sport, I'm... now more intrigued by F1 than I've ever been?

REALLY enjoyed this. I didn't know her cycling or architecture writing before, but as I'm a big fan of both subjects, I've been in a bit of a rabbit hole this afternoon. I'm not an F1 fan (though I lived in Germany long enough to know that "Michael Schumacher" is the answer to every non-soccer sports question in German Trivial Pursuit and I read The Guardian so I've heard of Lewis Hamilton), but I enjoyed the F1 piece. I didn't think it was out of line, and I enjoyed the perspective on sports vs journalists. Why would they have hired her if they didn't want an honest take?

I went to every F1 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2000-2010). The tickets for the whole weekend were less than $400/each. The teams were shocked at the level of access the management and fans expected to have—and they loved it. It makes me sad to see how out of touch it is now. This was a great piece and I’ll seek out her cycling writing.

Some words from the editor of road and track here on defector, but no answers.

Tangentially Related, Victoria Scott’s Cultural Critique of the Tesla Cybertruck for Road & Track was also a fantastic article.

I assure you that if this had *stayed* in R&T, there's maybe a 4% chance I would've come across it and read it all the way through.
Given that is was pulled, though....damn right I followed that webarchive link and read it top to bottom.
(And subscribed to Kate's newsletter (albeit substack🤮) as well - that's how good it was!)

I've been reading Kate's writing for a while now through her pro cycling journalism. It's as unique and wonderful in that world as this, but there's a lot more of it. Seek it out in places like this, and her substack if you want more. She's also been on a quite a few episodes of The Cycling Podcast, and hearing her speak about pro cycling is just as good as reading her writing.

A “Consider the Lobster” moment for the next generation :)

I appreciate the David Foster Wallace reference and midway through this wonderful read had the same thought.

… and so thankful that the Internet Archive exists

Now on to sharing this with writer friends