It was hard to contain my lack of excitement when the news came through that Lewis Hamilton would be on pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Wow! Just think about it: that the man with the fastest car has driven faster than anyone else in ‘qualifying’ and will now start the race from the front should hardly come as a surprise to anyone and surely neither will tomorrow’s result. Put simply, Formula One is among the most boring ‘sports’ in the world.
It does not help matters that its current champion, the aforementioned Switzerland-residing Lewis Hamilton (he lives in Switzerland so you pay more tax, never forget that bit), has no charisma and precious little by way of personality. The latter is particularly unfortunate since Hamilton is currently the ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year’, defeating countless nominations for people who actually had personalities. (This is quite normal on SPOTY since the likes of Nick Faldo, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill have been among the show’s previous winners.)
I was, at first, pleased that the BBC had retained at least some coverage of F1 when it went out for tender last time, but in retrospect, I wish they had spent the money on, say, cricket, where at least individual skill does count for something. Instead, we have a tiresome procession involving a few seriously rich teams and around 18 cars (out of 20) who simply have no chance of winning the championship, so far ahead of the rest are Mercedes. Quite how this is deemed to be sport in the purest sense is becoming quite blurred to me. It is certainly not part of any meritocracy where participants have the opportunity to win based upon their ability. For all I know, Hamilton may well be the best driver in the world, but how can you tell if he always has the best car? Perhaps they should introduce a handicap system for the best cars, like making drivers wear wellies or oven gloves?
We like to pretend that there was, somehow, a golden age of motor racing when all the drivers were household names and the racing was such that you never knew who was going to win. That’s time being a hero, I’m afraid, because whilst there were great names in the past – Stewart, Senna, Clark, Prost, Fangio – no one apart from a petrol head will know who was further down the grid.
Tomorrow, barring bad weather or mechanical breakdown, Hamilton will win in Malaysia and his team mate Rosberg will come second. They will be presented by huge trophies by Malaysian dignatories and politicians and they will squander vast quantities of Champagne. I am at a loss to understand the attraction of F1 and long may I remain so.
2 comments
Thing is Rick, Hamilton has a very capable team mate who can beat him and this is something many don’t see. Hamilton is being pushed to be the best by a driver who could beat him this time. The Ferrari is showing good form and regardless of if you think it boring or not, the technology filters down to the cars we drive.
Remember the twin overhead cam engines that Colin Chapman used in his Lotus team, they then became the engines used in many cars. ABS, traction control and a plethora of advances, that have no doubt, saved many lives have all come from F1.
We will have smaller engines and energy recovery in base model cars in a few years, that has to be a good thing.
For me, it about racing to be honest and I am proud of Lewis, he was not born from a thoroughbred family who had money, his Dad remortgaged his house to get him a decent kart. The kid did well.
Personally I have no problem where’d he lives and why he dies so. If I had the money, I would not remain here in some poorly conceived act of altruism. Every government rapes us and we never see that money intelligently distributed.
One thing I will add, we ALLS have a responsinility to ourselves, to be happy. No one is going to do that for you.
I say fair play Lewis, I hope he continues to win and I respect the dedication he has shown. He was never really allowed to be a kid because of his driven Father and therein maybe lays the personality bypass.
As always, a piece that provokes thought.
Have a good weekend Rick
Bloody typos. Where he lives and why he DOES so
Peace
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