Heckling is part of the game.  Fans yelling sometimes witty (sometimes childish) taunts in an effort to throw off a rival team’s game or disrupt their concentration is something professional athletes are expected to deal with.  However, what happened in Barcelona, Spain this past weekend was not good natured heckling, it was racism.  It was ugly.

If fans in Spain want to believe that McLaren wronged Fernando Alonso and wish to direct their displeasure towards Lewis Hamilton, they are entitled to do so - to a point.  That entitlement does not extend to assaulting a young man with racist taunts while wearing black face paint.  The behavior of a few Spanish fans was a pathetic display of racism hiding behind sports partisanship.

Spain has the privilege of hosting two grand prix events this year (Barcelona and Valencia) - a situation many countries would like to enjoy.  Rewards like this come with expectations.  One of these expectations would be to not bring the sport into disrepute. The governing body is now, rightfully and properly, investigating this incident. The FIA have warned that one or both of the events may be canceled if the track organizers cannot control the fans and prevent an incident like this one from occurring again.  It would be unfortunate and even damaging to the sport in the short term to cancel races but would be nothing compared to the damage that could be inflicted on the sport if it was perceived to tolerate racism.

The FIA should be applauded for stepping in quickly to stop this behavior from continuing.  Tough decisions will need to be made in the next few weeks and hopefully commercial considerations will not come into consideration.  The issue is bigger than money.  If the Spanish people have to suffer for the actions of a few, it is a price worth paying to send a message to everyone that racism will not be tolerated in any form, in any place, at any time.

Now however, is the time for Fernando Alonso to step forward and speak to his fans.  The former World Champion’s voice has the power to halt the anger and hatred being directed to his former teammate, Lewis Hamilton.  Alonso needs to address his fans and demand the attacks on Hamilton stop.  The time has come for everyone to put the past behind them and it is the time for Fernando take the role of a champion and leader of the sport.

Spain is better than this.  Formula 1 is better than this.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

It was Shakespeare who penned, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Truer words were never spoken and history is populated with examples of good-intentioned men doing evil once they have tasted power. The annals of Formula 1 are no different.

The sport has grown from a largely amateur affair to what is now a multi-billion dollar sports entertainment enterprise. Along the way some of Formula 1’s participants have become fantastically rich powerbrokers on the world stage. Certain of these powerbrokers have done better than others and today control the sport. Of course, I speak of Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley who respectively, have gained a great deal of money and power from F1.

The contribution of both men must be acknowledged. They wrested the sport from the well attired polo club set and made it the professional motorsport showpiece it is today. That process began nearly 30 years ago but for the past 15 plus years, both have reigned unopposed, sharing near absolute power.

Increasingly its obvious that near absolute power is not enough. Yesterday, the FIA announced that it was replacing its independent race stewart, Tony-Scott Andrews who retired at the end of 2007, with three FIA nominated race stewarts. These ‘amateurs’ will come from various FIA affiliated national racing organizations.

To oversee the process and assist the nominated stewarts in their judgments, Max Mosley is assigning his official representative Alan Donnelly. Given the authority that Donnelly has in his role its not unimaginable that his guidance might carry considerable weight with the stewarts. Its also not a terribly large leap to imagine that Donnelly’s guidance is really the thinly disguised hand of the FIA President.

This reorganization of the race stewarts erodes the separation of powers (political and judicial) within the sports governing body.   Of course, the President of the FIA will point out that he has no influence over the decisions of the race stewarts - he doesn’t participate in the ‘independent’ committee.  He’s right of course, on paper he’s not part of the process.  But, one must be naive to believe this is true in practice.

Under Mosley, F1 is moving closer and closer to totalitarian rule.  The power that lies in the FIA Presidency today is as much or more than when Mosley came to office in 1991. Ironically, Mosley ran for the Presidency of FISA (eventually brought under the FIA umbrella in 1993) in response to political interference affecting a 1991 stewarts ruling.

“What happened to Ayrton Senna two years ago in Japan, disgusted me, […]That is when I realised that Fisa was not a fair organisation.”

Then FISA/FIA President, Jean-Marie Balestre was widely reported to have intervened to ensure that the race stewards disqualified Senna from the race (costing him the championship.)  Mosley campaigned on the basis that Balestre, who was also president of the FIA and of the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile, could not effectively manage all of these roles together. Mosley won by 43 votes to 29. *

18 years later, it’s all coming full circle.  The FIA President will once again have influence over not just the rulebook but how the rules will be interpreted and administered.  From the idealistic outsider who rose to power on a platform of fairness, Max has become of very thing he campaigned to defeat - a tyrant.

* From Wikipedia

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

After reading Max Mosley’s most recent interview on Formula1.com I have a real craving for waffles. I have no idea why. Maybe its because when an organization like the FIA fines one team 100 million dollars for stealing intellectual property, lets another IP thief off with a warning and then declares that the next team caught will get the boot, I think, “what a bunch of wafflers!”

McLaren is a racing team that builds a few very exclusive cars. They couldn’t afford to walk away from F1, or worse, get kicked out when they were found to be in possession of Ferrari data so they accepted the fine, ate some crow and were allowed to stay and play the game. When Renault were found to be in possession of McLaren data however, they got a mild slap on the wrist. Why? Because Renault is a car manufacturer that owns a racing team. One is vulnerable, the other is not.

Max can’t wield the heavy stick with the car manufacturers because he needs them to stay in the sport - now more than ever. F1 isn’t particularly healthy at present and he can’t afford to drive competitors away or simply kick them out of the sport. Under Mosley’s cost cutting formula, its now too expensive for new replacement teams to come into the top tier of racing - just ask Dave Richards who owns Prodrive - a very successful motosports company that was suppose to be starting in F1 this year but shelved the project over costs and instability in the rules.

Publicly, Max is talking tough but in the board room, he must be navigating a political minefield. McLaren was a convenient whipping boy and their case got the message out to the other teams about cheating. To the casual observer maybe it even looks like the FIA have their house it order.

I believe the opposite is true and it would only take a similar confrontation with Ferrari to prove how weak the FIA’s position is - despite the constant hyperbole in the press. Would the FIA threaten Ferrari with expulsion for any reason, real or imagined? No! At best the public would get a whitewash, a la the Renault incident and at worst, a pathetic excuse about how none of the rest of us really understand the sport or the rules.

A new season is almost upon us and I look forward to a feast that includes fairness, and competitive spirit, not waffles or sour grapes. Now pass the syrup, Max.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

With every new car launch in 2008 comes another explanation from Team ‘X’ of the intricacies of their ‘revolutionary’ aerodynamic developments. Press releases and technical analysis from trade journalists are the stuff that only a PhD in physics could truly understand or appreciate. To the casual observer or even a long time follower of the sport, the placement of tiny winglets and computer designed aero-foils is about as interesting as Grade 9 calculus.

“Does it have an extra wing? -No…”

“Is it turbo-charged with an afterburner? - No…”

“Does it have an engine for each wheel? - No…”

“Then what makes it different?”

Probably nothing as far as anyone outside of F1 is concerned.

It’s often been said that if the paint schemes on modern F1 cars were stripped off, most fans would not be able to tell the difference between a Ferrari and a BMW. New ideas are quickly copied (or stolen) by the other teams’ designers and eventually car design becomes a very homogeneous genetic soup. Nowadays, its more evolution through cloning than by innovation.

It wasn’t always so stale. In the 60’s and 70’s there was an explosion of new ideas and ‘outside the box’ thinking. Lotus designer Colin Chapman introduced both the monocoque chassis and ground effects to grand prix racing. The designs proved so successful that they are de rigueur to F1 design more than a quarter century later. However, equally creative ideas like four-wheel drive, and dual chassis’ proved to be evolutionary dead-ends and were abandoned. Darwin would be proud.

Standing out as the ultimate in new thinking was a car so wildly different from what had come before that it is, even today, an instantly recognizable icon of 70’s racing - the Tyrrell P34. Designed by Derrick Gardiner, the idea of four small front wheels instead of the normal sized two was envisioned as a way to reduce the drag on the car (smaller tires created a smaller frontal area) while maintaining the same amount of rubber making contact with the track.

The car’s unveiling in 1976 was greeted with gasps of astonishment by the press and it is still regarded as one of the most radical cars ever produced in the history of Formula 1. More astonishing is that this apparent albatross in design was competitive and successful straight away.

Building on a string of points scoring finishes and podiums, the Tyrrell Team quickly achieved the perfect race result when teammates Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depallier finished 1-2 in the 1976 Swiss Grand Prix. Sadly, this early glory was the high water mark for the car and it never won another race. Tire development on the car’s tiny 10-inch wheels proved too costly for the Goodyear Tire Company and the entire concept eventually had to be abandoned in 1977. The FIA killed the 6-wheel concept for good in 1983 when it mandated that race cars could only have four wheels.

Still, the P34 has remained an icon to F1 enthusiasts. It’s a testament to the adventurous thinking F1 used to embrace. Sadly, it also a reminder that as the rules have become more comprehensive and restrictive, innovation has slowly been squeezed out of the sport.

The P34 is not the last word on radical experimentation however. Before the door was shut on 6-wheel race cars, two other notable attempts were made to harness the power of six; the March 2-4-0 and the Williams FW07B/08B.

Stay tuned for Success on 6 Wheels Pt II

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Descending from Scottish heritage I can tell you that laying out hundreds of dollars for a ticket to an F1 race causes my heart to ache. I take some consolation though when a race is as exciting as the 2007 Montreal Grand Prix but decidedly not from a race like the catastrophe that was the 2005 USGP.

But, imagine yourself having to shell out nearly a quarter million euro to get through the gates. That’s exactly what Kimi Raikkonen will have to pay this year to race in F1. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso will be paying nearly as much. Its all because of the new costs for an FIA issued super-license.

For the privilege of racing in the upcoming season, drivers will have to pay a flat fee of €10,000 plus an additional 2000€ for each point they scored during the 2007 season. The previous rates were €1690 plus another €447 for each point earned the previous year. For Raikkonen, that works out to €230,000 in super-license fees for 2008 while under the old licensing model, Kimi would only have had to pay €50,860. For the entire grid to license itself this season (22 drivers including 3 rookies) the total will be €1, 504,000. Quite the cash cow for the FIA.

The speculation behind this raise in fees is that it will help deter unqualified drivers from obtaining a super-license. I think that the FIA could prevent unqualified drivers from obtaining a super-license by just saying “No” to the applicant. In 2001, the FIA did this in the case of then rookie, Kimi Raikkonen whom they considered to be too inexperienced to race in F1. They ended up only issuing him a probationary license.

Even if they looked rather stupid after the fact in the case of Raikkonen - he scored a point in his debut, the FIA still stepped in as the regulator of the sport and evaluated the driver regardless of whether or not the fee had been paid. Could they not carry out the same process with any driver who applied to race in Formula 1?

Instead of consistently enforcing rules that would only allow the qualified onto the grid, the FIA has happily allowed the likes of Gaston Mazzacane, Alex Yoong and Yuji Ide into the exclusive ranks of Formula 1 drivers. Pay drivers like these three typically bring millions of dollars into a backmarker F1 team each year through their personal sponsorship deals with companies. Raising licensing fees, even as drastically as the governing body have done for 2008 will not keep pay drivers out of F1, it only insures a bigger slice of the pie for the FIA.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!