Le Mans, June 1969 -Ford GT40 MKII
FORMULA ONE DEAD:
Since I was a kid, car competition, specially Formula One, Le Mans and The Rally of Montecarlo did strongly influence part of my teenage years. My brother Phil, eight years younger than me, shared my fondness for racing and, on a later stage of his life became a racer by himself.
I recall buying all kind of books with action pictures of those early driving legends: Bruce Mclaren, Dennis Hulme, Jack Brabham, followed by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Graham Hill.
Those were the wonderful mid-sixty years during which every single trace of the 625 analog scan lines of the, by then, black&white TVs, were devored during the live transmission of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Since I was a kid, car competition, specially Formula One, Le Mans and The Rally of Montecarlo did strongly influence part of my teenage years. My brother Phil, eight years younger than me, shared my fondness for racing and, on a later stage of his life became a racer by himself.
I recall buying all kind of books with action pictures of those early driving legends: Bruce Mclaren, Dennis Hulme, Jack Brabham, followed by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Graham Hill.
Those were the wonderful mid-sixty years during which every single trace of the 625 analog scan lines of the, by then, black&white TVs, were devored during the live transmission of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Porsches 908, Ferraris 250LM, Matra-Simcas MS-650 et al.
The drivers had to run across the track and introduce themselves into their cars: Jackie Ickx –Mister Le Mans- won the race 6 times: in 1969 he refused running to his Ford GT40-MK1: instead of that calmly walked to his car, buckled himself safely and left at the back of the field. In the first lap, John Woolfe got killed, presumably for not having buckled himself properly.
Formula One had evolved in the sixties and seventies and special technical methods were used like monocoque chassis (Lotus), ground effect, six wheels (Tyrrell P34), enormous back wingspoilers (Chaparral 2G), turbo chargers and automatic transmissions.
Electronics were introduced in the eighties and the nineties linked racing to software and radiocontrol.
Romantic racing legends switched gradually towards professional piloting: Formula One, compared to the seventies has lost a great part of its sporty and semi-professional character, converting itself into a big circus, where major interests are dominating the circuit.
It`s not the pilot who wins; it`s technology, strategy, teamwork and computing. It has become a market race between teams and has been artificially globalized in continents where F1 is only a show, not a tradition or a religion. The Unites States couldn`t stand the competition with their "CART Indy Car World Series”, and weren`t able to captivate any interest for the European style.
The Asian countries have absolutely no F1-tradition and, though beautiful and spectacular circuits have been built in the desert ( Yas Marina Circuit- Abu Dhabi), in Bahrain, Sepang or in Shanghai, this globalization + the extreme team professionalism + the ununderstandable FISA-FOCA war and the technical restrictions, are killing F1 softly.
F1 is called a sport. It`s NOT a sport: it`s a struggle for interests where fairplay doesn`t exist anymore and pilots are only a pawn at His Majesty Ecclestone`s Capricious Service.
The drivers had to run across the track and introduce themselves into their cars: Jackie Ickx –Mister Le Mans- won the race 6 times: in 1969 he refused running to his Ford GT40-MK1: instead of that calmly walked to his car, buckled himself safely and left at the back of the field. In the first lap, John Woolfe got killed, presumably for not having buckled himself properly.
Formula One had evolved in the sixties and seventies and special technical methods were used like monocoque chassis (Lotus), ground effect, six wheels (Tyrrell P34), enormous back wingspoilers (Chaparral 2G), turbo chargers and automatic transmissions.
Electronics were introduced in the eighties and the nineties linked racing to software and radiocontrol.
Romantic racing legends switched gradually towards professional piloting: Formula One, compared to the seventies has lost a great part of its sporty and semi-professional character, converting itself into a big circus, where major interests are dominating the circuit.
It`s not the pilot who wins; it`s technology, strategy, teamwork and computing. It has become a market race between teams and has been artificially globalized in continents where F1 is only a show, not a tradition or a religion. The Unites States couldn`t stand the competition with their "CART Indy Car World Series”, and weren`t able to captivate any interest for the European style.
The Asian countries have absolutely no F1-tradition and, though beautiful and spectacular circuits have been built in the desert ( Yas Marina Circuit- Abu Dhabi), in Bahrain, Sepang or in Shanghai, this globalization + the extreme team professionalism + the ununderstandable FISA-FOCA war and the technical restrictions, are killing F1 softly.
F1 is called a sport. It`s NOT a sport: it`s a struggle for interests where fairplay doesn`t exist anymore and pilots are only a pawn at His Majesty Ecclestone`s Capricious Service.
Formula One will soon lose it`s mass interest, if drastic measures arenot being imposed quickly.
It makes no sense that an almost retired Jenson Button, who drove since 2000 for Williams, Benetton, BAR and Honda and only could accomplish ONE single victory (Hungary 2006) in his whole career, is now leading the 2009 F1- Season. He has scored 4 out of 5 Grand Prix, driving a Brawn-Mercedes, the result of a ruined Honda Team, taken over by Ross Brawn.
After 5 races, McLaren, the 2008 Champ has only scored 13 Constructor points and Ferrari SIX, against the 69 of Brawn.
Something is happening in Formula One and it seems to me it will be the typical case of “killed by its tremendous succes”.
It makes no sense that an almost retired Jenson Button, who drove since 2000 for Williams, Benetton, BAR and Honda and only could accomplish ONE single victory (Hungary 2006) in his whole career, is now leading the 2009 F1- Season. He has scored 4 out of 5 Grand Prix, driving a Brawn-Mercedes, the result of a ruined Honda Team, taken over by Ross Brawn.
After 5 races, McLaren, the 2008 Champ has only scored 13 Constructor points and Ferrari SIX, against the 69 of Brawn.
Something is happening in Formula One and it seems to me it will be the typical case of “killed by its tremendous succes”.
Public isn`t filling the circuits any more and TV transmissions receive half of the share they used to obtain. Ferrari and the rest of the major teams (Renault, McLaren, BMW) are considering to retire from the circuits, because of an imposed restriction in their budget cap of 45 million Euros..
A sick situation, that has converted F1 in a black light and where the pilots are not the ones that win or lose races.
What must be changed is the ultra-norm application of the technical evolution and limit the team`s support during a race. Races are artificial and overcrowded with technical and electronic issues, strategies and other non-sports elements, that eliminate any passion for the real stuff.
Six seconds for refueling, changing a nose and 4 tires, is stupid and has nothing to do with reality. Three mechanics per wheel; two mechanics for refueling; the car-lifter; a couple of mechanics for reajustments; a supervisor and the Lollypop man enable a pitstop in seconds.
This should be changed. One mechanic per tire and two for refueling (for safety reasons) is more than enough. The car can lift by itself, just as the american Carts.
Go back to manual shifting, which is closer to everyday`s driving and quit all electronic devices that help the pilot in his w
ork. F1 should be a driver`s merit, not a computer or a 17 person`s pitstop team worth.I just want the John Surtees and James Hunt spirit back and not that artificial, globalized and miserable Ecclestone-Mosley F1-dictatorship, where interests are more important than sports.
The quote is from James Hunt:
“My first priority is to finish above rather than beneath the ground..”--© - Jean Paul Bastiaans –2009
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4 comments:
Dear JP,
I completely agree with your comments. Unfortunately, F1 is not the only sport that has been damaged.
Cycling has died many years ago; the top cyclists are actually considered as junkies, criminals, and the image of the sport is completely broken. Teams and runners are pressed by economic results for their sponsors and it is impossible to maintain oneself at the top without using drugs. The price to be paid is very high, ask it to Jobie Dajka (27), Marco Pantani (34), "Chaba" Jiménez (32) and many others.
In football it's not that different; it's all about money. The number of shirts that the club will sell by contracting famous players with big tattoo's is more important than the way they play. Arsenal, for example, has only 3 british players in their selection of 28. Teams like Liverpool, F.C.Bayern Munich, Chelsea etc. nearly have native players in their baseteam. Nine teams of the english Premierleague are actually owned by foreign millionaires whose economic interests prevail any other, and what's the best for their club, players and fan's is secondary.
The biggest problem is that the most important decisions within the clubs are taken by people who don't have any background in sports. Hundreds of players and coaches get confused in a web fighting against people who don't know anything about football.
Businessmen that manage clubs think that they will be able to win titles by buying just a dozen of big names.
An example of doing things well has been proved this year by the F.C.Barcelona, a club that has focused on their "cantera" (youth players) building up a well balanced team with talented hardworking players that are willing to sacrifice themselves for their teammates, where publicity, fame and ego is left to another stage.
I love your articles JP, you could have been quite a good journalist.
Regards (abrazos)
Alex
Thanks Alex, that stimulates me to keep writing. Yes, you are right, almost every sport has changed to the worse, one of the mayor examples is what you write: cycling. Nobody pays any attention to the Tour de France or El Giro. No more heroes, no more romantisism in sport. Sponsorization, money and interests. Somebody should be able to change that and get back the illusion again.
Thanks for your comment, keep in touch! Abrazos. JP
One great example of a sport which has been able to maintain its connection with grass roots and has not lost its traditional values of sportsmanship and respect for the opposition is rugby. Turned professional in 1995, the teams still give their opponents the ´pasilla´ when the game is over, the referee is sacred and only the captains of the teams are allowed to talk to him and the general consensus remains to be that the game is bigger than any individual. If you compare the attitude, training hours (and paycheck) of rugby stars like Jonny Wilkinson, Richie McCaw or Pierre Spies, Cristiano Ronaldo could learn a lot from them.. but he's too busy partying or driving aruond in his Ferrari. As far as F1 is concerned, the fact that I simply don't bother to watch it this year says a lot. You know who will be in the top 6 and mr Ecclestone has killed the goose with the golden eggs. Let's see what the future brings now that the traditional teams say they will breakaway from the current F1 organisation.
Last rugby comment: Springboks just beat the British and Irish Lions by 26-21. A tough as nails game played in great spirits and the guys will undoubtedly have a few beers together.
Bart: That`s exactly THE Spirit. Your are completely right and it`s a pitty the same character isn`t available for football. And it`s not a matter of less interests (TV righs etc,) rugby is an international sport followed by millions and millions of fans: the RBS 6 Nations stands over many events!
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