The Romance of Racing by JB

EG writes: Every now again, you find a pearl. Enjoy this wonderful piece by JB who sent it in as a comment. I'm in Japan, I'll be writing later...

The Chosen Few

"Ever since reading Andy G's extraordinarily knowledgeable post, in which he tries to raise the standards of our F1 debates in Ed's blog, I have been wondering if I'm really entitled to discuss F1 in this forum. I have never cared about F1 until this year's championship, but now, I can't do without it.

However, my interest is not technical at all. In fact, technical and mechanical aspects fail to grab my attention, those things about the apex, the braking, driving styles, settings, aerodinamics... I couldn't care less about them. I don't need to know about that in order to have a lot of fun following the racing.

What I love is the literary dimension of it all. The chosen few: just 22 young kinds from all over the world, in extremely fast, extremely expensive machines, in a vane and frivolous world, competing to be the fastest. And yes, it's great to see what they'll do to each other in order to win, to prevail and to be the best, in and out of the paddock.

The psychology of it all is also great to watch: can they cope with the pressure? can they cope with the vanity? Can they be noble and honourable or would they betray anybody in order to win? Is it the cold blooded and calculating, who cleverly administer the risks quota to be the ones who win, or is there also a chance for those who flare up and become reckless? Is it really a Sport, or are they just sponsor advertisers? Is Ron Dennis really favouring Hamilton, or can he really be true to his own beliefs and give equal chances to Fernando Alonso? Is Fernando as despicable and spoilt so as to blackmail Dennis in order to get the upper hand in the team, or is this just a lie?

All these, Mr Andy G, are exciting, interesting and make racing more profound than just the apex, the braking, the driving style... a literary point of view is always more interesting than a plain mechanical observation. Take away the gut feeling, the chauvinism, the gossip, the vanity, the verve, the champagne, the spying, and the beautiful girls and all you are are left with is sweaty guys in overalls and noisy machines."

Comments

[Andy G]

JB - nice thought and how beautifully written.

I also like the human and political richness of it all.

But only when approached with that kind of perspective, balance and calmness.

I am all for exploring the human spectacle...

..but do you think we can persuade some folks to drop the bloodlust of the Circus Maximus?

Otherwise the human spectacle in focus is that of this blog and not The Show!

[Mark M]

JB's piece is a great 'balance' to Andy G's excellent insight - as I mentioned in another blog - techies and non-techies; isnt it fabulous that there is room for both in this sport and isnt it also fabulous that both sides need each other to make F1 what it is?

[Nacho Guinyol Sevilla]

Andy G, this is a hug thread for you, wishing you a speedy recovery from your bad mental condition. I am glad to read that you, as Ed, and Mr J&B are keen on texts which are more likely to appear at the Bombers 2008 Calendar, with a final subtle question, what if we also take away the overalls?. Please do not play with us. Britons are ALWAYS nationalistic because you are a victim of centuries of propaganda (yes, a model democracy, but propaganda, anyway). Do not mess with the word "BALANCE" anymore. Re-read your comments (and Ed, and JB, and others...) and you will see that, at any given comparison Ron-FA, LH-FA, words like spoil, black mail, muck, etc always remain on Fernando`s side, keeping for the others the benefit of doubt. A believer on balance, will not discredit FIA after an inconvenient result, and would not make such a preventive war against a legitimate potential victory for Fernando. Most of supporters of LH here, are only a bunch of BAD LOOSERS who does not like to show it. Here is the culture gap: we spaniards do not care about showing our own imperfections.

[Rocio]

I just have no words for such beautiful post. It is incredible good writting and very emotiv too.

However I do agree with Nacho its´t balance...

Anyway congrantulations for it.

[Mannersaye]

I thought JB's post was excellent and quite refreshing. And for a second it seemed we were moving on from the posts of the last 3 weeks or so which on the whole have been 90% of blah blah noise FA this LH that RD the devil. Not taking sides, they were just oh so boring. So cheers Nacho Guinyol Sevilla, for your contribution, err, not.

[panchurret]

I do care Nacho, I do care.

[Andy G]

Oh Lord - another one.

MR NACHO

Your comment is nugatory, obviously ridiculously partisan, political, personal and offensive.

The "analysis" element of your post (where you look at words like 'muck' etc) shows that your English is not good enough to understand what is being said. And what you have written doesn't make much sense in several places.

If you cannot do more than translate individual words and if you are only looking for confirmation of attack on your country/driver/whatever then I feel sorry for you.

Try harder with the Babelfish and post something useful and constructive.

[JB]

Thanks Ed, for giving me my own little minute of cyberfame and vanity. I love it. By the way, I meant to say "kids" where I said "kinds". As for Nacho, I 'd advice him, PR-wise, to stop talking on behalf of all Spaniards, and stop making such gross generalizations. I am Spanish too, and I become a proFernando Lewis-basher, Dennis-hater lager-lout in every race.

[Leonard]

Sevilla, i doubt that diatribe was necessary.

Nevertheless, F1 under it all remains the sport of techies and of guys in overalls who love the fumes of high octane fuels. Period. Guys like JB literally come and go. Guys like JB will leave the sport in a flash for a new national hero in Athletics or Basketball that comes along to compete with F1. But techies who love cars and technology will hang on - these are the real 300 Million viewers that Bernie will sell in the next negotiation in winter; these are the reason Max Mosley can play politics because he knows they have the sport so much in their blood they are going nowhere; these are the guys who if F1 collapsed, they would form a club and race for another 50 years in oblivion not giving a hoot about what the marketing guys or TV think.

I do agree with JB that his type who love the girls bring glamour to the sport and therefore a little more money into Bernie's purse - but let such people not for a minute cheat themselves that they define the flavour of F1. Now that i think about it for example, i have never followed an F1-Girls link on an F1 site in all my 10 or so years of watching the sport. Before that when satellite TV and the internet were unheard of, WRC events were more visible in my country and i would never miss a column in the dailies or magazines about them.

In short Andy G gets my full support not only for his excellent post but because 5 years from now, we'll still be exchanging views with him, may be on this blog, may be on another forum under different names. As for JB, i will dial in again in 2009 and see if you still exist.

[Circus Maximus]

Andy. I understand Nacho very well. And your sudden hysteria against him shows that, perhaps he is got a point on your ugly way to discredit opponents.

[Andy G]

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

I don't he IS got a point... nor do I think he HAS got a point.

He is not my opponent, he is someone who thinks it is OK to make unsolicited, unprovoked and unwarranted personal attacks on people on this blog rather than trying to further decent discussion. He is like a football hooligan, spoiling the game for true enthusiasts.

I am not discrediting him, he did that to himself when he posted.

Hysteria? Clearly not.

It's almost like you speak a different language :)

[JB]

LEONARD:

As most Spaniards, I have only just discovered F1 in the last couple of years, and it is only this season that I follow every race. What I find appealing is the surface layers of it all, and I guess that with time I'll either loose interest as you say, or become more demanding of real technical info, and start uncovering the most obscure layers of F1. However, I do not expect to define the lure of F1. I am just commenting on what made me watch it. It's like alcohol, when you discover it you just wanna get drunk all the time, because getting drunk is a lot of fun, after a while you find a deeper satisfaction in knowing what makes a good wine, and you don't care that much about getting drunk. However, wine without the buzz wouldn't be all that interesting. And I guess F1, without the circus, wouldn't be all that appealing

[Nacho Guinyol Sevilla]

Andy G: I apologize. Seriously. I had 3 minutes today before a meeting to post what I wrote. The outcome of it, should have been an ironic joke on sweaty firemen (bomberos in Spanish) on a gay calendar, and a provoking thought on how many British people stick together pretending not to, as opposed to some other, and more naive, clumsier strategies. After screwing up in such a way, I have missed the right to criticize your concept of "balance" for a few days. Cheers. And again, I am sorry. Believe it or not, I do not recognize myself on the text.

[IDR]

TO ANDY G

"I don't he IS got a point... nor do I think he HAS got a point."

SO PEDANTIC!!!!

Have you not found enaugh arguments to criticize the comments of Circus Maximus that you have to resort to our English Skills? Criticize his point was quite easy.

And feel free to correct my thousands of errors, BTW.

TO ED

Ed, I think that you are doing an incredible work here.

Mark M was asking us to applaud Ed's work, some comments ago. I'm sure that the best applause for his work is the amazing sucess of this blog.

But I would like to applaud you for other thing:

All of us, British and Spaniards... are learning how to talk each other respecting the differents views and trying to understand the points of other people. And this is due to your wise and patient way of managing this blog.

During the last week I saw here some Britons asking other British posters to be less rude against Spaniards just for being Spaniards, and some Spanish posters asking some Spaniards to be less fanatic with their comments. (Javierviva-put-here-whatever-you-want, for example)

Stupid, Fanatic, Rabid Nacionalist, betrayer, so emotional... or logic, intelligent, rational... are adjectives that exists in the vocabulary of all languajes, just because don't have an specific nationality.

Thank you again Ed for your blog and I hope this WDC goes to the best one! (whenever he is Alonso!)

[Jacob]

NACHO

Many of us believe you were very right in your comments:
JB post was very good but not impartial.

As you show how he/she puts all the bad words on Fernando without wondering if Ron Dennis and Hamilton are liying or what she/he calls blackmail for many of us is Alonso´s rage for the Hugria affair.
and we believe not only that he was right to be furious and take his revenge, but also, that he couldn´t done it (the revenge)if Mclaren were doing fair play.

However, It is true that you are far away from JB to be able to "dress" your words with JB´s impartial perfume.

[jlk]

To All
This will be my last post. I could be wrong but what I am seeing is an increase in Spanish traffic (mostly loud, rude and shrill) and a decrease in comments from the rest of the world. The insult hurlers who combine an inability to see anything other than real or perceived slights against their hero FA, are becoming so crushingly tedious that I am moving to another site. Great commenters like Andy G are attacked so viciously that they seem to lose control and become enmired in the same mudpit as the others.
After a hiatus of many years I came back to F1 because of the quality of the technology and the chance to see the best drivers in the world do their stuff. Here in the US (unlike Spain) sports heroes are a dime-a-dozen. And the behavior of many of these high profile guys became so disgusting (primitive may not be too strong a word) that I thought I would ge back to a sport I loved 30 years ago to escape the American sports scene. Unfortunately this kind of behavior both on and off the track has reared its ugly head again.
In closing a word of warning to the mud slingers: fairly soon you will find yourselves alone on this blog as reasonable people tire of the lack of logic and common courtesy. Then you will be stuck in an "echo chamber" unable to vent at anyone except Ed. Please think about this. And please don't use the tired excuse of "being Spanish". Rudeness is rudeness no matter who you are.
Good luck Ed!
JLK

[jircim]

i've never rated formula 1/motoracing as sports. neither snooker, darts and similar. ok, we know that to race f1 and motorbyke you need to be fit but for me it was (and still is)a non-sporting competition as it depends a lot on the machines (same as darts depends on the beer gut). In my opinion sports are athletics, football, tennis, basketball, cycling..., even cricket. So, for me the f1 attraction is that there's loads of publicity being bombarded and received from the press, the nationalistic heroe figure (both Spain, UK and others lack them)and this "them and us" attitude, blackmail, favouritism attitude..its , as Jb indicatesm the "literary dimension of it all.", so maybe, when all of these things disappear, I may not watch the races anymore (they arent very excting really for most of the time), however, for the time being its a 'show' and I'll be up on Sunday nice and early to watch the race.

[Andy G]

JACOB

JB's piece is completely neutral about Dennis, Hamilton etc.

There is a very real issue with some people having basic but limited English skills. If you read English well you see that his sentences question what is the reality in an unloaded.

[Kathryn S]

Thank you, JB...not just for this post, but for at least one other that I can remember that shows the same kind of depth and generous spirit.

[D]

(For those who are actually interested in the article Ed kindly posted…)

The problem with Bernie Ecclestone’s television show is that it’s attracted huge numbers of people who only tune in to watch a glamorous gladiatorial extravaganza that he’s grafted on to the top of what is actually a contest between engineers.

Gladiators are glamourous: engineers are boring (to the majority of television watchers and red-top newspaper readers). So, the television show focusses on the gladiators and not the engineers.

Formula One is called ‘’motor racing’’ because it’s about engineers building motors and racing them against each other.

What the majority of television viewers want to watch is a completely new activity called ‘’Race Driving’’ in which a bunch of people drive 22 (or more) identical, mass-produced, technically-stagnant racing cars in a level contest of driving that is unpolluted by an engineering contest.

If and when they get that, perhaps they’ll then leave us alone to watch our motor racing.

None of which is to say that don’t far prefer to stand at the edge of the track and study the techniques and the bravery of the drivers to watching television commentators interview irrelevant “celebrities” cluttering up the starting grid of a Formula One race.

[Jacob]

THE EXPERIMENT:

I would like to do a little experimente. I copy PB´s text and change just a few words.
I would like to proof that her/his text wasn´t impartial at all.

However, I would like to say again how fully it impress me and how good I think it is.
Here it goes:

"Ever since reading Miguel's extraordinarily knowledgeable post, in which he tries to raise the standards of our F1 debates in Ed's blog, I have been wondering if I'm really entitled to discuss F1 in this forum. I have never cared about F1 until this year's championship, but now, I can't do without it.
However, my interest is not technical at all. In fact, technical and mechanical aspects fail to grab my attention, those things about the apex, the braking, driving styles, settings, aerodinamics... I couldn't care less about them. I don't need to know about that in order to have a lot of fun following the racing.
What I love is the literary dimension of it all. The chosen few: just 22 young kinds from all over the world, in extremely fast, extremely expensive machines, in a vane and frivolous world, competing to be the fastest. And yes, it's great to see what they'll do to each other in order to win, to prevail and to be the best, in and out of the paddock.
The psychology of it all is also great to watch: can they cope with the pressure? can they cope with the vanity? Can they be noble and honourable or would they betray anybody in order to win? Is it the cold blooded and calculating, who cleverly administer the risks quota to be the ones who win, or is there also a chance for those who flare up and become reckless? Is it really a Sport, or are they just sponsor advertisers? Is Ron Dennis really favouring Hamilton, or can he really give equal chances to Fernando Alonso? Is Hamilton as despicable and spoilt so as to disobey Dennis teams order to get upper in the WC, or is this just a lie?
All these, Mr Andy G, are exciting, interesting and make racing more profound than just the apex, the braking, the driving style... a literary point of view is always more interesting than a plain mechanical observation. Take away the gut feeling, the chauvinism, the gossip, the vanity, the verve, the champagne, the spying, and the beautiful girls and all you are are left with is sweaty guys in overalls and noisy machines."

[ViscaCatalunya]

Are the explosive (!!!!!!) forces which you claim that Alonso is using versus Hamilton (the last piece in the Times) possibly related to car set-up;). Another one-sided piece of “journalism” you are by now famous for. There are two sides to each story. Unfortunately we only read one side on this blog. By the way Alonso has declared that some journalists make him laugh. I can think of at least one he‘s aiming at!!!