Given that external reality is a fiction, the writer’s role is almost superfluous. He does not need to invent the fiction because it is already there.
So said JG Ballard, arguably the most influential writer of the 20th century and certainly one of the trade’s most significant thinkers.
How right he is. Watching events unfold over the last month or so, you might be forgiven for thinking you had somehow been transported to another planet. This is a planet where drivers deliberately crash cars into concrete walls to facilitate the team winning a motor race.
Not only that, but the team remains virtually unpunished. Yes, the boss has gone, and so has the technical chief, but a ban on the team was suspended for two years. Not as harmful, or draconian, as the monstrous fine to which McLaren was subjected in 2007.
Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out there, to quote Ballard again, but the stuff inside your head. It’s going to be commercial and nasty at the same time.
Oh yes, it’s commercial alright, and now it has got nasty. Nothing that happens in Formula 1 will ever again be surprising. That’s a shame, because Grand Prix racing has always been full of surprises.
This may not be at all ‘appropriate’ or ‘correct’ right now, but I’ve always considered Flavio Briatore to be a man whose heart is in the right place when it comes to F1. He does not pretend to be an expert, or to understand the inner workings of a racing car; rather he is, or was, a figurehead. Briatore understood the importance of showmanship and entertainment in sport, the need to put on a great race for those who come to watch. He knew there should be more excitement, more overtaking in a sport that is being inexorably strangled by technology. Shame then that what happened one night in Singapore was neither entertaining nor exciting.
Another man who has his head screwed on, in a very Italian kind of way, is Luca di Montezemelo, the president of Ferrari. A few days ago, in an articulate and typically clever statement, di Montezemelo pointed out that nobody talks about the races, or the racing, in F1 any more. All they talk about is the scandal, the skulduggery and the general malaise that appears to be descending upon the business.
Now, this may not be ‘correct’ or ‘appropriate’, but I take account of what is said by this admittedly political but highly perceptive Italian aristocrat. Yes, there is often a hidden agenda, and yes, the interests of the Scuderia are often uppermost in his thoughts. But on this occasion I believe that di Montezemelo was sincere in his rallying call for F1 to put this latest horror behind it and get on with some good racing. No, the man is not above turning a trick or two, but he is a passionate racer. And Ferrari lives by racing. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.
So, a pause for breath, and a time for new leaves to be turned over, before everybody loses interest, gives up in disgust and turns to something with a little more credibility. Not to mention scrapping their Renaults. Some do say that there is no such thing as bad publicity, that front-page headlines are what any sport or business lives for. This is utter rubbish. There is such a thing as bad publicity and what occurred on lap 14 on the night of September 28, 2008 was an example. Ask any member of the board of Renault SA. They make family cars, and families watch motor racing.
Here’s to a good, clean and exciting race on Sunday. You have to fancy Hamilton and/or one of the Brawns, I think. But we don’t know, and that’s the joy of it all.
Will Self is doing a piece on Radio 4 about Ballard.
A week or so ago the Arts review programme on Radio 4, discussed the televised Derren Brown ‘magic’ trick of predicting the national lottery balls. One commentator mentioned the amount distraction being done to confuse viewers of the illusion or trick.
It made the Singapore GP spring to my mind. There’s a lot of sideshow and external distractions that draw our attention away from what is supposed to be a race? Rather like the pop concert concept you mentioned two or thread blog postings back?
Um, yes, sorry I was somewhat distracted by someone testing a powerboat engine outside my office window……………….
No, seriously, it’s all smoke and mirrors and my point, I suppose, was that it’s time to go racing and restore some credibility. A few good, close and clean races without any bullshit should go a long way towards achieving this.
Interestingly, Grand Prix racing may run out of engines. Should Toyota and Renault withdraw, we might find ourselves back in the 1960s and 70s when Cosworth came to the rescue. You bolted a DFV onto the monocoque and went racing.
OK, that’s not likely, but it is the default engine for those without a manufacturer behind them.
I bet Kovalainen will be on his best behaviour this coming weekend -he’s probably running on borrowed time at McLaren.
It’s all happening actually and we should be excited. Lorenzo has got to dig deep to stop Rossi taking another title, the British touring car series is coming to its last couple of races, and if Ferrari is going to de Le Mans next year they’ll be confirming, or denying that, any time soon.
Time to look forward. Probably an uphill struggle until Singapore 2009 is done and dusted and the Jumbos and executive jets have touched down at the next race.
Fact or fiction, let’s be positive.
RW
‘Should Toyota and Renault withdraw, we might find ourselves back in the 1960s and 70s when Cosworth came to the rescue. You bolted a DFV onto the monocoque and went racing. OK, that’s not likely, but it is the default engine for those without a manufacturer behind them.’
Rob, I thought that what was Mosley was trying to achieve with the new entrants and cost cutting plan?
Have I misunderstood?
Don’t ask me what Mr Mosley is doing and/or wants to do. These are shifting sands.
Yes, I guess that Cosoworth won the tender the FIA put out to engine manufacturers for a ‘spec’ F1 engine, but how many others seriously wanted to make a commitment? I don’t know.
And yes, the FIA wants to cut costs, impose those cuts on the teams and reduce the spiralling spending. But everything is flexible and now that FOTA is back in line, some concessions have been made.
All the new teams in 2010 will run the Cosworth. But there is another ‘rule’ which is designed to deter one manufacturer from dominating the grid.
I did say I didn’t know the answers.
RW
maybe Max was getting a bit teary-eyed looking at video of the grand ol’ 70′s. there’s a lot of reasons to be positive about a ‘cosworth’ derived formula. the racing was pretty darn good during that period.
I used to tell my UAW friends back in the 80s when Ford was struggling with sales that they should just break out the tooling and dies and make ’65 Mustangs again. Well, guess what? The current ‘Stang looks alot like a late 60′s version and they sell a lot of them.
It’s really confusing. It’s like one of those very bright, gifted people that fail to reach their full potential for a lack of a target or some guidance?
So F1 has two different roads maps, but somehow it’ll meet in the middle somewhere?
I’m also confused by engines being ‘equalised’? If all the engines are going to achieve the same outputs why not just have a commercially off the shelf ‘spec’ engine? If you’ll have no performance advantage in spending money creating your engine why do it?
You’ve obviously made a conscious decision to buy Renault cars. That could be due to an existing relationship with your local dealer, habit or for some differentiator that attracts you to Renault products? So when the buyers of road cars make conscious buying decisions made on tangible differences why have different manufacturers making different F1 engines that are all ‘capped’?
Motor Sport has Frankel testing road cars. We buy one road car over another due to differences.
Sorry Rob, this making my head hurt.
I can see the sentiment that we need to look on the positive and perhaps accept that F1 has long been an event, a kind of current FoS or Goodwood Revival type jamboree, but will that happen while F1 stumbles around like a student on freshers week that’s optimised all the promotional drinks offers at their seat of learning?
I apologise unreservedly if I’ve offended anyone by comparing FoS and the Goodwood Revival with that series that currently goes under the name of F1. The events at Goodword contain more sport, more entertainment, more soul and are far better value.
I’ve to one GP and 2 Festivals of Speed. Goodwood beats F1 hollow.
all I can say is that I owned a Renault once – I believe it was the voted by a respected American magazine as the ‘car of the year’, but that didn’t stop it from electrocuting me every time I put a wrench to the engine…..
Rob, your intro “Given that external reality is a fiction,” is wonderful. It’s wonderful having so many great writers in just one publication/website.
Motorsport has been the only automotive magazine that has stayed on my subscription list. Many others have fallen by the wayside. Quality will always prevail.
Cheers to all at Motorsport, and thanks to Rob for spending so much time responding to the reader!
F1 has always been, to me, a battle between drivers, contructors, and engine & tire suppliers. Everything that artificially “equalizes” F1 dilutes it from what it is. I want mfrs to be able to build a superior engine, and then others to catch up. I’d like a bit of variation in the engines – if it were up to me, I’d go back to 3 liters, any cylinder configuration, no pneumatic valves (no relation to road cars), and get rid of these dumb rules about how many races and/or how many engines or transmissions. All that is artificial. Maybe set the number of blocks, per team, per season, but rebuilding should be OK.
Firstly, thanks for your kind comments. Without you the readers, we writers may as well pack up and so something else. Problem is, I’m not much good at too many things……………………
Dave – I responded to your comments about Eldora and cheddarwurst on the previous blog where we now have about 75 responses. I do envy you going to the dirt oval.
Yup, F1 is baffling alright. But when Mosley and Ecclestone have gone, things will begin to change. But cost-cutting and spec engines will be around for a while. It’s a cycle, and this one is tough, but the sport will recover. We’ve been here before, in many other different guises.
I’m pleased to say our Renaults do not give us electric shocks. We have them because we like them and we can just about afford to run them. Using the local garage helps.
By a wrench, I guess you mean a spanner………………………..
Got to go and finish the TV programme about the Revival. It’s one of the few other things I can do.
Practice tomorrow. Let’s hope the weekend is clean, close and good viewing.
RW
My Renault was a mid-80′s Encore, designed in France, built in Wisconsin.
I think I’ll take their cheese instead!
Here’s to a great weekend in Singapore, at the very least some great photos of the spectacle!
I’m with you Rob, Let’s hope the weekend is clean, close and fun to watch.
Wish full thinking yes! I also hope we don’t get stuck with Tod’s leadership and another 20 years of the same guise.
We still have NASCAR to check for tight, competitive, close and fun to watch racing, if I get bored with a processional F1 race I switch it over and watch the Dover race !
Coming back to the new teams, I wonder how new teams are going to get a Hewland box to fit it to their Cosworth, mix it up with a Magneti Marelli KERS and avoid being a new back row league of their own, how on earth will they be able to push the envelope of super tight rules against the manufacturers? you have to give them technical freedom so the next generation of Colin Chapman’s can come alive! give them frequent rules changes and let them bring new ideas and avoid the multimillion technical iterations run them over.
Dear Sir,
As an ardent follower of MotorSport for quite some time I find it rather disturbing that it took MS so long to comment on the Renault/Briatore/Symonds/Piquet affair.
Regarding the legacy of DSJ I think there can only be one point of view and a clear statement to condemn the whole fiasco is highly appreciated. Why there was no such immediate response is hard to stomach – perhaps pros like the people who write for MS are still too shocked to see their product (= motor racing) being driven against the wall beyond repair…
Andreas Hackbarth
Munich / Germany
Dear Andreas,
Don’t be alarmed. Of course, everyone here at Motor Sport was appalled by the Renault affair and you will be able to read our coverage of recent events when the November issue of the magazine goes on sale on October 2. Nigel’s Reflections column, as usual, puts an ugly affair into perspective and is just about the best thing I’ve read on the case (but then I would say that, wouldn’t I!). Let me know what you think when you’ve read it.
Online, Rob has covered the story through his blogs, so I’m satisfied that Motor Sport hasn’t neglected its duty! I hope you know by now that we don’t shy away from giving our readers our true opinions. That’s been the case in the distant past with Jenks, in the recent past with Nigel, and will continue to be so in the future.
Damien
I agree with Rafael and John that the current regs are a bit too restrictive in the interests of allowing for creativity, tough designing and prototyping are radically different from what it was decades ago. Before you’d think of something build it, try it in the real world, and hope for the best, now, you think of it, design it in a virtual world, run a gauntlet of tests in simulation, and move along if it fails; only a select few of those will be seriously considered and fewer still will be manufactured; my point being that even if they opened the regs up, because of comp assisted simulation you’d probably get 2 or 3 different paths teams would follow (like this year with teams without double diffusers, teams with them, and a lone genius who set up the car with a different rear suspension and made it work). I’ve seriously been thinking that F1′s designers and engineers are too clever for the good of the sport!
But still, there’s a race to be had and from practice it would seem it’s going to be Red Bull vs. Brawn, with a Spaniard in a feisty mood looking to crash the party(not literaly of course, although the no.2 Renault seems destined for that spot, like Kimi’s Ferrari parked in a certain spot in Monaco 07, the same as Schumi the year before). Tough I am surprised neither Kimi nor Hamilton was higher up.
Ed, I think you’ve an unenviable task hosting comments on this matter.
I think so far the Motor Sport podcasts have given us all a handle on your opinions and independence.
I assume that Nigel will compare ‘crashgate’ to the other crimes committed against F1 last year? I’m angry for FOTA not ensuring new governance of F1. Yet again I am asking myself why I should follow F1.
I look forward to seeing Motor Sport on the shelves next week. I’ll look for it on Friday.
The trouble with the ‘Lets move on and look forward to the racing’ stance, is we’ve been there before only to learn after that what we’ve seen wasn’t a race.
It’s like getting our military involved in Afghanistan to facilitate and defend a sham election, or Gordon Brown saying ‘End of boom and bust.’
How many times can F1 cry wolf? I’d like to look forward to a race, but I spent several hours watching at least three events last year that weren’t races.
F1 needs to decide whether it’s fiction, reality TV, real or pseudo real.
The previous thread Rob told us he was known locally as Team Renault. Frankel tests the Alfa 8C with the Ferrari/Maserati V8 in it. The Porsche 924 wasn’t a real Porsche because of the 4 cylinder AW/Audi engine? The Jaguar X-Type was a Mondeo?
What is F1?
It’s like car racing, but not?
Max and Bernie have been selling me Lemons for a few years now and now they want me to sign another Hire Purchase agreement for another one?
I must immediately endorse my colleague Ed Foster’s defence of the magazine. Because we are monthly we have had no chance to write about the Renault scandal properly. Be assured that the new magazine, out next week, will come down firmly against this kind of cheating.
Mathias – please rest assured that I absolutely condemn what the Renault team did in Singapore last year. I, like any racing fan, was absolutely shocked to learn that Briatore and Pat Symonds hatched the plot and that Piquet Minor went ahead with the plan.
All I was saying this week was simply that we have to move forward. The damage has been done, the punishment handed out. I am quite sure that Symonds now regrets what he did. We can still go racing, and to walk away now would not be helping anyone. That’s why I think the Renault board has done the right thing by not pulling out immediately and by putting Bob Bell in charge to calm the team down and get on with the job.
But, yes, of course Motor Sport is as horrified as anyone else by the incident and this will be reflected in the magazine next week.
Meanwhile it was, for me, a joy to watch Hamilton and Rosberg in practice today. And Vettel. Three young guns throwing their cars around the streets in a display of immense skill and bravery.
Jenson Button will win the 2008 World Championship. But, boy, is he making it hard for himself…………..Very British.
RW
Of course you will have noticed my deliberate mistake today.
The defence of the magazine came from our Editor Damien Smith, and not from Ed Foster.
Just setting the record straight.
RW
Who’ll win tomorrow Rob?
I heard the mutterings that the results of the 2008 championship would be contested because of the ugly incident, but I cannot imagine what would have to happen in order to have Jenson crowned the 08 champion :P
While I was not lucky enough to see qualy or practice, I was happily surprised to see Rosberg up there. Tough Hamilton’s fuel-heavy and KERS shod McLaren should take the win, unless some strange things happen, and it’s good for the show to have Vettel up there!
Well done you guys, thank goodness somebody’s on the ball. Of course that was my deliberate mistake (again) to keep you all on your toes……….
Yes, I meant the 2009 championship. Sorry, bit of a senior moment, and I clearly need a holiday.
Jenson Button will win the 2009 championship.
Who will win today? I have no idea. But on paper it should be Hamilton followed home by a Red Bull. Why? Because the McLaren is now a really good racing car, especially on this kind of track, and because Hamilton is is so damn fast and brave.
But anything can happen. There will probably be a safety car and let us pray that it is not deployed because Grosjean has crashed…………………..
Reckon it might be a good race, the top few are so close, but there’s nowhere to overtake, a bit like Valencia.
The funniest result would be a win for Alonso but luckily this looks most unlikely. The best result would be a win for Button. But that’s not likely either. Maybe a BMW will do it.
Enjoy the race. Grand Prix racing badly needs to restore some credibility. I think, I hope, we can all agree on that one.
RW
“the November issue of the magazine goes on sale on October 2″
Could Rob or Ed please explain why MS (like other magazines) publishes a month in advance?
When did the ”RACING” component of F1 actually die?All we are presented with now are ”superb strategy”–,how many places will be gained during the next round of pit stops?– What a superb tyre/compound choice and similar non-racing statements.
Perhaps I am getting old and cynical but I was lucky enough to have seen Fangio,Moss,Hawthorn,Collins and other great racers live at most of the great circuits around Europe.
All that I can hope is that next years lack of refuelling will bring back some genuine RACING
I think there have always been cycles when the racing element has not been as strong as perhaps it should be. I, too, loved watching in the late 1950s and in the 60s, but it wasn’t just the racing, it was the spectacle of 4-wheel drifting, opposite lock and power over handling, I think. There is still some good racing these days but the spectacle is so very different. The modern era is far better ‘live’ than it appears on a TV screen.
I have no idea why the magazines are published so far in advance. I think it gives them a longer shelf life, a longer period in which to sell a ‘current’ edition.Have to ask the publisher that one.
Moto GP from Portugal today. Now there will be some racing there, for sure. Currently the most exciting racing in the world, I think. But Grand Prix car racing will enjoy a better cycle soon, especially if the rule makers properly get to grips with the aerodynamics and allow these cars to run closer together. A motorcycle is a far simpler machine by comparison.
At least we’ve all had a rest from the Piquet saga. Until the next one comes along…………………….!
RW