As the rain and stifling humidity of August pass us by, we edge ever closer to the Goodwood Revival.
As you can imagine the Revival is one of the highlights of the year for the team at Motor Sport, as not only is there racing and plenty of it, but it’s always a great opportunity to meet up with the racing fraternity. The magazine a proud partner this year’s event, which means that we’ll not only have our stand in the Revival market but will also be active in the Goodwood Road Racing Club Enclosure. Try not to laugh, but yours truly is apparently going to be manning a 1950s Motor Sport office in the Enclosure, complete with typewriter and period costume. If you’re passing by then do come and say hello. It will be very much appreciated…
As for the ‘headline’ acts this year – see our preview in the October issue, out at the end of August – it’s Sir Stirling Moss’s 80th birthday on September 17, so Goodwood has gone to town trying to source as many of the cars he drove during his professional career as possible, and has come up with a stunning 80 vehicles.
Look out for the dogfights overhead, the BGC Earls Court Motor Show, the period dress and, whatever you do, don’t miss the St Mary’s Trophy race, which will celebrate 50 years of the Mini by filling the entire grid with… Minis.
In other news today… Michael Schumacher isn’t going to be making a Formula 1 comeback having announced he can’t race due to neck injuries sustained in a motorbike accident earlier this year. Personally, I’m gutted. The thought of Luca Badoer behind the wheel of a Ferrari doesn’t extract the same emotions as Herr Schumacher getting up to his old tricks. What do we all think? Is he still going to make a comeback later this season? I find it hard to believe, however much I’m hoping he will.
I am sure all the fans who bought tickets for Valencia and Spa are “gutted” also. They probably are traveling great distances and spending tons of money on hotels, etc and now no Schumi. This leaves the FIA with no choice but to let Alonso and Renault back in the race.
Quite right Michael. The very thought that Alonso (who pretty much brought F1 to Spain) won’t race in Valencia sends shivers down my spine.
Here’s hoping that common sense prevails and Renault are allowed to race.
EF
If common sense prevails, it will be a first for contemporary F1 racing.
This is very odd news. Did he not have the motorcycle accident before his ‘comeback’ was announced? Did he not have a pain in the neck at that stage?
Schumacher rarely dithers, rarely changes his mind. Perhaps the lack of a chance to drive the F60 ahead of Valencia was also hurting him?
Those who voted against the Scuderia being exempted from the ban on current cars being tested will be delighted. The man’s many fans will be very disappointed. His detractors will be smiling wryly. Mr Raikkonen might just be a tad relieved as the red garages will not now be besieged by cameras.
RW
Great point Rob… I was afraid to bring it up(fear of being attacked by MS lovers) but my first thought was that Schumi had to drive a car he never had been in, against a top flight driver that was not about to take team orders in Kimi, and a track he never drove. I am not saying MS would not have done well, but he does not like to walk into unknown situations nor should he have… He said last week his neck was sore, but it would not stop him, then the test was shut down in the F60 and within days it was called off.
no kidding Michael – please don’t tick off the Schumi fans…..
Well, I was merely speculating. But a man as organised, as thorough and as fiercely competitive as Schumacher might just be wary of a unfamiliar car on an unknown circuit, depite simulators, computer simulations and all the other gadgets.
So, yes, it’s disappointing but not, to me anyway, especially surprising. Mr Badoer, meanwhile, has everything to gain and very little to lose.
The main interest in Valencia, for me, will be how much Ross Brawn has managed to improve the car during the last fiur weeks. They need consistent tyre temperature, and soon, or the title will slip away.
On paper, at least, we are in for a thrilling battle over the next few encounters.
RW
Schumacher was kicking the tyres on a truck full of Bridgestones.
Bernie was kicking it from the other side.
I kinda feel a bit sorry for all those people that rushed out to get tickets for Valentia, which was selling poorly, only now to be told that he isnt racing. Bet they are really gutted.
Lets just hope Massa gets well and is back on the grid soon.
First of all re Rob’s comment on the Renault suspension, I too hope it will be overturned, but because I believe it was wrongly imposed. If we go down the road of wanting punishments overturned for the reasons Rob suggests, then I think we are on a slippery slope. Imagine if, the race before the British GP (assuming there is ever another one), Brawn or McLaren are tempted to take a short cut across the rules, and – given the sort of precedent Rob seeks to set – think to themselves “ah, go for it, they will never dare to stop Jenson/Lewis [delete as applicable] from running at the British GP.” That’s effectively what is being suggested here in the context of Fernando and, sorry, I can’t agree with it. Much better to say Fernando should race in Valencia because what the Hungaroring stewards did was harshly unfair.
Nowthen, to the strange case of Ferrari and Schumi. Sympathies to those who now find themselves with tickets to watch Badoer, but Schumi and his very thorough PR outfit were always careful to point out that his comeback was provisional and dependent on medical clearance, and, on the back of that, shrewd commentators such as Martin Brundle were putting an asterisk next to the hyperbole throughout the media frenzy.
As Rob rightly points out, though, the question remains as to why someone like Schumacher put himself in a position where he was dependent, apparently, on a medical maybe of which he would be only too painfully aware.
Big word, “apparently”. The interesting question is what was the real desired outcome? A genuine race comeback or a very clever way for Ferrari to pull a fast one around the testing ban? I must say I was always flabbergasted at how gullible the bulk of Ferrari’s rivals seemed to be on the testing request, apart from that old curmudgeon Sir Frank and the folks at Red Bull who were still smarting at Alguersari’s treatment. Those apart, seven other professional F1 teams seemed to have completely forgotten that when a driver tests a racing car, it’s the racing car as well as the driver (in fact, normally, very much more the former) on which feedback is gained.
What on earth did the FOTA club expect would happen?
Rob Smedley: “Raht, Mahchael, ‘ow d’ye feel abaht that new front wing?”
Schumacher: “I haven’t a clue, Rob, I was too busy stretching my neck, which I have to say is showing a pleasing improvement…”
Alas, this amusing charade never came to pass, thanks to the fact that Oxfordshire’s aforementioned most curmudgeonly businessman retained, almost alone amongst his rivals, some common sense.
And with that, the said charade ceased to have any point. “Sabine, we’d better call that press conference in Geneva tomorrow, the one we secretly planned all along, though we envisaged it in slightly different circumstances….”
Close, Mr di Montezemolo, but no cigar. No wonder you were ranting in such unseemly fashion at Sir Frank.
Just a thought…..
Some good points here Adrian, and very succinctly put, too.
I don’t think I was suggesting that Renault be allowed to race next Sunday ONLY because of it being a home race for Alonso. Though I may well have given that impression………….!
Of course I think that the penalty was severe in the extreme, especially considering other mistakes we have seen in the pitlane that remain unpunished. And I would like to see the team in Valencia, having successfully appealed the judgement. But I do also believe that modern F1 cannot continue in front of half-empty, or even deserted, grandstands. No sport can be happy with that. And for this reason it seems to me ridiculous to deliberately orchestrate the absence of a Spanish double world champion at a Spanish race.
But you are right. We never want to see a team or driver re-nstated just because it is the home race.
As for Schumacher, well………who knows? Nothing is ever crystal clear when it comes to Schumacher and Ferrari. Apart from anything else, it would simply have been interesting, and possibly exciting, to see the man back in a Grand Prix car.
RW
Hi Rob, thanks for your reply, the magnaminity of which I really didn’t deserve, because on re-reading the thread I realised that you weren’t the author of the comments I was taking issue with! So shame on me, full credit to you.
Anyway, the most important thing for you, for me, and for all the contributors to the thread, is that common sense did indeed prevail, miracle of miracles, on the Place de la Concorde for once, and its all systems go for Renault in Valencia.
You are so right about deserted grandstands and about the long-term commercial implications. The irony is that F1 is playing to sparse trackside audiences in the likes of Turkey and China precisely thanks to commercial considerations – albeit very blinkered, short-term ones.
We would all agree that no sport can stand still, and can assist that process by expanding its base, but by the same token, a sport which wantonly forgets its history is a sport which is jeopardising its future at the same time. Can you imagine tennis deciding that next year there would be no Wimbledon or Roland Garros, to be replaced by so-called grand slam tournaments in places with next to no traditional tennis following? Of course not.
Yet this is precisely what F1 seems to be doing at the moment. Currently, the French GP – the event which gave us the very name “Grand Prix” and which therefore in my view we should cherish above all others – is not even on the calendar, and our own British GP is under grave threat, despite being the doyen of the world championship. If either event were not backed up by a strong, passionate and knowledgeable fan base, then one could argue with some regret that it was time for life to move on, but that is patently not so in either case. Yet these races, and F1 in Germany too, have made way, or are under threat, for the sake of the half-empty or deserted grandstands to which Rob refers, in places where the locals seem utterly disinterested in the sport.
It’s all about economics, Bernie and co tell us, but it seems like a false economy to me. If the traditional venues go, they are likely to be lost forever. That is certainly so looking at the predicament in which the UK’s F1 prospects lie, and don’t believe the hype about all-new, all-singing and dancing F1 venues to the west of Paris (or is to the east again, this week?) either. Spending a lot of time in France, I can sadly tell you that the severe obstacles, political and otherwise, faced by those various projects, is one of the most under-reported stories in the British motor sports press at the moment, though I try to remain hopeful, as I try to do for the British GP too.
So if those traditional staples *are* lost for good, what happens when that other old-fashioned consideration, bums on seats, does for the likes of China and Turkey too? Will Bernie find he is struggling to maintain a full calendar at all?
Or is Mr E dancing to a different beat as usual, and are we all therefore missing the point? Could it be that the quaint idea of grandstands full of spectators is the last hurdle between him and his ultimate dream? Races played out behind closed doors (so that’s what they mean by “closed circuit”) before TV-only audiences, in which everything can then be fixed to ensure that the title goes down to the wire every year?
I’m joking with that last paragraph, by the way.
I think…..
We all have a slight problem when trying to follow, even develop, this ‘thread’ because none of us truly knows what is going on within FOTA and the FIA. We pretty much know what is going on in the real world that we inhabit but these can be, and often are, planets apart.
We do know, however, that Mr Ecclestone is an extremely shrewd and intelligent man who has created the biggest and most profitable sports business in the history of the real world. Not only that, he has successfully saved the business from one crisis after another in recent years.This is partly due to his exceptional intellectual capacity and powers of persuasion. But there is something else. And this is his ability to think ahead, be constantly several moves ahead of anyone else playing on the same board.
So, if we accept that, and some of us do, then we can only speculate as to what the game plan might be. First and foremost he is a shrewd businessman, a maker of deals, but he is also a passionate motor racing enthusiast with a sense of history and roots that go down a long way. You may scoff at this, but I happen to believe it’s true. Well concealed it may be, but it’s there.
What makes this more interesting is his imminent retirement from active service. No, I have no idea when he plans to walk away, but it cannot be many seasons hence. Apart from any consideration of age and/or energy and/or appetite he no longer has full control. That lies with CVC Capital Partners, to whom he sold the lion’s share of his business. Another cliffhanger like we saw so recently with the FOTA uprising could be just one crisis too far for CVC. And, should jean Todt succeed Mosley at the FIA, then you can expect a reaction from FOTA.
I reach no conclusion. I have no ‘insider’ knowledge. But I can foresee a time when the bubble will deflate. It will not suddenly go pop, but it will deflate and at that point we may see a return to a cheaper, less complex form of the F1 we now know. And that in turn might mean many fewer visits to the Far East and the Middle East to mention just two areas.
Meanwhile we should enjoy the racing and savour another exciting season. It’s anybody’s race right now. Hard to believe after what we saw in the first five races. But that’s another story.
RW
Hello again Rob. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be one of those who’d scoff at the suggestion that Bernie has a genuine sense of F1′s history and a real passion for the sport, as was demonstrated by the recent revelation of his GP car collection, for example. And I don’t deny that he is a businessman of rare talents who has taken F1 to a completely different level, nor that he is always several steps ahead of his clients, competitors and us mere mortal observers (and I don’t mean that sarcastically).
I’m honestly prepared to accept even now that he genuinely has no intention of letting the British GP slip from the calendar, and all the curious ways in which he has approached the event over the last decade have just been part of a jigsaw that has never made much sense to us before its completion, but when the final piece fits into place in the next few weeks (as it will have to do for the sake of the 2010 race at least), all will become clear and we will have a revitalised event we can all be proud of for years to come.
But, but, but…. I still think he could have done all this with considerably more sensitivity to the UK’s many faithful and genuine motorsport fans, who have endured a whole decade of worry and ill treatment, simply due to Bernie’s “problem” with Silverstone and the BRDC and his constant threats about the event’s imminent demise. Yes, I do think he is passionate about the sport’s historical roots, but does he really care about its grass roots, about its ordinary fans? As I said, this has been going on for a decade now and I still haven’t forgotten how he made home fans trudge through the April mud back in 2000, simply to make a point, it has always seemed, about how inadequate Silverstone’s facilities were. No matter how far above our heads his masterplan may lie, I think that it is unnecessarily cruel to threaten British fans to the point of tedium with the loss of their Grand Prix, if that’s not really his intention.
The fact remains that the French GP *is* off the calendar, causing much upset to that country’s many faithful fans, whilst the Turkish and Chinese GPs are on it, to the great delight of the, oh, hundreds of fans in those two very large countries combined.
And I would come back, finally, to my contention that the traditional venues, once they are lost, will be very difficult to restore, whatever the potential changed circumstances of the coming years.
Ah well, I admit this is all a very long way from talk of Goodwood and Schumacher and Valencia. To try and think positively and focus on the coming weekend, one of your earlier very appropriate questions, Rob, was how Brawn will shape up on the Med after the break, and, though Friday practice isn’t always the perfect guide, the early signs are very positive for them. Best wishes to them for a strong weekend.