motorsportmania

Not so long ago a German in a red car was winning just about everything in F1 and some people thought that it had become a bore. The German chap was kind enough to retire (for a while), to let some other blokes have a go, but along the way there had been a couple of occasions when the team had ordered the driver of their other car to let this serial winner through and there had been much uproar about this practice. So much so that they banned it and said that manipulating race results was naughty and anyone caught doing it would be smacked and sent to stand in the corner.

The once dominant German chap came back, but didn’t manage another win and has since gone again, but in place of him we now have another German, this time in a blue car, but with red in its name, doing a lot of the winning of races and each of the last three championships. This is despite the owners of the show, led by the diminutive one, trying to mess with the results by having the chosen tyre manufacturer make rubber that is too fragile so that the result of the race is in doubt as much as it can be.

But surely this is rank hypocrisy? Are they not manipulating results just as much as they said that the teams were? That was such a stupid ruling that they threw it out not long after they introduced it anyway. I am against manipulation of the results by the organisers. It’s not the same if the teams do it, for team orders have been around since the beginning of the sport and make perfect sense, but the organisers fiddling with the results is another matter.

I’ve written here before about my opposition to the NASCAR cautions that seem to crop up about 50 laps or so from the end, especially if someone is running away with the race. If they want a 50 mile race then have one; don’t waste everyone’s time with the first 450 miles. The same applies to this ludicrous Chase business. If you want a 10 or 12 race championship with about the same number of competitors then run one; why have all the preamble of the rest of the season? It would be much cheaper and more environmentally friendly but, just thinking about it, there is a lot of money going into the bank accounts of people other than the teams isn’t there? A vested interest methinks.

Real race fans want to see a race. They want to see drivers and teams overcome the challenge, or at least I do. Maybe I’m just getting past my own limits of wear, but the current position in F1 and in NASCAR makes both much less appealing and I don’t even bother to watch much of either anymore. I still take enough interest to follow the results, however they may have been arrived at, but my preference would be to give all of the rule makers a good smack and stand them in the corner for a while until they come to their senses. Otherwise I will just turn my back on them and go to watch some unfettered action. Prescott hill climb is less than an hour away…

Filed under: Drivers, F1, NASCAR, Teams | Tagged: autoracing, F1, formula one, motorsport, NASCAR |