Formula One is Animal Farm

To misquote George Orwell

All teams are equal, but some teams are more equal than others.

Specifically, I’m talking about penalties. Lewis Hamilton got a stop and go penalty for an overtaking manoevre that once completed left him not enough room to do anything but miss the chicane, yet Kimi Raikkonnen got nothing for having a piece of metal dangerously hanging off his car as it traversed France’s Formula One GP race track in Magny Cours at speeds of up to 300 kmh. The offending piece of metal eventually flew off the car and could have killed somebody if it had fallen off in a less convenient place. In past years, drivers have been black flagged for having bits of their car hanging off, or at the very least told to make repairs during a pit stop. Ferrari were once again allowed to flout the rules.

Why, why, why?

If Bernie separates F1 from the FIA, it won’t be a day too soon.

Blame Whitmarsh, not Hamilton, for recent mistakes

Many pundits have apparently been getting at Lewis Hamilton in the British tabloid press. I gave up reading UK newspapers some years ago they invent and write what they want just to sell advertising, no longer the truth as was once the case. But that’s another story.

Whatever, the situation certainly hasn’t been made any easier by McLaren who have completely mucked up Hamilton’s race stategies lately, perhaps because they are giving the second year rookie just too much slack. I mean, he even chose his own teammate this year. Then there’s the McLaren race strategy record which seems to be stuck on “Try to win every race” rather than ‘Focus on the long view and win the Championship”.

That’s very strange because last year Hamilton was Mr Consistency, and was peacefulness and calm personified. This year he has transformed into the rookie that he patently was not last year. This year, the Mr Consistency badge has been taken over by Robert Kubica, who has managed to lead the championship already despite being in a slower car than his rivals.

The problems seemed to begin in those last two races last year, when Lewis only needed 4 points from the 20 available in the last two races to clinch the Championship. Instead of playing it safe, and going for those points, Lewis and the team focussed on winning, winning, winning, on seemingly showing the whole world how superior Lewis was – at all costs.

OK, anyone can make a mistake in their first season, but you would have expected such a harsh lesson to have been learned back then, and not repeated again in 2008. You can clearly see that Kimi aims for every last point: he clearly did learn from last year.

But there we were in Canada, with Lewis not content to just be first, he seemed to be attempting to lap everyone as well. Naturally, he is a gifted driver, and can do things in a car that many others cannot, but clearly he should have been told by his team about the red light, if they didn’t drum it into him before the race. So many drivers have been caught out by this silly rule this year.

So, there we were with Lewis going for track position even in the pit lane when it was clear the other cars were on a lighter fuel load and so not really a threat to him despite being in front coming out of the pits. That was the team’s fault, of course. They have the strategic displays of possible outcomes on their laptops, they should read the race better and provide Lewis with better info in a more timely manner. Like, er, shouting “Red Light!” a bit earlier, perhaps…?

Anyway, after the ten grid position penalty was imposed, it should have been clear that the team should not be focussing on a win in France, but on gathering more points. It seems they took the risky option again though, allowed Lewis his head, and while overhyped and possibly over-confident, the unrestrained Hamilton once again tried to barge into the lead from thirteenth on a track renowned for being difficult – if not next to impossible – to overtake on.

Pre-race interviews with Lewis Hamilton himself clearly showed his over-confident, rap-star influenced ego poking through, and a strategy of light fuel load and soft tyres added to the disbelief that there was any focus at all on winning over the course of the season, rather than just at this race.

Post race interviews with Martin Whitmarsh show this emphasis is unlikely to be changed by anything he will do or say to Hamilton. The McLaren Managing Director went on record saying that Lewis “has got to believe that he can win in Britain and come out on equal points.” Again, no mention of the long haul or the Championship, just another attempt at full points again, like scoring 8 or 6 points is somehow failing.

The team really should be giving Lewis more direction, and more capable direction at that. Still, maybe they are and Lewis listens more to his “friends” now. In one pre-race interview he was talking of a text message he received from a great friend before the race about how greatness comes not from winning a race from the front, but from the rear and fighting your way through. A shame that person didn’t remember how difficult passing at Magny-Cours always is…

Churchill said that “Politics is the art of the possible” and maybe that’s a lot more transferable than we think. But maybe Whitmarsh just doesn’t have the broad grasp of things that Lewis needs him to have. Whitmarsh seems to be no chess player.

No wonder Anthony Hamilton looks glum in the pits these days.

FIA “to launch global campaign in support of motorists prosecuted for kerb crawling”?

Rumours are that now the FIA have re-elected a President whose primary public image is one of messing about with prostitutes, that the next move is to begin a global campaign to allow kerb crawling motorists to reclaim their fines for engaging the services of prostitutes. Max Mosley, the sad FIA President, has publicly said many times that he sees nothing wrong in engaging prositutes because they are “freely consenting adults”. Clearly a majority of the representatives of the motoring clubs that make up the FIA have come to the same conclusion.

Presumably, they did not think that messing about with prostitutes is morally repugnant nor a support for human trafficking, drug use, or the criminal underworld, or even an abuse against women. Neither it seems did they worry about their own members from the many countries in the world in which prostitution is illegal.

Apparently, many of the member clubs who supported Max Mosley receive money from the FIA. As any prostitute knows first you take the money, then you provide the required service – in this case to Max’s satisfaction.

Are we to conclude then that the lunatics are running the asylum?

If you are a woman, or a social worker dealing with the consequences of the abuse of women, or a feminist, or someone who believes in equality, or someone who has moral fibre, or who has religious affiliations, and are also a member of a motoring organisation then perhaps you should pressure your own motoring organisation to act proactively to do something to reverse this ego-driven abuse of power.

Just to remind you how it all started: the News of The World published a video showing Max Mosley, FIA President and son of the pre-war British Fascist party leader Sir Oswald Mosley engaging in a sado-masochistic orgy with three prostitutes in a concentration camp setting. The FIA represents the views of the world’s drivers in discussions with governments and other interested parties.