… squabbling over their toys. Only this time it’s a 12 inch to the foot scale Scalextric set.
I cannot think of any other world sport that could possibly have reduced a major event to a total farce on this scale. I believe Formula One is totally dead as far as America is concerned. No way can it ever recover from this debacle. It may even be the beginning of the end worldwide. Don’t forget the western hemisphere races are prime time TV in Europe, and are therefore as important to Europe as the races actually held on our side of the Atlantic.
The sport is run by a bunch of idiots who’s inflated egos won’t let them back down in any dispute. It’s become obvious that their stupid political games come before the enjoyment of millions of fans, or the huge financial investment of the sponsors; the two groups whose money ultimately pays all the bills. Ecclestone, Mosley (don’t forget who his father was!), Flavio Briatore, all of them are like spoiled children threatening to take their toys home if they don’t get their way.
Just like a bunch of nine year olds.
Be fair Tim. Some nine year olds can play nicely together. What do expect from the son of a fascist leader and someone with a severe case of short man syndrome?
For a bonus prize, come up with a suitable insult for Flavio Briatore. Racial slurs aren’t allowed!
I grew up in Indianapolis, listening to (you couldn’t watch it on TV locally) the race (in Indy, it’s just “the race”) every Memorial Day weekend, watching “Thirty Days In May” in school whenever recess was rained out, eagerly watching the neighbors’ driveway for the new pace car (they were some sort of Speedway bigwigs), remembering when that upstart Johnny Rutherford won, stuff like that.
So it takes a lot to make me say “bah” about Formula One.
Bah.
They do bear more than a passing resemblance to the worst kind of munchkin rules lawyer DnD players…
The fallout from this could run & run. I can actually see this being a catalyst for a big shakeup or split in the sport.
I 100% agree they lost sight of the whole point of being there. Sponsorship pays for the sport, we make the vast sponsorship monies worthwhile by watching the sport, anything that gives us or the sponsors a bad experience cannnot be a good thing.
As far as I can see, the Michelin-shod teams did exactly what they had to do. Would it have been less of a farce if 14 cars had driven round the track slowly whilst the other 6 raced? I can’t see that was ever a sensible idea.