Formula 1 discussion (longish, political)

[Luca <nodoubt@domain.elided>]

At Wed, 15 May 2002 10:29:52 -0400 "John Barbera" wrote

snip
>And let's face it, we Italian car fans will continue to root for them.

It's not really this way.
Personally I've never been a fan of Ferrari. I'd rather be a fan of
a driver.... and again, this wouldn't count me among Ferrari's fans
since I don't like the actual championship leader. I neither like
Barrichello since he diesn't fight hard at all. Don't know if it's
because technology overwhelmed drivers' skill, I don't know if it's
a team directive, I just say he doesn't give me any entertainment.
And HERE we are. Entertainment. The keyword.

What's making a mass event out of a sport ? It's PUBLIC.
The wider public is, the wider the budget becomes, the richer
sponsors will turn to be, the higher will be the money amount about
the sport, so the stronger the advertising will be, the better 
broadcasted it gets, the wider amount of public it gets.

An endless circle. You see?

I tell you coupla stories.
I am mostly a motorcycle guy. I never followed racing that much,
I always thought it's pretty sick watching the others getting paid
to do what I like to do as well!! I might watch some races, enjoy
the show, but if weather outside calls me for my own ride I don't
hesitate in turning TV off, jumping in my leathers and riding away
(this applies 100% to alfa word: there's F1 on tv, but also a good
Alfa ride set up... so TV OFF and TwinCam on!). 
Getting slave of TV races is, to me, like, a saturday nite, prefering 
watching a porno movie rather than dating the sexiest partner date 
you ever had.  Just senseless to me. 

Anyway we watch for fun.  We watch for entertainment. We watch

the SHOW. It's all about a SHOW. 
Golf playing, pool playing, chess playing... all great games if
you're playing in 1st person, you know, but pretty BORING to
see on TV.  Agree?  I mean they're sports lacking action, lacking
that breatheholding scenes.  It lacks the emotion... it lacks
what's attracting so much public at a Nascar race.

So back we're again: a sport gets famous when it manages to be a 
show.

I continue the motorcicling thing, follow me. 
OK, years ago races were GREAT on TV. Tracks were a battlefields,
wars were hazard overtaking, weapons were fast bikes.
Progressively this sport got famous. Money fed money, and money fed
broadcasting basically.  
What's up now???
That today even  housekeeper loves Valentino Rossi (actual Gp-1 leader)!
That same housekeeper that thinks motorcycles are a danger, that
must be banned from the road. That they're too loud and fast....
and so on.  
See where we got?
Ain't enough! I pretent to know a thing or two about two wheels,
hell, it's been years I am about it... I do tour, I do race, I
know about motorcycling life. I even developed a pretty useful
mechanical skill in  working on bikes (just finished REBUILDING
my own one after a serious crash).  So what?? I walk in a bar,
there's that bounch of people always talking soccer (I hate soccer),
that NOW pretent to know ALL about motorcycling. They watched a
race or two, neither know where's the gear lever or the clutch
level, still wondering how riders can lean over that much in corners
w/o dropping the bike... and they pretend to TELL me how things
works.  
The sport mutation is complete: it's not more sport, it's just
entertainment and gossip.  And these two damn things are build
with billions dollars.  And billion dollars makes media pushing

the red... so that you MUST watch this because they invested
so many money on it! You must get interested. So TV news, tv
gossip, tv show...they all talk about this "sport", they all
inteview the protagonists, they all makes you swallowing all
the damn thing.  
So again we see the comple motorcycling-ignorant housekeeper LOVING
that rider just because he is so funny in that TV-Show. 
Does he ride? WEll, doesn't matter. It's a tv character rite now.

Formula 1 suffered the same thing. 
Monday I was watching TV news. It doesn't happen so often, I am
too damn busy, but I wanted to know more about this F1-shame
since I didn't really watched the race (choice of mine).
They interviewed Andrea de Adamich (former F1 driver, raced
a total of 31 GP, been driver for Brabham, Surtees,
March, McLaren, Ferrari); 
De Adamich, that now works as sport journalist on TV, just said
this:  
Formula 1 is made of car companies. there are hundreds
of people working for these companies, and there are very huge 
expenses.
The team is company division and it must think about making 
money.  It's no more like those time that the best was winnig....
now it's a market and this way it must run.

Ah. 

After I heard this I turned off my TV, had my coffee, and thought
about where the hell we're going to.  That left me sad.
De Adamich simply said the SPORT is dead. Can you see that?

But wasn't sport food for entertainment machine??? 

Yes, it _WAS_.  Sport made it interesting, made it known, but
they the mutation went on.
Now it's something you must watch. There are these teams making their
business and you must watch.
It's pretty similar to the BIG BROTHER silly world tv event... 
it just that you don't put cameras inside a house, you put cameras 
inside a development division and business division of a company.  
It's the same as being watching a company making their business. 
Where the fun???

On the track??????????

HA! Ok take a F1-GP and watch it.
BORING.
Technology costs money, and who got the money gets technology.
And technology makes winning cars, and the winning cars makes
the greed.  The winner keeps winning and getting richer. The loser
keeps losing and staying on the scene background.  The minor
teams can win just if it happens that a massive crashes sequence
stops the bigs (as it happened some years ago in a rainy Monaco 
GP... just 4 cars made it to the end).  If that doesn't happen
we get a winner out of a limited amount of cars (usually 6 or 8...
that's 3-4 teams, no more).  
Right now technology is so extended that the car can be somehow
controlled from the paddocks, stealing the main role to the driver.
It's also clear that paddock could have "stopped" Barrichello car
to let Schumacher overtake.  It's pretty like betting on a driven
bet.
And the show gets just boring.
Coupla GP ago there has been ONE overtake in about 50 laps. 
ONE.  Just ONE.  And they made a whole tv-news event!
"WHAT AN ACTION". "WHAT A MOVE".
Everytime I pick my Alfa or bike I overtake like hell: while 
braking, while powersliding, approaching an hairpin.... hell
if you wanna the show, just give me a digital camera so that
I may install it on my Alfa!! I'll do it for free,
I don't care about being paid as much as Schumacher!

Formula 1 is a boring show. They built up an entertainment machine,
they built up mega companies (Ferrari will be dealt in shares market
by the end of the year), and they forgot that in the past it
was all about SPORT and PASSION.  
I think F1 is for ingorant masses, no more for cars enthusiasts.  
It doesn't belong to us anylonger.

Saluti a tutti

nodoubt, 
937 landpilot
"I like anything that don't talk." King Benny - Sleepers
937RS2, 75 Turbo, RM250


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