| Readers' Comments | |
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| Updated: 10 March 1998 | Australian Issue |
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Following events in Australia, would it not be better to simply drop the
pretence of a driver's championship and only have a team/constructor's
contest? It would ensure commercial and sporting incentives are
consistent, save teams money on star drivers and protect innocent fans
from delusions about sport...
Jan-Peter Onstwedder
Congratulations to the McLaren Team on a wonderful result at the Australian Grand Prix. I have been a McLaren fan since 1991 (when I first began to watch F1), and a Hakkinen fan since 1993 and I am glad to finally see a resurgence from the great Marque. As far as I am concerned the controversy surrounding this event is unfounded. Nobody complained when the late Ayrton Senna deliberately pulled to the side to let Gerhard Berger win in 1991. Nobody complained when team orders came into play with any other team throughout history, so why start now? It worries me at how short peoples' memories are. Team orders have existed since the beginning of the sport, so why should Melbourne be different. If the only reason is because the punters lost money on their bets that is even worse. Considering gambling is illegal in some areas, why should it be allowed to control a sport? The eventual outcome of the race has had no effect on the championship, McLaren would have finished 1 - 2 regardless of which order. Hakkinen led for the majority of the race, and so no injustice has been done. One could understand there being an uproar if it was in fact team orders, not a deal made by two drivers who were only too happy to comply. David Coulthard has no hard feelings, and therefore there should be no problems. Personally I see the event as only good for the sport. Finally after many years of conflict between teams and drivers, there is some harmony. Just because you are competing against one another does not mean you have to hate each other. In the past we have had Schumacher and Hill, Senna and Prost, Hunt and Lauda, Villeneuve and Pironi, and most recently Schumacher and Villeneuve. Why do we put up with such negativity? The honourable act which Coulthard performed in Melbourne has shown us that you can still be friends in a world where the natural instinct of competition leads one to hatred. I salute Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard in their quest for the World Championship, and honestly hope they achieve what they deserve. Before I leave, I would also like to add that as of March 8, 1998, I am also a fan of a Mr David Coulthard.
Alexandra Graham
After watching last Sunday's Australian GP, I must say that I am extremely elated to see McLaren back in fighting form. I have been a diehard McLaren fan since 1988, when Ayrton Senna joined the team. McLaren, to me, have always epitomized the quest for absolute perfection. From the tiniest details of the race cars, to the fact that they are completely repainted using a special process for paint removal after every race, down to the fact that the team members are always in fresh and spotless uniforms. To me, there is no better managed team than McLaren. After losing Senna to Williams, and their years of hardship with the Peugeot engines, I am absolutely teary eyed seeing them sear through the field with their blistering pace. What I have trouble understanding is the uproar over Coulthard's waving Hakkinen by during the closing laps of the race. Accusations of race fixing fly all over the place, resulting in the FIA examining whether the practice of team orders should be stopped altogether. What is the world coming to? On the contrary, Coulthard's move resulted in my having tremendous respect and admiration for the man. And I cannot imagine how proud Ron Dennis must be of his drivers! It speaks volumes about the generosity and integrity of the man that he chose, on his own and not on orders from the team, I wish to add, to respect the pre-race agreement he made with his teammate. What I have a hard time comprehending is how people always reminisce about the good old days, when F1 was conducted with honor and camaraderie among drivers. People look back at Fangio being handed over his teammate's car at mid-race, to secure the championship. Or how about the time when Gilles Villeneuve sat on Jody Scheckter's tail during the 1979 Italian GP because of team orders? Had he passed Scheckter, he would have not only won the race, but possibly the World Championship! Fast forward to more modern times, and we see how Reutemann ignored team orders to let Alan Jones by in 1981. Or how Piquet and Mansell or Senna and Prost not only had no regard for team orders, but had absolute contempt for each other! F1 has changed so much in recent times. The sheer money that is poured into the sport has made it, in fact, less of a sport and more of a business. There are less friendships between drivers, and most disturbing, is how readily some drivers will put the other into the wall to get the position. As someone who has been racing as a hobby since 1984, I must say that there is a huge difference in driving ethics today, compared to when I first started. Back then, bumping competitors to gain an advantage was a complete no-no. Today, one should always be prepared that the guy you are about to pass is going to turn you into the next trackside billboard! That is why I shuddered at the sight of Schumacher trying to drive Villeneuve off the road. I dread the effects it will have on young drivers starting out their racing careers! Thus, when I look back at the first race of 1998, I see it as an extremely refreshing breath of fresh, clean air! I truly hope the it sparks the beginning of a return to racing ethics, where drivers drive cleanly, and teammates learn the value of keeping their word. After all, money nor winning is everything. And I don't believe that seeing Schumacher wannabes taking everyone off the track is a better sight! Besides, the ultimate test would be to ask ourselves what the great Juan Manuel Fangio would have done, had he been in David Coulthard's shoes. Hmmm...
Nicky Gonzalez
Dear Atlas, I am just one of the millions who do care a lot about F1 and it is very painful to see what happening to the broadcast. I thought that in a country like USA - power and money - it could never happen. I am afraid it has to do something again with Mr. Ecclestone, who is working really hard to lock out all the media except his own TV business. I live in Florida, USA and missed the live race and still do not know where and when was it aired. I have seen the race next day on Sunshine Network 2 pm. It is also a shame that a professional sport channel like ESPN does not care about the audience so much. Keep up the good work!
Arthur Varga
The powers that be have to come to terms with what they are. They seem to think that they are manufactures racing to improve the engineering of motorcars and hence the drivers title is just a side show for the trash that lines the track and is illuminated by the soft blue glow of TV. The rest of the world watches a sporting contest and thinks that the mamufacturer's title is a left-over from history. There is only one problem. The manufactures, Williams, McLaren, Ferrari et al, have let their costs run out of control and now "who pays the piper calls the shots". No more team orders (or at least make them public the week before the race), race to the finish, follow general sporting rules or be consigned to general irreverancy. The departure of Ken Tyrrell marks the passing of the old school. Now is the time to be heard! We pay the price, we support the sponosrs, we make the rules. Race or leave. Show business and stage management lives in NASCAR, please leave it there.
George Daszkowski
So what is up with that? We are no longer able to watch the races. After a weekend of trying to figure out how to get a $350 DSS satellite television dish on the side of our house so we could pay them $40 bucks a month to get Speedvision and 87 other channels we will never watch, we decided to forget it. Is this Bernie's way of punishing the USA? First he insults our attention span and then he cuts our coverage. Apparently the FIA is more interested in money and not so interested in building a viewing audience. Forgive me, I can be naive at times. I forget that greed often rules. I hope my sarcasm is appreciated and someone gets the word to the FIA that they have lost a lot of viewers. I checked their web page and it seems like they do not want our comments. Nicely done Bernie.
Chris Ahmadjian
The loss of ESPN coverage is a disaster. Worse yet is that to watch a Grand Prix listening to David Hobbs and Sam Posey. David Hobbs usually knows his stuff, but Sam Posey does not have a clue. I have never watched a Grand Prix without having to correct them. This Sunday, Posey kept making reference to Coulthards 5 wins. The man only has 3. Lets hope Bernie will reconsider and give ESPN a chance.
Andrew Leo-Rhynie
ESPN produced the worst coverage of F1 I have witnessed anywhere in the world. On merit alone they deserve to lose coverage. I am tired of the distracting adverts which increase in frequency in the closing stages of the race. I am also tired of the inane, ignorant commentary and the "pit stop" episodes designed to appeal to those with a ten second concentration span. As much as these items of interest have real merit, they should not detract from live race action. Of course I doubt that F1 will fare better at the hands of Fox or Speedvision, so I will need to rely on watching imported tapes from Australia and the UK. (PAL standard of course). Still, allow me just a moment of fantasy. As for the Melbourne race, I can only assume that Coulthard is accepting his status as "second driver" with the same grace exhibited by Eddie Irvine for Ferrari. In F1 the nice guys finish last. Coulthard has what it takes to win several world championships, but of course he is British. And through some unwritten code this ensures he will not receive the support, attention and respect he deserves at the hands of a British race team. (Apologies to Scottish fans here and to people who think that Britain is comprised solely of England) I wonder if McLaren might have erred by lapping the field? This surely must tempt the autocratic officialdom to seek ways to cripple the car in the interests of more competitive racing.
Alastair Stell
I was very dissapointed to miss the GP last weekend because ESPN lost the contract to carry the F1 races. What added to the problem was that ESPN did not announce on the air what was happening and just ran reruns of old sports shows. On Sunday afternoon during a rerun of an old NASCAR race on ABC (ESPN's parent), I saw a 5 second clip of the start and of the two McLarens passing. Again with no explanation about why the race couldn't be shown. I checked with Speedvision this morning and they have confirmed that they have a 3 year contract to carry the F1 races for 98, 99, and 2000. I'm going out to purchase a satellite system this evening so I can get ready for the next race ! Keep up the excellent news service,
Mike Lewis
It is some 36 hours since the chequered flag and I'm struggling to understand what I saw going on at Albert Park. The McLaren MP4/4 was a supremely dominant car, as was the Williams FW14B. Neither of them came close to those McLarens yesterday. The delayed shock on Frentzen's face was all too apparent at the post race conference. If the rest of the season is going to be like this, the FIA may as well hand Ron Dennis the Constructors' Trophy right now and Coulthard and Hakkinen can toss a coin for the Drivers' Title. Besides the phenomenal Mercedes-Benz unit, the hot topic is the brake system. As I understand it, it is a third foot pedal which allows the driver to brake one of the rear wheels at any given time. The problem here is that the driver is able to select which rear wheel he intends to brake and brakes that one alone. Neil Mallard was on South African radio an hour ago and likened the system to an advanced type of traction control. I'm not sure that I entirely agree with that but I do feel that McLaren is coming dangerously close to running a system that could be likened to 4-wheel drive. Dave Richards has said today that Benetton will have the system installed by the time they get to Imola. I would love to know what Charlie Whiting and his team have to say on this topic. Obviously, this system would have been at its most effective on a "street" circuit like Albert Park. I would presume that it won't be as good at Interlagos, Buenos Aires, Monza, etc. I shudder to think what Coulthard and Hakkinen will be able to do at Monte-Carlo or the Hungaroring! Secondly, I have the greatest respect for anyone who makes it into Formula 1 and Coulthard and Hakkinen are no exception. However, I do not understand the agreement that they have "apparently" made. I use that last term because I have a sneaking suspicion that Ron ordered it in an attempt to make up for the mechanic's botched pit call to Mika. If I am wrong and David let him through as a result of the aforementioned agreement, I wonder if Coulthard will ever be a World Champion. My heart goes out to the thousands of fans who paid good money to watch an uninspiring and, frankly, insulting finish. Thank you for allowing me to have my say. I look forward to your review issue on Wednesday. P.S. What brand of champagne were they spraying on the podium yesterday? I believe that Moet wouldn't pay Bernie all the money that he wanted and lost their contract or did they win a reprieve?
Andrew Crean
Atlas F1, Thank you for your site and your efforts regarding F1. I am a constant, nee daily, visitor. I'm curious how the F1 pundits can claim such a large television audience when the US Formula 1 Television Audience -- USF1TA [uhz FWUHN tah], you can't complete with FOCA, FIA, etc. without your own acronym now can you? -- enjoys such sporadic coverage. Of a personnel note, I much preferred the ESPN2 team of Bob Varsha and Derrick (sp?) Daly (again sp?) to the SpeedVision dynamic duo of Sam Posey and David Hobbs whose inaccuracy and monotonastic vocals during the broadcasts is exceeded only by their... by their... never mind.
Steve Garrett
Why is everyone up in arms over what the McLaren team did at the end of the race? One driver, Coulthard, didn't race to his potential, as earlier agreed to by the McLaren team, before the race, if his teammate Hakkinen led going into the first corner. What is the problem with that? The McLarens did it last year. If you will, think back to Jerez where Villeneuve and M Schumacher were battling it out for the championship. The McLarens agreed with Williams, before the race, to stay out of the way of Villeneuve so he could fight for the championship against M Schumacher. Coulthard admitted this directly after the race. McLaren had a great car last year, but they didn't race to their potential in Jerez, and that could have very well altered the finish. What did the FIA do? Absoluely nothing. So what does McLaren do the very next race? The same thing, alter the finish. Again they deprive the race fan of a real race and put into question the integrity of the sport. The FIA should reprimand McLaren - now.
Mark Fillion
The new rules are a big joke, aren't they? They were introduced to make the cars slower, overtaking more possible and with that package the race more interesting. And what did we see? - are the cars slower? If you think in dimensions that they got faster by about 2-3 seconds per season, this statement is correct. But this year Hakkinen drove about the times of last years Grand Prix and in my opinion is that not really slower. - is overtaking possible ? When you remember the "train" of faster cars behind Villeneuve's car in Melbourne or Irvine's chase of Frentzen you see clearly that overtaking is even more impossible than last year because of the completely different aerodynamics and brakes the new narrow formula one car has. -is racing more interesting ? With such a dominant McLaren-Mercedes team clearly: NO! They are like in their best McLaren-Honda times, when the only question was which of those two cars is going to win, and this was one of the things FIA was most afraid of. Because if this still lasts until the end of the season (I hope not...)then the F1 Championship will lose lots of their spectators. It is obvious that the McLaren team uses some kind of technical systems the others do not have and for better racing the FIA should not have that allowed. I think they had a problem because in last years season they allowed this "Traction-Control"-like system for Ferrari which has been denied one year earlier for McLaren. To avoid things like that, the FIA should deny techniques which makes a F1 car more than one second faster OR they should tell all the others (and thats what they do not do now) how to do it. I know that this is an illusion but its an idea.
Christian H. Heiss
The Australian Grand Prix has shown us, yet again, how little modern F1 has to do with racing. The so called gentleman's agreement/team orders within the McLaren team was an absolute disgrace. Such agreements are common during the latter part of the season when it's about the title, but agreeing not to race each other after the first corner of the first race is unbelievable. You may say that it's sensible tactics by McLaren team not to take the risk in racing each other, but that's not what its about. I feel cheated as a F1 fan and paying customer (through my TV license) . Perhaps Ron Dennis can come to some sort of agreement with Bernie Eccelstone that if both McLarens are in front after the first corner then the race has already run its course and the teams can pack the bags and go home. If this is a sign of things to come, then after 20 years of watching F1 I'm going to call it a day!
Paul Moran
Thank - You, Thank - you, Thank - You, for your update on ESPN. ESPN still has not acknowledge that they lost the F1 contract. They just change there viewing with out a single explaination or anything. I had cancel a dinner engagement with my wife, when I sat down to watch the race, it was not on. I momentary paniced for a couple of hours until I found your articile about how Fox Sports West had picked up the contract to televise F1 races. Your information lead me to the Fox Sports West web site where the schedule was posted. I watch the race just a couple of hours ago. Keep up the outstanding news reports,
Stan Brodecki
After the first round of this season's Championship, I have take those conclusions: First: Bernie Ecclestone only cares about increasing his fortune and power and he does not care about US F-1 fans. It is unacceptable that he has sold us in the very last moment to an almost unknown and difficulty accessible network company. Is this the way you have to increase the popularity of F-1 in this country, forcing us to by an antenna to have live coverage? Second: As everybody knew, the rule changes have not helped to see more overtaking in F-1 but to make it boring and monotonous in comparition with previous seasons. It looks like the only overtaking we are going to see is the McLaren lapping the rest of the grip.
Angel Segovia
One word; fiasco. Since I read your news item about ESPN losing the F1 broadcasting contract, I've been searching everywhere for information about when Fox Sports will be airing the F1 race(s). Nobody knows! Fox Sports BBS/Chat is filled with inquiries and confused Formula One fans. Evidently, some regional Fox Sports stations aired the Australian GP while other haven't. How could FOCA be so brain dead? I could count on ESPN and ESPN2. It appears that a good chunk of the U.S. has just been excluded from Formula One. Maybe Brazil will be different. I really hope it is. Or maybe Fox Sports Chicago has some more highschool wrestling to air.
David Martin
Snap up your white gloves, Disney fans. You call this racing? How about Formula 1 dissolving itself in a sea of ridiculous gestures. For the 1997 season, blocking tactics seemed all the rage for teams such as Ferrari who didn't have the parts to compete on a level field. We had to sit chin in hand and watch Irvine, goon to the Schumimeister, block his way around the world's circuits. Then we had to watch Williams hand off to Hakkinen in the capper at Jerez, as they all fishtailed around trying to get the script right on the last lap. Now we start off 1998, chin in hand, while Coulthard tries to figure out where Hakkinen is so he can hand off the win, while the latter cruises through the pits on a miscue. Wow, isn't this exciting? A nice little cute and colorful parade of technology taking front stage to what was once blistering, no-holds-barred competition. The real winner here? CART.
James C. Hawkins
Sirs, So, FIA implemented that expensive (for the teams) rules changes on F1 aiming for more competitiveness? And, the new rules were supposed to produce a better show for the public, with a lot of overtaking and changing of positions throughout the race, with no more lines of cars parading one after the other for endless hours? No more changing of positions exclusively on the pit stops? For what we saw in the first race of the season, it was useless. In Melbourne passing was non-existent, (aside from the McLarens lapping the entire field). Apparently, cars handling was so nervous that - excluding that stupid move of Magnusen on Ralf Schumacher - nobody dared pass for fear of loosing it. And the McLarens overwhelming dominance under the new rules, that allowed them to overlap the rest of the field (including third-place Heinz-Harald Frentzen), brought no enthusiasm for the F1 fans, regardless of team or driver allegiance. If FIA insists on considering as legal some McLaren's contraption, like their "mysterious" new braking system, I'm afraid that the current championship will be just a battle for the third place. If what we saw in Melbourne is a sample, I dare say this is going to be a pretty boring racing season where the only element of uncertainty on each race will be: Who will Ron Dennis choose to be today's winner?
Nuno Becker
Thank you for letting me know that the start of the coverage that I have been waiting for since the end of last season has died. Fox did not cover the race in Philadelphia as your message stated (their fault, not yours). Watching Derik Bell speak on ESPN an hour before the race was to begin, left me wondering (or grateful) that the race was going to be broadcast. Good call !!!!! What a letdown that the sport I've come back to(Rindt's passing hurt me enough to stop following the sport, a co-worker brought me back), is not welcome in the US, pisses me off no end. I thought that the powers that be in F1 wanted the US market to expand to. ESPN is a stable sports network that is basically available to most Americans. To cut the coverage at the cost of the US market, a basic fan base presently, at the last minute doesn' t tell me that the american market is needed, or wanted at all. Thank you, Atlas, for the coverage and news that I have come to rely on. With your coverage, I have kept up on the news that every fan needs to stay enthusiastic in the off season, and informed in season. Keep it up. the way the coverage is going in the US, I'll need every bit coverage you can give me to keep up on what is going on. I will be at Montreal this year. IF you deciede to have a social event to help the fans get to know Atlas F1, anounce it on the news and I will bring the fans that I know to introduce them to you.
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