Germany offers an opportunity to neutralise notoriety
Some stories sit comfortably under the heading “the universal story” because wherever you are in the world, you will find a version of them told with slight cultural nuances. There is a version of the universal story told in Italy about a visitor to a small Tuscan town who wanted to see what the town had to offer. A knowledgeable young man agreed to take him on a little walk around the town and show him its prominent features.
As the pair approached a magnificent cathedral, the guide asked rhetorically “Do you see that cathedral? My father, Giuseppe, built it with his own hands brick by brick. Do they call him Giuseppe the great builder of cathedrals? Never!” They walked on a little further and the guide pointed out a bridge. “Do you see that bridge? My father designed and built that bridge by himself. Do they call him Giuseppe the great builder of bridges? Never!” The guide grew more doleful as they walked. After a little while he pointed out a school wearily. “Do you see that school? My father, Giuseppe, built that school with his own hands. Then he found people and trained them to be teachers. Do they call him Giuseppe the great educator? No. Do they call him Giuseppe the greatest man ever to have been born in this town? Never!” There was a long pause and then the guide said “He shagged one chicken.”
A Formula One version of the universal story is told in the career of Michael Schumacher. At the beginning of the final race of the 1997 season, Schumacher had done enough to win the world championship by one point. His nearest opponent, Williams’ driver Jacques Villeneuve, was within a win of overhauling him. Schumacher did a hasty mental calculation and worked out that there was more to be gained by taking both cars out of the race than racing to the finish line. Halfway into the race, when Villeneuve attempted an overtaking move on Schumacher, who was leading, Schumacher suddenly turned his car viciously left into the Williams of Villeneuve.
Unfortunately the move did not work for Schumacher because only his car retired from the Grand Prix while Villeneuve was able to limp along in an injured car to finish in third place and become world champion. The move was so cynical, so blatant and so unsportsmanlike that the rest of Schumacher’s career was blighted by it. From then on, no matter how many pole positions, wins, or championships he earned, to many watchers of the sport, Schumacher was never “Schumacher the great champion”; he was and will forever remain “Schumacher the cheat”.
It must be said, though, that Schumacher went on to do a lot more to reinforce the epithet: requiring preferential status over team-mates; expecting team-mates to move over and let him win no matter what; and illegally blocking other drivers (egregiously so at Monaco in 2006 when he parked his Ferrari at the edge of a corner so as deliberately to block Fernando Alonso from performing a quick qualifying lap).
When Sebastian Vettel came into F1, he was such a prodigious talent that comparisons were instantly made with Michael Schumacher. The German Press at first called him “Little Schumi” – probably in recognition of the fact that Vettel offered the best chance Germany had of ever seeing another of her sons as F1 world champion (Schumacher was the first and only one). Vettel refused to recognise it as an accolade and insisted on being judged on his own merits.
But as we saw at Silverstone, life can be cruel. Vettel now runs the risk of forever being viewed as unsportsmanlike through no fault of his own but because of the behaviour of his Red Bull paymasters. The Austrian owners of the Red Bull seem to prefer young Vettel over Mark Webber as the face of the team for marketing purposes. I think this goes beyond the suspicion that there is some “tribal” loyalty felt by the Austrians to a German. Vettel has boyish good looks and an easy charm about him which lends itself well to, say, underwear adverts in the pages of GQ or Esquire. Webber’s more square-jawed, chiselled features, by contrast, give one the impression of a chap at ease wielding an axe at 40° Centigrade in the Australian outback. Webber is more the Marlboro man riding through the desert towards the sunset than the Calvin Klein perfumed pants Vettel.
Much has been said about the air having been cleared at Red Bull but I suspect that the team may have lost a crucial ingredient which, once lost, is almost impossible to regain. I fear that, like my hearty breakfast last Sunday, Mark Webber’s trust in the Red Bull team may have disappeared for ever and a day. In indicating a clear preference for one driver over the other the Red Bull people have shown that while they are involved with Mark Webber, they are committed to Sebastian Vettel. The difference between the two was immortalised in the words of the tennis legend, Martina Navratilova: “Think of bacon and eggs,” she said. “The chicken was involved; the pig was committed.”
There is more than enough time for Vettel to do some urgent repair work to the damage his team has inflicted on his hitherto unsullied reputation. A good start would be to put in a strong performance at his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim this weekend. The Red Bull car offers the best chance of a win at this unremarkable circuit and he should be in with a very good chance.
That is not to say that anybody else wants to make things easy for him. First of all there is the sinned-against Australian who received immense satisfaction when he won at Silverstone despite his team’s best sabotaging efforts. To stick the boot further in would feel very satisfying, I am sure. Then there is the McLaren pair who are never too far away from picking up any scraps the Red Bull drivers leave off the table. But most important are the Mercedes boys.
This will be Mercedes GP’s first home Grand prix. Nico Rosberg has done his best to keep the team respectable but Michael Schumacher has been shocking. If past behaviour of Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn, is anything to go by, I think this is the last chance they have of getting ahead this season. If things do not work out at Hockenheim, I would not be surprised if Brawn does what he did at Honda in 2008 and halts development of the 2010 car while at the same time starting development of the 2011 one. This worked outrageously well for Brawn GP (the re-badged Honda) as we saw last year.
As ever, there is as much intrigue off track as there is racing on it. I am sure, therefore, that you will,
Enjoy Hockenheim!
Gitau
22 July 2010
As the pair approached a magnificent cathedral, the guide asked rhetorically “Do you see that cathedral? My father, Giuseppe, built it with his own hands brick by brick. Do they call him Giuseppe the great builder of cathedrals? Never!” They walked on a little further and the guide pointed out a bridge. “Do you see that bridge? My father designed and built that bridge by himself. Do they call him Giuseppe the great builder of bridges? Never!” The guide grew more doleful as they walked. After a little while he pointed out a school wearily. “Do you see that school? My father, Giuseppe, built that school with his own hands. Then he found people and trained them to be teachers. Do they call him Giuseppe the great educator? No. Do they call him Giuseppe the greatest man ever to have been born in this town? Never!” There was a long pause and then the guide said “He shagged one chicken.”
A Formula One version of the universal story is told in the career of Michael Schumacher. At the beginning of the final race of the 1997 season, Schumacher had done enough to win the world championship by one point. His nearest opponent, Williams’ driver Jacques Villeneuve, was within a win of overhauling him. Schumacher did a hasty mental calculation and worked out that there was more to be gained by taking both cars out of the race than racing to the finish line. Halfway into the race, when Villeneuve attempted an overtaking move on Schumacher, who was leading, Schumacher suddenly turned his car viciously left into the Williams of Villeneuve.
Unfortunately the move did not work for Schumacher because only his car retired from the Grand Prix while Villeneuve was able to limp along in an injured car to finish in third place and become world champion. The move was so cynical, so blatant and so unsportsmanlike that the rest of Schumacher’s career was blighted by it. From then on, no matter how many pole positions, wins, or championships he earned, to many watchers of the sport, Schumacher was never “Schumacher the great champion”; he was and will forever remain “Schumacher the cheat”.
It must be said, though, that Schumacher went on to do a lot more to reinforce the epithet: requiring preferential status over team-mates; expecting team-mates to move over and let him win no matter what; and illegally blocking other drivers (egregiously so at Monaco in 2006 when he parked his Ferrari at the edge of a corner so as deliberately to block Fernando Alonso from performing a quick qualifying lap).
When Sebastian Vettel came into F1, he was such a prodigious talent that comparisons were instantly made with Michael Schumacher. The German Press at first called him “Little Schumi” – probably in recognition of the fact that Vettel offered the best chance Germany had of ever seeing another of her sons as F1 world champion (Schumacher was the first and only one). Vettel refused to recognise it as an accolade and insisted on being judged on his own merits.
But as we saw at Silverstone, life can be cruel. Vettel now runs the risk of forever being viewed as unsportsmanlike through no fault of his own but because of the behaviour of his Red Bull paymasters. The Austrian owners of the Red Bull seem to prefer young Vettel over Mark Webber as the face of the team for marketing purposes. I think this goes beyond the suspicion that there is some “tribal” loyalty felt by the Austrians to a German. Vettel has boyish good looks and an easy charm about him which lends itself well to, say, underwear adverts in the pages of GQ or Esquire. Webber’s more square-jawed, chiselled features, by contrast, give one the impression of a chap at ease wielding an axe at 40° Centigrade in the Australian outback. Webber is more the Marlboro man riding through the desert towards the sunset than the Calvin Klein perfumed pants Vettel.
Much has been said about the air having been cleared at Red Bull but I suspect that the team may have lost a crucial ingredient which, once lost, is almost impossible to regain. I fear that, like my hearty breakfast last Sunday, Mark Webber’s trust in the Red Bull team may have disappeared for ever and a day. In indicating a clear preference for one driver over the other the Red Bull people have shown that while they are involved with Mark Webber, they are committed to Sebastian Vettel. The difference between the two was immortalised in the words of the tennis legend, Martina Navratilova: “Think of bacon and eggs,” she said. “The chicken was involved; the pig was committed.”
There is more than enough time for Vettel to do some urgent repair work to the damage his team has inflicted on his hitherto unsullied reputation. A good start would be to put in a strong performance at his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim this weekend. The Red Bull car offers the best chance of a win at this unremarkable circuit and he should be in with a very good chance.
That is not to say that anybody else wants to make things easy for him. First of all there is the sinned-against Australian who received immense satisfaction when he won at Silverstone despite his team’s best sabotaging efforts. To stick the boot further in would feel very satisfying, I am sure. Then there is the McLaren pair who are never too far away from picking up any scraps the Red Bull drivers leave off the table. But most important are the Mercedes boys.
This will be Mercedes GP’s first home Grand prix. Nico Rosberg has done his best to keep the team respectable but Michael Schumacher has been shocking. If past behaviour of Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn, is anything to go by, I think this is the last chance they have of getting ahead this season. If things do not work out at Hockenheim, I would not be surprised if Brawn does what he did at Honda in 2008 and halts development of the 2010 car while at the same time starting development of the 2011 one. This worked outrageously well for Brawn GP (the re-badged Honda) as we saw last year.
As ever, there is as much intrigue off track as there is racing on it. I am sure, therefore, that you will,
Enjoy Hockenheim!
Gitau
22 July 2010
posted by Gitau at 5:16 pm
1 Comments:
By the way you failed to mention the maranello are facing another season they would rather forget...a sacrilege by their standard and an ego bruising reality....does it mean they can't win without todt or ross brawn?
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