Stunning Sepang - the last of the greats

The denizens of the peninsular country once known as Malaya may recoil at the following suggestion but it contains more than a germ of truth: Malaysia and Singapore are perhaps the best examples of that often expressed oxymoron, “the enlightened dictatorship”. In each of the two countries, a charismatic chap (Dr Mahathir Mohammed in the case of Malaysia and Mr Lee Kuan Yew in that of Singapore) faced his people solemnly and declared “listen to me, for I know best. Do as I say and you will reach the promised land.” Messrs Mohammed and Lee were each then allowed a mostly unchallenged licence to do what was required to see that their vision was carried out. What has been achieved in the two countries makes many an aged African despot weep into his whisky as he contemplates the mess that his own legacy will represent while that of the Malayan leaders’ glitters ever more brightly. Without selfless enlightenment, though, nothing positive is to be gained from making one man the repository of limitless power. It is like giving the keys to your Rolls Royce to a nine year old boy and then standing back horrified as he promptly drives it into a ditch. By contrast, these South-East Asian gentlemen represented true enlightenment. For years the world of Formula One accepted that there were so many divergent interests in the manufacture and racing of top end cars that the only way of getting anything done sensibly was to allow the whole show to be run as a sort of enlightened dictatorship. A little bespectacled chap with a fondness for large cars and large women succeeded - by both fair means and foul – in becoming the enlightened dictator of this strange world. His name was Bernard Charles Ecclestone. He was assisted in no small part by a fiercely intelligent, Machiavellian lawyer called Max Rufus Mosley. The scheming of the two English gentlemen ensured that Ecclestone became the undisputed face of Formula One. A great deal of money was required to keep the show on the road and Ecclestone became adept at turning this way and then that for the requisite billions. Empires as complicated as Ecclestone’s never remain constant and face myriad threats from all manner of sources. In the early part of this century financial troubles threatened to destroy the whole edifice when three large banks moved in to recover their vast loans. Never one to be cornered by anyone, not even a triumvirate of angry banks, Ecclestone found ways and means of making friends with the lead banker appointed to recover the interests of the banks - a flamboyant German gentleman called Gerhard Gribkowsky – and survives as Formula One supremo to this day. He does so despite the fact that he is now 80 years old and his supportive old friend Mosley has retired from F1 and now spends his days fighting a battle to make British newspapers suffer for having dared publicly to disclose his fondness for le vice Anglais. Gribkowsky, meanwhile, is under arrest in a Munich jail allegedly for having received corrupt gifts from Ecclestone worth $50 million. It is believed that this was the price Ecclestone had to pay to guarantee his own survival in F1. Yes, it is rather a murky world. As the web weaved by Ecclestone became more tangled, he had to look further and harder for sources of the colossal sums he needed to keep things going. In the closing years of the twentieth century it became clear to him that Europe – the traditional home of Grand Prix racing – was not going to play the game by the rules of a changing world. The solution was to find places that would. In so doing, one of the first things Ecclestone did was engage the services of a German architect called Hermann Tilke. The architect’s job was to be part of a “package” presented to would be hosts of a Grand Prix race. The story goes something like this: Ecclestone would speak to a potentate in a place like, say, Bahrain. Said potentate would agree to provide the funds required to get the job done. Tilke would then design and build a circuit and – hey presto! - a new Grand Prix would be born. For this to work, though, Tilke had to be able to demonstrate remarkable prowess; his circuits had to sing, inspire, awe. The opportunity to provide a template for the new world of motor racing came when the Malaysians proved receptive to Ecclestone’s overtures. Tilke’s first ever F1 circuit in Sepang proved to be such a barnstormer, so “out there” that the question of his competence and prescience was settled. Sadly, after the first Malaysian Grand Prix in 1999, Tilke took his pot off the boil. Sepang was so good that there was nothing left for him to prove. It is the only one of his many arenas which I consider to be a great circuit. Consequently, approaching the Malaysian Grand Prix each year is always a bittersweet affair for me. It represents excellence in track design and racing purity while at the same time is a monument to a watershed moment; the moment when Formula One was changed forever. But what a race the Malaysian Grand Prix can be! Yesterday’s was surely one of the best ever. There was so much happening everywhere on the Sepang circuit that one could write reams about it but I think I’ll stick with the three things which stand out most clearly in my memory. First, in winning the race from pole position in such imperious style, Sebastian Vettel confirmed that he is the man to beat – if anybody can get close enough to try, that is. Secondly, notwithstanding Lewis Hamilton’s many tribulations in Malaysia – wrong tyre choices, lots of pit-stops occasioned by heavy tyre wear, a tangle with Fernando Alonso and a twenty second penalty – he still looks like the driver with the best chance of at least giving Vettel a bit of a fight. Finally, it is now emerging that the team to watch other than Red Bull and McLaren is not Ferrari (or even Mercedes) but Lotus Renault. We had a beautiful moment – for us, not the driver – when Vitaly Petrov managed to fly all four wheels of his Lotus Renault off the ground and then crash the car heavily with a broken steering column. But this did not dent the appreciation felt in the Lotus Renault garage that the other Lotus Renault - in the hands of Nick Heidfeld – still managed to get up to the third spot on the podium (two podiums in as many races is not bad for a new team). A week between races in Malaysia and China is hardly enough for the lesser teams to do anything about Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, but they might as well at least try – a 24 point lead after just two races does not bode well for a competitive championship. Gitau 11 April 2011