51 responses to “The #TJ13 #F1 (Not so) Daily News and Comment: Thursday, 9th July 2015”

1. Was wondering where the hippo had gotten to!

   Well, it was meant to be Jules Bianchi, and it could also be Daniel Ricciardo for another Italian diaspora driver, but maybe in the far, far future it could be Jules’ friend, 17 and leading F3, Charles Leclerc?

2. “…it Mercedes’ fault that they’re only throwing Spaghetti at each other over at Ferrari and can’t put a proper car on the road?” – Lauda

   In Australia – the way our nation has developed its ear for racism based on Australia’s sensitive past – that comment would have destroyed Lauda. He possibly would have been made to resign and issue nationwide public apologies. The stereotypical implication would have had the nation up in arms fighting the cause of the Italian community – or any community that was reduced to a stereotype.

   Now, I am not sure that is completely correct, or not. I am simply stating that had I read that in Australia, Lauda would not be able to laugh it off. Perhaps it’s the same in the USA? I don’t know.

   I know the European readers might think that’s ridiculous, and perhaps it is, and perhaps it’s not, but I can assure you that Australian readers will know that Lauda is very lucky that he’s an old Austrian, running a German branded English team in a sport with no accountability.

   For what it’s worth; I see the humour in Lauda’s poke – however ill advised. Those damn spaghetti throwing Italian Ferrari personnel! Pffft (JOKE!)

   • He took some heavy flak for it in the German media. But then, most of Germany has stopped taking Lauda seriously years ago.

   • Lauda is very lucky that he’s an old Austrian, running a German branded English team in a sport with no accountability.

     After Mosley’s spanking incident with ostensible Nazi undertones and effectively inexistent immediate fallout, I don’t think “throwing Spaghetti at each other” would get anyone in trouble in the F1 world. Remember that this is a world where black face paint and black wigs, as well as shirts bearing the words “Hamilton’s familly [sic]”, have largely been ignored by the FIA and swept under the rug. Or that FIA vice-presidents, namely Carlos Gracia, have a history of drunken driving yet don’t suffer any consequences.

     “Italian spaghetti” won’t get you nowhere in this world…

     • Yes, I’m aware of that. That was the essence of my comment.

   • Let’s not forget that those spaghetti throwing Italians also gave him world champion status. Maybe Mr Nik should return to the nursing home and keep taking the pills. I do know there is no love lost between my stable and the Austrian but his comments are just cringe worthy. With this latest Gaff and his one sided view of his drivers you do have to wonder just how many more fires Toto can put out. It really must be a generation thing as the hoohaw with Sir Tim over girly scientists (joke!!)in the lab and now this,I know my grandpa had a switch fail in his tongue as he got older,many times during Sunday lunch we would have the pleasure of hearing his latest rant and always starting with..’in my day….’ And ending in ‘ worthless hippies’ so watch out Niki, there is only so much the family will take before they forget to pick you up on a Sunday.

   • One can only imagine the fallout if a British team principal had made similarly xenophobic comments about the last time Mercedes enjoyed such dominance in motorsport when there was an Austrian in charge…

     • Do you mean the one, whose name starts with an H 😉

       • An A, I thought…

         😉

       • All I know is he did a pretty lame impression of some mute guy from the States who had a funny walk and a worse barber.
         : )

   • I don’t see how eating spaghetti has anything to do with race. It is clearly a reference to Italian eating habits, which is cultural.

     Sorry, but I am a little p’d off with people claiming racism for forms of discrimination or generalization that have nothing to do with race.

     • I’m not claiming racism.

       • You are right. My apologies.

     • Stereotyping a race of people by insinuating they’re Italian therefore they all eat spaghetti, is literally the definition of racism.
       Admittedly not the worst form of racism ever heard but racist nonetheless.

       • Italians are a nationality, not a race.

         • @Sam L.

           Xenophobia and racism are often expressions of cultural intolerance, hence two manifestations of the same phenomenon.

       • Ferrari are an Italian based team, so it’s hardly unreasonable to assume they have an Italian culture. Spaghetti is obviously one of the best known Italian foods and pasta is traditional for any Italian meal. So Lauda was merely saying that the team sits around playing with their food (using spaghetti to give the listener/reader a nice mental image of Ferrari engineers shooting strings of spaghetti at each other, while shouting Mama Mia).

         That this statement is controversial is truly a testament to how obnoxious the PC crowd have become. Racism/xenophobia no longer has to actually consist of thinking that a race or nationality is inferior or treating someone badly. Just pointing at actually existing cultural differences is enough for people to get upset.

         What is extra obnoxious is that the same crowd that wants to police our language (and has zero sense of humor) often make actually discriminatory statements, where white people/men/Westeners/Americans/Christians can be freely blamed as a group for doing bad things to other groups. In contrast to light-hearted statements like Lauda’s, which was a jokey put down that was clearly not meant to be taken literally, those actually discriminatory statements are fully intended to hold each individual in that group accountable for actions of a few.

     • @Aapje.

       +1 sort of. Everybody has racial/cultural preference and discrimination built in to their dna. Culture, good or bad, defines the individual. People who call out racist, are often the worst thought fascists, and those same people refuse to condemn other races or ethnicities involved in murder rape and genocide.

       Time for some meditation. NSFW language. http://jasonheadley.com/FT.html

       • IMO people compartmentalize concepts like racism/sexism/etc too much. As I see it, it all comes from stereotypes that people have. In themselves, stereotypes are necessary. When we see a lion coming at us, we can wonder if the lion is a friendly lion and try to approach it with an open mind. Or we can stereotype it as a threat and run away. People who choose the first approach tend to have short lives, so it is part of our genes to do snap judgments based on stereotypes we develop. This doesn’t just go for lions in the wild, but in modern times, it also means that we will react differently to a heavily tattooed Hell’s Angel who gives us a shove in a bar vs a guy in an ill-fitting suit who does the same.

         The nature of stereotyping is that it is all enveloping. We do not judge others just by race, gender or nationality, but also by clothing, accent, specific choice of words, behavior, etc. No one is immune from this. A white man will get stereotyped just as much as a black woman (but differently) and any group experiences harmful stereotyping. The man may experience less hassle from cops normally, as he doesn’t fit the stereotype they know. But if that man and woman are living together and the police is called for domestic violence, the cops will automatically assume that the man is the perpetrator because that is the stereotype they know in that situation.

         That is why generic statements like ‘women are oppressed’ or ‘blacks are discriminated against’ are rather silly. These statements blind people to the fact that stereotyping happens to all of us (although some groups clearly have it worse _in some situations_).

         • BTW. It’s even more complex because stereotypes do not just affect how we treat others, but also how we act ourselves. There are a ton of actual, measurable differences between genders, nationalities and races that are primarily caused by the standards that people hold themselves to. So equality cannot be achieved by making others treat us equal, when we still do not act equal due to how we perceive ourselves.

         • @Aapje

           In the debate on equality I tend to think that humans are all not equal. They’re not, they cannot be, and this whatever our constitutions or declarations of “universal” human rights keep telling us. He has blue eyes and dark hair, while she has brown eyes and blond hair: they’re very different.

           What is of more practical importance, though, is equality of opportunity. People should be given sufficient breathing space where they can address and correct inherent inequalities—as far as social functioning is concerned—through work and determination…

         • @Aapje

           Compelling post. This… stereotyping is indeed an evolutionary mechanism that provides humans with rules of thumb, snap assessments of (new or recurring) elements in their environment. It’s not a mechanism that can be easily controlled by sheer will, and the ways humans are conditioned since very young will have long-lasting, subconscious effects in adulthood.

   • You mean when your nation is not threatening the lives of dogs, it’s developing it’s fine ear..? Anyways over here as like as not that would be considered a national, not racial stereotype and so perhaps judged a little more loosely. For the record I enjoy pasta and some of my best friends do, too.

     • Dogs??? I… don’t understand.

       • Your Minister of Agriculture gave Johnny Depp 50 hours to remove his dogs from the country before they would be euthanized. Look for John Oliver clip, was hysterical.

   • @WTF_F1… it occurs to me that perhaps you should keep your commentary to F1. By the way; I love your other comments as they show you’re an amazing person perhaps only bettered only by Jesus, mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi; but at least you’ve got room for upward movement. Perhaps you should remember to cater for those who choose not to read as carefully as you might hope. Somehow, you acknowledging the outcome for Lauda in Australia has been… hmmm… molested. C’est la vie.

3. Ferrari is never ever replacing Kimi with max. I don’t know who started that rumour but I don’t believe it. When is the last time any driver of theirs was younger than 25?

   • If I’m correct the last one was jacky ickx in 1968. Being 23 years old.

   • damn, that rules out Esteban as well so 🙂

     • Vergne is 25, while Bianchi would also have been ‘ready’ to move in. But more likely, Bottas is 25, DRic just turned 26 and Hulk 27 and #27.

   • The wet dream of some Verstappen’s fanboy, nobody else will take that seriously.

4. I struggle to get this ‘Mercedes should let them catch up’ way of thinking. While in this PC world we live in Niki should have been more careful with his choice of words, the sentiment is spot on – we did a good job, they need to match or better us.

   Did Apple give away the secrets of the iPhone when they had a dominant market share? Of course not, the competition worked hard and caught up.

   If Mercedes are going to be forced to squander millions spend on development then how long are the board likely to continue sanctioning their taking part in the sport?

   • Apple would have retained their market dominance, if there’d been regulations saying the competition my only change 40% of their new phone’s parts.

     • Maybe, but what the other teams seem to want is to be able to make as many changes as they like but not allow Mercedes to make any.

       Possibly a fairer rule would be to stagger development tokens based on the results of the previous x races? Doing it over a season is a bit slow but if you take say half of a season, rank the manufacturers based on results and award token based on that ranking it might work better.

       • What the other teams want is being allowed to develop without restrictions. Merc is closer to the optimum than the others, so by the laws of diminishing returns the others would catch up, even if Merc were allowed to develop at the same rate-

     • Apple spent $millions in court chasing their competitors for using curved icons and similar minor patent issues. They also tried to get Samsung phones banned in the US.

       http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-27/apple-seeks-ban-on-sales-of-eight-samsung-phones-in-u-s-1-

     • Hippo- Did Mercedes cheat at the outset of all this PU development? Were the present rules and restrictions regarding PUs and changes to them, in the end, agreed upon by all teams, or was Mercedes allowed to derive rules and restrictions regarding the rules for its sole advantage?

       I’m just wondering because I read what appear to be specious counter-arguments as to why Mercedes must suddenly be forced to relinquish an advantage they, like every other well-financed team (read, RB and Ferrari), worked ardently to achieve?

       But perhaps you know that AMG-Mercedes was involved in some back room dealings of which I have no knowledge. If so, please inform me so I can find out where my understanding of the situation is lacking. And should you relay this information, in advance, thanks.

       • Simple question: Why were other teams forced to relinquish their advantage in the past and why should Mercedes not? Certainly it can’t be to accommodate a bunch of people who lost an empire and didn’t yet realize they bend their knees while taking a shit like the rest of the world.

         • I believe that hippos can do it standing up, and in a manner that represents ‘the shit hitting the fan’! But yes, your point still stands!

   • aaagh, its apples and pears again…Ferrari must be the pear 🙂

     I think the Merc argument holds for forced cost cutting of the PUs to customers (to be fair Toto did have a point there – not ideal, but these things should have been planned from the start rather than dropped on the manufacturers half way through the engine regs lifespan), but that argument doesn’t hold up to allowing an open competition where Ferrari (dare we say Renault/Honda) are allowed throw spaghetti, euro, lira, assorted spanish samurai or whatever they chose to catch merc – thats just (fair) competition…..as long as no one hands over any lap tops 🙂

   • @Stephen Hughes
     I see your point, except for the fact that the mobile phone industry isn’t presenting itself as a sport.

     • Sports need to show some degree of fair play though. You don’t hamstring Usain Bolt to allow the competition a chance to win for a change…

       Mercedes did a damned good job and you need to allow them to get the results they deserve otherwise there is a chance they will just walk away – and the same could keep happening if you always stifle a team that does well.

       The other question – which I alluded to a few articles back – is what do we want F1 to be? In a highly technical sport you will always get someone who develops the best technology. It also gets to the point where you are spending massive amounts of money to develop technology with little relevance to anything but making a car lap a circuit as fast as possible.

       To me, the answer is to get back to the pure racing we saw in the past. The best engine won’t always win if there isn’t a team of data analysts ensuring the rest of the car is optimised to the nth degree.

       Yes, we need to tweak the aero so cars can follow each other but the other thing you need to do is limit the number of team members at the race and ban data comms between factory and team during the race weekend. That way you have driver and engineers setting the car up and no other involvement.

       • Teams doing too well have always been nobbled. When Williams got too good the driver aids were banned. When BMW built better engines than anyone else, the revs were limited. When the Ferrari-Bridgestone combo was too dominant, they were nerfed by tyre rules and Red Bull had just about all their innovative aero concepts banned. I don’t see why Merc should be exempted from that.

         • Yes hippo, but all those changes affected everyone and they all had to start a fresh.

           what’s being proposed is to exclude Mercedes from any changes that will be made to aid the other manufacturers.

           How exactly is that fair?

         • How exactly was it fair to ban the EBD just because Red Bull was better at it than everyone else? How was it fair to limit revs because nobody could reach 20K rpm except BMW. How was it fair to change the tyre rules just because the Bridgestones were too tailor-made for the Ferrari?

           Nobody says Merc should be excluded. That’s a straw-man argument of the Hamfosi, who fear their hero might actually have to race for his wins. If the engine regs are relaxed, Merc can develop at the same rate as everyone else.

         • If I said was not surprised at your reply, I would be lying..

         • To be fair hippo he never mentioned Lewis. And since he’s writing articles here his responses have gone a little less hamifosi. Or a little less extreme… (and cheers for that, fortis 😉) but while I agree with most of your points, that last statement made your argument invalid…

       • There may have been “pure racing” in the past, but only because the technology hadn’t been invented. No one can turn the clock back, they can’t un-invent the advances we’ve seen in the last 20 years, especially stuff that’s being used in road cars.

   • “I struggle to get this ‘Mercedes should let them catch up’ way of thinking.”

     Quite correctly so. What is needed is to tear up these engine regs. Battery hybrid technology is immature and too expensive for F1. It’s appropriate for road car manufacturers to experiment with it at Le Mans, but formula car racing is chassis and driver oriented. So the engine regs should be halve the expense of these engines by focusing on modern efficient petrol engine tech such as VVT, DFI, etc, while allowing the fuel flow to have similar power as we have now.

     The goal should be to have 4 or more manufacturers supplying F1, with 2 or more queued up to join, and at the half the cost to the teams of what we now have.

     Regarding Mercedes BoD, they will leave sooner or later anyway. F1 needs to think harder about the sport, not BoD’s.

5. He should have gone with ‘sat with their meatballs dangling in the pool’
   (ref: Seb at RedBull)

6. Good to see Vettel has signed on for Race of Champions, just a shame it’s not alongside MSc, which gave 6 team wins in a row. I do hope Hamilton and Button sign up for England? I guess Coulthard and Wolff for Scotland; who is alongside Vettel for Germany? Hulk? Rosberg? Wehrlein? Grosjean-Ocon for France? Vergne?

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Xpwx2cIAo – 2012!

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