Örjan Bergstedt
Sweden

Don, I would agrue it would be safe to say Britain is very much the ’spiritual home’ of motor racing.

Look through the history books of F1 and Sportscars and Britain in inexorably linked to so many wins, championships and key moments.

The key personnel in most teams, back through the history of the sport are almost always British, even today, most teams have more Brits than any other nationality. Most F1 teams today too, are based in the UK.

The wider public always sees F1 as ‘motor sport’ and the leading teams, from the 50s onwards in particular are predominantly British. Lotus, Tyrell, Williams, McLaren, Brabham: all, essentially, British. Ferrari is the only team which has been constantly at the forefront of the sport yet is not British. (Although it should be pointed out that many of their key team members now, including Massa’s engineer, are British.)

Try taking Britain and Brits and anything connected with the two out of motor sport history and see what you are left with.

Coming back to the original issue for debate here, any right thinking person can see that this penalty was totally unjust but, somehow, it seems like divine retribution that Ferrari’s pit devices broke, levelling the playing fields again.

Sorry, but this statement, “Britain is the spiritual home of motor racing….” almost had me fall out of my chair. Sorry, but I somehow never knew that. Considering that Britain languished for many, many years in the backwaters of the racing world, bringing real meaning to the concept of being “insular.”

Long before Brooklands and The Right Crowd emerged, motor racing was a vibrant, dynamic force in France and the United States. Indeed, the first racing as we know racing took place in America. The W.K Vanderbilt Cup of 1904 helped lead the way to the GP de l’ACF in 1906. Brooklands is long done as a venue, but racing continues at Milwaukee and the IMS, both contemporaries of Brooklands.

Sorry to veer off topic, but, by Jingo, nearly two decades prior to the first RAC British GP there was the Grand Prize Race for the ACA Gold Cup in Savannah. Britain’s ascent to the fore during, roughly, the 1951-1960 period (sports cars and grand prix racing included as well as drivers) is a remarkable story. However, any claims for “Britain [being] the spiritual home of motor racing” need to be looked at with serious reservations.

Not to compare events, but in a similar way I will always think of this years’ Spa race as a Hamilton victory much in the same way I remember Martin Brundle finishing 2nd at Detroit in 1984. Don’t forget, the latter mentoned was only a few years removed from almost everyone on the grid having an illegal car, so why punish Brundle for such an amazing drive regardless of circumstance?

Over here, race results almost always stand. Punishment is handed down through fines and suspensions. The fans leave the track knowing for better or worse, who won.

Here’s to the end of those that make the decisions… New blood is desperately needed.

Where is the sport going ?

I don’t condone industrial espionage or infringement of intellectual property rights but last years actions and heavy-handed response to the ’spying scandal’ unsettled my interest again. Since the sport began, teams and drivers have always sought to gain advantage over their rivals and whilst the actions of Stepney and those others involved were so blatant, I could not help but believe that ‘there for the grace of god’ go many others. The sanctions applied to McLaren appeared to me to be inequitable and showed what I felt was a bias towards Ferrari that I found unpalatable.

Mosley has a right to privacy and I don’t frankly care what he gets up to but his perversions become public knowledge, for whatever motive, and thus I have to question the workings of the man’s mind in all things and ask myself how he is perceived in places such as Bahrain and Abu Dhabi where the culture is a million miles from that apparently acceptable to him.

Then we have Ecclestone finally winning his battle to take away the British GP from Silverstone. Whether Donington can deliver what he wants in the time available is questionable and, if not, where does our GP go to. Britain is the spiritual home of motor racing and the technology and innovation that fuels the industry and secures jobs in this country is built on that heritage – how can Ecclestone be allowed to prostitute his position by even contemplating giving our Grand Prix away.

And so to Spa which has also been under threat. Spa which is everything the spectator could wish for, speed, sweeping bends, hairpins, fast straights and overtaking, in a lovely setting that is guaranteed a large and knowledgeable audience, rather than the sterility of the recently created Mickey-mouse cement and sand circuits that are being added to the calendar.

But does any of the above matter. The answer is no, not one jot, when the Stewards can demote Hamilton to third place for racing to a brilliant victory today. Hamilton was the best driver today, in a car that was able to cope with the variable conditions. To have the victory and winners points handed to Massa who clearly couldn’t drive faster than Hamiliton at any point in the race was a travesty. Another action which, in my mind is totally against the spirit of the sport and which again brings it into disrepute. I don’t have a copy of the Rule Book but surely Hamilton did what was demanded by letting Raikkonen take the lead again ? Whether Hamilton gained an advantage that helped him to overtake again is open to question and in my mind irrelevant, because I suggest that even if he had not made the second pass when/as he did, there would have been no chance of Raikkonen staying ahead of him until the end.

Without my reading the rule book it seems that the Stewards are making up the rules as they go and, yet again, these rules favour Ferrari. Today’s debacle and Massa’s inconsequential fine for dangerous manoeuvres in the Pit Lane seem hugely inequitable again. We seem to be back again to the times when Schumacher was allowed free rein to behave as he liked in the knowledge that there would, apparently, never be punitive sanctions against Ferrari.

Why should I bother to watch another Grand prix when it’s obvious that racing and being the best driver on the day don’t matter. My time would be better spent continuing the renovation of my Mk2 Spitfire and enjoying driving it around the Donegal roads – at least idiots such as those at Spa cannot turn that into a charade.