This is the time of year when Formula 1 people move from team to team, prior to beginning work with a new employer. There is a fair bit of movement this year, not least because of expected lay-offs later in the year as teams reduce their numbers. Thus there has been quite a flow of people leaving the big old teams and joining the new boys. More will come.
Among the movers this year is one of F1′s best press officers. Italy’s Silvia Hoffer is one her way to McLaren to replace the Mercedes-Benz folk, who are moving to their new team (aka Brawn-as-was). Thus the cheerful Wolfgang Schattling will no longer be found in the recesses of the McLaren motorhome. Schattling is one of the great F1 enthusiasts and a man I like enormously. When he was a kid he cycled to the Nurburgring on a regular basis and watched races that suggest that he might be slightly older than perhaps he appears. He started out as a school teacher but his love for the sport led him to write to an English magazine and ask it they would like someone to cover German races for them. The bloke on the desk in London thought this was a terrific idea and so Wolfie’s career was launched.
The Formula 1 PR people have long been the most interesting when it comes to career paths and years ago in Japan I used to have a regular monthly column telling their stories. It was really fascinating. Some came from the Land of Mickey, some from Vogue, there was one from British Railways. Others started out making sandwiches, some were racers who never had the cash to do the job properly, there were academics, actresses, people from the film world, there were professional sportsmen (and women) from sports unrelated to F1, there were even people who had served in US administrations. The sole qualification back in those days was to be presentable, charming if possible, and to be able to speak in a number of different languages.
Anyway of all of them my favourite story was Silvia’s which began in Bolzano, in the very north of Italy, so far north in fact that they speak German there, because it was once part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. She grew up speaking German and Italian, she learned English at school and then had a French boyfriend for a while a learned French as well. Having studied classics she had knowledge of Latin and Greek as well, which always helps with languages. What interested her, however, was architecture and this fascination led to her winning a place at the Politecnico in Milan, which is one of the most famous architectural and design schools in Europe. She emerged qualified to design and build houses and factories… At this point she met a neighbour called Romano Artioli, who had just bought the rights to the Bugatti name and he asked her to design a line of luxury merchandise for the Bugatti car company, which he was trying to revive. She became the corporate image manager of the new firm but after it ran into troubles she applied for a job with the Ducati motorcycle company, and found herself drifting into motorsport. That led to a job with Minardi before she was hired to join Williams, which needed a German speaker in 2000 for its new relationship with BMW. She has been there ever since, but McLaren has now made her an offer that she could not refuse…
Maybe I should revive the old PR column and see if the modern generations are as interesting as they were 10 years ago (and more).
Nice column.
Joe,
I’m a PR professional and would love to get into F1 – have you any advice for me as to how I could go about this?
An enlightening and insightful piece. As you know I worked with the impressively efficient Silvia during my time at Willy’s. She’s one of the paddock’s great (unsung) heroes and very deserving of media praise and commendation. Nice one Joe,
Nav
I hope by ‘land of mickey’ you meant anything but the good old US of A. Cause if that’s what you meant, I’m insulted.
You could have said Patton, Eisenhower, or any of the other Amis who pulled your chestnuts from the fire twice lst century.
You could have said Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti…
You could have said Edison, Ford, Feynmann.
But you said mickey. well done, old chap. Good PR move for some of your audience, I guess.
Bill Johnson,
Look again. It says Mickey with a capital M. That means Disney to me. Not America. I am not insulting Americans.
Yes, please revive the column. That would be awesome.
Heh, why is that (easily-)offended Americans always pull out the “we saved your ass in WW2″ card?
I’ll refrain from further comment so as to not cause any more offense. Wait, no I won’t, maybe the UK can pull out the “yeah but you dragged said arse [for that is the proper spelling] into Iraq for one!” card. And “you dragged the whole world to financial oblivion!” card. Woo USA, USA!
Sorry.
Anyway, it seems any story related to F1 is exciting in these winter months, it helps that you can write such interesting stories.
Good for Silvia I worked with her at Williams she’s one of the best!
Great site Joe keep up the good work!
Why is it, almost without fail, that McLaren poach all of the most interesting and significant people from Williams?
Bill Johnson
Nice to see the Americans are laid back as usual.
If America spent as much effort pulling peoples chestnuts out of the fire, as opposed to chucking them in, more of us would sleep better at night.
I do not wish to get into this sort of thing on a motor racing website.
However, it is worth saying that no sensible academic argues against the following statistics.
Russia lost: 24,000,000 people – about 14.00% of the population
Britain lost: 450,000 people – about 0.94% of the population
America lost: 418,500 people – about 0.32% of the population
Yes please, revive the column!
I am a university student in the UK & F1 PR really appeals to me!
Joe I knew exactly what you were refering to
Disney had alot of talented people working for him.
(including Werner von Braun)
Walt leaned exceedingly to the right!
Joe,
When I saw “Mickey”, my first thought was Disney. But I’m a kid at heart who still wears a Mickey Mouse watch.
There’s so much history in F1 that gets overlooked. I’d love to see more stories about the people behind the scenes of the circus.
Oh Dear, “Mickey”?
I double took on that myself. But i couldn’t arrive at anything which didn’t have two round black ears.
JamesF1 – i’d hazard your disadvantage is actually being “a professional PR”, since PR is in recent memory a function of large companies which never before bothered much with “PR”. They had sales, marketing . . . what became “professional PR” for so many employers is more about learning regulations as to how much you can talk up a stock, or working with liability lawyers because they “roll out the PR” when x, y or z disaster befalls them or their customers. I’d call the role moral cannon fodder today.
I am not saying that’s your field. But that is what seems to be meant by the trade magazines i’ve encountered, and by the numbers of departments i’ve had to avoid contact with.
I think the best hint you can get is already in what Mr Saward has written. Old school PR was probably less “professional”, much more free – flowing, and predominantly socially led. Just re – read the article.
I’m not quite that old, but the hyper specialism and up tightness of a new class of workers who are largely at the peripherals of business money making had not gained their hysterical stifling banshee pitch even as i grew up in my work. It was not that long ago it was – sure this is anecdotal – you could jump from a small outfit to a large company to a private organisation, pretty much any move that didn’t involve screening for a govt. job, with little worry at all. Provided of course *you* made the moves.
I’m sure it’s all still possible. But i get the impression Big Commerce had battoned down their hatches a lot since i cared to kick down a door, and there is a lot too to do with the disconnect of big business, and banking is just a glaring example, from normal people. Which makes for a sterile an dull workplace. If you can remember gawping at the “politically correct” crowd and giggling they had no clue, long before they ruled the social and business airwaves, then you’ll probably have enough vestigial memory to sort out what you should be doing, with a bit of extra effort.
If suggestions are needed, hit the biographies, read everything on the FISA/FOCA “war” and everything you can lap up that’s not hagiography. Surely there’s meat in there as to why F1 needs talented PR?
There’s also a who’s who of F1, for leads and contacts, forget who publishes that. Else look at BRAD or whoever lists the agencies who work for the sponsors, and trace the connexions.
There’s two things i look for in a hire (aside from obvious things like they’re basically fit and hungry) and that’s the ability to sell, and the ability to write. But the rareity of that, plus some modicum of sense and numerical literacy seems rarer and rarer. I blame it on specialisation. I also blame much on the way lower rungs of businesses have made professions out of what used to be simply talent (sales, copy – writing, PR) locking out entry positions which once might have been open to whoever had the guts to ask for the job and look bright enough they could pull it off. I continuously try to be minful of a personal debt i owe to the legacy of freer – wheeling days. Employment law makes that almost impossible in the UK, and i’ve done my stint and won cases at that just to understand what is going on.
Compensating i hope for all the negative, i think the best way to learn PR is to get close to an actual business person. Start with a dubious one, just not quite Flavio. Most businesses are small, and have few interfaces with the real world, and fewer ways to mitigate risk when they are up against it. So owners (which i take usually to mean founders, but am clarifying as the VC game has made so many founders dog meat in secondary financing rounds) tend to not only be very good, a retrospective evaluation, but complex characters who are not unwilling to take into their employ someone who can understand their views and also their quirks and cover them when the red mist descends because yet another nincompoop is taking a shot at their business which they gave most of their adult life for. In a nutshell, suss out who you are dealing with, not how a headhunter sees the position. Probably explains why these jobs get passed along with such wonderful stories. The interesting people don’t go to a headhunter to find their man. So, put yourself out there!
Forgive my jaundice, i’ve been in business on my own (not always, people die) for long enough it hurts. I’ve had my fill of those who say “ill always be there for you mate” but are just a dead weight you carry when it really gets going. I’ve also had my fill of those who are “bad weather friends”, as in they’ll stick with you just until you both do a bit better for yourselves, then bugger off. That’s worse than “fair weather friends” in my book.
I’m sure there’s a good deal of systematised, formulaic career paths into F1 PR or any aspect of it. But i doubt they’re very good. Amazingly, given all we know about what leaks out as to the shenanigans in F1, it is still a sport, and fixing results is still very hard. That fact alone makes it less full of fanny than your average big company, where they fix results a lot more frequently.
Doubt that helped, but it’s a view. Take a fresh look, and use your noodle!
best,
– john
Bill Johnson
Is it Ford as in Billy Bob Ford who didn’t know why he was paying this guy Eddie millions ? Just curious … LOL
Sorry to continue commenting on this topic, and it has nothing to do with your Mickey comment but with responsibility for the losses you cite.
If the gov’ts of England and France had the gumption to stand up to the corporal on many occasions prior to 1939, it is unlikely those losses would have been as extreme.
If the “Big Four” had listened to Wilson and granted a peace treaty in lieu of humiliation to Germany in 1919, the corporal in all likelihood never would have gained power.
And on a racing related note, If the British gov’t had the wisdom to execute the traitor Oswald Mosley we wouldn’t have had to suffer the indignities of thew actions of his offspring.
As an American I don’t expect anyone to continue to thank my country for past performances, but by the same token I find it difficult to sit idly by while others diminish those contributions.
Can’t wait for the F1 season to begin with Herr Schumacher marching on yet another championship!
GeorgeK
Well, I accept all of that, but I think the Russians should be given a lot more credit than the average American gives them. That is all. I should also point out that the UK only finished paying back its wartime loans to the US a year or so ago…
I hope Joe will agree that F1 PR has had its fair share of dragons as well. I could name several but will not in the hope that some and one in particular will no longer be in the paddock. As for Wolfie, he really is a class act. He is the probably the only person I can think of who’ll be able to cope with the inevitable M.S. hysteria.
Joe
Seems more PR employed in F1 than engineers. I guess that explains Toyota’s success in F1. Believed their own PR. What is it about Williams? They always seem to lose their best people to McLaren. When you think about all the people who have been employed there, Ross Brawn, Neil Oatley, Adrian Newey who have found success elsewhere and then there are the driver selections. I know Frank has always taken the view that his drivers are employees – this attitiude goes back to Alan Jones’ sudden decision to retire at the end of 1981 but it seems to permeate into Williams’ relationship with all employees. I’ve been a Williams admirer since 1978 and have been frustrated over the past dozen years I guess with their drop in succes rate – it makes you wonder whether a change in attitude would have brought more success especially when you compare their recent record with McLaren’s.
Tony G
I would argue that Formula 1′s biggest problem in recent years has been not enough PRs rather than too many. No-one is thinking about the sport as a whole and how it should be promoted in competition to other sports and leisure activities. No-one is going after the kids, the teenage audience, the Internet generation. The sport has a bad reputation because of sleazy people and sleazy behaviour. What is really needed is work on this because most F1 people are anything but sleazy…
I love this argument from Americans. It is true that America’s involvement in WW2 changed its direction. Of course their argument would carry more weight if they had decided to get involved rather than sit on their hands until they were bombed into it.
Had America found some moral fibre at the start of the war a lot of people on all sides would not have been killed.
@Bill Johnson and GeorgeK
You guys are living in the past, another century. In the current one, as mentioned here by another poster, your country has created nothing but hatred, violence, and financial disasters.
But don’t worry, no one will know when your country’s name becomes Western China.
Disney has one of the finest PR departments in the world and regularly beats my outfit and trade magazine in the Magnum Opus and PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) contests. Every year, we would get silver and they would score gold or platinium… grrr. To beat them is my white whale.
From my point of view, it isn’t insulting at all. To work in Disney’s PR department is to be one of the best PR people in the world.
So please, can we all calm down. I hate to be the Rodney King of the Joe Saward Blog but “Can we all just get along.”
I for one would be facinated at the modern F1 PR grid. With publications cutting back and the advent of new media technologies, it might be interesting to see how it all has changed. How are different reporters and publications in F1 addressed new technologies.
I wonder if the old adage is true. That “Old reporters never die… they just become PR representatives.”
Joe,
I took your meaning EXACTLY as you meant it. You offended me. If that’s how you think of America, thanks for letting me know.
I guess you’re from the land of Benny Hill.
“for sure”
And what has your country done lately? Are you , for example, in Haiti yet? What did you do in the asian tsunami?
Keep tossing rocks, guys.
F1 Kitteh,
No, that’s Ford as in:
If I can’t buy Ferrari, I’ll just wipe the LeMans track with them. Later generation, but hey, ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.
Ford as in: the brits are still banging out car fenders on english wheels, and assembling ash-framed cars one at a time. Now I like me some rollers and moggies, but it’s not like they’re mass-produced so the proles can afford them…
I’d really like to read your revived PR column.
All of you, especially those of you that think America won WWII, you need to review your history. It was a joint effort, with all the Allies + Russia. Yes, thats right. Your adversaries for the last 50 years, they made it happen.
Plus some incompetence from Hitler, not his generals.
If Hitler had let his Generals do Hitlers bidding Hitler would have been successful, I am sad to say. And I (and probably most of you would not be alive today) quite simply because I would not have been born.
A few things:
Up until about 1941 Hitler let his Generals do what they wanted to match his goals. The success was phenomenal.
After Hitler started intervening in tactical and strategic decisions rather than setting the direction and tone, he was less successful.
Around about the time Hitler wanted to attack Russia he diverted a crucial division to suppress an uprising in Greece. This delayed the Russia invasion by 6 weeks. Those 6 weeks meant that he did not take Moscow. That was a key failing.
Even during the Russian campaign, Hitler’s armies arrived close to Moscow then diverted south to take out various targets in Ukraine and then back up north to within 5 miles of Moscow. Then time lost in doing this allowed the Russian winter to close in and Hitler’s troops were not preprared. If they had taken Moscow that would have been OK, but they hadn’t and they were crushed.
After that it was a losing proposition for Hitler and a great deal of Hitler’s weakness was created in the losses on the Russian front.
That combined with UK and US bombing raids and the D-Day invasion helped to win the war. The sacrifices made by Russian men and women have never been properly understood or acknowledged. Without them we could not have beaten Hitlers regime so quickly. Perhaps without them, D-Day would not have been a success? Perhaps it would be still born.
Now before any of you call me a communist sympathiser, understand this: I despise communistm and fascim. I run a software company, other in other words, a capitalist enterprise.
If you think my understanding of WWII is wrong, may I suggest you invest sufficient time (because you WILL need it) reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William L. Shirer. He had unprecedented access to many Reich documents before they were locked away.
The book (at least my copy) is in small type and thus a hard read. Fascinating reading as you can see Hitlers interference being his undoing.
Yes, the USA were important. So were the Canadians, the Australians and people from all over. And the Russians, which no one ever gives credit to. Hell they designed the T54, the only tank that could take a hit from a Tiger tank and survive.
Oh, and the Mickey comment… how could you not interpret that as a reference to the mighty mouse?
Now, back to your usual Joe Saward channel.
GeorgeK,
just to inject a bit of perspective into the argument – much as I’ve would have like to have held Chamberlain and his mob to account for the appeasement policies that led to the corporal’s subsequent actions, we do have to look at things from the point of view of the people making the decisions at the time.
The fact is that, during WWI, the people doing all the dying in the unimaginable slaughter of the trenches of Verdun, The Somme and Ypres, to name but a few, were Brits and French. Very very few Amis.
Granted, the US was pivotal in bringing the war to an end, in that the fear of the massive influx of the Doughboys (not a derogatory term, by the way) caused the Germans to embark in the Kaiserschlacht of 1918, a war of movement, which finally put the allies in a position to also fight a war of movement and push Germany back to her borders and ultimately cause Germany to sue for peace. With the greatest respect, the Amis played very little part in WWI in comparison to the main protagonists. I’ve left out masses of detail, but this is a blog after all, and there’s plenty more where that came from if you’re interested.
Getting back to the point, what existed in 1918/1919 was a scenario where Britain, France and -not least- Belgium, had suffered massively from a war that they didn’t start and wanted reparations/ revenge for – sorry to use that word again – the slaughter. Not forgetting the enormous financial cost it took to prosecute the war to its final conclusion.
History proves that the course of action they took was the wrong one, and Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points could have arguably prevented the corporal’s rise. But you had to be there, and the US frankly hadn’t been, so hadn’t undergone the amount of suffering that could turn a people’s mind from a logical peaceable way forward to a desire to inflict at least a measure of suffering on the architects of the destruction that took place on the battlefields.
So. There we are in 1938. The politicians on the British and French side can perhaps be rightfully be accused of appeasement, but we have to remember that they vividly remembered WWI. The maimed and mangled victims of that conflict were still on the streets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Paris and Brussels. They desperately did not want to go into that all again and desperately tried to avoid another war. Not a lot of gumption from the other side of the Atlantic at the time either. The corporal mistook that as a sign of weakness and history took its course. It is arguable that, if they had taken a harder line, things would be different, but the reality of the German preparations for WWII largely give a lie to this. They’d been preparing for this for a long time, had been spoiling for a fight and, when hostilities broke out, were a better trained, equipped and – most crucially – better led fighting force than any other comabatant nation at the time, and would be for a good few years afterwards.
The extreme losses that were suffered by all sides were, in my humble opinion, inevitable, irrespective of the actions of the weak at the ‘Big Four’.
Now I do wish to put my cards on the table here, before things get out of hand. I love the US, I think it’s a wonderful country. I have enormous respect for its people, am priviliged to count a number of Americans as my closest friends and absolutely love visiting and travelling around the country. The US did pull our chestnuts out of the fire and, without the US, there is no doubt that our world would have been a much bleaker place today.
However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that, unless Pearl Harbor had happened, there is every chance that Lindbergh, Joe Kennedy and their revolting cabals would have quite cheerfully carried on with their America First mantras and left the rest of the world under the Nazi jackboot, and the world would definitely have been a nastier place than the one we live in today.
Anyway. As a parting gesture, I do genuinely have enormous affection and respect for our Ami friends, always will have, and look forward with huge anticipation to the day the FIA pulls its thumb out of its backside and grants a race to a country with a proper racing history – such as the Good Ol’ USA, for instance – as opposed to some totalitatian regime with a shedload of cash to spend on vast follies with empty grandstands. The moment there’s a chance of a US GP taking place, I’ll be poised over the phone, credit card in hand, and I’ll be pleased to buy both Bill J and GeorgeK a beer at the venue
As a postscript, George, the Mosley comment was a tad cruel – but I see where you’re coming from and I happen to totally agree.
Joe, I fully understand if you look at the above windbaggery and decide to delete it all, as hardly any of it has to do with the sport we all love. Hope you had some fun with it anyway and very much hope to see you at a Sidepodcast gig in the UK soon.
Cheers
Following on from reading what “John” writes above, I reckon this is your next book idea Joe. Everyone who’s worked in F1 PR over the past 25 years has a unique story (I’ve had some of the juiciest ones told to me personally!), someone just has to collect them up.
I worked with the delightful Ms. Frangipane, as she was then, when I was an engine engineer supporting Minardi in 1998. I became her official English checker. That she took the effort to make sure here English was correct (and it usually was perfect) before publishing her press releases every day at the track was a typical example of her attention to detail and efforts to make sure she did the best job possible.
I still have the Minardi watch she gave me when I left to come to America.
Re Joe’s most recent comment–
Inclined to agree. Whatever one’s position is on the Max and Bernie show on other grounds, it seems to me indisputable that they have been bad for the sport in terms of the stewardship of its image and public perception.
Bernie’s idea of promoting the sport seems to be limited to making a few crackpot comments every January to spark the interest of a few reporters, and then spending the rest of the season wringing huge fees from promoters, writing cheques to CVC, and palling around with Flav. Max at least took steps that he thought were necessary to ensure the health of the sport, but the casual fan does not get excited about whether wheel fairings are banned to save a few thousand pounds.
And meanwhile, we get no HD broadcasts, a paltry internet presence, empty grandstands at most of the “new” races, no French GP, no US GP, very nearly no British GP or Canadian GP, and the withered corpse of the Donington circuit as the cherry on top. And by the same token, for the teenage boys with a PS3 controller in their hands who don’t give a toss about whether Donington exists or not, little to no FOM-or FIA-driven gaming, interactive features, podcasts, etc etc.
Actual fan interest in the sport seems to be driven entirely by the teams (a la the Renault roadshows or, on a more rarefied level, the Williams customer days) or public interest in the drivers — nothing from the governing body.
Joe,
Thanks for the loan repayment insight, like most of my countrymen I suffer from the illusion that most war loans were never repaid by the allies.
Hi Joe,
For me, a column on the PR people, or indeed any personalities in F1, would fit well. Your colour pieces are always interesting reading and I doubt that column would be different.
Would you broaden it to encompass engineers, catering people, etc? Some of them may have interesting backgrounds also.
GeorgeK,
just like in F1… what if Massa hadn’t stuffed up his Singapore pit-stop in 2008, he would’ve scored some points in that race and been perhaps World Champion, what if Kimi’s car was more reliable during his McLaren times…
The point is… it didn’t happen that way.
Joe, this is an unrelated comment, but I just read your review of the Singapore GP 2008, and was wondering if you will be doing a similar review of each race in 2010 now that you no longer write for Grand Prix.com?
Hope so, because they give you all the information you need and are well written.
The big laugh is that it is probably the Mickey Land team near Paris that is their best source of multilingual PA’s with European and international contacts, er that’s Paris Yurrup not Paris Alabama or the Bronx or somewhere.
It would be interesting to see an article on the various nationalities in the UK based teams. I would expect that most of them would have people from at least 7 different countries.
The PA’s can research that for you.
Hopefully Rubens will get decent treatment from the top brass and give the Team Willy boys a good year. Time it happened and no good reason why not. Top four looks tight though.
Please revive the column. I work as a PR in Brazil (in fact, I’m part of Lucas Di Grassi’s PR staff), and these stories are fascinating.
Sometimes I wonder if I wasn’t born at the wrong place. To work in F1 is much easier for european people. I know few people – besides drivers and journalists (not PRs) – working full-time in the F1 paddock. There’s an engineer at Force India, and there was a Brazilian girl doing Toyota’s PR some years ago. Altough, I’d never heard of her again.
Cheers,
CLEBER BERNUCI.
Bloody hell how interesting lifes can possibly be… Good luck to Silvia.
Hey Joe,
You need to start another blog so those of us interested in historical debates can carry on!
Every point made by all has some factual basis and they are all interesting, if you would indulge me one response it would be appreciated.
@ Stephen Kellett.
Your observations re: Adolph’s meddling are spot on, but I would suggest that it was America’s industrial might that helped crush the Axis.
While the Tiger tank was superior in many ways the Germans could only make around 1500. In contrast, the Sherman (called Ronson’s by the Brits for their tendency to burn) was limited, but it was fast and we made 50,000 of them. The same production rates of aircraft, ships, artillery, etc, outfitted most of the ally armies. It wasn’t called the arsenal of democracy for nothing. And the Germans could not mass produce enough new weapons systems to keep up, in spite of the V2 and Me262 jet.
The sacrifices of all nation’s treasure of blood and youth can never be minimized. All countries paid dearly.
Regarding the Russians, Stalin murdered more of his own people then WW2 did, and before you get too thankful for their turning of the tide in the east, remember their partitioning of Poland in concert with Hitler and their invasion of Finland, not to mention their grab of Manchuria at war’s end.
Regarding the Russian losses in combat, that was more attributed to tactics than anything else; keep sending in men until the enemy is worn down or out of ammunition. Whereas Monty and Macarthur were noted for their tactical planning to not waste lives needlessly. We would not have tolerated it
Regarding the best tank of the war, the T34, it was designed around running gear invented by an American, Christie, who sold it to the Russians when no one else was interested.
These discussions are better held face to face over a pint or two; my apologies for rambling on.
Bill Johnson
“If I can’t buy Ferrari, I’ll just wipe the LeMans track with them. Later generation, but hey, ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.”
If we are talking about the GT40, I suggest you might do some research into the history of this vehicle ie where designed & built!
[...] Movement… This is the time of year when Formula 1 people move from team to team, prior to beginning work with a new employer. [...] [...]
Bill Johnson, a few more rocks for you. There’s an infinite number of reasons why much of the world, the West included, loathe and fear America, but out of respect for Joe and his excellent site, I will not waste time and space trying to list them here.
As for Haiti, I hear you have done an excellent job in seizing the airport (aid is now being routed overland from the Dom. Rep. as a consequence), landed thousands of stormtroopers and countless tons of armaments. No sign of any aid being distributed but I guess there will be time for that after the search for oil and WMD’s is concluded. George Bush was heard to say he was glad Obama had finally got his act together and joined the war on terror.
Good to talk to you Bill, you will of course want the last word, have a nice day.
I think the relative national contributions to WW2 can be summed up by saying that Russia beat Germany, while the US ensured that Russia was then held to a score-draw on aggregate…
Surely you are not suggesting that the car was based on an AC and was designed and built in Britain and won Le Mans the first time with two drivers from New Zealand. That does not fit in with Bill Johnson’s cliched version of history.
I think this Bill Johnson guy is goofy.
Feel bound to comment briefly on the WWII references.
Talking with my Mom this morning, who was born ’31. The generational memories are nearly lost. All we have are books. My other immediate family were born ’00 and ’07. Figure that out. One of those was intimate in Allied war planning.
It’s not that hard to look back at the delusions of the hopefuls following the Crimea or Boer or 1st World War. Present states of war are very localised. Unfortunately – i believe – the USA is a focal point for much ill defined aggreivement at present, and is far from deserving of that. Equally, many nations fought tyrannical hegomony, and with the political abdication of the European nations from even an attempt at real moral stance, the focus has united upon the USA as if they are the hegomenical pariah. There is to my mind a lot of tortured reminiscnence in US policy, that harks to it’s naissance in world politics, barely a generation ago. No other country had their act together as the US did, post WWII, in terms of prosetylysing simple, understandable, values. So, i believe this, now vestigial memory, has been skewed.
In an ideal world, perspectives would be debated.
Apparently we can’t even talk about racing some bloody cars without getting all het up and talking eachother down.
For those visiting to whom this sounds terribly preachy, the common propoganda of all war-like movements: the “ominpresesent threat” is just a play on human character. Some unfortunately are mislead into violence based on (post facto justifications of) human nature.
Rise above.
best to all,
– john
@ Leo Sawyer:
I’m a real “john” I swear it! Not the Canonical “john”, of course
At least, i’ve not found anyone profiting from impersonating ME . .
Random Q: ever deal with Nick of Tadpole Music?
probaby off, so best regards,
“one of the real johns”
– john
@ Leo Sayer – sorry for typo on your name
Yup, Silvia will be impossible to replace, especially given her linguistic capabilities, I blame her departure on having a crap boss. I’m tempted to comment about the migration of talent from Williams to McLaren, but I’ll keep quiet….in case I get an offer one day. Good luck, Silvia