The French have a lovely expression for traffic jams that keep starting and stopping. The cars, they say, are “en accordéon” and anyone who travelled down the Rhone Valley this summer on the celebrated A6 – the Autoroute du Soleil – on what they call a red or black day will understand the concept. Be it a beautiful chateau, a cell phone call, an argument with a fellow passenger or an accident to gawp at, drivers rarely maintain the same pace. When they slow for no real reason, cars behind them are affected. Just as in molecular gas flows, all the particles behind back up and have to slow down. These compression waves propagate and you end up with a series of concertinaing stop-start traffic jams of Dantesque proportions, and while the accordion tag is rather quaint, you end up with a “vie” that is anything but “en rose”.
One day when the digital revolution has rolled a little further down the road, we will have vehicles that are capable of happily speeding along at a steady 200km/h two cars lengths from the car in front. The computers will do the work as we will sit there and merrily drink gin & tonics and play cards until we arrive at our bougainvillea-encrusted destinations.
I would agree with those who say that this is not driving, but it is better than spending 13 hours “en accordéon” as tens of thousands of holidaymakers head for the Mediterranean. It makes no difference whether you have a Ferrari, a Porsche or even a McLaren. We saw them all in the jams.
It is delightful to take to the Routes Nationales and escape all this, but the journey time as a result rises, even though the mental damage is reduced as one can enjoy France in all its glory, rather than just staring at the back ends of other cars. On our return trip we were already fed up with the jams by the time we reached Montélimar (600 kilometres from Paris!) and so took off along the regular roads in the Rhône Valley and then climbed up and over the Monts du Vivarais and, skirting St-Etienne, descended to the Plaine du Forez and motored on through the hot afternoon to Moulins, Nevers, Sancerre and eventually Paris. This took us past Magny-Cours where I had a nostalgic moment and hoped that one day we will get a French Grand Prix once again.
I tried to avoid motor racing during the break, but the sport has a way of invading one’s life. We did go to Monte Carlo one day. It was packed. Everyone seemed to have a Bentley. We saw a Bugatti Veyron parked outside the Hermitage and had a look at the Prince’s Car Collection, which Prince Albert is in the process of restructuring, selling off some of his Dad’s favourites because he wants to buy other models. Hopefully he will buy some more racing cars. The collection has a Ferrari, a leftover Ligier and an incongruous Jordan. The only other racer is a Bugatti Type 35, which was raced by Marcel Lehoux in the very first Monaco Grand Prix, back in 1929. If I were the Prince and had money to spend I think I would invest in buying the winning Bugatti from that event – a car with historical importance to the Principality. It was driven by “Williams” – an Englishman called Willy Grover – and it is no small irony that this car is today owned by a German industrialist. Grover, who raced that day with the car painted British Racing Green, was executed as a spy in Sachsenhausen in 1945.
A few days later motor racing invaded my peace and quiet again when I stumbled on the fact that one of the most Ezeques (the inhabitants of the village of Eze) was none other than Pierre Veyron, the little-known French driver after whom the modern Bugatti is named. As a youngster he became the chauffeur for the American composer Samuel Barlow, who had bought the local chateau, a spectacular place if you vere get the chance to visit. Barlow had several large cars and so built a garage for them in the village (the building has now been converted into two restaurants). This served as the workshops for the Bugatti racing team for the Monaco race in 1929…
Later Veyron would join the company as a test and development driver and in 1939 won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Jean-Pierre Wimille.
In terms of racing news, there was little in the world of F1. Patrick Ricard, the man who turned the Ricard business into a global empire, including the Paul Ricard racing circuit and sponsorship of various F1 teams, died. The politicians of France drove companies like Ricard out of racing with laws that did serious damage to the sport but one can hope that the new generation understand the values that sporting success can bring to a nation.
In recent years Britain has invested heavily in Olympic sports, although precious little public money has found its way into motorsport. The results of that investment were seen during the Olympic Games when Britain collected 65 medals, 29 of them gold. France, which has the same population as the UK, netted just 34, 11 of them gold.
There were reports in France that Mercedes is considering a partial withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of next year and might field only a “semi-official” team in 2014, perhps changing the team name to AMG. One never knows how corporate people will respond to such things as the Gribkowsky scandal, the Concorde Agreement negotiations and the team’s lack of regular victories, but it would seem to be a major defeat if the German firm were to pull back at a time when there is the opportunity to make an even bigger impact.
Elsewhere the US automotive giant General Motors (GM) has announced a major new sponsorship, which should serve to wake Formula 1 up to the fact that it may not be doing everything right. GM is looking to turn Chevrolet into a global player. With new engines coming into F1 in 2014, it should have been an obvious decision to use the sport to do this, but GM has chosen to pay Manchester United $220 million over six years as its shirt sponsor from 2015. The decision is illogical in that the US car company might use the sport not only to spread word about Chevrolet, but also to help it develop energy-saving technology. Football shirts may be cheaper than F1, but they have no value explaining what a company can do. It is interesting to note that GM’s head of marketing was dumped last week, with rumours suggesting that this was linked to the fact that the Manchester United deal will not include the word Chevrolet on the shirts.
It is so much easier to fit a long word on the side of a car…
Still Man U’s current short sponsor Aon will now be looking for something else to do and those who know the giant US insurance company also know that its vice-chairman is a bloke called Grahame Chilton, who has two Aon-funded sons racing: Tom in the British Touring Car Championship and Max in GP2. The latter recently did his first F1 tests with Marussia, as he is a part of the Marussia Carlin GP2 Team. Carlin, it should be remembered is owned by Grahame Chilton, and there have been suggestions for some time that he might one day invest in the F1 team. Maybe Aon will now turn to F1.
Missed you Joe! Very jealous of your well deserved break.
Regarding Aon, they already sponsor Mclaren. I didn’t knwow the Chilton’s owned Carlin.
Small correction, Tom Chilton races in the World Touring Car Championship, Arena Ford, supported by Aon.
Max Chilton did not ,ale his F1 test debut recently with Marussia. He drove with Force India in Abu Dhabi in 2011. Attention to detail please!
Joe, you’ve missed out the strangest event of all this summer – Chevrolet also signed a similar sponsorship deal with Liverpool FC, MUFC’s fiercest rivals…
The deals were for different territories though, weren’t they?
A lovely piece, Joe. I didn’t know Tom and Max Chiltons’ background although no-one races in BTCC now without some kind of financial assistance
Hi Joe – welcome back from your holiday!
Quick correction – Tom Chilton is (currently) racing in the World Touring Car Championship, not the BTCC (although he was there for many years)
How nice to have your missives back again…
Do you mean Chevrolet will be on the match shirts but not training kit (like AON currently have match shirts whilst DHL sponsor training kit).
Just sometimes Jo you can be a little too F1centric. It is certainly true that the new engine situation could provide a neat way in for a motor industry player. However that also almost inevitably means an open ended blank cheque commitment without any guarantees of success. With a comparatively simple shirt sponsorship deal GM pays their money and knows exactly what it will be getting for the duration of the contract – in this case quantifiable global exposure to a much broader demographic than F1 fans and viewers would provide. And no Bernie to let them in on the secret that their contract doesn’t allow them to sell merchandise/advertise at the circuit/ have any tickets or hospitality etc until they pay yet more money…
Sorry about the missing “e” Joe! Merely a tryping errot!
fascinating, good to see you back
Welcome back Joe. Quick question about Tom Cotter allegedly resigning from the New Jersey GP board. Any further news, confirmation, reason? What does this mean for F1 in Jersey?
As far as I understand G Chilton has recently bought out the shareholding in Marussia which LDC previously owned and have been looking to dump for over a year. Step upscale Chilton in place of Pic in 2013.
Step up Max Chilton. iPhone auto-correct gone nuts!
This is not true. Your source is not correct.
And why exactly should we trust what you are saying? I’m not saying you’re wrong but what is your evidence or pedigree (if you have any)?
Joe, I think I need to make the clarification that I was not referring to you in my previous message but to the F1fan1998
At least Chilton’s not making any more television appearances. The sooner we all forget about Take Me Out the better…
GM sponsoring Manchester United makes sense as they generally seem to go for football sponsorship; Vauxhall is one of the major sponsors of the England football team.
GM’s sponsorship makes as much sense to me as Sauber and Chelsea.
And I still haven’t got it.
Joe, do you think Chevy’s reluctance to look at F1 is a result of them committing (and doing very well in) IndyCar this season?
Does anyone pay any attention to IndyCar racing?
Actually, Joe, people do pay attention to IndyCar racing. 6.8 million of them bothered to watch the 500 this year (more than the numbers for Monaco this year). And the answer to JBD’s question is, no. The IndyCar program is far less expensive than an F1 program would be.
Yes, the Indy 500 had some viewers, but look at the average race and be a little more realistic.
TV ratings for IndyCars fluctuate, as do those of F1. The Iowa race was delayed by rain for several hours; other races (Milkwaukee is a good example) had good ratings and showed improvement over last year. It’s apples and oranges to compare an international FIA series to a domestic series. The figures for UK viewership of the Monaco race were comparable to those of the Indy 500 this year.
More pointedly, how often do you attend IndyCar races in the United States, Joe? I’m often surprised at how quickly people in the UK will come down on the IndyCar Series when so few have attended a race lately. It is by no means a perfect series, but it is hardly disappearing into irrelevance.
Clearly you do not live in the F1 world. IndyCar is seen these days as being completely irrelevant. It is a place where out of F1 drivers and those who never quite made it end up. That may be harsh, but that is the reality.
No, I do not live in the F1 world. I live in the US, where F1 has failed to enter the sporting public’s consciousness despite repeated attempts at gaining traction here. Maybe the fact that its leadership lives in the “F1 world” is one reason why F1 hasn’t succeeded here. I don’t know; I’m just a commenter making ‘stupid’ arguments.
touché.
True enough, sad though it may be… but this is not so much a reflection on the racing as it is on the absolutely terrible TV arrangement: most IndyCar races are on an obscure channel most people don’t know about… it’s the legacy of Tony George’s not-so-clever scheme to destroy American open-wheel racing…
…and less than 200,000 watched the Iowa race.
And 1.4 million watched Milwaukee the following week, a 20% increase over 2011. Fewer people in Britain watched the Australian Grand Prix live this year. Does that mean F1 is no longer relevant?
Stupid argument. It was only in Britain and only in the middle of the night. Great news that IndyCar could match that.
Without being quite as blunt as our host, even if you consider Britain to be F1′s “home” territory, a like-for-like comparison with IndyCar has to be weighted for population.
IndyCar needs viewing figures around 5x that of F1 to be on the same level.
more than 6.8 million people watched the Monaco GP, nearly that many in the UK alone
I think a couple of viewers here should be comparing apples with apples, not something else.
Joe
I am now forced to pay attention to IndyCar because my wife is a big Rubens Barrichello fan (we’re the couple from Chicago who attended your Montreal programs and sat in the front row the last three years). It’s really not too bad, although the semi-enclosed rear wheels do look weird, and there is a very wide spectrum of driver talent/non-talent. We hope to see you in Montreal next year; we already have our tickets for the race.
Best wishes,
Jeffrey Simon & Marilyn Nance
Seems that way looking at the figures, which is shame. But, F1 has been going the same way this year (in the UK in any case) due, perhaps, the BBC/Sky split. Will the audience naturally diminish if the BBC don’t renew their contract?
Also, am I the only one to think that the summer holidays for F1 are too long? I realise the track personnel need a break but out of sight, out of mind?
It’s emblematic of F1′s core problem: F1 is arranged for those on the inside, not for those on the outside (a.k.a. fans).
Race attendance falling in Europe? Well, then, let’s have two or three Euro-races in August when everyone in Europe has more time. No, we can’t do that, our own holiday must come first!
In what parallel universe does it make sense to get everyone focused on the sport, get past the early days of sorting out who’s really serious and who isn’t, get into the thick of intense competition… and then just stop for a month? It’s completely nuts…
Quite. Millions of people work during the summer, or have to. There’s no overview sometimes in this sport.
I’m going to politely disagree on the grounds that F1 staff, media and even fans can all go on a proper family holiday like real people. And good for them/us.
Plenty of other professional European sports have the summer holidays off (football, rugby, etc) and some even take a mid-season winter break.
Jem, the difference is that football plays for 10 months of the year, F1 8 months (and then only every two weeks). Without appearing ‘scrooge like’ there’s plenty of time for hols, it just needs a redistribution. I can’t imagine F1 team personnel are so low paid they can’t holiday off-season with the kids.
Do you remember the Tasman Series of the 60/70′s which filled-in the (our) winter period? I know what people will say, there were fewer races then, but that is another subject.
While I’m ranting, look at TV during the summer break – everyone, but everyone, seems to be on long extended breaks (with French TV sometimes that’s a good thing it must be said – I’m thinking of Télématin Joe by the way). It’s not as if the presenters and programme teams don’t take holidays the rest of the year!
The difference is, footballers generally aren’t putting in much more than 6 or 7 hours a day, whereas F1 (like a lot of high-powered white collar industries) is a workaholic arms race.
Plenty of sources will paint you a picture of 18 hour working days 6 or 7 days a week. It looks more like the norm than the exception. And then there’s things like the travelling, ruining your circadian rhythm, all that jazz.
Surely you’re aware that the F1 off-season coincides with only two weeks (the Christmas break) of school holiday – the February half-term is in full-on development and testing time so that’s out and the season now covers the October half term. Makes for pretty tight restrictions on going somewhere with the kids.
Lest we forget, the F1 crowd aren’t being paid “top dollar”. Sure, some of them are, Newey is probably the best paid engineer in the world, but the rank and file, the pit crew, they’re not exactly earning villa-in-the-Caribbean-over-Christmas money.
I can’t say I do remember the Tasman Series, it being well before my birth. Switching F1 to a winter series is an interesting option and one which could be considered and would make less of an issue of the need for a break (as the off-season would coincide with school holidays and prime wedding dates).
As for the F1 media, yeah, I suppose for a lot of them (especially the TV lot who aren’t as invested) they can just go on holiday mid-season or whenever. If there’s no race next weekend then Humphrey and co can take the family for a week. You know, assuming they don’t have kids in school, or partners with restricted schedules (teachers, doctors, nurses, etc).
We’re probably not going to agree on this, that’s fine and why we participate on this blog.
We can’t include the ‘players’ or drivers in this argument in any case. They have both completely different regimes in terms of training (although I’m tempted to believe F1 drivers work harder I’m also sure that people ‘in the know’ would convince me otherwise), commitments and pay scales.
That leaves the ‘workers’ shall we say. You mention teaching (but don’t get me started on that one) and F1 is a little like that isn’t it? A vocation. They want to be there, it’s their way of life – if they don’t like it I’m sure could change. I ran my own business and like many others in that situation ended up working 24/7. It’s a choice.
I disagree that F1 personnel don’t earn top dollar. In any case you must differentiate between factory staff (at all levels and skills) and race crews – not forgetting race crews work back in the factory at some point and some personnel in the factory will work weekends, race weekends or not.
I hasten to add that I was quite young during the Tasman Series period! But Joe S may remember reading about it, like me, in Autosport.
This reminds me that while watching the 24 hours of Le Mans, the French TV crew takes a break after midnight and comes back in the morning, hehehe. Really? It is an event that is held only once a year, it is call the 24 hours and they can’t get a crew to work the 24hours in shifts??? SpeedTV had to rely on CCTV that is around the track to offer video of the cars, amazing.
@Steve: I’m sure most of us share your view, but not me this season.
The TdF, followed by the London Olympics upstaged F1 by miles, so they got it right by sitting backstage for the duration.
I also think there are too many GPs/season, giving little opportunity to savour them, and the possible scenarios.
I made the same complaint in the 80s about first class Cricket, and was quickly rebuffed by Brian Close, “Nay Lad, we’ve got to pay t’wages!”
Cricket has been ruined, like Pro Tennis.
I favour a return to just the classic GPs, say a dozen a season, with 2 or 3 guest slots for the “exotic” new locations.
Point taken about the Olympics, this year, but I’m in two minds about the number of races, although it would appear a couple only serve to bump up the anti for CVC and tarnish the ‘product’. Quality rather than quantity, I take your point.
There must have been a way for F1 to profit from the Olympics ‘effect’ – next race September, people move on.
Here’s an idea…
Cars have very inefficent rubber tyres which waste lots of energy. When the computer controlled cars are speeding along at 200kph metres from each other, we should put them on more efficient wheels, maybe made of metal, and running on metal bars laid in the road.
Cars also have inefficent internal combustion engines and the current crop of electric vehicles are hopeless for the long run down to the sun, but if we pipe some electricity into these metal bars, it could charge the cars as they drive and we could lose the internal combustion engine completely.
Now all we need for this is a new name. How about “train”?
Heh, I thought much the same…
Oh and welcome back Joe, we’ve missed you
Joe,
How ironic would it be if Mercedes took the hump and renamed AMG, just in time for the team to come good and win the World Championship again, repeating the same feat achieved by Honda?
With the surfeit of technical directors, that has to be a possibility. They must all be working on something or some will be cut loose soon without the big bucks to keep them all in place!
good to have you back Joe!
Well from a purely selfish point of view I hope Aon do not go into F1 sponsorship too heavily. I prefer them as a nice solid reliable financial institution, like a bank, oh whoops! Not like a bank, no, something with integrity, since they happen to pay my Philips pension and long may they remain solid and nondescript.
Yes we BTCC fans remember Tom well, of course we don’t see him now he has moved on to WTC. (I believe there is a 5 minute WTC news spot at 3.30 am on Channel 4 but who is is going to be up for that?) I suppose it’s on sky. When it was on tv here way back, it never had the excitement of the BTCC for me.
What of this announcement that Tom Cotter has left the GP of Americas? Seems like they’re not saying why but considering he was President it seems significant?
I don’t think it is that significant. Humpy Wheeler is still there and he’s the man.
Good! I hope it all comes through. the prospect of a race here in the City is to much of a tease!
Joe
“The politicians of France drove companies like Ricard out of racing with laws that did serious damage to the sport …”
Can you add some detail to this please?
Martin
Loi Evin
N°91-32, which was passed in January 1991. It banned tobacco and alcohol sponsorship in sport.
It is named after Claude Evin, the Health Minister who proposed it.
Re: Chevrolet :
It’s easier to sponsor a winning team (okay, a top-end team) than it is to ensure that your engines are capable of winning, as various companies can tell you (most notably Ford when they were involved as owners of Cosworth a few years back)
Re: Mercedes :
It always surprised me that they didn’t simply call the team “AMG” rather than “Mercedes AMG” when they decided to ‘push’ the brand a little while ago. It would still have turned up as “AMG Mercedes” on the official listings whereas at the moment no-one actually bothers to say “Mercedes AMG” when they mention the team.
I remember now that this whole Mercedes issue was mentioned by the French commentary for Hungary – something about an AGM or similar big annual meeting at Merc which could decide the fate of the team. Meant to ask, but totally forgot. One assumes given your vagueness on the subject Joe that nothing is confirmed as yet?
P.S. Chevrolet is apparently just “car sponsor” at Liverpool, which basically means nothing at all – a bit like being energy drinks partner at McLaren or something. I presume they’ll get minor billboard stuff and maybe provide new embroidered seats in the dugout.
They are car sponsor at Man Utd as of July (taking over from Audi if I recall correctly) and shirt sponsor from 2014/15 onwards.
It should also be noted in the wider context of GM using football sponsorship in the UK and worldwide market – Vauxhall (Opel to all you Europeans) are shirt sponsor for the England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland international football sides.
I think you will find it is the shirt sponsor.
No they’re not. Standard Chartered are the shirt sponsor.
United’s shirt sponsor.
up until the 15/16 season after which it will become Chevrolet
This is getting confusing.
Liverpool’s current shirt sponsor is Standard Chartered. As far as I can see (with the power of Google), this ends at the end of the 2013/2014 season and there is no future deal in place.
Liverpool’s current “car sponsor” (sorry, official automotive supplier) is Chevrolet as of this summer lasting four years, so to the end of the 2015/2016 season. Chevrolet were also an official sponsor for the club’s summer tour (of the USA iirc).
Manchester United’s current shirt sponsor is Aon, with a deal in place until the end of the 2013/2014 season. From that point onwards, Chevrolet will become the shirt sponsor for seven years (so ending at the end of the 2020/2021 season)
Manchester United’s current “official automotive supplier” is also Chevrolet in a deal recently signed for a 5 year period, therefore ending at the end of the 2016/2017 season.
To put the mammoth $600M, 7-year deal into some context, the GM global advertising/marketing budget is estimated at $4.5BN.
How’s your hangover from the end-of-term Olympic mare’s nest?
Please, never again Joe.
Welcome back, I bet you’ve really missed us all.
GM on Man U shirts! Sir Alex won’t know, or care, what GM stands for as long as the suckers pay that kind of crust.
Chevrolet/GM are in deep trouble. In Asia they are practically giving their awful cars away, and nobody wants them of course.
Toyotas, Mazdas, and the new Chinese brands, are selling well though.
Why on earth don’t you get a PPL and a lovely Jodel Joe, and save all that driving hassle? A used Robin DR 400 won’t set you back much, and would slash travelling time for the Euro GPs.
Did you see the record prices at the latest classic car auction?
Thereare in such big trouble that until recently they were still the world’s largest car manufacturer by volume.
Making them, but can’t sell them, so they almost give them away to the mugs who want one, and can’t see what’s round the corner.
The writing’s been on GM’s wall for the last two years.
Isn’t that right, Mr. Lustigson?
Hence why when you buy one in the US you have up to 4000 miles you can put on it before you decide/have to keep it. Probably shutting over 50 percent of its dealerships in the US in the last few years hasn’t helped pushing the tin either. The Man Utd sponsorship – I would be very surprised if it lasted the entire term. Also I wonder if they bothered to consult the US treasury that still owns 26% of them before they waded into that agreement. How did this get through when so much other care free spending has been banned at GM?
@j Hunt:
q/
Hence why when you buy one in the US you have up to 4000 miles you can put on it before you decide/have to keep it.
/q
Astonishing! I wonder what they do with all those 4,000 mile used Chevrolets stacking up? Ah yes, they try to sell them at half price to mugs in Asia.
GM closed 50% of US dealerships? Grim indeed. I’ve seen a couple open here in Asia, but its like watching the death-throes of a soon-to-be-corpse.
Perhaps China will buy GM, like they did IBM, and then show them how to do business.
Missed you – great stuff the Chevrolet thing is hilarious but even without the name you’ll probably get a lot more global exposure than by using F1
Joe, Manchester United sponsorship is $600 over six years !
$600 spent on football is far too much!
Q/
Ray Hopkinson
Joe, Manchester United sponsorship is $600 over six years !
/Q
Just think Joe, according to Ray, if you’d bid a mere $601 you could have had GP+ advertised for six years on Mr. Rooney’s chest.
The Germans have a lovely expression for traffic jams too – they call them ‘snakes’ (schlangen). They also have a droll little joke: what is the difference between a snake and a traffic ‘snake’? A traffic ‘snake’ has its ar***ole at the front…..!
Welcome home! Did you eat at Cafe des Artistes? Lovely place.
Oh, manufacturers… When will you stay? When there’s an FIA world championship without the middle man?
Joe, you missed the fact that the man who lead the Man U sponsorship negotiation was also sacked by GM right before the announcement was made.
No, I did not miss it. I simply did not mention it.
Today’s column is exactly why I subscribe to JoeF1. Great stuff
Nice travelogue for all of us armchair geographers.
I sure hope the remaining races can drum up some passing and competition. it’s getting almost boring with the leader winning almost all the time.
Good to see you back!!
my 2 cents about Chevrolet, I think it is a stroke of genius, can you imagine how many thousands and thousands of Man U shirts with the Chevy logo are going to be worn everyday by kids (real and fake) all over the world? From China, Asia to Latin America and of course Europe. This will give better good exposure than F1 (sorry), as soccer is more popular around the globe (my son and his friends own and wear more soccer team shirts than F1 (zero).
Man U has a great brand and pegging the Chevy brand to it, will give it more allure. I know that to some UK fans this is heresy but there have been other sponsor brands that do not say much outside the UK or Europe. This one has really a global reach. For GM or any other global brand is a dream come (if you have the bucks!)
Very nice serie about the French Grand Prix at Tours
http://www.velocetoday.com/the-1923-french-grand-prix/
May be there will be one before 2023…
Welcome back, Joe !
Bookmarked!
Thank you for this wonderful link.
Check it out folks, Ettore Bugatti doing his “Avengers” Patrick MacNee impersonation,
http://www.velocetoday.com/the-1923-french-grand-prix/
…and articles by Graham Gauld!
http://www.velocetoday.com/
for what it’s worth, Joe, while you were enjoying your hols, back here the F1 world went list crazy with first the Gazetta dello sport then lately a german paper along with several F1 blogs publishing their rankings of drivers. Guess who came top in every one, followed by the same three [If I recall correctly]. Are you planning to do one yourself?
No.
Nobody can justifiably begrudge Alonso his dues this year, he’s done a magnificent job. His wins from nowhere must surely have inspired the Maranello mob when their spirits were crushed.
He’s doing what SSM used to do.
The season is his already in my book.
And I salute him.
I remind you I’m English, so writing this is painful.
I agree with you, but I am English and it is not painful.
It must be your Swiss genes Joe; another advantage of hybrid-vigour!
Swiss genes? That begs some interesting questions about my forebears.
Colin
I’m scots italian, and not even an Alonso fan, but can’t argue with what you say. however, he ain’t quite there yet so let’s wait and see…
You got a much less terse [not to say abrupt] response from JS … must be my aftershave
Better than no response at all
Keep it up Sir! We much prefer astringents to PR smarm.
Be yourself to the end.
@Sig Scarlati:
Scots-Italian, blimey, you could be the next Di Resta, how do you rate Paul?
You could also be a McLaren or Ferrari fan depending who’s on song, and what a heritage of heroes to study; Ascari, Innes, Jim, Wee Jackie, and DC. Too long since Italy had a top-notch driver, but I said that about Spain a few years back.
Jim Clark, J Rindt, J Hunt, A Prost … these are my heroes, unconnected with Bonnie Scotland. Currently I admire K Raikkonen: yes I am of that silent majority opinion …
di Resta is a fine racing driver, should have a long career in F1
Shouldn’t matter where he’s from… I’m not crazy about him either (for reasons that have nothing to do with nationality)… but, jeez, we should be thankful that we get to witness what the man is doing…
I have to agree. I was never fully convinced by Alonso for some reason — but the things he has accomplished this season are astonishing. He really is the complete package. Lewis has the raw speed and killer instinct, Jenson thinks his way through a race and can put the boot in when he needs to, Vettel has the speed and the cogitation but maybe not the bloodlust — but Alonso has all three in spades, plus the ability to be in the right place at the right time. Maybe he really does bring seven tenths to any car he sits in.
@Ash:
q/
Maybe he really does bring seven tenths to any car he sits in.
/q
Thanks for reminding us of that quote. Didn’t he say it before the blow up at McLaren? He’s surely proved it annually.
He was good at Minardi, but I was more impressed with Webber at Minardi, though Alonso has since driven circles around Mark.
Welcome back Joe! I’m in the process of reading your book and you unintentionally ruined some of it for me: “Grover, who raced that day with the car painted British Racing Green, was executed as a spy in Sachsenhausen in 1945.” :-/
It is a fairly well known fact.
@juice – I think that spoilers go out the door at the 50 year mark. It’s like hearing the Titanic sinks in that Jim Cameron melodrama and saying “oi! Don’t spoil it for me!”
A company also made a video game that was almost based on Joe’s book, insofar as it was based on Joe’s book with a few cosmetic changes.
Yeah, right… “fairly well known” to a fairly small audience, perhaps!!
Come on, Joe, does it really escape you that however old or well known a fact might be, there are always new and unknowledgeable people, tens of millions born every year, and hence always many people who will be new to any given interesting fact any given day?!
Even in the specific realm of your blog and its readership and the topics you might often return to over the months and years, for as long as you keep the blog open there are going to be new and new-ish readers unfamiliar with what has been before.
Your mentioning the specifics of Grover’s demise on your own blog is perhaps not as unfortunate as, say, unthinking film critics in popular shows/columns going on about sleds in earshot of thousands of budding young film enthusiasts, but surely it’s worth being aware to not necessarily drop unflagged spoliers here of books you’ve written?!
Dear God,
I get accused of plugging my book when I am specifically trying to avoid doing it. What am I supposed to do?!
However, as A-P believes I should be more educationalist, if you one of the tens of millions of new and unknowledgeable people who want to know about “Williams”, I will happily suggest that you go to the right hand column on this blog and click on “The Grand Prix Saboteurs” cover.
At a very reasonable cost (of which I will take a percentage), you can buy a book that will tell you the extraordinary tale of Willy Grover.
I thought there’s no need for that kind of digital revolution, been there, done that… untill I read about the gin…
Nice to have you back Joe I do enjoy your musings on the world outside F1
Do you also enjoy mountains of email spam? Or did you use your email as User name in error? The email bots adore punters like you.
Welcome back joe its been a long wait, envious of your holiday but great nevertheless. lovely story but a bit concerned of the reports in france the mercedes might partially withdraw out of F1 and may rebadge as AMG does not sound good, mercedes branding is the core of their products and i know AMG is the sporting arm. Where would this leave ross brawn, schumacher and rosberg if AMG is introduced? Chevolet could this be a repeat of lotus regards flooding the advertisiment and no direction! All the same its going to be great to read your blog and welcome back….
Technically they made the name change to “Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team” at the start of this year in an effort to raise the profile of AMG via F1 but the truth is none of the commentators, journalists or fans refer to the team as anything other than “Mercedes”.
Case in point :
Google tells me that since the 1st of March 2012, the phrase “Mercedes AMG” appears just 5 times (seven once this post is validated) on a certain site under the URL “joesaward.wordpress.com”.
“Mercedes” alone appears 234 times in the same period. Yes, sometimes Joe or us on comments are referring to the company and not the team/car.
It’s reasonable to assume that switching the name to just “AMG” would more or less force media outlets to actually use the AMG moniker and hence spread the brand.
Need to unload some photos off your phone from your holidays for us to see , welcome back .
Glad to read that your back at it. Looking forward to your insight,.
Hi Joe, which Ligier does Prince Albert have in his collection? Perhaps Olivier Panis’s ’96 winner?
JS35 maybe. I didn’t look that closely
On a slight tangent Joe, do you have any idea how much teams make out of merchandising? For the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren one would assume it runs into the millions of dollars, and surely must be built into the cost model for a team.
I was very surprised to see that Williams have only just (today) been able to launch 2012 teamwear / supporters clothing. Surely this is a missed revenue stream.
Not a great deal. Ferrari makes way more than anyone. Then McLaren (I think) and then the others
One of my Asian mates has a Ferrari mountain bike, it’s actually a Ferrari badged Colnago, but it certainly catches the eye in races.
Mr. Cavendish’s McLaren roadster will have a much more genuine McLaren pedigree, and if they made a proper alloy racing bike I’d be interested in buying one. Carbon-plastic bikes are much too dangerous when they prang. Tom Danielson was nearly killed when his exploded into dust, and almost severed his femoral artery.
Welcome back Joe, hope you have had a good break, your blog posts have defiantly been really missed!
Worst thing about F1 being on break, and Joe being off on his hols:
People continually banging on at me “didjya see so-and-so win blah blah”.
No guys, to cope with my “loss” I put in the work equivalent of a 2 stop Le Mans, so this was a olympic free zone. (okay, with the one exception of my pal showing off his 3D set to me during the beach volleyball . . )
I love sanctioned holidays, even pseudo-holidays, they allow us to steal a march. Usually. We found everyone we spoke to was hauling it double shift as well. Sign of the economic times?
Welcome back Joe, not so much jealous of your holiday (oh, of course) but relieved to feel the withdrawal symptoms receding already!
yours,
– j
I wonder how the employees of Aon feel with that money being redirected possibly from them to fund Chiltons sons in racing escapades. How disgusting. Shame on him. Another slap in the face in these hard economic times. I’m sure he makes enough money to do away with using the companies so blatantly. This is a good example of why less and less people feel sorry for corporations when they go down the toilet. Pay for it yourself, you can afford it.
Welcome back Joe. I would once have agreed with you about the pleasures of Routes Nationales, but they’re so peppered with radars in unlikely places, that after a while I give up looking for the signs (or even these days, no signs) and go back to the autoroutes.Which is a pity.
Mercedes : will I be your only reader who would be disappointed that Mercedes would do one from F1, having shot themselves in the foot for all their time there wasting resources on a driver past his sell-by date ?
I guess one could say that you miss out by driving too fast…