My green notebook (a new one for this race) appeared on Sky TV’s Ted’s Race Notebook on Sunday in Montreal, with Mr Kravitz rather keen to know what was written inside, trying to prise the book from my fingers while asking whether Bernie Ecclestone might get kicked out of his job. This resulted because Mr E made a joke about how his departure from F1 will be made on the day of his funeral…
Beyond that “news”, the Canadian GP was a bit short on any gossip of any great import, unless one gets excited about Hollywood’s Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem (husband and wife) turning up in the paddock, along with Tom Brady, a celebrated NFL quarterback, who plays (I am told) for the New England Patriots. I was given a long list of celebrities who were expected to attend, including Nathalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, Naomi Watts, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kate Bosworth. Perhaps they were there, hidden under big hats, but it is always possible that they never showed up.
My notebook does have quite a lot of scrawls largely relating to the Heineken launch, but there was also a great deal about the Formula One group’s plans for innovation in TV coverage.
There was a drone flying not far from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the organisers apparently contacted the local police who said that they would happily shoot it down if the device strayed too close to the circuit. Having said that, we can expect to seem some drones flying around in F1 in the next month or two. There is a lot of very interesting stuff going on in terms of TV technology in F1, which I have written about in depth this week in GP+, and you can expect to see much more exciting imagery, not to mention 4K UHD standard footage next year. This apparently means that you can see things a lot more clearly if you have a TV capable of using it to the full. It seems that after years of stubborn resistance Bernie is now getting into social media in quite a dramatic fashion, indeed someone who had a meeting with him over the weekend mentioned that when they had arrived The Bernard had been busy reading Twitter feeds. He’ll be posting on Facebook before we know it…
I actually ended up having lunch with BE in the Paddock Club on Friday, as part of the whole Heineken launch business, and he seemed on pretty good form, as he busily planted stories about the problems he is having with Montreal and Brazil with some of my colleagues. Bernie has been being trying to get an Argentine race up and running but the country has a few too many financial problems at the moment. However, there are now major worries about Brazil because the country’s economic and political problems are making it impossible to get the money together for a race after this year.
Montreal is also in a bit of a difficult situation because the locals are committed to rebuilding the infrastructure on the Ile de Notre Dame, but they don’t seem to have any money to do it. Having said that the race is the biggest event in Canada and is worth a fortune to the city and to the region and so, when push comes to shove, they will find a way.
I love Montreal, but it is rather quirky sometimes. I speak French pretty well, or at least well enough to be understood, but there were often times during the weekend when one of the locals would start talking to me in their strange patois and I would understand not one single word. It might just as well have been Chinese. I am fascinated by the development of languages (in my spare time) and I am told that the roots of Quebecois go back to 1535, when an explorer called Jacques Cartier discovered the area. Later a chap called Champlain explored it and the whole region was named Nouvelle France (or New France). At that point the folk in Quebec spoke the same language as in Paris and, apparently, it is the latter that has changed, as the Quebecois still speak French in the way it used to be done, with lots of syllables not being vocalised. Things did get a little complicated after 1759 because those nasty old British took over the province after a Major General James Wolfe (no relation to Toto) defeated the French at the wonderfully named Battle of the Plains of Abraham. This meant that French influence over the Quebecois ended, even if they went on speaking the language, just as it had originally been spoken.
Speaking of James, I was wandering around the grid just before the national anthem was played and Max Verstappen came wandering by, with a lot of people in the crowd shouting “Max! Max! Max!” as they tend to do.
“I’m changing my name to James,” he said, with a wink. If people think Max feels the pressures of F1, they are dreaming. He is in his element and only gets into “the zone” when the racing starts – unlike some of his colleagues who always look very serious in the build up to the lights going out.
Talking of Wolff, I had an entertaining conversation with the Toto variety on Saturday, after he joked that he would like to get a British medal so that he could then call himself “Commander Wolff”, because he had seen a movie in which James Bond was referred to as “Commander Bond”. I could have explained that this would require him joining the Royal Navy and rising up through the ranks, but it was all a bit too complicated. The subject had come up as I was trying to explain to three Team Principals why Claire Williams had been appointed an OBE. Actually that was quite a hard thing to do because usually awards are given to people who achieve something significant and becoming the deputy boss of the family company is not really that big a thing. Given that Team Willy has not really set the world on fire since Barcelona in 2012, when Pastor Maldonado scored a most surprising victory (and the team then set the garage on fire) it was a difficult task. Toto was nonetheless delighted to hear that honorary awards can be made to foreign nationals who do good service for the UK. When I stopped to think about it and looked at the list of CBEs (Commanders) I concluded that it would not be at all outrageous for recognition of this kind after the success of the Mercedes team. I guess that one has to suck up to the Foreign Secretary to achieve this and so, Toto, you need to track down The Right Honourable Philip Hammond, the Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge. And, by the way, you can only be nominated for a CBE by someone who knows about your roles, successes and achievements. You can’t nominate yourself.
But Susie could do it for you. There are lots of such awards going to all manner of folk ranging from Yung-Fa Chang, a Taiwanese shipping magnate, to the four members of the Irish pop band The Corrs, or German golfer Bernhard Langer. Closer to home, former F1 team boss Tony Fernandes has a CBE as well, in recognition of his activities with AirAsia.
With motor racing news a little thin on the ground, beyond the obvious Heineken announcement, there were only a few bits and bobs about races. Chris Pook is a man who tends to slide in and out of the paddock without making a fuss (unlike some Hollywood types) and he popped up to see Mr E, but was diplomatic as ever as to what was discussed. Suffice to say, he is still trying to find ways to get F1 a bigger presence in the United States. Pook did make the point that Lewis Hamilton is doing great things for F1 in the American sphere and that the sport really ought to use things like Lewis being named in Time Magazine’s top 100 influential people in the world today.
There was some interest in the paddock as to why all the policeman (and women) in Montreal seemed to be wearing pyjama trousers and it emerged, after a little investigation, that this is because they are not allowed to go on strike and so instead they are voicing their discontent by wearing silly trousers. Anyhoo, as they say over here, this was not the only weird protesting going on because the local feminist protest group who make their point by baring their breasts at big events, in an effort to stop “sex tourism” in Montréal, was also in action again. This tends to lead to such images appearing in the newspapers because, as The Sun discovered back in the 1970s, this sells more copies. It is a bit odd to use the female body to complain about sex but what the hell. I am not an expert in these matters, but it seemed to me that during the weekends the sex industry professionals were probably struggling to keep up with the amateurs…
Anyway, it did create the strange possibility that one might see a topless woman being led away in handcuffs by policeman in pyjamas, which conjured up images in my head (if nowhere else) of something that might amuse a former FIA President. It all sounds a bit like a scene from Carry On Campaigning, a saucy comedy film that never quite got made in the 1950s…
Talking of campaigning, this morning I have received various statements from something called Eurocare, which sounds like a chain of old peoples’ homes stretching from Cork to Baku (apparently), but is actually an anti-alcohol campaign. This made me laugh out loud because Heineken’s announcement was made late on Thursday European time and there was no reaction to it until Monday afternoon. I guess that anti-alcohol campaigners don’t work weekends, which is possibly why no-one is paying them much attention…
joeblogsf1 
Great article Joe ! Nice to read it on a silly monday morning !
Yep I watched that and was particularly interested to hear you say that they may be some interesting stories coming from it this week….
Joe, any credence to the James Allison back to Renault reports?
None
Presumably QB Brady was there to advise the teams on how to get away with under-inflating their tires.
comedy gold!
LOL, that’s brilliant!
Is Suzi too young to remember the tale of Bernie, Tony and the million pounds?
I believe Claire Williams was honoured, in part, for her work with the Spinal Injuries Association.
It did not say that
Joe, I do not recall you expressing a view on the absence of a knighthood for John Surtees. I know you don’t count success on two-wheels, but his world championships in both disciplines has to count massively to his name being nominated by someone prominent.
Having also run his own race team, done significant charitable works as well as being a thoroughly nice bloke. It just makes a mockery of the honours system.
It’s not that I don’t count it. I just see them as different sports. That’s all. I think Surtees should enjoy recognition but there are other too
According to the official source (The London Gazette) :
Ms Claire WILLIAMS, Deputy Team Principal, Williams Martini Racing Team. For services to Formula 1 Racing.
A minor issue about the legions of fans who rely on the heavily protected FOM TV feed.
We use to joke about the partisan local production team following one (home) nationality of driver. Now we, as I understand it, a permanent production team in the same way as most franchise holders have a Guru/Commentary/Presentation team.
My simple question is, do the visual production team have a debrief, going through all their coverage.
Yes I accept that they want to cover action, but which action? Do they have professional spotters to tell them which is significant action as opposed to colourful driving.
Then there is the actual value of some camera angles. Ground level views of The Wall of Champions aren’t really interesting, even if it catches a millisecond of disaster..
What really annoyed me on Sunday, and prompted my usual moan, was a critical, and plan-able part of the race. The use of barrier level cameras from the very start and T1&T2 which gave no view at all of the important progress and positioning of ANY cars was inexcusable.
Please FOM TV, think who your stakeholders are and critically review your production methods before Baku.
The camera positions and angles are positioned to best display sponsors around the track and are focussed/panned to allow clear view of the sponsors on the cars. We are in fact watching a 90 min commercial with some racing going on in the background.
I disagree. Have you considered the opposite. The advertising placed for the cameras…
Don’t know, most of the camera angles do a great job displaying logos and give minimal impression of the speed of the cars. Joe, think about how slow the cars look from the frequent head on shots when a panning or a [still] shot from the side would give a more accurate impression of the speed of f1 cars.
Think of how little you would actually be able to see and recognise if cameras were pointed across the track – just a long series of blurs and whooshes. Moody but not very informative.
Chicken or the egg? Either way, the people who place the cameras seem to have little imagination and the coverage of the actual cars appears to be focussed on making the cars look as motionless as possible. When you view amateur youtube footage from fans at track side, the speed and deceleration is breath taking. FOM rarely convey that. The question, why do they never do that? I refer you to my original comment.
You’ll be lucky. Bearing mind TV is the only way of completely understanding what’s going on, the viewing experience has hardly changed at all over the years in many respects and is poor. Years ago “Bernie TV” was abandoned (by Bernie) for costs reasons, although had it been kept even I would subscribed to it (to anyone other than SKY it must be said). I used to watch it on Canal+ in France and the feed was that used by the teams in the pits showing the lead action, following cars, pit action, leader board showing lap/sector times and so forth. The viewer effectively constructed his/her own race coverage, albeit camera angles and positions were always another matter….
Talking of the strange accent that French Canadians have. I’ve been watching a Canadian cop TV series on TV5 which is one of the best cop shows I’ve watched in yonks. Subtitles full on. It’s amazing their accent almost sound a cross between Cajun/West Indian with the odd English word thrown in when their isn’t a french equivalent.
I found myself imitating the accent everytime I watch the cop show. (I won’t mention the name but it’s a numbered title series). Accent sounds like a whirring hum when the subtitles are taken off with only a few understandable English words like Ben/ Lock and Load/ Cover Me/ . I assume the French must have a field day when there’s a Canadian in Paris. Just like an English man In New York. .. yep now that song is in your head too.
Apparently it gets stronger the smaller the town/village. I found simple French please/thank you/etc. got me through without any problems and didn’t have any problems understanding people. Although the day after the race, when the weather was distinctly grotty, I found myself in a bar talking to an American originally from Bridlington, which is about 15 miles from my home town…
It has been speculated that the promotion of Philip Hammond to the Cabinet was all a terrible mistake; The Man actually meant to appoint Stephen Hammond as Transport Secretary and couldn’t be seen to back down over such a foolish blunder. Ever since, Hammond (P) has been known in some circles as “The Wrong Hammond”, a nickname which has proved most apt, and I would strongly counsel Toto to run a mile rather than have anything to do with him.
Having encountered Stephen Hammond (he’s my local MP), I’d say that story lacks any real credibility. In 2010 Philip was destined to be Chief Secretary to the treasury on account of his very big brain, but ended up at transport because the coalition meant that that particular post went to a Lib Dem instead. He got transport as a consolation prize.
Stephen Hammond is so utterly mediocre that even one of the stalwart Tories who appointed him as the local candidate decided on reflection to vote for someone else.
He’s the foreign secretary. Beyond that I don’t give a monkey’s
I had been wondering when they were going to start using drones to fill in the gap between trackside cameras and helicopter; sounds like that might be happening soon?
Also, the new camera angle from onboard Grosjean’s Haas was awesome! It definitely gave a better sense of the frantic nature of an F1 car. I think that is actually a huge reason many people think these cars are so tame now. Camera tech and image stabilization has kept the brutality from being communicated properly.
Does F1 bring a lot of “Sex tourism”? I have heard stories of mechanics (and others) queuing up to visit ladies of the night near the big wheel at Le Mans,
Perhaps they had heard that a large number of people were prostituting themselves in F1 and got the wrong end of the stick?
Ps As I wrote this DT has just popped up on a Channel 4 documentary on the 60’s and 70’s. (I am watching on catch -up). No connection implied or intended, of course.
LE Mans is not F1
True, but the guys telling me the first hand stories were (and still are, in the main) F1 staff.
My jokey point is that there are a lot of people in F1 willing to prostitute themselves, but it’s not sex that they’re selling.
mmm
Are you Quagmire from Family Guy? Errr Giggidy !
Surprised if that’s true?
Only in France I guess (OK that’s a sweeping generalisation but you mentioned LeMan 🙈🙉🙊).
I’m shocked if it happens as most teams know what the Media implications are if it hits the news. Likes of Mercedes Ferrari Renault would be having to explain it to their board members.
Besides the crews epupd get their marching orders.
No, I am not Quagmire (whoever that is…), Sorry that “whoosh” must be the reference flying straight over my head.
The point is that people in F1 sell out their principles all the time…
Oh, never mind.
Brilliant Joe, can tell you’re in a good mood!
Sorry but Hockey with the biggest event in Canada and it lasts between October and June. I am sure the ratings for the Sunday Night NHL playoff game was much higher even though no Canadian team was playing.
The World Cup of Hockey in September will be by far the biggest event in Canada this year.
You are being silly here. An event is a time-sensitive thing. It lasts a weekend. A season of ice hockey is not an event
Perhaps. But NHL legend Gordie Howe’s death at the venerable age of 88 overshadowed the Grand Prix in Canadian sports media this weekend, even on RDS last Friday.
I just wanted to note that the event in Canada is always hockey. 24-7 365 days a year. Junior hockey gets better ratings than F-1. The race is a local Montreal event just like Austin. Nothing national about these races “events?”. Canadians game or a Longhorn game will also have more interest locally and nationally than the race. It is just the state of interest in F-1 in US and Canada. I just have come to the conclusion there is a limited appeal F-1 in True North/Merica.
Everything’s Fine
All fine and dandy but f1 is still Canada’s biggest sporting event every year
On a note about the French in Quebec Provence, You mentioned the battle that the French lost on the fields of Abraham. The British threw out many of the French. The exiles decided to head to Louisiana, where there already was a French settlement. The English speaking populous would ask these people where they were from and they would say “Canada”, however their accent was so strong, the English (the U.S. was not the U.S. but still part of the British Empire) thought they were saying “Cajun”, so that’s what they were referred to as then, and to this day.Also, an interesting note, there is a Cajun musical group named “Beasoleil”. Around twenty five years ago they went to France to tour and were immediately taken in by the French. It turned out that a lot of their traditional Cajun songs, were in fact old traditional French folk songs that had long since been forgotten! The French embraced Beausoleil for maintaining their culture.
The French who went to Louisiana were expelled from Acadia (the mainland of modern day Nova Scotia) not Quebec.
New Brunswick and Nova. There are still plenty of Arcadians in the Maritime provinces. If you are ever driving around those parts just look for the stars on the front of the houses. And yes, ‘cajun’ is a corruption of ‘Arcadian’, not ‘Canada’.
The name zydeco (referring to a style of music from Louisiana) comes from the title of a song in that style “Les haricots sont pas sale”. Somehow the Louisiana pronounciation of that sounded sound like ‘zydeco’ to an English speaking DJ.
“Cajun” is actually the Louisianan pronunciation of “Acadian”, since most of the exiles were from a part of New France called “Acadia”.
you touched on improved coverage and i must say the lower camera angle with the tighter lens on Grosjeans car was so much better than that super wide fisheye thing they have two feet above the driver’s head. the lower camera and tighter lens render a much more realistic view of what the driver sees.
I agree – this angle is very much the same as that used many years ago (I’m thinking of the film “Grand Prix” for example).
That angle was used up to the early 90s and then started to fade away once the roll hoop cameras were introduced.
I love it how you manage to make sidesteps in your story, that are most interesting. As for Canadian French, I struggle enough with regular French, but I recall my first visit to Australia, where my British English lead me nowhere with the outback locals… it kinda grows on ya, I guess.
Carry On Blogging!
Not surprising you struggled in outback Oz – I grew up in Adelaide and moved to a town called Mt.Isa in the Queensland outback with my family as a teenager. They thought my “accent” was English. God knows what they language they thought you were speaking.
On the flip side I worked in the US for two years and spent 3 months working on a project near Steamboat Springs in Colorado. One night at a diner in Craig, I asked the waitress for a white wine to go along with my dinner. She had to get someone from the kitchen to come out and translate my Aussie into American English….
On the other hand, I am not alone in having my English accent mistaken for Australian by USAnians who have never seen “Crocodile Dundee”.
On the other other hand, a few years ago a native of Savannah GA took time out from his enthusiastic endorsement of his brother in law’s crab shack to some visiting Germans to make the spookily accurate observation that my accent was some terrible mash-up of Yorkshire and Essex!
Excellent penultimate paragraph Joe. Tres drole.
BCE reading Twitter. So hell will freeze over soon? About a decade or so ago, he could have bought significant chunks of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple … and be a lot richer by now, I guess. Did he ever mention this? I’d love a Joe Saward/BCE interview about social media etc., maybe he now has discovered a different perspective to it.
I’ll ask…
Wonderful travel blog on my favourite city (which is why I live here). A side note on Quebec French. Here we tend to view Parisians as snobbish. A friend was visiting Paris. He was told by someone to please speak English as they couldn’t understand his French. My friend was so insulted he left and spent the rest of his vacation in Britain.
Growing up I used to love reading Henry Manney lll’s travel pieces in Road & Track magazine. Reading Manney and Denis Jenkinson in Motor Sport probably contributed to my love of F1.
I once worked in the Middle East when three French speakers turned up. From Paris, Montreal and Louisiana. They were really happy not to have to speak English all the time. Except that they couldn’t understand one another. After speaking slower and slower the Canadian and Frenchman just about got by, but they had no idea what the guy from Louisiana was talking about. The Parisian reckoned that it sounded like a strange version of 17th century French spoken with an American accent.
I’ve always though Louisiana French and Quebec French were different enough that if you spoke one didn’t mean that you could understand the other. Certainly as a Quebeçois when I listen to Cajun or zydeco music I don’t understand the words. However when some friends travelled there they told me they had no problems with the language, either being understood, or understanding others.
Having said that, when I was in London, it took me a couple of weeks to pick up on the Cockney accent.
The policemen and firemen were on strike last year with their pyjama trousers, as was the protests about the sex workers.
I always found the latter to be slightly bizarre given that the whole city is famous for it’s strip clubs year round. There’s tonnes of them, to the extent they had to put in planning laws to try and restrict more opening up.
My sister learned French (France style) here in the States and later became a teacher, with a number of friends in France. She always considers “Quebecois” as “francais bizarre” and how her French friends laugh at the way people in Quebec say “fin de semaine” instead of “weekend”. But she thinks highly of Montreal as a great cultural town and full of life. She is also in awe of the way many people there effortlessly switching between English and French.
I survived the overcast, chilly weather. Next to me were three Americans from New Jersey (one a 10 year old in Mercedes gear). In front was a woman from Brazil and to my other side were three men from Mexico City who absolutely raved about last year’s Mexico F1 race. That has to be good for the economy. I wonder how many non-Canadians were their.
I guess it is too much to ask F1 to put readable numbers on the cars (my poor googling skills meant I could not find who had the black or green air camera for each team). Or to display times between cars consistently on the track video boards or anyone below 10th. Or maybe even adopt Indycar’s putting the track position of each car on the side where the air intake is. It worked well for them at Pocono last year.
Having heard the cars in person for the first time since 2011, I thought the complaining about noise level was off base and after hearing it I know it is the biggest bunch of nonsense in ages. More pleasing to the ear and not the piercing sound the previous ones had. You could occasionally hear the PA announcers (I had an FM radio but the volume was too low to listen to that).
/who had the black or green air camera for each team/
No one had green. It’s fluorescent yellow for second driver, officially.
Re: The language subject – apparently east coast Americans also have a dialect closer to 16th century English than the modern day English.
Correct. Apparently we humans like to cling on to the “old” when we start new colonies, keeping home’s way of talking, even as the language at “home” evolves. This explains the Massachusetts and Quebec accents.
However, it doesn’t explain Australians, but then what could? 😉
Hi Joe. Great bit once again. My could be not the best question to ask You, but as there might be some politics involved so i dare asking. You are there, seeing, asking and listening. – (again)About Red Bull and Dani Ric – now TOO many not the best pit calls and even worse pit execution for him are getting a bit too outstandingly eye-stabbing. Are they trying to break down Dan and try to make out of him a Sancho Panza to Don Quixote Max ? It seems all the bad things since Max joining RB use to happen to Dan and all the good/better ones to Max, unless Max crashes . . .
It is a simple competition. One will be faster than the other. DR needs to show he is.
yes, but DR IS quicker! And showing it! if not for bad calls and pits by the team, then story might be quite different, in Spain and Monaco e-spec. Well, we will see in a couple more races what winds are coming, thanks Joe
He was not quicker on Sunday in Montreal
“I guess that anti-alcohol campaigners don’t work weekends…..”
Possibly settling their nerves from the previous week’s campaigning with a Black Label on the rocks.
The post-race comraderies between Seb and Hamilton made for great TV. How often do we see protagonist indulging in such civilized engagement? Seb is a natural but Lewis is an introvert so he was awkward in the interplay. Seb and Button should help him.
A few years ago, subsequent to the end of that fabulous race in Bahrain, Roberg attempted to play-punch Lewis in the stomach, Hamilton froze. Look where Lewis stands on the transport vehicle during the parade. The optics couldn’t be worst. Joe have you heard why the PR folks at Mercedes have not tried to help him.
BTW you should tell Max that following the race the gathered folks at the fence were shouting Sergio, Sergio! There is an incredible love affair between Ferrari and most fans in Montreal, so if they are going to shower anyone with special accolades it would be Seb
I was there and heard Max Max Max.
I think you missed my point. I have absolutely no doubt that the gathered masses were shouting Max, Max, Max! My point was that Max should not take it too seriously that the gathered masses had suddenly developed a profound love affair for him. And that the gathered masses at another corner were shouting out another person’s name too.
Further, that thanks to the incredible adoration for Ferrari, if anyone should really take such outpouring of affection it is Seb. I don’t get the widespread fascination with Ferrari and the undying love affair that Ferrari has stimulated in the masses. I’ll take an AMG S63 or the latest McLaren any day over a Ferrari.
Joe, I’m actually beginning to think BE’s comment ‘I would not bring my family to watch a race’ earlier this year may have been aimed at Francois Dumontier and Groupe Octane. Bernie went on a tirad about the sport in general, but Dumontier’s whole marketing strategy is aimed at families. He keeps the ticket prices low and has ticket pakages for families. I’m sure in BE’s mind the easiest way for Montreal’s organizers to generate revenue would be to hike ticket prices like Normand Legault did when he took over.
For instance, Bronze tickets (grandstand 31) went from 50$ in 1989 to 110$ in 1990.
Dumontier was not around in that era
Joe, speaking of non-racing politics. I’ve been wondering about your situation in France if Britain exits the EU. Will your status change?
Yes
How will it change? I’ve not heard that much would be different for us ex-pats..?
It wouldn’t change anything. At worst, countries may force expats to pay for their healthcare, but this is highly unlikely. The Vienna Convention of 1969, says that the termination of a treaty “does not affect any right, obligation or legal situation of the parties created through the execution of the treaty prior to its termination.” Expats abroad can simply carry on as normal.
Dream on
It would be interesting how an exit by the UK would impact F1, if at all. I suspect F1 would find a way around any difficulties that would present.
Your own situation, as with many Brits living in EU countries would depend on a negotiated agreement post vote.
Why would I get a vote in that and not in the referendum? The whole thing is wildly undemocratic and unfair. Millions of people who have never been abroad get to decide my future.
Time to apply for French citizenship Joe. It’s true that many Brits abroad would have rely on a negotiated treaty – it would cut both ways for the French living in Britain and Brits living in France don’t forget.
I don’t wish to be French. I’m British. It doesn’t cut both ways. The French in England get a vote always
I agree Joe, it’s wildly undemocratic. FYI I’m Dutch in Dorset, and I don’t get a vote on the Brexit or Brinnit. I did get to vote on a new police commisioner (yey!)
There are almost three times as many EU citizens living in the UK opposed Brits living in the EU. That’s the scale of the problem for many who supported Brexit. Of course you can’t vote because it’s a matter for Brits to say yes or no, in the same way we wouldn’t expect to have a say if we lived in Holland in the same circumstances. That is democracy. Joe’s issue is more complicated being an English abroad.
I didn’t say it’s undemocratic due to the fact that I’m Dutch -although I am not British I do consider myself somewhat assimilated -. It’s merely an extended popularity contest in the vein of X factor. I feel that we choose representatives to make decisions for us and make the tough decisions. Most of us do not fully understand (I don’t) all the repercussions of an in or out and so it becomes a gut feeling type of response.
They cannot vote in general elections, only local government or European elections (the same of the Brits in France). I understand your problem but it’s down to choices made in the past and, after all, you elected to make your life in France. I have two English friends who in the process of becoming French citizens however it’s not for me and my wife. I’m proud to be English even though I’ve always enjoyed our life in France. Don’t be too hard the ‘leave’ camp, there are many French and other nationalities who would like to be able to have their say but will not be given the same chance, at least in the short term.
I am an Englishman who made a decision based on what the law allowed me to do. The law changed later without my having any day in it. It’s undemocratic nonsense.
Not quite true Joe – parliament makes the laws. We vote them in (even you can) and they make laws on everyone’s behalf, so in effect you did have a say. That’s democracy…. isn’t it? Anyway, everyone knows the law is an ass!
No I cannot. I have been disenfranchised in the UK. I was not involved in the process at all.
Like Joe, I live in France and so am resident for tax purposes and social charges.
My understanding is that after any change, I will have the same status as any other non-EU expat who has made contributions for more than 5-years. That is, I will continue to benefit from the French Health and benefits system.
Of course, I will only know the true answer in a few years time, but in any event, I do not envisage having my property confiscated and being frog-marched to a ferry port in Calais. The French, like most Europeans, are very reasonable people.
Perhaps Joe can enlighten us all on his understanding of his changed status.
I’m not wasting an energy in that because I don’t get a vote and it has not happened yet. If it happens then I will start to worry. I hope and believe that there are sufficient sensible people in the UK to vote with their brains.
Rodger J, you obviously do not understand your status as a Brit in France. Let’s hope then this is all speculation.
Dear Joe
I am a long time fan and reader of your blog. I was present at the Grand Prix, and have been attending it for many years. I rarely write to complain about things, but this weekend, I just couldn’t contain myself. This might seem completely banal, in the grand scheme of things, but as many spectators in attendance, I was shocked but the situation with the grid girls.
I never really understood the F1 obsession with women standing on the grid holding up a flag, and then a driver’s name and number for an hour, but ok lets say we accept this. On Sunday however, the temperature was 11 degrees C, and with the wind chill, it was 8 degrees. Many drivers were wearing heavy jackets and even wool hats. All the press people were adequately dressed. The grid girls were wearing sleeveless mini dresses and were bare legged. We were sitting in the first row directly opposite the Ferrari pits. The girls were freezing, and the people in the stands all around us were appalled. What kind of working conditions are these, and how could you endorse this?
I saw you walking up to Massa’a grid girl have a chat with her. Did it occur to you to offer a jacket? Perhaps you did and she refused for contractual reasons, but I would be curious to know. Camera men, mechanics and so on were around them, did anyone offer a wrap or a jacket? Nowhere in the civilized world do we accept that people be subjected to these conditions. Why in heaven’s name did no one do anything. Everyone was concerned that the extreme cold temperatures would cause graining in the tires. What about pneumonia for the grid girls?
While your blog does mention the police in pyjamas handcuffing bare breasted protesters (which kind of sums up the political scene in Montreal), no mention was made of what appears to be some of the worst exploitation of women, by the F1 community.Nobody, and I mean nobody seemed to care about them. They were simply meat on a hook. It was really disgraceful, and people were still talking about it after the race upon leaving the stands. Everyone speaks of improving F1 on social media, making cars greener, and blah blah blah.
For Christ’s sake can someone tell the old men running the industry, that in the 21st century, in civilized world, we do not allow people to be treated this way?
Thank you
Gilbert R
I didn’t speak to Massa’s grid girl
The police could at least have offered the grid girls their pyjama bottoms.
That’s actually one of the reasons the FIA WEC did away with grid girls last year. They (the girls) froze themselves solid at Silverstone in 2014.
Joe….Tom Brady is a living legend. A four time Super Bowl Champion and probably the best QB to ever play the game. He is akin to a Messi and Ronaldo combined into one for us Americans. And he’s married to a supermodel…of course.
Mike in NY, opinions, let us say, *vary* on Brady. He’s associated with some serious accusations of cheating, as well as having been very successful. And surely, in a team sport like American Football, he can’t take *all* the credit for those championships?
(I suppose I’d better declare myself as a Packers & Steelers fan)
Brady didn’t exactly come across particularly fluently on the TV either – one too many sacks beginning to come home too roost, I wouldn’t wonder.
It’s not my opinion, BenK, but a large consensus of experts and fans. I am a Giants fan, so I am unbiased. When you look at the ‘talent’ (or lack thereof) compared to others that came before him, he definitely stands as one of the greats. And while Football is a team game, lets face…it always has been a QB-centric league. If you have a great QB…you usually have a great shot at winning it all, regardless of talent, unless coaching and other players are just really, really bad…as a Pack and Steelers fan, you should know that….Star, Favre, Rodgers, Bradshaw, and Big Ben.
As for cheating….its never been proved. In fact, an MIT professor debunked ‘deflategate.’ It’s a nonissue, except for Goodell, who got egg on his face from the matter, and has continued his witchhunt for purely political reasons.
yes, and Brady’s stats were better after they replaced the ‘deflated’ balls with ‘regular’ ones.
Apologies for prolonging an NFL discussion on your F1 blog Joe, but: In a big game I’d take cool hand Joe Montana over Tom terrific every time. And that’s from a Notre Dame hater. 🙂
It will be interesting to see how F1’s TV and social media presence develops over the next year or two. I hope that it get better and makes it easier for people around the world to see the GPs and that there is more (and better) online content.
I hope that Toto was kidding about the British medal, Commander Wolff, and the honorary award. If he wasn’t, that’s just sad. Service to people/organizations/causes/country should never be done with the hope/expectation of a reward/recognition at a later time.
It said it was a joke
Although to be fair, if Woolf was British he’d have probably got that CBE for his achievements in the last few years. Lewis should also be up for another one soon too, he got an MBE back in 2009 for the first world title, three should be worthy of at least an ‘O’
Re Quebecois. My Parisian Aunt visited Montreal some years ago. By the third day she gave up and just told everyone that she only spoke English. My local patois is Poitvine which, I am told, is the root of Quebecois as most of the settlers came from the central Biscay coast area. Personally I can better understand Quebecois than Poitvine. Years ago my old British Territorial Army unit did an exchange with a US National Guard unit on the borders with Louisiana area. In the countryside they found it easier to understand the local French than the local English.
It’s been fascinating reading about people’s experiences of Quebecois and Louisiana French. I had no idea the eastern side of North America was so varied. (And nobody has even brought up the German/Dutch influences in the region that I already had an inkling about)
Joe: “…which conjured up images in my head (if nowhere else) of something that might amuse a former FIA President.”
Do we have to wait until you are no longer a French resident before you tell the full story?
There’s nothing to tell.
Phil, the ‘full story’ was videotaped……….
In his revealing autobiography ‘Formula One and Beyond’, Max Mosley covers the events of the scandal in some detail. He suggests it may go beyond Woman E and to quote his words; “Eventually the truth will come out.”
You have to hand it to him for taking on Dacre, Murdoch & Google!
The truth is already out.
Joe, not really F1 related, but I just wondering you have ever visited Newfoundland on your travels given that you are residing in France and NL’s history with Vimy Ridge during WWI
Never been there but my family has strong links with Canada, for various reasons
Obviously you undertook some solid research into the etymological derivation of the history of French in Quebec. Well done. An acquaintance of mine who attended one of your special events told me that you speak fluent French although, sometimes, while speaking French your locution and your cadence often reflect a modicum of your mother tongue; (this is not a criticism, it is merely and observance).
Concerning some natives who spoke in strange dialects, it is important to remember that in Montreal you often will come across a variety of French dialects; this stems from the fact that Montreal is a cosmopolitan city in which you will find French speaking residents from all over the world, e.g. from places such as Haiti who proper French; a mix of French and Creole ; immigrants from various African countries who speak a wide variety of French; others from the middle the Middle East….
Let’s look at it this way, if you were to visit Jamaica, you will come across natives who speak proper English, others who speak a blend of Creole and English; others who speak native Creole and others who speak incomprehensible Creole.
These “do gooders” do amuse me. I have been racing mad ever since I saw Skid Solo in Tiger Annual in about 1974 (aged 4) as well as a report on Monaco including a wacky looking car driven by Ricky van Opel. Found out years later he owned more than just that wacky looking F1 car!!
I am now 46 and have lived through the years of fast moving fag packets in Formula 1 and the glorious looking Gunston cars driven by Ian Scheckter amongst others in my native South Africa. I tried smoking once (peer pressure, not because I noticed that McLaren were Red and White.) It used to be advertised in cinema’s and looked glamarous, then I contrasted that with my grandmother dying of smoking related illness and it was horrible anyway.
What we really need is saving from are these people who are so upset with anything that we can chose to enjoy ourselves with. They should grow up and get a proper job.
The Dutch brewer pouring millions into F1 will have no effect on me, both their main brands are poor according to my taste buds.
I’d forgotten Skid Solo!
Skid Solo was my introduction to motor racing (at boarding school in India, far away from TV and any view of a real car), and the source of my understanding of cornering and apexes. Skid Solo and Alistair MacLean’s ‘The Way to a Dusty Death’ where what got me hooked.
Curiously, the reference to an F1 car with its lights on in Maclean’s novel was dropped from later editions!
Hmm, i thought I read most of MacLean’s titles, I’ll have to look that one up.
Thanks. And an older edition as Mr. Larrington points out below!
I am curious about the situation in Europe regarding 4K UHD video. In the US, we have 4K UHD capable TV’s. I am watching the Aegon tennis tournament (Mmmm, Wimbledon soon) on one right now. But here’s the rub: Digital cable TV providers offer only 1080i (sometimes 1080p) here. I think over the air broadcasts are 1080p and the signal is less compressed.
4K UHD video is available only by streaming. So, I assume the 4K UHD video will be offered directly to presumably, paid, subscribed users of the F1 website. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
Gary: 4K is offered in Canada across the different companies but usually on one channel used for either a special broadcast or on the pay per view channels. You require *another* digital box that of course costs way more than the current HD boxes I already own for $700 a pop for the DVR model and $500 for non DVR or some silly high rental in order to project this content. Simply not worth it until the networks ALL convert to 4K. Right now its the Sat/Cable companies *trying* to drive the industry one way and the industry telling them they haven’t amortized the HD upgrades yet – hence the few channels/content. Yeah I bought a 70″ 4k TV but quite frankly at the size and price point I bought into – they’re all 4K capable anyway so no added cost. As its WiFi equipped I can watch the YouTube 4K content and that is pretty good as well as some streaming content that is in 4K. I am a WEC subscriber for their stream and while it is still 1080i I hear that UHD is something being looked at. I would actually look forward to an F1 stream if the quality was there and the bandwidth was large enough. Of course that drives everyone to ‘unlimited’ internet service which thank god I have as i watched most of the ADAC N24! However: The cost of unlimited “fast” internet service, new 4K TV’s + a large pay TV fee to Bernie would be a deal breaker for many millions of fans around the world. I think the standard HD and cable (pay or free) will be around for a few years to come.
I think Sky do 4K via satellite in the uk.
Sky are expected to announce their 4k service today, 15th June. It won’t be cheap.
BT Sport offers a 4k service in the UK, but at the moment their lack of cameras and editing equipment means that it operates only a couple of hours every week. And it’s not available via Virgin Media, which is how I get both Sky and BT. It is likely to be about five years before it is sufficiently widespread to be worth considering.
Do you have a particular source of these green notebooks?
Bartosz, I think the notebook seen on the blog may not be the one that was seen on TV. Perhaps it’s just to throw us off the trail. Joe should have had David run a screen and stand between the camera and the notebook in order to protect industrial secrets.
If my analysis is correct, the notebook is a Moleskine Classic Notebook, Extra Small in Oxide Green. Moleskine notebooks are available at their website and at other on-line shops.
Ted, if you are reading this, your next assignment is to find out if the pages are blank or ruled (or squared or even dotted)?
It is the same design of notebook
“Montreal is also in a bit of a difficult situation because the locals are committed to rebuilding the infrastructure on the Ile de Notre Dame, but they don’t seem to have any money to do it. Having said that the race is the biggest event in Canada and is worth a fortune to the city and to the region and so, when push comes to shove, they will find a way”.
I know the Pro sports players here in the US have to pay out of state taxes on what they make wile they play away games, so maybe all the drivers, engineers and mechanics can pay tax on the wages they make in Canada too. Maybe add a surcharge to the tickets, hotels and restaurants and maybe they could have the F1 race pay for their infrastructure needs.
While I enjoy some things about F1, it’s not a necessity, it’s a luxury. Infrastructure is a necessity and should always be given top priority IMO.