One of the thrills of being a motor racing fan back in the early 1980s was the anticipation of the arrival of Autosport on Thursday mornings. In fact, I was living as a student in London at the time and I discovered that one could get the magazine on a Wednesday afternoon at Baker Street Underground station and so I would scrape together the necessary money and I would get the magazine early every week and would then spend many happy hours poring over the latest news and race results from all over the world. I got my break in the sport by noticing that Autosport didn’t have a regular reporter in the European Formula 3 Championship and offered my services, even if the financial deal on offer was completely ridiculous.
Thirty-five years later I am celebrating the end of my 28th season as an F1 reporter and I still have the same kind of enthusiasm for the sport as I did on those Wednesday afternoons in Baker Street. I go to every race, excited by the prospects and keen to pass on my passion for the sport to fans around the world.
The world has changed, of course. Now there is endless coverage, a large percentage of it produced by people who have never been near an F1 paddock. Dozens of websites use an agency that has never yet had a reporter in the sport. They simply steal the stories and package them in such a way as it makes life easy for their customers. The clients get cheap content and don’t care about the quality. It’s just wallpaper to make it look like they are covering the sport properly. The quality of journalism has been in decline for decades. Even before I was involved Rupert Murdoch had begun turning newspapers into infotainment. The Sun and The News of the World had topless girls and salacious reports of twiddling vicars and dodgy politicians. When he bought The Times things began to change. This was a serious newspaper, which had been the most credible publication in the world for more than a century. Gradually, it began to change towards infotainment with political agendas. Murdoch moved on and started doing the same in TV. The world was becoming Murdochised, either by his media outlets, or by those seeking to compete by adopting similar tactics. One can argue that Murdoch gave the people what they wanted and profited from it, just as one can say that he destroyed the media as the Fourth Estate of government, the watchdog that kept an eye on whether democracy was functioning properly.
The respect for the press gradually sank as its standards fell. I left Autosport in the end because the then editor began pushing for sensational headlines and the attitude that if a story was appearing elsewhere, we had to have it, even if it was total rubbish. It is the readers who ultimately decide whether a publications lives or dies and by driving away the hard core fans of old, that was the start of the slippery slope, although the magazine was bolstered by the success of Nigel Mansell and then Damon Hill before the fall in readership really began to come to light, at the same time as the Internet also began to eat into readership numbers. I don’t know if it is possible for the press to win back the respect that once it had, but I doubt it.
I still find it troubling that today a lot of people are reporting that Lewis Hamilton has “finally” taken to social media to congratulate F1 rival and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, as though Lewis was grudgingly acknowledging Nico’s achievement four days after the event.
This is dishonest reporting. After the race in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton said the following, in his first public statement after the race. “A big congratulations to Nico, of course, his first world championship. Good job, man”.
Nico said: “I also want to say congrats to Lewis, you did a great season, great competitor, massively quick always. Congrats, always tough to beat you.”
A few moments later, Lewis added: “I did everything that I could, particularly towards the end and obviously Nico had a very, very clean year without any real issues to be honest and that’s why we sit in this position right now. But he did a fantastic job, so big congratulations to him, it’s a great feeling to win the world championship and I look forward to fighting with him next year.”
Sporting? Both men were. The stuff written since then is 24-carat crap.
joeblogsf1 
Great piece Joe. I was very lucky that my next-door neighbour was a printer in the late 70’s/early 80’s and would push Autosport through my letterbox on a Wednesday morning as he got home from his night shift.
I think the one thing that’s a lot harder to find these days is quality, insightful journalism, written by people that were actually there, rather than those who may have been either to a few GP’s in the past (cough, Metro, cough…), or just trawl the internet and assemble their diatribes.
Thank goodness for the likes of yourself, Autosport, and a few other magazines that actually invest in proper journalism.
Enjoy your off-season Joe. Thanks for 2016.
As somebody who has to work with elements of the media as part of his job I can relate to the point about the difference ‘real journalists’ and the quote catchers who will believe and print almost anything if it hits all the salacious hot buttons. I recently spoke at length with the editor of a US tabloid who was quite happy to confirm that a story regarding my company had been,
“made up last Wednesday” but was unwilling to remove it from their website because,
“it’s really driving some traffic to us” Some years ago I discussed with the then CEO of an Indycar team his attitude to the media, he reply was very depressing,
“we tell them the absolute minimum”.
Still remember that Thursday Autosport excitement myself. Was really a great magazine.
Full of admiration for securing your way in – great idea!
Something I forgot to add to my previous post. My wife has just renewed my subscription to Joe’s GP+ magazine and I must recommend it to any fan of F1 who wants to read the facts about the sport. No sensationalism, no PR fluff and some excellent photography.
I have never forgotten the picture of a bloodied and clearly distressed Hakinnen being lifted from his car being published in Autosport. I like you Joe used to buy Autosport at the station on a Wednesday using my school dinner money! From that day to this I have never soiled my hands with Autosport since
While evidence of our media being standards-free is everywhere, I’ve reached the point where I view today’s headline writers as spawn of the devil… (them and Facebook)…
At first I thought they were handing the headlines job to interns who just didn’t know any better… but eventually it dawned on me that I was wrong about that… they’re doing a crappy job on purpose…
The problem with all the crap, as you put it, is that people lap it up. Sad to say that if you take a look at a few other F1 pages and forums comment sections the crap is overflowing. It seems there are many more people who enjoy easily digestible crap than the high quality fine dining on offer here. I don’t know what the solution is other than to congratulate you for refusing to dumb down your output and join in with the crap making and hope that someday people get sick of crap.
Do you think the ‘people’ consume the crap because they prefer it to proper journalism or because it is the norm and what they have come to expect ? I’m not sure I know the answer myself.
Hi Joe
Totally agree on all points, particularly the final paragraph. It’s been a really enjoyable season this year and both Lewis and Nico have provided great entertainment for the fans, and Nico deserves the win. I don’t see the point in conjuring up stories to say otherwise although I suspect Lewis’s body language in the immediate aftermath played into the hands of commentators. However he had just lost out on a world championship so I don’t blame him for not looking the cheeriest fellow.
I don’t see things changing re the media or social media since they have a constant void to fill 24/7. It’s a real shame but most people appreciate the quality content, eventually, once they’ve spent too much precious time wading through the rubbish.
All the best Andrew
Thanks for taking the trouble to write this. It must feel like you’re whistling into the wind at times, but those of us who appreciate accuracy – an increasing rarity in our post-Truth age – need proper journalists like yourself more than ever. Thanks again for doing what you do.
Brings back memories 1987-1995, the weekly lunchtime sprint from work to the newsagent and back to secure my copy of Autosport. Normally just enough time to read the headlines and the latest GP report. Damn the internet.
” Nico had a very, very clean year without any real issues to be honest and that’s why we sit in this position right now” Wrong Lewis.
Disingenuous, cheap shot, not the whole story.
He hasn’t mentioned he’s black (again) (yet )
What a ridiculous comment. If you look at the technical failures this year, it is patently obvious that Nico had an advantage.
“If you look at the technical failures this year, it is patently obvious that Nico had an advantage” SO WHAT. Most champions have the benefit of a reliable year. The point is Lewis couldn’t offer genuine congratulations to Nico without the cheap shot of bringing up reliability – and YOU are having trouble seeing through that.
Go and do some arithmetic. Add The points lost when Lewis lost his engine in Malaysia and that that to his total. You will see, if you can add up, the result. The congratulations were entirely genuine.
Joe , don’t waste your time. Sal is trolling, so he is not interested in facts. All of the comments below are collectively validating our assessment of him as a contemptible loathsome character.
It was exactly the scenario that handed Lewis Hamilton his first driver’s title. Felipe Massa’s engine failure, while leading three laps from the finish of the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2008, ended up being the lost points that robbed Massa of a title.
Math works both ways.
What’s interesting is how reputations and confidence are built around turns of fortune.
Who knows how Massa’s career might have unfolded had his Hungarian engine seen him all the way to the line. What would a World Championship have done for the rest of his career?
The same goes for Hamilton. If he had never won in 2008 would he have been so highly regarded in the pit lane when Mercedes went recruiting to replace Schumacher?
If not, could Massa’s Hungarian engine failure back in 2008 ultimately cost Nico Rosberg two more titles? Could Nico have been celebrating his third Championship last weekend instead of his first?
Competitive animal or not, when the possibilities are so finely balanced, people watching the dynamic between Rosberg and Hamilton can certainly be forgiven for seeing things a bit differently and choosing to cheer or boo what they find as sporting or unsporting behaviour off the track.
Every nuance and gesture that these guys make, often goaded on by the media, is set before us as part of the drama. If Lewis’s congratulations weren’t viewed by some as feeling genuine…how is that not to be expected?
For me, seeing Nico’s hard work and perseverance rewarded was a good thing for a driver that has been in the team since it’s inception. It’s a feel good outcome to 2016 that sets up a more interesting inter-team battle at Mercedes moving forward.
Nicely put comment, well said.
Its not exactly the scenario…..Massa and Hamilton were in different teams.
2008 was the last time a WDC was won in a car not from from the winning constructors title stable. You can argue legitimately that Massa was driving the better car that year……comparisons between drivers in different cars are not really relevant.
Hamilton has always been highly regarded from the minute he started to give Alonso a run for his money, regardless of WDC,’s Just ask the F1 Team bosses who still voted Hamilton the best driver this year.
I agree though with your last point that Nico’s hard work and perseverance has paid off………deservedly so.
Hamilton had a puncture in the same race, so what is your point? There was no defining crash or bad luck that season – they both had it
Oh well, I guess Toto is wrong saying that Malaysia cost Lewis the championship, and you are right…
Don’t particularly agree with the way that the original comment was written, but I do find it a little disappointing that Lewis can’t quite bring himself to congratulate Nico without mentioning reliability. I do think it’s genuine, but Lewis would seem more sporting if he didn’t use the qualifier.
Joe, as for arithmetic – not as a simple as that, is it? Surely Nico’s gameplan changed once Lewis had experienced the problem in Malaysia.
Totally agree Lewis had some bad luck, but don’t understand why the championship is being defined by it.
His first response was without qualification. But the truth is the truth and I see that Toto Wolff is now admitting it as well.
One could also argue that Lewis made some terrible starts earlier in the season, and that could have factored into his loss.
I can’t remember the last time someone referred to Lewis’s colour – would you care to elaborate?
No, I don’t think we need to go down that path. The commenter is just a hater and there is nothing of value in his remarks
More to the point – I cannot ever remember Lewis mentioning the colour of his skin.
How dare you Sal !!
Disgusting Bull crap.
Lewis has not brought colour into anything..
Pathetic elbow on racial stereotyping.
Low blows from cretins.
As I stated Joe this negative fodder is turning ripe at the moment.
Actually Lewis did once say ” maybe because I am Black”
Do you remember back in his McLaren days he went through a time when he kept getting penalties ( overtaking when his four wheels were only just off the track and a few other issues). It did seem he was getting singled out.
I think it was then in an interview he gave during a Monaco race weekend compaining about the stewards and asked why he thought he was getting the penalties he said ” I don’t know, maybe its because I am black” Slightly tongue in cheek / slightly not maybe cos Lewis knows what he is saying! If you dont beleive me look it up on youtube as the clip is there.
So, for those who think I am a racist – you did’t get the subtlety of what I was saying – did you eh?
Joe – I’m afraid you seem to be intolerant of people who don;t have your opinion on something. If you give a snappy response to a comment, people will want to come back at it. You will be pleased to know I won;t bother posting anymore and probably scrub off from my Christmas list the subscription to GP+.
I don’t need to look it up. I remember the comment. It was perfectly reasonable, I thought. He doesn’t do it all the time and never plays it up. As to whether I am intolerant, I think if you read through the comments you will find that I am incredibly tolerant of people with sensible views and I put up with a lot with silly views as well. I only take action if people are offensive. If you read these comments you will see that. However feel free to cut off your nose to spite your face if that is what you wish to do. There may be other forums to which you are better suited.
Some people have short memories. Over the 5 years of following your blog, I’ve seen some really offensive stuff. I’m convinced that there’s even worse stuff that you have waste your time sifting through that, thankfully, doesn’t see the light of day. Your ‘tolerance fuse’ is arguably one of the longest I’ve seen.
Gosh
The Ali G quote that Lewis made.
Sally on one!!
It was taken by the media and blown out of proportion.
Tongue and check as Sacha B Cohen character said it.
Lewis that year had more dodgy steward rubbish than most drivers had in the whole of their career. So a point made using a comical quote.
Yes some of us F1 viewers remember it. Unlike someone who trolls through to find anything to get a shallow point across.
Sadly the bottom feeders are loving dredging rubbish from bed of their stagnating ponds in the hope they can try and get a chance to qualify a derogatory colour statement on a trolling post. Pathetic and worthless.
Sal on or is it Salvuborg?
It’s the same rotting onion
“Note the whole story”. You said it. The sentence which followed the one you quote is “But he did a fantastic job, so big congratulations to him …”
Petard. Hoist.
“as though Lewis was grudgingly acknowledging Nico’s achievement four days after the event”
Well, in all the television and radio interviews on the day all Lewis could talk about was his reliability problems. He never congratulated Nico and just looked like a completely miserable, spoilt brat of a child…which is ironic given their completely polarising childhoods.
This was on TV. The international feed. Global.
I don’t understand? I watched the race and Lewis hugged Nico after the race, he congratulated him on the podium and in the press conference afterwards. Was he graceful enough for everyone’s tastes? Probably not.
One of the key things I observe time and again is that if one of these personalities, like Lewis, doesn’t conform to be an agreeable representation to someone, the result is often an extreme one, much like this comment.
The feed that I saw (in Australia, taken from Sky) showed Lewis was the first driver to congratulate Nico as they got out of the cars, still in their helmets.
Joe, your comments on media in general are very true and concerning. For F1 and in my chosen domain of expertise, I know whom to trust. But for general news, I feel I am abandoned by the world. Any suggestions for general news sources still trustworthy?
The Economist
The Guardian is still independent… (for the moment)…
The BBC website tends to stick to reporting the facts as opposed to expressing opinion when it comes to general news and current affairs although there are occasionally some left leaning aspects of their coverage. If you are happy to consume your information via radio I would recommend BBC Radio 5 Live.
This may be true of the main BBC news site (although I think it’s on the way out too) but you cannot possibly think that the BBC Formula 1 page is an accurate reflection of the facts. Every time Joe talks about “cut-and-paste monkeys” gathering stories without actually researching the facts, the so-called “Chief F1 Writer from said site springs to mind…
He does a good job
Really? I find Andrew Benson’s writing to be utterly biased.
While I do not agree with you. I think he is a real class act. The BBC is lucky to have him.
Stephen Acworth> The Guardian is still independent… (for the moment)…
Indeed, but unfortunately in my humble opinion its “journalism” hasn’t been worth reading for about fifteen years, the odd amazing exposé aside. Arguably not since Peter Preston retired, really…
Shame, it used to be a brilliant paper.
On the feed I watched, Lewis congratulated Nico in parc fermee immediately after the race finished and well before the podium ceremony…
On the web, the International Business Times, which has an Australian edition but which covers world news, not just business. In this case, it adds Australian news which it does not run in its six other national editions. The editor is ex-New York Times and as a retired journalist, I find it excellent,read it daily with the BBC site.
@SMP re trusted general news sources.
The comment rules don’t normally allow links. So check out soapboxie dot com/social and you will find a relevant article and suggested answers to your question The problem is, that we live in a filter bubble, created by the political and personal agendas of the journalists, news editors and media owners. Couple this with the group-think and herd mentality of social media, and it becomes easy to distort, trivialise, or even ignore what should be top of the news agenda. Do you really know what is happening in Africa or the Middle East? Are you aware that genocide is happening right now? It’s no surprise that people are looking for original source reporting, and consulting news agency sites like, AFP, AP and Reuters, either on the web or through phone apps. Remember ABC – Assume nothing, Believe nothing, Challenge everything.
+1 – have to concur with Josh. Lewis was damning with faint praise.
Sentiment, body language, tone and attitude are actually far more important in this context. After all, 80% of communication is non-verbal.
The TV cameras caught the moment far more accurately in that Lewis was far from gracious and it is difficult to support the notion that he was sporting – look at how Andy Roddick congratulated Federer after losing the 2009 Wimbledon Final, Serena Williams and Andy Murray after losing out on the Australian Open crowns earlier this year, Aussie captain Stephen Moore’s praise for the Kiwi’s in the Rugby World Cup final in 2015 or indeed how Massa dealt with the blow of losing the ultimate prize in front of his nation in 2008.
All of these moments and plenty others were also on TV, with a global international feed capturing the moment immediately after the result yet there was no grudging obligated praise as was the case with Hamilton in Abu Dhabi.
Utter tosh
That last response ought to be qualified with the words “In your opinion”.
Bob, this is Joe’s Blog; it’s ALL his opinion, that’s (presumably) what we all come here to read.
Not true Tim – the main reason many come to this blog is due Joe’s ability to discern news before other sources and unearth facts that are frequently abstracted and misreported by others. While his personal subjective spin is an added bonus, that is not the principle reason why every reader comes to this blog.
Agreed again, Bob. Accurate news is what it’s all about. Opinion is nice to read, don’t expect to agree with everyone and don’t expect them to agree with me, but a good argument can be very enjoyable. It’s so annoying when people who take a different view can’t put forward their side without descending into name-calling, hater, troll, racist, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe (not all applicable to this particular forum, I’m thinking other sports and political forums too), to try and take some sort of moral high ground rather than accepting that some simply see another perspective on things and debating in a civil manner.
+1 – amen to the ability to appreciate different perspectives (and debate the merits of them in rationale and objective manner).
+1 Mr Ballard. I’m sick of the modern sportswriter emphasis that if a sporting star is not continually ” angry ” or “loathing” a rival or team mate, then the person in question is not “really trying ” or “not a real Champion”…..that really is total garbage in my view.
If you can only perform to the highest level when you have only anger and contempt for your rivals, then you are not a great human although you may win a bit more often than others…..and frankly how you win and how you lose are the best indicators of character available.
To me Massa stands out as a really great sportsman in motor racing. There are many other examples through time. I often think that Moss may have made the most gracious act of any racing driver back in 1958, when he helped Hawthorn to take the title. In fact many great drivers have made the point that winning a major title is not really such a big thing, but being a sporting person in how you drive and race is paramount. I have always found it difficult to argue against that attitude.
Over the years many criticised how Ronnie Peterson held back a lot in 1978, when he was No2 to Mario Andretti, and i’ve even read tale that Mario felt a little embarressed about the situation, but his view was that he had worked hard to get Lotus back to the front of the grid, and that he therefore deserved the title and didn’t see why he should have to fight a team mate for it….that doesn’t diminish Mario for me, because he was clear on his contract, and he made sure Ronnie knew exactly what was required. In turn Ronnie abided by the contract and yet still was able to show that he was quicker than Andretti.
Those days seem far away now, not just in time, but in the spirit of sportsmanship displayed. But if one isn’t sporting, then just what is the point of any sport?
+1 Mr. Cullinane. On the U.S. TV feed, Will Buxton interviewed Massa after the race, and Felipe first talked about other drivers — Nico and Jenson Button — before he talked about himself. I was so impressed. Such a classy guy, and I’ll miss him.
I’m not a fan of Lewis’s because he reminds me too much of Michael Schumacher’s more unpleasant side, i.e., the win-at-all-costs mentality. Of course, that trait is very desirable in F1, and has accounted for much of his success. To me, at least, he’s an incredibly talented driver, but also a very self-absorbed and occasionally quite petulant individual. Joe will disagree with that assessment, of course, but I think he has an obvious soft (blind?) spot for Lewis.
You’re correct, Bob, Hamilton’s attitude was unsporting after the race. But don’t take my word for it:
“You know I’ve got mixed emotions here because I think, he’s got to have confidence in his ability, he knows he’s got the three titles, he knows in certain circumstances he’s got the measure of Nico, but I would have liked to have seen him, you know this championship loss has been coming for a while, it would have been nice for him to, not, not celebrate Nico’s success but just maybe be a bit more, er, you know, he didn’t lose it on the last lap of this Grand Prix did he, this has been lost earlier in the season and he’s fought back a few times, so, you know I, I know this is not fairy, fairy tale land that we live in but I think he’s maybe a bit too big-lipped, erm I know he’s lost the title but he won the Grand Prix and that should be something to be celebrated”.
David Coulthard there, on Channel 4, commenting immediately after Hamilton’s post-race press-pen interview for the station, and struggling to find a way to describe what he’d just heard without being critical of Hamilton. Coulthard of course is as blatantly pro-Hamilton as it’s possible to be, he’s tried to talk Rosberg’s car into mechanical failure throughout the last few races and one gets the impression that if he could he would climb in the car with Hamilton and kiss his feet as drives round the track.
Mark Webber then went on to say that he was disappointed that Hamilton couldn’t have been a bit more gracious and didn’t need to try to belittle what Rosberg had achieved, and that while Hamilton has suffered technical problems this year, Rosberg had some technical hitches last year which may have helped Hamilton on his way to that title. Webber cannot be described as a hater either, that’s a genuine view of an interview which something to be desired in terms of sportsmanship.
It’s commentator blah blah blah. Watch it. You’ll see
I am sick to death of Hamilton being called a miserable spoilt brat of a child if he loses. I can remember Vettel looking sullen when Red Bull dominated and he only managed a second place. Kimi Raikonnen always look sullen, whether he’s on the podium or not. I’ve seen Alonso, Button and a wealth of others look sullen when they don’t win. Yet no-one even gives a fig or makes any comment about them. I don’t think Hamilton has a problem, I think the problem lies with certain other people. He looks miserable because he HATES losing. That’s what makes him a 3 time champion. If he appeared happy at coming second, I’ve absolutely no doubt he’d get criticised for that and accused as having no will power to win. The poor sod can’t win. Just leave out the petty prejudices whatever the reason for them is and confine them to the pages of the infotainment rubbish that Joe referred to earlier.
Well said Davey P👍
BRAVO 👏 BRAVO 👏
+ 1 Davey P. I’m in agreement. It irks me also. I’m also sick of all the tosh. Ultimately Lewis gets paid to race, not to be (seen to be) a terribly awfully nice gent afterwards if he looses. When the history books are written, he’ll be remembered for his talent behind the wheel rather than his responses t the rather false, inane questions that are directed to the drivers on the podium. It might gives some of the contributors of this blog a nice warm feeling to hark back to the good old days of the late Ronnie Peterson, the even greater Jim Clark and the legendary Villeneuve; racers all. The 60’s, 70’s & the ’80’s. They were all great days however, the world has moved on and people need to accept that. It’s a different place. If we all want to get sentimental and hark back to the ‘good old days’ then fine; get some DVDs or watch the John Frankenheimer film with Graham Hill etc. Each to their own. I’ll remember Lewis for the excitement, the race craft and for not giving up during the last few races of 2016. The bloke’s a triple WDC; a star.
Josh, that just isn’t true. You could see on the world feed that Lewis patted Nico on the back and they hugged immediately after the race (still with their helmets on) and Lewis congratulated him on the podium.
geemac> You could see on the world feed that Lewis patted Nico on the back and they hugged immediately after the race (still with their helmets on)
Indeed he did, but the trouble is, as Remy M has so eloquently pointed out below, is that in the UK we never got to see that on Channel 4 when it happened, due to them taking their first post-race ad-break. (We got shown it briefly much later on in the 90-minute(!) wind-down.)
One has to now wonder in retrospect just how much damage that ad-break’s placement has caused!
Actually they did show the moment when Hamilton patted Rosberg’s back and the two hugged live. It was right after Rosberg jumped the fence following his doughnuts on the pit straight. I was sure it was shown and I have it onscreen right now, my series link Freeview recording shows it at two hours forty-seven minutes and forty six seconds, for anyone who still has it. The 4OD version will obviously have had adverts inserted when it went online, but live recordings will show it went out as it happened, four minutes fifty-five seconds after Rosberg crossed the line to clinch second.
It gets worse when you consider that many people now get their ‘news’ from social media rather than traditional outlets, thereby receiving a distorted view of world events or even fake news. Add to that the half-wits this drivel is aimed at it’s hardly surprising standards have dropped Joe.
Worse than that is that almost nobody stops to think or ask how accurate is what they are fed.
You’ve hit the nail on the head really. The internet is a wonderful tool, but it also brings with it the chance for everyone to have a voice and be an ‘expert’. Now I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that we can all easily interact with each other, I value that it helps me to understand a wide range of viewpoints with those I interact with. That same setup allows what I’m doing right now with this comment. But, as you discuss, it also means armchair journalism becomes the dominant force and shouting the loudest with the most sensational headlines and manufacturing situations becomes the ‘standard’.
It has happened in many avenues of reporting I think, and it’s made me more aware of what I’m consuming and I’ve become more selective with where I source information and opinion. I’m not sure how positive such a stance is, but I feel it’s an improvement on just riding the sensationalist train as it steams through whichever subject it latches itself onto.
Blame Sky. Rosberg had barely finished his triumphant radio cross to the pits (mid warm-down lap!) before Cruft and Brundle were insinuating that Lewis was more worthy and had somehow been ripped off.
That’s not how I read Martin’s take. If anything he appeared to be getting annoyed at his co-commentators continual attempts to reduce Rosberg’s efforts to Hamilton’s bad run of reliability.
More than once he played a straight bat to obviously loaded questions with a blunt “Rosberg is the world champion”.
I’ll have to agree to disagree with Joe. I don’t feel as though Hamilton was particularly gracious initially. However it appeared the more distance he had from the realisation that he had finally lost it, the more relaxed about it he became. I’m sure he’ll always feel it was a WDC that he lost through no fault of his own and there is some truth in it. However, there were weekends this year that Rosberg clearly had the better weekend – Singapore being one. – Baku being another with his poor quali mistake.
Likewise both drivers had to adapt to the clutch system and Rosberg did a better job of that earlier in the year with Hamilton putting himself into places he didn’t need to be and paying for it. So I think it’s unfair to claim that Rosberg lucked into it completely. Sure it played it’s part but that’s not the whole story.
I don’t think there is any doubt that Hamilton is the quicker driver. However in F1 that has never and will never guarantee you’ll finish a WDC at the end of the season. There are too many other variables outside the control of the driver that can and do get in the way.
That’s a good point, Rosberg dominated the starts when Hamilton didn’t have access to his beloved start engineer at the beginning of the season…
The trouble with Autosport is that it has followed Autocar down into the “Trash Tabloid” section of the market. Motor Sport Magazine is much better.
Buying GP+ is recommended as better still and fsater
Congratulations Joe, what a great push towards reliable journalism, in motorsport or any other area.
We can hope that Autosport returns to the quality of 20 years ago soon. Did I read somewhere that Nigel Roebuck is going back?
It won’t.
And OE Saward writing the Touring car pieces!
By the time I worked for Haymarket in the mid 90’s the sensationalist tabloid style push was well advanced. The publications were becoming quite far removed from the ones that I desperately tried to get hold of as a kid in the 80’s. Sometimes the local distributor didn’t even get them delivered to the local newsagent on time so I missed a few copies of MN and Autospod.
By the mid 90’s gone were the wonderful 2 pages spreads of Group A, F3 and F3000 racing that I loved so much replaced with 1 page (if we were lucky) summaries and multiple pages of F1 and rental car racing (not touring car) coverage.
The publishers felt with some substance that to survive the editorial had to appeal to a younger and less ‘enthusiast’ readership. I know for a fact that some of the Ed’s and writers weren’t too keen on that either!
I was thinking along the same lines recently. For me in the US it was Road&Track, then Formula, then OnTrack. As a kid this stuff helped me learn to read, with interest and critical assessment. Nowadays between the frustration with the commercially interrupted US F1 coverage, and the sense that the internet is stringing me along much of the time, I often wonder when I’ll get fed up and go back to relying on reputable enthusiastic journos, like the GP+ team. History, sporting competition, and technological development are what made me love auto racing. Your work keeps me connected with those threads. Thanks, Joe.
+1
This is the first time we have ever been commended for helping a person learn to read. We hadn’t considered that to be one of our jobs when the magazine was founded. Glad to be of service. Happy, too, that you continue to follow the sport.
I can really identify with your anticipation of Autosport Joe. In my case, in 1966 I worked for a Jermyn St winemerchant (for about 10 quid a week!) and the mag was usually available at Green Park station on a Wednesday morning. Fast forward 7 years and I had a local TV motorsport programme here in Canada, which two years later turned into radio then in ’78 a Sunday paper……total opposite way to everybody else! I count myself blessed indeed to have seen the sport from the inside during that far different era when drivers etc were so accessable.
Just to back Joe up at some points he described – with a personal story.
I have been working on my car and motorsports writing break for eight years now. Over two years ago I got a call from a big-budget online news site to work for them on a newly-founded car-related section. The job basically was to put out as much content as possible, which meant I was browsing through websites collected some links and sent them to the editor for review dividing them up to “short” and “long” articles. After I got the green light on them, I would translate and rewrite them for local use (this is Hungary, mind that) and that was it.
Sometimes I was trying to put out my own content. Since I had been doing some decent blogging in English for quite a while, I gathered some great sources from the F1 world. I kept pushing on an interesting, F1 technology-related stuff and the column-editor kept saying that it they weren’t really interested in motorsports but let me go with it.
So I wrote the piece, sent it and waited for the result. About two weeks later I went to the site and it was my article on the front page, in fact, it was the whole headlining article for the site, not just the column. There was one problem, though. It wasn’t under my name, but the column-editor’s.
I kept, calling, messaging, but nothing (it was late in the evening). The post was up for at least 12 hours will they finally got back and clarified that it was a mistake and they changed the author to my name, but it was already off the front page by that time…
A few months later I got a message from the organisers of Amber Lounge that I was invited to their Monaco event. Somebody liked my personal blogging in English, so I got an invitation. I was super-excited and went to “my” news site asking for money that would have covered the THIRD of my travelling cost ONLY in exchange for the story. They told me that they wouldn’t spend any money on my travelling but if I had written the article, they would have paid as usual.
This got me thinking: to the best of my knowledge, no one ever was invited from Hungary to Amber Lounge. Here I was with an invitation, going rubbing elbows with F1 drivers, celebrities, models and royalties. They could have had a national exclusive coverage if it was up to me, they had nothing to do with my invitation. Yet for them the story would have been worth the same kind of money what they used to pay for the kind of thing I could produce at home, sipping coffee in my underpants on a lazy Saturday morning.
It wasn’t the money that upset me on my behalf, but their lack of appreciation or their incapability of finding any value in this.
So after going through various synonyms to ‘intercourse’ in my mind, I decided to just pay up on my own and went to the event, had an unforgettable time and wrote the stuff on my blog for free – for what it was worth…
Thank you Gabor, and kudos for putting in the effort. It is appreciated
Come on Gabor, you need to stop feeling hard done by. This self pity has been going on for years in Joe’s comment section. Get out there and sell the story to someone else. It sounds like you were only sub-contracting to the publication anyway. So find someone else who will pay for the travel. In fact, break the article up into three different articles and sell it to three different publications to cover different elements. 1. business, 2. travel, 3. lifestyle. If that fails, then build up your portfolio with those pieces on your own blog and make sure you have advertising on the blog so you at least realise a bit of money from it. Start to build your enterprise!
Spot on, Joe. I have no problem with either Nico or Lewis regarding that last race, only some parts of the Mercedes empire. Both drivers were fine.
And yup, another here who lived for Thursday mornings in order to pick up his copy of Autosport (along with New Scientist and, every other week, Private Eye).
Being a nosey bugger, I decided to look up Autosport on Wikipedia to see which editor might have been responsible for you choosing to depart, only to be saddened by the news that Jim Bamber is no longer with us. I had no idea. RIP.
Still, I suppose that goes to prove the point that I’ve not read Autosport ever since that “The Real Lotus” cover; mind you that was the final straw as it had been getting worse for years before that.
As a weekly reader of Autosport and a daily reader of The Times, since the late 1970’s, I can only agree with your sentiments on both journalistic standards and proprietorial influence. As to the ‘popular’ media’s reaction to Lewis’s win I can only conclude that they all only read and regurgitate each other’s copy without a thought for actually doing what a reporter is supposed to do – investigate and report fact. When adding opinion on a subject comes into it, if you can’t express a correctly informed opinion don’t express an opinion at all.
Good job you still go to the races and actually talk to people Joe! Congrats on the 500 too!
“…just as one can say that he destroyed the media as the Fourth Estate of government, the watchdog that kept an eye on whether democracy was functioning properly.”
Rupert Murdoch is the master manipulator. A man born without conscience that has turned Britain into the selfish, resentful, bitter nation we are today. He fits the template of a perfect psychopath. The only think more offensive than him is the series of spineless politicians who have sold this country to him for the glorification of their own ego.
Even those who are supposedly there at the GP sometimes seem to have watched a different race to me. A certain red top had Palmer starting Mexico from the Pit Lane – he actually pitted at the end of Lap 1 under the safety car. It was also reported that Verstappen’s penalty was for knocking off Rosberg at the start as opposed to cutting across the grass later in the race. Said “reporter” has also continually stirred up the Hamilton Rosberg feud. Sad really!
When they got out of their cars, Lewis tapped Nico on the shoulder to get his attention to say congratulations and a little hug – straight away! So they didn’t speak in the room and so what. Last year was capgate, this year was theydidn’tspeakgate…
‘Click bait’! That and the fact most people don’t read beyond the headline and the 1st 4 lines. Oh and also the fact that being intelligent seems to be slipping out of fashion, helped by comments such as ‘people are fed up with experts’ and ‘I don’t believe smoking is harmful’!
Nice to know I’m not (as I thought I was) the only one who has been horrified by Autosport’s descent to red-top journalism, though come to think of it it usually has one so maybe it’s caveat emptor. Whatever, my current sub expires next week and I’ll be replacing it with a shiny new one to Joe’s inestimable organ for 2017. I mean, motorbikes? Where did that come from? Whoever said Motor Sport is now a better mag was dead right.
I share the same opinions regarding the Autosport Magazine. Regarding the Lewis vs. Nico issues it is what it is. It was just Nico’s year. He won the championship by having the most points. If there was a serious issue I don’t think they would not still be racing each other.
Hi Joe
Thank you the blog and to you and the others for GP+. The latest edition is a cracker what with the race, Huschke and the Brabham boys. A great mixture.
The world has changed so much and what we expect from journalism with it. If we expect the truth from the popular press ………..
60 seasons ago Peter Collins gave up his car, and his chance of the F1 Championship, to Fangio. Two years later Stirling Moss handed the Championship to Mike Hawthorn and I don’t think has ever regretted it.
Photos of drivers post race in those days shows an elation which was possibly for still being alive.
These days it is said that your biggest opponent is your team mate.
Lewis gave Nico the hardest time that he could in the circumstances. It was the management that messed up and as for swapping the mechanics, well now they have one set that have lost twice on the run! Too many cooks etc.
As for reliability, it has always been part of the sport but these days less so and Lewis was very unlucky. In the 1960’s not all Climax engines were equal in either power or reliability and the same went for DFV’s a few years later. Jim Clark’s team mates never seemed to have much luck did they?
Anyway, I hope we can keep this going over the winter.
Al the best,
John
Joe, what you wrote about some websites referencing news from others made me think of the BBC gossip section on their website. This is how I came across your blog maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I’ve noted that for the past couple of years their gossip section has not made reference to your blog. Is this deliberate (i.e. at your request)?
Thanks as usual for the great reporting. And good luck for the next 500 GPs!
No, I’d be delighted if they did it more often…
“and obviously Nico had a very, very clean year without any real issues to be honest and that’s why we sit in this position right now”. In spite of congrats (for the media), LH just had to get a snide remark in there didn’t he.
As for Autosport, i gave up with it during the time it morphed into motor racing’s equivalent of the tabloid press, oh and the cost.
Joe, I was very fortunate to live in the UK in the 70’s. Loved going to the Baker Street tube station every Wednesday afternoon for the brand new Autosport. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
Joe, I just found out what Autosport is doing to get the readership up. I had a call from the publisher today offering a 6 issue trial fro £1 !
Until recently, there was a sense of doom and gloom in my department. We felt we couldn’t trust each other, admin appeared to have us pegged for dissolution, and we felt there was no way out. Then, without warning, the leadership changed. Guess what happened?
Another great piece Joe – thanks as ever.
As a huge Lewis Hamilton fan, I would have been delighted if he had pulled off another championship but Nico Rosberg is an entirely worthy world champion, and I can see that Lewis Hamilton appreciates that too.
I don’t mean to defend some of the more moronic comments above, but I think one’s view of Lewis’s attitude is coloured by how much of the world feed one got to see, and some of the 24 carat crap is undoubtedly due to more sofa journalism.
Watching the race in the UK on Channel 4, we missed the vital moment of congratulations in parc fermé because of an ad break for which C4 had been holding its breath since the formation lap, After the ad break we saw the podium ‘green room’, where Lewis did not seem to utter a word to Nico, and the podium interviews where Lewis thanked his family, friends and team and talked about his lack of reliability before offering his “big congratulations to Nico”, which made the congratulations appear almost to be a forced action or afterthought. The podium hug and handshake seemed to be at the insistence of David Coulthard, rather than the instinctive reaction of the drivers themselves. And the snippets of the post-podium press conference we saw had Lewis again talking about how he had suffered from unreliability, with Nico’s facial expression at that point seeming to say “why can’t you just congratulate me rather than bang on about that again?”.
So it was easy for the C4 viewer to be left with the impression that Lewis was not entirely magnanimous in defeat. In this context, the reports of Lewis “finally” congratulating Nico make a little more sense, but this is not a complete representation of events. Had C4 allowed viewers to see the parc fermé interaction, this impression would have been very different – but one would have hoped the written media would provide a fuller picture than that already available to the average UK free-to-air viewer. As you point out Joe, the days of high journalistic standards are sadly long gone…
Remy M: although what you say about the C4 coverage is largely true, I’m sure that at some point later on they did show us the parc fermé congratulations in a replay, because I only have the Channel 4 coverage and I remember seeing it.
But it’s absolutely true that we didn’t see it at the time it happened, and I agree that this may well have played a part in people analysing Lewis’ reaction. Especially if it was only shown much later in the show after many people would have gone to make a cup of tea or whatever (I don’t remember exactly when they showed it). Indeed, I remember feeling surprised when I finally got to see it, and pleased that in fact Lewis HAD congratulated Nico right away.
I’m not going to criticise Channel 4 too much though, as I still remember suffering ITV’s five 2m10s ad-breaks throughout the race, which later rose to 2m50s (while they pretended they didn’t).
As I have mentioned before I sometimes buy a weeks SkySport Pass on NowTv when the live race is not on Channel4. Inevitably they send an email on either the Saturday or even Sunday suggesting I can watch F1 and please buy a SkySport pass. (This regardless of whether I have already bought one or not.) The following week there is always an online survey to complete. Every time I tell then they need to email people on the Wednesday or Thursday before a race and to offer a special 3 day F1 only pass. But do they listen? Do they know anything about the sport they are purveying? It appears not. So Joe if you run into anyone from NowTv (this in the vain hope that they may have one member of staff interested in F1) please ask them to sort themselves out or contact me as their market survey date does not seem to be getting through.
Re the prize giving bash in Vienna; I see from the the FIA release “the FIA Personality of the Year, which was selected by permanent FIA-accredited journalists” So when did this vote take place? Or is it just write a name down and stick it in the hat, so that politics can be carried on and the “right” FIA approved winner b chosen. (Though I would have thought Verstappen would be everyone’s choice.)
Joe, I forgot to ask before: what do you make of your pieces for Autoweek being side-by-side with bits from GMM, and that Autoweek take that stuff at all?
It is not something that I like to see.