Change the game....

I have had to come out of hiatus to write this particular entry. I am totally and utterly incensed by the ongoings in formula one at the moment and in McLaren in particular.

Don't believe the hype
I have two things to say about this young prodigy. He has made the fatal error of actually believing in his own hype and letting his career be built in the media. What do I mean? Well instead of focusing on all matters racing and leave all the media pandering and communiques to PR people and the team boss (Ron Dennis), he has actually got into bed with journalists. I still cannot believe that he came out with this statement after the Hungarian grand prix yesterday:

With regards to him and Alonso, "He doesn't seem to be speaking to me, so I don't know if he has a problem,".....whether he is speaking to you or not, whether he has a problem or not, you do not go to the enemy to highlight the issue.

The other issue I have which relates to Hamilton is one of measuring his performance. Whilst watching this weekends grand prix (the Hungarian), I realized that I could not objectively assess Hamilton's progress and skill as a driver, objectively. There was so much emphasis and focus on him, one would be inclined to think he was the only one racing that weekend.
I am not sure whether this was the case for all English coverage i.e. that ITV, the UK broadcaster, have commercial deals to commentate and provide coverage in English speaking markets.

Either way I can honestly say I do not know how good Lewis Hamilton is because I cannot seem to get a clear perspective on his performance any more. So my plea is to the pundits:

"Please just let the young boy, and the rest of the F1 drivers, do their jobs which is to race the cars on the weekend. Do not ruin it for some of us who will be here once the cameras have moved on and Hamilton is no longer the darling of the press."

At the remote off chance that Lewis Hamilton or his advisers will read this blog, remember this,
if you live by the media you die by the media. Put your head down and let your performance do all the talking.

This leads me swiftly on to my next issue. I have decided to start a campaign to get James Allen off the air. He is not a good commentator....and somehow I find myself longing for the level headed race commentary provided by Murray Walker. I have been listening closely to what this guy James Allen, says over a race weekend and quite frankly a lot of it has gone unchecked and unquestioned for far too long now. For example, when the initial allegations flared between McLaren and Ferrari relating to the dossier, he was flagrantly questioning the allegations and trying to convince us the audience that there is no substance to such rumors and worse still that a Brit, Nigel Stepney, could be involved. Well of course the first one has been confirmed by the FIA and as for the extent and level of Stepney's involvement! That is still to be determined.

Conversely, some of you may not know, but Mr Allen is also the F1 columnist for the Financial Times and again here I have qualms with his material. The originality of his pieces are questionable and it seems, to me at least, that he is regurgitating and copying from the BusinessF1 magazine. This is a publication that has an annual subscription of £270 (over $500) and is not accessible to all. I have read some of the issues and it is a very good insight to the business of F1. But when, recently I picked up a supplement in the weekend Financial Times that was dedicated to the business of formula one, it really did feel as though I was reading the BusinessF1 Magazine.

I am not alleging that this is what he does, copy and paste materials. No! All I am saying at the moment is that his do not seem to be original ideas or thoughts on Formula one. He cannot, therefore, be authoritative on the sport itself and his information does not provide much insight.

Have you heard of Auto Hebdo? It is a French auto magazine. Anyway I read somewhere that Pascal Dro, the editor ".....planned to buy a Volkswagen van and travel Europe throughout the European leg of the F1 season, going from race to race as journalists did in the old days, camping out and taking in the real culture of the venues. None of this first class travel from airport to hotel and from hotel to circuit and back again. This would be the real hardy stuff of the old days. The purpose of the trip would also be to document the old days, digging up and visiting the old attractions of the venues, and countries hosting races and interviewing people who had something to do with the sport over its 57-year history.

Maybe just maybe Monsieur Dro is on to something here.