Motor Racing is Really Boring... Unless There's a Crash!

Last night I was watching the F1 practice session while my sister was over for a family gathering. It was all lovely, and then my sister said something that really gets my back up: "Let's face it, it's not that interesting unless somebody crashes". I hate this. I hate it when people watch races to see people crash. Now, it's not my sister's fault - she doesn't watch motorsport at all - but I want to outline why exactly I hate this point of view, and why people should find motorsport interesting without incidents occurring.

Every time anyone gets a ticket to go and watch a motorsport event there's a warning on the ticket saying 'Motorsport is dangerous'. On most occasions, there's little risk to a spectator but the warning is fair nonetheless. Motorsport IS dangerous - and perhaps the greatest risk is for those inside the cars or in close contact with them at least. I really don't like watching people crash in races. My first thought is always for the driver and their safety. At the last F1 race in Monaco I waited with bated breath to hear whether Perez was ok, as it was horrible watching the extraction procedures with the screens covering the car. Thankfully, Perez was alright and it's a tribute to how far F1 has come in terms of driver safety. So while we can be content in the knowledge that a driver's likely to be safe during an F1 race there's still a risk of serious injury - just look at Massa in Hungary. In other disciplines of motorsport there's a higher risk: Kubica's rally accident which left him out of the F1 season so far being an example. This is precisely why I dislike people watching races for the crashes - there's a real chance of serious injury for the drivers, and people shouldn't be willing an incident to happen.

However, I can see why people have this view. Motorsport is a balancing act. To get the fastest car, you have to have it right on its limits. Accidents happen because a driver's gone past this limit. While (hopefully) most of us spectators are watching races hoping that drivers get to the limit, but not beyond it, some people (particularly those who don't know much about the sport) cross the line and hope to see drivers going past these limits. It's here where the accidents and injuries lie. I honestly think that people who watch races for crashes don't have much knowledge of the risks involved. F1 is so safe that serious injuries rarely occur, and so people don't necessarily remember the 2/3 chance of dying during a race many years ago. Ok, it's a testament to those who campaigned to change those odds that people think F1 is perhaps safe enough to be able to "enjoy" accidents, but we shouldn't forget that there are still risks which could lead to death. This was one of the reasons why I wanted more people to see the Senna movie - people would realise that motorsport isn't all that safe and when things go wrong there are occasionally serious consequences.

So, if you're one of those people who does watch motorsport for the accidents then I hope you realise that it's not nice to wish someone would have the risk of serious injury or death. You should watch F1 and other sports for the racing - not for the crashes. It's much more fun to watch two drivers battling for position in close races than it is to watch a driver being pulled from a car and taken to hospital. It's also much more interesting watching a driver push his car to the very limit of its capabilities, rather than watching him spin off in a cloud of dust. Yes, accidents will happen, but they're not the reason why you should watch races.

Contracts, Contracts and more Contracts

This month seems to be all about contracts - both within F1 and personally I must say. Recently, Fernando Alonso announced that he will be staying with Ferrari until at least 2016 - an extension of 5 years. Quite some time really, considering how changeable F1 can be. With this announcement, speculation that Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel could move to Ferrari has been ceased. This got me wondering how much of a balance there is between a driver signing a contract to secure their future and simply to stop the speculation.

A while ago Sebastian Vettel confirmed that he would be staying at Red Bull until the end of 2014 (much to my joy as that means I will graduate from university while Sebastian is still racing for my favourite team - just a fun fact for you there!). Christian Horner announced that he was pleased with this outcome, again as it stopped speculation that Sebastian would be leaving Red Bull.

The amount of stories in the media which revolve around who is going to which team is insane. Every year there are debates about who will go to Ferrari, whose career is coming to an end, who will be replacing whom and so on. Why is there such speculation? Simply because it's interesting. However, very few people actually cite the younger drivers who could come into F1 - the interest lies in working out which of the renowned drivers will be moving.

Keeping up with the debate is often tricky. Last year I believe that people were saying that Kubica could swap with Massa and go to Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel was interested in going to Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton also wanted to go to Ferrari and I remember a story which said Schumacher could return to Ferrari too. If you believed all of this then Ferrari would have at least five drivers. There seems to be very little logic in deciding who is moving where - often stories are based on heresay and who we would like to see in a team. More often than not, the teams simply renew contracts with their current drivers however this is rarely presented as an option. Also, stories tend to be based around something that a specific driver said once upon a time. Sebastian Vettel argued that one day it might be nice to drive for Ferrari - just after this he renewed his contract with Red Bull and put a stop to the stories starting 'Vettel May Move to Ferrari'.

So, returning to my original point of whether renewing contracts was for the driver's benefit or for the cessation of speculation, I can't really blame the teams. Hearing stories of who will be moving to your team must be stressful. Perhaps it's even more stressful for the poor drivers who might be 'replaced' by another driver. Maybe the contracts do serve the function of ending the media speculation - perhaps we can refer to them as F1's super injunctions!

Random News and Updates

So Blogger was down yesterday meaning I couldn't catch up with my posts (what with missing Thursday's posting because of university business). Anyway, here's a quick round up of what I was going to post...

News of late has reminded us of Robert Kubica's absence from F1. Kubica was involved in an accident during a rally pre-season. He suffered extensive damage to his arm, meaning he is likely to be absent for most of the F1 season - a huge blow considering Lotus Renault's excellent form so far. We recently heard the news that Kubica is entering the next phase of his recovery and is so far recuperating according to plan. While it's still too early to speculate whether he will ever return to F1, he does seem to be progressing well and he seems determined to return as soon as possible. You can read the article about Kubica's recovery here, and an interview with Eric Boullier here.

My last post considered why the media were so obsessed with Michael Schumacher's form. I came to the conclusion that it was far too early to speculate whether Schumacher is still capable of racing in F1 and that the media seem to be questioning something which is irrelevant. The media jumped all over Schumacher's comment that he was not enjoying racing and took it to be a sign that he was due to retire. Schumacher has since come back at these comments, arguing that he is still motivated and that his Mercedes car should be gaining some more performance at the next Grand Prix in Spain. You can read the article here.

A final quick point that I'd like to talk about is motorsport's relationship with the social networking site Twitter. I have been a bit cheeky and have been sending the link to this blog to various drivers, journalists, teams and motorsport magazines asking them to look at it. I have received a positive response from everyone who has looked at it and I am incredibly grateful to those who have taken time to read what I have written. So if you're here from a link I have sent you then sorry for being so cheeky but thank you for reading! If you don't follow me on Twitter and you'd like to see my inane ramblings in 140 character form, then follow the link to my profile.

I love Twitter's links with motorsport, largely because it enables ordinary fans (like me) a bit more of an insight behind the scenes as it were. I find it fascinating to see what drivers get up to in their spare time, as well as hearing what goes on at a race weekend. The pictures and things that people post up on Twitter let us all see things that the regular media wouldn't be able to/want to show us (such as Heikki Kovalinen's paper boat at a particularly rainy Grand Prix weekend). I also like the fact that drivers will take the time to answer questions that fans pose - it's more of a direct response than a journalist would write up in an article and so the answers seem somehow more genuine. In general I just think that Twitter enables fans to "connect" more with their heroes - look at the drivers who responded to reading my blog, I was smiling for hours!

Hopefully now Blogger is back I will be posting more interesting content next week, for now thanks for having a look at my quick post! Have a comment on my articles if you like and if you're here from Twitter let me know! Have a lovely weekend.