The Holy Pasty?

I haven’t written much about Formula 1 this season. I may have mentioned it a few times and those who follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/soteriamag) will have seen a few updates every now and then relating to F1. Now both championships are done and dusted it’s worth a word or two. The reason? Well “The Wright Stuff” this morning really infuriated me, the guest going through the papers mentioned something like “some bloke has won something driving around in circles”. I think more has to be made of an achievement like this in Motor Sport, why did the Wright Stuff production team allow her to bring it as the story when she clearly wasn’t interested? I understand that F1 isn’t everyone’s cup of Tea but that’s no reason to belittle JB’s acheivements, or for that matter those of Brawn GP, a team that 12 months ago didn’t really exist!

I have never been to an F1 race or met the F1 drivers (if anyone wants to buy me tickets for the British GP next year when they decide where it is then I’m up for that!) but I have watched and interviewed drivers from the lower formula’s trying hard to get into F1. It’s not easy. JB has had to fight through Karting from the age of 8 to get to where he is today. With the constant pressure of training and finding sponsorship, proving all the time that you are good enough to get to the next level, to get to the top. OK when you are at the top the payoff comes with millions of pounds in wages, sponsorship deals etc, but your career can be a short one, through injury (you only have to look at the incidents in the lower formulas this year) or through contract negotiations or any number of reasons.

Sitting in one of these cars is not like a Sunday drive either. The fitness regimes that the drivers go through to be fit enough to race for 2 hours solid, not to mention the concentration that has to be sustained is huge. Jenson is probably one of the fittest on the grid and regularly takes part in triathalons. All of this is dismissed by someone’s disinterest in the sport. If it was football there would be a huge celebration about a British team winning a world cup, but for driving no-one is prepared to invest in the future of the sport or celebrate what is a huge victory!

Some people have called into question whether Jenson is a worthy winner. However with 6 wins early in the season he maximised his chances, and by keeping consistent even though every thing wasn’t going well for him he made those chance work. He’s at the front, this year he started off in, arguably, the best car, but he didn’t have that advantage later in the season despite some excellent performances from Reubens punching above his weight! Jenson is a worthy winner, because anyone who can lead the championship all year, ignore the mental strain of the media and expectation, and everything else bearing down on them and still bring the car home in almost every race in the points deserves to be the champion, no matter who they are!