Am I really a grumpy old man?

I have been putting this off for some time now as I don’t want to be classed as negative – but – there are wrongs to be righted and I am sure that my views, if broadcast to the world, will be instrumental in righting those wrongs.  Since I have been putting this off, the subject matter is not necessarily too current but I will feel much better having vented my spleen!

First of all, Marco Simoncelli – motor cycle racer of repute – I am very angry about the way that he has been pilloried by the event Stewards, the press and, supposedly, by his fellow riders.  Yes he is a bit wild but all of those who have become successful at the highest level have had to go through the same stage before they matured into the “super-beings” that they are now.  They all still make the odd daft mistake and, I am afraid, that is the nature of the beast.  Marco’s incident with Danni Pedrosa was just that, a racing incident.  Both riders were pushing their luck a little bit and it would have been just as easy and as fair if Danni had backed out of the deal rather than Marco – in my opinion – six to one and half a dozen to the other!  I am sorry that Danni got injured yet again but should we be asking if, with his very slight nature and history of injury, Danni should be riding in the Motogp class?  I am not questioning his undoubted skill in handling a bike, I am merely raising a question as to his physical strength and durability.  Around the same part of the season there was a horrific-looking highish speed accident, in BSB at Oulton Park, where Josh Brooks (and his bike!) somersaulted in a very spectacular manner, which looked as if it would result in serious injury.  When the dust settled, Josh got up, brushed himself down and walked away – don’t get me wrong I am sure it hurt – a lot – but I have the feeling that, under the same circumstances, Danni would not have got up and walked away.

Still on this point, there was an extremely unpleasant incident between Sofuoglu and Simon a few weeks back in GP2 where, in my view, Sofuoglu rode into the back of Simon, in a very dangerous manner, on a pretty quick corner – there was no input from Simon in this incident, he was merely a bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Simon was taken out of the race and badly injured – this was classed as a racing incident by Stewards at the event.  In my opinion, Sofuoglu’s attack, on a Simon who was minding his own business, was far far more dangerous than Simoncelli’s coming together with Pedrosa yet Sofuoglu is not penalised and Simoncelli is pilloried.

Now to Formula One Rules!

I have enjoyed Formula One Motor Racing since a very very small boy and, in those years, have seen quite a number of changes – obviously some good and some bad. The last couple of years with double diffusers and f ducts have been bad enough, but this year reaches new hights of stupidity by the so-called “rule makers”.

We seem to have a collection of people making rules who have little, if any, foresight and, obviously less inventive minds than the engineers whose job it is to interpret rules and “get the best” out of them. I guess, however, that if the rule makers were as brilliant as the team’s engineers they would be working for the teams in those very engineering jobs!

I am sorry, but you can’t make up the rules for the year’s sport and then change them part of the way through the season just because the teams have managed to exploit, what may be termed,  loopholes in badly conceived and written rules.  The “powers that be” should be celebrating the skills and inventiveness of these engineers in managing to pick their way through the rules and find ways of maximising the efficiency of their vehicles – not penalising them by making supid statements about illegality of various procedures etc.  These procedures are not illegal at all, it is just that the rule makers could not conceive that these scenarios could or would develop.  If they had just turned round and stated “You lot are damn clever, we didn’t think of that, but we will have to live with it this season – however, we will make sure you can’t do it next year!”  This, however, is too honest and is unlikely ever to be seen as the reaction to such cleverness.

I am also very much against penalising drivers for what can only be termed as “racing incidents”.  Racing drivers are competitive, there are going to be incidents when someone tries a bit too hard and causes a coming together – that is because they are doing their job.  Obviously, if there is a really dangerous situation where one driver has been totally out of order and caused, or could have caused serious injury, something needs to be done – but not for most of the little prangs that occur from two drivers each considering that they have right of way etc.  Paul DiResta still cannot understand his penalty in Canada and neither can I.  The present judgments are probably better with driver’s reps on the stewards panel, but it is still not as good, and consistent, as it needs to be.

I think that is enough of a rant for now – have a nice day!