Formula One Cockup!

Girls and Fast cars

The thing is that I don’t believe in coincidence. For the Valencia edition of the Formula One 2009 contest things are not shaping up well at all. Two things went horribly wrong: Fernando Alonso’s team got themselves banned from the race because they allowed him to leave the pit with a improperly fitted wheel which came off endangering Alonso and other racers. Felipe Massa suffered the oddest occurrence when a spring from another driver’s car fell off and struck Massa in the head entering through his helmet. He blacked out and crashed the Ferrari and has gone home to recuperate for the rest of the season.

Michael Schumacher, the acknowledged King of Formula One who is retired offered Ferrari to come back to substitute for Massa, and that set off a round of wild excitement. Ticket sales for the Valencia circuit were moving along very slowly thereby giving organisers cause for serious worry. One whole section of viewing stands has not been erected, as predictions for attendance were so bad.

Then it was announced that Schumacher WOULD substitute for Massa and ticket sales exploded. From the time of the announcement and his eventual stand-down, some ten thousand tickets were sold. Now, we know that every driver has his own fans, and there are some so well heeled that they can fly around the world following their idols, but now a new question arises, and that is, do fans have any legal right to expect their special drivers to appear?

The ban on Alonso certainly seemed to place a damper on possible attendance in his home country, and when Lewis Hamilton races in England the fans come out by the droves, although this year they have been as disappointed with his performance and that of his car. I know that there are many factors that can affect the appearance of a particular driver, such as accidents, failing to qualify, sickness, etc.

Now, let’s be clear, I’m not pointing the finger of blame of anyone….yet! Michael Schumacher has had to abandon his comeback attempt because he is not medically fit. I understand that, however, he had that neck problem before which must have caused him some concern. Clearly, before being absolutely certain that he would be in the driver’s seat there were a lot of hurdles to clear.

The question now is who made the announcement that he would race? I can accept that it would have been impossible for Schu to have done anything in secret that even suggested that he might be available to substitute, but there should have been very strong cautions from officials that they were a long way from that happening.

Perhaps I’m muddying the waters and there won’t be anybody who will seek to cancel their tickets out of disappointment, but I suspect that there will be some folk who are royally annoyed with the way that things have been handled.

What they will do about it remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the race stewards could help matters greatly by reviewing their punishment of Renault and adjusting their ban order to allow Alonso to race in front of Spanish fans.

Already race organisers are saying that refunds on the basis that Schu will not race will not be honoured because at no time are racing participants guaranteed. They may get away with it this time, but it sure is a great way to alienate the fans. Time will tell!


Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael