Who said it ??

[Steven Roy]

When this is over, I shall seriously reconsider whether or not grand prix racing is still what it purports to be: the pinnacle of sport and technological achievement.  Unfortunately, this appears to be no longer the case, and if it is not cleaned up, Formula1 will end up in a quagmire of plagiarism, chicanery and petty rule interpretation, manipulated by people for whom the word 'sport' has no meaning.

The above quote is the first paragraph of Nigel Roebuck's Autosport column this week.  So would any of you who haven't seen the column like to have a guess whose words those are.

[SennaMan]

Sir Jackie STEWART by any chance?

Now I'll 'Google' the article.

Anyway, F1 has lost all credibility to be considered the pinnacle of the sport.

It isn't.

This outrageous decision from the FIA beggars all logic and fairness in view of the case against McLAREN where mere possession was quoted as being a serious breach.

What I cannot fathom is why members of this forum are not baying for the blood of Max MOSLEY and demanding the FIA be held accountable under common law.

F1 is now dead in the water and has become just another hyped up motor racing series; a pale imitation of what F1 was.

Enough is enough.

I for one will not follow it anymore, discuss it or even watch it.

My F1 books and memorabilia may be sold or given to the nearest book exchange but I prefer piling them all together, dousing with petrol and having an F1 funeral pyre.

In this way I would be honouring the times when brave men of integrity and genius so splendidly fought for the prize.

Now the participants including the teams are craven cronies willing to allow gross injustices so they can continue to get the money.

F1, FIA and all in it can go and get stuffed.

I have far far better things to do with my time than support an obscenity.

I suggest you boycott it too.

[Scott]

Hey Senna Man,

I'm right there with you except the part about not even discussing (and sorry, but I'll probably be nervously sitting in front of a TV in March waiting for the red lights to go out) F1. 

As for Max's head - I've been saying the same thing, but about the press in general.  I don't think there is much we on this forum can do practically besides boycotting F1 and its' sponsors. 

It probably wouldn't hurt for us to start a thread with email addresses of those sponsors (some of us might have more resources than others in acquiring useful ones) and anyone else in a position of power in F1 (teams, local FIA officials, promoters) and we can all get at blasting emails to those powers-that-be about our opinions, boycott intentions and intentions to badmouth the FIA and FOM unless they do something about it themselves.

It might work, it might not make a whit of difference, but if we all work together (come up with text that might have some attention paid to it), who knows?

[cosworth151]

We had talked about contacting sponsors back when they did away with the USGP and were talking about ending Silverstone and France. I think the only ones that might get Bernie's attention are the manufacturers, and the best way to get to them is the sponsors.

[Scott]

So?  Anyone work for any F1 sponsors?  Any friends or family that we can pry useful email addresses from?

Hell, I can make a trip over to Gstaad and paste them to Bernie's front gate and the hotel and restaurant that he owns (and hopefully not get arrested for vandalism at the same time) if you like too.

[SennaMan]

Hey Senna Man,

I'm right there with you except the part about not even discussing (and sorry, but I'll probably be nervously sitting in front of a TV in March waiting for the red lights to go out) F1. 

As for Max's head - I've been saying the same thing, but about the press in general.  I don't think there is much we on this forum can do practically besides boycotting F1 and its' sponsors. 

It probably wouldn't hurt for us to start a thread with email addresses of those sponsors (some of us might have more resources than others in acquiring useful ones) and anyone else in a position of power in F1 (teams, local FIA officials, promoters) and we can all get at blasting emails to those powers-that-be about our opinions, boycott intentions and intentions to badmouth the FIA and FOM unless they do something about it themselves.

It might work, it might not make a whit of difference, but if we all work together (come up with text that might have some attention paid to it), who knows?

thanks mate - good suggestions coz right now I am so sad AND so angry about how they have mis-managed this once magnificent sport

I would love to vent my outrage at the FIA et al

any one got a rocket launcher?

Seriously, a good idea to tell 'em all we are leaving unless they clean up their act

[Dare]

Sounds like something Bernie or Max would
say while talking out the other side of
their face


While I don't enjoy it as much as I used to,I'll
still continue to follow it and discuss it here
with all my friends here on GPWizard

And if I'm lucky enough to win the Wiz's Kimi
gloved I have no intention of torching them.

[cosworth151]

I get mad at what's going on, too. There are waaaaay to many people like Bernie, Max, Lucca, Flavio, Fernando, et al.

But I'll stick with it. I'll stay because of all the folk like Sir Jackie, Sir Frank, Prof. Sid, Ron, Jarno, DC, Ant, Mark Webber, Aguri Suzuki, Tony George and too many others to mention.

There are also all the good people I've met at the races, and all of the good people I've met here.

After a lifetime of being a NASCAR fan, I walked away because there is nothing left there to save. Fortunatly, F1 hasn't reached that point, yet.

[Steven Roy]

The comments at the start of the thread were by Colin Chapman at Buenos Aires in 1981 when his twin chassis Lotus 88 was banned despite there being no rule to show it was illegal.

I guess he could see the future.

[Alianora La Canta]

Unfortunately I can't provide any useful sponsor's addresses (my family doesn't work in the sort of industries that do any sort of sponsorship, never mind F1), but I can advise you that, if you can find a suitable candidate, your best bet is to get someone more representative of the people into power at the head of the FIA. It's a bit complicated, but getting someone there who can bang heads together and repair the damage F1 has caused itself since 15 January 2003 would be a good start.

Unfortunately TV figures are so inflated that they clearly bear no relation to reality any more. I'm not sure even a total boycott consistently applied would work. Still, I remain an F1 supporter, in the hope that those that truly represent what F1 is will eventually prevail over those who have lost their understanding of what it truly means. For me, Grand Prix is what the pinnacle of motorsport should be; F1 is what it is.

[Alianora La Canta]

Well, I must say Colin's a lot better at seeing the future than Max Mosely. He said at the Motorsport Business Conference that "the F1 engine is fully developed". Evidently he could not even foresee one minute into the future (when he implied that KERS on F1 engines is not fully developed), let alone the twenty-six years into the future that Colin could!

[SennaMan]

I get mad at what's going on, too. There are waaaaay to many people like Bernie, Max, Lucca, Flavio, Fernando, et al.

But I'll stick with it. I'll stay because of all the folk like Sir Jackie, Sir Frank, Prof. Sid, Ron, Jarno, DC, Ant, Mark Webber, Aguri Suzuki, Tony George and too many others to mention.

There are also all the good people I've met at the races, and all of the good people I've met here.

After a lifetime of being a NASCAR fan, I walked away because there is nothing left there to save. Fortunatly, F1 hasn't reached that point, yet.

well said mate and thanks for reminding me why F1 has had me transfixed for over 50 years.

The greats have given have added glory to the sport but right now the 'greedies' have taken over.

Cronyism and money is the driving force now and no wonder F1 is losing long-time loyal fans as we speak.

After all who can support a farce and an organisation that has so little integrity?

I feel frustrated the media are not lambasting the FIA for this obscene decision, one of a litany recently.

Their silence is most distressing to me.

It is almost as if they are part of the problem. 

[Alianora La Canta]

Max is cultivating a culture of fear and with The Sunday Times' libel case, seems to have finally succeeded. Cultivating a culture of fear proves Max's unsuitability to rule anything so important as a drunken party in a brewery, and it is our responsibility, as fans who want F1 to be supportable, to combat this atmosphere by speaking our truths.

[Chameleon]

Towards the end of the sixties, two things happened that I deplored at the time and predicted would be the death of F1.  They were: wings and advertising.  I saw little of the sport through the seventies, mainly because I was busy doing other things, but came back to it in 1978.  At that time I found it bearable to see the cars in the wrong colours and they had integrated the wings to a greater extent so that they weren't such an eyesore.  I accepted that I had been wrong and settled down to many years of enjoyable GP watching.

Yet now it seems that I was right all along - aerodynamics has killed the art of overtaking and advertising has brought so much money into the sport that the wrong people have got their grubby little hands on it.  I was only wrong in how long it would take for these two factors to have their full effect.

And now we see the culmination of all that has gone before, epitomised in the form of one man.  Step forward Max and take a bow - singlehandedly, you have brought the most resilient fans in the world to their knees, begging for no more.