Left field

Helping to pay your way in F1

Indian Narain Karthikeyan’s return to Formula One, along with Renault’s retention of Russian Vitaly Petrov and the imminent arrival of Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado and Mexican Sergio Perez, has put the issue of the so-called ‘pay driver’ — a man whose place on the grid is rightly or wrongly considered as much down to the amount of sponsorship he brings as talent behind the wheel — firmly back in the spotlight.

There are those who bemoan the situation, lamenting the lack of opportunities for the talented but hard-up aspirant, but that is not a new phenomenon even if it was more muted in the era of manufacturer dominance.

In the early days of the championship, you had the well-heeled gentleman racer — flamboyant types like Thailand’s Prince Bira — who could afford to buy a Maserati or two and go racing.

“Do you think we are running on air? The money has to come from somewhere,” HRT team principal Colin Kolles, Karthikeyan’s boss, told Reuters last week when asked about the Indiank. “For more than 100 years if you want to race, you have to put money on the table.”

You only have to ask Niki Lauda about that.

By the early 1970s, with the arrival of swathes of on-car branding and ostentatious sponsorship, the pay driver was a recognised species and Austrian Lauda was in the vanguard.

“To the best of my knowledge, Spain’s Alex Soler-Roig (1971-72) was the first driver to use his own cash to buy himself a few Formula One starts,” Lauda wrote in his 1985 autobiography “To Hell and Back”.

Remembering Bruce McLaren

Ferrari made much of their 800th Formula One grand prix in Turkey last Sunday, throwing a party in Istanbul and racing with the number 800 on their cars’ engine covers.

It was just a shame their performance on the track was nothing to shout about.

Over at McLaren, a more poignant milestone was being marked more discretely — one fittingly capped by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finishing one-two in the race while the sport’s only Antipodean driver, Mark Webber, joined them on the podium.

Wednesday, June 2, will be the 40th anniversary of team founder Bruce McLaren’s death in a testing accident at the Goodwood circuit in southern England.

The New Zealander, whose team would ultimately go on to become one of the sport’s most successful, was only 32 years old.

Throughout the weekend, inside the team hospitality, a rolling series of images from yesteryear were projected on television screens as a backdrop to the team’s regular activities.

Who do you think you are? Jenson Button?

Muscles acheing, and body sagging under the lingering effects of jet-lag, I wiped away beads of sweat and warily contemplated our newly-arrived karting opponents.

They looked like proper Formula One drivers.

A British media v Lewis Hamilton/Jenson Button “challenge” could only be a mismatch, even if one of our more souped-up members did bring his own race suit and helmet to the party.

The past two world champions were certainly considerably better turned out than this reporter, squeezed as he was into ill-fitting overalls with a dodgy fastener that kept bursting open.

McLaren had organised a 50 minute ‘endurance’ test in two-man teams as a warm-up while we waited for two of the fastest men in the world to join us at the indoor track on an industrial estate near London’s Heathrow airport.

Just a couple of stints at no more than 40mph was enough to remind an ageing and unfit hack just how strong real racers must be to manage a full grand prix distance for up to two hours at speeds in excess of 200mph.

Formula 1 starts 2010 with a headache

Former champion Niki Lauda did not mince his words last year when he said that Formula One’s Singapore Grand Prix race-fixing scandal demanded the heaviest of punishments to restore credibility.

A Times headline called Brazilian Nelson Piquet’s deliberate crash at the 2008 race “the worst act of cheating in the history of sport.”

Renault were handed a suspended permanent ban, with the authorities eager to keep them in the sport, while former team boss Flavio Briatore was barred for life and his engineeering head Pat Symonds for five years.

Piquet, the driver at the eye of the storm, walked away without sanction after being handed immunity for telling the governing FIA how he had obeyed orders to help team mate Fernando Alonso to win the race.

This week’s decision by a Paris court to overturn the bans on Briatore and Symonds leaves the sport’s reputation no stronger.

The worst act of cheating ever in the sport? The biggest let-off, more like.

Sure, Renault have suffered a huge blow to their reputation but their punishment was suspended and will be lifted altogether at the end of next year.

Silverstone deal a triumph for commonsense

It is not by any means something that can be taken for granted in Formula One, but commonsense seems to have prevailed at last.

Silverstone’s deal with Bernie Ecclestone for the circuit to host the British Grand Prix for the next 17 years makes sense on so many levels and yet has been tougher to resolve than any of the controversies and scandals of recent years.

It is to be hoped that one of the longest running, and most tedious, sagas has now ended although that is probably too much to hope in a sport constantly making headlines.

“Bernie’s a driven man, he always wants better,” said Damon Hill, 1996 champion and president of the circuit-owning BRDC, with a resigned smile after announcing the deal on Monday. ”So I’m sure he will be looking to keep us on our toes”.

Ecclestone’s decision last year to do a similar 17-year deal with Donington Park from 2010 seemed to fly in the face of reason — not least because it meant a much-loved motorcycling venue taking over the Formula One and the MotoGP heading to Silverstone instead — and appeared unlikely from the very outset.  

Silverstone had the road access sorted, unlike Donington where getting in and out on a race weekend can be nightmarish, and the track itself is a part of the sport’s fabric and history as the first to host a championship race.

The end result was as many had predicted, with Donington’s promoters unable to provide the cash to match their ambitions and a return to square one.

Cosy in the cockpit with a Formula One champ

Mika Hakkinen has the air of a man who has seen it all before.

He stared death in the face when only an emergency trackside tracheotomy saved his life after a crash at the Australian Grand Prix.

He returned to Formula One to win the drivers’ title in 1998 and 1999. He enjoys homes in Monte Carlo, France and his native Finland.

And he is sitting on my knee.

Well, almost.

Terry Dolphin has been building, servicing and fine-tuning high-performance racing cars for 30 years. He paints this picture best.

“This is the same technology that won the World Championship in the mid-90s,” he smiles genially, glancing admiringly at the sleek, black Supercar baking in the Singapore sun while Hakkinen gets into his racing gear in a tent next door.

Schumacher pulls plug on F1 comeback

A disappointing day for fans of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher, with news that the German has had to call off his proposed F1 comeback.

As the seven-times world champion said on his website:

“Yesterday evening, I had to inform Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and Team Principal Stefano Domenicali that unfortunately I’m not able to step in for Felipe (Massa). I really tried everything to make that temporary comeback possible, however, much to my regret it didn’t work out. Unfortunately we did not manage to get a grip on the pain in the neck which occurred after the private F1-day in Mugello, even if medically or therapeutically we tried everything possible.

The consequences of the injuries caused by the bike-accident in February, fractures in the area of head and neck, unfortunately have turned out to be still too severe. That is why my neck cannot stand the extreme stresses caused by Formula 1 yet. This are the clear results of the examinations we did on the course of the past two weeks and the final examination yesterday afternoon. As there were no improvements after the day in Mugello, I decided at short notice on Sunday to do that thorough examination already yesterday.

I am disappointed to the core. I am awfully sorry for the guys of Ferrari and for all the fans which crossed fingers for me. I can only repeat that I tried everything that was within my power. All I can do now is to keep my fingers crossed for the whole team for the coming races.”

“Disappointed to the core” says it all, really. It has been a year of sporting comebacks, but this one was just not meant to be.

PHOTO: Michael Schumacher leaves a restaurant after visiting injured Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa, in downtown Budapest August 1, 2009. REUTERS/Karoly Arvai

Why do golf fans cheer tap-ins? And when is a fine not a fine?

A few thoughts from two weeks following the PGA Tour:

Just wondering why people clap like mad every time a golfer taps in a two-inch putt?  Are these the same people who break out in applause when a plane lands? Aren’t both these things suppose to happen? - – - - Best thing I heard on the golf course this week: “Instead of reading the greens you have to read the currents out there,” joked former U.S. Masters champion Mike Weir at the rain-hit Canadian Open.

Second best I heard on the golf course this week: “Let’s go watch someone who wants to play.” — A disgruntled spectator to a friend at the Buick Open after watching Rocco Mediate miss twice from three-feet at the par four 12th at Warwick. - – - - You have to love a tournament like the Buick Open where the trophy looks like a hood ornament. - – - - Best joke I heard: England midfielder David Beckham was fined $1,000 by Major League Soccer for confronting unhappy fans following his return to the LA Galaxy during AC Milan. That works out to 1/250,000th of Beckham’s reported five-year $250 million deal that brought him to the United States to spread the soccer gospel.

For Beckham, that basically amounts to — nothing.

Now, FIA’s $100 million fine slapped on McLaren for spying on Ferrari – that’s a fine.

PHOTO: Tiger Woods holds up the trophy after winning the Buick Open PGA golf tournament at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Michigan August 2, 2009. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Is Schumacher right to return to Formula One?

Incredible but true: Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher is to return to Formula One as a short-term replacement for Felipe Massa — provided the German passes a medical.

As Ferrari have just confirmed, Schumacher is poised to make a comeback after Massa fractured his skull in an accident at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

It’s another twist to a Formula One season you could hardly describe as ordinary, what with the breakaway threat, the stunning start from Brawn GP and the news from BMW this morning.

Is Schumacher doing the right thing in returning to the sport? Having him back will be a great boon in PR terms both for F1 as a whole and for Ferrari but will it work out? He hasn’t been out that long but in a sport where fitness is becoming more and more important, can the 40-year-old possibly be in the necessary shape to step straight back into the car?

Here’s what Willi Weber, Schumacher’s manager, said yesterday: “What would we expect from Schumacher if he stepped into a Formula One car? To win. The expectations from both sides would be too high.”

Is Schumacher right to come back?

The most dangerous man in F1?

Readers of some British newspapers might be under the impression that an accident waiting to happen has been unleashed on Formula One.

“F1′s most dangerous man?” asked the Daily Mail, over a picture of Jaime Alguersuari, a 19-year-old Spaniard with a piercing gaze and next to no experience at the wheel of a grand prix car.

“Drivers warn new boy could be dangerous on track,” said the Guardian.

Alguersuari will become Formula One’s youngest ever, and probably the least experienced, race driver when he debuts for Toro Rosso in Hungary on Sunday, and some are concerned about the safety implications.

Championship leader Jenson Button, who made his debut with similar fanfare as a 20-year-old fresh from Formula Three in 2000, could relate to what he must be feeling.

“There was a lot of pressure when I started because I was one of the new age young drivers and it was a real surprise for me exiting the pits behind Michael Schumacher, a guy I had watched on television for many years and really looked up to,” he recalled.