Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
IN sports, as in so many other more profound activities, it is often said that what you see is what you get.
But given the recent spy controversy surrounding Formula One, I suspect it does not apply to the most glamorous sport of all.
At one level, I feel this whole issue was needlessly blown out of proportion, and yet, at another, I cannot help laugh at the way it was handled by the ringleaders of the circus who mistakenly consider themselves as guardians of the sport’s morals.
Take, for instance, the way the controversy broke out. According to reports, it happened at a Xerox shop not faraway from the Woking-based McLaren team where the sacred 780-page Ferrari dossier was taken for photocopying!
A smart office boy smelt a rat and blew the whistle on one of the most embarrassing controversies to hit Formula One. Since then it has been a non-stop Sitcom which has exposed the ugly underbelly of some of the most rich and famous.
But that was not all as the world governing body was to reveal even more embarrassing e-mail and SMS text (288 in all) evidence after having fined McLaren $100 million and shoved them out of the Contractors Championship.
In one such damaging e-mail, McLaren’s test driver Pedro de La Rosa, who incidentally is also known as the Barcelona Bullet, is said to have asked for details of Ferrari car’s weight distribution and received it through a text message which he then forwarded to reigning champion Fernando Alonso.
It is evidently clear that the protagonists were getting technologically savvy as they moved from a local Xerox outlet to e-mailing and then eventually SMSing each other.
Here I’m not sure if we are talking about an obscenely rich sport with absurd levels of technology at its command. Or even of a team which is among one of the biggest earners and spenders!
But then it is hardly surprising. After all, Formula One is all about controversies, contradictions and conundrums. It is a sport which takes itself too seriously, is increasingly paranoid, and makes an issue even when the going is dead slow or dangerously fast.
At one end, it constantly shouts for the need to save money, and yet at the other brandishes private jets and lavish yachts at some of the most exotic holiday venues.
Thankfully, there is at least one positive to lighten the gloom, and that is Lewis Hamilton.
The 22-year-old has emerged unscathed despite his team being made to look like a latest version of the KGB, as one report put it. He certainly stands out in the herd of Formula One heroes and zeroes.
My respect and admiration for Hamilton has gone up quite a few notches for the manner in which he has carried himself – on and off the track – since the controversy broke out to blight the sport irrevocably.
Even his own teammate’s repeated infringements and intimidations could not shake the young driver’s resolve. Hamilton was rock-solid in Hungary, and provided glimpses of his true talent at Monza in that brilliant overtaking manoeuvre against Kimi Raikkonen.
At Spa on Sunday, Hamilton was again pushed to the edge by Alonso who is now clearly desperate to win a third title and save his face before being booted out of McLaren.
The Briton even lost the back end of the car at one stage and made a few uncharacteristic errors during the course of the race; the penultimate lap in particular when he veered off the circuit.
But Hamilton was not overtly distracted, and stayed on to retain his place and finish fourth. He still leads the championship table by two points, and, more pertinently, looks unfazed.
Hamilton was remarkably circumspect after the race to prove this point. “It’s been a tough week. More tough on me than Fernando because I won’t say any more,” he said.
Now that Hamilton continues in his quest to become a world champion in his first Formula One season to join the likes of Fangio, Clark, Lauda and Senna, we at least have something good to look forward to in Formula One in the near future at least.
Thanks to the geniuses of Formula One for letting Hamilton chase his dream.
By Vijay Mruthyunjaya
vmruthyunjaya@gmail.com
