I may be one, but the Brits amuse me when they get into a froth about the televising of F1. The debate sparked by the transfer of F1 rights from ITV to the BBC has been incomprehensible to most foreigners as the merits of one commentator or another are compared. Most of the names are meaningless even to me and I used to live there!
On reflection...
When it comes down to it, they are arguing over those little bits tacked on to the standard FOM product where the Brit talking heads pontificate on various aspects of the scene or one of them sallies forth on to the grid to ask silly questions of some celebrity who has not managed to duck them. Does it really make that much difference whether it is the matey Martin Brundle putting the questions or the obsequious Peter Windsor?
To me, it is the race that counts and I would quite happily watch the broadcast without commentary. I know it is a necessary thing since we are not all so obsessed with the sport that we can recognize Vitantonio Liuzzi in a crowd and from a hundred paces. But the way the Brits complain about James Allen and worship that national institution, Murray Walker, seems slightly ridiculous. They are all just guys who talk faster than their brains work, that is all.
But when it seems that the FIA are trying to prevent the BBC from taking on one of their chosen commentators, we all have to sit up and take notice. According to the Daily Mail and as commented on by Doctor Vee, the FIA's Alan Donnelly is trying to prevent the BBC from employing Martin Brundle for their coverage of F1. Martin was the subject of Max Mosley's wrath over comments made over the McLaren spygate affair last year and the commentator and ex-driver was threatened with litigation (subsequently withdrawn) by the FIA.
If this is true, it sheds yet more light on how low the governing body will stoop in its quest to silence criticism of its actions. One can only speculate on the dark deeds they seek to cover up when this kind of thing is their response to any critical appraisal. At the very least, it is mean-spirited of any organization to seek to interfere in a critic's prospects for employment.
Surely this must focus our thoughts once again on the character of the man who leads the FIA, Max Mosley. This is the guy who habitually bullies his way through negotiations on new rules by threatening changes that would destroy the sport, who pursues vendettas to the extent of seeking to have a nation's laws altered to suit himself and who talks of cutting costs after having fined one of the teams 100 million dollars on very questionable evidence.
For those who think that a man's private life has no bearing on his suitability for a job, this must be unsettling, to put it mildly. The plain fact is that a lack of morality in private will inevitable carry through to the way a person approaches his work. If Mosley sees nothing wrong in betraying his wife and children by the employment of prostitutes to satisfy his somewhat unusual tastes, he will carry out his duties as FIA president with the same disregard for normal morality.
That is a contentious claim in a world that has decided that anything goes (except disagreement with the claims of the climate change alarmists) and it is only mentioned in this blog because Mosley makes it relevant. Suffice to say that F1 as an international sport does not need such a controversial incumbent as its figurehead. It is not asking too much of any applicant for such a post that his standards be above those of ordinary men.
The cynics amongst us will say that is how the world works today - those with money and power may behave as they wish (perhaps it was always so). But that does not mean we cannot protest and demand that they be replaced with people in whom we have more confidence. And it is confidence that is the issue. Mosley may have been able to manipulate the FIA delegates to give him a dubious vote of confidence but the confidence of the fans has been shattered.
We may be powerless and have nothing but our love for the sport to set against the powers that be, but we can be heard, at least. The very fact that Donnelly found it necessary to give some sort of answer to the criticism of the stewards' decisions is evidence that we are making enough noise to be heard in the corridors of power. And, for once, I think we should raise a huge stink about the attempt to influence the BBC's employment of Martin Brundle.
It makes no difference to me how the Beeb chooses to present F1 to its audience - I will not see much of it, that is certain. But I do care when the arbiters of the sport try to change the field of play to suit themselves.