A word of caution

By Tridiv Sinha, New Delhi

The following words are related to a sport which is followed by very few Indians, with only one participant in its 50 years of history, without any winners. In case you haven’t figured which sport I’m talking about, the intro would come as follows: The premier ‘Open Wheel Racing’ sport involving the most advanced technology and which tests both the player and his ride, The Formula1 [Or F-1 for short].

No need to sing the glory of F-1 when we have something more to discuss on. But to make my points clear, some points should not be left unattended without which the idea would be missing. To start with, the championship consists of 17 or 18 races around the globe per year [March to November]. Ten teams with two regular drivers each along with some test drivers for each team compete for the Constructors Championship. Points scored by drivers add to the Team Total, test drivers acting as reserves. Twenty drivers compete for the Driver’s title. This sport is the test of both man and machine. 50 Technical Stuffs are dedicated to a single Driver/Car.

Among some amazing facts about the feats of the car, one of the most important is the safety. Recent cars can attain a maximum speed limit of 340 km/h. The driver’s safety is thus very important. Recent cars are like fortresses, drivers come out with minor injuries from collisions at 200km/h. With some injuries at 300km/h, the driver still comes out alive. The most important part in the whole package of the car is its Aerodynamics. Due to its Aerodynamics, a car’s apparent weight becomes 6 times the original and it can run upside down on the roof at racing speed.

Since it involves a lot of engineering, F-1 is guided by some rules so that no one gets unfair advantage over another. Technology apart, drivers are also required to follow some specific rules and regulations and Race Stewards are there to keep track that everything goes on well.

One of the greatest drivers in F-1, Michael Schumacher was criticized by press due to his reckless driving and some risky maneuvers which leads to risky situations for both him and the other drivers concerned. Race Stewards have fined him for his mistakes. The recent controversy in F-1 was of one such incident, with the other way around. This time, most of the press backed the Driver who took a risky move to overtake his opponent. If I don’t disclose the identities, people won’t understand what’s wrong in here.

First of all, English contributes to the max number of press and media coverage. Schumacher was a German and he never raced for a British Team. Even though he made mistakes, press multiplied them ten folds and made him the criminal.

In the last race, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonnen are the leaders, Kimi taking the lead from 3rd position as early as the third lap. He led the race for 40 laps out of 44. The rains came a bit later than predicted when there were only 3 laps left. Everyone on dry tires were losing grip and started making mistakes. A wet track is always risky, especially when you were driving with dry tires. After a long straight, Hamilton made a move on Kimi on the outside, locked up his wheels, went on to cut the track [short cut] and moved ahead of Kimi. In a race, a driver is fined with a drive through penalty within next three laps for such a mistake. Kimi lost his control later and retired from the race. So, eventually, Lewis Hamilton won the race with Felipe Massa finishing second. Race stewards revealed that they fined Lewis with a drive through penalty which he didn’t serve. So, they added 25 seconds to his time and declared him getting the fourth position, with Massa getting the first position.

Press reacted against this; they wanted Hamilton to be the winner. Now, Hamilton was a British Driver racing for a British team. Press backed him by saying that what he did was just a racing move. All these years, press reacted against Schumacher for his risky moves and suddenly they are in favor of risky moves saying it’s the spirit of racing.

How biased these press people are, we can only understand with such examples. They will back you if you were on their side. They will condemn you if you are on the other side. We have always followed English newspapers and news channels, because we understand the language more than other European languages. They want us to believe that they are always the victims and the honest ones. All the mistakes are committed by the people on the other side; they are the wise ones, the just ones.

Do read newspapers in English, but let’s not follow everything blindly. Just think before you believe in the outlook of the writer. Blind belief is a curse in the modern educated world.