Putting the fun in Formula Yawn

Fizz is an appropriate word, given Red Bull’s corporate origins as an energy drink. And for those who had never heard of Red Bull in the F1 arena, there is a simple explanation. The Red Bull team is basically the re-named Jaguar squad, bought over by Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz last November and re-badged to promote the drink. No doubt he wants to change the slogan ‘‘Red Bull gives you wings’’ to ‘‘Red Bull gives you wins’’.

Briatore, for his part, said that Kimi Raikkonen’s indiscretions last month in a London lap-dancing club should be seen as a breath of fresh air for the F1 world. Raikkonen, who drives for the McLaren-Mercedes team with Juan Pablo Montoya, gave his bosses a major headache when it was reported that he performed a drunken dance with a lap-dancer before performing a striptease.

It was not the sort of publicity McLaren-Mercedes or their sponsors were looking for.

But Briatore was adamant that Raikkonen had not transgressed. ‘‘If he was my driver and he went to a club for a drink and some fun, I would have no problem with that. As long as he is not drinking the night before a race, what’s wrong with that? A driver has to have some personality. What Raikkonen did is like a breath of fresh air. Maybe he should be given a drink before he speaks to the press in future.’’

But a grand prix driver, as the public face of a team — and a sport — that relies on huge sponsorship in order to flourish, must be publicly accountable. A politician or corporate executive would surely have been under pressure to resign if he or she did what Raikkonen did in London.

However, Red Bull’s Horner concurs, saying the sport is becoming boring. ‘‘We need more personalities. If David (Coulthard) gives Michael (Schumacher) the finger, I won’t be complaining,” he said, referring to the famous incident when the Scot flipped the up-yours sign to the German at the 2000 French Grand Prix.

One driver who will not be giving anyone the finger is Great Britain’s Jenson Button, keen to enhance his growing reputation with BAR Honda.

He had a string of consistent finishes last year and BAR finished second in the constructors’ championship.

Button, still only 25, finished second four times last year (in China, Germany, San Marino and Monaco) and scored points in 15 of the season’s 18 races. He finished the season third in the drivers’ championship and it seems his early-career strut has been replaced by a commitment and determination that belies his youth.

He too had a moment of supreme embarrassment last year when he announced his intention to leave BAR for Williams. It was almost a comedic episode, for Button had not told BAR of his plans. Then he went into hiding in Monaco and refused to answer his phone when David Richards, then team chief, tracked him down. Almost a case of may the farce be with him.

The embarrassment that followed, with BAR-Honda winning the legal tussle to keep Button, seems to be an aberration that team and driver want to put behind them. Anyone remotely connected to F1 could see why BAR were delighted to have Button stitched up, so to speak.

Finding the middle road between being a ‘‘character’’ and being a star is not an easy one but Button and Narain Karthikeyan should take time out in Melbourne to meet former Test cricketer Merv Hughes.

In a provincial game in South Africa, Merv was steaming in and the late Hansie Cronje was belting him for boundaries all round the ground. The angrier Merv got, the quicker he bowled. And the quicker he bowled, the quicker Cronje dispatched each delivery.

So Merv strode down the wicket, bent over and broke wind so loudly his teammates thought they were in a hurricane.

Then he turned to Cronje, who was wiping tears of laughter from his face. ‘‘Try hitting that for six, mate,’’ he said.

(David McMahon is a Melbourne-based journalist. His first novel, ‘Vegemite Vindaloo’, is due out soon)