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Journalism of Courage
Michael and Ferrari, it seems, can be crowned now. Six races into season 2002 and you don8217;t need to know the difference between the pit lane and a chicane to hazard a guess that Michael Schumacher is probably on his way to a record fifth Drivers Championship win. Last weeks race in Austria has enraged fans and Formula 1 professionals alike. After dominating the race for virtually all of its 71 laps, Rubens Barrichello slowed down to let team mate Michael Schumacher clock his 59th career win, putting him 27 points ahead of his closest noncontender Brazilian Juan Carlos Montoya.
Having won five of the first six races this year, Schumacher Sr is unstoppable and, short of throwing broken glass in front of his scarlet blur, the options open to his rivals, including Barrichello, appear close to nil. Speed, noise and danger, the mixture that propelled F1 to become the worlds pre-eminent glamour sport, is congealing into a broth millions of armchair spectators worldwide are in danger of rejecting outright.
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Repeat Offender In 1992, Nigel Mansell reeled off five straight wins in succession. 1996 saw Damon Hill notch up four wins in the first five races Champion8217;s Tally Story continues below this ad Close Encounters of The Necessary Kind? |
Or better yet when 8216;defeated8217; Barrichello in a post race interview concedes with his hands out-stretched in gesture of supplication that, 8216;8216;Of course I am not happy but I have signed a two year contract with them, I have to follow orders.8217;8217; Perhaps we have not reached the stipulated boundary yet but we are certainly pressing hard towards it.
Let8217;s face it, Schumacher has no real challengers to stick their hands up and say, 8216;I8217;ll have a go.8217; Maybe the FIA should introduce weight categories a la boxing, or introduced race penalties for off-track offences like, inappropriate chin angles or scaring young children by appearing on too many magazine covers.
Then again have we, the armchair enthusiasts, begun to think of racing as our fortnightly fix of intense adrenaline? And if yes, are we justified in doing so. FIA head Max Mosley thinks not. He bounces the question when and says, 8216;8216;All sport is boring from time to time. That is the difference between sport and a circus or the theatre.8217;8217;
Eddie Jordan, former racer and manager of the eponymous team Jordan, has been asking fans to acquire some perspective. Talking of Michael Schumacher8217;s skills as a driver he says, 8216;8216;We are seeing absolute genius at work. He is a treasure and we have the privilege of watching the greatest Grand Prix driver at work.8217;8217;
Domination in any sport spells trouble. Simply put, fans want a race 8212; between at least a few cars8212; preferably tose at the front of the grid. No one wants a one horse race, even if it is a prancing one. Eddie Jordan rushes in to answer that one. He cries foul because he feels that, 8216;8216;You do not criticise Tiger Woods for dominating golf so why give F1 this special treatment. Michael is making the players in F1, who are unbelievably talented, look inferior.8217;8217; And perhaps we have to concede that point to him, for isn8217;t the measure a sport person at least partially based on how good they are compared to the success curve of their competitors.
However the validity of that argument does not stop the Sun newspaper from asking 8216;8216;Has Schu made F1 too boring?8217;8217; There are others who foresee a murky future for F1. Nikki Lauda, three time champion and F1 commentator thinks that FIA rules are playing the part of a spoilsport and in doing are effecting F1 popularity. Things have never been the same since electronics got into F1. While not detrecting from the abilities of the present crop of drivers, in days gone by a lot more was expected from the driver, the ability to balance a number of skills was very much a mark of a great driver. Driving a race car in those days meant being able to brake, heel and toe, depress the clutch and shift gear 8212; all at the same time, while also steering the car in the right direction. Now with amount of traction and aerodynamic lifts being controlled by a computer in the pits, many purists feel that F1 is being reduced to a bunch of geeks playing video games on exotic race tracks. The argument however, holds little sway when compared to the enormous gains in speed and safety that these technological changes have wrought.
Today8217;s races are sometimes boring. So were yesterday8217;s. But it did not matter them for there were no giant television contracts, advertisers, sponsors and most important of all8230;fans, to appease. History teaches us that in F1 as with everything else, fortunes change and that nothing lasts forever.
That includes boredom.
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AMAZING sporting STREAKS
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| MARTINA NAVRATILOVA A LEFT-HANDER in a right-handed world, a muscle rippling woman in a sport dominated by glamour dolls, an ardent serve and vollier in the game of moon-balling baseliners. Martina Navratilova was the most outstanding women tennis player of all times and she was at her peak in the 80s. From 8217;82 to 8217;87, the Czech-born American won 13 Grand Slam titles out of the possible 24. And at Wimbledon she was simply untouchable. Six straight titles at the All-England Club meant there wasn8217;t any woman who could play tennis on grass better than Navratilova. EDWIN MOSES FROM August 8217;77 to May 8217;87 Edwin Moses always crossed the finishing line first in 400m hurdles. Before that, Moses won the Olympic gold at Montreal in 8217;76 but missed out his second due to the American boycott in 8217;80 Moscow Games. Never ever has an athlete dominated an event so overwhelmingly. INDIAN HOCKEY TEAM THE six consecutive Olympics gold medals signify India8217;s hockey domination on natural grass. When Major Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh, KD Singh 8216;Babu8217;, Leslie Claudius and Balbir Singhs took to field a goal feast was always on cards. The period from 1928 to 1960 is called the golden age of Indian hockey. And it was only when the team was split, after the partition of the country, did India finally lose their hold. It was Pakistan which ended India8217;s streak by pushing India to the silver medal in 1960 Olympics. SERGEI BUBKA IF Ed was Mr Hurdles then Sergei Bubka was Mr Pole Vault. The first man to clear 20 feet both indoors and outdoors, the Ukrainian pole vaulter captured six world championship title from 8217;83 to 8217;97, plus a Olympic gold in 8217;88. There was a time when Bubka had the pole in his hands, the fight was only for the second spot on the podium. RANGERS AND CELTIC SCOTTISH football has, for most of the 20th century, been a story of two clubs: Rangers and Celtic. Between them they8217;ve won more than 80 per cent of all domestic titles, each having stretches where they8217;ve won the league nine seasons in a row. The only threat of late has been from Aberdeen in the 1980s, managed by a certain Alex Ferguson who went on to do something similar with a team from Manchester. THE US DREAM TEAM ABOUT the US Dream Team for the Barcelona Olympics, someone rightly said, 8216;8216;It is like assigning five Clint Eastwoods for one simple shootout.8217;8217; When in 8217;92, the first-time professional hoopsters were part of the Olympics, the American team had players like John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler and David Robinson. And mind you, that was the bench! The Fab Five were Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone. Their matches seemed like Harlem Globetrotters having fun on court against international teams. On their way to gold, they had an average of 117.3 points per game and the closest any opponent could come was 32 points! |
