The great Monaco conspiracy
Rarely do I take such an in depth approach to the Formula 1 results aside from various glee or consternation regarding how well my team; McLaren are doing but as there’s been a bit of a media storm today I thought it best to pen a lengthier evaluation as it is patently obvious that there’s plenty of media hacks out there who obviously know sod all about the sport.
For those who haven’t caught the news, it regards McLaren being referred for investigation by the FIA (that’s the sport’s governing body) on allegations of using team orders to allow Fernando Alonso to win the Monaco GP by telling Lewis Hamilton to back off.
I’ll deal with the poor reporting of this story to start off. The BBC and ITV (presumably because they’ve got people who actually understand the sport) do a fair, balanced and informed job. I’ll admit I only caught the story on German news so I decided to have a little look around our own press. I didn’t get far until I decided that some recourse to the complete crap in a couple of papers was needed. To be fair, The Sun did a balanced and fair report but then I got to the The Mirror.
It’s a short article but two things of note. Firstly, and this is probably indicative of the level of knowledge of a Mirror sports hack, but the name of the team, McLaren is spelled thusly, there’s only one ‘c’ in it although probably their brain is so plugged into football they can’t distinguish the difference. Secondly was the quote carried from the team boss that:
admitting that he he “virtually had to decide in advance” which one of the drivers would win Sunday’s race.
Note crappy typing again but the quote does give the impression that he decided who would win. I will return to this later when I get a bit more technical, which is obviously beyond the capabilities of your average sports hack.
On to the Daily Mail, and it’s here, although one would expect it, that fained outrage, or to be more precise, interpretations of events from a position of not knowing what you are talking about are blurted out without any regard for reality. I’ll just do a little demolition job on this article if you’ll let me.
Let’s start with the headline, ‘Ace Hamilton gets a raw deal’. Now come on, how emotive can you get. However you evaluate the facts of the story, it’s a bit much to stretch it that far, but hey, this is the Daily Mail so what should we expect? Well, followed by this:
The only time Lewis Hamilton was allowed to draw level with Fernando Alonso was post-race when they sat together in the people carrier taking them from the pits to the paddock.
The point of this dig is? No, nothing to do with the story, a simple little scene setter for the rest of the article.
Even by the standards of the big losses suffered inside the famous casino around which yesterday
29th May 2007 in Formula 1
Mrs Penguin responded on 29 May 2007 at 5:43 pm #
Are you feeling better now? LOL
Political Penguin responded on 29 May 2007 at 5:44 pm #
Pah!
Mr.P.Nesshead responded on 19 Jun 2007 at 12:55 am #
I think something bigger is happening in the under belly of Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 World…
It may be too dark to mention in these pages… please keep your eyes peeled snowman as the Lewis Hamilton Conspiracy is going to blow people away…
Political Penguin responded on 19 Jun 2007 at 1:41 am #
I don’t go in for conspiracy theories, sorry.
Mr.P.Nesshead responded on 19 Jun 2007 at 12:09 pm #
I’m not going to go into facts and figures as I will be here for ages….
but with a increasingly decline in viewers and fans alike … Bernie had to do something drastic to pull in more sponsors, viewers etc…
He ultimatley wanted to create the Tiger Woods of F1.
To put it in a nutshell… Other teams are letting Lewis Hamilton win for the longevity of F1.
Political Penguin responded on 20 Jun 2007 at 12:53 am #
Please don’t take this the wrong way but here’s a good guide to conversing on this site.
Don’t use pseudo names that are at the level of schoolboy humour or one nicked from a stalker from Alan Partridge, it just sounds silly and slighty worrying. Pseudo names are quite acceptable but please use another that doesn’t fall into these two categories, it either makes you look silly or slightly worrying.
I appreciate a good dialogue, don’t mind agreeing or disagreeing with people but if you are going to bring a point of view to the table then back it up. Saying you’re not going to go into facts and figures is a cop out because the only impression it gives is that you either haven’t done any research, are expressing an opinion on the basis of no credible evidence or are simply a bit of a nutter.
Like I said before I don’t do conspiracy theories so here’s my interpretation of events this season. No it’s not some wild conspiracy orchestrated by Bernie to save Formula 1 which involves all the other teams activiely allowing Lewis Hamilton to win. It is simply that Lewis Hamilton was lucky although I’d say deservedly so given his immense talent to get a drive for one of the top teams. That team have quite obviously come into this season with the best car or so it looks this far in. On that basis the combination of his talent and having the best car means he’s going to beat the rest of the field leaving only his team mate as credible opposition. His team mate is a very talented but flawed driver. Hamilton has simply been cooler, tested more and adapted better than he has. He’s been more consistant in his driving and that’s why he’s leading the Driver’s World Championship.
tyger responded on 20 Jun 2007 at 8:03 am #
It’s true Penguin.
They approached our postie, Leroy. They said that controlling the 200mph car wouldn’t be a problem. The could do it all remotely with string and elastic bands. Amazing, don’t you think?
Turns out Lewis Hamilton had been with Maclaren since he was THIRTEEN, so Ecclestone thought maybe he was more credible.
Leroy was gutted. Said he fancied a pad in Monaco like Schumacher. Still, I heard the ratings for crown-green bowling are in the doldrums, so maybe they need the black-factor too?