"Yours,
Disgusted of Stockwell..."
(The Ant-F1 Correspondence)
As
an Formula One enthusiast as well as an Anthony Davidson
fan, it often happens that F1 politics, events or media
coverage crop up that require some letter-writing. Not
all my letters are covered here by any means, but I thought
it'd be a useful place to keep a small collection of
rants and requests that I've fired off at various organisations,
magazines and websites to try and add another fan's voice
to various debates...
Letter
to Autosport magazine (March 2007)
On
Anthony's mega drive at the Australian Grand Prix...
Amidst all the praise
being heaped out onto expected (and deserving) shoulders,
it'd be remiss not to mention Anthony Davidson's heroic
drive at Melbourne.
Following the startline anti-stall glitch, and driving
in a level of pain that saw him hospitalised - to go the
distance, come home, and to have driven within a couple
of hundredths of his teammate's best time despite damage
to both his car and himself, is pretty impressive to say
the least.
Let's hope he can show us what he can do without that kind
of aggravation at Sepang.
Go Ant!
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (June 2006)
On Brundle and Blundell's blatant bias on ITV's British
GP coverage, promoting the client they manage at the expense
of even a mention of AD...
Much as I usually tend to be very
supportive of Mark Blundell and Martin Brundle, surely
it is a teensy bit improper for two (generally decent
and relatively impartial) commentators to be so blatantly
bigging up their own M2B client Gary Paffett pretty much
to the exclusion of anyone else equally untried and unproven
- and nauseatingly so when Anthony Davidson (the man
who most deserves to have the title of F1's next great
briton) still goes criminally to waste with yet another
year on the Honda benches.
Talented and apparently decent and nice as guys like Hamilton
Paffett are, it will be a huge case of neglect and waste
if Ant gets passed over for them.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (May 2006)
On
Michael Schumacher's qualifying "mistake" hoho...
Just a couple of points to add to
the Schumacher debate - hopefully obvious ones...
Fristly to the person who thought that stewards should
give MS "the benefit of the doubt". No. No, they
shouldn't. Not with him and not with any other driver.
They should examine all the telemetry and video evidence
and make a judgement purely about the incident in front
of them and purely on the evidence.
Secondly, surely a "Back of the Grid" penalty
should mean exactly that. It's a penalty and not an offer
to fill up your car and elect to start her from the pit
lane: you are under a penalty and should not be allowed
to capitalise on it or take advantage of it in any way.
If it's in any way an opportunity to completely reset your
race strategy then it's a piss-poor excuse for a penalty
and is a loophole that needs closing.
Keep up the good work P-F1.
Oh - and by the way, the James Allen moment: "the
rest of the year these streets are used by ordinary wealthy
people..."
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (April 2006)
On
the obvious solution to what people were referring
to as the "Ide Problem"...
...The answer to the "Ide Problem" is
simple. Ship Rubens off to Aguri and give Anthony Davidson
the seat he deserves.
Bit of a blow to Rubens' old pal Gil de Ferran obviously,
but this is a competitive sport not an old boys club.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (April 2006)
On Michael Schumacher demanding to have a bump removed from
Albert Park because he crashed out on it (twice)...
Michael
Schumacher's complaining about the bump he drove over
- and the fact that he crashed because of it three years
ago - simply reminds me of the old joke:
Patient
- "Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do this..."
Doctor - "Well, don't do it then."
Good
God man, get over yourself. Drive well enough to avoid
it like almost the entire rest of the field managed to.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (September 2005)
On Jean Todt's comments about the departing Paul Stoddart
having 'not contributed anything' to F1, following the
sale of Minardi to Red Bull Racing ...
I'm
not entirely surprised that Jean Todt thinks Paul Stoddart
"hasn't given anything to Formula One".
One thing he certainly hasn't given F1 - unlike Todt -
is a bad name.
Stoddart has often stood up for admirable and inclusive
issues of
common sense and fairplay, and his elucidation of the disgraceful
events at Indy was excellent in exposing the unhealthy
FIA/Ferrari
bonds and the typical arrogance, idiocy and intransigence
of both.
Stoddy for FIA President!
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (July 2005)
Commenting on the news that BAR-Honda may have offered
Williams Anthony Davidson AND his wages in order to retain
the services of Jenson Button...
Ant
for Jense? Even without the money, that sounds like a
fabulous deal for Williams...
I'd jump at it!
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to F1 RACING magazine (May 2005)
Commenting on an article about Marketing specialists
wanting to help out F1 with their own special brand of
magic...
How
typical of marketing folk to completely miss the point
(Pitpass Business, May issue). In calling for F1 to hide
political infighting and to pay money to marketers to
come up with sponsoring and marketing ideas (didn't see
that one coming... did you?) they betray exactly why
superficial approaches and poor thinking can never address
the actual problems facing the sport.
F1 does not need its rulers to "hide" their self-destructive
politicking: it needs them to stop it. It does not need
flashy marketing to "reconnect" with the fans,
it needs a qualifying format that is not completely laughable.
It needs excellent and extensive TV coverage (something
like BernieVision perhaps?) and it needs a format where
drivers compete flat-out to win a race, not bumble along
conserving tyres and engines, and where regulations encourage
greater innovation and diversity of design: technical and
creative excellence aimed at moving forward rather than
combatting or subverting the latest set of limitations.
Reconnection can only be truly achieved by getting the
sport right first, not simply fussing with how it 'appears'.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (May 2005)
On Max Mosley's astonishing, arrogant and slanderous
comments about BAR-Honda in the midst of the Fuel Collector
debacle
What
parallel universe does Max Mosely inhabit? The FIA cut
down their charges against BAR Honda from fraud and deception
to lack of clarity. We find out that BAR Honda had informed
the FIA about the fuel collector earlier in the season
and that it had even been inspected and okayed. And then
Max repeatedly makes allegations specifically of "cheating" on
internationally broadcast television despite all this...
and then has the timerity to accuse BAR Honda of casting
aspersions on its integrity and independence!
I can't see much integrity for BAR to slag off actually
- the FIA's politicking, shameful Ferrari-licking habit
and shoddy rule-making and application is legendary. And
as for independence, if I'd found out that there was something
worthy of investigation going on in one of the leading
cars at Imola, and knew (as many do) that the device was
one used by many (all?) of the teams - I would think the
best independent move would be to take a good look at the
others cars in front of me.
Sod off Max - the GPWC can't come soon enough.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (April 2005)
On Red Bull Racing's decision to swap Christian Klien
for Vitantonio Liuzzi during a great start to their 2005
season
There's
a saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it...
If, as Christian Horner insists, "2005 is a building
year for Red Bull Racing", why on earth would he want
to introduce instability and inconsistency to the team?
Changing a driver during the season is surely not something
you should do when that driver has been performing well?
CK (Christian Klien) was a decent, though not astonishing
rookie last year and this year was looking like a really
decent solid driver. And with Red Bull's undeniably good
start to the season and to the team, retaining him would
seem to have been a strategically sound way of accumulating
Drivers' and Constructors' points from the outset, rather
than starting from scratch with a new guy in Race Four.
And that Klien cannot even take the third driver role just
adds insult to injury - what a waste. I'm sure his PR,
like Red Bull's, will make the arrangement/situation all
polite and civilised, but I have to say I'm extremely miffed
for him.
I hope they come to regret squandering such a good start.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to ITV-F1 (March 2005)
On ITV's ludicrous trumpeting of their lame TV coverage
(this was before their Imola ad-break fiasco...)
Your
ITV-F1 website seems to accidentally suggest that viewers "catch
all the action" on ITV, and also refers to "comprehensive" coverage.
Given the appalling lack of any serious attempt at Q2
coverage whatsoever (and especially live) by ITV for
the third race in a row, this is plainly untrue and I
would ask that you perhaps consider changing the wording
to something a little more honest like "some of
the action", "partial action unlikely to satisfy
any serious F1 fan" or "a level of coverage
that is a pretty sad indictment of the millions we paid
for the TV rights" - which would clearly be a lot
less misleading.
I very much hope that ITV realises that many fans are seriously
disappointed and annoyed by this year's approach to coverage
and that smug and plainly false trumpeting of this on the
website is at once both laughable and offensive. Once ITV
sort out the coverage, then it'll be worth bragging about
on the website. In the meantime a correction may be in
order.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Reply
from ITV-F1, Adam Taylor...
Thanks
for your comments and we recognise the semantics of
our language on the running order story may over egg
the coverage
The issue of 2nd qual is quite complex - to my knowledge
no terrestrial broadcasters are showing it live due to
the difficulties of pleasing everyone when you put together
schedules - which are normally booked up at least a year
ahead thus not easily changed
F1 assumed that tv channels would show it - perhaps they
should have been more circumspect before moving to this
curious qual format that seems to suit no-one.
My
reply to that email...
Thanks
for the reply Adam ~
Q2 is, I'm sure, a complete headache - and certainly the
Q2 format is a bit of a disaster, but it's worth bearing
in mind that ITV couldn't even manage Q1 live from Malaysia
and - let's be honest - ITV is not really just a terrestrial
broadcaster either: if they had the interest, the will
and the dangly bits, there's no reason why they couldn't
fully exploit ITV2 or ITV3 for something like this, rather
than just using ITV2 for the re-run of the highlights on
the Monday.
Anyway, that's not a matter for your website - but if I'm
helping get even the most general message over about what
a letdown many fans feel the current ITV coverage is, then
that's a good thing. Feel free to forward my comments to
anyone useful involved in scheduling.
Cheers, and thanks again for getting back to me.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (May 2005)
On the never-ending issue of what the bloody hell to
do about qualifying...
1
hour - 4 flying laps.
Each driver must do a flying lap in each quarter of the
hour.
That way there'll be plenty of action through the hour,
plenty of mixing it up, and four chances to pull out a
really good time.
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
Letter
to Planet-F1 (January 2004)
On Rubens Barichello's bumptious noises about his contract
renewal and prospects at Ferrari
...if
Rubens genuinely aspires to a couple of extra years as
Ferrari's doormat / patsy / runt over a dignified position
in another team, then he must be delighted with the way
his contract negotiations have turned out.
I can't help think that his ability, his potential and
his reputation continue to be frittered away..
Gareth Bouch
London SW8
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