F1 served up a delightful rarity in Melbourne – a correct and fair result. What’s more, it was a bit of a fairy story for Brawn GP and Jenson Button. Quite a decent race, too, so good news all round.
But, naturally enough, the politically obsessive, power-mad elitists who run the sport, its teams and its rules are unable to stand idly by and allow such unfettered positiveness or viewer enjoyment. So, for anybody who thinks this is a new dawn, here’s a quick reminder of why it isn’t:
– Ferrari (plus a couple of acolyte teams) realised last week that some of the other teams had a better car, so immediately claimed the rival cars were illegal. F1 looked at the facts and rejected the claim, but Ferrari never stop whining until they win. So there will be an appeal.
– Result? Everything you saw and enjoyed on the track may end up being overturned. The fans are shafted again. Would you pay £100 for a ticket to Man Utd vs Liverpool if you thought the result would be overturned next week? Exactly.
– Certainly true for the fans who paid £100 to watch qualifying, and then arrived home afterwards to discover the stewards had decided Toyota’s diffuser was illegal and disqualified their times, thus radically altering the grid.
– So, to the race. Rubens Barrichello fluffs his start and ploughs into Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen at turn 1, ruining both their races. His penalty? Nothing.
– Ironically, Barrichello later benefits from a racing accident between Sebastien Vettel and Robert Kubica, in which both parties were equally at fault. The result? Vettel is held to have caused the crash and dumped 10 places down the grid for the next race.
– And finally podium-sitter Jarno Trulli has his trophy snatched back after everyone’s gone home. Why? For overtaking under the safety car. And who did he overtake? Lewis Hamilton. Oh, the irony.
So, the F1 circus is back in all its glory, never flinching from its duty to put internal squabbling above spectator enjoyment.
Still, F1 fans, it could be worse – you could be the Honda boss who decided quitting F1 was a good plan…
