Fiestas and Football

The F1 paddock woke last Thursday morning with a fairly collective hangover. Everyone from catering staff to press officers to mechanics and fans had stumbled across one of Spain`s biggest parties, and my word do the Spanish know how to party!

In my experience impromptu parties are always the best. No amount of party planning has ever rivalled a random party that you just stumble across, and so was the case last Wednesday evening.

Earlier in the day we had met a Venezuelan guy in a bar, who was in Valencia for the San Juan festival and the fact that F1 was in town seemed to have been secondary in his mind when he travelled halfway around the world for one night of partying. He was shocked to find out that we knew nothing about the evenings impending party and very kindly suggested that we should join him, his friends and family.

Let me explain; `San Juan` is a Spanish festival to celebrate the summer solstice. The traditional festival has stretched along the coast from its conception in Alicante and is now Valencia`s biggest fiesta. The general idea is to sit on the rather impressive city centre beach, light a campfire, drink (lots), eat and then at midnight write a wish on a piece of paper, throw it in the fire, then run in the sea and jump over 12 waves. This in theory will make all your wishes come true.

It didn`t work, But was a nice idea.

Oh and I also failed to mention that while you re doing all these pagan rituals 1million other people are on the same beach as you, getting drunk, playing with fire and generally letting their hair down in true Spanish style.

These are some of the advantages to having a street race such as Valencia. Some of the more traditional circuits, whilst providing great racing and a genuine atmosphere, lack that certain something that comes from being based in the centre of a big city. Valencia has never produced a stunning race and may not do in the future, but for evening entertainment it ranks as highly as Melbourne, Montreal or Monaco.

I would love to say that not all of the weekend was based around alcohol consumption and partying, but I would be lying. There was of course the World Cup to watch.

Now being English, I will not dwell on this for too long, other than to say it was nice to see Vijay Mallya sitting in the same bar as us watching the Spain v Chile match.

Vijay, whose multimillion pound yacht was moored just a few hundred metres away in the circuit harbour, had obviously decided that he wanted to slum it for the evening and left the luxury of his boat to sit with the true Spanish fans and watch some football.
Quite how he ever has time to run his many businesses I have no idea? He seems to be constantly flying around the world to watch football, cricket and F1.

Talking of flying, I bet the Red Bull advertising gurus were rubbing their hands with glee as they watched Mark Webber spice up a fairly dull European GP with the first real sign that Red Bull really does give you wings!

NHL NBA MLB WWF WTF?

The Americans care about Formula One about as much as I care about Rounders or whatever the NBA is?

But as I sat in an Irish bar in Montreal last week watching the final of the Stanley Cup (Ice Hockey, for those of you that live outside North America) it didn`t matter if I had a clue what was going on or if I supported one of the teams. All I was doing was entertaining myself watching some sport and having a drink after work with friends.

The strange thing about this though, I was watching Canada`s national sport, on TV, in a bar full of Canadians and nobody gave a toss about the game. This I later learnt was because the final was between Chicago and Philadelphia. So because Canada was not represented in the final of their national game most viewers switched off. I personally know nothing about Ice Hockey, I don`t know the rules, I can`t name a single team or player, but I still found it interesting and as the team in orange hit the ball with their bats into the net to win the final I actually found the sport kept my attention and was entertaining.

Can this be the same with other sports? Is this the same with F1? Will F1 ever make it in North America?

This weekend proved it with Montreal putting on a fantastic show for F1`s return to the continent. F1 had missed Canada and Canada has missed F1. Street parties were bigger and louder than ever, grandstands were bigger and at full capacity all weekend. And F1 responded, as it should, by putting on a fantastic race for the enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd.

So why is it a common belief that F1 will never make it in the USA? Are the Americans that different to the Canadians?

Football (or soccer, for those of you that live inside North America) is not regarded as a big sport in the US, but things are changing. The Football World Cup you may think will do little to change this, but as 17.1 million Americans tuned in to watch England v USA last week, things may be starting to turn.

South Africa has done a fantastic job of bringing Football, the world sport, to an audience in countries that traditionally do not follow the sport. There is an African feel to this World Cup and the multi cultural feel does go a long way to erase the hooligan atmosphere of previous clashes. Even the much-discussed Vuvuzelas add a certain African feel to the stadiums and TV audiences. Banning them would be a bit like hosting the Monaco Grand Prix with no champagne.

However, in the same way no Canadians were watching the Ice Hockey, will the Americans ignore F1 until they are represented with a race, a team or a driver? Well I personally think it will take all three and then some.

So we have an American GP in 2010. There is talk of a new deal to run an American team in 2010, all we need now is a driver. Easy!

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Diamond Geeza

When I grew up I didn`t have a manager. I was born into a family like normal people with a mother and father and a sister and we sort of got along ok, we spent time together and enjoyed each other`s company. I learnt about life from them and they learnt bits from me. When I flew the nest and started living away from home I learnt more from friends, girlfriends and colleagues and many of life`s experiences along the way. I have survived, I am fairly normal.

Lewis Hamilton grew up and he had a manager, and he was his father. From the age of 10 he also had a boss, in the form of Ron Dennis, who sort of managed him too. He learnt from them, and he learnt from living a life embedded in motorsport.

Why any human feels that they need to be managed by another human I have no idea? Lewis is his own man, he can make his own decisions, and he should go down whichever path he chooses, like all other people fortunate enough to make their own choices in life. He doesn`t need a manager.

But he does need a Dad.

When I was about 13, my father sat me down and said in no uncertain terms `If you ever come into this house with an earring or a tattoo it will be the last time you come into this house` he was right. He didn`t want his teenage son exposed to what he believed to be vulgar body art and jewellery.

So as Lewis arrived at the Turkish GP with both ears pierced you have to wonder if the split with his father is starting to mould Lewis. Don`t get me wrong. I couldn`t care less if Lewis has his ears pierced, or if he has a tattoo. I don`t care what he wears or what he says. But he is employed by McLaren. A team with responsibilities and partners and sponsors and a worldwide media following. Not only does Lewis`s appearance influence his personal value, but also the value of him as an asset of McLaren and their sponsors.

I`m very surprised that he is happy to have his ears pierced in Los Angeles, arrive at the next F1 race a week later, stick a helmet on and go racing.
Surely this is painful, or in the least uncomfortable. The other issue here is that all jewellery worn by F1 drivers is banned by the governing body for safety reasons, but this seems to have been ignored in Lewis`s case.

What amazes me even more than this is that the teams are happy for their drivers to wear jewellery. When teams are spending millions to reduce the weight of the car. Shaving millimetres off bodywork, using low weight titanium parts and super alloys to save every milligramme of weight.
Why then are the drivers allowed to jump in the car with their earrings, bracelets and watches?

I`ll tell you why. Money. Money has more influence than any engineer at McLaren.
Every driver has a watch sponsor. And McLaren has a diamond sponsor. I bet that those small black studs in Lewis`s ears will suddenly turn into enormous diamonds when Steinmetz get their act together.