I'm not well versed on this sport, but I'll take a shot at an opinion. I think all of you have had excellent takes (maybe except Tom, who I can't seem to relate too given his takes, which often seem contrarian for the sake of being contrarian). But in this sport I will concede and defer as clearly he and all the rest of you know way more .... about F1 than I.
So, here is my take on the race at Sepang. I watched the race in Spanish. There is a Spaniard commentator and a Mexican one. Before I get into the big controversy here, let me say a couple of things. I scrolled back on this thread just far enough to see Cliche's and Geo's little cute dig at me. Nice to know you guys think of me even in these "other motorsport" threads...homos. As I said, I watched the race in Spanish, and I must report to you guys, the Mexican commentator (who I didn’t bother learning his name on account hes a ...) was unbearable because of his extremely overt and over-the-top man-crush on Fernando Alonso. The guy blamed everybody near or around the incident that eventually led to Alonso’s retirement. I wish you guys could have heard this fool (if this was a MotoGP thread, I would have gone back and translated a transcript so we could all have a good laugh, but this being a F1 thread, I’m not as committed. Plus, I have too much on my plate as it is keeping everybody in line in the MotoRacing boards).
So, my take here will be without the benefit of going back to rewatch the race 20 plus times like I normally do for motoracing. As I mentioned, the Mexican commentator started off the race by saying the guy in front of Alonso (can’t remember who) going into the first turn “break checked” poor Alonso, then later blamed somebody else (again not sure, but I think it was Vettel) for ‘recklessly crashing into Alonso’s front wing.’ Then Mexi-dude at first said, it was wise to let Alonso through for another lap as ‘Alonso could drive a damaged car faster than most other drivers with cars intact.’ Then after the wing fell off (which he blamed fell off because somebody re-aggravated by a second contact --again, sorry, not sure, I want to say somebody in a Red Bull car). Of course, then he blamed the team for not brining Alonso in after the first lap to repair the car. This ....... guy then spent most of the rest of the event lamenting the retirement of Alonso. I .... you guys not. The Spaniard commentator called it as it was, a .... up by Alonso. It got hilarious after that, as the dude then started getting tweets by spectator Spaniards which they read on the air, calling him an Uncle Tom and bashing him for not supporting one of his countrymen. Hahaha, all very funny.
Ok, Jesus, on to the big controversy. My first impression as I saw the situation unfold was first stunned disbelief at what I was hearing on the radios. Holy ....?! Are they telling these guys not to pass eachother? NO, I thought, I must be rusty on my English. But the Spaniard commentator kept echoing my first impression, also expressing disbelief by saying, ‘Wow, these guys [the teams] are treading dangerous waters by suggesting a guy to hold station, you are on target lap times, don’t drive silly, etc.’ I was like, Fat Buddha, do you mean to tell me these fuckers are telling dudes not to pass? And then I heard somebody on the radio say, ‘yo, tell the ...... in front of me I’m faster.’ Uhm, am I dreaming? Was my thought. Tell who, what? I was honestly confused. I’m not bull-shiting you guys, I didn’t know this kind of .... was allowed to be said in Formula One racing.
BTW, whoever said they shouldn’t be allowed to air out the conversations on the radio, you sir are an ..... (sorry, I didn’t look back to see who said it, my apologies if you are a friend). But are you kidding me? Why would WE the spectators not want to hear this drama unfold? Can you imagine had we not been privy to the radio conversations? All you guys would be certain that Vettel winning and Hamilton podiuming was all based on driver talent. (Which annoys the .... out of me when people make the same ignorant assessment in MotoGP not knowing all the .... that happens behind the scenes). Let the glory be to Allah that these fuckers let us hear the conversations in real time. Had they not, we wouldn’t have heard (Vettel or Rosberg, one of these two .....) radio back, ‘hey, tell the guy in front of me to park his car and let me through.’ And the team guy say, ‘yo, let the dude in front of you coast to victory’. Or, one of my favorites (and honestly, I was stunned to hear this, as I thought, surely I’m not understanding this radio transmission correctly): ‘yo, hang back, leave a nice little gap to the guy in front of you, there is nothing to gain by passing him.’ I was like, uhm, nothing to gain?! Did the guy on the radio not realize this was a race for a podium position? Holy Mother of Baby Jesus, what on Earth am I hearing?
The podium ceremony was hilarious. But then again, I’ll be honest, also a bit confusing. I didn’t know what to make of all of this. Hamilton and Rosberg hug it out and seal it with a kiss (this while the commentator as sure there would be a smack down). Then Webber gives the team guy and Vettel the big evil eye ‘WTF’ expression. Vettel looking like a guy who had been caught with his hands in a cookie jar. This all very confusing to me. At first I was like, uhm, Vettel won, why isn’t he jumping for joy and throwing it in his teammates face? Then I thought, uhm, Webber is a sore loser and Hamilton should be more happy, because he ‘beat’ his teammate. But I was also trying to understand the radio transmissions as they affected the podium positions. In one way I was thinking, if Hamilton was the recipient of his teammate acquiescing to the order to stand down, then Hamilton should be ashamed. But should he be? Or should Rosberg be ashamed for following what should be disgraceful orders by a team? Question: Can the drivers on the same team speak to eachother? Can they hear eachother’s transmissions? If so, Hamilton, for the sake of integrity, should have radioed in, ‘yo, tell Rosberg, if he can pass me, to try it, but I aint giving it to him.’ Which really, is something that should never be said in the first place, but rather implicit when the light goes out, right?!
Ok, so I’ve learned that “team orders” exist in hard and fast fashion for F1. (Yes, I’m aware they exist in MotoGP, but in MotoGP they usually don’t mean a guy cannot be passed in a race, but rather the ‘position fixing’ is done well before the race with such ........ as giving one guy the development direction, and in other circumstances, the better tires, or rev limitations (see KRjr) etc. But in the race, if one teammate can pass the other, they will under most circumstance (unless you are gutless Laverty and mill about on the last lap waiting for your Aprillia teammate at the ready to park the bike if Biaggi needed the help…one of the worst lapses of sport integrity I have ever seen).
Anyhoo, so what to make of the Sepang Team Ordersgate 2013? I was all ready to side with Cliché as I read this thread, that was until Little Red chimed in. If Team Orders exist, and Lord please, after this event, they might as well be etched in stone somewhere, and if there is agreement beforehand by the competitors, then they must be respected. Not to do so in a later situation is being an ........ I can only assume then that the sport is more a “TEAM” sport rather than an individual one. If this is the case (and again, I defer to all of you who are more versed in F1 than I) then the guy who didn’t follow through is a ......... In this case that would be Vettel. If Webber was told to cruise to the victory and then turned down the wick, as Lil Red said, then for sure Vettel ...... up and usurped this unstated-but-understood team strategy. For those of you saying Webber just got beat as it appeared he tried to defend the position, I say hog wash. The dude was sucker punched and ambushed by thinking his teammate would abide by this team’s strategy (again, assuming this is a team sport). Sure it appeared Webber tried to defend his position, but at what point? When the sneak attack was already in session. Of course this was going to be advantage sneak attacker ......... Its stupid to think otherwise, given the circumstances that these drivers were under a certain assumption.
Now lets look at it another way, if this is an individual sport then the opposite scenario is more fitting. If team orders are a figment of our imagination, then .... Webber. He got passed and displayed horrid sportsmanship after being beat by the more cunning and faster driver Vettel. Whining about it after was chickenshit in this case, unless the team can remotely put his car into “economy” mode and he couldn’t override the setting. Then yeah, .... off man, go cry to your mommy. And applause deserved to Vettel for doing everything he could to win this race. Sure, it may make the team owners scared that both will chuck the cars, but isn’t that what was agreed to when the riders were signed, to give it your all, risk as much as you can to win (unlike Rossi 2012, sorry I digress). I would assume if the driver is signed for being a super-talented dude, then its implicitly left up to the drivers skill to race eachother without crashing while trying to win?
So, I guess the real question is: IS Formula One a TEAM sport, in which case the team management’s authority should decide the strategy, OR is this an INDIVIDUAL sport, in which case the drive must make and live with all the decisions he makes during a race, with the ultimate goal to gain positions and or win.
1801 (that’s how many words are in this post). :....:
