(11-19-2018, 10:37 PM)malo link Wrote:I've been watching motor sport for 40 years....and have an interest in the history of it going back even further than that, and what really comes home about this crash is that if you saw this 20 years ago......it would have most likely ended in tragedy. The question I have is whether the huge advances in cockpit safety in recent years has lead to a slightly gung ho attitude to racing among the younger driver these days. Most of whom have not grown up in the same dangerous motor racing environment as those drivers from past eras.
Quite frankly, if drivers such as Verstappen, Vettel etc behaved as they currently do on track back in the 60s & 70s....the other drivers would have made sure they never drove again, as they would be a danger to all.
Yes, I had the very same debate with a mate just last week when Verstappen jobbed Ocon.
Verstappen is a moron, but Ocon is probably a goose as well, yet what right does Verstappen or any driver have to ask for another driver not to race them! If you are slow you are slow not matter where you are on the track, in the rankings or in tactics. If you are good enough pass, if not be passed!
FYI, I posted the above because after viewing the crash I am reminded of a young lad I know who had been driving carts since he was in primary school and has recently progressed into the higher formulas as a teenager. He's very good probably in the top half-dozen in country. And as you know at that "colt level", I know no other better asexual term to use to describe it, there are only a few cars and very few spots available. It's big money for mum and dads to fund their child without sponsorship or opportunity from some organisation.
At the moment the way funding is going in motorsport there is clear advantage to being in a particular team, and to be a particular gender, with only a few spots available all the best drivers want to be there. But he's missed out and they have put a young lass in a seat who is not considered to be anywhere close to competitive with the other drivers, but it's the right thing for the team to do from the perspective of commercial and government sponsorship, and in publicity perception. If they give it out on merit, the team gets accused of becoming a boys club, and they get the inappropriate label from the various groups. On ranking the young lass isn't in the top 30 let alone the top 3 or 4, in fact because of the limited numbers that participate she is ranked in the bottom 15%, but they have chosen to pro-actively discriminate on her behalf almost to avoid trouble. Does it really need to be on race day though, in such a dangerous sport?
Where is the common sense in all this?
The activists will rally, they will claim the lass won't get better if not given the opportunity. But in reality she has been racing against her peers(male or female) for many years already, is ranked against them without discrimination based on results, and isn't high in the rankings at all! What she has is very politically active support and no fear of using it!
Does that make her a target, even worse than lacking ability was that young lass in Macau targeted?
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"