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That's one sign of the times: here's another, the "Grand Prix of Russia" itself. The first time Formula 1 went behind the Iron Curtain it was 1986, the Curtain was still up, and the venue was Hungary. "No problem, Formula 1 in a communist country," said one anonymous taxi driver: "We're only communists when someone's listening." Which reminds me of one of my favourite East German jokes: "How do you know the Stasi [secret police] have bugged your house? Your block gets electricity." Martin Brundle was a young nothing driver in those days, and he recalled that,"Hungary provided a culture shock both for the locals, who were in awe of the shining transporters and their million-dollar cargos, and the teams, who were dismayed by the quality of the hire cars waiting at the airport – assuming you could get one." He went on to say:
The Hungaroring is 12 miles to the east of the city. Even in 1986, there was a motorway, the M3, which was very impressive as far as it went. Which wasn't far. It led toward Miskolc – wherever that is – but in actual fact, for some years, the motorway only went as far as the racetrack. One day, I missed the slip road, drove on for a short distance and, suddenly, it was as though I had dropped off the end of the world. The motorway stopped and, presumably, you had to find your own way to Miskolc on very rural roads. - Working The Wheel
No signs of that sort of thing in Sochi, though: Russia's come a long way since perestroika and glasnost and, thanks to some pioneers (hehe) among the finest upstanding members of the world of organised crime, has embraced capitalism with gusto. Earlier in the year, when we still hated them for bullying Ukraine, John McCain called Russia, "A gas station masquerading as a country!" - quietly ignoring how that description applies twice over to Republican BFFs Saudi Arabia. Oil doesn't generate many jobs where it actually leaves the ground, wherever that happens to be, so the money tends to pool in the pockets of whoever owns the pipelines.
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Which is really where modern Russia meets modern Formula 1 - never mind Tolstoy and Prokofiev, Russia today is more of a bigger, chillier Gulf state; if you want to know why Bernie did a deal with Putin and not Yeltsin, there's your answer. Not that it looked too chilly in the broadcast, of course: the Black Sea coast is a gorgeous part of the world, you can see why the Russians want it so badly. But the track itself just reminded me of a blend of Valencia (remember Valencia?) and Korea - those long, curling straights lined with concrete walls. The Sochi circuit seems basic but functional, with that long Turn 3 that must be a great place to see the cars in action, but few other spots of interest, or so it appeared on this visit at least. Next year the teams will have some data and setups ready, so everything will hunker down and become a bit more marginal and, hopefully, produce some more fireworks. Hopefully. Even if they don't, there's still a solid reason to keep staging the Russian GP:
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I don't know if that example was in the officials' minds specifically, but that's more or less what they were fearing. If you thought "just yellow flag the problem areas" was a viable solution, you've either, a) never been in a racing car and felt the forces involved in cornering for yourself, or b) you've never actually met a racing driver: if there's a competitive advantage in risking their neck, they'll risk their neck every time. With Jules Bianchi's crash only a week in the past, there was no way the race could go ahead with the track in that condition, so to me the impressive thing was that the repairs actually held: they sure didn't in Dallas.
Now watch this drive.
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