21/05/2024
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
The warrior, emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, he of stoic views, remains an infinitely quotable human. In this instance I'm drawn to his statement that, "Our lives are what our thoughts make them". His point being, the only meaning which exists in this world is that which you elect to create.
To paraphrase, "What's the bloody point?"
I'm sure those at Passchendaele have a different view to myself, our dear readers, Bernie and Toto on that one. While it might well be transcendental to ignore one's immediate surroundings, it can - in extremis - be an awkward state of mind to possess. So along with endless tinkering with the rules of combat, by which teams can or cannot spend money on free drinks in the rest room, or new floors mid-season, we now have, once again, a discussion around the points system.
Hence, we are once more forced to ask. "What is the point?"
The history of the awarding of points is a tortured one at best. Fangio swapped cars. Only the top six got points. No point for pole or fastest lap. A handful of races per year. The Indy 500 used to count. The newest delight of Sprint Races. When are the point multipliers of "Best looking partner", "Cutest trackside pet", "Most Instagram likes", "Most collectable watch" or "Best pout in a social media post for the new generation of fans", going to be considered?
Seriously. The phrase "Resting on your laurels" came about as the original Olympic Games awarded a laurel wreath as the one and only delight for a win. No medal. No million dollar Nike deal. Simply a woven crown of green leaves... and you're done. We all know you'd won, and that's the point. On the day, you came first. See you in four years... which given the medical, hygiene and endless-warring of the times made a title defence a rare thing. The idea of being a seven time champion back then (which would require you to contest Olympics over 24 years) would be fanciful. Assuming you were 18 at the first, you'd be 42 at the last. So you turn up in 776BC for a foot race, and you'd need to be back on the start line in 752BC. At a time the average life expectancy was 45 years. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes.
So we now have drivers trolling around at the back of the pack with more points than Niki Lauda (420.5) or Gillies Villeneuve (101). What is the point!? Is greatness diminished, or do we have the wrong pair of glasses on? Dear Reader, do not adjust your glasses! It is a case of catching up to reality. Do goal posts shift? I'd observe, yes...
While others might have voiced it, it was the remarkable Michael Schumacher that first went to great lengths to highlight that, "... you cannot compare across eras". This was followed some years later by Sir Lewis telling an interviewer, "I do not want to be the next Senna, I want to be the first me".
Both great men understood that as times, competitors, cars and race tracks change, so comparisons across the eras are a waste of time and energy. The 100m sprint? Yup. Same as it was back in 776BC. Well, they raced naked and bare foot then, but you know, mostly the same. The basics have not changed. The first run from Marathon? Same deal. The distance has stuck, and it's your problem to cover it on foot. Now, were Ben Johnson (or any of the other five "dirty runners" in that 1988 Olympic final) to go back to 776BC they'd wipe the floor with those modest amateurs. Ask them to live in the past for a month and they'd probably all die of unspeakable infections. Bring the winners of 776BC forward to today... well I think they'd flourish if we could keep them off Twitter and junk food. To make it to forty years old back then was a serious achievement, not a right.
Technology changes. So racing cars change. We used to have a handful of races each year. It now feels like we have a race every few hours! We used to award a few points for first, we now award 25! Heck! Let's work backward on a new loser gets something approach... Let's award 25 points for coming last, and work up the finishing order. Why not have 500 points for first? 200 points for pole. 150 for fastest lap. 75 points for fastest pit stop. 55 points for longest stint on the same tyres. 25 points for most amusing radio comeback. 20 points for most off-track violations and no penalty from the stewards. 10 points for most unexpected use of a swear word. 10 points for biggest blank of a celeb on the pit walk that no one in F1 has ever heard of. 750 points for being able to supply front row tickets to an upcoming Taylor Swift concert. 15 points for correctly predicting your own finishing position. 25 points for punting your team mate off the track and not getting a penalty from the stewards. Flavour and delight! Or horrid Dante's vision of Hell?
By my rough calculation, allowing 21 races in a season, that means the winner could amass something in excess of 20,000 points in a single year! That's got to be great! Right?
Even coming last you will surpass Fangio's lifetime points balance (277.5) about 10 races into the season! What's not to love?
So what does the point system achieve? How do we compare across eras? More importantly, why? Taylor Swift has out-sold Elvis, does that make Elvis crap? Elvis did more USA gigs than Mozart, does that make Mozart a loser? Is "Mozart the loser" a great meme, or Twitter tactic? Noting that first one would need to educate many a Twitter user as to who the heck is Mozart... Heck shall we here at Pitpass push the hash-tag #MozartHadIt! Simply to annoy and confuse folk?
No. Marcus Aurelius had it right (annoyingly bright and reasonable for an emperor to be honest). Our thoughts make our lives. We love the humanity and heroism of the drivers. We marvel at the genius of the best engineers and designers. We delight in daring strategy. It matters because we elect to make it matter.
I awake each morning and I'm not on the Somme or Passchendaele, I'm in a Western country with a democratic system whereby we disagree at the ballot box and down the pub. We respect the right to utterly disagree with one another's opinion. And that, dear reader, is perfect, priceless and worth risking your life for. Respecting the right to have ideas, opinions and beliefs that are utterly contradictory is a keystone of decent civilisation.
The finest of the past were gladiators of the highest order. The gladiators of today work within the system forced upon them. Just as those gladiators of the past worked within the social and sporting norms of their day.
What is the point? Dear reader what is it that we shall do? "Do not go gentle into that Good Night". Dylan Thomas had it right. How do we fight our own humanity? We are each born into an environment not of our making (unless one of our readers is Jesus). Embrace extra points. Embrace a race a day for nine months of the year (which would be around 280 races a year). Embrace Liberty media turning the sporting aspects of "our sport" into a Dr. Phil intervention moment.
At the end of the day amazing drivers still drive insane cars (sorry packages) around amazing tracks. I guess that is the point.
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here