02/07/2024
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
The messenger from Marathon was simply trying to carry a message to Caesar in a timely manner.
He was not seeking great reward. Yet, dying as he handed forward the news of victory, he set a distance that people now delight in as a sporting event. I don't think the original runner would have called it a fun run however. Dying at the finish line is possibly not what most modern fun runners have in mind. The first runner from marathon would also probably not label it as "...a great day out for all the family." Funny how times change.
Men waving flags in front of cars to warn villagers of impending doom. The Germans limiting Autobahn speeds to 255 kph... to save fuel not lives. Australia obsessing over speed limits while ignoring the normalised maths. Yet another Eurovision Song Contest... in which Australia participated. OK... so what is the point?
Bruce Springsteen so insightfully notes on his 1982 album Nebraska that, "At the end of every hard earned day, people find some reason to believe". So rather than disappear down an existential rabbit hole with Miss Physics in tow as we search for Jesus' mobile number (you'd not believe his address book, and all his calls and texts in this existence are free), or God's Amazon account details (he's God, he can order anything). Let's attempt to review the point of building, competing and watching motor racing cars. And yet... without joining Miss Physics and baby Jesus down the rabbit hole, well we might rather struggle to find a point. Life, not unlike the rulings of the FIA and track stewards, does rather tend to be an enigma more than it is an answer.
Part one of this article discussed how meaningless comparing points across rule changes has become. Thus, recommending to our fearless readers that they simply accept "That's how we score this season. Nothing to see here, please just move along". As the best manner with which to conserve one's sanity, and simply enjoy the racing.
The first Formula One World Driver's Championship was won by Giuseppe Farina at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo. Two poles, three wins, three other podiums and three fastest laps for a grand total of 30 points. Yes sir! World Champion for 30 points, across a season of seven races.
Seven races into this season, and the top nine drivers, from V. Max on 161 points, down to Alonso in ninth on 33 points are all ahead of Farina's modest haul. Farina was on the podium for six of seven races, that's 86%. If V. Max is on the podium for 86% of this season that would translate into 19 races of 23 (allowing for rounding). Likewise three wins from seven starts is a 42.8% win rate. So again, any driver getting to around nine wins this season is on track to match Farina in percentage terms.
None of which compares to the sheer horror of racing in Farina's day. I am not going to start calculating statistics for deaths of other drivers per championship win, but I'm sure readers can appreciate that the numbers back then were horrific. Canvas and leather helmets, polo shirts, dress shoes. Seat belts only became compulsory for F1 cars in 1972. 1972!!!
It is the amazing level of safety in racing now which allows the best to push so hard, win often, have extensive careers... and live to retire!
It is the safety more than anything which makes comparing across eras meaningless. Hindenburg for a transatlantic crossing anyone? De Havilland Comet? DC-10? Boeing 737-MAX for the current era (not for this Max...). How about a Ford Model T being T-boned by a Tesla? I can tell you who would walk away without a bent fingernail while live streaming the disaster.
Or the horror of the Mercedes crash during the 1955 running of Le Mans. 83 spectators killed, over 120 injured, driver Pierre Levegh perishing as his car disintegrated in front of the pits, to the utter horror of his wife. The race continued, with people stressing over who had the authority to stop it, and would the exiting spectators then block emergency services trying to enter the circuit and aid the injured? In the end the race ran to conclusion. Mercedes quietly withdrew in the middle of the night having gained permission to stop from an emergency director's meeting back in Stuttgart. Mercedes Chief Engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut then asked Jaguar team manager Lofty England if his team would follow suit out of respect, as it was Hawthorn's swerving Jaguar which had been the trigger for the disaster. Lofty declined, and Hawthorn and the team would go on to win the race by a little over five laps.
In reaction, France, Switzerland and others banned motor racing. The season was curtailed. Then racing in the UK, and Italy restarted. France lifted its ban in time for the 1956 Le Mans race, which was again won by Jaguar, with Ron Flockhart, and Ninian Sanderson driving (Ron would win again with Jaguar in '57). Switzerland did not lift its ban until 2007. Mercedes exited motoring racing until 1989. Fangio vowed to never race at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Each had their point. None was in it for the points.
So the French paused for some months, revised rules governing motor sport, and demolished the spectator stand next to the pits. The Swiss banned motor racing for 52 years. Mercedes removed themselves from racing for 34 years. And Fangio lived to retire. Over time Mike Hawthorn would back away from his statement that he triggered the event, only to die in a road accident, ironically involving him in a Jaguar, overtaking a Mercedes (driven by team manager Rob Walker) on the A3 Guildford bypass. It was wet, it was dark, it was January 1959, months after he'd won the 1958 title. 29 years old, kidney issues, recently retired from motor sport. Now gone. What was the point?
What, dear reader was the point of all that suffering? What was the point of the points system back then? What is the point of the points system now?
Why do we humans crave comparisons across the ages, coupled with urgent debates around GOAT (great of all time) status for sport's folk? Is it not enough to enjoy the moment? As Maximus demands of the crowd in that wonderful film Gladiator, "Are you not entertained?"
Or as this scribe has previously noted, it was Marcus Aurelius that neatly stated, "Our lives are what our thoughts make them". Which is to say, the only point is the one we assign for ourselves.
Society only hangs together because we all agree to act with some decency. As I write this track limits are again a topic of discussion at the Austrian GP. Yet, without track limits, what point the race? Why not hoon around an approximation of the circuit in an F16 or Blackhawk? We need the rules to set us free... for total anarchy is simply a mess. It's not fun, it is random chaos.
The FIA drive us all to tears, yet they are trying to define meaning. They are trying to give all that effort a point. Without the rules to curse the teams would have no meaning. Without track limits the track would be meaningless. Without a framework within which to innovate and race, the entire engineering escapade would be pointless.
Like Heracles all those centuries ago, our teams and drivers are heroes because they see the rules and bounds before them, and freely choose to challenge life within those defined bounds.
So the point dear reader? The point is the human condition is to struggle. Without any struggle we lack direction. F1 provides a remarkable arena allowing battle within a set of rules all contestants agree. Mark the performance on the day. Enjoy the battle as it unfolds.
Comparing points totals across the decades? Why bother? Do we compare Titanic to the Santa Maria? The Wright's Flyer One to the SR-71? The Ford Model T to the Range Rover Vogue? Pointless! Pointless compressions across decades that simply ignore the amazing accomplishment that each was in its own day.
Fangio and Ascari remain legends. Lauda was a hero, as was Hunt, as was Schumacher. Senna and Mansell both channelled the emotion of nations. Is that not enough? V. Max, Norris, Sir Lewis, and all the other remarkable drivers on the grid this year are worthy because they turn up and they compete the best they can within the rules provided. And that is all any hero has ever done throughout history. They make the current struggle their point. And we can ask no more.
Compare not across the years. Give thanks and honour for the legends of the past, and the heroes of today. They are human. They strive to be heroes. And we shall, must, salute them. And that, regardless of the points awarded, is the point.
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here