Suitcase of Courage

The Draconian Fe(IA)rri and the McLaren Witch-Hunt

On Sunday, F1 fans were treated to a convincingly dominant drive from World Champion Fernando Alonso. Reeling in his teammate in the championship, he is now only 3 points from young Lewis. Though the weekend was marred with dark overtones, and on the podium and in the following press conference, Fernando seemed stoic about what was just achieved. Second placed Hamilton also seemed worried about his championship being destroyed by a court ruling and even considered that he might be "out of a job" next weekend.

The Stepneygate controversy has taken F1 down a dark path where effectively Ferrari could be handed the lead in both championships. It's a sad situation which we here at the SoC are colletively concerned that the best championship in years could be tainted by the FIA.

That is to say, we wouldn't dare to condone illegal activities by one team against another, but what is going on is a bit over the line. Always a sportsman, Jackie Stewart recently chimed in on the affair and has some particularly interesting insights. Firstly, he points to the corruptive relationship between the FIA and Ferrari. On the red love affair, "The FIA have historically been very close to Ferrari, closer to them than anyone else. There are more Ferrari representatives on the World Council than anybody else, and it seems that some of the most powerful people in this sport are more aligned to Ferrari than anybody else" Save for the on-track episodes of the brutal Schumacher, Ferrari always had their way in FIA hearings.

Stewart points out that Ferrari really should look inward and wonder how one of their senior team members could defect to such a magnitude in that "the very fact that this information came out of Ferrari means their own security and integrity level has to be judged." Indeed Ferrari will most likely examine why this happened but right now, they are concentrated on winning the publics support for the hearing.

In the hearing, the where and whens of the stipulated 780 page Ferrari document that was under McLaren's roof will be examined with an unknown measure of evidence. But as Stewart points out in this age of instant information, this could be commonplace, "Mostly it was intellectual before because it was in the mind, but now by the press of one button you can have 780 pages if you want. There's been the transfer of information going on since 1950 when modern Formula One began. So 57 years later I don't see much change."

When he was setting up his Grand Prix outfit in the mid-90's Stewart hired personnel from all the teams, "They came from Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Benetton, Arrows, Minardi, Jordan, and every one of them brought knowledge with them that we could never have had without that." The knowledge from those members helped Barrichello get second place in their first year of competition at Monaco in 1997.

And lastly, Stewart points to the terrible outcome that could rear its head on Thursday. As he puts it the "dirty laundry" spread out for everyone to see. The coercive relationship between Ferrari and the FIA could have ramifications beyond the betrayal of the fans, but also sponsors realizing that F1 is a tainted sport. "It's a very dangerous set of circumstances that's occurring, and it's potentially threatening the financial foundations of Formula One. If this goes the wrong way, I could see major trouble with major multinational corporations wanting to get out because of corporate governance."

Sir Frank Williams as well is concerned about the financial future of Formula One due to the hearing. "This may cost Formula One some business," Willams said in Monza, "I just have a bit of concern that if it goes on much longer, it will deter sponsors who are currently present in F1, or who are close to coming in." Could Ferrari be so shortsighted to jeopardize Formula Ones future?

We hope for the best but, it seems like that isn't going to be the reality...

Jan Ullrich bids Auf Wiedersehen: A Tribute to der Kaiser

Jan Ullrich held his much aniticipated press conference today to announce his plans, and for those of us hoping he might once again make a comeback it was a disappointment. We generally tow a pretty cynical line here at SofC, but his retirement announcement for me was quite a sad moment. Jan Ullrich represented the perfect adversary to Lance Armstrong, and while the big Texan undoubtedly came out ahead it was nice to look forward to cheering for the underdog, especially when Lance's Tour wins took on their inevitable nature towards the end. 2003 was the last great chance we all had to watch Ullrich put the hurt on Tex, the sight of him powering through that hot ITT while Lance faltered was one of the rare moments where everyone gasped at the idea of Armstrong not winning.

I think this is the reason Ullrich had such a following in the US. While everyone else Lance raced against seemed content on going for second place, Ullrich really had it out for him. Sure, the past few years Ivan Basso was closer in the mountains than Ullrich, but the Italian seemed destined to be a successor while Jan was his rival. The careers of the two great bike racers seemed to define each other. First Lance won because Jan wasn't there, and then Jan didn't win because Lance was there.

Ullrich came to prominence at a young age as Bjarne Riis' talented assistant in the Dane's 1996 Tour usurping of the great Miguel Indurain. Just one year later, aged 23, Jan showed the world what he was made of by dropping the biggest names in the world on his way to the yellow jersey in Andorra. Riis struggled in over 3 minutes behind and passed the Telekom leadership to his young apprentice. Two weeks later Ullrich would ride down the Champs Elysee in yellow for his only career Tour victory. In a sport where riders reach their prime between 28 and 32, the 24 year old Tour winner was the biggest prospect since Eddie Merckx. No one knew how much the young German could win, but everyone knew the potential was there for him to become one of the greats.

1998 saw Ullrich beaten in an incredible upset by climbing specialist Marco Pantani, thanks to a superhuman effort over the Galibier and up Les Deux Alpes where the Italian put 9 minutes on his rival, stealing the yellow Jersey that had seemed secure on Jan's shoulders that morning in Grenoble. That stage will go down in cycling history, Pantani's ride was legendary, but a little remembered fact of the day was Jan's flat tire while chasing down the valley after the Galibier. The time he lost there might have changed things, but that seems to be the story of his career from then on.

For the next season Ullrich skipped the Tour and instead easily won the Vuelta a Espagna. Meanwhile in France, Lance Armstrong picked up the first of his Tour wins, and the general consensus was that it was only because Ullrich wasn't there. Next year would prove the doubters wrong as both Ullrich and Armstrong went for victory in Paris and the German once again brought home silver. Later that year however, Jan got some well earned retribution by beating Lance to the gold medal in Sydney.

Last year's Tour de France was one of the most hotly anticipated editions in history, with at least as many fans rooting for  Ullrich as Basso, but as we know now they were both kicked out on the eve of the race's start. While Basso has since re-signed and continued racing, the German became tainted goods and endured a year of investigation and rumor-mongering. The worst moment had to have been having his house looted for DNA while on a honeymoon with his new bride.

While the rest of the world focused on moving on from 2006's doping scandals, and true evidence failed to materialize in operacion puerto, Jan seemed forever trapped by it, guilty until forced into retirement. In the end it was obviously to much, and who can blame the guy. As long as he's got some euros hidden away I can only wish him the best as he sets off on a retirement filled with (hopefully) Mallorcan beaches and all the brat's and beer he can gobble. I know I'll miss the "Kaiser" of the peleton, and I'll look back on his career and think of how close he was to truly becoming one of the greats.

So, in the interest of celebrating the high points, here's a chance to relive the highest. Stage 10 to Andorra in the 1997 Tour de France, where Jan drops the entire field and takes his first yellow jersey of his career, all while wearing the German National Champion jersey. Enjoy.

"Can't You See?! They are Completely Different Cars"

Watching the public relations "He said, He said" in the last few months, it's difficult to keep up with the chat concerning customer cars. Toro Rosso and Super Best Friends have the full intent on using the chassis from their parent teams, Red Bull and Honda respectively.

Neither team has been clocking up any testing miles for their new cars thus far, instead they are letting their parent teams to the brunt of the development work. Super Aguri is present at some sessions but using their old car. Who knows how much data, or if any at all, Honda and Red Bull are sharing with their "b-teams" but seeing the what was uncovered at Barcelona this week, there's a bit of a clue...

To nobody's surprise this week, the new Toro Rosso finally came out of the womb and guess what, she has her Daddy's eyes... and ears, cheekbones, arms, feet, etc...

Yes, the new Toro Rosso is a dead ringer for the Adrian Newey designed RB3. At Toro Rosso's "media event" in Barcelona, team principle Franz Tost elaborated on their intent to stay the course, "We think we are within the regulations, so it is not necessary to make any compromise. Although I don't know what compromise we can make because either you are within the regulations or outside the regulations." This has become a political standoff. No team can appeal to the FIA until that Toro Rosso rolls through technical scrutiny in Australia. But in the meantime, the teams are digging in their heals, convinced that their position is the correct one.

On the other side of the fence, Williams and Spyker both know that they'll have a difficult time competing against teams with effectively 4 cars. They have made their position clear again and again that customer cars in their eyes are illegal. Toro Rosso's Gerhard Berger on the other hand is unwavering in his position that Williams and Spyker have no case.

So how much of the chassis design has to be different for it to be a 'unique' design? Surely, since Red Bull uses Renault power and Toro Rosso uses a Ferrari V8 would create a different configuration, but that might not be enough.

Will it be the unknowledgeable lawyers in Australia, and subsequently in Bahrain (they have lawyers?), that will arbitrarily decide on this controversy?

What would Toro Rosso and Super Aguri do if their cars are deemed illegal? Cry elephant tears (lawyers included) to the FIA?

And most importantly, can Williams or Spyker let their cars performance speak for itself rather than bringing in a barrister?

Wouldn't THAT be a breath of fresh air.

JIMMIE brings HELMET as JOHNSON meets BUSH

We're children really.

Italian Soccer Cancelled Indefinitely

When SOC was down in Buenos Aires this summer, we caught two soccer games, seeing both of the giants of Argentine Football, Boca and River, and were stunned at the insanity of the fans. Despite the massive police presence, its apparently quite easy to walk in with flares and rockets. And after the game, they literally lock everyone in the stadium until the away fans get on the bus and out of the area. The guys who run the curva, the most hardcore supporters groups, are literally wanted criminals involved in god knows what. But we sort of brushed it all aside because Argentina is a developing country, and those sorts of things happen outside the US, right?

Yeah, so on Friday night in Italy, down south in Catania (also not exactly first world), things got a little out of control. From Reuters:

Trouble at Friday's match between Palermo and Catania began with smoke -- partly from tear gas outside the stadium -- suspending play for a half hour. Violent clashes between rioters and the police lasted for hours after the game, during which a large firecracker exploded in 38-year old police officer Filippo Raciti's face. He died as he arrived at hospital. The death came just six days after a club official died in a fight after an amateur match in the southern town of Luzzi. 'You can't be allowed to kill a policeman and leave two children as orphans just because you think you have the right to root for your team,' Salvatore Renda, a policeman who was wounded last night told Italian television.

In response, the Italian government has canceled all Serie A games indefinitely. Which isn't actually a bad thing, because the league has been boring this year with Inter dominating (they have won 12 straight), Milan sputtering, and Roma unable to keep up. Plus Juventus is spending the year beating up on the boys from Serie B due to their relegation for bribing referees last year. From the same piece:

[Prime Minister] Prodi was forced to intervene as Italy's football stadiums fell silent on Saturday with all play in the country's leagues suspended indefinitely after the nation's second soccer-related death in a week. 'We cannot continuously put the lives of police officers at risk and need a remedy that makes soccer clubs feel responsible (for fans' actions) and radically changes the situation,' Prodi told reporters in Bologna. He and top Italian sports officials convened a series of high-level meetings to hammer out emergency measures to curb future hooliganism. But a quick resumption of matches appeared unlikely with Interior Minister Giuliano Amato saying he would no longer send his police force to matches under existing conditions. 'Enough is enough,' he told Italian television. 'Violence is everywhere, but violence in the stadiums connected to a game -- I find that truly unacceptable.' Rowdy brawls at football matches in Italy are not uncommon. But images of hundreds of hooded rioters hurling flares and firecrackers at Friday's Serie A match in Catania sparked a wave of outrage in Italy, with Italian media calling it a shameful disgrace for a nation that brought home the World Cup last year.

What a shitshow. Italy has not done much at all to deal with the hooligan problem, unlike the English football, which was forced to act after the twin tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough in the eighties. What little insight I have into this comes from reading Tim Park's excellent book A Season With Verona (definitely a recommended read for this blog's audience).  Bottom line: the clubs still tolerate hooliganism from their fans. If they started lifetime banning hooligans stadiums, the problem would disappear over night. From Prodi's remarks, It seems clear that there are going to big steps taken to clean up the hooliganism, even if the authorities are about 20 years behind the times. I wouldn't be surprised if they canceled the rest of the season to allow the clubs to bring their grounds up to international standard (ie get rid of the terraces and make all seater stadiums mandatory).

And I'm pissed off because I wanted to see fat Ronaldo play for his new club Milan this weekend.

Foto de la Gazzetta dello Sport.   

Zabel speaks his mind

In the ongoing "war on doping" there has been a deafening silence from almost all the riders involved in the sport. No one is to keen to pass judgement on their peers, or for that matter stand up for them. Such is the competitive nature of the sport that it seems riders are totally unwilling to go out on a limb and say what they think. There are however two exceptions; Paulo Bettini has been pretty outspoken throughout the year about his distrust of DNA testing and now Eric Zabel has joined in. While he disagrees with the Cricket concerning DNA (he thinks its a prefectly reasonable method of resolving doubt) the veteran German sprinter had this to say. "As long as there is no formal evidence accusing any of them of doping, what is the purpose? It appears that all that (investigators) have to work with are rumours, innuendo and assumptions. As long as that is all they have, then all of them should be allowed to ride."

Its refreshing to hear a rider say what he beleives is right instead of turning it into a tactical game. Sure, it would probably help Zabel if some of the Puerto riders were banned, but he's not looking at it to gain an advantage. Once again Eric Zabel proves he truly is one of the best in the business.

Also, the seven time green jersey winner was recently named "cycling legend" in the cyclingnews.com reader survey. Quite fitting I would say.

Reluctantly Willing Bedfellows - Indy and F1

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Joie Chitwood is set to hold a lecture talk in the coming months to determine the future of the U.S. Grand Prix at Indy for 2008 and beyond. It will be aptly titled "The Future of Formula One Racing in the United States" and be addressed to young and eager whippersnappers at Marian College in Indianapolis.

For over the last half-decade, Tony George has been pouring cash into this venture and despite that it's the largest attended Grand Prix on the calendar, it's hemorrhaging capital faster than Michelin tires explode. USGP at Indy is a prospective cash cow that's potential has yet to be realized but now is in danger of being omitted from the calendar altogether. The event was temporarily saved from the guillotine by Tony George with a one-off deal for the 2007 race.

That said, IMS CEO Joie Chitwood is one of Tony George's best troops. Unlike most of the number-crunching crass robots running IMS, he is a man solely concerned with entertaining fans. If he learned one thing from his stuntman/racer father, he knows how important it is to entertain the masses through spectacle.

A conference to discuss the future of F1 at Indy and thus America presents plenty of opportunity to explore how to improve the USGP. There has been much talk of a second Grand Prix (on either of the more motor-centric left and right coasts) possibly in Monterey or even as insane as New York City. While these ideas are great on paper, the lackluster success of Indy as a F1 venue won't exactly make investors in new venues sleep soundly. Elkhart Lake would be a fabulous track for a Grand Prix car but Elkart Lake is too remote, has too few hotels, and is most likely too fast (i.e. dangerous). The same could be said for Monterey, Road Atlanta and most other U.S. tracks.

Indy is the most economical and feasible option. In addition to the track facilities to being top notch, Indianapolis is a city built around holding massive automotive events. Perfect bedfellows then? Only if it was that easy.

To put it lightly, the track layout is a bore. Besides the epic Turn 13, it's as compelling as accelerating and braking for 1.5 miles on Indiana farm roads. Improvement in corner variety is imperative in the infield section. In the current form, Indy's challenge is not in measured in on-track bravery, but in skilled set-up. Where a track like Spa Francochomps is beautifully sculpted road matched to it's environment, Indy feels like it's was designed by a drunk bureautician getting carried away with electric scissors. Joie, something must be done. The track layout deserves a shake-up before the final judgement can be made on the USGP at Indy.

photo [BBC]

F1 is as American as a Hamilton sandwich

The prospect of Formula One gaining solid footing in America has been somewhat of a mystery in the previous years. The addition of the USGP in 2000 was the first stage of the plan. The second was for it to become successful. Despite the fiasco in 2005, Indy still has the biggest spectator crowd of whole F1 calendar year. But where are the ratings, and the mainstream press coverage? America even got their own driver with a name only a sponsor could think up - Scott Speed. But what's the deal? SPEED commentator Bob Varsha thinks that are some strange issues with the correspondence between open-wheeled motorsports fans and F1 fans.

"In a December edition of his widely-read ‘Editor's Notebook' column in National Speed Sport News, Chris Economaki cites a reader survey in Sports Business Journal in which respondents who consider themselves open-wheel fans say they prefer F-1 over the domestic IRL and Champ Car series by a wide margin. You know what Mark Twain said about statistics being right up there among falsehoods, but I think the data says something important about the growth of the F1 audience. I also wonder what Tony George and his staff at the Speedway think about all the time and money they've sunk into the USGP arguably helping to upstage their own open-wheel championship."

To his credit, Tony George has stuck by F1 despite that the USGP at Indy has never made money. Tony and Bernie Ecclestone still believe F1 has to be in America. F1 has American sponsors, and a potenitally massive market, which proves difficult in a sport forced to reinvent itself after a number of years with Michael Schumacher's dominance and the FIA's failed attempts to make on-track matters more significant than the off-track politics. Varsha continues,

"In the final edition of 2006, my hometown newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published a preview of the people to watch in the coming year. There on the front page of the op-ed section, with a picture bigger than those of the various supermodels, film directors, recording artists and politicians, was the new shoe at McLaren-Mercedes, 21-year old Lewis Hamilton. As you would expect, the reigning GP-2 champion's racial background was noted, as was the inevitable, and probably unfair, comparison to Tiger Woods. It must be said that the list was compiled from recommendations by the newspaper's foreign correspondents; the space devoted to the world's favorite form of motorsport suggests the paper's sports editors think ‘Formula One' refers to the secret recipe for making Coca-Cola syrup. Still, it's yet another clue that F-1 could be gaining a real foothold in America, and should Hamilton succeed in bringing even a fraction of Tiger-like exposure to the sport on these shores, that would mean some very exciting things in the months ahead."

So this could be the third step. F1 will showcase a young, amicable and talented 'star' for American's to latch onto. Over the past seasons, Montoya had a huge US-based following but now that dream is over. Hamilton-mania, if it publicized correctly, will push F1 into more homes in 2007 and create a mutually benificial relationship between F1 and America. In a country which could have either their first Black President or Female President in two years, this is a significant phenomenon that is unique to the idea of America. Americans like the idea of the underdog making it to the pinnacle of Anything - Politics, Sport, Celebrity, etc... Just look at what its done for feminist/IRL driver Danica Patrick. It's set up to be a tough 2007 for Hamilton. Lewis' Mclaren team will most likely have a difficult season according to some. To top it all off, the rookie will be paired with the only Champion on the grid. Let's see what he's got!

Read the whole Varsha article here via SPEED.

If You Build It, Others Will Take You To Court

That is if you are the new kid on the block, Red Bull Racing and that thing you are building is an F1 car penned by uber-designer Adrian Newey. While SOC has been off in the wilderness, there is a row brewing amongst the teams over the suggested use of customer cars which teams like Honda and Red Bull are pushing. Honda and Red Bull's B-teams (Aguri Suzuki and Toro Rosso, respectively) are planning to use a chassis design from their parent teams. This engineering of customer cars has the the other 7 teams understandably miffed. BMW boss Mario Thiessen said that sharing chassis' will ruin the sport and went so far as to suggest he will even take STR and Honda in a courtroom. Save it for race day, Mario.
Who is to say that chassis sharing is a bad idea?

There is a knee-jerk comparison to the early years of F1 where customer cars were commonplace. Ferrari, Lotus and March used had customer teams. Lest we forget that Frank Williams began his F1 career racing Brabhams. There was the great Rob Walker who ran Lotuses and occasionally won against the manufacturers. In the 1970's, a heavily beared John Watson won in Austria with 'modified' March 761 dubbed a Penske. Did March complain or take them to court? No. These were the days where you could run a car from your VW van, a few wrenches and put a tenacious younger driver behind the wheel.

But we can't just see F1 through rose colored glasses anymore; F1 is completely different game 30 years on. It is the era of the manufacturers and their corporate oligarchs that see any sort of competitive or cost cutting measure as a threat. These ideas only make winning more difficult as it makes more teams competitive. In essence, if an Adrian Newly designed Toro Rosso beats the little BMW on race day, it will make Mario Thiessen's furried 'stache begin to wilt.

I am sure Mario & Co realize that F1 is a different game now, and the independent teams of yesteryear are not anything like Aguri or STR. In the end, fans just want to see more cars competing for the top. Not that F1 should turn into NASCAR, no, but its vision should encourage competitiveness no matter what your budget is.

In a year, this controversy will become a moot-point when customer cars become part of the rules. Prodrive's David Richards is entertaining the idea of a cost-efficent customer team upon their entry in 2008. It is sorta interesting to see who's true colors come out in this year of transition for F1.

Open the Puerto, it's a bunch of freakin hypocrits.

Update: Disco issues response to IPCT meeting and it seems some team's have sporting directors that like to run their mouths.

Today marked the beginning of testimonies from cyclists involved in Operacion Puerto, the Spanish police drug inquiry which has pretty much turned pro road racing into a 21st century Salem witch hunt. Some of the best cyclists in the world were forcefully excluded from their biggest races this summer based on documents and phone calls having to do with the doctor Emanuel Fuentes. It seems he had successfully built what amounted to a chain of doping franchises where you could get anything from blood transfusions to human growth hormones. Seems like the next step would be a drive-thru and a value menu. Maybe a little toy also, like a Richard Virenque bobble head.

My problem with all this is the lack of true evidence. Since the UCI obviously can't come up with an accurate test for doping, much less handle the samples that they do collect ("oh, you wanted a "b" sample with that? I think I froze that one by accident, lets just ruin his career anyways, that way people will think we're legit!) it seems that the fight against doping is nothing but a political fight at this point. Or a cock swinging match.

The International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT) moved last week to exclude Discovery from their ranks because of their signing of Ivan Basso, who lets remember has zero evidence against him aside from a phone conversation where some Spaniard said his name to another Spaniard. As Basso pointed out earlier this month, who wasn't talking about him a week after he dominated the hardest Giro in years? This is turning into a school yard name calling match, Johan Bruyneel has the coolest kid in class hanging out with him so the rest want to gang up and screw him over.

The hypocrisy of it all is ridiculous. Even if you give into the cynical analysis and believe they're all a bunch of hopped up super-freaks on who-knows-what this is still nothing more than a tactical exclusion. None of the other team bosses, after missing signing Basso, want to be taken on another deluxe tour of France behind the blue train, so instead of figuring out how to beat him, they are trying to figure out how to exclude him. The best part is that Disco is the only team that has absolutely no record of doping offenses, (aside from Vandevelde's wife) and now they are being grouped with everyone's favorite guilty as charged directora sportiva Manolo Saiz.

At this point its clear its a witch hunt, and teams are simply using the specter of guilt as another tactical point where they can exert an advantage. Want to win the Tour de France? Get your opposition thrown out for doing the same shady shit you are doing and then act all high and mighty as you turn the boost down on your star athlete while you coast to Paris.

...Meanwhile we hear that Floyd Landis is nearing the end of his rope. Apparently the strategy against him at this point is draw it out for as long as possible and he'll run out of money. Floyd mentioned in an interview last week that he feels he'll never get a fair trial and will be left with no job, no money, and ton's of legal debt. That's enough to piss off just about anyone who believes in the antiquated idea of innocent until proven guilty. Maybe the UCI should enact some sort of homeland security doctrine and get Rummy to work for them as we already know they agree on things like the judicial process and fair trials.