Don’t you just love it? I certainly do. Formula One drivers verbally and bitterly battling off the track and giving one another the toughest of times, wheel-to-wheel, on it for us all to see and admire for their heroics.
Altercations, in whatever form, in Grand Prix racing are the stuff of spectacle for committed fans who, too often these days, pay exorbitantly dearly for a scant return of excitement in yawn-inducing parades virtually devoid of combative and fearless overtaking.
And that is why we — and I most certainly do — must welcome the ongoing confrontations between uncaring teenage wonder boy and occasional dashing daredevil Max Verstappen, and just about every other rival driver, but currently more especially with Sebastian Vettel, one of the sport’s elder statesmen.
As four-times champion Ferrari number one Vettel has, as they say, been there and done that, he demands and expects respect from the lesser achievers and also-rans, overshadowed by what he demonstrates, though not too often as of late, with his superior skill and experience.
And this is where Verstappen, a comparative newcomer, comes in. Fast ... very fast.
The 19-year-old Red Bull out-and-out racer, no respecter of status or reputation of rivals who are paid twenty times his $1m wage, is motivated by an inborn impulse and desire to be a winner or, at least, ahead of the rest. He is to my mind a champion waiting to happen. Sure-fire.
My point is pertinent and a plea on behalf of genuine Grand Prix followers worldwide: let these two argumentative souls, warring factions, go for it as hard as they can without any dampening direction from their pitfall team chiefs to “cool it”.
For the sake of Formula One, and I now I shall resort to alliteration, if a principal ingredient on a tasty menu of racing is Vettel versus Verstappen in a valiant V for Victory showcase that is hot box office stuff for the sport.
I have to confess, showing my age, that the thriller days of a decade or so ago were what the basis of Grand Prix racing, with the most elite, gifted but hell-bent drivers, should be all about. F1 kingpin Bernie Ecclestone, a fervent fan of neck and neck rivalry, and deeply concerned about the widespread falling off of figures watching his brainchild, is in full agreement with me.
Over a lunch last week — a gigantic pasta for me, a salad for him — bill-payer Bernie and I recounted the more memorable moments of lap-by-lap and very combative tussles that chuffed both us and the trackside thousands.
They were all edgy moments to guarantee concentration from the terraces and highpoints for the gutsy, sometimes madcap, drivers given over completely to the sheer determination to outshine and outspend whoever ventured into their jealously guarded share of the circuit.
The grandeur of the names equalled their mountainous ambition to be the best, the greatest, a winner, against avowed, seriously disliked enemies.
British hero Nigel Mansell against Nelson Piquet and French world champion Alain Prost, both aliens in Mansell’s mind. Playboy James Hunt and deadly serious Nikki Lauda. German genius and multi-champ Michael Schumacher and just about everybody else on the grid, but particularly Canadian Jacques Villeneuve and Spanish flyer Fernando Alonso.
Fearsomely gifted Ayrton Senna versus ego-driven Prost, again, was a set-to to set the nerves a tingle.
More recently, after a tranquil partnership, Vettel and straight-talking Australian Mark Webber went toe-to-toe until they finally split. The same goes now for the combustible Mercedes twosome Lewis Hamilton, three times the champion, and Nico Rosberg, the title pacemaker, who wants to steal his crown in an exciting countdown of two more GPs.
The bad blood and vindictive attitude flowed freely between all of the above, demonstrated in thrillingly fearless on-track duels and off-duty verbal sniping — and it meant that the paying public, TV viewers, too — got what they most wanted to see. And still do.
So let’s keep it that way. Bring it on. Back off officialdom. Keep the red tape in the drawer. If these guys want to go for it the basic elements of racing, competition and a will to be first means there is one big winner. And that is you, dear Formula One addict. Oh, and me too…..
