Shifting More Than Gears

Shifting blame, I hadn't given it much thought lately or maybe just "fell into the rhythm of things". Then I read Peter Windsor’s, The Friction Circle, F1 Racing, May 2007, page 29. So I went into USGP weekend looking for it. I was hoping to find out about the drivers, not so much the PR, but what the drivers say about what happened.

I believe it is a man who can admit he made a mistake and find it hard to believe anyone who can’t.

Below are some quotes from the drivers after the USGP.

Ralf Schumacher - I braked quite calmly but my tyres locked up a bit.

Giancarlo Fisichella - I am just really sorry about the result today. I lost the rear end going into turn four on lap two, and that compromised my whole race.

Fernando Alonso - I think the race was decided after the first corner, and I didn't manage to get past. All I could do was to stay as close to Lewis as possible. We were side-by-side on one occasion, but it was all fair and square and it was good racing.

Nick Heidfeld - I had a good start and overtook Kimi. In the first stint my speed was okay, and it was only in the beginning that Felipe Massa could pull away a little bit. Later when I was braking for turn one the rear wheels just locked and I spun.

Takumo Sato - I had a difficult start to the race and as a result got overtaken by two cars.

Windsor calls it the “if only” syndrome and I agree that it a “syndrome” in one and only one case, Ralf Schumacher. In Windsor’s article he says, “The best I’ve heard in recent times was Ralf Schumacher’s ‘the car spun’, instead of ‘I spun the car’, giving us the impression that the Toyota wouldn’t have left the road ‘if only’ it had been as well-adjusted as its driver”.

I wonder how you get to Formula 1 if things just happen to you, if you don’t make them happen. It’s a little like reading your horoscope and deciding only to believe the good bits. Ralf, Toyota pay you $20 million a year, your problems aren’t under the hood they are in your helmet. If you are in Formula 1 at all next year it should be with an “also ran” and a pay cut. “I braked quite calmly."