I don’t know if you know i ‘fortune cookies‘, the ones they give you at the end of a meal in Asian restaurants. When I saw the single-seaters line up on the grid, I thought: it has to be seen this time the lucky cookie got Perez. I remembered the unfortunate start of 2017 and the burning shot of Kimi Raikkonen – in the wrong gear for the wet! – which contributed greatly to the accident in the first few meters. For some reason, on the ‘wrong’ side of the asphalt, when it rains, there seems to be more grip. That grip which, apart from the initial shot, did not find Leclerc.
The first question I asked myself, as Sergio and Charles were leaving the rest of the group, was: yes, but will a ‘wrong’ Red Bull win make everyone agree? I say this because, although not by nature a conspiracy theorist, what happened on Saturday in qualifying seemed to me grotesquely theatrical. I mean, Horner & Co. that go down to the levels of the Ferrari of Monaco. I find it hard to believe it, not because it is impossible (everyone does bullshit), but because the conditions were clear: with the wet asphalt you load petrol for several laps and it is the engineers who have to tell the driver if he is consuming too much (there is no the indicator on the dashboard). But calling Verstappen twice from the pits presupposes not only the erring that humanum estbut also the persevere diabolicum (and even a little stupidum). Thus we end up giving credit to the most ill-trusting theses, those that wanted a RBR on the defensive on the eve of the publication of the data on the budget cap 2021 (!).
But even this is not enough to explain the matter: because then the FIA itself, called into question – too much – by the media and especially by Italian TV, reacts by saying that until proven otherwise they are all inferences (correct translation of ‘speculations’). And even the Maranello team principal, who for months had shown his strength in questioning Milton Keynes’ budgets, backed down halfway in front of the microphones. Then finally comes the race and the aforementioned FIAEncouraged by a finally decided stance, she returns to make an own goal, giving breath to her well-aligned detractors, with a behavior bordering on ambiguity. And risking once again (I write waiting for the decision of the Stewards) to feed the fans it impeccable spectacle of a fake podium, destined to be disproved by reality. And all for the application of a more smoky rule than a Jamaican nightclub: what does it mean that ‘if necessary’ the driver (Perez, in this case) can keep a distance of more than ten points from the safety car? Necessary to whom and to what? And how does the pilot assess by eye how many are – badly discounted – fifty-five meters?
In short, a mess that takes away interest from the only real fact: for once, the Singapore GP was not in danger of drowning in boredom. Usually, whoever is in front ‘kills’ the first part of the race by acting as a stopper to avoid fraying the group and allow those chasing to try the weapon of the early pit stop (undercut), but the weather had changed the cards on the table. Finally, those who have always invoked – rightly – the ‘man formula’, the driver’s ability to make a difference, had bread for his teeth. There were those who worked miracles in counter-steering (Leclerc, but also Verstappen in the ‘at least I have fun’ version and many others) e who ingloriously ended up on the wall. Who was digging abysmal gaps, then punctually nullified by the safety car, and who was going to a small trot (Sainz in the wet, what a difference from his teammate!). Which is, or should be, the essence of motor sport.
Instead other doping and toxic substances come to take the stage, endless controversies that the true enthusiast are of little or no interest to. By now everyone has understood that there is open war between F1 and the Federation. And in the paddock, theFerrari-Red Bull alliance set up to give on to the Mercedes who wanted to change the rules on porpoising is lasted as long as the famous cat on the ring road. Ah, and then let’s wait three days and we’ll see the results of the famous (infamous) budget rooftop audit. Because if it should come out, in open reversal of the secret of Pulcinella, that none of the team has breached, then Chris Horner and Helmut Marko (who is perhaps not surprisingly a lawyer) could start the lawsuits for defamation. How wonderful – if you understand the irony – when you cross the line between motoring and self-harm.
#Misfortune #Cookie #FormulaPassion.it