Has everybody gone crazy??

[<T-K>]

I was talking to a young couple today while I was at work...and we began talking about F1......the guy began to say that he couldn't wait for the Malaysia race to come because there are normally lots of "intense crashes, especially at the start"......and his wife/girlfriend/mistress/loveslave was agreeing with him on the fact that she too wants to see the accidents.....this particular couple must've been about 22 or so(give or take a few years), and this brings me to my next point,,,,

What is it with people and taking pleasure in other peoples bad fortune?????...... I am saying this because when you take a look at people in general, the older generations(by this I mean 30+) watch F1 because they want to see brilliant overtaking, and perfect pitstops, they are more involved in the strategy and skill that is Formula 1....
Whereas the younger generation(not all, but the majority) are only in it because they want to see carnage...they couldn't give two hoots who is on a two stop strategy and how well Kimi passed Massa for 4th place... they want to see Kimi smashing into Massa while challenging for 4th place.........

I know this for a fact, because I know plenty people, who, despite my best efforts to try and get them interested in strategies etc, will only watch the starts and restarts because "thats when the accidents happen"....and did anyone take a look at the television ratings after Sato took out Shumi in Belgium, or when Ralph crashed in U.S.A, it is unbelievable how many "young viewers" began tuning in to F1.........

I even know a group youngsters(+/-12 years old), whom I was driving to the local ice rink, were laughing at a car accident on the freeway joking that the driver was "Playing Ralph"........now I know I may be out of line here, but Is that not wrong?

What is going on with our civilized nations?? I guess the world is just a sick machine, breeding a mass of rubbish....

or am i just being a stereotypical lunatic?



I dont know why I just went into all that, but it is good to have it off my chest...I'll be at the bar.....

[JayVee]

I know a few who wished Massa took Alonso out in Bahrain

But I agree with you T-K, I watch F1 to watch Alonso win in style (that means amazing overtaking and perfect pit stops doesn't it )

[<T-K>]

I know a few who wished Massa took Alonso out in Bahrain

But I agree with you T-K, I watch F1 to watch Alonso win in style (that means amazing overtaking and perfect pit stops doesn't it )

yeah...I guess that does....

I actually thought you were going to oppose me on this...... thankfully I was wrong....

[RE30B#16]

I was talking to a young couple today while I was at work...and we began talking about F1......the guy began to say that he couldn't wait for the Malaysia race to come because there are normally lots of "intense crashes, especially at the start"......and his wife/girlfriend/mistress/loveslave was agreeing with him on the fact that she too wants to see the accidents.....this particular couple must've been about 22 or so(give or take a few years), and this brings me to my next point,,,,

What is it with people and taking pleasure in other peoples bad fortune?????

It is just the state of our sick nation. Why do you think there are so many "reality" shows on tv and cable right now? People are not interested in sports any more, they just want to see drama. This all started with the OJ Simpson trial and the Jerry Springer show. Look at how we treat celebrities. Voyeurism is a national pasttime now. This is why NASCAR is so popular now. Lotsa wrecks with nobody getting too injured and guys throwing helmets at other cars racing at speed.

I am a fan of motorracing. Formula 1 is my main interest, but I enjoy CART, IRL, prototype sportcar racing, karts, rallying, even NASCAR, but in America now, there is a new unspoken rule that you cannot be a fan of NASCAR and F1 at the same time. Or that you must prefer ovals and have some sort of disdain for racing that involves turning the steering wheel both ways. It is like strange patriotism or something.

Maybe we are just too jaded as a nation. I love watching racing because I love to watch excellence, but we have become a nation that craves mediocracy and seeing people sometimes literally crash and burn.


Chris

[<T-K>]

I was talking to a young couple today while I was at work...and we began talking about F1......the guy began to say that he couldn't wait for the Malaysia race to come because there are normally lots of "intense crashes, especially at the start"......and his wife/girlfriend/mistress/loveslave was agreeing with him on the fact that she too wants to see the accidents.....this particular couple must've been about 22 or so(give or take a few years), and this brings me to my next point,,,,

What is it with people and taking pleasure in other peoples bad fortune?????

It is just the state of our sick nation. Why do you think there are so many "reality" shows on tv and cable right now? People are not interested in sports any more, they just want to see drama. This all started with the OJ Simpson trial and the Jerry Springer show. Look at how we treat celebrities. Voyeurism is a national pasttime now. This is why NASCAR is so popular now. Lotsa wrecks with nobody getting too injured and guys throwing helmets at other cars racing at speed.

I am a fan of motorracing. Formula 1 is my main interest, but I enjoy CART, IRL, prototype sportcar racing, karts, rallying, even NASCAR, but in America now, there is a new unspoken rule that you cannot be a fan of NASCAR and F1 at the same time. Or that you must prefer ovals and have some sort of disdain for racing that involves turning the steering wheel both ways. It is like strange patriotism or something.

Maybe we are just too jaded as a nation. I love watching racing because I love to watch excellence, but we have become a nation that craves mediocracy and seeing people sometimes literally crash and burn.


Chris

......it is sad to see that this is what human beings have been lowered to.....taking pleasure in others misfortune......If we are lucky it will work itself out, and we will see loads of motorsport fans who actually tune in to watch the racing

[Snowy]

Motor racing has been my favourite sport since I started watching tin tops and Nascars crashing into one another apparantly regardless of the concequences. I think that is how motor racing should be. I get very upset when I see Nascars hurtling backwards and up comes a flap that pushes the rear to the ground and deprives me of one of the greatest spectacles in the world. I could equate it to watching sharks feeding on baby albatros, it's appalling but compelling. I don't like it when people get hurt, I was as shocked and upset as anyone that weekend when Roland Raztenburger then Ayton lost their lives. I mourned the loss of Dale Earnhart and countless other great racing drivers and Alexandro Zanardi's legs.

We have evolved little physically and psychologically from the days of the Roman Empire and in the scheme of things they are supposed to be our gladiators. Peronally I would rather lose my life in the arena than in Iraq in a car bombing incident.

I believe we live and we die and that if we can choose how we live and die then that is better than being a sheep or a Bank clerk. If you offered me a competetive drive in modern sanitized F1 car or a Lotus 72 I'd choose the Lotus and I'd put it on pole or die trying.

[<T-K>]

I'd put it on pole or die trying.

We share the same view....

[<T-K>]

I believe we live and we die and that if we can choose how we live and die then that is better than being a sheep or a Bank clerk. If you offered me a competetive drive in modern sanitized F1 car or a Lotus 72 I'd choose the Lotus and I'd put it on pole or die trying.

yeah, but that is not necessarily the point I am trying to make.....Its not whether or not you would choose the Lotus and I'd put it on pole or die trying, its the fact that thousands of people will watch, just to see you die trying, rather than see you put it on pole...

[Snowy]

I believe we live and we die and that if we can choose how we live and die then that is better than being a sheep or a Bank clerk. If you offered me a competetive drive in modern sanitized F1 car or a Lotus 72 I'd choose the Lotus and I'd put it on pole or die trying.

yeah, but that is not necessarily the point I am trying to make.....Its not whether or not you would choose the Lotus and I'd put it on pole or die trying, its the fact that thousands of people will watch, just to see you die trying, rather than see you put it on pole...

I take your point but I suspect a lot of people are like me and like to see racing and get off on the competition and the danger. Then the danger becomes more appealing than watching your man get beaten over and over by a guy who's a machaine that hates to lose so much so that he keeps driving your man off the circuit and saying crap disrespectful things ablut him off the circuit. That is why watching Schui win lots of GP's is a turn off whilst watching Mika Hakkinen win lots of GP's was a turn on.

When you see truck racing for the first time and you don't know Steve Parish or any of the other guys but you see these great big trucks duking it out and doing real damage to each other and the armco barriers you can't help but enjoy what you're seeing. It's human nature.

There is nothing more profound than a car spinning into the gravel because the driver went beyond the limit of his machinery. If you never saw a guy leave the track at 140mph you probably wouldn't miss it but once you have and then you never see it again, it would be like part of your soul was missing. You probably couln't feel it or express it but you wouldn't be whole. F1 without danger is tedious. I only watch it because I want Jenson win. I watch tintops and MotoGP for entertainment and adrenalin rushes and wouldn't miss F1 but I would miss my tintops and my MotoGP. Those guys on bikes they know how to live Damon Hill was very handy on a bike and that is the difference between him and Schui he has genuine guts and honour whereas Schui is a whimp and rather than loose he'd put you in the wall. Dale Earnhart would put you in the wall but he did with style.

[<T-K>]

I take your point but I suspect a lot of people are like me and like to see racing and get off on the competition and the danger. Then the danger becomes more appealing than watching your man get beaten over and over by a guy who's a machaine that hates to lose so much so that he keeps driving your man off the circuit and saying crap disrespectful things ablut him off the circuit. That is why watching Schui win lots of GP's is a turn off whilst watching Mika Hakkinen win lots of GP's was a turn on.

When you see truck racing for the first time and you don't know Steve Parish or any of the other guys but you see these great big trucks duking it out and doing real damage to each other and the armco barriers you can't help but enjoy what you're seeing. It's human nature.

There is nothing more profound than a car spinning into the gravel because the driver went beyond the limit of his machinery. If you never saw a guy leave the track at 140mph you probably wouldn't miss it but once you have and then you never see it again, it would be like part of your soul was missing. You probably couln't feel it or express it but you wouldn't be whole. F1 without danger is tedious. I only watch it because I want Jenson win. I watch tintops and MotoGP for entertainment and adrenalin rushes and wouldn't miss F1 but I would miss my tintops and my MotoGP. Those guys on bikes they know how to live Damon Hill was very handy on a bike and that is the difference between him and Schui he has genuine guts and honour whereas Schui is a whimp and rather than loose he'd put you in the wall. Dale Earnhart would put you in the wall but he did with style.

You make a good point........

[Jim Watt]

Well, Mates, on the subject of people ENJOYING wrecks in motor racing, I have to say the argument will never end. Even the less cerebral in the species usually doesn't wish to see a fellow human hurt or killed (there is a place for sadists, but I don't think it's the racetrack); what they are looking for is EXCITEMENT.

For the most part, the types who only watch starts and re-starts (or in the case of Restrictor Plate racing in NASCAR, the final four or five laps), don't much know a transmission from a remission or a four wheel drift from a drift of snow, so the only thing that seems exciting to them is the sight of lots of parts spewing around the track while the other chaps seek to avoid them.

Never, that is, attempted any kind of controlled driving at high speed, they don't appreciate control. (Of course some of these idiots DO have experience at UNcontrolled driving at high speed --at least for a while. But you couldn't PAY me to ride to the post office with one of these chaps!)

Not appreciating control (or knowing what it is), they yawn at overtaking, unless it includes smashed parts and flying off into the gravel or fence.

I don't, by the by, think this is limited to younger chaps and lassies; plenty of people I know (and I'm collecting Social Security) are just as bad; they talk about their relative seats at the Indianapolis 500 in terms of whether or not "lots of wrecks happen there"!

On the other hand, I have a stock answer to my colleagues (College Profs) when they ask me with condescending sneers what I can possibly "see" in motor racing. I looks them in the eye and says:

"Racing is made up of equal parts speed, sex, death & money and I confess to a life long interest in all of them."

My point being that the danger, as in skiing or sailing or snorkleing or climbing, IS NECESSARY. No risk, no adreneline. Might as well be chess or stock brokering. But nothing but risk, might as well be a bloody war or dare-deviling. What makes it compelling is tickling the dragon's tail, not getting burnt by him.

And face it, it is the risk and the speed and the adreneline that attracts both the sex and the money. It ain't accidental that F1 has "grid girls" and even local midget racing has some gal to hand you the trophy with a big kiss.

The money part is maybe the most interesting. Not having a lot, I can't say why people spend money in racing; but what I CAN say for sure is that if I had it, you'd better believe I'd spend it on racing.

Who wouldn't want to be Eddie Jordan or Peter Sauber or Ron Dennis?!! (I mean, assuming you, like me, already know you couldn't even be Takuma Sato, let alone D.C. or J.B. And never in your wildest dream could you imagine being Michael or Kimi or Fernando or ...!!

thanks for this thread, TK

Jim Watt

[RE30B#16]

Who wouldn't want to be Eddie Jordan or Peter Sauber or Ron Dennis?!! (I mean, assuming you, like me, already know you couldn't even be Takuma Sato, let alone D.C. or J.B. And never in your wildest dream could you imagine being Michael or Kimi or Fernando or ...!!

Chris

[<T-K>]

Who wouldn't want to be Eddie Jordan or Peter Sauber or Ron Dennis?!! (I mean, assuming you, like me, already know you couldn't even be Takuma Sato, let alone D.C. or J.B. And never in your wildest dream could you imagine being Michael or Kimi or Fernando or ...!!

It should'nt be too long for me...I'm halfway up the ladder of successl, I just cant find a sponsor

[RE30B#16]

Here's something else I find interesting if not crazy:

Since when has NASCAR become the pinnacle of motorsports, and when did winning the Indy 500 suddenly pale in comparison to just being a Nextel Cup driver?

I saw an interview with Dan Wheldon on ESPN the other day, and the interviewer asks him if after one more year of IRL, would he be ready to step and join the "big boys" in NASCAR Nextel Cup? Wheldon was visably dumbfounded by the question, but gathered himself to answer cheerfully and tactfully. Giving the interviewer the benefit of doubt, maybe he was asked this because he has joined Chip Ganassi's team which fields a successful Nextel Cup team.

I don't know about you, but just because NASCAR is a very, very popular series doesn't elevate it over the other series. One can make an argument for Formula 1 being close to the top of the racing foodchain, but pulleaase!!!

I guess since NASCAR seems to be winning the tv popularity contest in America at the moment, all other types of racing have been reduced to feeder series.

Chris

[<T-K>]

Here's something else I find interesting if not crazy:

Since when has NASCAR become the pinnacle of motorsports, and when did winning the Indy 500 suddenly pale in comparison to just being a Nextel Cup driver?

I saw an interview with Dan Wheldon on ESPN the other day, and the interviewer asks him if after one more year of IRL, would he be ready to step and join the "big boys" in NASCAR Nextel Cup? Wheldon was visably dumbfounded by the question, but gathered himself to answer cheerfully and tactfully. Giving the interviewer the benefit of doubt, maybe he was asked this because he has joined Chip Ganassi's team which fields a successful Nextel Cup team.

I don't know about you, but just because NASCAR is a very, very popular series doesn't elevate it over the other series. One can make an argument for Formula 1 being close to the top of the racing foodchain, but pulleaase!!!

I guess since NASCAR seems to be winning the tv popularity contest in America at the moment, all other types of racing have been reduced to feeder series.

Chris

Because in NASCAR, there is always a lot of carnage, which pulls in the viewers