I feel that too often motorsport (all sports really) is wrongly graded on the level excitement and entertainment it produces. Too often is sports lumped into entertainment category and we as fans are suppose to expect a show.
I hate to disappoint many of you but that is wrong. Sports are competitions. They are meant to test one party against either at a common ground. They are not intended to entertain or give us a thrill. They are suppose to test who is better than the other at that given point in time and if we so choose to watch, we can. Whether or not we are entertained or excited by it is totally subjected to us viewing it.
Fans should not go to a match or race expecting to be entertained. They should be expecting a competition. Sports are not meant solely to entertain us. The competition is first and foremost important. The idea of entertainment is what blinds us to the reality of an event.
Take yesterday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. What did the fans pay to say in the grandstands and what did the fans turn on their television to see? A race. Was it the most exciting race? No. Could you say it was boring? Yes. Should the fans be disappointed? In all honesty, no. They intended to see a race and they saw a race. Whether they saw the race with the adjective they labelled with it prior is not something any governing body, sponsor, driver, manufacture or official can control.
A fan should not go or turn on a TV and be expecting to see an entertaining race, a dangerous race, a scary race, a thrilling race, a breath-taking race or any other adjective they can place prior to the word race. They should go expecting to see a race because whether or not the race meets the adjective is entirely depended on them and their criteria of what makes a race exciting, boring, dangerous, thrilling, good, bad, etc. And there is no way a sanctioning body or anyone involved can cater to the millions of adjectives each and every viewer could label a race with.
What this all stems from is the tweets of Associated Press reporter Jenna Fryer who after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix who said the dominance of Sebastian Vettel bores her. She rightfully can have that opinion but when it comes to sport, domination is bound to happen. One team or man is bound to go on a run of dominance. Whether it be the Boston Celtics in the late 1950s through the 1960s, Manchester United since the creation of the Premier League, Roger Federer 2004-2009 or Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull currently in Formula One, someone is going to dominate at one point or another.
My bigger is issue is what she would tweet later:
"Jimmie Johnson actually beat people to win his titles. Vettel has no competition. He just won by 30.8 seconds!"
I find that completely disrespectful not only to Vettel but to every driver on the Formula One grid. To imply Vettel hasn't had to beat people to win his titles is completely false. How quickly do we forget that his first title in 2010 was a come-from-behind performance in a season in which Vettel never once led the points until he took the final checkered flag of the season. A season that saw five other drivers lead the standings before Vettel himself took the lead by winning the final race. A season where Vettel shared the distinction of most wins with Fernando Alonso at five apiece with his teammate Mark Webber having won four prior to Vettel getting his third. I would call that competition.
Or what about last season where four different drivers led the points at some point during the season? What about the forty point comeback Vettel made in four races to retake the points lead and the fierce battle with Alonso in the final five races to hold the Spaniard off? Or the fact that seven different drivers won the first seven races in 2012? Or that Vettel went nine races between his first and second win and three drivers won multiple times during that nine race span? Or how about the fact for most of the final race of 2012 at Brazil, Vettel was not going to be World Champion? I would call that competition.
What Vettel has done in the two odd-numbered years on the calendar have truly been a spectacular display of what a team and driver can do when in-sync with one another. Heck if it wasn't for degrading tires, running wide on a damp track and a rare poor pit stop for Red Bull, Vettel would have probably won the first nine races of 2011. Every year Vettel has shown his genius whether it's his undying will to fight and never quit or showing his true might of what he is capable of doing.
To say he has no competition is disrespectful to the other four world champions on the grid, three of which have won this year. It is disrespectful to drivers such as Nico Hülkenberg and Paul di Resta who have been giving it their all with privateer teams and out performing their teammates.
And what would putting him a Marussia prove? He already competed and won with a second-tier Toro Rosso. He jumped into a BMW-Sauber and scored a point in his first career race, granted he had more testing time then anyone who has entered Formula One in the last five years but that's just the nature of the regulations. Compare him to Alonso, Button or Räikkönen and the amount of testing he did with BMW-Sauber is comparable to what they did when entering Formula One.
Putting him in a Marussia is like saying take an gold medal winning Olympic speed skater and have him play a couple of shifts for the Buffalo Sabres against the Boston Bruins just to see if he is really as fast as skater. Of course he won't be as fast, especially when you are wearing pads and have Zdeno Chára physically manhandling you every time you are on the ice. Of course Vettel probably wouldn't have a win in 2013, let alone seven consecutive in a Marussia and we'll never know what his results would be if he was driving a Marussia but why does that matter? What does saying that prove? Nothing. It can't be done and more logically won't be done because it doesn't make any sense.
Why would a top-caliber driver not go to a team at the back of the grid? The same reason why Lionel Messi isn't going to leave Barcelona to play for Sligo Rovers in League of Ireland. Money and the fact he should play for a team that compliments his level of skill.
What Vettel is accomplishing is truly remarkable but has not been handed to him. He has had to step up his game on numerous occasions and, despite all adversity, has come out on top the last four seasons. Not everyone can do that.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
