Of course, F1 won’t self destruct – but it has made an incredibly valiant effort to do so this year.
When the crashgate stories first appeared I dismissed them as journalistic mischief. After all, who in their right mind deliberately crashes an F1 car during a race?
However, it seems that not only was Nelson Piquet prepared to do so, but Briatore and Symonds were quite happy to ask him to. That’s the bit that blows my mind.
And then Briatore appears to have treated Piquet particularly harshly (to say the least) during this season. The man’s insane..!
Why would you treat someone who has deliberately crashed an F1 car on your behalf with anything other than care and respect..!? Anyone but a fool would remember that Piquet (in this case) had some dirt on him. A lot of dirt.
I’m still trying to grasp the concept of deliberately crashing a car during an F1 race. The potential for things to go horribly wrong is incredible, threatening not only Piquet’s safety (and his life) but the safety of spectators and marshalls as well.
When those terrorists flew the planes into the World Trade Centre I tried to imagine what kind of mind it would take to sit in the cockpit and deliberately fly into a building. The self-preservation instinct was completely over-ridden.
And while crashing an F1 car during a race isn’t quite as certain a death, it still requires the self-preservation instinct to be put on hold. Something I haven’t been able to get my mind around at all.
Still – although Piquet will be now unemployable in F1, I guess he could always get a job as a stunt driver.
