Victory In Defeat

Stormin Disclaimer: This isn't exactly a diatribe about racing, but one about competitiveness and sportsmanship. It happens to revolve around a racing team that has been continually involved in conflict. It saddens me that the team is tearing itself apart because of it, but the point of this whole thing is competitiveness, not racing. The footnotes are to provide interested readers with more information that may pertain to the sport, but which is not necessary to understand the intent of the post.
Please note that I am the first person to taunt a loser, spike the ball after a touchdown, and do burnouts to celebrate a race win. BUT, I don't make millions of dollars to compete in a sport watched by almost one hundred million people. And I certainly don't throw a loss in the face of a teammate to celebrate my victory, or throw one under the bus to win.


Yesterday McLaren-Mercedes ROOKIE driver Lewis Hamilton won another race, his fourth of the season. The Japanese Grand Prix victory has given him 107 Championship points, and a twelve point lead over his teammate Fernando Alonso in the World Championship standings.


So far the rookie has been so consistent in his performance for the Silver Arrow team that he (allegedly) has alienated his teammate and reigning world Champion Fernando Alonso by relegating him to second place. This is one of the reasons that I have been a bit bitter about how this season is turning out, and have not posted a bunch about F1. I'm not frustrated with Hamilton for winning at all. He is one of the greatest drivers on the track and while he may have been brought in to support the man that would be king (Alonso) he isn't supposed to lose.¹


Alonso has given the appearance of being a bitter teammate as Hamilton has rapidly evolved into (arguably) the best driver in Formula One today. While it must be difficult to watch as a rookie comes in and supersedes your position at number one, it's not appropriate to be a dick about it. Simply because he is a TEAMMATE! I know that racing is an individual sport, but if there is one person that you need to at least be civil with, it's the person with whom you work.
Hamilton is not blameless in any of this either. He has battled hard for the championship and allowed the relationship with his teammate to suffer as well. The following are the most public events in this battle for position within the leading team in F1.
(Fair competition is (and has been) the stated goal of the FIA² every season. Their regulations exist as an aid to that goal, and each of the following incidents have undergone their scrutiny already. In many instances "fair" is indeed the enforcement of good sportsmanship, but it isn't always a requirement. So note that the sports governing body has been involved in each of these incidents.)


In the fifth race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren-Mercedes was holding positions one and two with Fernando Alonso leading. His fuel load was five laps less than Lewis Hamilton's, and Alonso was called into the pit lane early in the race to refuel. This put Hamilton into the lead, and with his extra fuel he would only be required to make one pit stop during the entire race. This would have allowed him to win the race...
Two laps after Alonso's stop, Hamilton was ordered into the pits to refuel. This early refueling forced Hamilton to refuel a second time in order to finish the race, causing him to forgo an almost certain race victory, yield first position in the race, and in turn in the championship points, to Alonso. Team boss Ron Dennis later admitted that the early call into the pits did in fact occur intentionally to allow Alonso to win. The team (and Dennis) maintains that this decision was made because of a possible deployment of the safety car, which would slow the race and accelerate the burning of fuel in both cars. Calling in Hamilton first would have to potential to hand him the victory. Calling in Alonso first gave the same result to the other driver. The team maintains that this was not an attempt to give away the victory, but rather to leave the race with the maximum amount of championship points for the team as a whole by securing a 1-2 finish for Merc cars. They felt more secure in placing Hamilton in the second position than Alonso.
A subsequent investigation by the FIA found this strategy was not in violation with F1 rules, which require that no team order a driver to allow the other to pass, lead, or in any way yield a position as a result of the order of the team. Passes must occur as a result of driver skill, or the other driver voluntarily yielding the position. ³ This was not considered an ordered pass, but rather a successful execution of team strategy.
Hamilton was markedly upset in interviews after the race, but kept his composure in front of cameras. Neither player is to blame for the incident, but only one would have to put their teams position ahead of their personal gain. Hamilton had not yet won a Formula 1 race, and it is easy to see how it could be taken (especially by a rookie driver) as a theft of his first chance at a victory. Hamilton had 4 consecutive second place finishes, after having finished third in the first race of the season.


In the eleventh race of the season, the Hungarian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso "blocked" Lewis Hamilton and relegated him to second place in qualifying, as the clock expired⁴ before Hamilton could begin his last qualifying lap. This requires some explanation...
In the Q2 session Hamilton was told to allow Alonso to pass him (legal) to lead a lap and he did not. Team boss Ron Dennis was reportedly furious.
As the Q3 session was ending Hamilton and Alonso had been setting the fastest times of the day, going back and forth for the lead. The two drivers were "stacked"⁵ in the pit lane to both get a fresh set of tires and try for one last lap. Alonso was in first, and McLaren-Mercerdes team boss Ron Dennis has the pit crew "hold" Alonso in the pits for an additional 20 seconds "to allow cars to pass and give Alonso an open section of track to set his time." The clock was winding down, there was time for one last lap for both drivers. Alonso followed orders and sat for twenty seconds. As the signal was given for Alonso to leave, he sat still for an additional ten seconds, as his pit crew furiously gestured for him to go. This is not something that you can miss. It is very apparent, and even I was screaming "GO" at the TV. Hamilton's change was held up, he did not get to run one more lap, and his time was beat by Alonso on that last lap, putting him into first. The incident did not end there...
The FIAs race stewards (judges) found that his maneuver was intentional. Furthermore, it was believed that Ron Dennis ordered the hold of Alonso to "teach Hamilton a lesson," and that his reason of a clear track was bogus. They ruled against the team and docked Alonso five places in qualifying. This moved Hamilton into first position, and relegated Alonso to sixth. McLaren-Mercedes was docked ALL of their teams championship points from the race, but the drivers were allowed to compete. To this day Alonso maintains that he was asking questions about the tires put on his car over team radio.
But the story does not end there.

After the qualifying session Hamilton was (allegedly) furious. The following conversation took place over team radios:

Hamilton- "Don't ever fucking do that to me again!"
Dennis- "Don't ever fucking speak like that to me again!"
Hamilton- "Oh go fucking swivel on it..."

At which point Hamilton ceased radio communication and Dennis removed and then slammed his headset into the console in the team garage.


As a polite note, all of the team personnel continue to deny any "bad blood" and maintain the public profile of a team that is having to deal with the internal affairs that all teams must have as each driver wants to win themselves. I know that it has to be difficult to have the two top drivers on the same team, but I do wish that they could manage to get along and realize that their quarrels are in fact hurting the team. Examples of poor sportsmanship like this have caused me to lose a large amount of pride in my favorite team. I do hope that they can recover.

Here's a screen shot of my computer. I still have pride in my guys, but I do wish that they could have the same amount of pride in their TEAM as they do in themselves.


¹: Stormin Disclaimer: Second Place is the first looser
²: The FIA stands for "Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile," and the organization is the governing body of Formula 1 racing.
³: The teams in F1 are allowed to issue orders based upon positioning in practice and qualifying, but are not allowed to issue position based orders to drivers during a race. These orders come across helmet mounted radio systems. In the past teams have ordered drivers to allow the other to pass as a result of Championship strategy. This is no longer legal.
Traditionally, teammates will sometimes WILLINGLY yield position to allow their teammate to secure necessary points to secure a World Championship. This must happen as a result of gentlemanly concession, and not as a result of any issued order. When gentlemanly concession does happen, the incidents are usually investigated by the FIA to insure that it was the result of driver will and not team orders.
⁴: F1 Qualifying is set in three timed stages. The sessions are designed to eliminate slower drivers from the track. After sessions one and two they shrink the field of drivers by eliminating the six slowest drivers after Q1 (positions 22-17) and again after Q2 (positions 16-11). This allows the ten fastest drivers more "open space" on the track to set the bar for times. The final ten are "penalized" by having to fix their fuel loads, which means that they must start the race with the same amount of fuel that they qualified on. Lower fuel loads make for lighter/faster cars in qualifying, but increase the number of times that they must refuel during the race, which takes about a minute to do (including pit road speed limits and refueling times, they actually can refuel the car in less than TEN SECONDS).
⁵: "Stacking" cars in the pit lane is accomplished by having both drivers on a team in the pit lane at one time. The team is given only one pit position to work on active cars (but two garage spaces to work on inactive cars), and therefore one driver must wait while the other's car is refueled, adjusted, and the tires are changed. Again, this usually is done in TEN SECONDS... The second driver simply sits in neutral directly behind the first, and waits.