Sebastian Vettel 'won' the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang yesterday. However, the win came because Mark Webber, Vettel's team-mate and an Australian with ten Grand Prix wins, slowed down when given team orders to save his car. Vettel had the same team orders but he defied them to go ahead and pass Webber. In other words, he only got the win because Mark Webber, under orders, gave it to him.
This is not world championship class, this is something one would expect from a driver in a demolition derby. Vettel was all boo-hoo after the race in saying he was sorry but that's just talk. It's not the first time there has been a situation like this. (CNN: Vettel apologizes after controversial F1 win in Malaysia)
My brother, Lotho, was so annoyed and disappointed by what Vettel did that he commented about it to me and that's most unusual. He said Vettel had fallen a great distance in his eyes and I suspect that's true with many people. It's true that Vettel has great driving skills but so does Webber and he's not the first Australian of this calibre as Jack Brabham was World Driving Champion in 1966.
Germany has produced champions with major class but Sebastian Vettel is not one of them. Being a champion in Formula One is more than winning races, it's how you win them.
This is a story the long-time regulars have heard before but I'll tell it again anyway as it's about when Hambone, my other brother, and I met Jack Brabham, lo these many years ago.
Alex Fraser, my ol' Dad, had a TV show in Sydney, Australia, and he also had a tremendous enthusiasm for racing. One of my favorite memories is sitting on top of a car in the rain at the Bathurst track while we watched a race. I sat on one side of my ol' Dad and Hambone sat on the other. Umbrella? You're joking, right! My ol' Mother was the only one with any sense and she watched from inside the car. To this day I still cringe at the number of times the three of us had her scrambling to get to an emergency room because of one us got all banged-up in a crash.
So, combining the TV show with his love for racing and his friendship with Brabham wound up in an invitation to Brabham to appear on the show. My father had other shows but this one was for kids and Brabham was doing very well in racing with tremendous support from Australians so introducing him to kids seemed quite a good thing to do. Brabham accepted the invitation and so came the day of the show.
Always the great one for spectacle, my ol' Dad asked Brabham if he could get some film footage of him doing some laps in the parking lot and again Brabham agreed.
However ... my ol' Dad didn't quite anticipate how this would go.
Jack Brabham arrived for the show in a Ferrari and he was accompanied by a friend who was driving another hot-rod. My ol' Dad thought it would make a great connection with kids plus Hambone and I would really dig it if we rode with Brabham and his friend while they lapped around the parking lot.
What my ol' Dad did not anticipate was that Brabham and his friend would turn this into a small-scale Formula One race and they were running around the parking lot at breathtaking speed. Each time past the cameras, Hambone and I, ten and eleven at the time, would be yelling and waving at the cameras while my ol' Dad realised he was getting quite a bit more in the bargain than he anticipated and there would be hell to pay when my ol' Mother found out about it!
I can cheerfully report both of us survived and I don't remember anything at all about the show but the part in the parking lot I will never forget. Australia!!
This is not world championship class, this is something one would expect from a driver in a demolition derby. Vettel was all boo-hoo after the race in saying he was sorry but that's just talk. It's not the first time there has been a situation like this. (CNN: Vettel apologizes after controversial F1 win in Malaysia)
My brother, Lotho, was so annoyed and disappointed by what Vettel did that he commented about it to me and that's most unusual. He said Vettel had fallen a great distance in his eyes and I suspect that's true with many people. It's true that Vettel has great driving skills but so does Webber and he's not the first Australian of this calibre as Jack Brabham was World Driving Champion in 1966.
Germany has produced champions with major class but Sebastian Vettel is not one of them. Being a champion in Formula One is more than winning races, it's how you win them.
This is a story the long-time regulars have heard before but I'll tell it again anyway as it's about when Hambone, my other brother, and I met Jack Brabham, lo these many years ago.
Alex Fraser, my ol' Dad, had a TV show in Sydney, Australia, and he also had a tremendous enthusiasm for racing. One of my favorite memories is sitting on top of a car in the rain at the Bathurst track while we watched a race. I sat on one side of my ol' Dad and Hambone sat on the other. Umbrella? You're joking, right! My ol' Mother was the only one with any sense and she watched from inside the car. To this day I still cringe at the number of times the three of us had her scrambling to get to an emergency room because of one us got all banged-up in a crash.
So, combining the TV show with his love for racing and his friendship with Brabham wound up in an invitation to Brabham to appear on the show. My father had other shows but this one was for kids and Brabham was doing very well in racing with tremendous support from Australians so introducing him to kids seemed quite a good thing to do. Brabham accepted the invitation and so came the day of the show.
Always the great one for spectacle, my ol' Dad asked Brabham if he could get some film footage of him doing some laps in the parking lot and again Brabham agreed.
However ... my ol' Dad didn't quite anticipate how this would go.
Jack Brabham arrived for the show in a Ferrari and he was accompanied by a friend who was driving another hot-rod. My ol' Dad thought it would make a great connection with kids plus Hambone and I would really dig it if we rode with Brabham and his friend while they lapped around the parking lot.
What my ol' Dad did not anticipate was that Brabham and his friend would turn this into a small-scale Formula One race and they were running around the parking lot at breathtaking speed. Each time past the cameras, Hambone and I, ten and eleven at the time, would be yelling and waving at the cameras while my ol' Dad realised he was getting quite a bit more in the bargain than he anticipated and there would be hell to pay when my ol' Mother found out about it!
I can cheerfully report both of us survived and I don't remember anything at all about the show but the part in the parking lot I will never forget. Australia!!
3 comments:
Roseberg and Hamilton (3rd and 4th in the race) in the Mercedes team had the same orders and kept to them.
Now that is the kind of class I mean! Thank you! Raikkonen will eat up the other teams if they're busy eating up each other.
Could not be team orders they are not supposed not to exist after the debacle with Schumacher and Barrichello in the USGP
remember Barrichello had to pull over snd let Schumacher catch him and win so he would gain the championship points Onr of Jean Todts disgraces with the greatest F1 team ever
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