Families tag along to almost every sporting event -- tennis matches, golf tournaments (I passed by Kultida Woods following her son in the gallery with the rest of us peons at the 1998 Masters), football games. The first thing Rafael Nadal does after a match is greet his family; the first thing the winner of a major golf tournament does, even before signing his scorecard, is have his wife and kids run onto the 18th green. Does it make someone who does that less of a man or less of a champion? No.

Most people don't share their workdays with their parents because their workdays are boring. Obviously, attending an F1 race is not boring, and F1 drivers have the financial means to let their loved ones share in the experience. Good on them.

Its cetainly a problem with the tv crews.

Before this season, Button's old man was (hardly) ever on the TV, now i'm sure he was always in the garage, probarbly wearing that pink shirt with symetrical sweat rings, but because Button was toiling round near the back the camaras weren't interested.

Buttons now doing well, so all of a sudden the cameras home in on Buttons dad....

I do hate it though as its a little naff to be honest. I wouldn't point the finger at the families though.

Ahhhh Casey, from the book Flav ... ugly bloke with looker wife. Prostitution lives on in many forms.

Based on what standard of normality?

As you started this thread, let's see you name which drivers you are referring to and then the rest of us will see if we can find any reason for the dad's to be there other than simply for being a dad.

If we look at dads we've seen so far this season (that I can remember) and address them, then you tell us which you have a problem with and why:

Lewis Hamilton: His dad is there for legitimate business reasons, being his business manager. Did he have to give his dad that job? No, but there is no reason why he should not.

Jenson Button: His dad seems to be there because he's his dad. To be fair to him he paid for Jenson to race for many years, so I see no reason why he should not come along to any races to which he is invited. If that is all of the races, so be it.

Mark Webber: Same as Jenson Button, although his dad seems to restrict himself mostly to the southern hemisphere races, for understandable reasons (He doesn't live in Europe like the rest of us do).

Nelson Piquet Jr: Other than having Flavio Briatore as his 'manager', Nelson Snr certainly acted as advisor to his son.

Rubens Barrichello: This weekend at Brasil was the first time I have even seen his dad, nevermind at a race. Given that it was in Brasil, I don't see it as a problem.

Please fill in the gaps, if any, as I don't recall any other racing dads in 2009.

As with anything in a drivers personal life I don't see how any of this is really anyone's business, but as the topic has been raised let us see Rainer list the drivers dads who really get his goat and why.

As regards those comments trying to equate this to taking your dad along to the office for the day, why the fuc.k would you want to invite him along or why the fuc.k would he want to go with you?

You do realise this is F1 we're talking about? Are those of you holding such views so soulless that you wouldn't want to invite your old man (who paid for your career to begin) along at any race he wanted to attend if you were a driver? If yes then all I can think of is you need to sort out whatever issues you have between yourself and your dad before it's too late.

yea u are right, some casual supporter who happens to be a PCD fan might see Nicole all excited about the race, and then decide to stick around and see what is making Nicole so excited or just to catch more glimpse of their 'idol'


In general, I think TV directors do it cos it gives a more personal touch to the action...which is good for ratings and drawing in the casual spectator


As for racers having some loved ones around, thats perfectly reasonable and fine... and I dont mind the pretty looking ones getting some TV action too

Ummm...They never seem to hunt the camera, the camera hunts them.

Normal everyday life in the western world.

Massa's dad and I'd be surprised if Keke wasn't around once or twice.

Don't blame the family members, blame the TV director.

Most of them were sitting in the hospitality areas not in the garages. They don't seek the cameras, the cameras seek them. I really do think you are venting your spleen at the wrong targets.

Is he in the picture as well?

Someone should ask Jackie Stewart and his wife Helen what they think of this "recent" phenomenon.

They are talented multi-millionaires travelling the world for 9 months of the year visiting a different country every other weekend and a different continent every other month for weeks at a time doing dangerous jobs during which any one of them could be maimed or killed in a moment.

Explain to me how that fits with a "normal everyday life in the Western world" please.

Yoiu're not reading my posts. Take a look at Rubens family this weekend, all class. Then you've got JB'sold man and Hamilton .... one still thinks he's 21 and the other things he's so cool and hard.

Seriously... to all of you who think that having their family around makes the current drivers lesser men:

F1 costs hundreds of thousands to get into, most of that will have been stumped up by daddy. So son repays daddy by making sure he gets to share in all of his sucsess, rather than banning him from the paddock because he's afraid he won't look like a grown-up.

I pity anyone who critisises those that wish to have their family around, it's a bit pathetic really, just because you are a borderline sociopath with intimacy issues caused by a lack of attention from mummy and daddy doesn't mean that the rest of us are!

'fisti, I like you, but that's pretty low.

If you're serious, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Don't see that at all. Rubens' family looked very nice, John Button is enthusiastic, no suprise there, and Anthony IS cool AND ******* hard .

People are supposed to be different, especially around F1.

All that from 5 second TV observations? You should be a field officer for M.I.5 with those skills. Cool and hard? 21?

I was thinking I can remember Georgie Hill making neumerous appearances during 1996 to suggest it wasnt a new phenomena, but that beats mine!

Is it? Casey's a fellow aussie but let's be honest, head like a dropped meat pie. Some bloke spunch above their weight but man, it does seem odd that famous/loaded blokes seem to nab some serious lookers. Flav being the all time king of course ... not to mention Bernie ... the list is endless.

Blokes like Button, Nikey Hayden or Rosberg are gonna do ok regardless .... but Casey ? I think he'd struggle in a normal scenario.

Drivers keep joinin Formula 1 younger and younger, it's almost an extension of Karting now!!!!

I think we will see a lot more than this, who better to lobby for you within a team than your old man?

AFAIK Casey and Adriana got together at school, before Casey was famous. Also anyone can see (I thought) what a lovely person she is. Calling her a prostitute is way, way out of order.

OK then my bad, i stand down. Well done Casey for punching above your weight.

+10000
It's just gotten out of hand.

Drivers (and probably other teams members on occasion) bring friends and family along on race weekends. Who cares? Seriously. I'm sure they've always been around but not seen as much in the days prior to all this specialized motor sports programming and media.



So really it's not so much fathers in the garages that you don't like but rather John Button and Anthony Hamilton? They dress tacky or too young or try to be cool and fail. Should their sons be ashamed of them and tell them to stay away?

Here's what I think is appropriate. You stay in the gargae/paddock during the race and keep abreast of what is ahappening. When your boy wins you let him come into the garage and celebrate with his team, he'll spot you and wander over and the bnig hugs and kisses take place. From there, show some class, don't get dead centre of the team photo, don't stand right in from tof camera yelling "number 1, number 1", don't hog the limlight ..... just be there for the boy.

Casey is an extra special person. The list of very very good riders who've tried and failed to ride that bike is quite long.

he can get the grumps a bit but bugge rme he is good to watch on that Duke. Did you see Phillip Island and the last lap slide?

With corrupt and greedy people running the F1 business, I don't think this is something to worry about.

Yes indeed .

I say bring the whole entourage if you want to, heck, bring your cats & dogs & mice & maids & nannies & neighbours even the little awkward guy that lives down the road! I just don't want to see them on my TV.
So for me the problem is not them being there, wtf do I care? My problem is the BBC thinking I give a f*k who's in the paddock when there's a race going on.

Have you never driven round the M25 in the rush hour? F1 is cushy compared to that.

That's just your bias, I saw nothing wrong in any of them, none were more classy than the others.

DH has made references to his experiences in the pits when he was a kid. It's always happened.

I suspect you have never been in a position where you have got swept up in the emotion of the moment. All I saw was genuine joy and excitement.

I'm trying not to be rude, so I'm not going to address folks separately any further on this topic since I might get testy that way. Consider this my group answer:

Unless all the guests hide, the cameras will find them. The director is always looking for something to add 'human interest', and in most cases, that means they resort to family and friends watching from the sidelines. I'm not a fan of the family cam, but at the same time I don't feel there's any onus the guests in the garage to curb their pride and excitement just because some people don't like how it looks on television.

I think you watched iRobot 1 too many times

I'm not asking them to curb their enthusiasm/emotions. And there are times when it is very appropriate to show us what the people in the paddock are doing. But why on earth does the camera man think AH and JB's dad looking at the screen is something for the world to see...over and over and over and over again. We know they are there, no need to remind us every 20mins AT EVERY RACE!!!!!

If I may, I would like an addendum.

If 'you' do not like what you see on TV, either switch it off or go to the races. Simples.

Presumably you have the same view of footballers, tennis players, olympians, all sports people. Plus anyone receiving an award, going to court, having Xmas at home.

I don't think its the F1 drivers that have a social imbalance personally

You know that's not the case. If that were true I'd be pretty pissed off, but it isn't

I don't think having family at the races is bad or weird or anything. But like many of you, I find it slightly annoying when the cameras show family members several times during a race.

I think it's understandable that the fathers of the drivers would like to be there - most of them love the sport, they surely enjoy themselves at the races, so why not? It's not just Lewis and Jenson and Massa who have their dads at the races, but they are the ones who watch from the pits, hence we see them so often.

Alonso's dad is there at the majority of the European races, but he prefers to watch it from the "background", in the motorhomes etc... Fernando said that he really likes having his dad at the races because he can't see his family as much as he would like to, so it's good that his father likes coming to the races because although he's not around him in the pits, at least they can spend some time together in the hotel in the evenings and such...

Bah.. It's Oedipus Rex... You come of age, hate your parents and what they represent, and then you grow up.

Grow up.

Well they cut to them more than I like. Sometimes it's to the pitwall, sometimes to the garage, and sometimes the family is included. Whatever, I want to see the racing not all that reaction stuff.

But that's the problem, for me, the whole human interest media bollox, not seeing some dads/wags in the garage as opposed to 100% mechanics.

The problem isn't the presence of the dads, its when they are part of the coverage every race like Anthony Hamilton was in 2007 and 2008.

When Button first came along at least John Button gave a dad's perspective and kept his nose out of team business, let his son get on with his job.

Father's and families in garage is a very personal thing. Some might want it, others not. Whatever works!




I'm speechless.

Interesting how the naysayers never seem to mention the other father we keep seeing over and over again, who points his 'number 1' finger up and who gets regular TV coverage. I wonder why? I could point out that he's not the father of a British racing driver but that couldn't possibly be the reason he's not mentioned. No, not at all.

No, it's Anthony Hamilton and John Button. They're the bad chav-fathers with no style.