Originally posted by Josta
I think that this is a big thing about nothing. The press seem to have intermingled the fans who were holding up anti Hamilton banners, (such as ones regarding his being illegaly moved to the track by a tractor), with the absolutely tiny race related slurs by a couple of idiots.
What about Xenophobia? Why should this not be removed from Formula 1, and why is this regarded as somehow OK, as opposed to skin colour racism? If Max really wanted to stamp this out, then he would have brought up Luca Di Montezemolo on his comments regarding the "English", (note, sweeping statement about an entire nation of people".
"The English never miss a chance to demonstrate their lack of sportsmanship,"
Luca isn't just some fanboy. He is involved with F1 at the highest level, and yet nobody in the FIA has seen fit to denounce his clear xenophobia.
In all honesty Josta, I don't think for one second Luca is xenophobic towards the British. He has some very talented British team members within Ferrari, and he is also invited that British Photocopy Shop guy to Maranello, He is also good friends I believe with Max Mosley amongst others...who is British.
I think in his case, he was annoyed at the British Autosports Media for their favouritism (as he perceived it) towards British F1 teams in the wake of the spygate debacle. That is the context in he which made that statement.
I'm not for one second justifying his comment as fair or right or even accurate, as Luca does have a habit of going off in one to the media when it suits his cause. There is always the possibility of course that his comments were taken out of the context he meant them or have even been slightly misreported. But even so I don't think he is genuinely xenophobic, a bit gobby at times maybe....
Going back slightly if I may to the subject of the media and its role in reporting events in Barcelona.
Firstly I can appreciate how some spanish people must feel hearing that certain sections of the media (British or not) are apparantly making inaccurate and sweeping generalisations about your nation as a whole based on the behaviour of a few. But in all honesty, I wouldn't take it all that seriously. Certain sections (not all) of the media (and certain publications) are primarily about sensationalism, they have very little care for the actual facts of the matter and more concern for whether they think they can make money out of the situation.
Yes there will be some ignorant people who will take it as gospel fact, just as you would probably get in the reverse situation in Spain or anywhere else for that matter. But by and large I think most intelligent people here recognise that certain publications here you take with a liberal dose of salt. 'The Sun' being a prime example....good for wrapping fish and chips but not much else.
The mass media here has already moved on from this subject and are now sensationalising something else and blowing that out of proportion instead. So my advice is don't lose too much sleep over it.