16 replies to this topic

[karlcars]

I've had problems getting this week's column through to Atlas F1, so I thought I'd post it here instead. Here goes!

Ludvigsen’s Lowlights of 2002

The quote of the year belongs to Jackie Oliver. “If the team goes down,” he said before Arrows went into receivership, “it’s sad that the Arrows name will disappear. It survived in Formula One for a long time despite not gaining any real success. I ran it with prudence, always thinking of survival. Tom tried to make it successful. I kept it going for 22 years, he buried it in three.”

If you came in late, you may not be aware that former racing driver Oliver was one of the key founders of Arrows and its team principal through most of its history. I sat down with him recently to discuss the Footwork-Arrows era and that team’s short-lived use of Porsche’s V-12 engine. I was impressed by Oliver’s clear-headed self-awareness and honesty, manifestly among the qualities that helped Arrows get through the disastrous liaison with Porsche as well as the many other crises the team faced, right from its initial need to build a new car in a hurry because its first effort looked too much like a Shadow, the team from which the Arrows staff had defected.

Relevant to the fate of Arrows was a quote from my interview with Oliver. “I always find in life pride is not the best attribute to have,” he said. “It’s caused more trouble than anything else.” Thanks to this philosophy, Jackie Oliver was able to keep Arrows going. His team was often criticized for the way it bumped along, seldom challenging for podiums, lurching from crisis to crisis, but it did survive, and it did so precisely because Oliver didn’t take it personally. He set his pride aside.

This wasn’t Tom Walkinshaw’s style. His pride in his reputation wouldn’t allow the feisty Scot to bump along indifferently with Arrows. As Oliver said, he tried to make it successful. Only a success would suit the Walkinshaw legend. After all, Tom had been part of the Benetton effort that brought Michael Schumacher’s first championship. Now, with Arrows, he was going to show what he and his TWR team could accomplish. He spent a lot of money—his own and other people’s—to try to take Arrows to the top. As the Bible says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Walkinshaw didn’t lack company in 2002. The year saw falls from grace for many in high industry including Jean-Marie Messier (Vivendi), Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco), Bernard Ebbers (WorldCom) and Gary Winnick (Global Crossing) in the wake of the Enron and Andersen scandals. Industry’s problems have subjected the stock and bond markets to a ruinous backwash which has blighted the prospects of the sport of Formula One. This has been only one among the many ugly developments that have made 2002 the least appetizing Grand Prix season in recent memory.

Another sickening aspect of 2002 was the continuing controversy over cigarette sponsorship that has ejected Spa from the Formula One calendar and now looks likely to be a continuing theme through the year ahead. The sooner the sport can put this behind it, the better. It all started with Imperial Tobacco and “Gold Leaf” on Lotuses in the 1960s, in great controversy. I hope we’ll soon see the end of tobacco’s involvement with Formula One.

Then there was the ludicrous posturing and haggling over future rules for the sport. Some laughable ideas were floated, the most bizarre being the idea of rotating drivers through the various teams. These trial balloons—if that’s what they were— served only to make the sport a laughing stock to the public at large. It all ended up with some new rules for 2003 that look promising to me. But did we have to go at it in such a cack-handed way?

An offstage soap opera has been the effort of some of the big auto makers to establish a new racing series to take over when the present Concorde Agreement lapses after 2007. Here too, these big backers of Formula One are acting only in ways to demean the sport that they profess to hold so dear. The sooner they drop their action, the better for Grand Prix racing.

One of the main motivations for the auto makers’ initiative was their fear that Formula One will go entirely pay-digital and that their access to terrestrial TV will be impaired. That motivation has been wiped away by the collapse of Bernie Ecclestone’s pay-TV broadcasting of Grand Prix racing after only one season. I have to be extremely critical of this multi-billionaire’s folding of his broadcasting village after only 17 races. It takes time to establish something new and—regrettably—Bernie hasn’t been willing to fund that time. I’m going to miss the crisp, in-depth and comprehensive coverage that Bernievision provided. I’m looking forward to the bland commercial-interrupted network presentation of selected snippets of Formula One—not.

What were the other lowlights of 2002? One of them is easy: the antics of the Ferrari team that subjected the sport to well-deserved ridicule on a galactic scale. They couldn’t seem to win for winning. Between the controversies over team orders and photo finishes Ferrari seemed to be making fun of Formula One. Much about the sport is amusing—often inadvertently—but with its team orders Ferrari made it laughable.

Another lowlight was the ongoing Jaguar saga. Could a major motor company have done more to make its efforts look even more ineffectual than they were? And then at season’s end the gray-faced bean counters moved in to erase any and all evidence of passion from the team. Jaguar will have its technology, to be sure, but with the firing of Lauda and Irvine it has lost what little heart it had left. As for the attempts that the team will be making to gain some ground, do you think that Antonio Pizzonia and Mark Webber are the exciting drivers whose skills and potential will inspire everyone at Milton Keynes to better efforts? No, neither do I.

Final lowlights were the disappointing campaigns waged by the McLaren-Mercedes and BMW Williams teams. They let us all down big time. Wouldn’t it have been interesting to see a McLaren-BMW on the track? That might have been the car to take on Ferrari! Sadly, no such luck.

After a season like this, things can only get better in 2003. For the new year, my resolution will be to give Formula One a chance—for the first five races. By then we’ll know whether the sport has found its feet again. I fervently hope it will.

[diego]

Thank you, Karl!

[Zmeej]

Great article!
Thanks for your generosity in posting it here too.

Succinct and restrained way of describing Ferrari's debacles as they romped to a double championship.

Still can't fully believe that the FIA and Belgian race organizers have allowed the best track to fall from the schedule. Incomprehensible & infuriating.

I'm curious about one thing, however. Shouldn't the fading of Bernievision lead to a resurgence in the world feed? After all, wasn't its deterioration closely related to Eccle's doings?

[Will67]

[...] the collapse of Bernie Ecclestone’s pay-TV broadcasting of Grand Prix racing after only one season.

Not nitpicking, but Pay per view was introduced in Germany in 1996, before spreading elsewhere in Europe in subsequent years.

Britain - the nail in the coffin, damn!

[karlcars]

Good point about German pay-per-view, and thanks!

I hope that, as you say, terrestrial coverage will improve. However, what it certainly won't provide, as far as I know, is the complete coverage we had from digital of all practice sessions.

And for the English-speaking world I forgot to mention, in my column, the regretted absence of Murray Walker from the scene in 2002. Of course I didn't miss him myself because I was quite enjoying John Watson!

[312 PB]

Originally posted by karlcars
After a season like this, things can only get better in 2003.

i`m not betting on it

what was once motorsport
morphed into motorbiz

these are results

motogp 03

[Eric McLoughlin]

I couldn't have put it better myself Karl. Still - there's always Goodwood!

[SKL]

As a life-long Porsche enthusiast, I still have your book, Porsche-Excellence was Expected, luckily autographed! One of my favourite "coffee-table" books. You should do an update, but the company has changed a LOT since the '70's! Keep up the good work... a fan from across the pond.

[Nikolas Garth]

Great article as always Karl.

You and Richard Barnes are always the highlight of the Magazine.

[troyf1]

Originally posted by Nikolas Garth
Great article as always Karl.

You and Richard Barnes are always the highlight of the Magazine.

[jonpollak]

Originally posted by karlcars
I hope that, as you say, terrestrial coverage will improve. However, what it certainly won't provide, as far as I know, is the complete coverage we had from digital of all practice sessions.

And correct me if I am wrong here but....
Wasn't it the CARS and RULES that were to have gone RETRO rather than the TV coverage?
Lets hope 2004 provides us with a "Phoenix from the flames"
for the worlds most sophisticated TV broadcast.

The Oliver quote on Walkinshaw was brilliant!!!
Thanks Karl

Jp

[cjpani]

Originally posted by SKL
As a life-long Porsche enthusiast, I still have your book, Porsche-Excellence was Expected, luckily autographed! One of my favourite "coffee-table" books. You should do an update, but the company has changed a LOT since the '70's! Keep up the good work... a fan from across the pond.

Not wanting to put words in Karl´s mouth, but there is a revised edition in progress. I believe it will be available this year. Karl commented about this at The Nostalgia Forum.
I cant wait

Great article Karl, thanks

Carlos

[gerry nassar]

Great article as usual Karl! Thanks

[Lotus23]

Kudos on your thoughts, Karl. I could not agree more.

You certainly have the acumen to see the big picture and the ability to put those visualizations into Churchillian prose.

Here's hoping that one year hence you'll be writing on the Highlights of 2003.

[chrisuofc]

As for the attempts that the team will be making to gain some ground, do you think that Antonio Pizzonia and Mark Webber are the exciting drivers whose skills and potential will inspire everyone at Milton Keynes to better efforts?

Irvine is a lot of things, but I wouldn't call him "inspiring"

[karlcars]

Thanks a lot, guys. I've been writing for Atlas F1 for three years now and have enjoyed it greatly -- but the end of last season found me in a pretty flat state of mind. I hope early-2003 developments will get me interested again.

Yes indeed, the update of the Porsche history will be published this year by Robert Bentley, which already mentions it on its website. Just this weekend I have been finishing up the chapter on the Cayenne and the closing chapter -- numbers 60 and 61! We are aiming to have it out by September at the latest. Bentley tells me it will be published in three volumes so it will be easier to read -- not a bad idea!

Thanks again and all the best for 2003

[blkirk]

The quote from Jackie Oliver was especially timely for me. This past weekend I had the distinct pleasure of drooling over the car driven by Oliver's teammate in 1974, George Follmer. Seeing that car prompted me to go look up its history in Pete Lyons' excellent books on the CanAm series. Without that quick refresher course, I would have breezed past Oliver's name without a second thought.

On a somewhat related topic, team orders, Follmer claims that he was ordered to let Oliver win the CanAm title that year. After the series folded, bringing the season to a premature end, Shadow arranged a grudge match with its three drivers (Oliver, Follmer, and Jarrier) as the USGP. Follmer, free from political contraints, stormed to a lead of more than 4 seconds in the first lap. He went on to win the last CanAm race handily.

Caveat: If any of the above is incorrect, blame Pete Lyons. I wasn't there to see it, so I'm just going by what he wrote.