^ Ditto, astonishing lack of class shown already.
Given the lack of posts, I sense that was, in part at least, aimed at me. I'm merely anticipating the lack of class and effort that I expect to be shown by the "F1 community" in the week leading up to the GP. Of course I hope I'm wrong and that this will be treated with the sensitivity and class that Jules deserves, but I fear it will be half hearted, that we'll just have empty PR speak from much of the media and perhaps snippets of short commiserations from certain drivers, and that was just me voicing it in my way.
I admit it's a half-glass-full way of approaching a weekend and I of course fully hope I'm wrong in that stance. "The show must go on", but do it right at least. If we've got Hamilton and Rosberg a second apart at the end I don't want to hear about Jules Bianchi - Jules Bianchi wouldn't want to hear about Jules Bianchi. Murray didn't introduce Paletti at the end of the 1982 Canadian GP or Raztenberger in Imola in 1994 and not because it was frequent for a driver to die, as it wasn't at that time of course (there were 'only' two F1-related deaths in the 80s and two in the 90s). Somehow it seems as though it's a real deal, as though we know the drivers inside out. We know the façade we and they put out there, but if we pretend we're mourning as Jules's family are then we are merely insulting them.
I don't mourn for Jules. I'm terribly saddened by his loss of course, as any F1 fan ought to be, and I'm sure there are a few driver friends and colleagues who genuinely do mourn him, but if you expect anything but hollow words over the coming weekend you're, in my opinion, either masquerading as institutive or dumb. You can't truly mourn for someone if you don't
truly know them, and if you are truly mourning their loss then you won't be talking to the media about it.
Perhaps it's ill-timed (you can judge your own feelings, but mine are still of mixed bitterness and despondency towards race control's lack of action in the moment leading up to Jules's crash, and I admit I've struggled to let that go for nearly a year now), but my overriding feeling has been of anger, and a longing hope that motorsport and F1 in particular learns from this needless loss.
I don't give a damn if people feel I'm not being wholly sensitive - I miss Jules on the track, of course I do, and he sounded like a great guy off it too, but above all I'll feel ashamed if I'm one of only a few who wants the sport they love to learn from the mistakes made which cost him his life and do something about it.
I honestly couldn't give a
**** if people are upset by that. I hope they are, and I only wish those people had more influential positions in motorsport. Jules has lost his life needlessly, and for me that still resonates louder than his actual loss.
