Switching Allegiances
Published
Over the last couple of days, there have been mumblings of more bad news on the way for teams. The possibility exists that BMW may not have chosen wisely with Qadbak, whilst Joe is ringing the alarm bells for Renault. I haven't been paying too much attention to these rumours, as I prefer the facts to the speculation, but I received an email from a listener that sparked my interest.
Andrew Lane wrote to me and said:
Just read Joe’s blog about Carlos Ghosn and his comments for the future of Renault F1 and having supported Renault since the early 90’s, I am very sad.
If the team is sold I think I will have a subsequent soft spot for the new team but long term I am not so sure that will be enough. Brawn would have been the obvious choice to switch but now it is wholly Mercedes Benz some of the attraction is diminished. All the new teams, Lotus, Manor, USF1 and Campos will hold that ever strong need to support the underdog but if they all make a big hash of it it’s not going to be very rewarding. Alonso has obviously been my favourite driver of late so do I follow him to Ferrari?
Just wanted to get these thoughts in the open as they have been with me since all the uncertainty since Crashgate!
It was a difficult off-season last year, as we lived through the Honda story alongside their most ardent fans. The highs and lows, hopes and fears were quite the rollercoaster, and even though I had no particular allegiance to Honda, I was right there with those that did.
This year looks to be no different. The BMW story is ongoing, with Mario Theissen admitting he has no idea what their future holds. Toyota don't appear to want to save their team, but it was a rocky few moments for Glock fans, and Trulli fans must still be holding their breath. If Renault put us through the same thing, will there be any fans left?
It must be great to be a Ferrari fan. No wonder the Tifosi are so passionate, they have had years of practice! Meanwhile Force India fans have had to live through many iterations of the same team. Can that so-called "DNA" really be strong enough to keep your support? I'm curious if you have followed a manufacturer team, or one that has been on the market quite a lot - are you still sticking by them? Or have you been burned and never want to follow another team again? Would it be easier to follow drivers instead?
53 Responses
I agree. Couldn't stand Honda and was glad they left the sport, but I felt for the drivers, employees, fans etc. that they didn't have a team. One hopes Mercedes will not do the same thing...
Well, I have sort of gone off the idea of supporting teams because I keep getting burned by their sudden exit just as I warm to them. I do like collecting the team shirts though ;)
I have switched allegiances to drivers - because they are easier to follow when they move around. I do wonder what it is that makes someone a team fan myself - How does one get excited about a 'thing' like that when the average shelf life seems to be 3 seasons these days?
This is an interesting one. I tend to follow people more than teams. I first started as a Michael Schumacher fan, from my first race in 1996 to his retirement in 2006. Once he retired, I stayed as a Ferrari fan (it's the only thing I've ever known). That said, when Ross started up Brawn GP out of the ashes of Honda, I felt a natural pull to support Ross, who had been one of the biggest reasons of Schumi's success. And he didn't disappoint. But that didn't diminish my support for Ferrari, and I continued to support them this year. In fact, I was hoping for a Brawn-Ferrari fight for the title.
Now that Brawn has become Mercedes, I'm not sure how much I'd be able to support them. I'm sure I'd still support them (as Ross and the boys are still around), but they will probably be a distant second to Ferrari again. But if Michael DOES come back against the odds - ahh, THAT is a different story.
This does not stop me from supporting the underdogs, as they scrap their way to score a point or three. Examples include Webber and Minardi in AUS 2002, and Sato and Super Aguri in CDN 2006.
Being a team fan of McLaren is easy because they've been around so long and don't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. It's just hard when they hire, um, Jenson.
I'm hoping I'll adjust quickly. I thought Alonso would be impossible to support because I didn't like him (as he was the man who beat Kimi in 2005) but with so much warning by the time he joined the team I had warmed to him significantly.
Supporting drivers is too traumatic when they retire. Silly Finns :(
I must admit, Brawn turning into Mercedes and losing both Jenson AND Rubens has seem me lose a fair amount of support for them... the identity that was Brawn and Honda just feels missing now, as vain as it probably sounds, but even though it's still Ross and the guys a Brackley.... I dunno. It doesn't feel like the Dream Team that has been Honda and Brawn for the past few years. This makes me really sad to be honest :(
I'm not sure who I can see me supporting next year team wise... Mercedes still have the Ross Factor, but McLaren and Williams don't do much for me in terms of all out support in the same was I've had with Brawn and Honda...
go for Williams! The whole time I've followed F1 they have literally been my least favourite team, but now I'm already feeling myself hoping they do well next year, for Rubens's sake!
That's what I'm thinking. I'm definitely a lot more compassionate about the team than I was initally after the Williams move was announced so we'll see how it seems in March :)
I have always tried to not support any team or driver - it's just safer!
Well I have been an 'admirer' of Williams I guess... but Nico really put me off. Ironically I have the AT&T team shirt...
Where's the fun in that, though? :)
thats where the apple box comes into it :D
in terms of renault, i liked them primarily because they managed to end ferrari's domination, but they were also one of the best teams when it came to thinking of the fans - first team with a blog/comments, first team to provide live telemetry etc.
have to say their choice of paint jobs recently made them much harder to support.
whilst their livery quality has gone down and changed colours, my desire for cadburys creme eggs has gone up
Im sure the two are related.
That's a fair call. I always thought being in NZ that we were so isolated from that world it was only possible to access the team on TV...
I will always be a fan of the 2005-2006 paint job - so much so that I bought that particular team shirt!
i'd have put money on that :)
thats why I always liked McLaren, they felt more "local" :D
I don't know... I've enjoyed F1 a lot since I first started watching back in 1986 without ever really supporting anyone. It means that I can always want it to go down to the wire because that's what I enjoy :)
Do you know I found someone on Twitter who posted a pic of a Renault from the 70's with the caption that she "Much preferred the 2009 car and livery"! :O
Well the Bruce McLaren trust helped that!
ow. My brain.
They had come a long way from the initial 2002 livery. It certainly looked different, but they made it look gorgeous as well.
A true-blue neutral if I ever saw one. ;)
was there an apple box in 1986? I still remember when that thing gave me Nico *shakes fist*
:D
I was given Grosjean!!!
What is this apple box??
You might've missed that parade lap where Alex used an Apple box to draw names of drivers that we had to support for the upcoming race.
Was that Hungary?
Apple computer.
Oh no I remember now. I had Kubica!! Stupid anonymous man was on the tv for about 3 seconds the whole race.
Was he complaining?
:D
No-one noticed/cared if he was.... I don't even remember if he retired. Fluffy got past him in the pits and I lost interest in him then.
I have very confusing emotions about drivers I think. Although I love my favourite Sebastian and I'd always be happy for him to do well, I also definitely wanted Jenson to with the championship. In fact in Melbourne I was happy when Seb and boring Kubica crashed out because I liked the idea of the 1-2.
Hmmm I think I'm just fickle. Maybe I'll settle eventually.
Meanwhile Force India fans have had to live through many iterations of the same team. Can that so-called "DNA" really be strong enough to keep your support? {Original entry}
Depends on your definition of "DNA", and exactly what changes your team undergoes. Not all team name changes are created equal.
I've been supporting Jordan/Midland/Spyker/Force India/whatever-it's-called-this-week since Spain 1998. Supporting Jordan in its original iteration was easy peasy for me, even if I did have to wait a few races before it scored any points.
The trickiest part was supporting them through the transfer to Midland. It helped that I had loads of warning - there had been brushes with the receivers as early as 2002, and even then I knew it had walked through dangerous waters in its formative years - but to have someone take over who Simply. Did. Not. Get. It... ...was tough even so. When word of mass disruption, staff misery and mass leavetakings came through in the days after takeover was complete, I considered stopping supporting them. But then I remembered all those people at the factory who were still there and still harboured the Jordan Grand Prix spirit within them and stayed for them. 2005 was still a strained year.
In 2006, Midland started showing the more attractive side of itself, albeit very quietly. Unfortunately I was just getting used to that when they sold to Spyker - Alex Shnaider had bitten off more than he could chew.
Spyker understood to an extent what Jordan was about (in fact the Spyker bosses still own half of Force India now), but they simply didn't have the finances to even pretend to fund it the way Midland did. It was inevitable someone else would buy it almost from the start of the season and I think the team was lucky that the buyer was Vijay Mallya - a lot like Eddie in many of the positive aspects, but with lots of money of his own and a fresh determination to take the team where it deserves. I still think of the team as Jordan in my head, but at least the future of the team is secure and in the hands of someone who knows what makes the team so attractive. In time people will hopefully see beyond the patriotism and understand there's more to Force India than that.
I remain happily settled as a FIF1 supporter. Compared to team-following, driver-following is relatively straightforward, though that may be partially luck. My first favourite driver (Damon Hill) gave me lots of notice he was leaving and basically remained the same character throughout his career (I find character changes much more difficult than the iteration changes that many teams are poised to do now). The only driver I've ever changed my mind on was Eddie Irvine - I support a number of drivers through patriotism, but Eddie was too disrespectful of others and too illogical in that disrespect to hold my interest long. My current favourite driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, may be (semi-)retiring this year, but as this is his third consecutive season of being rumoured to be retiring and at least this time round there is a silver lining to the process. Also, character-wise he stayed the same throughout the time I supported him (since Monaco 2001).
Not going to change. I supported Sauber, changed to BMW Sauber, still supported them then. I'll still support em whatever they are called under the QADBAK owners. We may not know who they are, but hey, they'll have the same staff, the Dr Mario's and Peter's and such of the team.
I really have nothing else to fall back on, team wise of course, Timo through and through as you know. I love supporting a team and cheering em on, and this year is no different, nor is next year. I will be gutted if Sauber aren't in next year, really will be gutted, you've heard me be gutted. No other team spark my interest, sorry McLaren, Force India, Red Bull etc, you are just not, well, Sauber.
Its not easy, I didn't pick the most glamorous, sexy team on the grid. I picked a lucky little team. I really wasn't that bothered when BMW bought em. Still young back then, it still had Sauber in the name. I can't support another team now, just would feel wrong.
Being a fan, of anything, is murderous. It is just worse in F1 when there is a chance of a team/driver not even being in it next season.
Beautifully written RG. Same staff - exactly. But at least with football or other codes you have maybe 50% of the visible team staying the same and the colours maybe changing a little and the name rarely changes. But f1 is unique that the people behind the scenes are all still there but everything a fan sees is completely different. An allegiance has to come from somewhere and you have to go with it. We had issues years ago in australia with merging rugby league teams and lots of people found it hard to impossible to support the their team after their homeground changed, the jerseys changed and their team mascot changed. We're human and are emotinally attached to wherever we feel we should be. Good luck RG and anyone who has an interesting task choosing between drivers teams and manufacturers. As long as there is one Aussie driving, that where I'll be:)
I dont really support teams or drivers per se, apart from maybe mclaren, as they are the most local team to where i live in the UK regardless of sport,
i guess i make more of a judgement on teams i dont want to win, so Ferrari would be the main culprits. no matter who bought them i guess i would want them to loose....
I feel slightly the same about Mercedes, despite being a big supporter of Brawn this year, (i even have the t-shirt!) I cant help but feel they are now the bad guys (because jenson left and they divorced mclaren?) Its silly, but i guess i have more pet hates than pet supports
Thanks mate.
:) I got into f1. For a girl. She supported schumi so I became a hill fan and followed him but like Nick said, the list of preferred losers is longer ;) schumi was number one on that :) for a while I was enjoying mclaren as they took it to Ferrari but for the last five years or so I've drifted. Apart from cheering against Ferrari, more so when I lived there:) and I partially supported brawn because of the way red supporters were hating white:) apart from hoping mark webber goes well and Ferrari don't go well, not sure who I will be cheering for next year.
And then there are the drivers/teams in rubbish cars that you cheer for -panis at Monaco, sutil at Monaco... I love watching an upset even if they don't always end in a fairytale.
I find myself more drawn to the drivers than the teams, but, that being said, I think my primary enjoyment is the sheer spectacle, along the lines of what Alex said. I often find myself rooting for someone to catch the leader (or if someone is absolutely running away with the lead, for their engine to blow up).
A good example is Lewis's and Felipe's duel for the WDC in Brazil last year . . . at the start of the race, I was pulling for Felipe, and was ecstatic when things started to fall into place for him to win, but was not disappointed when it got really exciting when the rain hit, and Lewis was able to overtake Timo to get the points needed to win the championship. I am a bigger supporter of Felipe, but that end was so exciting, I was absolutely not disappointed that Felipe ultimately did not win.
From where I am sitting all of the jumble going on in this off-season is great. From a spectacle standpoint, mixing up the teams and drivers should result in even more uncertainty to get excited about watching next year with all the various plotlines. Or like this season, where drastic regulation changes allowed for mid-grid and lower teams to come to the fore. My only disappointment will be if Kimi sits out next year (or never comes back)--I just want to see an epic battle among all the best drivers (who hopefully have cars that don't hold them back).
So in a nutshell, I care most about 1) F1 just being exciting to watch; 2) the drivers. I do not feel any particular attachments to any of the teams, though it will be interesting to see whether, living in the US, I feel any attraction to USF1. Given the lack of info coming out of that team thus far, it's hard to know what to think about them.
Well I guess you know where I stand...
I've always been drawn to people rather than teams, so when I do support a team it's rather lukewarm in comparison, so I guess it isn't real support...
Having said that I hadn't really supported someone like I support Kimi ever before... and I think that's because he took my interest right from his first F1 race when he did so well despite only having a provisional Super licence.... and then proved to be special and totally unlike any of the other drivers...
And I'd follow him to ANY team on the grid....
(Funnily a lot of people I speak to on F1 assume I should have supported Lewis because he's a Brit... to which I asked why they had changed from Jenson to Lewis?.... and how often did they change their football team allegiance?....)
If there is no Kimi, apart from watching him in WRC or wherever he turns up, I will still follow F1, just not as passionately...
The focus of interest will be at Williams and it's funny how many peeps have mentioned them and how, as a team, they have hardly changed.... but it's not because of that for me.... and certainly not due to Rubens...
You have guessed it... I followed Nico Hülkenberg's A1GP career in 2006/07, F3 Euroseries 2007 and 2008, as well as GP2 last year ... so I'll keep a bit of an eye on him....
But he's not Kimi so my hopes and expectations won't be as high....
In terms of following teams of people... I think I follow the drivers, and not necessarily the teams.
Although I do have an irrational hatred of Ferrari. How I got this hatred I don't know, since I've only been watching for two seasons. Perhaps it's because I'm a Lewis fan and the whole Mclaren - Ferrari rivalry, but I dont' know.
I like Renault as a car company but I've always been a bit wary of the F1 team ever since they were Benetton and they were caught cheating, and they had MS...
They gained a lot of respect for me when they brought in Alonso and took the fight back to MS and the Ferrari domination, it was such a breath of fresh air. Also their work in junior series I would argue is unparalelled among big manufacturers. If the F1 team goes, what happens to the ladder?
I've always been more interested in teams than drivers. I suppose growing up with the somewhat boring Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill as your supposed 'national heroes' does this for you. I always preferred to root for Johnny Herbert and I maintain he was never given a fair shot..
Anyway, 'my' team has always been Williams. I'm not a manic fan for them but that isn't the Williams way. They exist for racing and nothing else. They don't waste their money on things not necessary for going fast. Frank sold his private jet to fund the team in a difficult patch, though I'm sure he must've replaced it by now. Not like your Eddie Jordans who kept spending away personally while his team sank. Was that perception or fact? It is so long ago I can't remember. They are also known for speaking of things as they are, in an F1 world seemingly purpose-built for people who say things as they aren't.
For me, drivers come and go but there will always be the teams. If a team only exists for two years it probably wasn't worth following anyway (takeovers are different 'cos they had a prior history).
I like Red Bull Racing too. They changed the way F1 teams face the public. I liked their guise as Stewart GP before that, but when RBR came along their whole approach to F1 was so very different to the stuffy attitudes of the past it completely altered the way every F1 team works in terms of openness.
hadn't considered that. when did they start their junior series, before or after f1?
What I mean by this is: there will always be the long-standing teams, in this era it is Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. Perhaps a decade down the line another will join them. It ought to have been Renault.
Wikipedia says 1971, so am thinking before. Might not affect it.
blimey!
Depends which one, and that's my point! In Europe at least, they are quite wide-ranging.
I would imagine that's a French national series like Formula Campus?
Formula Renault apparantly
http://en.wiki.../wiki/Formula_Renault
- Formula Renault 2.0 has been running in various guises for years. The current one-make chassis formula has been going since about 2000 I think? But F-Renault itself has been around a long time.
- Renault 3.5 (World Series) has been since about 2005 when Renault and Nissan announced they were merging or working together (whatever) and the World Series by Nissan changed branding, so within F1 years.
- GP2 has been going since 2006, so well within the F1 years.
They've been running small cars in France for a long time.
That's quite a list!
It is funny, but at different parts of my life I would root for certain drivers, then for certain teams that were awesome, then back to certain drivers again, then to certain teams because of their funky colour schemes then back to the previous awesome team again.
At the same time I have developed a list of enemies and not one has yet to be stuck off the enemy list, although for the rooting list I am about as fickle as Christine.
However, having seen PK get a few world Championships for BMW, and almost every race from that point, I guess it becomes a little harder to develop loyalites to teams and drivers as well, most of the drivers I can easily name retired long before some people on this site where even born, as to the teams, some you will mention their finest hours from when they first started back in the 60's and 70's..... I still remember a Lotus driving around but with Yellow and Blue Camel cigarettes sponourship. PK was the lead driver and they had a guy named NAKAJIMA in the second seat. Both their sons where driving last year.....
But the point is F1 does have a few moments where something happens that transends all loyalities and you get caught up in a great and histroical moment. I would say that first for me was Jean Alesi's maiden win. A maiden win is always special but Alesi deserved at least a few wins. To do so in Gilles Numbered Ferrari (#27) on Gilles' own Track (Montreal) less than a month after poor Enzo pased away just made it that much more special.
Another such moment was Vettel's maiden win in Monza. Even the Anti-Schumacher Brigade (And I am high up its Chain of Command) had something to cheer about while listening to the German and Italian National Anthems.....
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