I think part of the problem is that drivers have put so much into getting into F1 that they don’t want to risk upsetting their team, its engine supplier, its sponsors etc that they simply switch off their personality in public. Jackie Stewart has spoken at length about how to dress to meet a customer/sponsor. He says that you should always appear more conservative than the customer as that is less likely to cause offence. So following his advice racing drivers wrap their persona in a dark suit, white shirt and a dark tie.

It appears that the loss of the privateer team where one man’s personality is all that mattered has had the follow on effect of homogenising drivers. Jordan drivers were never limited. Villeneuve was given free reign at Williams because Frank’s only requiremnet of a driver is that he can drive.

I am not sure I agree with you Alianora. The companies that are sponsors are very very image concience. They would never like to see their product in any other light then as if it was through rose colored glasses. I think I need an example of what you mean. I still hold true to the fact that Madison Ave execs are like Lenin they believe that “the masses are asses”. Most adverts today are geared to a 5th grade education or less. They also expect that their representatives to toe the company line as if they were employees and technically they are. Here in the US during the 60’s athletes took a stand on issues. Mind you this was before the multi million dollar endorsement deals. I admired them for it even if I did not agree with them. Today you can not get an athlete to tell which presidential candidate they like. Not because they do not have a favorite. They just do not want any controvery to screw up an endorsement. So by the drivers acting the company men they ensure there endorsement dollars for years to come.

by the way it is good to hear that there is another swimmer out there.

This is all because F1 teams believe in the old, out-of-date model of PR. It used to be that making your product look like a plaster saint was the way to make it most attractive to people. The trouble is that it’s not realistic, so people eventually saw through the entire methodology. Now, enlightened companies show their products in the most positive version of they really are rather than making them something they cannot be. Unfortunately, teams haven’t cottoned on to this. Clive’s point about drivers being very young when put into the PR machine, and openwheel’s about the time constraints on drivers, are significant factors too).

As for the team bosses/managers/senior workers replacing the drivers for the place where personalities can be found, that can be put down to age again (it’s usually the older ones which have the personality) and power allowing people the freedom to be themselves (a variation on another of Clive’s points).

There was an article in the Times that showed the physical training that a driver does today. Somehow I doubt that drivers of yesterday would have followed it.

The money is so good and the competition for a seat is so strong today that the driver has to focus on his job first. I don’t like it but this is today’s reality of racing F1. toe the corperate line or die. Kinda like publish or perish (me thinks)

In fact, the few remaining “big personalities” of F1 are the team bosses - flamboyant Flavio, Todt the grumpy toad, Big Bucks Mallya, PATRICK HEAD (shouted as Negative Camber does). It’s one law for the rich and another for the mere employees, I guess…