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This is all because F1 teams believe in the old, out-of-date model of PR.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…

It makes us as fans feel that we can not form our own opinion about who a driver really is. The FIA wants us to form “their opinion”.

Agreed, the FIA does want us all to conform to their opinion. But I would also extend that and say the teams are just as bad as well. As hinted at in other comments, team bosses are keeping their drivers on very tight leashes these days, and that only adds to the dumbing-down of the sport’s personalities.

Oh I can’t remember my early-twenties, I’m too old now…

This is completely the fault of Max and Bernie. No regular race fan can get close to the drivers during a race weekend so we only know about them through the press. I remember a time when I would get first hand stories from someone who attended a race about a party that so and so was and he did this most incredible thing. We never hear that anymore. F1 wants to project an image that is too “straight arrow”. I do not appriciate it. It makes us as fans feel that we can not form our own opinion about who a driver really is. The FIA wants us to form “their opinion”. I am not saying that I like some of the things that guys like Irvine did years ago but I am sure these things still occur. For instance we know that Kimi likes a good party like the rest of us. We never hear what he does. I do not want gossip I would like a little more knowlege from the driver that I support of who he is. Remember these guys for the most part are still kids. Remember all the stupid things you did in your earyly 20’s. So I am sure there are stories out there and I would like a laugh or two during the season

While racing was seen as risky no-one was prepared to tell drivers how to behave. Similarly now drivers who are extrovert characters get filtered out before they reach F1 or those that make it are coached and presented as being more corporate than they really are.

Very true, Steven. Thank you for sharing those anecdotes and taking the time to explain your views, it is appreciated.

The Dave Richards line actually disgusted me. I couldn’t believe somebody would say that. I refreshed the page several times waiting for the typo to be corrected! But having said that, Richards was a character I admired when he was with Benetton and BAR. Always in front of the camera with a microphone and politely putting people in their place.

The demands on drivers have also escalated to the point where they don’t have much time to themselves. They are professional sportsmen who are training when they’re not on track or testing or at some corporate do or other. Without time to think, it’s no wonder they don’t develop any personality worth speaking of (they are also so young that very little character has grown as yet). They do what they’re told and say what the PR man tells them to.

You are quite right, Ollie, in thinking that this is F1’s loss. The public is much more robust in its tastes than ever given credit for and it loves a bit of controversy. Ultimately, the PR machine’s quest for uniformly bland representatives of the sport will backfire on it with falling viewing figures.

The current state of play is most ably illustrated by Dave Richards’ recent comments – he is shocked that Frank Williams and Patrick Head are in F1 to go to motor racing, rather than to make money. ‘Nuff said.

I remember Berger being interviewed in the early 90s and he said that Senna had just acquired a carbon fibre brief case that cost something like £1500. He asked Senna why he wanted such an expensive briefcase. Senna amongst other things said it was unbreakable so no-one could get into it. So Berger opened the door of the helicopter they were in and threw it out. Then landed to see if it had broken.

I think the whole driver character issue comes down to perceived risk. While racing was seen as risky no-one was prepared to tell drivers how to behave. Similarly now drivers who are extrovert characters get filtered out before they reach F1 or those that make it are coached and presented as being more corporate than they really are.

Of course this is not a new thing. We all like to believe that the best drivers make F1 and that in the past they always did. This could not be further from the truth. As an example investigate the story of Tommy Byrne. Byrne won the British F3 championship a year or maybe two before Senna. As champion he was offered a McLaren test and if reports are to belived McLaren were stunned by the pace and consistnecy he produced. You might think this would be enough to get a young driver signed to a test contract or at least a management contract. However as I understand it McLaren never spoke to Byrne again.

The reason was he apparently turned up the worst for wear having been partying all night and instead of the entourage of advisers, lawyers etc young drivers now he had a barely dressed woman on each arm. Apparently he was not political atute and had a tendency to call a spade a &%$£@# shovel. You can see why he wouldn’t get on with Ron.

Think about it. A young driver who was drunk, hadn’t slept surrounded by distraction and still managed to produce times that McLaren could not comprehend and he never sat in an F1 car again. Imagine what would have happened if they had signed him at that time and educated him. What would have happened to Prost when Renault fired him at the end of 83. Senna / Prost could have been Senna / Byrne.

Here’s a post I wrote back in October which basically outlined how the FIA had asked McLaren not to stray from the rules regarding these kind of celebrations should one of their drivers win the title.

Not allowing drivers to perform donuts after races. – Hang on, didn’t Kimi do this at Spa this year?

Not allowing drivers to stop on the parade lap to pick up a flag. – Hang on, didn’t Felipe do this at Interlagos last year?

Hmmm…

But at the circuit, it’s just nothing. I think the last time somebody stepped out of turn was in 2006 when Kimi said (on live TV) he was taking a s**t when Schumacher received his prize, or something.

I don’t want the show to turn into NASCAR, and I don’t want the sport to be catered entirely for readers of The Sun. But a bit of character wouldn’t go amiss.

I’m going to bring one of the later Caption Contest photos forward to this Wednesday. It may not be the most appropriate image for the opening of the season, but it does epitomize F1 in the seventies and one particular driver who had more character than you could shake a stick at.

I thought, there are so many people in Britain who are starting to watch F1. And they are the type of people who care about personalities more than the racing. They must be so disappointed. The only colourful character on the grid is Kimi Raikkonen, and he tends to keep his mouth shut whenever there is a journalist around.