Paul Hayward : Motor Racing
Michael Schumacher’s career was involved in a low-speed collision near Heathrow airport in London recently with the men who run Formula One. He emerged unscathed but the authority and integrity of F1 were a write- off.
Now that he has escaped both a fine and a suspension for trying to ram Jacques Villeneuve off the track in Jerez last month it can be only a matter of time before the Dukes of Hazzard start up an F1 team. According to the 24-man World Motorsport council, Schumacher’s actions were “deliberate but not premeditated” and he is free to zoom into the 1998 season as hot favourite to win the drivers’ championship.
A surge of disillusionment will be felt by anyone with the vaguest notion of what sport is supposed to be about. Schumacher’s sentence, or lack of it, is the biggest demonstration of cynical pragmatism in modern sporting times.
When Mike Tyson’s boxing licence was revoked after his attack on Evander Holyfield on pay-per-chew TV it was widely assumed he would be given it back after standing in a corner for a year. But at least Tyson was taken out of the game. Schumacher’s only punishment is to lose his runner-up spot from the season just passed.
Deep down it probably wanted to throw the book at him but the logic of the box office said no. A three-race ban would have killed the start of the 1998 season because a Grand Prix without Schumacher would be like Lear without the king.
That does not mean the audience have to accept it. A three-race public boycott might be a suitable response, though the number of fans willing to observe it would probably cram into a mini-car.
Destroying the logic of the Schumacher verdict would not stretch the analytical powers of a toddler. “Deliberate” is fine, apparently, but “premeditated” would have landed him in real trouble. Is the difference really that big?
Schumacher’s ram-raid on the title was deemed serious enough for him to be thrown out of the 1997 championship but insufficiently grave for him to be penalised for 1998. This is what is known in the trade as designer justice.
The good news, for those concerned about reckless driving, is that Schumacher has agreed to participate next year in a road- safety campaign with the FIA and European Commission; motor racing’s equivalent of community service. Presumably the book he will lecture from will be the Highwayman’s Code.