Liuzzi: Shoulda Woulda Coulda?
This may be a more contemporary pop reference than I’m usually known for, but Beverley Knight’s 2002 ditty Shoulda Woulda Coulda sprang to mind when Force India confirmed today that which has been known for several weeks: Paul di Resta is to drive for the team in 2011 and Vitantonio Liuzzi is to depart.
Those paddock scribes who are close to Liuzzi’s manager, Peter Collins, have been gnashing their teeth and wailing about the move for some time. They point out that he has been loyal, that he has never openly criticised the team, and that there are compelling reasons for what others view as his underperformance.
Trouble is, of course, you could construct identical arguments for dozens of drivers throughout history – those poor souls who were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Quite a few of them drove for Ferrari. Liuzzi has now struck out twice from semi-decent F1 teams, and although those departures owe much to the attention-deficit management style of Helmut Marko in the first instance and the curious neophilia of Vijay Mallya in the second, the fact remains that Liuzzi has spent several seasons in F1 conspicuously failing to impress the people who matter – the people who actually make the decisions rather than those who merely analyse them from the sidelines.
Although it’s always disappointing to see a promising talent squandered by muddled team management and mediocre cars, the fact is that Formula 1 is an up-or-out business unless the troughs in your performance trajectory are smoothed by voluminous quantities of outside finance (although this usually cast iron proposition may be tested by Pastor Maldonado in 2011). Tonio Liuzzi won’t be the first driver to leave F1 with only a litany of regreats, missed opportunities and well-worn excuses to look back on, and he won’t be the last.
I think we all know who you’re talking about Stuart!
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/trouble-ahead-for-force-india/
@Keith
Don’t forget DT! “GRRRRRR!” etc…
I could understand people being upset that Liuzzi was being dropped if he was being replaced by a pay driver who didn’t deserve to be in F1 but di Resta and Hulkenburg both deserve full time F1 rides far more than Liuzzi. Sure Liuzzi was great in F3000 but how long can that be a justification for an F1 drive when his team mate is massively outscoring him?
I think the fact that it has taken 5 years from di Resta taking a championship from his team mate Vettel to getting an F1 drive is something that should be questioned a lot more than why Tonio Liuzzi doesn’t have a drive after doing nothing in 60 odd races. Equally the question of why Hulkenburg whose junior record is similar to Lewis Hamilton’s and who has a year’s F1 experience cannot get a drive is far more to the point.
Both of these you drivers have the potential to be F1 greats. Tonio has given every indication of spending his whole career in F1 and retiring with his potential intact.
If he’d been blindingly quick, they wouldn’t have got rid of him. Potential is not the same as thinking “Bloody hell, this one’s special”. You may as well gamble a good F1 driver in the hope of getting a fantastic one, the reward is worth it. Tough, but it’s F1…
Well, Codders, you got it right again, and those of us who actually go to races got it wrong. Again. Perhaps one day we’ll learn from you.
But in the meantime there’s one thing I do know that I have right, I’d rather be a truthful scribe who’s loyal to people he respects sitting on the sidelines than a manipulative tosser like Vijay Mallya and his sidekick who thinks he’s won before in F1 just because he used to tighten the wheelnuts on the F1 Ensign his boss used to beat Formula Fords with back in the old days.
Tonio is better off without people like that.
Grrrr!
DT
Actually go to races? Eh, those were t’ days…
*Hugs DT*
Tonio’s a nice chap – nothing against him and I’d like to see what PdR can do in F1 so why not?
I suppose a lot of F1 journos are too old for the job because you get to read a lot of stuff like, “Ah, in those days we used to have 2 or 3 dead bodies at the end of each race and XES was safe!”
Saward’s blog has been slightly disappointing from a personal point of view: every time Lewis gets a decent result – JS GP blog explodes with compliments; every time Jenson or RBR guys win something – silence reigns in JS land. The amount of dirt that was being poured on Sutil last year was amazing; on top of everything, JS doesn’t rate the reigning world champion at all. Nice.
grandprix.com is equally dead – they can easily call it Maurice Hamilton’s Toilet Humour Blog now. Their database is outdated and sometimes inaccurate.
I think we need new energetic journalists to arrive on the scene and give us a fresh perspective on F1, the problem is no-one will give young talented writers/photographers accreditation and they won’t be able to put together a budget to go to races.
Liuzzi will be fine, the same thing happened to SO many drivers in the past. No worries.
surely you missed the point by several towns here stuart? isn’t the major problem with today’s news that force india have yet again showed themselves to be an entirely untrustworthy f1 team?
they gave the guy the contract, they should honour it. but what honour to force india have?
Hi Iberian M.P.H.
I’m afraid the problem is that many of the energetic young turks who have come into F1 in the last few years didn’t have the stamina and were burned out within 18 months by the travel (usually paid for by the magazines they worked for) and the punishing deadlines.
Newcomers such as Will Buxton and Kate Walker have put their own money where their mouths are and pursued their dream relentlessly with tenacity and talent. Will has made it with SpeedTV, while Kate is still pushing hard under her own steam.
It never comes to you served on a plate.
DT
@Iberian M.P.H.
What are you on about? I praise Lewis, ignore Jenson and the Red Bull boys? Are you reading the same blog? I rate all of those guys and I am perplexed by your remarks. Utterly perplexed. I don’t rate the World Champion? Since when?
As regards today I think you need to understand that the blog is not pro-Liuzzi. That is not the issue at hand. The queston is one of ethics and how Force India does not appear to have any?
As to more young guys in F1 journalism> Sure, why not? DT and I help most of the youngsters who come along and appear to be serious about wanting to succeed. How stupid is that? But ask the young guns of today who has helped them…
By the way, I meant to add:
If any energetic young turks do make it to Formula One, please come and talk to us (Joe and I, The Tonio Liuzzi Fan Club). It might seem like we take the piss out of everything but we don’t bite (apart from people we don’t like, such as Flavio Briatore and Vijay Mallya), and we like to encourage newcomers because you need successive generations to keep things turning over and fresh and to keep the lifers on their toes. You’ll be assured of a genuine welcome, and all the help you need to settle in.
DT
Shame for remembering a Beverley Knight song.
I’ll let you off this once, I have found some suitable music to get that song out of my head.
Liuzzi is one of many drivers who entered the Pirhana Club with impressive credentials, and got thrown out.
i’d add naoise from manipef1 to that illustrious list too.
@Iberian M.P.H.
Dear fellow, I’m much older than I look…
@mr. c.
Yes and no – and, indeed, no and yes. The fact is that in F1, contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. This is not a new state of affairs. Just ask Roberto Moreno, etc. This is not to say that I approve of such shoddy behaviour. The fact is that in a static market of 24-odd F1 drivers there is a constant pressure from without – from young drivers eager to break in, managed by eager managers.
The question is not, therefore, whether Paul di Resta (in this case) will do a better job; it’s whether his prospective employers think he will better job, or indeed whether his prospective employers wish to give an impression to prospective sponsors that he will do a better job.
After all, if your engineering team has underperformed relative to the market and you wish to paint an optimistic picture of the year ahead, refreshing the driver line-up is the easiest and cheapest option (in the short term…).
Wot Joe said.
Wot DT said. They are a very hospitable bunch.
Problem with this model nowadays is that while some people put their own money where their mouths are, the egregious Andrew Maitland and his shonky GMM operation spend no money at all, go to no races (despite what he tells prospective clients) and simply repeat anything that anyone else says without bothering to check whether it’s accurate (the deluded berk even thinks that he takes ownership of quotes simply by running them through Google Translate). There’s no solution to the Maitland problem except by taking a contract out on him. Perhaps we should have a whip round…
ahh, interesting. hadn’t considered that.
Hey guys,
Look this is the problem with the new generation of reporters. Its all well and good to have new journos in the sport. Its just unfortunate that in this day and age its all about whats on your CV, nothing else. Those journalists that have stood the test of time and risen to prominance are those that have something no university degree can provide – passion. Now while we have new “young guns” writing for magazines many of them have the job as its the job that was available to them. F1 fans are a passionate, if not nerdy punch (of which I fall into both catagories). Anyone can report on the result of a race, plain and simple. But to me, its that passion that makes the difference between a good article and a great article.
In summary – someone let me write for them. Yes, everyone has a beginning in life but the problem with F1 is where do you start?
There are some motorsport blogs out there that seem to be more concerned with beating the established news sources like Autosport and Joe Saward to a story than getting it right.
wordpress.com – free sign up, no commitments, start writing and show your passion.
http://wordpress.com/
anyone can do it, the barrier to entry is zero.
Mr C – thank you good Sir.
Unfortunately there’s no step beyond blogging unless you happen to appeal to the increasingly-narrow demographic employers take these days (and that’s all employers, not just F1-related ones) or you’re independently (fairly) wealthy. It may guarantee a certain level of quality, but it’s killing off diversity and it’s already causing the geekier element problems in getting information (thus fuelling the rise of Maitland, Bored Journalist Syndrome and lengthy “slow news days”).
Codders, at last something we agree on apart from McLaren books… Ha, ha! I refer to your comments about Naoise at manipeF1.com (great guy) and Maitland (a leach, and, if he claims to be at grands prix, a liar). I’ve never met him at a single one of the 389 I’ve done, unless he’s outside the paddock.
As a member of the FIA Press Council, I have never seen or heard of him being granted accreditation.
Hamish, Codders is right again (wow!). Get blogging. There’s no barrier to entry. So in that sense it’s easier than it’s ever been to get started and have a chance of proving yourself. But beware what Ertl says because he’s got it right too, about the people who try to outdo the fabulous work Autosport and Joe do without checking or knowing the facts. Anyone can do a blog that’s based purely on opinion. The trick is to get some facts of your own in there too, and that’s what being a journalist is all about.
If it’s any consolation, I agree with what the great Richard Petty told Alan Henry years ago: “Al, reputation don’t buy beans.”
Even us lifers tread a precarious tightrope between being able to find the £30k it takes to travel the world each year, and our heads slipping beneath the water. I don’t think CVs matter a toss to most potential employers these days, as most of them think they know it all too from trawling the internet. The latter’s a wonderful tool, but can be a double-edged sword.
Just in case you’re interested, I did a seven-year apprenticeship in F3 before graduating to F1. Too many people these days want to jump straight in the deep end; my feeling is you earn your spurs and prove yourself first, working for Autosport or Motorsport News covering club or national series races, and learn how to be a journalist on the job before moving into the big league.
Half the problem these days is that the internet spoon feeds everyone so that too many think they know it all just because they’ve read somebody else’s work, without understanding the rudiments of racing or reporting.
Hamish, you also got it right about the passion, which is why some of us lifers will not stop until they’re lighting the fire as the box slips behind the curtains. The passion is what separates the people who love racing from the people who just love themselves and parade round in F1 paddocks making a lot of noise. And as Joe and I say in the blurb for Grand Prix+, our post-race ezine, ‘It’s all about the passion.’
I’m quite happy to advise serious, self-starting aspirants about how to get going in motorsport writing. We’re not gonna be around forever, and who carries the flame after us if we don’t encourage successive generations?
DT
@mr. c.
Yes! – ooh – but good look hiring a bunch of new engineers on short notice.
@Ertl
You mean LOTUS Autosport? Yeah there’s that LOTUS Jonathan Noble writing for them, right?
MmwwaahaahaahaaGRRR …
David,
All valid points all of which have been taken on board. I will start something over the weekend and obviously as time progresses hopefully momentum will follow.
From my perspective it would be more looking to head down the opinion side of things. While I will obviously follow the seasons as they progress I don’t really see much point to debating a race, as it does not change anything. From an opinion side of things, theres plenty to write on.
I will keep you posted on how I go on your respective sites and thank you for the offer on advice. This is something I will no doubt utilize, and I will bounce some ideas off you.
Appreciate the help,
Hamish
@Soeren
Your tinfoil hat is looking a little crumpled…
@DT
Rather confusingly to some, Mr C and I are not one in the same, but I thoroughly endorse his enthusiasm for blogging.
Love your Rindt biog, by the way.
oops! apologies.
Oh, I see there’s a bit of argument going on… Sorry, forgot to follow the comments:
@Monsieur Saward
Thanks for clearing up your position; anyway, if I did a bit of digging in your blog’s archives from last year I think or late 2009, I’d be able to demonstrate you your own words about not rating Seb at all. Your fondness for Hamilton is well documented really; I think you were quick to defend Lewis when he blocked Petrov last year in Malaysia or pushed Webber off the track in China. I mean Lewis is alright, he seemed like a nice chap, nothing against him at all but you gotta admit sometimes he does Schumi-Senna-esque moves. Passion and driving one’s heart out for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is one thing but track safety is another.
The same sad story is happening with Lotus Renault GP coverage on your blog – you invent a lot of stuff to make the team look bad on purpose and I see generally your fans are buying it. You chose to ignore what Gerard Lopez said on the whole Lotus vs. Lotus situation (I refer to autosport.com articles).
Maybe I’m slightly biased too – after all, my occasional paddock passes come courtesy of LRGP press office. I wanted to do a feature with Lotus Racing last year but they never replied to my e-mails so whatever, I choose to support LRGP for being more friendly and open in real life rather than on Twitter (the case of 1Malaysia Racing aka sort of Team Lotus).
@David Tremayne
The problem is not travelling, the problem is how do you convince a publication to give you a chance. Unless you’re friends with the editor, you won’t make it. You gotta be seriously connected and ambitious in a bad way these days, nothing happends without a kind word from somebody. I also notice young guns often don’t make a lot of noise about their adventures in F1 like you – the dinosaurs – do.
Personally, I don’t want to write about F1 and everything that surrounds the sport based on what I see on TV or read on the internet. I was finally able to explore the (F1/MotoGP) world behind the scenes last year and came to the conclusion that you gotta be there to produce quality material. The only problem is that I’m a nasty little bastard and any businessman who runs a serious outfit can see that; besides, journalism is low on my priority list. I want bread and circuses.
It would be nice if many F1 journos dropped the “pathos method” of lumping things into “good” or “bad” categories because it’s such a simplified vision of motor racing.
Like I said, gentlemen, you have your audience so good luck to you with yer efforts and selling of online magazines to support yer lifestyle.
PS If I forget to check for comments, you can vent your anger via email form from me blogg.
@David Tremayne
As one of the ‘energetic young turks’ referred to above, I can vouch for the fact that DT and Joe don’t bite. Rather, they’re helpful and generous far above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks to their advice and support, I survived my first season in the paddock and am looking forward to the next round of adventures.