2014 Formula 1 Report: USA Edition
Drafting the Circuits
Week 22
Grand Prix Date Tire Compounds
Grand Prix of Canada June 6-8 Supersoft/Soft
Grand Prix of Austria June 20-22
British Grand Prix July 4-6
THE SWITCH
It has been a week since the Monaco drama between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. I, for one, am still enthralled with this story. I’ve been thinking about this all week. Why? What drives these guys to do everything they can to win races?
And it’s not about escape roads at Mirabeau or jacking with the car settings from the steering wheel against team directives.
Rather, it’s an internal switch that governs their thought process once races start!
Great athletes all have it. It just clicks on. Athletes, the great ones, go to another level where their senses are enhanced and narrowed at the same time. They have the ability to focus on the smallest details while factoring in millions of environmental stimuli that effect their decision making process, their focus and precision.
Schumacher had it, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky had it in spades. LeBron James has it in the coolest of ways and it is my hope that the San Antonio Spurs have it in the next few weeks!
Maybe the one who handles it best is Jimmie Johnson . I hear you all! Don’t think for one second that he doesn’t have one. Jimmie has always seemed to be able to see the big picture and keep things in perspective. It just might be tempered by Chad Knaus’ enormous switch!
It is this switch that separates champions from great athletes. This switch, is what makes the great ones great, but they can’t always turn it on and off at will.
And this is where the drama often comes in!
For F1 this season, the Championship will be won by whomever by controls their switch.
With Lewis, he has gone so far as to say that he is hungrier than Nico because of the way he was raised. Living on his fathers couch in an apartment versus the jet setting Monaco upbringing of the son of the 1982 Formula 1 champion.
For Nico, his switch may not come from the same place as Lewis’ but I would suggest that having a father who was world champion creates a drive inside the belly that would equal any fire breathing dragon that Lewis Hamilton may claim to be. It’s not always easy living up to Dad’s reputation especially one in the spotlight such as Keke Rosberg!
My point is this.
Neither Lewis nor Nico will be able to turn off their competitive juice for the benefit of the Mercedes team.
It is just not in their DNA and as long as Mercedes continues to let them race, this will fuel the beast and be THE STORY for 2014.
This is what we got this year….expect a few quiet weeks and for both teammates to say the right things for the next few days, but once they strap those helmets one, the switch will be flipped and the gloves come off. That’s what makes a racer and that is what we should appreciate this year in F1.
I, for one, admire that most in champions.
With Mercedes so dominant, it is the competitive drive between these two superstars that will bring about continued interest as we drive through the summer F1 campaign. If they emerge through the summer neck and neck, expect fireworks through the Fall.
This week brings about the Canadian Grand Prix, which will give us a strong indication of how early the next flare up will be in Hamilberg! They may play nice this week, but by months end, something will happen and this will escalate. Appreciate this aspect of competition as this is the furnace where champions are made!
For those who use twitter, you can follow me @steve_aibel or check us all out @RacingDTC for Drafting the Circuits.