I've been a devotee of Formula One car racing now for almost a decade. I still remember my first encounter with the sport, stumbled upon on a hotel television in Lansing, MI where I was interred during my first airline job. (In the ensuing near-decade, I have only rarely encountered a hotel with Speed Channel on its cable.) Prior to this, I had taken a passing interest in Indy car racing, mostly making a point to watch the Indy 500, and I would watch other races in the series if I happened upon them. While I knew of the existence of Formula One, that was the extent of my expertise. I knew nothing of its rules or specifications, nor any technical stuff for what, it turns out, is the most technical motor racing on the planet.
That first exposure set the hook pretty deep. It was the sounds of the cars more than anything else that sucked me in. They sounded loud and violent, and the shriek was unlike any internal combustion powerplant I had ever heard. The motors ran at impossibly high speeds, and the cars seemed to have a hair-trigger throttle that threatened violent destruction at every moment. Pit stops were like playing with nuclear waste, the car emitting an ear-splitting howling a foot away from 20 people who were seemingly all about to die in a fiery explosion. That sound world drew me in, and I quickly learned that the technology for the rest of the car followed in step with the impossible engine technology. As it happens, my ears did not fail me: the engine of a Formula One car of the time had ten cylinders and ran at 18,000 rpms. There's nothing on the road that comes over halfway to that place.
Here's a little YouTube video where the engine sounds can be heard pretty clearly (I'm told that the engines idle about 4,000 rpms or so). This from England's Goodwood Festival of Speed, hence "God Save the Queen."
One of the key factors in my coming to understand the sport (which is followed passionately by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, though it has a relatively small presence in this country) was the on-air commentary during the race weekends. This is not a profound thought, I know; good play-by-play and color commentary is a boon to any sporting endeavor. My experience watching tennis is hugely improved if John McEnroe is commenting, and for more arcane sports, like America's Cup sailing, an informed commentating team is indispensible. Well, as a Formula One newbie, I found myself in need of someone to explain what the hell was going on, and it was a good bit of serendipity to encounter Speed Channel's F1 announcing team of Bob Varsha, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.
It was readily apparent that these guys were experts on the sport, and yet they had the savvy to give enough information to enable an uninitiated viewer to keep up, but not to dumb down their coverage in the process. Each had their role: Bob Varsha, the lone American (Hobbs and Matchett are English), seemed like the ultimate fan, someone without particular expertise but with a great passion for the sport, a quick mind and a voice for television; David Hobbs was a very successful racer from many different series, including Formula One and the 24 hours of LeMans, and understood the sport from the driver's perspective; and Steve Matchett, formerly a mechanic for the Benetton Formula One team, was someone with a profound understanding of the complicated technical aspects of the sport and an uncanny ability to put these concepts in terms that were easily graspable. It was a great combination of talents.
Now, years later, the same team is still in place, commenting for all 18 or 19 races on the F1 calendar. Though I cannot find the citations now, I've read in at least a couple different places that the rest of the F1 world is aware that our Speed Channel has assembled a real gem of a team. Even England, the birthplace and home of F1, cannot improve on what America has to offer here. For a couple years, the F1 race that is run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was covered by one of the major American networks, and they brought their own commentators. What a letdown. They finally got smart and decided to just buy Speed Channel's coverage. This year four or five races will be covered on one of the big networks, but Speed's team will do all the play-by-play. This pleases me no end. The big networks help get an audience for the sport, and Speed's boys will play their part in making the coverage worth watching.
The announcing team has been joined the last few years by on-site commentary and interviews from Peter Windsor, an Englishman who is active with F1Racing magazine, and himself a former F1 team manager. He's another one-in-a-million find. I just don't think it is humanly possible to improve on this quartet of commentators. They not only have among them an encyclopedic knowledge of the sport, its history, strategy and tactics, but they each have special areas of expertise to contribute. And they all respect each other and get on like best friends. This chemistry makes a real difference.
It turns out that one of these guys actually lives in my neck of the woods. David Hobbs, though originally from England, now calls Milwaukee home and he runs a Honda car dealership there, David Hobbs Honda. So on a lark yesterday I decided to drive over and see if I could catch him in residence, and so he was. He graciously told the receptionist that he'd be happy to come down and meet a fan, and we shook hands and chatted for half an hour or so on the floor of the car dealership. How cool is that? He seems a very accessible bloke, someone with a penetrating mind and a gift for eloquent speech. We talked about airplanes and airlines and the domestic automobile industry. And, of course, about Formula One. I had a few questions about how they actually produce the commentary: I knew they were not all at the races, but were they even all in the same place? (Yes. Steve Matchett lives in France and jets over here and they all meet up in Charlotte every two weeks!) He has, naturally, been following the debuts of the season's new cars, the testing times, and has been watching the performances of all the new drivers. So we discussed how we thought the year would go.
It's setting up to be a fascinating year: seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher is retired; Kimi Raikkonen, thought by many to be the fastest driver, is now at Ferrari, who may again have the fastest car; current World Champion Fernando Alonso has moved from his winning Renault team over to McLaren, a team with a great history in F1 but a pretty spotty last few years; Toyota, with probably the largest budget in F1 (thought to be around $400 million), is always expected to show up in a big way, but they continue to underwhelm in practice; Honda are in about the same boat as Toyota. And there are another seven or eight teams, all with their own bits of intrigue going on.
Can't wait to hear what The Team has to say about it. The first race of the season is just over a week away!
Here's a YouTube clip of our announcing team for those interested.
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