Race Track Etiquette

Sir,

In the October issue, your editorial observes similarities between Senna and Schumacher; I quite agree. You seem to think that this is a good thing – I do not. Ayrton Senna was the first driver in recent memory to deliberately use his car as an offensive weapon to prevent another driver from earning points. The technique is being developed by Schumacher into accepted practice.

Anyone who is one notch above brain death and follows open-wheel racing will tell you that one of the most dangerous scenarios is for one driver to put a wheel between the two of another driver’s car. This is precisely and deliberately what Schumacher did to Villeneuve. And please don’t excuse Schumacher’s criminal activity with wearisome clichés about his ‘passion’. In my opinion no more passionate driver than Nigel Mansell has ever raced, yet he never sank to the level of deliberately endangering another driver to prevent him from gaining points.

If anything, Schumacher is the antithesis of passion, thoroughly modern and cold-blooded with specific highly developed skills. The fact that he may be the best racing driver the world has ever seen is irrelevant – he is a man bereft of honour.

That sort of individual should not be honoured as the world champion of anything.

I am, yours, etc. John Eckhardt, Merriam, Kansas, USA