Hang on a moment

Sir,

I was surprised that your recent article “The Moments That Changed the Sport” omitted a moment that has probably had a greater impact on the sport as a whole than any of the others. The decision of Colin Chapman (why was he involved in so many of these moments?) to turn out the Lotus 49 in Gold Leaf Team colours opened a floodgate of money into the sport and changed it forever.

As Ron Dennis recently pointed out, nowadays for two hours on Sunday F1 is a sport and everything else in between is business. Daily we see how much of the sport is now dominated by financial issues that overshadow the sporting matters. Surely the introduction of big-time commercial sponsorship into F1 must warrant a mention as a defining moment, if not the biggest one of all?

I AM, YOURS, ETC,

Professor John Monson, via E-mail