When it feels appropriate, and certainly when it helps their immediate argument,the Smugs among uswill say something along the lines of, “Well, they don’t do it that way in Europe.”
Ah, Europe, where ice cubes are doled out like gem stones. Where gas is priced in liters in order to lessen the shock of paying 8-plus bucks a gallon to fill that toaster you call a car. Just kidding … it's actuallylitres.
America’s Europhiles, over time, have let their infatuation wander intothe sporting world, and roughly a generation ago, you began hearing cohorts, passersby and maybe even friends (dear Lord!) join conversations about the next morning’s big “football” game (oops …match) in Manchester.
Soon thereafter, their Euro sporting eyes began wandering from the pitches to the paddocks, and you needn’t go far to overhear chatter about that morning’s Formula One race in Germany, England, Spain, etc. Even in the early-Sunday waiting room we call a NASCAR media center, a few of the typists and talkers would gather around a laptop to watch the live feed from Silverstone or Monza.
I never heard any of them say, “We’re better and smarter than you,” but vibes, you know? And this was long before Netflix brought us the hit docuseries — “Drive to Survive” — that made household names of so many current F1 racers, each more handsome than the next, which didn’t hurt the cause.
The whole McLaren, Red Bull, Max and Lewis theatrics were suddenly conversation fodder for some who, five minutes ago, didn’t know a pastrami sub from a Rubens Barrichello.
Suddenly, casual onlookers were new Formula One fans and feeling quite happy with themselves. Some, wearing this new aura as they would an Edinburgh bonnet, took the added pleasure of looking down their noses at North America’s motorsport offerings, particularly NASCAR, of course.
“My oh my, the technology Ferrari and Mercedes are bringing to the grid this season is otherworldly. And just a fortnight ago, I believe we witnessed a pass for the lead …”
Kidding again, of course. It wasn’t a pass. It was anovertaking.
Deep breath, now let’s move along because, as sometimes happens, I say all that to say this: Even your beloved European and British intelligentsia can screw it up.
And while it’s not as big a blunder as some of their historical and even modern doozies, it does make you wonder.
Why did F1 swap the Monaco and Canada dates?
What, exactly, were they thinking when they moved their Monaco Grand Prix off the fourth weekend of May and totally monkey-wrenched the natural flow of this coming Sunday — the Sunday circled by race fans all over, but particularly North America, which has become a humming ATM machine for the F1 movers and shakers.
F1 has a nearly 60-year history in Canada, but its U.S. footprint has come and gone over the decades. It was usually just one visit, often none, then one again, and now THREE — Austin, Miami and, of course, Las Vegas.
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The three races are spread about from early-May (Miami) to mid-late October (Austin) to pre-Thanksgiving weekend (Vegas). Canada was traditionally run the first or second week of June, but has now swapped dates with the gem of F1 playgrounds, Monaco.
Why do this? Unless you included “carbon footprint” and/or “net zero” among your explanations, you haven’t been paying attention to that side of the Atlantic. They’re aiming to streamline the season and keep segments of the schedule relegated, as much as possible, to specific continents. You burn less jet fuel that way.
After Miami in early May, the next scheduled race is now Canada in late May. Back to back in North America fits the new narrative. But no, that uber-conscious F1 crowd didn’t spend the ensuing three weeks hunkered down in a Plattsburgh KOA, turning wrenches under the birch trees by day and swapping Nurburgring war stories by night.
Nope, they went back to Europe. And not by sailboat.
And a few weeks later they loaded the cargo planes again for a return to the New World, before heading home to prep for, yes, the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks later.
Will it rain on our Sunday parade of racing at Indy, Charlotte?
The upshot for us is a truncated day of revs this coming Sunday. For nearly this entire century, and for 20 straight years through last season, Monaco fell on the Sunday morning preceding all thepomp and circumstance of Indianapolis, which eventually would deliver 200 hectic laps before a late-afternoon lull leading into NASCAR’s 600-miler in Charlotte.
F1 has erased the wiggle room this year. Indy’s green flag is 12:45 p.m., F1’s Canadian GP starts at 4, and Charlotte starts turning laps at 6.
If all goes well, Indy will end a little before Canada, which will probably end around 5:30 but certainly no later than 6, given F1’s two-hour time limit. Then it's the Charlotte marathon.
Also, if all goes well, it’ll be a minor climatic miracle. While rain won’t halt an F1 race, it certainly can ruin things on the big ovals at Indy and Charlotte. And by the looks of things, it just might.
On the bright side, if an Indy rain delay bleeds into or completely blankets the Canadian GP time window, hopefully it’ll convince the lords of F1, who have become infatuated with their U.S. attention, to go back to the Monaco-Indy-Charlotte routine.
To assuage a guilty conscience, they can always buy some offsets and plant a few elms.
—Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal:NASCAR, Indy 500 get new Canadian F1 partner for busy Sunday race day
