- 07 Feb 08, 07:50#31920Alonso Must Give Fans The Lead
Wednesday 6th February 2008
If I were the organizer of the Valencia GP right now I'd be very very worried. In the wake of the unprecedented racial abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona the FIA have got tough and threatened the Spanish Federation that unless they tighten up their act they will lose both GPs.
And though we're unlikely to see fans dressed up like the black and white minstrels again, the prospect that the racist abuse will continue in a more covert fashion is very great indeed.
What's clear is that although the people in charge have reacted to the criticism that Spain is harboring a brand of racist sports fan that makes Kazhakstan look like a bunch of progressive liberals, they don't really understand why everyone's come down so hard on them.
The warning signs were in evidence last October when the head of Spanish motorsport, Carlos Gracia, was brought in to check that McLaren were treating Fernando Alonso equally. Interviewed beforehand he reportedly said: "It is perfectly normal for a British team and British fans wanting to succeed in formula one but it is ironic that the racists in England are having to rely on a coloured pilot."
However, Gracia said his comments had been misinterpreted.
"What I meant was England has been looking for a Formula One idol for years and no matter who he was they were going to give him all their support. There was no racist element to what I said."
The key phrase being "no matter who he was", which is just digging the pit even deeper. Ironically it is now Carlos's lot to sort out racism amongst F1 fans in Spain. Though it's been action and statements from him and other Spanish politicians that have actually brought about this situation.
Fernando Alonso is responsible too.
Alonso's constant bleating about being unfairly treated to the media over the course of last season has given rise to a national feeling that he was somehow cheated out of the 2007 title by McLaren.
Anybody who watched the last three races of the season would have realized that had he managed to keep his car on the road at Mount Fuji then he WOULD have been World Champion. It was his monumental cock-up in the rain that handed a 10-point advantage to Lewis. It wasn't McLaren sabotaging his car, or Lewis banging wheels with him, he just couldn't keep the thing on the track.
Raikkonen couldn't either, but Kimi knew exactly where he could take risks and where he couldn't. And now he's World Champion.
And it's not as though Hamilton had any more than the occasional snipe at Fernando in their time together. The only major thing Hamilton did was veto the team planning and nip out in front of him during the 2007 Hungarian GP qualifying. And even then Alonso showed no real desire to get the place back, there was no hustling to get through or dodging around on Hamilton's gearbox for a lap.
If you look at the balance sheet of what Alonso's done in return it's a bit more. He's kept set-up information to himself, was gifted the most prestigious GP on the calendar - Monaco - when Hamilton was refueled early to keep him behind Alonso, he's banged wheels into Hamilton at Spa, he's taken information on set-up from Nigel Stepney and claimed he improved the car by half a second and then threatened to expose his own team to the FIA unless they made him No.1 ahead of Hamilton.
As a driver he's still fantastic to watch, but as a person he has serious shortcomings.
Lewis Hamilton doesn't deserve racist abuse, he doesn't deserve any kind of abuse. In the past the only kind of sustained booing and jeering that happened in F1 was for individual acts that fans have considered unfair, such as Schumacher being gifted the 2002 Austrian GP (God only knows what would have happened if it had been Fernando Alonso, not Jacques Villeneuve, Schumi tried to push off the road at Jerez in 1997)
The fact that Alonso has stoked up fans' hatred of McLaren because of ill-judged comments is a reflection on him. It was certainly true to say that McLaren preferred Lewis to win the World title. He was a Brit driving for a British-based team. He'd also been employed by McLaren for nine years before Alonso arrived on the scene. But to promote the idea that McLaren hampered him from winning is nonsense.
What Alonso needs to do now is go on Spanish television and state quite clearly some of the things he has subsequently admitted. That he did get reasonable treatment from McLaren in his time there. We know from his old Renault days that he says things in the heat of the moment that he subsequently regrets - like the time he said his team didn't want him to win the 2006 World Championship. A very public statement is the only way forward.
It would also help foster the idea that Alonso is a man, not merely a sulky reclusive teenager, albeit one with a remarkable talent and passion for driving cars very fast.
Andrew Davies
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Looks like we both live near the edges of the huge F1 Sahara called US 
