Monsters Inc.

Sir,

I am somewhat confused. Everyone seems to be jumping up and down about Ferrari’s staging of the results in the Austrian and US grands prix, and to quote Simon Taylor’s ‘Modern Times’ in your November issue: “Once more the most sophisticated level of motorsport in the world has shown itself to be staged, a put-up job, a fix…”

What then would have been the situation if Max Mosley’s farcical proposal of drivers changing cars or Bernie Ecclestone’s weight handicapping had been introduced? Instead of Ferrari staging a couple of races, every race would have been ‘officially’ staged.

Is it perhaps time to accept that Bernie Ecclestone has created a monster which, with its spiralling costs and high level of technology, has simply run out of control?

As illustrated in your February 2002 issue, 1982 produced 11 winners from seven different teams in 16 races, and until Formula One gets back to this level of competition it will continue to lose audiences worldwide.

I am, Yours etc,

Keith Kirby, St Agnes, Cornwall