FOFA

Sir,

This is a letter from a fan of Formula One motor racing: possibly a dying breed. We have all suffered from this long multi-sided argument between the power hungry parties from all sides. At the end of the day there is only one loser, the spectator. Perhaps it is time to form FOFA (Formula One Fans Association). All our members could boycott a complete race meeting! We could stand in front of the grid to make our point: at the French Grand Prix their fans could ban English cars and we could ban French drivers at the British. In other words we could be just as pigheaded and destructive as the other parties.

Seriously, the fans are the ones with the most to lose and yet there is no representation for us at all. It results in us paying the money to see the races and read the adverts while constructors, drivers and sponsors get excessively rich from our hard earned money.

Ironically it would only be by our withdrawing our presence that it would have any influence as then we would really hit them where it hurts — the wallet. But that is just what we would not do because we want to see good racing and it’s not much to ask when you consider their reward. My frustration in writing this letter follows the theoretical damage to the San Marino Grand Prix, which as we all know was a damn good race, and the fact that I have just read Alan Jones’ book “A Driving Ambition”. I am a great admirer of his driving and his general behaviour on and off the track, but was very disillusioned by his attitude to money, fans and the sport. Without picking on anything in particular, I was simply left feeling disappointed in a man who is a great racer. I sometimes feel we punters are just a burden to the “great” racing fraternity. Incidentally, I was very unimpressed with the book which was not written for fans at all (in contrast, Doug Nye’s book “Racers” about Frank Williams’ team is superb).

Anyway, what about FOFA? Not to stop races, only to make them happen. There has got to be something we can demand of the sport even if it is only the right to have the next scheduled race happen when promised.

Middlesbrough
Geoff Emmerson