Brazil - the final frontier Posted on October 30th
I’m in Brazil. It feels like the final frontier. One more step, one more race, one more set of pressers, then practice, quali, the race and then a new champion to savour.
Once the slough of exhaustion from the overnight on BA has subsided, I have no doubt I will return to a state of eager anticipation. So many things can happen and, at this point in the season, one feels more aware than ever how Formula One can turn on factors completely out of the hands of the two contenders. One of them could end up champion through no immediate fault of his own and we will be left to consider how it was the right answer in the end, etc, etc.
Coming in from the airport, the grim reality of Sao Paulo hits you just as it does every year. Miles and miles of unremarkable urban sprawl and a city far too concerned with making ends meet to display much fervour for the biggest race of the year. But then, when we get to Interlagos on Friday, we will know what this means to the locals who will be there in their thousands, beating their drums and urging Felipe on to the country’s first championship since Senna’s last one in 1991.
While we crawled through the traffic, I was imagining what Felipe must have felt when he flew in this time, knowing that he has a chance to make history. As he viewed his hometown and the huge green and gold Brazilian flags flying alongside the Senna Expressway, he must have felt a tightening in his stomach. I did and I’m just here to watch.
I will be quite honest and say that, as an Englishman, I will be delighted if Lewis wins but if he does not, I regard Felipe as a worthy champion too. We have addressed the arguments many times, but in brief, the Brazilian has made few errors since the beginning of the season, he has been let down at least twice by his team and he has surprised many of his critics with his application and ability under pressure.
I have thought a bit about those key seconds which they both face this weekend, first in quali when they will be within millimetres of going too far and then at the start on Sunday. Can you imagine those final few moments as the lights come on and then go out? Shaking, quivering, sick with apprehension, that would be most of us. Felipe and Lewis will claim they can handle it but they are only human aren’t they? It goes back to the old saying: Sport is the study of human beings under pressure. That is exactly what we are going to see, not just Lewis and Felipe but their pit teams and pitwall teams too and that is what makes it so compelling.
There has been quite a lot of discussion here about the FIA/Ferrari/Toyota megaphone diplomacy on the subject of standard engines. I still don’t have a good feel about how far the FIA is prepared to go. However one observation I would make is that Mosley has been through more public humiliation than any man in the history of public life in his successful bid to remain in office and you get the sense that this has emboldened him. His thinking may well be, I have survived and now I will make my mark. I am sure he will not contrive to kill the goose that lays Formula One’s golden eggs, but equally he means business. (A good way to think of it is one of those trailors for a new feature film with a voice-over by a guy who gargles with gravel: “He’s back, meaner, deadlier, more determined than ever, the Mosley you always feared….”)