That’s “nationalism” Keith.
Furthermore replacing an English driver with an Indian driver tells all of us they’re more interested in advertising and selling products than they are in scoring FIA champonship points. The Indian driver is more important that developing
a winning car. They are promoting non-F1 BUSINESS, the sport is incidental.

And what about me……..I’m a
citizen of the USA, whom do I cheer for?

Schumi was a German driving for an Italian team;
A Finn and Brazilian at Ferrari;
A Brit and Finn at McLaren;
A Brazilian and a Brit at Honda;
A German and Italian at Toyota;
A German and Japanese at Williams;
A Finn (man, they seem to get around) and Brazilian at Renault;
A German and Italian at Force India;
A Brit and Japanese at Super Aguri;
A Scot and Aussie at Red Bull;
A German and Frenchman at Toro Rosso;
And A pole and a German at BMW.

I think I’ve got them right?

Please show me where teams are favoring nationalism in their driver’s selections, other than Super Aguri as previously stated?
Dr. Mallya even went so far to say that the talent and experience of the Force India drivers was more important than their nationalities, and I would have bet a bundle Karthikayan would have a seat there.

The rumoured new owners of Super Augri are not considering replacing Davidson with Karthikeyan because they prefer Indian people, it’s because it’s easier for them to sell sponsorship to companies that only do business in India if they have an Indian driver.

And what about this ‘nationalism’ business, the article and some responses talk of talking sides based on ‘national interest’ but I reply, so do the teams, the most recent is this business of replacing Davidson with Karthikeyan just because the new owners are Indian.

The ‘fans’ may be a bit more vulgar in their display but the negativity permeates the upper levels of F1 also. And while on the subject, what about Bernie Ecclestone, that man has pure hatred of the BRDC and little love for actual RACING, his position is pure MONEY. Most recently ….. 25 years of Australian GP are meaningless because Bernie can “make MORE” elsewhere. He hasn’t got a “HATE AUSTRALIA” banner flying anywhere but the upper level negativity is the same.

In the another hand, Hamilton has an uncommon skill to say things that upset some people for a long time. He can not expect good words from that people.

We do hope all this is an isolated fact.

The tifosi used to be mocked by the rest of the world because they saw things in such a blinkered way. Now it almost seems like the majority of people who have become interested in the sport in the past 15 years go to support one driver. The people who benefit most from this are the people who sell all the team and driver merchandise. If Bernie had sorted out F1 branded merchandise 20 years ago and grown it as a brand there could have been some dilution.

I really dread the direction the fans are taking the sport in. I can see a situation where the Alonso fans will all be in one part of the circuit, the Hamilton fans in another and the Raikkonen fans in another part. People will no longer be able to go to their favourite part of a track because they support the wrong driver. It happened in football.

It is interesting that we are seeing the Schumacher effect with Alonso’s supporters. I hadn’t made the connection before that both Germany and Spain had not had a top F1 driver in recent years. Germany obviously had VonTrips who came so close to being champion in 1961 and Jochen Rindt although he raced with an Austrian license was in fact born in Germany so if the rules of most other sports applied he would be classed as the first German champion.

I guess the sudden massive increase in interest in a sport in a country means that there are not a vast number of people with a balanced view of the history of the sport to provide reasoned reflection and so the lowest common denominator of partisan nationalism thrives. The internet contributes to that of course and the petition mentioned above is the prime example of that. It was full of infantile interpretations of the facts twisted in a way tha would have made a political spin doctor proud.

In the end of course the Schumacher effect became international but I can’t see this happening with Alonso because he is not going to be able to dominate the sport in the manner Michael did. Whether this will lead to his supporters calming down because they see he is not the greatest driver in history or whether they take the Alex Ferguson line that the world is out to get us and become worse I don’t know.

Support the sport not a driver. Educate the partisan.