You can’t really think that just because calls Trulli a sassy girl, he really thinks so, right? After all, that “sassy girl” drives a F1 car, earns more than I will see in my entire life and lives the life I only dream about. It’s just the usual comment about the “other team”.

So, please don’t believe that (I, at least) we mean all we say in a strict sense.

And about the GPDA, I really think it’s fortunate that they don’t receive any money or participation from the top dogs because I don’t see any need for that silly (see? again!) organization for Alphonso (oops!) and his girly friends (man, you can’t avoid it!).

Just cheer and enjoy our babbling

To haplo, if you read my comment I said it was unfortunate FOR the GPDA not to receive money, how could it be fortunate?

The directors were voted in by the drivers and if they don’t like it they should have voted for someone else or ran themselves…

I don’t see why joining a union or not has to be a scandal and I don’t see why people are criticised for commenting on it. The journalists ask the questions and the drivers answer in the most opinionated way they see fit. Its hardly a scandal, just a chance to have a go at Raikkonen, Hamilton, Massa etc for being reckless and Alonso, Trulli, Webber etc for being ‘whiners.’

Once again this is an anti argument against people arguing about things they know little about with the urgent need to blame someone.

Obviously, drivers need to have their opinion heard on FIA F1 decissions regarding safety and this is only viable as a group. Just imagine what would happen with different opinions from different drivers and FIA not listening, or what is worse, appearing to listen more to some drivers than others.

The point of paying a bigger superlicence bill for the safety measures does not invalidate the need of the GPDA. That increased bill does not give the right to voice opinion or the ability to orginize the drivers opinions.

The fact that the GPDA fee denpends on points I cannot explain. Maybe if drivers get money for each point in a grand prix, there could be some relation with fee based on that. any other case, for me it sounds better to all pay the same fee, this is no poor mans land to make such a small fee depend on driver income.

- Alonso
- de la Rosa – a fellow Spaniard like Alonso
- Trulli – a best buddy of Alonso
- Webber – a fellow Briatore signee like Alonso
- Coulthard – a teammate of Webber

In school terms, some people would call that a clique, right? Now, I’m sure some drivers (like Hamilton and Sutil, Massa and Raikkonen) would see it that way, and others would not. But the fact that there is just that impression of a clique is already damaging to the GPDA leadership.

Just one thing, S: GPDA directors are voted for by all the members themselves, so surely they have to accept whoever was voted by the majority?

Let me explain. First we get the hoo-ha about Lewis being a tax-exile, being derided and abused from all sides for not paying tax in Britain. This argument went by the wayside when it was revealed what people should already have known, that most if not all F1 drivers are tax exiles, and even much loved “golden girls” of athletics like Paula Radcliffe are Monaco residents. Then the argument switched to Hamilton lying about his reasons, despite me having seen an article in The Times in March 2007 saying that Hamilton said he thought he would have to become a tax exile at some stage soon. You see the pattern here – everything Lewis says or does is scrutinised and criticised over and above anything any of the other drivers do or say even if it is exactly the same.

So then the next Lewis bashing opportunity came with the GPDA. The first stories I think were Pedro de la Rosa saying Hamilton should join, then Jackie Stewart, and then the party started and they all laid into him in the media: what a rotten man he was for not joining the drivers’ union. Then the lies and misinformation were corrected as it came out that the 2007 WDC Kimi Raikkonen no less, was also not a member. Aaah, so Lewis wasn’t the only devil in F1 as was previously intimated. Then we learnt that Adrian Sutil and the poor but much beloved cousin of Lewis Hamilton, Anthony Davidson, also weren’t members. Also, Pedro de la Rosa, kind of slow off the start, said Lewis wasn’t at all under pressure to join. All of a sudden, the GPDA nonsense temporarily ceased only to be revived recently by Trulli’s outburst, Alonso’s statement, and Massa leaving because “he didn’t like the way it was run”.

I don’t think it has anything to do with money at all. These people earn so much and I’m sure the GPDA is well funded. Look at who runs the GPDA: de la Rosa, his old buddy Alonso, their buddy Trulli who spends hols on Briatore’s yacht. There appears to me to be a sort of rats’ rat-pack of unpleasant F1 characters running this show, and some drivers just don’t want to be a part of it. I remember Massa’s run in with Alonso (can’t remember the GP last year) so I don’t think they’re particularly fond of each other, and neither would Hamilton be, or his friend Sutil. Don’t know the reasons for Raikkonen or Davidson, but Raikkonen has always been one to steer his own path.

If the GPDA is a useful important F1 organisation, maybe there ought to be a purge at the top and less public haranguing of drivers because the whole thing is turning into a farce. I do think that there are various “camps” that the drivers fit into and I’m sure that is part of the reason for non-joining and leaving.

I can imagine a meeting:
-Did you see that? He didn’t gave me rooom…
-Okay now we all agree, no overtaking in turn 1 next race…
-He came from nowhere! There was no room!

Obviously neither Kimi or Hamilton have time for that nonsense.

These guys have huge salaries, I’am sure money is not the question. (Only perhaps for Sutil?)

About the reasons, I recall earlier in Raikkonen’s career (around 2003) he said he didn’t want to join because he is not interested in politics, and he thinks F1 is safe enough. He received lots of stick for that, and has most recently only kept the part that he is not interested in politics. Hamilton said he is to busy, and Massa left because he doesn’t like the way in which the GPDA is governed.

I think it show a patron and it means that there is perhaps much more politics involved in the GPDA, then we realize. This is not just simply about safety at the end of the day, in fact safety might actually not even be such a big part of it.

Then on top of that you get the alpha-male syndrome, it is really difficult to envision that Hamilton or Raikkonen will happily follow Alonso’s guidance and leadership.

I see that because the most successful drivers on the grid do not want anything to do with GPDA, the GPDA is not needed at all.

They can whine all they want, it seems nobody is listening.