Protest!

Posted on

| Written by

Is there anyone left in Britain who hasn’t set up a petition on the Downing Street home page?

Certainly a few motor sport fans have been on there and set up a few petitions that are worth a look. (Don’t worry if you’re not British, just pretend you’re an ex-patriate).

Just don’t expect any of them to top the 1.8 million signatures on the petition against road charging.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Knight Ron Dennis, McLaren F1 team boss

339 signatures at the time of writing

Started by Rob Sinfield formerly of the Grand Prix Diary. The present controversy might diminish the chance of this happening any time soon.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make Banger Racing an Olympic sport

308 signatures

It’s time motor sport got a slice of the horrendous sums being poured into the Olympics – it might as well be banger racing which, in the light of this year’s Canadian Grand Prix crash-fest, could be expanded to include F1.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Help protect the British Grand Prix

232 signatures

So popular it’s got two similar petitions – here’s the other one.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to urge Ofcom to enforce the ban on advertising breaks during live coverage of Formula One motor racing on ITV

65 signatures

The signature maker reckons ITV are in violation of Ofcom’s rules.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to award a Knighthood to Murray Walker

38 signatures

If any F1 personality deserves a knighthood it’s Muzza – he’s commentating for the BBC again on Radio Five Live this weekend.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Increase Government funding for Grass-roots Motorsport

4 signatures

A worthy cause, if not a well-supported one.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to award valentino rossi a mbe for his services to motorsport

1 signature

Quick! Hurry on over and you can single-handedly double the support for this petition. Can you award British medals to Italians though?

Related links

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

8 comments on “Protest!”

  1. I signed to Knight Ron and protect the British GP.

  2. I signed to knight Ron.

  3. I think Bernie should be knighted for his non-involvement with the Cash for Honours controversy and for giving £7m to Labour in 1997! ;)

    (Although this is actually the most likely reason why Silverstone doesn’t get government funding)

  4. Signed the Muzza one. That man deserves a knighthood more than any other person in motorsport, aside from Sid Watkins. (Was he ever knighted in the end, I can’t remember?)

  5. Is Frank Williams the only knighted team boss? I’m not familiar with the prestige or process of knighting being that I am from the States, but it seems like Ron would be well overdue for such an honor.

  6. I’ve signed the first British GP petition (someone should really combine those two petitions), the Murray and grassroots petitions.

    Ollie, Sid Watkins has received a knighthood, and quite rightly too.

    Frank Williams is the only knighted team boss, though Ron Dennis has a CBE (as does soon-to-be-team-boss-again David Richards) and Jean Todt has a Medal d’Honneur, which is the nearest French equivalent.

    As for Valentino Rossi, the answer to Keith’s question is no and yes. Italy does not have the Queen as head of state and therefore Valentino is not the Queen of England’s subject. As a result, he cannot receive a full knighthood.

    However, an [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_honours_system#Honorary_awards]honorary knighthood is entirely possible[/url]. Examples of previous recipients are Bill Gates and Arsene Wenger. If such a knighthood was given to Valentino, he could style himself V. Rossi KBE (Knight of the British Empire) but he could not use the prefix “Sir”. Personally, I would argue he’s done as much for the world as Wenger (though not Gates), but his link to the UK is not perhaps strong enough to justify the knighthood being from the UK. It would be more appropriate if a similar petition was set up in Italy.

  7. Valentino Rossi is good, but I don’t see the connection to England.

    Why Ron Dennis? Because Alex Ferguson is knighted?

  8. Probably because Frank Williams is knighted?

Comments are closed.