Oliver WhiteSpanish drivers Fernando Alonso and Pedro De La Rosa claim they knew nothing of the FIA’s planned launch of their anti-racism campaign, EveryRace. When asked by the press at Circuit de Catalunya, host of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, both drivers appeared bemused by new FIA initiative. The website features photographs and quotes from members of the teams competing in Formula One, designed to show how diverse the sport is. However, while drivers like Heikki Kovalainen were shown, and quotes from David Coulthard featured, it was noticeable that the two drivers from Spain (where the initial incident sparked the campaign) were absent.
Alonso said at the time that he felt the taunting of Lewis Hamilton during pre-season testing was an isolated case and while the double champion didn’t say too much, he certainly gave the impression that more was being made of this than was necessary. That isn’t to say that Fernando didn’t care or wasn’t concerned, just that it appeared he didn’t want to get directly involved or be associated with the people who called themselves Alonso-fans. But seeing as it was reported to be some Spanish fans causing the trouble, it does seem odd that the FIA wouldn’t want to set an example by including two of the countries highest profiled sport-people.
I was not aware of this campaign or anything, to be honest.
All I can say is that the Spanish people will show to the world how good they are this weekend, and how good historically they’ve been. We’ve never had any problems here before and we will never have. Wait and see. Pedro De La Rosa.
Either way, Fernando Alonso said today that he wasn’t expecting any trouble, and like the rest of the Formula One fraternity, I certainly hope that the sport can move on from this and no repeat occur. So far, it certainly looks like Catalunya will be hosting a great race this weekend, even if Alonso has ruled himself out of any decent finish.
I thought the general idea was that the FIA was meant to brief the major players in what they were doing before those players make the FIA look thick?
You would think!? Although I hear common sense isn’t all that common.
In fact, common sense is sufficiently uncommon that I’ve started to believe it is merely a vague mental construct of which a certain proportion of the population subscribe to certain parts thereof – if indeed it exists at all.
🙂 I feel compelled, against the optimism of my heart, to agree.
A spanish saying: “El sentido común es el menos común de los sentidos”. “Common sense is the least common of all the senses”