[LM24] F1 attacks Le Mans

[Dutton]

I nearly gave up about 6 pages into the thread, but stuck at it.

There is a bit of a disturbing amount of hate out there. It is all a bit destructive, really: what good is an improvement in "success", or whatever, if it is born out of impotent hate? What I find interesting is that a great many people, who still follow F1, would agree entirely with many of the criticisms made by those with this extreme hate festering in their souls.

I think we need to remember, too, that whilst F1 is easily the most popular motorsport, this does not mean it is mainstream in any real sense. It remains a minority interest despite being the popularity-behemoth of the motorsport world. I guess what I mean is what is it that F1 is meant to be denying these other forms of motorsport? The ability to not have much more popularity, but with F1 not being there to have more?

F1 picks up a bunch of non-enthusiast followers as a function of being, relatively speaking, very popular: if F1 were to implode, then how is this going to really affect any other series? The enthusiast core that followed F1 would continue to follow other series just as they had before, and the fluff would float off and do whatever they do. The one possible actively positive function for the remaining series could well be a bit of an increase in truly hardcore followers (people with more time on their hands since their F1-time was now laying vacant). I don't see this having any noticable impact on anything, though, in the terms that popularity/success (or whatever) is measured.

I think what has been demonstrated in this "discussion" is one central truth: whether the enthusiast-personality likes something is not a function of relative popularity, but rather how closely said thing appeals to said enthusiast's personal desires. Therefore, what relevance should relative popularity regards the world in general have to do with anything? It matters insofar as maintining enough attention for said branch to continue to exist, but beyond that who cares what order the popularity is? Something is always going to be first, and that first place is usually going to be pretty dominant.

I know it doesn't bother me in the slightest which motorsport series obtains the most attention as a thing in itself, although of course the ability to see different things is affected by relative popularity. I would gladly pay a significant subscription fee for an all-encompassing motorsport network, but, unfortuantely, that is rather unlikely to happen: why? Because motorpsort is a definite minority interest. This reality of relative popularity is frustrating given I personally see motorpsort as much better use of TV time than anything aired, but the great majority of people disagree: does that mean it it would be fair for me to blame all this on the other things because they hold a wider appeal/propaganada-advantage?

If I lived in a place that had numerous race-tracks close to me, well, then life would be good: the lack of media offerings would be irrelevant. Canada in general is not one of these places: particularly western Canada - especially northern Canada.

I suppose I am a bit peturbed by the extreme and unnecessary hostility shown towards one what is merely one branch of motorsport. Drag racing, for example, really does nothing for me (I can tolerate it for a little while trackside, but can't hack it for more than about 10 seconds on TV); it happens that drag racing is remarkably popular over here, and, I've found, this means other things I have a lot more interest in gets attention detracted from them as a result. Am I meant to hate drag racing for this?

I understand the underlying problems in this particular instance stems from some rather bad dealings of a very few at the very top of F1/FIA power. That whole axis is destructive and unnecessary, but that doesn't mean the entire sport is responsible for those actions - neither does it mean that sport is responsible for everything that has ever happened to other forms of motorsport.

OK, anyway, I must be rambling pretty badly by now. I will stop.