Strife in the Fast Lane

The word ‘tumultuous’ was invented for people like Lewis Hamilton. He’s the sort of sportsman who cannot go through a season in his career without a heap of controversy and incident being levelled upon his shoulders, but despite this he is still considered one of the best Formula One drivers on the grid. How does such a star lend himself to such inconsistency, you might ask (if you were talking to him)?

There’s been much written about Lewis’ recent chequered form. A lot of people say it’s a problem with his attitude, some say he lacks support, some say he’s just not that good a driver. Whatever the reasons for his lack of consistency, I think the truth is his dip has been marginal, at worst. This year was never going to be his year with the fantastically quick Red Bulls tearing up the field, but Lewis has consolidated a decent 168 points thus far, with a solitary win in China to his name.

As people point out though, he’s been outclassed this season by his team-mate Jenson Button, a perhaps less fancied driver amongst the Formula One ranks up until this season. I don’t think this would be a fair reflection on Button though, as in my opinion he’s a driver that just defines quality in each department. He’s pacy, a fighter, a tactician. To be behind Button is no disgrace at all.

Besides, Jenson has much more experience than Hamilton. His many years in fairly average cars such as the BAR and the Renault were a steep learning curve for Button, but going through such a school of hard knocks has clearly worked wonders for him. When his chance came in a competitive car, he was far readier than his team-mate at the time Rubens Barrichello, who had spent quite a few years playing the safe understudy role to Michael Schumacher. Still, this perhaps doesn’t explain why Hamilton has fallen behind his team-mate.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that Lewis is currently going through a school of much harder knocks. It’s true that he’s never had to participate in a useless car for more than a few races at a time, but he’s always been in a fight for something, no matter what season it was, and he’s always been making mistakes along the way. It’s easy to forget though, that Hamilton’s career is still in relative infancy, and these mistakes will continue for a few years yet.

But that will come to be his advantage in the near future. If we look at Sebastian Vettel at the moment, he is enjoying the benefits of an absolutely amazing car. There’s nothing wrong with that particularly, but it’s quite incredible that practically no misfortune has befallen Vettel throughout the whole season.

You could say that’s great; that he isn’t making mistakes and he’s matured from his more petulant 2010, but I feel that he’s missing the sort of fight that characterizes Hamilton and Button. It’s rare that he isn’t leading races into the first corner, it’s rare that he gets overtaken and it’s rare that he has to deal with any problems during the race. The Red Bull won’t always be the best car on the field, rather like the McLaren wasn’t in 2008. But whereas Hamilton created the opportunity for the title that year, I have my doubts that Vettel will be able to do the same in the future.

So what about these many incidents that Hamilton’s been having? Why is his style reminiscent of bumper-karts at the moment? I think that this is just the nature of the beast. Hamilton’s style is to absolutely hammer every chance to overtake, and when he gets this right it’s completely spectacular. Nothing compares to it in modern day F1. However, when he’s off-form, this sort of style will take the unfortunate appearance of Hamilton just getting one thing wrong and thumping someone off the road.

That’s why I say Lewis’ dip in form is marginal – He’s only making the odd mistake when you consider how often he gets himself into a scrap on track. Just look at Monza. He spent 27 laps trying every trick in the book to get past Schumacher, and only our old German friend’s brilliant defending snuffed the opportunities out. If Hamilton had really lost his head, he would have ended up going into the back of Schumi’s Mercedes at some point.

So although it’s difficult to know why Hamilton is struggling at the moment, I think there’s no need to fear for him. He’s had a difficult year but he’ll have learned a lot. There was never really an inkling of hope that he’d win the title thanks to Christian Horner and Adrian Newey being Gods amongst men, but next year he’ll be more prepared than ever.

Rise of the Machines

It’s finally happening. Sense has been seen. During March next year, FIFA will finally be discussing potentially introducing goal-line technology, where it seems likely that measures will be put in place to implement it, or at least trial it, for the 2012-2013 season. A nation still thwarting from the wounds of World Cup injustice weeps with relief.

In contrast, until quite recently I was one of those fusty conservative stalwarts who opposed any plans to introduce technology into football, even following Lampard’s disallowed goal against Germany in the World Cup. Perhaps it’s pure nostalgia and emotion that speaks these words, but I do feel that football’s simplicity is its key, and should be preserved at all costs.

That said, I’m not a backwards yokel and I’m willing to accept that, as one of the few objective decisions a referee has to make, goal-line technology can earn its place in the game if it’s used in the correct way. As a result I’ve come up with a few guidelines I’d want to see followed if FIFA are going to push the proposal through. Not that I have any authority or reverence that would make FIFA listen to me, but nonetheless, here is the criteria I believe it is imperative the technology follows:

1. Goal-line technology must be 99.9% accurate: This seems a rather obvious one, but still extremely important. If the technology shows itself to be at all erroneous, then I can see it conjuring up more controversy than 1000 Graham Polls could ever hope to amass. If it doesn’t work practically every time, it’s not worth considering.

2. Goal-line technology should not be simply a replay system: During the 2010 FA Cup Final, Drogba took a shot that bounced onto the line, and after seeing a replay, Clive Tyldesley was shouting “Look, we can see that’s in, why aren’t video replays being used?”. Then they showed the incident from another angle, clarifying the incident as not being a goal, and Tyldesley said “Well, maybe it wasn’t a goal. Still, it’s a good point isn’t it?” No actually Clive. You just blew your point out the water.

3. The notification as to whether or not a goal has been scored should be instantaneous: There’s been a lot of scenarios banded about on the internet about how one team could have a goal-line scramble, and then the other team goes up the other end and scores, causing a confusion for the rule if a decision takes time to be made. While these situations are pretty unlikely, referees have to be prepared for any event, and such possible ambiguities could cause all sorts of problems. This wouldn’t happen if referees were instantly informed as to whether a goal has been scored or not, so I think that’s important.

4. The technology should not affect the flight of the ball: I saw an image on the internet of a potential goal-line technology system that involved having what looked like an electrocuted spider spanning the whole inside of the ball. There’s absolutely no way something like that wouldn’t have an effect on the way the ball runs, which would be a compromise too far for the clarity technology provides.

5. This is not the thin end of the wedge: This is the crux of my point, and my biggest fear over this movement. I know it’s easy to fall down the old slippery slope fallacy, but I still think that accepting goal-line technology could well lead to more equipment being used for other decisions, such as penalty calls, fouls, offsides, etc. I’d hate this to happen. Hate it.

As I mentioned earlier, goals are one of the simplest, most objective entities in football. It’s either over the line or it isn’t. That can be worked into the game. But for things like penalties, not only are we relying on a wholly unnecessary video ref to make a decision that could just as conceivably be idiotic, we also get the game breaking up as everything gets appealed, the match barely moves, the on-field referee seldom has say on anything anymore, and the game stagnates as a result.

The reason why football is so exciting is because of its pace, and simplicity. It’s the ball, two teams, and two goals. Don’t use your hands, don’t hit each other. Let’s play. If you tune into a football match halfway into the game, it’s very likely that the ball will be in play; Do that with cricket, or rugby, or baseball, or many other sports, and the chances of that are largely inferior. As I say, goal-line technology is fine, but if football becomes infused with an insufferable amount of technology, then I can see the game losing a lot of its attraction.