Thoughts on the current world of sport
Things are happening in current sporting events. I used to watch F1 live, but now I sit in front of the TV and watch my old colleagues at work. But ski racing and motorcycling were also part of my photographic repertoire until I finally decided to focus on F1. Much, very much has changed in recent years, most of it unfortunately in a negative direction. But there are some positive aspects that shouldn't be ignored.
After years of calm, there have been some changes in Formula 1 this year. Lewis Hamilton, who would have thought it, actually switched to Ferrari at the age of 40. Okay, Juan Manuel Fangio even started his career with five subsequent world championship titles at the age of 39. "Loisl" is replaced at Mercedes by the 18-year-old youngster Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Hamilton wins the sprint race at the second race weekend in China. He is slowly but surely getting used to the new environment, after a few radio messages in Australia caused some unrest. In China, however, both cars are subsequently disqualified due to rule violations, but this is no fault of the seven-time world champion. Meanwhile, the young Italian was able to replace the old champion at Mercedes flawlessly, driving an absolutely sensational race in the weather chaos of Melbourne.
An exceptional event that only 33-year-old Lara Gut-Berami can top, albeit in the ski circuit. For the first time, the women are racing the same Super-G on the same day and on the same course as the men. Lara would have finished a sensational tenth in the men's race with her incredible winning run. The clock stopped at 1:12.35 minutes for the skier from Ticino, Lukas Feuerstein was only 1.39 seconds faster and she was just 43 hundredths of a second behind high-flyer and world champion Marco Odermatt. Even former champion and returnee Lindsey Vonn (40) would have finished a good twentieth in the men's race.
Meanwhile in the Moto GP, Marc Marquez (32) on the factory Ducati leaves the entire field out in the rain. Together with his brother Alex, he put on a first-class family show. To protect the front tire, Marc lets his brother take the lead after a few laps. But in the last few laps, he reclaims the lead again and drives off, never to be seen again...
Many readers are probably wondering what this article is doing on our classic car platform. A car becomes a classic car after just 30 years, a Lewis Hamilton is 40, Lara Gut-Berami 33 and Marc Marquez 32, so they are all classic cars too..... damn fast and really good ones at that.
