...I mean that in the most literal and figurative position either way. Perhaps I have too much happening in my life to even be bothering over a blog, but here it is anyway. To start off I am Jacob Curtis (for those of you who have stumbled across this wild rant), 20 years old and whole heartedly enjoying life. This blog will be more or less a rolling feedback on life as I see it, but in particular it will be directed towards a motorsport viewpoint. For those of you who don't know, I am en route to a bachelors degree in Motorsport Technology. I will be studying at Oxford Brookes university, starting in September. My goal as a kid was to become a race car driver. Well, that was put on hiatus after a short, but successful, stint racing karts. I made a small name for myself; however, I ran out of money before I ran out of talent. So at this point I am focusing on education in order to be able to pay for racing again.
But back to the title. I wasn't trying to be self centered as this post has very little to do with me, myself. Rather, it has everything to do with the steamy pre-apocalyptic feud between Red Bull Racing drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Weber. Before I get too much further into this, please follow me on a trip down memory lane. As children there was always one kid who had the shiny new toy, that made him/her a bazillion times cooler than any of us. Albeit a small $0.99 lead filled metal casting of who knows what. We all envied this kid and even at times found ourselves plotting to destroy his/her life entirely, just to climb back up the ranks as Chief Sitting Bull of the Little Bighorn sandbox. Fortunately for us there were authoritative figures to diffuse what would be a miniature scale of Custer's Last Stand. Now enter Seb and Mark...Seb receives new shiny carbon bits, and Mark takes post in corner, steaming. Last I checked there was an authoritative figure on the Red Bull camp that would allow this situation to be smoothed around the edges, at least for media sake. Unfortunately all hell broke loose post-qualifying.
Coming from a racing viewpoint, Mark has EVERY right to be sour at this point. However, there is a book that goes by the title of Speed Secrets. In this book the author, Ross Bentley, tells of a tale when he was at Sebring in '95 and had to block out all the complications with the engine that led to one of the worst handling cars he had driven. In the end he made note that you just have to move on from the situation with a level head and don't let frustration be the root of the evil. On the opposite side of the coin David Coulthard wrote just this week:
"In many respects, that bloody-minded attitude is what I wish I had shown on the two occasions during my career, at Jerez in 1997 and Melbourne a year later, when I was asked to make way for my McLaren team-mate, Mika Hakkinen.
"I will never know whether my compliance cost me the chance of a championship. Arguably Mika was the more complete driver anyway, but perhaps those incidents gave him additional confidence or subconsciously dented mine, as well as my self-esteem."
So perhaps Mark has a great point with his tactics. Needless to say he did a wonderful job after Seb blew his race to tiny shattered pieces. All in all this feud will keep us entertained for at least the rest of the season. And maybe it is the truth...that there is just too much to handle in the Red Bull Racing camp.
