2013 Comment: In Search of Soul

[eytl]

Hi everyone,

This was the article I had written and was going to put up when the news of Maria de Villota's passing came through and I decided to write and upload a tribute to her instead:

http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/2013/soul/index.html

After the Korean GP, I was pondering what was the future of that event, and the future of the Yeongam circuit, and it got me wondering about what it all means for where not only F1 but motorsport as a whole is heading. And I'm not impressed.

And yes, I did think about making a play-on-words between "Soul" and "Seoul", but I couldn't make one work.

Cheers,
Enoch

[watka]

Thanks again Enoch, nicely written. I wish I had an answer to the problem!

[Ataxia]

Rejected headlines included "How do you solve a problem like Korea?"

Thanks for the article, Enoch.

[Onxy Wrecked]

The Korea circuit reminds me of the Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas. Just that the Tilkedrome is a lot nicer than the Texas circuit was and that College Station isn't completely in the middle of nowhere given Texas A&M University is in College Station. It was a pleasurable read.

[Alextrax52]

Hi everyone,

This was the article I had written and was going to put up when the news of Maria de Villota's passing came through and I decided to write and upload to tribute to her instead:

http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/2013/soul/index.html

After the Korean GP, I was pondering what was the future of that event, and the future of the Yeongam circuit, and it got me wondering about what it all means for where not only F1 but motorsport as a whole is heading. And I'm not impressed.

And yes, I did think about making a play-on-words between "Soul" and "Seoul", but I couldn't make one work.

Cheers,
Enoch

I thought that was a great read as always Enoch. You are 100% spot on that the sport needs people who have a love and a passion for Motorsport and a lot of teams have died from having owners who had absolutely no passion for racing whatsoever like Sassetti in the Andrea Moda farce and he was pretty much the main reason why they never got anywhere. Then we have Morgan Grenfell who pretty much killed Arrows off in 2002. Granted Tom Walkinshaw's business ways got them there but he could have got a business that actually had Passion for racing something which MGPE didn't have. Not taking an active part in the team just says it all about Morgan Grenfell's involvement in the sport as being nothing more than an investment opportunity. And then you had Pat Symonds saying that the MF1 bosses had no passion for F1 in 2006 which considering the rumors about the team's sale that year were probably right.

I think races like Korea are there because the Government wants an F1 race to boost themselves rather than the fact that they love the sport. Imola wasn't the best F1 track in the world but you always got the sense that there was passion there a large part of it being the tifosi of course and I wouldn't mind that event returning to the calender because it has a soul. F1 needs to bring back the soul and passion that we always enjoy rather than having races on board just for the sake of commercial rights

[AndreaModa]

A superb article Enoch. You find patterns and insights and are able to articulate them very well indeed. Your conclusion at the end, bringing it back to the human element of it all was excellent.

[Julien]

I never loved the Yeongam circuit. There are good Tilke-tracks, but Yeongm is one of the worst I think. I watched it on TV, I tried it in simulator, there is nothing spectacular about it, unlike Austin for example, which has similar characteristics, and in my opinion it's one of the most enjoyable tracks both on TV and in car.

The main issue of these "Tilkedromes" (great name by the way) is that they can be built everywhere with no motorsport past whatsoever. Who heard about the Indian, Turkish or Korean F3 series? Nobody because there is none. There is simply no motorsport culture in these countries, and the mostly uninspiring and boring Tilkedromes don't help F1 to become popular. Especially that they are insanely expensive and the prices are usually much higher than the average F1 fan in the country could afford it - India and Turkey are again the best examples.
Meanwhile, there is the Hungaroring as a good example: It was built as a simple track on a carefully chosen location which proves a marvelous spectacle to the visitors. And now this track has the longest valid contract with FOM and it's the third in the rankings of tracks with the most continuous Grand Prix held behind Monaco and Monza.

[Onxy Wrecked]

I never loved the Yeongam circuit. There are good Tilke-tracks, but Yeongm is one of the worst I think. I watched it on TV, I tried it in simulator, there is nothing spectacular about it, unlike Austin for example, which has similar characteristics, and in my opinion it's one of the most enjoyable tracks both on TV and in car.

The main issue of these "Tilkedromes" (great name by the way) is that they can be built everywhere with no motorsport past whatsoever. Who heard about the Indian, Turkish or Korean F3 series? Nobody because there is none. There is simply no motorsport culture in these countries, and the mostly uninspiring and boring Tilkedromes don't help F1 to become popular. Especially that they are insanely expensive and the prices are usually much higher than the average F1 fan in the country could afford it - India and Turkey are again the best examples.
Meanwhile, there is the Hungaroring as a good example: It was built as a simple track on a carefully chosen location which proves a marvelous spectacle to the visitors. And now this track has the longest valid contract with FOM and it's the third in the rankings of tracks with the most continuous Grand Prix held behind Monaco and Monza.

While the ones in the US of the Tilkedromes have been the product of unsafe conditions in Detroit (where the track broke apart) and Watkins Glen (deaths of Cevert, Koinigg, and J.D. McDuffie), farces at Caesar's Palace, Dallas, and Phoenix, and the undesirable conditions of banking at Daytona. A Tilkedrome can work in some places like the US, Bahrain, or Malaysia but that is due to history in the US, money and the desires of the wealthy to race endurance races in Bahrain, and relative proximity to Australia and Japan in Malaysia.

[Ben Gilbert]

I never loved the Yeongam circuit. There are good Tilke-tracks, but Yeongm is one of the worst I think. I watched it on TV, I tried it in simulator, there is nothing spectacular about it, unlike Austin for example, which has similar characteristics, and in my opinion it's one of the most enjoyable tracks both on TV and in car.

The main issue of these "Tilkedromes" (great name by the way) is that they can be built everywhere with no motorsport past whatsoever. Who heard about the Indian, Turkish or Korean F3 series? Nobody because there is none. There is simply no motorsport culture in these countries, and the mostly uninspiring and boring Tilkedromes don't help F1 to become popular. Especially that they are insanely expensive and the prices are usually much higher than the average F1 fan in the country could afford it - India and Turkey are again the best examples.
Meanwhile, there is the Hungaroring as a good example: It was built as a simple track on a carefully chosen location which proves a marvelous spectacle to the visitors. And now this track has the longest valid contract with FOM and it's the third in the rankings of tracks with the most continuous Grand Prix held behind Monaco and Monza.

While the ones in the US of the Tilkedromes have been the product of unsafe conditions in Detroit (where the track broke apart) and Watkins Glen (deaths of Cevert, Koinigg, and J.D. McDuffie), farces at Caesar's Palace, Dallas, and Phoenix, and the undesirable conditions of banking at Daytona. A Tilkedrome can work in some places like the US, Bahrain, or Malaysia but that is due to history in the US, money and the desires of the wealthy to race endurance races in Bahrain, and relative proximity to Australia and Japan in Malaysia.

I'm sorry; I have to pick this up. What are you on about, Onyx Wrecked?

- All of these circuits were built before Tilke began in earnest as F1's One True Designer.
- Detroit wasn't the circuit where the track broke apart, unless you're counting the barriers being ripped apart by the Guererro-Patrese smash in 1982; if not, you're thinking of Dallas.
- Watkins Glen is a circuit that developed out of the layout of public roads where races were held before the permanent circuit was built (and in fact the circuit overlaid some of said roads, a la Spa-Francorchamps). It didn't lose its place on the calendar due to those deaths, although they didn't help; it lost out because of crowd control issues, and because they hadn't paid $800,000 to the teams after the 1980 event.
- Detroit and Phoenix were street circuits in major cities, perhaps the very antithesis of plonking an enormous autodrome from scratch in the middle of nowhere.
- Daytona was not the circuit where Formula One met banking and the latter won; that would be Indianapolis. In fact, I don't think Daytona has ever been considered to host F1.

[watka]

Ah, Watkins Glen and the infamous bog people. Wouldn't see that anywhere else but America.

[Onxy Wrecked]

I never loved the Yeongam circuit. There are good Tilke-tracks, but Yeongm is one of the worst I think. I watched it on TV, I tried it in simulator, there is nothing spectacular about it, unlike Austin for example, which has similar characteristics, and in my opinion it's one of the most enjoyable tracks both on TV and in car.

The main issue of these "Tilkedromes" (great name by the way) is that they can be built everywhere with no motorsport past whatsoever. Who heard about the Indian, Turkish or Korean F3 series? Nobody because there is none. There is simply no motorsport culture in these countries, and the mostly uninspiring and boring Tilkedromes don't help F1 to become popular. Especially that they are insanely expensive and the prices are usually much higher than the average F1 fan in the country could afford it - India and Turkey are again the best examples.
Meanwhile, there is the Hungaroring as a good example: It was built as a simple track on a carefully chosen location which proves a marvelous spectacle to the visitors. And now this track has the longest valid contract with FOM and it's the third in the rankings of tracks with the most continuous Grand Prix held behind Monaco and Monza.

While the ones in the US of the Tilkedromes have been the product of unsafe conditions in Detroit (where the track broke apart) and Watkins Glen (deaths of Cevert, Koinigg, and J.D. McDuffie), farces at Caesar's Palace, Dallas, and Phoenix, and the undesirable conditions of banking at Daytona. A Tilkedrome can work in some places like the US, Bahrain, or Malaysia but that is due to history in the US, money and the desires of the wealthy to race endurance races in Bahrain, and relative proximity to Australia and Japan in Malaysia.

I'm sorry; I have to pick this up. What are you on about, Onyx Wrecked?

- All of these circuits were built before Tilke began in earnest as F1's One True Designer.
- Detroit wasn't the circuit where the track broke apart, unless you're counting the barriers being ripped apart by the Guererro-Patrese smash in 1982; if not, you're thinking of Dallas.
- Watkins Glen is a circuit that developed out of the layout of public roads where races were held before the permanent circuit was built (and in fact the circuit overlaid some of said roads, a la Spa-Francorchamps). It didn't lose its place on the calendar due to those deaths, although they didn't help; it lost out because of crowd control issues, and because they hadn't paid $800,000 to the teams after the 1980 event.
- Detroit and Phoenix were street circuits in major cities, perhaps the very antithesis of plonking an enormous autodrome from scratch in the middle of nowhere.
- Daytona was not the circuit where Formula One met banking and the latter won; that would be Indianapolis. In fact, I don't think Daytona has ever been considered to host F1.

I am pointing out that the US had few options. Can't use Daytona due to the banking as open wheelers have never been able to take to the high banks. Watkins Glen wasn't deemed as safe, and the street courses caused all kinds of chaos. Phoenix actually had attendance worse than the Caesar's Palace fiasco. Well, for the Indianapolis course was unpopular due to politics after the tire disaster with Michelin. Malaysia was completed before the USGP in Indianapolis leaving the Brickyard as the last non-Tilke track. Since then it's been nothing but Tilkedromes.

[Mischa]

Having attended the last three editions of the South-Korean Grand Prix, I can report that things are actually getting a lot better. This year, a healthy crowd turned up on sunday, and most of them seemed like genuine F1-fans (unlike China, where tickets have been handed out for free in the past.) It's true that the proposed city around sector 3 has never materialized - and it probably never will. But it is worth noting that the circuit lies in a absolutely beautiful part of the country, that track itself is bloody good and although it is true that the local hotels are not my preferred holiday destination, they are decent and affordable (I never payed more than 80 US dollars a night during a GP-weekend, try and find those rates at any GP on the calendar. It is not uncommon for rates to quadriple, or worse, even in countries such as Bahrain, an event that has hardly any spectators at all...)
More supportraces would do the event a lot of good, as admittedly there is very little to see for the spectators beyond the F1-sessions. So there is little surprise that very few people bothered to show up on friday and saturday. Why not add a round of the Porsche Carrera Asia-cup? They surely would be fun to watch around this track.
It is true that there is a lot of work to do in South-Korea if the organizers want a future for this event. Currently, it seems that the uncertainty over the event prevents the authorities from making genuine investments in the local motorsportscene. But I still think this can be a good addition to the F1 calendar.

[girry]

Hmz, that's conflicting to what I have heard then. Other rumours said over half of the people attending were working at some port and given free tickets just to fill the stands up....

[Julien]

Koreans are just nit interested in Formula 1, and the organization of the grand prix is beyond ridiculous. First, there was the issue of inadequate water drainage system. Then there was the totally unsafe pit exit. And now the unsafe release of the firetruck and that stupid "solution" for the pit exit issue. Korea is jsut not place for holding a Formula 1 Grand Prix right now. maybe in 10 years it will be, but now it isn't. Same goes for India.

[Alextrax52]

Koreans are just nit interested in Formula 1, and the organization of the grand prix is beyond ridiculous. First, there was the issue of inadequate water drainage system. Then there was the totally unsafe pit exit. And now the unsafe release of the firetruck and that stupid "solution" for the pit exit issue. Korea is jsut not place for holding a Formula 1 Grand Prix right now. maybe in 10 years it will be, but now it isn't. Same goes for India.

Not to mention Korea have incompetent Marshals as well. Remember last year where they took nearly an entire stint of a Grand Prix to remove Rosberg's Mercedes into a safe place?

[mario]

Koreans are just nit interested in Formula 1, and the organization of the grand prix is beyond ridiculous. First, there was the issue of inadequate water drainage system. Then there was the totally unsafe pit exit. And now the unsafe release of the firetruck and that stupid "solution" for the pit exit issue. Korea is jsut not place for holding a Formula 1 Grand Prix right now. maybe in 10 years it will be, but now it isn't. Same goes for India.

Not to mention Korea have incompetent Marshals as well. Remember last year where they took nearly an entire stint of a Grand Prix to remove Rosberg's Mercedes into a safe place?

Incidents like that do speak of a certain apathy towards the sport - the problems of poor marshal training has been raised repeatedly over the past few years, yet seemingly nothing has been done to address the issue.

Mind you, the issue of poor attendance isn't exactly unique to Korea - after all, the attendance figures for the European venues, considered the heartland of F1, have been poor in recent years and indicate worrying trends for the long term sustainability of the sport.
It perhaps speaks of the apathy that has crept into the sport that Vettel's success has had no real impact in the German market - it seems that the German fanbase preferred to look to the past and the glories of Michael Schumacher rather than the current success of Vettel. When Michael returned, the ticket sales went up and remained higher than in the past - now that he has retired, the numbers have started falling back again (attendance was about 59,500 this year, down from 62,000 in 2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/mot ... -prix.html ). Even the British GP, which has normally bucked the trend of declining ticket sales, was struggling to match last years attendance figures amid complaints that the ticket prices are too high.

[Alextrax52]

Koreans are just nit interested in Formula 1, and the organization of the grand prix is beyond ridiculous. First, there was the issue of inadequate water drainage system. Then there was the totally unsafe pit exit. And now the unsafe release of the firetruck and that stupid "solution" for the pit exit issue. Korea is jsut not place for holding a Formula 1 Grand Prix right now. maybe in 10 years it will be, but now it isn't. Same goes for India.

Not to mention Korea have incompetent Marshals as well. Remember last year where they took nearly an entire stint of a Grand Prix to remove Rosberg's Mercedes into a safe place?

Incidents like that do speak of a certain apathy towards the sport - the problems of poor marshal training has been raised repeatedly over the past few years, yet seemingly nothing has been done to address the issue.

Mind you, the issue of poor attendance isn't exactly unique to Korea - after all, the attendance figures for the European venues, considered the heartland of F1, have been poor in recent years and indicate worrying trends for the long term sustainability of the sport.
It perhaps speaks of the apathy that has crept into the sport that Vettel's success has had no real impact in the German market - it seems that the German fanbase preferred to look to the past and the glories of Michael Schumacher rather than the current success of Vettel. When Michael returned, the ticket sales went up and remained higher than in the past - now that he has retired, the numbers have started falling back again (attendance was about 59,500 this year, down from 62,000 in 2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/mot ... -prix.html ). Even the British GP, which has normally bucked the trend of declining ticket sales, was struggling to match last years attendance figures amid complaints that the ticket prices are too high.

Of course some of us here did go to Silverstone like myself and AndreaModa. I went with about 30 odd students and 4 teachers but turns out that Passion is being sucked out of F1 with these declining attendance figures

[Ferrim]

I can only hope that F1 is able to reverse this trend before it's too late. I'm increasingly convinced that the current business model is simply unable to survive in the long term, and that the current state of things is not pointing in the right direction.

And it is a shame, because it looked like things were starting to go better after the financial crisis, when some cost-cutting measures were introduced and people understood that F1 couldn't exclusively rely on big buckets coming from manufacturers. With Toyota, Honda and BMW leaving and Renault on the verge of doing so, there was an effort to spend less, which was somewhat successful for the first time in recorded history, and the doors were opened for new teams, which had mixed results at best because of the lack of agreement on a budget cap.

But now, we are going back to policies that will only favour the bigger teams, like the new F1 strategy group, and may I ask: what will happen when Mateschitz decides that F1 is no longer adequate for Red Bull? What when the Mercedes board decides to retire? It's clear that many of the new venues are struggling, and that the old ones can't keep up with the fees being asked. Yes, we have more races every year, but the problems with Korea, India and Turkey are a reminder that many people are losing money, including teams, particularly those at the back. And, at some time, people cut those investments.

I think it's high time that the FIA took a more active role in the promotion of Formula One. In fact, I think that, for the first time, I'm starting to miss Mosley a little bit - I don't want him back, but for all his faults, he genuinely cared about the long term future of the sport and did some good things, while it seems like Todt is just happy with being there and rubber stamp whatever agreement is reached between Ecclestone and the teams.

We need a stronger relationship between F1, as the top category in motorsport, and the rest of motorsport: the supporting people and categories: cheaper fees which will lead to cheaper tickets, more importance of motorsport heritage when deciding to go to a new country (as to ensure that the race will be successful), slower introduction of new venues in order to preserve heritage (9 of the 22 GPs currently scheduled for 2014 have been introduced in the last 10 years, and that's ignoring Austria), fairer distribution scheme (less money for the top teams) and more help for new teams interested in joining the sport.

[Julien]

I think the current one is just another of the many crises Formula One already saw and definitely will see in the future as well. Changing times, changing demands. The worst part is still ahead of us, but Formula 1 is too important and worth too much to go down. Not to mention that it would pull the whole FIA open wheel racing system with itself.

[eytl]

I can only hope that F1 is able to reverse this trend before it's too late. I'm increasingly convinced that the current business model is simply unable to survive in the long term, and that the current state of things is not pointing in the right direction.

And it is a shame, because it looked like things were starting to go better after the financial crisis, when some cost-cutting measures were introduced and people understood that F1 couldn't exclusively rely on big buckets coming from manufacturers. With Toyota, Honda and BMW leaving and Renault on the verge of doing so, there was an effort to spend less, which was somewhat successful for the first time in recorded history, and the doors were opened for new teams, which had mixed results at best because of the lack of agreement on a budget cap.

But now, we are going back to policies that will only favour the bigger teams, like the new F1 strategy group, and may I ask: what will happen when Mateschitz decides that F1 is no longer adequate for Red Bull? What when the Mercedes board decides to retire? It's clear that many of the new venues are struggling, and that the old ones can't keep up with the fees being asked. Yes, we have more races every year, but the problems with Korea, India and Turkey are a reminder that many people are losing money, including teams, particularly those at the back. And, at some time, people cut those investments.

I think it's high time that the FIA took a more active role in the promotion of Formula One. In fact, I think that, for the first time, I'm starting to miss Mosley a little bit - I don't want him back, but for all his faults, he genuinely cared about the long term future of the sport and did some good things, while it seems like Todt is just happy with being there and rubber stamp whatever agreement is reached between Ecclestone and the teams.

We need a stronger relationship between F1, as the top category in motorsport, and the rest of motorsport: the supporting people and categories: cheaper fees which will lead to cheaper tickets, more importance of motorsport heritage when deciding to go to a new country (as to ensure that the race will be successful), slower introduction of new venues in order to preserve heritage (9 of the 22 GPs currently scheduled for 2014 have been introduced in the last 10 years, and that's ignoring Austria), fairer distribution scheme (less money for the top teams) and more help for new teams interested in joining the sport.

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

I agree that I don't like where the current business model of F1 is heading. It's just like the business model of the entire globe (but that's another story) ... the rich getting richer etc.

[Onxy Wrecked]

I think the current one is just another of the many crises Formula One already saw and definitely will see in the future as well. Changing times, changing demands. The worst part is still ahead of us, but Formula 1 is too important and worth too much to go down. Not to mention that it would pull the whole FIA open wheel racing system with itself.

That might be inevitable if F1 keeps going the way they're going. Television has and will continue to overtake live viewing of the events due to costs of travel and tickets. The internet is also eating away and F1 has strongly resisted the new models of business by increasing fees to told GPs (more television viewers and fewer tickets sold as the track owners have to recoup costs) and by resisting the internet by not showing race footage on YouTube like NASCAR and IndyCar have resorted to doing.

[Collieafc]

Eytl's article and many of the posts here also echo my opinion. I would also add (from my opinion) that F1 is just far too corporate in general. I find Vettel is the personification of "corporate driver" where everything said and done is (meant to be) squeaky clean. Add in lack of retirements compared to the past and over-penalisation of mistakes and suchlike (Webbers lift for example) and it feels like F1 is trying to be too perfect and sanitised. This season is the first ever that I havent watched a whole race - indeed the most I have watched is about 10 laps, and frankly it just looks like I am watching a big Scalextric track after drs and kers fixes the field. Not helped by the ban in refuelling removing the strategic element (I thought doing it would force aggressive racing for position but it hasnt).

Or maybe Ive just forgot to take off my rose tinted glasses off.

[Alextrax52]

Eytl's article and many of the posts here also echo my opinion. I would also add (from my opinion) that F1 is just far too corporate in general. I find Vettel is the personification of "corporate driver" where everything said and done is (meant to be) squeaky clean. Add in lack of retirements compared to the past and over-penalisation of mistakes and suchlike (Webbers lift for example) and it feels like F1 is trying to be too perfect and sanitised. This season is the first ever that I havent watched a whole race - indeed the most I have watched is about 10 laps, and frankly it just looks like I am watching a big Scalextric track after drs and kers fixes the field. Not helped by the ban in refuelling removing the strategic element (I thought doing it would force aggressive racing for position but it hasnt).

Or maybe Ive just forgot to take off my rose tinted glasses off.

We talked about the corporate measures in the forum and many agree with what you said there. Lots of people on other sites echo the sentiments that the drivers are more like Corporate Puppets rather than free spirits. As i've said before Webbo and Jenson are more personable to the fans and Rosberg has a blog and a Youtube channel so it's easier to say he's less corporate away from the interviews. But drivers like Di Resta and Sutil for example are perfect examples of what you would call "dull as dishwater" which apparently some people here said so at the start of the year because when you hear them interviewed you just want to turn off in a drove. Also stunts like the Alonso/Webber taxi rides are getting stamped out for boring in laps instead. If F1 can bring the human factor back then it will regain some of it's lost ground

[Lux Interior]

Ah, Watkins Glen and the infamous bog people. Wouldn't see that anywhere else but America.

Sadly, Fun like this at a F1 race seems to be long over with. Too bad actually.....



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[dr-baker]

What the heck? What's the story behind THAT?!

[eichy]

Not sure if F1 race or an anti-establishment riot.

[Ben Gilbert]

What the heck? What's the story behind THAT?!

Not sure if this is too late, but, unless I'm very much mistaken, this is hinted at in Murray Walker's autobiography: this would be the incident where a bus used by a large group of Canadian tourists was pushed, with their luggage still on it, into the gigantic mud bog at Watkins Glen and completely trashed, all in the name of fun.

Lovely people.

[dr-baker]

What the heck? What's the story behind THAT?!

Not sure if this is too late, but, unless I'm very much mistaken, Murray Walker's autobiography hints at that incident: the incident where a bus used by a large group of Canadian tourists was pushed, with their luggage still on it, into the gigantic mud bog at Watkins Glen and completely trashed, all in the name of fun.

Lovely people.

If that is true, I'm surprised that it wasn't more widely known and condemned...

[Ben Gilbert]

What the heck? What's the story behind THAT?!

Not sure if this is too late, but, unless I'm very much mistaken, Murray Walker's autobiography hints at that incident: the incident where a bus used by a large group of Canadian tourists was pushed, with their luggage still on it, into the gigantic mud bog at Watkins Glen and completely trashed, all in the name of fun.

Lovely people.

If that is true, I'm surprised that it wasn't more widely known and condemned...

Apparently, it is true, apart from the minor details.

It was a chartered Greyhound bus carrying Brazilian fans. And it was one of four vehicles stolen from the track's carpark to be burned.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20041101/free/411010705
http://www.glenphotos.com/bog/bogright.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 41,5080446

The more I hear about this, the more I'm surprised the race here lasted a further six years.