I don't know if the horse is dead or nobody recognizes the mules doing the work. You know, I have some indian blood, too...
Pedro de la Rosa and Luca Badoer are two guys that always pique my curiosity. Sure Alonso is Obama's grandmama, Massa is the doctor that cured Dr. House and Hamilton is the anti-Antichrist, but
de la Rosa and Badoer are a different kind of drivers. They are the engineer-drivers, if that's a title. Pedro started racing radio controlled cars, for example. He was european champion
at that, long before becoming a driver. "A subtler shade of black"...
I think they have more fun than any in the grid. They have proved, year after year after year, that nobody is interested in them or in their work, while they have become tranquil world champions of car development. Every time someone puts them to drive, they show they're pretty good at it, but maybe that's not where their genius reside. They have something special: nobody wins 11 (my god, eleven!) years developing Ferraris or become the chairman of the driver's association by unanimous vote that easy. I bet Badoer has run more kilometers in an F1 car than any italian in history, while de la Rosa has ran more formula one cars than all spaniards put together since the world was invented: he has been racing for 20 (twenty!) years next year and he has been in F1 for ten years. Where do you get that kind of experience in the real world? (not to mention the current grid, for heaven's sake).
I don't know if they're are nerdies or what, but to spend a life devoted to development, while others take the laurels reminds me of my work in third world roads.
Yes, yes, sorry for the comparison, but when you're really happy doing something nobody does as well as you, nobody cares about and nobody recognizes, modesty is not your strongest virtue: you don't have anybody to brag about it, so you lose track of news and headlines. You don't
have to be modest, that's perhaps the only true modesty. It's like the guy that invented the paper clip. I bet he's happier than Google's directors.
For the love of Pete, nobody, but nobody knows that de la Rosa is called Pedro
Martínez, for example... In F1 that kind of privacy is a luxury nobody has.
Their story shows to me that Alonso might not be the great spaniard developer newspapers claim. I'll say Alonso is a great
tuner. He could work in a
garage. De la Rosa is the best spaniard car developer in history, period. He could work in a
factory. It's a small distinction, but I felt an urgence to put that in front of all of you, for your comments, and jgredline gave me the perfect excuse. The way to happiness is not always the WDC, let me tell you.
Gosh, I shouldn't have drank that whiskey before posting... Sorry, Tomba, you know how I love to put a twist of sugar in the sourest threads.
