Originally posted 18th March 2012.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day for yesterday!
A rather long but immensely fun week has seen me drink more than my fair share of alcohol since Monday, so this St. Patrick’s Day I was off the sauce and instead focussing on the other big event of the weekend: the return of Formula 1.
F1 is a great sport, though I am loathe to get into an argument as to why it is so good, or in many people’s minds, so terribly bad or mind-numbingly boring. That said, I do want to have my two cents on a few of the classic comments concerning F1 which come my way:
“I don’t know how you can sit through 20 or so cars going round in a circle 70-odd times”
Or:
“They only race on Sundays because no-one cares”
Or my favourite:
“It’s elitist!”
It’s just a sport; each to their own. For instance, I can only rarely sit through 90 minutes of football, and I love that the race is on Sundays; I find F1 wonderfully relaxing to watch (surprising given the speeds and the danger) and there are few greater things in life than a Sunday Roast and the race.
F1 is of course hilariously and unashamedly elitist- it really is more of a company than a sport. “Formula One Management Ltd” is run by Bernie Ecclestone; everyone’s favourite pint-sized billionaire whose success in turning F1 into one of the most financially lucrative sports on the planet financed his daughter Tamara’s £1m crystal bathtub (amongst many other £∞ things). F1 coverage is hugely geared towards those dashing drivers in their sunglasses, the glamour of the pit girls, Eddie Jordan’s shirts and the incredible locations such as Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Monaco and Silverstone when it’s dry.
The elitism argument permeates through into the actual ‘sport’ side of things as well. Motorsport is ruinously expensive to get into as a driver and the whole image of F1 screams “CASH PLEASE!”. Factors like the champagne on the podium, teams needing huge amounts of money just to make the first race and even some drivers paying millions just to get a place in a team all add firepower to the grand-prix-skeptic’s arsenal of reasons not to watch the sport.
Despite operating like one big dangerous member’s club, I’m sure not even the most hardened F1 critic can deny it is just a little bit watchable; the cameras get into the pitlane, the cars, the palatial motorhomes and now, thanks to the £gazillions of Sky Sports (and a little bit of Bernie bucks I imagine), there are now cameras on the driver’s helmets. How many other sports offer that kind of coverage?
Anyway, I could drone on about why F1 is amazeballs all day, and I already have spent 300 words on explaining why. All I wanted to do today was introduce you to the…
…BernieBrunch.
On Race Day, there is precious little time to eat well. Just enough time for me to get out of bed, get showered, get into clothes and head down to Tescos to create the kind of brunch that embodies everything Formula One is about. The BernieBrunch has been a year in the making, and was only perfected when the 2011 season got round to India last year.
In its basest form, BernieBrunch is a whole lotta crusty bread, pre-packed hummus, olive oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Brie (as always), a generous pastry selection, cookies, Skittles, Diet Coke and coffee. It is just like the sport; eclectic, international… and not cheap. It is also a curious mix of healthy and unhealthy; F1 has both as well (such as physiotherapists vs. criminal CO2 emissions), so my BernieBrunch has olive oil vs. Tesco Choc Cookies.
Whatever you may think of me, it has been a long winter and I deserve this. In anycase, I am working out as you will see in the next post, so I am living out the Australian GP in style… i.e. covered in crumbs.
And finally…
Happy Mothers’ Day y’all!
And double-finally…
Watch F1.
The food thing. 
Leave a comment