F1 Driver ethics

[Ralf's Girl]

Who does everyone think is the most ethical and the most unethical driver?
One person I put straight out of the ethical category is TGF, and also DC, who I think is just a childish hypocrite.
As for ethical drivers - Hakkinen, and Barrichello (to perhaps a lesser extent). There are several others who I think have the intelligence to know the boundaries - Ralf is one of them, as well as Damon Hill was. I would have said Frentzen, but after yesterday's little excursions down the sliproads, I may well have altered my opinion.

What are everybody else's thoughts on this topic?

[angst]

Personally I would put Schumacher and Senna head and shoulders above the rest in terms of poor ethics. Patrese was one driver I remember coming into F1 with a very poor attitude toward his opponents, but he had the decency to review his race ethics. I think the rest are pretty much sorted, apart from the odd blunder.

[Ralf's Girl]

F1 has changed so much since previous eras. I wasn't around to watch racing during the 60s, but I have often heard Clark and Graham Hill referred to as 'gentleman racers'. I am certain they weren't gentlemen when racing for position, but they had a respect for their fellow racers that the likes of Schumacher lack. Senna didn't have that respect either, and that is becoming a major problem in modern F1. When the top drivers show very little respect for the opposition, what kind of example are they setting for racing drivers of the future?

[Liz]

OF COURSE I'd have to say the most unethical pilote of all time was Didier Pironi - because his behaviour led directly to the death of the teammate he cheated.

And the most ethical: Gilles Villeneuve, whose heart was broken by the duplicity of his teammate precisely because he could not imagine anyone who would do anything, legal or illegal, to win a race--even screw his teammate and lie about it.

In modern times: ethical, I'd say DC, Jacques, Rubens (same problem as Gilles had) and Prost (although Prost's off-track politicking in the last years of his career were not exactly ethical). Unethical: TGF and Senna, with Senna in a big, big lead - two men who believe that because they are currently at the top of the mountain, anything they do is right. In Greek tragedy this is called hubris, and for anyone who can still read, you will know that this inevitably leads to disgrace and death.

[angst]

I was talking about track ethics, but how could I have forgotten the duplicity of Pironi. Poor Gilles didn't know what had hit him, to make it worse Piccini backed Pironi's version of events. Terrible time, but I've always admired Gilles for his integrity as well as his driving. That's the reason I could never warm to MS - zero integrity.

[Liz]

In fact, I wonder if the modern generation can even define integrity, much less recognize it when they see it. It's something that colours your entire world view, not just what you do in your business life - and people who think "ethics" is "whatever I can get away with" on the track or off it, are the people who are ruining the world, by their actions and by their inspiration to those who worship them.

Do I want my kids to grow up to be Michael Schumacher?

No. Absolutely no. I would hate to be a mother of someone like that and have to say to myself, "I taught him better than that - they will think his parents taught him to do anything he felt like doing to screw other people, to lie about his actions and his motives, and to gloat when he got away with it."

Better they should be Gilles Villeneuve, who won only 6 races and never won a championship, but who was an honorable man to the day of his death... Even though he died before his potential could be reached, he was still the better man.

[Gerard]

I think todays drivers still have some respect for each other, but the reason they don't show this on the track is because they know that cars are much safer nowadays.
In the old days a driver knew that if he drove 'dangerous', there would not only be the possibly of killing the other driver, but also himself.
One wrong move, two cars touching each other, and you could forget it.
Just look at the way Jean Alesi slammed into the barriers at the German GP earlier today.
In the sixties or seventies, a driver would not have survived this crash.
I also think it's a sign of this time, people don't respect each other the way they should do. There are very few 'gentlemen' left.
And I fear this will only get worse.
As for the initial question, who's the most ethical and the most un-ethical driver?
I cannot answer that question.
First of all give me a definition of ethical?
And second, I can not judge someone I don't know, other than from what I see in one and a half hour of racing every two weeks and what I read in the magazines.
I can only decide whether someone is ethical or not when I look at all aspects considered.
And I don't know all the aspects.

[EERO]

Slightly off topic, I have to say that I find it interesting that Ralfie is NOT the man his brother is.

And I mean that as a compliment.

Typically, one would expect to see that sense of "Entitlement" in the youngest in a family. Ralf seems to be more thoughtful, composed and sensative than his brother.

I've always thought that DC was ethical. I used to think the same of Hill-but his weaving in front of TGF in Montreal in '98 and his whinning all last season disabused me of that idea.

I think Hakinnen, for all the complaints that can be made against him, always drives a clean race.

[angst]

I'd agree with you there. Mika is very clean. He's a strange one, but he is a clean racer. As for Ralf, I'm amazed how very different he is. Hard to believe they're related quite honestly.

[Liz]

I really think Mika is a clean racer because he was almost killed racing and now he knows. That will either make you a very clean racer or make you quit, I think.

Gerard, you have a good point that we are only judging them by what we read and what we see. Still, I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way he conducts his business. Perhaps the question should be, "Based on what you know, ..."

As for Ralf, good for him for learning from a less than sterling example, what NOT to do.

[jarama]

Those days, Hakkinen is one of the more ethical drivers; he always races "clean"... Rubinho is in the same league, but I pressume that in terms of ethical racing things only get to worsen.

The late Ayrton Senna started the breed of unethical racers, closely followed by TGF.

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally posted by Liz

As for Ralf, good for him for learning from a less than sterling example, what NOT to do.

I agree (well, obviously, I would!). Ralf has never intentionally taken out another driver, unlike his elder brother (older but no wiser). And contrary to the opinion of Giancarlo Fisichella, who, unbelievably, still has a chip on his shoulder about Argentina 1997.

[Liz]

Senna carried a chip on his shoulder re Prost right to his grave. Almost. As did Gilles against Pironi. Some people never forgive others for doing them wrong.

[Bononi]

Today's F1 is formed by 2 levels:
TGF and the others.
No doubt about his skills, but as happened to Senna, he is above the rest in every ways. He is never wrong (like today), because he cannot be. The last time I saw he being punished (if I am not wrong) was in Silverstone, but he won the race anyway. This is a case of a man who make the rules. This is why F1 is a show, and a show must have a star, and stars never dies in the end ! Since he went to Ferrari, we've been watching the same movie: The good guy against the bad guys, Part I, II, III...
That's why Bernie kicked Sly Stallone, "We already have a star in our movie !"