The F1 Fans: They Also Serve

They are buffeted by cold wins, rained on, or scorched by the blazing sun. They drink coffee from polystyrene cups, their agonised lips and tongue suffering a beverage that is hotter than the sun at first taste, and undrinkably cold the next time they try it.

They are not immune to hunger, and that is a pity, for the food they are served will mark them with the unmistakable aroma of sport—onions. Not just any onions, but vegetables apparently genetically-engineered for minimum taste and maximum odor, a distinctive smell that will cling to their clothing and follow them home.

Eating and drinking are only incidentals, however. The main purpose of their existence is to pay.

They pay to get to the circuit.

They pay to park.

They pay for admission.

They pay for a program.

They pay for a team shirt, or an embroidered cap, or a car sticker to advertise their attachment to a flock.

They pay extra for a covered seat, only to find the rain blows sideways under the roof, or horizontally straight into their faces.

They pay pay pay pay pay.

Every star driver, every team functionary, every braggart manager lives out of their pockets, either directly through ticket receipts or indirectly through the advertising that wants them to drink the right booze, play the right hi-fi, watch the right TV.

They are not just the financial bottom line of the sport; they are every line. They are the backbone and the beating heart, but nobody in authority cares what they think.

In return for their loyalty, their support, their cash, they expect and get nothing. Experience has taught them that their views only exist to be despised and ignored, for he who pays the piper does not call the F1 tune.

With less influence on their chosen sport than an ant has on the movements of the planets, they are the voiceless army of faceless fandom. Once separated from their money, they are of no further interest, their value is considered to have been extracted.

They are the F1 spectators, and they also serve, who only stand and watch.