Formula One Drivers Are Human Too

If anyone says that Formula One is just watching 22 cars following a leader at high speeds, you can tell them to watch the season opener of the 2008 Formula One season. If anything, with the rule changes, this season-opener showed that the drivers are human—what a concept!

With the most noticeable rule of banning traction control this year, positions were gained, places were lost, and starting on the front row did not necessarily equate to a podium finish.

Felipe Massa started fourth on the grid, but ended up dropping almost all the way down on the first lap after a scuffle with a backmarker. Kimi Raikkonen started 15th and made it up to eighth place after the first corner and was challenging Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovaleinen for a podium until he made his errors and eventually retired due to an unhealthy engine.

Everybody was making mistakes, some that cost them like Timo Glock losing control for a moment on the exit of turn 12 causing a violent crash, which left him with a bandaged arm and a disintegrated Toyota TF108; or the controversial pass on David Coulthard that Felipe Massa tried to make, which ended DC's race. Overall, errors all around.

Error—that is something you don't hear too often in Formula One. You hear it for one or two drivers after they lose control, or for something done in the pits; but for almost everyone in the race making some kind of mistake that would cost them, that's something else.

It's almost alien to hear that word so many times by the commentators. This has to be blamed for the most part on losing traction control, and it really mixes things up. If anything, this is excellent for Formula One. This loss of traction control just made the sport from a one and a half hour advertisement to an entertaining drama that kept the viewer on the edge of their seat.

Still, this is only the beginning. Drivers will learn to cope with no traction control, but when put under pressure, they will make more mistakes and will show that even though they are drivers, they are human too. What a concept!