Luca Badoer - funny stuff from the web

In the end, I guess the most difficult thing for me to understand is why there is so much lingering compassion for Luca Badoer. Like I said earlier, I harbor no ill will towards the man personally. As a Formula 1 driver, he is sub-par, period. No matter how you choose to frame his performance, he was way off the pace from go and showed little improvement. He has been Ferrari's test driver the past 10 years, something for which I assume he has been paid quite well, if not in cash then perhaps Schumacher memorabilia. To many, this too would easily qualify as a dream job, as I'm sure it did to Luca. I've heard a lot of people describe his appointment as Massa's replacement being a 'repayment' of sorts for his loyalty to Ferrari. I'm guilty of using the expression myself. But I think loyalty has been confused with charity, as loyalty would apply to a test driver who, despite repeated solicitations from other teams to come and drive for them, chose instead to remain at the Scuderia. In Luca's case, he had no market value. Nor did he apparently have any interest in stepping outside the protective arms of Ferrari and pursue competition at any other level. As a race car driver in the twilight of his career, he's weak and inferior which is why Ferrari charitably offered him a drive. They didn't expect too much from him--they've conceded the season--but they expected more than what he delivered.

Had this been any other test driver or any other team, it's doubtful 10 words would have been wasted on the matter. But for whatever reason, we're still hearing the final salvos of those attempting to make us believe our eyes have deceived us.

 

Excellent point. If the test driver of say McLaren, BMW, RBR etc, stepped into the cockpit, finished dead last in qualifying and the race, pleaded and got a 2nd chance...still finished dead last in qualifying and the race...when his teammate won the race in an identical car...I believe pretty much everyone would color him gone...

Gilles is absolutely correct here. Due to Ferrari being the marquee name in F1 (similar to the Dallas Cowboys) everything is recorded and amplified. Any other team the driver would have been launched after the second race if not the first and nothing more would have been said. The driver in question just didn't have what it takes...nothing personal.

It is what it is.

 

I was with you until the part about the Dallas Cowboys being the marquee name in their sport.

That has to be a joke, right?

 

You read my mind Mike

 

team budget: $500 million
dream fulfillment: 2 out of 17 races

cost: (2/17) x $500 million = $59 million

That is my perspective. I'd like to see them explain that to the stockholders... ;-)

 

Actually...

Team Budget: $500 million.

Dream Fulfilment: 2 out of 17 races

Cost: (Fraction of races competed) x (1 of 2 cars ran) x (team budget) = (2/17) x (1/2) x $500 million = ~$29.5 million.​

...but I think your point still stands. Explaining it to the shareholders might be difficult.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Anything but. Love 'em or hate 'em, according to Forbes the Cowboys are the second most valuable sports franchise in the world. Only Manchester United beat them.

 

Marquee name in sports or in the sports business?

 

Sir, you are assuming here that Ferrari wasn't out there just to fulfill Kimi's dreams too.











(OK, you got me there.)

 

Same thing. Sports is their business.

 

Well, first of all that is one perspective (Forbes). Others say different with the Cowboys much lower on the list. The Forbes article is an anomaly... but, whether it is correct or not isn't the point... the book value of the team doesn't make them the "marquee" team of the NFL, just the team that has monetized the name the most.

The Chicago Bears being the oldest team in the NFL and having the most wins of any team in the NFL, may have something to say about the Cowboys being the "marquee" team of the NFL.

 

I may be an ignorant foreigner, but why do you keep using the word marquee and what does it mean? I thought a marquee was a big tent?

Edit: Aha! I think I've worked it out. If you replace the word marquee with marque it nearly makes sense.

marque (plural marques)

1. A license to pass the limits of a jurisdiction, or boundary of a country, for the purpose of making reprisals; a letter of marque
2. A brand of a manufactured product, especially a model of motor car


marquee (plural marquees)

1. A large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment.
2. A projecting canopy over an entrance, especially one with a sign that displays the name of the establishment or other information of it.
3. (computing) In graphical editing software, a special selection tool, used to highlight a portion of an image.

It obviously means something else in American!

When I was at Spa I was sat around a camp-fire with a German and a Californian. The German was asking me what the English word for 'Tribune' is so he could tell the Californian where he was going to be sat for the race. I told him that the English was 'Grandstand', but I knew that it was a different word in American. After describing what we meant she realised that we were talking about 'Bleachers'.

Definately 2 countries divided by a common language!

 

I's used in the context of being a name in lights or of prominence. So it straddles both definitions a bit.

As for calculating the cost of Luca's Big Racing Adventure, don't forget his crash!

 

Definitions vary within the States as well but not as much as they did before the advent of mass media. I imagine that as the media (formal and informal) becomes more global the more universal our languages will become.
In the interim I still read my British magazines with an English to English dictionary

 

That stuff does not matter. Can you say "Debbie Does Dallas"!