‘Applaud Red Bull excellence’ – right message, wrong crowd

Pic courtesy of Joachim Hofmann

Christian Horner did what every good boss should do on Sunday.

Defended his people.

Responding to suggestions that his Red Bull team’s dominance this season and much of the last might be making Formula One a little dull, Horner responded thus…

“You have to recognise and applaud what Max is doing at the moment. It’s very special to have achieved what he achieved. We shouldn’t detract from that in any way. In sport, very rarely things like this happen. I think it’s a golden moment for him and a golden moment for the team.”

All true and perfectly expressed.

And all a complete waste of time.

Call us philistines but people don’t watch sport to be impressed. Not primarily.

We watch sport to be entertained. If you can impress us into the bargain, that’s great, but impressiveness will always be the support band.

The prospect of entertainment is what gets the gig heaving. Expectation confounded; heroes stepping out of the shadows; people with the cup to hand, only to die of thirst.

Call us vulgar but as long as Formula One takes place at weekends, it will be always thus.

Monday to Friday are our sensible, restrained days. We wear suits, talk in measured tones and embrace excellence, clapping politely as Marcia collects her 10th straight Salesperson of the Month award.

Come Friday night, we’re looking for something a little more visceral. Pretty much, I suspect, as we always have done.

There’ll have been some people in the Colosseum, no doubt, happy enough to ‘celebrate’ the lion with the fastest average human-consumption time. But there will have been many, many more who just wanted to hear screams of unbridled terror and the splat of organs against stone.

We’ve evolved some since then but you get my drift.

So, by all means, let’s pause to give Red Bull their due. Not least an acknowledgement that Christian Horner has done what we lionised Sir Alex Ferguson for; presided over not just one all-conquering era for his team, but two.

Great leadership, great driver, great team, great job.

Now please give someone else a chance.

We’ve had it up to here with being impressed. We want to be entertained.