Orange Army

As you may know, I'm a huge fan of Formula 1. It's one of those interests that rubbed off on me from my father; in the late 1980s we both watched as Ayrton Senna's star rose to eternal fame. Right now I'm watching another star rise; the Dutch wonder Max Verstappen, who's well on his way securing his second World Championship title. It's not all good though...

As a citizen of The Netherlands I've watched Max Verstappen's career with great interest. He's the son of Jos Verstappen who also raced in F1, but never had the success his son is now enjoying. In Formula One, like in any sport, sometimes a driver appears on the scene who's just special, whose talent overshadows all other drivers of his generation; Ayrton Senna was the first talent of such caliber I got acquainted with. Senna started his Formula One career at an insignificant team with an insignificant car: the Toleman-Hart TG184-2. And the first race where his star was noticed was the 1984 Monte Carlo race; he had already made an impression in the paddock, but it was on F1's brightest stage, the Monaco Grand Prix, where he announced himself to the world.

That Monaco race in 1984 was driven in heavy rain, and Senna was cutting through the pack with remarkable ease; it's often in the hardest of circumstances when true talent rises above the rest, and Senna was simply in a league of his own, passing faster cars with his Toleman car with such ease. This race was also the first that introduced me to the politics in this elite sport; Alain Prost was leading in his McLaren, and he saw his lead shrink lap after lap. Prost gestured from his McLaren as he raced past the pit-lane. The Frenchman believed the race he was leading was too dangerous to continue. Or maybe he just wanted the race stopped because Senna was gaining on him with some three seconds per lap...

On lap 31 of the 76 scheduled laps the race was stopped, just after Prost was passed by Senna. Prost still won the race though, as the final result was decided by the last uninterrupted lap - handing victory to the McLaren driver. It was years later that I learned that the Frenchman Prost was close friend with the French director of the FIA at the time, Jean-Marie Balestre; the infamous Senna-Prost rivalry was to be accentuated by decisions of the FIA in favor of Prost for years after. Senna was what we call a "natural" talent, as Prost was just a very methodical and cerebral driver; his nickname was "Le Professeur," the professor.

The next big natural talent to grace the paddock was Michael Schumacher who won two World Championships with another rather insignificant team at the time, Benetton. Of course he transferred to Ferrari afterwards and won another five world championships. In my opinion, we had to wait until 2006 to welcome the next massive talent: Lewis Hamilton. I've followed Hamilton's career closely and to me his talent is on equal footing with that of Senna and Schumacher, and he's the only driver yet to equal Schumacher's extraordinary record of seven world championships, both having done that with two teams, although Hamilton stuck to just one engine manufacturer, Mercedes. Here in The Netherlands we were all excited to learn that Max Verstappen would join the F1 grid in 2015 with Red Bull's sister-team Torro Rosso, pairing up with team-mate Carlos Sainz who's currently racing with Ferrari.

Last year Max Verstappen and Red Bull upset the reign of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton by winning the F1 World title in a controversial final race in Abu Dhabi. The championship last year was one for the history books, as the two teams and drivers went head-to-head in many races, with Hamilton and Mercedes staging a huge come-back in the final Grand Prix's. At the last race in Abu Dhabi they were equal on points and that last race would decide who'd become the World Champion. After a controversial safety-car restart, that race was decided in the very llast round, when Verstappen overtook Hamilton on fresh soft tires. This finale rivaled the drama and excitement of the finales between Senna and Prost, truly. Max's arrival was great for the sport and even better for Dutch F1 fans. But here's where I come to the part that I don't like...

Since Max's arrival, suddenly The Netherlands is full of F1 fans, when before the sport enjoyed no public interest at all. Now that's normal I guess, as every country will rally behind its sporting heroes. At every track and every Grand Prix you can see in the audience the "Orange Army"; orange is The Netherlands' national color. Last week we had the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort circuit; the entire stand was filled with just orange. Everywhere you looked, there was no escaping the Dutch national color. The audience was there for one man only: Max Verstappen. The whole thing had such a deeply nationalist atmosphere it made me feel uncomfortable. What's more, the broadcaster, Viaplay, has all these ads for strictly Dutch affairs, like the World Darts League; everything is a Dutch party. Other commercial Dutch broadcasters, especially RTL4 and SBS6 who are the most viewed, have the same formula of overwhelmingly national news and entertainment. It's all such a navel gazing affair, and evokes in me the same dreadful feeling I get when I see a Trump crowd mindlessly chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

The only other crowd I know of with such a nationalist and partisan demeanor, is the F1 crowd in Italy. The Tifosi of the Ferrari F1 team will let their presence be known in a couple of hours, as I'm typing this just before the start of the Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Ferrari will start from pole position with Charles Leclerc and Max will probably start from fourth or seventh; there are nine drivers with grid-penalties, of which Max is one, so I'll see the final starting grid when the race starts. I suspect it's going to be an exciting race, as Red Bull and Ferrari clearly have the fastest cars and drivers, and Max has to overtake some slower cars before the fight with Charles can commence. That is if he survives the mayhem at the first corner on the first lap. I don't honestly know if the Orange Army and the Tifosi consist mostly of real fans of the sport, or if they're mostly just there to cheer for their countrymen. It's probably a mix of both. What I do know is that the whole nationalist and partisan atmosphere they collectively create makes me feel somewhat uneasy... Oh well. I'll just try to enjoy the racing ;-)

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