Something to Talk About
	by Biranit Goren, Israel

So where do you think Ralf Schumacher will drive next year? BAR? Williams? Jordan? And what about Johnny Herbert? Will he drive for Stewart? And what's with that McLaren "Green Button"? Any idea what it's for? Or Ferrari's illegal traction control system? Not to mention Briatore - will he run Benetton again next year or won't he? Formula One, more than any other sport, is a beehive of rumours, and not just once a year, when Silly Season erupts with full force. A glance at the Formula One news headlines of the last month reveals that, other than Grand Prix weekend reports and testing times, most of the news consisted of rumours, speculations and open-ended questions. Come to think of it, no other news-beat consists of so little hard facts but Formula One motor racing. Well, maybe with the exception of the White House coverage and the British Royal Family from time to time. While gossip is certainly a vital part of our existence, it begs to be asked - why does Formula One manufacture more gossip than actual facts? And why is this becoming an ever growing phenomenon, to the extent that even respected magazines and newspapers have adopted it? Formula One, reportedly, has over a quarter of a billion viewers all around the world. My guess would be that less than half of that number actually follow Formula One constantly, and maybe a tenth of that, at best, are avid Formula One fans. Still, a tenth of 250 million viewers is a stunning number of people who find interest in the sport. And that interest needs to be funneled somewhere, not to mention be banked on. So, with the actual races of Formula One becoming hard to watch and often a bore, and with the number of drivers winning races reduced to a mere three so far this year, there aren't that many facts to keep the fans occupied. Not much is left to be said about the McLaren superiority either, or about Michael Schumacher's driving skills. It's only natural, then, that the gap is being filled by rummages of hearsay, often times ridiculous, sometimes vicious, rarely true. It has been over a year now since the first mention of a possible South African Grand Prix comeback. During that period, I counted over 20 mentions of this issue in one of Britain's most prominent daily newspapers. "South Africa may replace Estoril this year" said one headline. "Kyalami may be added to Formula One calendar next year" said another. Other than mentioning over and over again the fact that South Africa is nominated to host a Grand Prix at some point in the future - near or far - no news source has been able to provide actual updates on the matter. Was there ever a need to report, re-report and speculate on when Kyalami shall return to host Formula One? Not really. But it made for some news, didn't it? Something to write about, and something to talk about. Eventually, South Africa was officially announced to host a Grand Prix as of 2001 (or even sooner, the speculation has not ended just yet) and it's not like every fan or journalist will go back through the past year's to check who speculated right and who reported wrong. Not to mention the fact that, sadly, we all report the same news from pretty much the same sources; Formula One is not a very open sport to all media. I doubt there are more than one or two journalists who have Frank Williams' phone number at home and can count on Eddie Irvine to leak them a great exclusive. And more sadly, The Formula One Association, along with the FIA, kind of like to keep the circus a closed circuit, if you pardon the pun. Any journalist who ever visited a Grand Prix knows how little freedom he or she has in walking around the pits and gathering real news and information from officials, drivers or team staff, without some PR lady breathing down your neck, or a steward rushing you off a limited access location. Have a look at the post race interviews with the drivers: an FIA hired interviewer asks reasonably obvious questions, only to get the reasonably obvious answers. When was the last time you've seen a real interview taking place with a driver after a race? The post race press conference have little to do with the press, nor do they have anything valuable to contribute to the fans' thirst for information. Which leads to yet another great source of "infotainment" - the guessing games of who's planning to do what. Stewart Grand Prix was due to sign Jos Verstappen for another two years, reported one of the Formula One news sources. Stewart Grand Prix is due to fire Verstappen at the end of this year, reported another. Jackie was out of reach for a comment on both counts, but you can send a letter of inquiry to 16 Tanners Drive, Blaklands, Milton Keynes MK 14 5BW, Scotland, U.K. I can't promise they'll reveal to you their future plans, but whatever they'll reply - including their auto signature "thank you for your support" - is bound to be more accurate than anything I or my colleagues could inform you right now. I was actually a witness to the birth of one of this year's most elaborate, ridiculous and typical - yes, typical - rumour, which not only turned into news, it hit sky high! Rumours, often starting in someone's vivid imagination, tend to hold a lot of wishful thinking in them from their parent's side. And so, a Nigel Mansell fan came up with the illustrious idea that since none of us have a clue who's going to drive for Williams next year (including Frank Williams himself, apparently), and since every existing driver was already linked with the British team for next year, who's to say we can't link ole' Nige back to his former team? Certainly Nige would be happy to come back, says the logic, and certainly Williams have the money to build wider cockpits, not to mention the fact that yet another rumour has been going around long enough suggesting that Frank is ill, or tired, or both, and might retire from managing his team. Nige could do the job, Frankly, surely you have thought of that! And so sits our aforementioned Mansell fan, and writes down a letter to one of the news sources, informing them that Mansell might be back with Williams at some scale. Congratulations, a healthy 6-pounds story is born, alive and kicking with a life of its own. Only a few steps forward, and the kid is running at full force. "Rumours have surfaced suggesting that the former world champion might sign a two-year deal with the team," reports a highly acclaimed motor sports magazine, "but Williams refused to comment." Now, when someone refuses to comment, it could mean your story is wrong, but it could also mean it to be actually true. And there grows our little rumour, almost ready for college. Until comes Patrick Head to spoil the fun, disobeying Williams team orders not to comment on who will drive for Williams next year until a formal announcement is made, and kills our little rumour with a knock-out "There's no substance to that at all," said Head and added, with a touch of naivete: "why people bother making these things up, I don't know." Newspapers build their reputation on reliability and exclusive reports. With the exception of Formula One coverage. No paper has ever printed a retraction on a previous wrong report concerning Formula One, just as no motor sport magazine was ever sued for liable after publishing speculations that some car or another might be cheating, with no hard facts to back it up. Formula One coverage, in many ways, is just another part of the Formula One circus. And the clowns, in this case, are us.

Biranit Goren	© 1998 Atlas Formula One Journal.
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