No Go at the starting line

Ya'll already know I follow Formula 1 racing as much as I can.

Never mind Champ cars, Indy cars or even NASCARs. Compared to Formula 1 racing they're all junk: no other form of automobile racing even pretends to try fitting 900 horsepower engines into a 1000-pound monocue chassis to go road-racing at 200+ mph top speeds for 90 minutes, much less tackling corners at 5 G's or decelerating into turns at 7 G's.

Performance like that would snap the wings off private aircraft and is only exceeded when jet fighters are engaged in air-to-air combat. But Formula 1 races are often held on (closed) city streets. Like the ones you and I drive on.

The downside (and naturally there is one) is that Formula 1 cars cost upwards of $1 million bucks each ... and no team competes for a full season with just one car. That's a high price to pay, but then the only goals are all-out performance, driver protection and durability.

Not hard to imagine how team owners must cringe every time they see their drivers slide sideways into a restraining wall at 180mph, and crunch a million dollar investment into high-tech shards and pocket-sized souvenirs.

There's a way, of course, to avoid crashing, ruining cars and risking drivers' lives: it's by sitting still, and never leaving the starting line.

Wouldn't it be AWESOME and THRILLING to see twenty million bucks worth of high-tech automotive engineering roll onto the track, show off their paint jobs, pull up to the starting line, rev their screaming engines in anticipation of the green light ... and then shut down the instant the starting light turns GREEN?

Wouldn't that be safer than taking chances and risk breaking a car? Wouldn't playing it safe be better than risk seeing a driver crash and possibly get hurt?

Wouldn't Playing It Safe be better than actually getting out on the track and racing?

After the race, wouldn't it be exciting listening to drivers talk about their race strategies, hint about how their cars might have performed, and how they would've whipped their opponent ... if only there'd actually been a race?

Wouldn't it be fascinating for race fans to sit around and congregate in committees, studying the results and getting deeper into racing, solemnly and reverently discussing What could've happened if the cars had ever left the starting line?

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A driver who doesn't believe he can win, that he will win every race every time, regardless of fear or the danger of crashing; a driver who ignores his car's potential, a competitor who plays it safe by switching off his 1000-horsepower engine at the starting line rather than drive the car right up to the edge, at full-speed as it's intended ... isn't participating in the race at all. He's merely creating an obstacle on the track, hindering other drivers who are committed to running, and winning, every race.

No matter the danger. No matter the risk of crashing ... or fear of failing.