It’s All Your Fault
Ron Dennis isn’t happy. Now that news won’t come as a massive surprise to anyone who’s followed F1 for more than five minutes, but the reason for his current misery probably will.
You’ve upset him… and apparently so have I.
Here’s what the man in black (leather), had to say earlier this week:
The Internet has been the bane of our lives. This is an uncontrolled, unedited, source of information that is fed into the media.
Don’t worry though, I like to think of it as something of a backhanded compliment. At least we got some reaction, Bernie has yet to acknowledge technology has progressed beyond the pocket calculator. In fact, I bet he’s still excited when he reads 55378008 upside down.
Personally I’m a fan of the uncontrolled and the unedited. It keeps things fresh. The Internet is the single greatest democratising power our world has ever experienced and that strikes fear deep into the heart of Ron. Later he went on to say:
I am not critical at all of the media.
Well he wouldn’t be would he? Especially in the tightly controlled confines of the paddock, where it’s so tough to break in, that those who do, are too frightened to say anything that might see them thrown out again. Such an elite and constrained selection of journalists are easy pickings for a control freak with a motive.
Ron’s not comfortable with all other types of media though. Back in May he described the frankly superb Red Bulletin newspaper as:
A piece of rubbish.
I don’t like what it stands for, I don’t like the quality of it… I don’t think it has a place in Grand Prix racing.
I guess there’s no pleasing some people.
Next year I’m looking forward to being an even bigger pain in the backside for Ron, and I’m looking forward to reading and hearing everybody else’s uncontrolled / unedited content in a world where everybody has a vote and Max or Bernie don’t control who gets the passes.
your silence made me wonder a little 
October 25th, 2007 at 02:06 #1 - me said:
please also see clive’s post, because he has an alternate take on the same comments:
Ron Dennis and the Net
October 25th, 2007 at 02:14 #2 - Clive said:
Ah, you’re a hard man to disagree with, Sidey. Since I enjoy the freedom and indiscipline of the net every bit as much as you do, I am not about to start corralling it now. But, at the same time, I don’t think it’s bad for a person not to understand the net. It’s a free world too and having complete misconceptions about the net is not a crime – so I can forgive Ron his ignorance on that score.
You are quite right in implying that Ron has a certain shortage in the humour department – hence his dislike of the Red Bulletin. But the lack of a sense of humour is also no crime. It irks me that F1 tries to control the media as much as it does but that is something common to all of the F1 establishment. I don’t see how you can blame Ron for that.
I too am looking forward to your future articles on Mr Dennis. I really don’t understand why people seem to hate him so and maybe you can enlighten me a bit more on that one.
And I’ll explain a bit more about my dislike of Max Mosley.
October 25th, 2007 at 02:15 #3 - Clive said:
Ooh, I got a link while I was writing my comment. Thanks, Sidey!
October 25th, 2007 at 02:31 #4 - me said:
clive, commenting on your site at the same time as this one is tough going. i’ve gotta sleep some.
in ron’s case, he doesn’t misunderstand the net. i’ve read several interviews where he explicitly references pitpass.com. and finds humour in the way they occasionally criticise his “way with words”.
so, his comments above come from a clear dislike of information dissemination in an uncontrolled manner.
if he were dumb i’d forgive him. he’s not dumb.
October 25th, 2007 at 03:02 #5 - Clive said:
Best point you’ve made so far, Sidey, and one I find very interesting. I had no idea Ron actually reads anything on the net – good for him. Maybe you’ll convince me yet.
October 25th, 2007 at 03:22 #6 - bigotez said:
Couldn’t agree more. Ron has p***ed the wrong people now. I bet this won’t be a nice holiday for him this year, and even worse once 2008 season kicks off. Let’s see how it goes for him from now on. We’re just a couple million fans that roam the ‘net.
October 25th, 2007 at 03:49 #7 - John J said:
We happen to be a couple of million “consumers” that happen to be F1 fanatics. We read and write as much as possible because we only have 17 weekends at 2 hours in length of the sport that we cannot get enough of. So Ron should learn to embrace the net and his PR people should find a way to use us to his advantage. I think he is going to find that alienating the consumer fan is bad for business.
October 25th, 2007 at 04:49 #8 - nelsong said:
Hello, can’t read the comments, just wanted to hit you guys with a little video.
http://blogdocapelli.blogspot.com/2007/10/prova-que-faltava.html
It’s Lewis Hamilton screwing with the controls.
October 25th, 2007 at 09:58 #9 - Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast » Part of the Answer said:
[...] I was busily writing a post discussing Ron Dennis’ inability to accept a lack of media control, Clive had an alternative [...]
October 25th, 2007 at 21:15 #10 - bucks word monkey said:
What RD thinks about the internet doesn’t really matter really does it. Whats he gonna do? Lodge an appeal.
Access and control of information is a pain from local press upwards.
They need to understand the more they try to control information flow the more people will speculate.
However people do need to be careful about how much they relie on information they get from the internet.
A few national newspaper reporters have found the hard way that even wikipedia ain’t as reliable as it seems to be.
December 7th, 2007 at 14:30 #11 - BlogF1 - Your Regular Blog and Guide to Formula One » FIA To Sue The Sunday Times; Red Bulletin Is Safe For Now said:
[...] being uncontrolled and unedited. Sidepodcast and F1 Insight had great posts up earlier in the year (It’s All Your Fault and Ron Dennis And The Net) when this first broke and both articles are worth a [...]