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Clarkson: F1 needs a different champion


Who deserves the F1 champion’s crown most this season – Rosberg or Hamilton? The answer, according to Jeremy Clarkson at least, is neither.

While F1 fans have debated long and hard about who the more deserving Mercedes driver actually is, Clarkson has his own view.

He said: ‘Kimi should have won. Kimi should always win because there’s nothing funnier in the post-race press conferences than Kimi Raikkonen.

‘We’re all wondering what pearl of wisdom he’s got this time.

‘No one wants to hear “Well for me the car was perfect for sure, I’d like to thank the team” – that’s really boring.

‘But Kimi? “Oh, I was having a sh**. Can I go and have a drink now?”. You just want Kimi.’



Clarkson was talking at the launch of his latest venture, DriveTribe, a portal for petrolheads that he’s fronting up with his TV cohorts James May and Richard Hammond.

DriveTribe is, essentially, a place where car fans can comment on and launch forums (they’re called ‘tribes’) on any topic related to autos – even ‘I hate cars’ is permitted.

There are already several F1 channels though, of course, the most popular ‘tribes’ belong to Clarkson, May and Hammond.

The trio are currently breaking records with The Grand Tour, their comeback show on Amazon.

They’re not all fans of Formula 1 though. Hammond said: ‘I never follow it so I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to F1, although I do know it was a bit divisive this weekend.’

May is a lapsed F1 fan. He said: ‘I used to follow it really closely in the nineties, in the Prost-Senna era and a bit beyond that.

‘But, at some point, it just became dull. My memory of it’s a bit blurry now but it was something to with over-regulation and too many slightly obscure rules.

‘It started to become disconnected from what the car is about. To be fair, that happened quite a long time ago.

‘There was an era when racing cars told you something about the car you were going to buy. I don’t think that is particularly true of F1 any more.

‘But it also stopped being a spectacle. Football – in terms of watching a sports competition – is still the best. Even though I don’t follow football, I love watching it.

‘Motor racing is in danger of becoming worse.’

In fact, May may have an ally in F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, who has repeatedly insisted that the sport needs to be more entertaining to attract followers.

May added: ‘I watched the bowling and the darts in the pub the other day and I found those both quite riveting. But I still can’t sit through a Formula 1 race…’