Why do people always say that?

I was in hospital last week for a small operation which involved a General Anaesthetic. I had been told that I had to be in the hospital at 7.30am even though my operation wasn’t until the afternoon and that I would be kept in overnight so I did what any self respecting F1 fan would do and took in a copy of F1 racing magazine and a copy of Autosports magazine to keep me entertained.

Nothing unusual there you may be thinking but I am female and this seems to make a difference to people. I am used to the producing of these magazines causing a few raised eyebrows but the comments people make still astonish me and it was brought to my attention again on that hospital ward. Comments of ‘what on earth is that you are looking at?’ and ‘you’re not a car fan are you?’ are bad enough but the one that really gets on my wick is the ‘I don’t know how you can watch that racing, all it is is cars going round and round in circles!’ comment. It makes me so mad.

Generally the people who make these comments know nothing about F1 and have never actually tried to watch a race. These people have seen one or two laps around about the middle of the race (you know that bit where there is a little bit of a lull with not much happening) and they have made a snap decision on the sport based on those 5 minutes or so. They then feel, having made this snap decision, that they can make comments on the sport in an educated manner. I’m afraid not!

I am not a fan of football but I have watched many full matches (and I even understand the offside rule) but I would never criticise someone who wanted to watch a match, I don’t like skiing due to Ski Sunday being inflicted on me for many years by my sister and mum but if anyone chooses to watch it I am not offended – feel free. Something about a woman watching a motorsport though really seems to offend people and I cannot for the life of me understand why!

As for cars just going round and round in circles, well yes there is an element of that, but there is so much more going on that, obviously to the untrained eye, seems to go unnoticed. The strategies involved, the timings on when to make the perfect move, the team orders (unpopular as they are), the messages coming back and forwards between team and driver, the pitstops and the battles within battles going on all over the racetrack are what make F1 and many other motorsports great! I understand that if you have only ever watched a dull 2 laps of a race you will not have seen all of these aspects but if you have only seen a dull 2 laps of a race then don’t make a judgement on it! There are millions of F1 fans worldwide, do you really think we would all watch race after race if it was really just all ‘cars going round and round in circles’?

I am an F1 fan, I am female and I am proud of it, if you want to know more about the sport ask me -I’m happy to answer but please don’t say those words again!

Follow me on Twitter @NicF1Fan