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The piquancy behind the scenes of Formula One racing has to be the intense competition right down the length of the field — but when rancour overtakes rivalry the dangers are pre-eminent.
Feuds in Formula One, like those between Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher and just about every other driver on the grid have all been simmering issues of ill-feeling or internecine jealousy.
Occasionally they spilled over with on-track confrontations and off-track bitterness as if scripted for good-and-bad-guy Hollywood movie dramas.
The latest features this season's bad boy, trouble-torn Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's usually placid Felipe Massa, who has become enraged by his rival McLaren man's emboldened and risky tactics at high speed and close quarters.That was graphically evidenced by Massa's televised invasion of Hamilton's privacy with a finger jab into the shoulder and a sarcastic remark after they had clashed and crashed... yet again...in the Singapore Grand Prix.
What worries me is that in the heat of the moment revenge could carry over into the stampede of cars with a regrettable outcome — and for that reason I would urge those in charge, both the rule makers, the FIA enforcers, and Grand Prix ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone to bring the culprits to heel with severe warnings as to their future conduct.
Peacemakers
That is, of course, after the team principals at Ferrari and McLaren, Stefano Domenicali and Martin Whitmarsh, both rational and reasonable men, have taken each of their drivers aside and, in private, emphasised as peacemakers the need for self control — and organised a public handshake.
Nobody would wish to negate the eagerness to be a winner, but not at all costs and certainly not to the detriment or danger of a rival as both Hamilton, principally, and Massa have done.
That there is an underlying dislike has been evident since a careless Hamilton bustled the miniscule Brazilian off the track in Monaco and with Massa saying scornfully: "He tries to be Superman...."
He adds: "In the race he could have caused a big accident. He has done it to me so many times this year and it is important that the FIA study this and penalise him every time. I've talked to him, but he doesn't listen. I tried to talk to him after the race in Singapore to clear the air, but he walked away without even answering."
One thing is for sure the next drivers' meeting, ahead of the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix, will be a heated forum.
Feuds in Formula One, like those between Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher and just about every other driver on the grid have all been simmering issues of ill-feeling or internecine jealousy.
Occasionally they spilled over with on-track confrontations and off-track bitterness as if scripted for good-and-bad-guy Hollywood movie dramas.
The latest features this season's bad boy, trouble-torn Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's usually placid Felipe Massa, who has become enraged by his rival McLaren man's emboldened and risky tactics at high speed and close quarters.That was graphically evidenced by Massa's televised invasion of Hamilton's privacy with a finger jab into the shoulder and a sarcastic remark after they had clashed and crashed... yet again...in the Singapore Grand Prix.
What worries me is that in the heat of the moment revenge could carry over into the stampede of cars with a regrettable outcome — and for that reason I would urge those in charge, both the rule makers, the FIA enforcers, and Grand Prix ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone to bring the culprits to heel with severe warnings as to their future conduct.
Peacemakers
That is, of course, after the team principals at Ferrari and McLaren, Stefano Domenicali and Martin Whitmarsh, both rational and reasonable men, have taken each of their drivers aside and, in private, emphasised as peacemakers the need for self control — and organised a public handshake.
Nobody would wish to negate the eagerness to be a winner, but not at all costs and certainly not to the detriment or danger of a rival as both Hamilton, principally, and Massa have done.
That there is an underlying dislike has been evident since a careless Hamilton bustled the miniscule Brazilian off the track in Monaco and with Massa saying scornfully: "He tries to be Superman...."
He adds: "In the race he could have caused a big accident. He has done it to me so many times this year and it is important that the FIA study this and penalise him every time. I've talked to him, but he doesn't listen. I tried to talk to him after the race in Singapore to clear the air, but he walked away without even answering."
One thing is for sure the next drivers' meeting, ahead of the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix, will be a heated forum.
