Great role models

One of the best and I mean the best formats of informative, intuitive TV media broadcasting has been the insightful  build up of the goings on behind the scenes of Formula One. The personalities, the drivers the owners the controllers of the sport has been extremely interesting especially given the status of these people, made up of course by the very same media machine.

When Jenson Button and Louis Hamilton were partners in the same team they simply bubbled with fun and exuded that rare ingredient, great skill, operating in an environment that was very exclusive.  Their media fed high spirited jousts, off the track were great to watch and one bonded with them through the simple good nature which they so obviously felt towards each other. The contrast of the Mark Webber, and Sebastian Vettel contest with the obvious, bad blood between the drivers which lent a Machiavellian story of intrigue in their respective garages and the disrespect to management orders by Vettel simply added so much chatter to the race its self. The impassive poker faced Kimi  Raikkonen, the dark swarthy good looking but temperamental  Fernando Alonso, these are the players with their homes in Monaco and the obligatory yacht in the harbour, it all fascinates us as we push our plastic boat with a toe in the bath.  Jenson has oceans of charisma and exudes a friendly blokeyness that endears him to us all. His interview with David Coulthard taking him through his career was for me a perfect piece of television, it exemplified the nature of this man, a real role model in every way. 
I think the show is fuelled by the confidence, the high testosterone, the sheer glamour of everything performing at the top end, both the technical nature of the cars, the enormous engineering achievement in every detail and of course there is the nationalistic element, a Brit and a German going head to head.