OCTOBER 7, 2006

Orange sees red

There are some advantages in speaking a minority language - the main one being that only a small number of people understand when you say rude things about someone else. In Formula 1 Dutch is not spoken much - although the small contingent of Dutchmen and women in F1 seem to use it rather a lot. the advantage of being in this small community is that one can say fairly rude things about one's rivals without getting into trouble.

Yesterday morning in the Telegraaf in Holland, for example, Christian Albers vented his spleen about Nick Heidfeld.

"Heidfeld is a huge whiner," he said. "He should put on a red G-String and play beach volleyball".

F1 needs to be a little careful in case some of its new generation are mistaken for being colourful!