Greg Baum - you're My Man.

Have you ever watched paint dry? Or grass grow? If so, you’ve done something infinitely more interesting and edifying than viewing F1 motor racing. There’s little that’s more brain numbing than observing noisy wheeled billboards driven repetitiously in a circle. So unsurprisingly the main story of the Australian F1 Grand Prix eight days ago wasn’t the race. Rather it was an F1 driver – Mr Hamilton, a Briton – doing a burnout [1] in a sponsor’s Mercedes, on a public street. The police impounded the car but neither charged nor fined Hamilton. Another F1 driver – Mr Webber, an Australian – leapt to Hamilton’s defence by calling Victoria a ‘Nanny State’ because it has too many rules and regulations, adding he’s ashamed whenever he returns here. Also leaping to Hamilton’s defence was Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Mr Walker who dismissed Hamilton’s burnout as youthful exuberance. To me, that the police didn’t treat Hamilton as they would’ve you or me had we done what he did, is another deplorable abrogation of the Rule of Law [2]. The whole saga’s beautifully summed up in a piece [3] in last Saturday’s Age by Greg Baum (pictured) [4, 5]. Hard-hitting, incisive, acerbic journalism laced with irony’s always a delight to read. It’s infinitely more interesting and edifying than watching paint dry or grass grow – let alone F1 car racing. Very well done, Mr Baum. I hereby add you to my list of favourite journalists [6, 7, 8].