bunch of cheaters and liers... and nice people

[Giblet]

Every time I lost a hockey game, a race, or a freakin' arm wrestling match, I have never blamed my opponents lack of sportsmanship for my loss.

I either wasn't strong, good, quick, or mentally tough enough to beat my competitor.

It's really easy to blame other people for your mistakes or for simply losing, it's human nature really, but that is what makes us such an exceptional species, as we are able to rise above the weak and be strong.

Many people enjoy the act of competing more than the reward of winning. This is why people play hockey games and don't even keep score.

I guess the best example of this was when I was a kid playing 1st base in a little league game. The runner's foot touched the bag a good 1/4 second before the ball hit my glove, but the umpire called him out. The opposing parents started freaking out, and I just said to the ump "He was safe". My Dad after the game told me in a situation like that, I should just not say anything. Winning was more important to most parents than us having fun.

People that stick to their moral guns get ostracized quite often for trying to rise above the mire that has become humanity's moral norm.

[Richard]

Every time I lost a hockey game, a race, or a freakin' arm wrestling match, I have never blamed my opponents lack of sportsmanship for my loss.

I agree with you when it comes to normal sports. Tennis, rugby and cricket are good examples of what you are talking about. Football (soccer) is appalling.

The thing about F1 is that success is dependent on the nuances of how very complex (and sometimes vague) technicalities are interpreted - that is where the problems start. Its not cheating, but differences of view of the same rule.

[hpras]

There is cheating and then there is creative interpretation, I think we have agreed upon this. This year in the American Motorcycle Association Pro racing rules, the first line in the rule books for most series states roughly that "Anything that is not prescribed is proscribed". For their series, this work quite well since they start with a stock consumer motorcycle as their base, and unless they have allowed a change to a part in the rules, it otherwise has to remain the stock piece. (OK, this was the way it was supposed to work, then they started making exceptions... that's another story). This can be made to work effectively for one make classes (GP2, F2, etc), but this really doesn't work for prototype classes. It is nearly impossible to address every particular piece with regards to a ruleset. Even those pieces that are specifically mentioned are usually some kind of one off piece, and it's a statement of build it to this weight and make it fit in this 'box'. I would suggest that the first people who get the 'new' FIA regs each year aren't the designers, but the lawyers. Find the loopholes or the forgotten part and exploit them to the maximum. Until it's proscribed, it's legal, and the 'spirit' of the rules is just a defense of the teams that never found the answer.