The recent blogs posted by my Auto123.com colleagues, Matt St-Pierre and Miranda Lightstone, on the bewildering differences between driving practices in North America and the rest of the world got me to thinking how those disparities apply to the world of motorsports as well.
Everyone knows that Europe is the land of the road race while the U.S. is oval country. That’s common knowledge.
I’m talking about the ideological cleft. Here, for fear of lawsuits, we journalists have to sign waivers that are supposed to protect us and prevent legal recourse in case of an accident.
When I took Team O’Neal’s rally driving course in New Hampshire last month, I had to sign such a waiver.
When I drove a few laps on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve as a passenger in one of the Richard Petty Driving Experience schooling stock cars, I had to sign a waiver.
In Europe? Zip. Nada. Niet.
I got the chance to drive some fairly exotic and fantastically expensive race cars without scrawling my name on even one legal document! It was all just a matter of mutual trust.
I drove a real F1 car, a 1994 ex-Érik Comas Larousse Ford V8, at Magny-Cours in 1999, and I didn’t sign a thing. How much is an F1 car worth, anyways?
A short time later, I got behind the wheel of an authentic World Rally Championship factory Peugeot 307 WRC, once again without putting my stamp on a single piece of paper. They had complete trust in me, even though I was about to take off in a $750,000 machine.
On the Barcelona track in Spain, I drove a Formula Renault V6 during one of the official practice heats of the series. Despite racing against the rising stars of the series, I – you guessed it – didn’t see hide nor hair of a waiver. And that car was worth at least $250,000.
Over the years, I got the chance to test some forty or so race cars without putting my John Hancock on any official document. And I didn’t damage a single one.
So you’ll understand my considerable surprise when I was politely asked to sign a waiver before getting behind the wheel of a standard Ford Fiesta worth a whopping $14,000!
Evidently, risk is assumed differently from one side of the Atlantic to the other.
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| Peugeot 307 World Rally car. (Photo: DPPI) |
Everyone knows that Europe is the land of the road race while the U.S. is oval country. That’s common knowledge.
I’m talking about the ideological cleft. Here, for fear of lawsuits, we journalists have to sign waivers that are supposed to protect us and prevent legal recourse in case of an accident.
When I took Team O’Neal’s rally driving course in New Hampshire last month, I had to sign such a waiver.
When I drove a few laps on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve as a passenger in one of the Richard Petty Driving Experience schooling stock cars, I had to sign a waiver.
In Europe? Zip. Nada. Niet.
I got the chance to drive some fairly exotic and fantastically expensive race cars without scrawling my name on even one legal document! It was all just a matter of mutual trust.
I drove a real F1 car, a 1994 ex-Érik Comas Larousse Ford V8, at Magny-Cours in 1999, and I didn’t sign a thing. How much is an F1 car worth, anyways?
 |
| Formula Renault V6 at Barcelona, Spain. (Photo: Archives Rene Fagnan/Auto123.com) |
A short time later, I got behind the wheel of an authentic World Rally Championship factory Peugeot 307 WRC, once again without putting my stamp on a single piece of paper. They had complete trust in me, even though I was about to take off in a $750,000 machine.
On the Barcelona track in Spain, I drove a Formula Renault V6 during one of the official practice heats of the series. Despite racing against the rising stars of the series, I – you guessed it – didn’t see hide nor hair of a waiver. And that car was worth at least $250,000.
Over the years, I got the chance to test some forty or so race cars without putting my John Hancock on any official document. And I didn’t damage a single one.
So you’ll understand my considerable surprise when I was politely asked to sign a waiver before getting behind the wheel of a standard Ford Fiesta worth a whopping $14,000!
Evidently, risk is assumed differently from one side of the Atlantic to the other.
 |
| Arrows A18 Formula 1 car at Valencia, Spain (Photo: Michelin) |