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Simona de Silvestro aboard the Sauber C31 at
Fiorano. (Image source: joesaward.wordpress.com)
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So as Y'all are recoverin' from another 4th 'O
July, what better time to put out this story 'bout things that never go dark in
thy night, right!
Yet, let me say first of all, that I like
Simona de Silvestro, who I've taken to
calling "Symona-Symona" over the years since she reportedly tired of
being called the "Swiss Miss," although the term "Swiss
Missile" has also been used, as Simona has always publicly displayed the
most positive outlook towards her involvement in motor racing, most notably when soldiering thru a
lurid season with the woefully underpowered Luddi' lump, nee the Lotus badged
engine produced by Judd, who were forced to work with their hands tied behind
their back whilst ex-Lotus CEO Dany Bahar pontificated over the coming glories
of Lotus to which No Fenders 'Offical Photographer 'CARPETS nicknamed the
Slotuses, I believe...
This just so happened to be the year I met
her very briefly at Mother Speedway (Indianapolis) where she was en route to
the Last Row party - but very kindly took the time to greet me and sign her
autograph for me before departing...
De Silvestro also showed great poise after a
very unnerving wreck at Indianapolis
where she was trapped upside down in a burning racecar, well at least
she received burns to her hands where she wore her famous "Minnie Mouse"
gloves to protect her burns at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was her
second fire she was involved in.
Thus it's great news that she's just
successfully completed the first two-day test outing aboard a 2012 Sauber
C31-Ferrari at la Scuderia's (Ferrari) Fiorano test track in Maranello, (this
past April) where she tallied a very respectable 180-laps over the two days of
running, which according to Grizzled Journo' Joe Saward, the 540-kilometers would
have given her enough mileage to qualify for her FIA Superlicense if she'd been
driving a current-spec F1 car - while Joe notes the special livery denoting
"Clean Air" and Hybrids on her racecar.
Yet my beef with this story is the potential
overlooking of who Simona's backers are, having first commented towards her unnerving
title sponsor 'Wayback in 2011;
As its strange to Mwah that I cannot find
anythingy upon Imran
Safiulla, other than he's a wealthy Indian
industrialist who comes from wealthy parents, finding it somewhat odd that he's
completely skirted the A-L-L knowing internetz, minus the occasional mention
over his past ties as co-owner of KV Racing Technology along with being De
Silvestro's manager and Money-Man...
Thus as I've spouted off before, I'm not a
fan of the subliminal advertising campaign that Safiulla was trying to do with his Nuclear
"CLEAN AIR" Car sponsorship in Indy Cars, and as such was very quick
to point out to one respected journalist who Simona's sponsors were upon her
now just "CLEAN AIR" and Hybrids Sauber racecar...
As I found it interesting how the word
Nuclear had been dropped from the equation, since after all, ironically
Switzerland, the very country that Sauber's based in has decided to rid itself
of its five nuclear reactors by 2019! With its Federal Authorities making the
decision in 2011 after Fukushima, as ironically Switzerland has the oldest
commercial reactor in the world - with another being of the same design as Fukushima's...
Yet said response
to my comment was, if I recall correctly, that nuclear power is the cleanest
form of energy provided NO accidents occur; WTF? As let's ask the citizens of
Japan what they think upon the recent matter...
And ignoring the current
"Elephant-in-the-Room;" Can Y'all say Fukushima? Which is rumoured to
be a 40-year clean-up project in the making! While skipping the whole Chernobyl
debate, nevertheless, not much is being said about the lingering effects nearly
three decades later as workers attempt covering it with the world's largest
concrete dome to protect against
radiation leakage...
Now I totally understand that if Mr. Safiulla is willing
to pay $3m to run a two-year old F1 chassis for De Silvestro to go testing all
over Europe and Abroad, then he certainly should be able to paint the Sauber
C31 any colour he likes along with putting whatever 'Deckles (decals) upon it,
as I've read that the racecar in Questione has small "Associate"
style Entergy and Areva stickers upon it,
Since those names happen to be two humungous
Nuclear Power industry giants, as Entergy is the United States second largest
Nuclear power generator while providing electricity and natural gas to portions
of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas with gross revenues of nearly
$11.5b, as in billion with approximately 15,000 employees.
Areva is a French "Multi-National"
company with 45,000 employees grossing over $9b and is the world's largest
nuclear company, with its core business's being in Nuclear energy, Uranium, Electricity
and Renewable power.
As although Areva is involved in the
"Buzzword" field of Renewable Energy," i.e.; Solar power, Wind
farms and even Biomass production, all of which is good, I'd ARSE-sume this is
simply sound business practice of diversifying their core businesses, as let's
not forget one of their subsidiaries is Areva Mines - which involves being the
world's second largest producer of uranium, a key component of nuclear power plants - while I was unaware
that Saskatchewan of Oh 'KanaDuh! was the second largest uranium mine on the
globe!
Thus, as I've scribbled before, in my massive
four part harmony titled Lamenting Motorsports, in which Part 1 looked at the
Bahrain debacle and Part 2 dealt with Gay Athletes. In Part's 3 & 4 I
attempted looking at the Nuclear option and what I like to call the never
ending GREENWA$HING of Alternative technology...
As although it may appear that I'm firmly ensconced
as a "Petrol-head," I'm not against the new forms of technology, as
certainly achieving 30% better fuel efficiency from this year's Formula 1
Hybrid PU's (Power Units) is very impressive and should be applauded, as I even
like the noise they make. It's just that I find it 'Uber disturbing that it
appears that Mr. Safiulla is trying to avoid discussing his
true intentions, i.e.; promoting Nuclear Power Plants while nobody wishes to
discuss how the power for electric racing cars is being produced, the
devastation of natural resources for batteries or how there disposed of...
Hence, my never ending conundrum continues,
as I'd definitely like to see "Symona-Symona" succeed, having been a
fan of hers for many years now, and think it would be AWESOME to have a female in Formula 1 racing,
it's just that I don't like the Machiavellian machinations being carried out in
regards to whom her ultimate sponsors are and the message they're trying to
pedal...