10/04/2016
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
Time was accepting the way things were was more or less how most folk ambled along. Science or an exceptionally gifted and visionary leader would occasionally move the game forward, but mostly life meandered on like a wide slow river in Autumn sunlight.
Then we industrialised, modernised, and got everything to happen all way too fast. The million faces and channels of the Internet allow folk to share issues, demands, and intolerable injustices (poor service at inner city juice bars and such) within moments of the perceived need, slight or desire occurring.
To take it all stoically and chase communal good and inner enlightenment, or to demand your own community on your terms, your way, and hang the rest! Which one is right? Do we all make a journey between the two camps a dozen times a lifetime, month, day?
So to Fernando Alonso. A man we have witnessed making this journey between the two camps on several very public occasions.
I remember the emotion he showed on winning his first World Championship with Renault. A man who had clearly given his all. The talent that had in very human form stopped the terminator winning machine that was Michael Schumacher. Vulnerable, proud, capable, private and an open book, all at the same time, as emotions chased themselves across the Spaniard’s face and around the tired muscles of his body.
Then it started. From proud young champion to a man with some inner words he had to let out. Many laid claim to what he had just achieved, but it had been done alone. The few who had supported knew who they were, he did not need to say the names. He needed to say many who might think they had played a part, were hangers-on who had only got in the way. It was a curious emotional explosion that seemed out of character for one just graced with a World Championship in trade for thousands of hours of training, focus, and determination. Yes at the end of the day Alonso had to walk his path, but many hundreds of engineers and team members had walked along with him to make it possible. What was going on here?
From this point it only increased. The car was poor. The strategy was poor. The pit stop was poor. The engine was poor. The choice of team mate not just poor, it was intolerable. The driving talent and the amazing focus never faltered but sadly it appeared that the moans and demands never ceased either. Quite the pesk our self-obsessed young man.
The blow-up and horrid divorce from McLaren. The hard yards at Ferrari. The respectful departure from Maranello and the surprise remarriage to McLaren. And the poor behaviour seemed to have ebbed away like a midnight tide on a silent night. Really? What's happened here?
I think Japan happened and here's why.
For the start of the 2012 season Fernando experienced the pain required to gain a samurai tattooed on his back. It was a mark of the path he had followed in learning about Japanese traditions, and the warrior religions of ancient Japan, including Bushido, literally "The way of the Warrior". But in particular it was noted Fernando had read and been strongly appreciative of "The Book of Five Rings" (Go Rin no Sho) about Kenjutsu and the martial arts of war in general. While I would believe that Fernando has probably also read Sun Tzu's legendary Art of War, it was this book by Miyamoto Musashi written around 1645 that really caught his attention.
The five rings relate to five very simple ideas that address very profound concepts. They are book one - Earth, book two - Water, book three - Fire, book four - Wind, and finally book five - Void.
Each book addresses a different aspect of battle and self-mastery. So powerful is the message that you can even buy a manga comic style of the teachings, which in a moment of well-intentioned enlightenment I purchased for one of my sons who has been quoting it back to me ever since on the occasions when I try and offer guidance on why maths homework builds the man. Anyway, back to Fernando.
The Earth book builds a picture around the fighting arts, leadership and the need for basic training. The second book, water, discusses some techniques and talks about "Two heavens, one style", but this can also be taken as "Two swords, one entity", the meaning being one must have more than one technique to win. The third book, fire, refers to the heat of battle and how to adapt to and master it. Book four, wind, was more of a contemporary discussion of the failings of other sword schools, I guess in modern times we'd see this as the marketing segment of the presentation, promoting one's own ideas on a topic over those of others, or pointing out the failings in others thinking (my belief is this is the only chapter Christen Horner read after being informed Fernando liked the book, and he then used it all last season in his 'battle' with Renault... Just a thought).
The fifth and final book is more Zen focused on the right mindset and approach to battle. A state of calm I'd argue has settled over Fernando these last few years.
So these grand teachings matter to Fernando for reasons I do not know. The martial arts have fascinated me for years, as has the study of the European loss of the martial arts. Broadsword, long bow, mace, war horsemanship, all were the martial traditions of Europe, but they seem to have been buried along with the Holy Grail and either totally forgotten or deemed not politically correct. Not unlike Bernie's desire to bury the European F1 tradition, but again I digress. No matter, the Japanese have a warrior tradition the world knows in light detail, and a few study in great detail. One of these scholars apparently being Fernando.
If we assume he has taken these studies to heart, what would it teach a young hot blood like Fernando? Book one would give him a strategic view of the war, not to get lost in the battle. Book two would teach him to adapt. Book three would tell him to focus his energy in battle and let the enemy burn themselves out in meaningless frustration. Book four would not directly teach anything, unless katanas are allowed on the starting grid any time soon. What it teaches indirectly is to learn from the schools of others, and trust in your own school. Have faith in what you do right, learn from and adopt what others do better. This message of self-reflection and learning being repeated throughout the work. Finally book five teaches that once you have a plan you have faith in you need to relax... And follow the plan. If you are right... Victory will follow.
So armed with his Eastern wisdom Fernando has strategically assessed his career and his options. He has a love of Ferrari that we all have, Manor supporters or not. Ferrari is mythic and to deny this is to deny a key chapter in the legend of Formula One, and indeed twentieth century and motoring history. Yet it was not working. Do not under estimate how much Fernando wanted that to work. He missed three world titles in a not top of the class car by a handful of points. He so wanted that title with Ferrari.
Then something snapped. A quiet moment reflecting above a pool of tranquillity in Bali. A moment under a waterfall in Thailand. A spirited drive around the base of Mount Fuji in a suitable V8 chariot. I do not know when the moment of enlightenment came, but come it did. My path must change and change now. A deep spiritual part of Fernando told him. Act. It was a simple message from the deeper soul to the tactical mind. So he did.
And with his love of the lore of Japan. His respect for the thinking of the Zen masters, and the stunning focus and winning ethic of the warrior elite, the samurai, what more natural drive then to link directly with a Japanese firm? Hello Honda.
His hero Ayrton won, and won big, with McLaren. Ayrton was highly respected in Japan, and had some of his most contentious clashes with Alain Prost in Japan. What was not to like about a switch from Ferrari, which Michael aside, has a grand tradition of loss going back to the 1970s (just ask Jean and Gerhard...) to McLaren and Honda? McLaren know a thing or two about winning, and as Jenson can confirm, Honda can build a world beating platform, he has a World Championship to prove it. Not forgetting Honda has been in and out of Formula One since 1964... A few years of passion and focus there.
Fernando re-read his copy of the book of five rings, and was left in no doubt change was required. He reflected. He asked himself. He reflected some more. He talked with trusted advisors. He made his decision. He knew partial commitment was death in any battle. Even the American Generals will confirm a good plan executed violently is better than a perfect plan executed too late. So Fernando left his dream home of Ferrari and went to McLaren. I can only imagine how that first conversation with Ron began.
So we have today. McLaren had a horrid 2015 that would have taken all of Fernando's Samurai cool and long term Zen philosophy to accept. A cynic might ponder on the possibilities of a warrior too focussed taking a risk too far. Are Fernando's reactions now, while still super-human, a touch slower? Leading to his shocking Melbourne crash, and his curious testing crash last year? We do not know. Are these signs of a warrior focussed on victory, a man pushing to the limits, or a man who does not realise his limits are a fraction lower than in his prime? No matter. Fernando and McLaren survived 2015, and so to 2016. The Samurai spirit is stronger than ever. The riposte to Johnny Herbert was a perfect example of the old wayward spirit being tamed by the new Zen warrior driver. Fernando has lost none of his fire. He has lost none of his passion. He has lost none of his drive.
The problem with Fernando is he knows now that winning is everything, and nothing. He has won two world championships. That's two more than 99.999% of the planet and 99.9% more than most of the people on the current gird. Adding a third, or a fourth, knowing how close he came in three recent championships. Does that really enhance him as a warrior? He knows his worth. He understands how good he is. And he knows the team around him know that too. And that matters to Fernando. To be understood and rightfully respected means more to him than anything. For some curious reason Ron Denis and Honda 'get' Fernando. The new Ferrari do not. As Fernando bid them farewell many personnel changed. Ferrari is passion packaged as dispassionately as the Mercedes machine, or as fast flowing as a Rio Tinto ore belt. They are trying to bottle and sell the myth. McLaren and Honda are different, they are still warriors of the old school. Trouble is, just like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, McLaren and Honda could be about to die an honourable (championship) death in a hail of new age bullets.
And the problem with Fernando is he might well die an honoured (career) death with them... Or two katanas in hand, is he about to stage a come-back Miyamoto Musashi, and The Bride from Kill Bill, would both approve of most whole heartedly?
Me? Just like the greatest of Samurai I want to see Fernando win without even taking his sword from its scabbard. The man is worthy of more championships, the question is, will they be championships won by losing with honour, or championships won according to the FIA points system? The problem with Fernando is, a small part of his heart now knows losing with honour... Is still winning an honourable championship.
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here