If you want to read an amazing take down/appreciation of Formula 1 racing, hurry to the Internet Archive and read cycling journalist Kate Wagner’s piece. It was published on Road and Track over the weekend, then was pulled down 24 hours later, and now even her writer bio is gone from the site.
Why? Oh, maybe because of the subhead: “If you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1 race. The kind of money I saw will haunt me forever.”
Or maybe because of the opening sentence: “Most of us have the distinct pleasure of going throughout our lives bereft of the physical presence of those who rule over us.”
Or maybe because of whole paragraphs like this:
Ratcliffe, the INEOS CEO, is a known entity in cycling, about whom one says things usually reserved for supporting characters in James Bond novels. His net worth is reported to be just south of $20 billion. His pleasures, and sponsorships, are many: soccer, cycling, sailing, motorsport. […] In Courchevel, a common site for Tour de France stages, he built an INEOS ski center visible from the Gucci-branded ski lifts, and rumor had it that deep in the Alps he retreated to a secret mansion accessible only by helicopter. Even as I write this, he comes off too much like a guy I made up. Well, I didn’t.