A New Hope

Yes. I just blatantly stole and re-used the title of a Star Wars movie as the title of this blog. There’s a reason for it though, so please bear with me.

We’ve made it to the month of December and everywhere you look you’ll find year reviews. Motorsport is no stranger to that practice, but this article won’t be a review. I’ve decided to leave the reviewing to the professional journalists. I’m not exactly a motorsport newbee and I’m sure I could say a thing or two about the goings-on of the past twelve months, but I know when other people are capable of doing a better job than me. (In case you’re interested in some of those better jobs: please visit autosport.com for a cool F1 driver review – subscription only – or Racing.gt for a pretty awesome GT driver review.) But most of all, I’ve decided against writing a review of 2016 because I’ve noticed that most of the reviews are a bit sad. It seems too many bad things happened this past year; too many people died, too often the world collectively had its hopes trashed, and nobody really wants to be reminded of it all.

The more I became aware of that, the more I began to think: “Why would I spend the last day of the year writing a text that looks back on a year that has made everybody sad? It’ll be far more fun to look ahead at a new year that hasn’t harmed anyone yet. A new year in which everyone still has a new hope of better days.” (See! I told you my Star Wars title thievery had a point!)

So instead of a top 10 of things/teams/drivers/races/etc. that left a mark on 2016, this 31st of December I’ll leave you with a list of 10 wishes I hope will come true in 2017. I present them in no particular order:

  1. I wish for someone to finally tell WRT that it’s really, really, REALLY necessary to start painting their cars in different colours. I’d like 2017 to be an I-can’t-tell-those-WRTs-apart-headache free year.
  2. I wish for less snow during the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring. The weather gods can dump a white load on the Ring at Christmas time, but not in the middle of May. Not even if it makes for really spectacular Youtube-videos.
  3. I wish for European Formula 3 to have a season in which there’s less talk about who is paying who to get extra support for their child and more focus on the actual racing.
  4. I wish for more rain during the 24 Hours of Spa. Only it can’t be constant rain. It must be showers, like the tiny surprise shower we had at this year’s edition, which shook up the whole order in the dying minutes of the race. (Oh, and of course those showers can only fall when I’m safely sheltered. I don’t want a soaking. Obviously.)
  5. I wish for Mick Schumacher to be given time and space to make a normal formula 3 debut, just like all the other rookies. He’s not his father; he’s his own person. We should accept him as such and allow him to develop his own skills at his own pace.
  6. I wish for Stéphane Ratel’s plans for GT3 and GT4 racing to unroll the way he wants them to. He dares to dream big and it would be so good for the GT sport if he can make his dreams come true.
  7. I wish for less handbag fights at Mercedes F1. Enough said, I think.
  8. I wish for DTM to climb out of its current slump. The fact that all three brands reduced their entries from eight to six cars can only be a bad sign. Whatever the problem is, I hope someone somewhere can get a grip on it.
  9. I wish for more people to at last realise how much fun the Audi TT Cup is and start watching it. (Similarly, I wish for more tv channels to finally start broadcasting it.)
  10. And last but not least, as always, I wish for everyone involved in motorsport to have a safe year and make it through the 2017 season without any injuries.

May it be a good year. And may the downforce be with us!

(Last Star Wars reference, I swear.)

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