SPORTS should, first and foremost, be about the athletes. That is the age-old mantra upheld in sports journalism.
Indeed, coaches, officials and team owners are secondary to the sportsmen who shed blood, sweat and tears in the sporting arena.
Try telling that to the eight Formula One teams, who have declared war against the International Automobile Federation in announcing their decision to split and set up a new motor-racing tournament next year.
Meanwhile, the drivers are haplessly silent on this crisis, having little influence on their teams' decisions.
And this sums up how F1 has lost its way as a popular sport, and is quickly losing relevance this year.
It has ceased to be, first and foremost, about its athletes.
It is a far cry from last season's thrilling title battle between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, as pit strategies and car modifications pale in significance to the duo's competitive fire.
This year? There is already a runaway leader (Jenson Button) whose car has overshadowed all the competition, thus robbing the races of all excitement. And, now, F1 teams are embroiled in a tiresome squabble over a budget cap.
They fail to realise that motor- racing fans, while loyal to a fault, are smart enough to know that once the drivers fail to excite, it's time to switch to another sport.
Now that is something which Singapore, saddled with a five-year F1 Grand Prix contract, would not relish.
And in a sport that has recently uncovered great personalities like Hamilton, Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, it would be a terrible waste.
