Melbourne crime the pits as Hamilton carjacked in Knight ‘toon

The Formula One circus has hit Australia with the opening round in Melbourne this week at the Albert Park racetrack.

Circus is the right word, with not only the world’s most sophisticated racing cars and best drivers arriving but in their slipstream*, media from around the world, A-list celebrities and too many B-list ones, as well as that breed of individuals we call “influencers”, all hoping for a moment in the Grand Prix spotlight.

The local focus will of course be on the two young Aussie drivers, Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan, hoping one of them can come up with a win.

I’m sure they’re feeling no pressure at all.

I felt I should draw a cartoon on the Melbourne Grand Prix, so I started with a doodle of the world’s most famous Formula One team, Scuderia Ferrari. The red machines from Maranello, Italy, are unmistakeable in their rosso* coloured livery* and are the very essence of Formula One.

What makes them even more engaging this season is that seven time World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is driving for them and he makes his debut for the historic Italian team at Albert Park. I’ve got my popcorn ready for this one!

In my opinion, one of the most exciting aspects of F1 is the pit stop.

Drivers scream into the pits, the pit crew swarms all over the car with jacks, pneumatic* drills and wheels, and in four seconds flat, the driver departs with a fresh set of rubber and any other adjustment that needed making. Try getting that kind of service at your local tyre dealer!

Indeed, races are won and lost in the pits, where precious seconds gained in a pit stop can put a driver ahead of an opponent. You have all probably seen the footage on the Netflix series Drive to Survive. They have a camera positioned above the pits. It looks down on an F1 car during a pit stop with the team working on the car.

I thought I could use an image like that for an idea I had about what a “Melbourne” Grand Prix might look like.

Unfortunately Melbourne has had an epidemic* of youth crime over the past two years, with gangs conducting home invasions, aggravated* burglaries, carjackings* and thefts of prestige vehicles from driveways and home garages.

This week the Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan toughened up the bail* laws because too many teenagers were reoffending while on bail and showing no fear of the law as it stands. Law and order had become a major issue in the state.

With that in mind, I thought my cartoon should touch on the topic. I drew Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari coming to a halt in the pits. As we look down, the twist in the cartoon is it is not the team’s pit crew that is swarming all over the car but a collection of wayward Melbourne youths in their customary black hoodies. And they are not changing the wheels, but removing them as well as other parts of the car and running away with them!

The only similarity with an actual pit stop is that they performed the theft in four seconds. An incredulous* Lewis Hamilton looks up at the viewer.

Even though this is a cartoon with exaggeration a key element, in Melbourne we have seen brazen* thefts of cars, parts of cars, phones and other personal items from homes at night while families slept. The cartoon seeks to draw a parallel with a seemingly outrageous scenario on the racetrack with what is going on in society.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• slipstream: a current of air behind a quickly moving object, like a race car or plane
• rosso: the Italian word for “red”
• livery: the identifying design on a car, like a symbol, logo or insignia
• pneumatic: operated by air pressure
• epidemic: rapid spread of something bad that affects many people
• aggravated burglary: illegally entering a person’s house to steal something, possibly with a weapon and with other people
• carjacking: crime of stealing a car while someone is in it by using physical force or threats
• bail: sum of money paid to secure the temporary release of someone arrested for a crime
• incredulous: disbelieving, not able or wanting to believe something
• brazen: bold, blatant, without any embarrassment

EXTRA READING

Grand Prix crowns new F1 king

Youngest Aussie to win Grand Prix

F1 has new Aussie kid on the grid

QUICK QUIZ

1. Who are the Australians driving at the Melbourne Grand Prix?
2. Which team is British driver Lewis Hamilton racing for Melbourne?
3. What did the Victorian Premier change this week?
4. Why did she introduce the change?
5. How many seconds do pit crews need to change tyres etc?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Values, identities and actions
Study today’s Mark Knight cartoon and answer the following questions about the work:

What values does this cartoon invite us to think about?

Who is this cartoon speaking about? And who is this work trying to speak to?

What actions might the viewpoint in the cartoon encourage?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
How can cartoonists like Mark Knight encourage or change people’s opinions on a controversial subject or topic?

Do you think his work needs approval before going to print? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.

Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.

(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)