Who's Cheering Who?

By James Snodgrass for CNN

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Supporting a baseball or soccer team might be a matter of national pride or geographical prejudice, but such parochial concerns aren't part of Formula 1's global agenda.

Drivers representing 11 nations, compete in races through 17 countries, across five continents for teams that are more international than JFK airport.

Take four teams, more or less at random, and you'll get the gist:

Spyker: nominally Dutch, the team was bought from Russian backers who had, in turn, purchased it from the Irish entrepreneur, Eddie Jordan. The team's headline sponsor is from the United Arab Emirates and its drivers are Dutch and German. It is based in Silverstone, UK but has its engines supplied by Ferrari in Italy and gets its fuel from the Anglo-Dutch Shell.

Williams: based in Oxfordshire, UK, the team's headline sponsor is the American communications giant, AT&T. It uses fuel from Brazil and an engine from the Japanese Toyota (whose F1 HQ is in Germany). It has a distinctly Teutonic driver line up with the German Nico Rosberg (son of the Finnish champion, Keke Rosberg) and the Austrian Alexander Wurz.

Renault: based in Oxfordshire, UK, the team is owned by the French automobile manufacturer of the same name. The team principal is the Italian Flavio Briatore and it was formerly named after the Italian clothing retailer, Benetton. It uses French fuel, has a Dutch bank as its headline sponsor and has Italian and Finnish drivers.

Toro Rosso: based in Faenza, Italy, the team is owned by an Austrian soft drink firm that distributes a product that originated in Thailand. Its drivers are from Italy and the USA, and it sucks Anglo-Dutch fuel through its Italian engine.

In the last season we got used to hearing the Spanish national anthem to celebrate the victory of Fernando Alonso and then the French national anthem to celebrate the victory of his team (the French-owned but British-based Renault).

At last year's Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso romped home to victory in a blaze of fluttering blue flags. But this year the home crowd will be cheering on their hero with the silver banners of the British-based, German-funded McLaren Mercedes. Or Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, as we're supposed to call them (thanks to sponsorship from the British mobile phone concern who have jumped ship from the Italian Ferrari team).

To the casual observer, all that matters is the race at the front of the field: the battle of supremacy between the Ferraris, McLarens and Renaults. But a spectator in a corporate box in Shanghai may be more concerned whether the British-based, Dutch-owned Spyker team doesn't disgrace itself too badly at the rear end of the pack, because of the prominent sponsorship of a Chinese real estate concern.

That's not to say that national pride is null and void in F1. Countries like Germany, Brazil and Finland, who have consistently produced championship contenders, have always had heroes whom they could cheer. And cheer they do, much to the annoyance of F1 fans without local heroes. Shed a tear for the eight countries hosting Grands Prix this year don't have anybody on the field they can call their own.

Then there's the notion of constructor loyalty. The rabid Italian fans of Ferrari, the 'Tifosi', were happy to claim the German, Michael Schumacher, as one of their own after his string of successes for the Italian constructor. But in Britain the F1 fans (or 'Toffosi' as they're never known) feel snubbed when a Finnish driver romps home in a British car, as happened so often when Hakkinen raced for McLaren.

The labyrinthine pattern of pride and prejudice in F1 runs deeper than in any other sport. Will Hamilton's Grenadian heritage win a new army of F1 fans in the West Indies? Will the people of Malaysia cheer on the German and Polish drivers of the Swiss / German BMW Saubers as they slurp Malaysian Petronas fuel?

In F1 almost anyone has some reason to root for almost any team. And root they will.

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