It was an honest response if not a particularly advisable one given Formula One's newly-enlightened image.

"Look," Formula One's moustachioed chief executive Chase Carey told a gaggle of journalists this week while discussing the decision to dispense with grid girls, "we're going to maintain glamour. We're going to continue to have pretty girls at races. I think it's a part of life, and it's a part of what makes our sport special..."

Face palm. Bang goes the veneer of respectability. What was it that F1 press release last week said about F1's brand image and not wishing to be "at odds with societal norms"?

In fairness to Carey - who also admitted he would have kept grid girls had it been left up to him - he was at least expressing his honest opinion. And as an American whose employer Liberty Media has a stake in American professional sport, where cheerleading remains well entrenched, what other opinion was he going to have?