Which all seems fair enough, for this column concerns itself with Formula One's abandonment, back in 1996, of its old car-numbering system, just one symptom of its obsession with orderliness and homogeneity.
At a stroke, it denied fans the chance to identify with a team or driver's number in the same way as they have with Dale Earnhardt (No.3) in NASCAR, Peter Brock (05) in Australia, AJ Foyt (14) in Indycars, and even Nigel Mansell's famous Red 5 in F1.