Who says the epistolary narrative is dead? Hear at CE, we believe that it has energy and relevance, and our sports correspondent uses it to talk formula one… he doesn’t seem to be particularly impressed.
Dear Bernie,
I’ve been following F1 since the 1983 season, when I was a seven-year-old who didn’t entirely understand the whole thing, but who never missed a race. Even back then, I knew there was something special about the sport, that it represented the pinnacle of something glorious, with tradition and pageantry to match. I was hooked forever and have been scheduling my Sundays around the Grands Prix ever since.
Well, until now, at least. I very nearly gave Hungary a miss (and let’s be honest, I wouldn’t have missed much). I believe that people like me, not uninterested millennials, are driving the ratings decline for F1. It’s the core motorsports fans who are leaving.
And the reason is pretty simple – though the hybrid cars are interesting technically, the rules around everything else seem designed to destroy all the drama that F1 used to have. I see there’s now an initiative to fix radio rules, but I think that’s kind of like painting over the damage left by an atom bomb. I believe the real problem is a bunch of things that have accumulated over the years, and need to go… preferably immediately, possibly in 2017.
At the core of the problem lie the cost control rules. The ban on testing and engine development mean that a team that starts a new formula with an advantage keeps it – so Mercedes, with two uninspiring drivers (one whiny and one timid) has an unassailable advantage until the next complete package overhaul. So people, even hardcore fans, tune out.
We all understand that this is there to make the smaller teams more competitive – or at least allow them to survive. Well, hasn’t worked. Scrap it. In fact, think of how we used to have Dallaras qualifying third at Hungary, or Onyx’s on the podium. The situation has gotten significantly worse wince then, and we’re still losing teams left and right.
The second consequence of the cost control rules is that engines / gearboxes / etc. no longer break. This is because of silly limits on the number you can use in a year. I’d definitely watch with more interest if I knew that say Romain Grosjean’s car had been fitted with a hand grenade of a power plant that is giving 30% more power than usual, but is unlikely to last the whole race.
I remember some very strong BMW engines that led every race until they detonated… do you? That was exciting to watch.
Having every single car finish a GP is not anyone’s idea of entertainment, especially as the racing on the track is artificial and has to do with the tires. Let the teams risk it all for glory and if it breaks, then that is sufficient penalty in itself. Cars breaking makes for much more exciting races…
Also, bring back classifying engines. Senna on a hot lap is still the epitome of the perfect racer in the zone, but he’s been dead for 20 years. There’s only so many times the F1 channel can repeat his brilliance before everyone has seen it.
Cost-cutting, however, isn’t the only culprit. Other stuff which isn’t helping has accumulated over the years. Any single one of these might not be terrible, but together, they add up to YAWN:
Track limits… the fact that track limits don’t enforce themselves is stupid. If you go off the track, you should be prepared to have that limit enforce itself aggressively. Trees might be a bit extreme, but grass, gravel traps and armco are nice substitutes – see if you can find the last time a driver was killed in an F1 race after hitting one of these things (hint, it hasn’t happened for 20 years). That is why Indy, Monaco and Le Mans are still revered. You don’t need to enforce track limits there. Firing Mr. Tilke might help (although, in fairness, it’s not his fault – he has to do the best he can with the current nanny state situation).
There is no excuse for starting a wet race behind a safety car. Any F1 race director who pushes that should have his credentials revoked (again, as we live in a politically correct age, we can’t actually request the guillotine). If you feel a need for that kind of thing, there’s probably a rookie league somewhere that needs a steward to take care of the rich dilettantes making their first competitive drives.
There’s a mantra you should repeat: “Rain at Monaco is a blessing from the gods. I will never again allow it to be squandered the way it was in 2016”. Say this a thousand times. Make Charlie repeat it. Please.
This is actually the main reason people are leaving. It seems that when the weather cooperates to make the racing better, the powers-that-be are actively sabotaging this. It make it look like F1 HAS to be boring.
Tires… Make it so anyone on the planet with a vulcanization plant can produce F1 tires. Tire wars are interesting. Also, make it so everyone can use as many tires as they want, and of whichever type. F1 should be about the cars going as fast as they can under the current rules, not about which tires you’re on.
Leave it 100% up to the teams whether to change tires or refuel during a race. Just make sure refueling rigs are to code.
DRS is fun. Give full control of that to the driver, for use anywhere on the circuit. I might make an exception to this if Takumo Sato comes back, but other than that, go for it.
Other than that, the rules seem to be fine. The cars are interesting and don’t look anywhere near as bad as the ones from the late 90s. The power units may be complicated, but so were the first turbos, so were the first injection systems. Just make it so the engineers can work on stuff and improve it every single race. Also, permit alternative engine types for people who don’t want the hybrid hassle. Loosen the noose.
Fix it soon… there are too many other options now for a crappy product like the current F1 to survive. Hell, the WEC is the best it’s been since the 962s and, trust me, had you insisted on causing Baku and Le Mans to clash, my set would have been waiting for that big Rolex to strike the 24th hour.
We all want F1 to be unpredictable again without becoming a spec-racer series with artificial excitement injected (see current stupid tire rules for a good example of that).
Right now, the only thing keeping the series afloat is the fact that it’s the place where the holy red cars are entered by the factory.
Lose that and no amount of glorious history will save it.
Classically Educated 