Back in June, when Formula One’s long-time and very successful promoter Bernie Ecclestone was widely reported to have said “Formula One is crap”, air raid sirens should have been blaring. When is the last time a store owner told you his merchandise is crap?
I believe Formula One has been suffering a slow death for many years now–in loyalty at first and now in fanbase size. The symptoms have accumulated and the doctors are working frantically to save the dying fan base. Their specialties and talents are without question. They are masters of engineering, business and strategic thought. But the cure has continued to elude them despite their new rounds of regulatory therapy every year.
So what has gone so horribly wrong with F1? Let me tell you what I believe the diseases are and how they must be cured if F1 is to have a future.
The Show
I believe a big part of the reason F1 is slowly dying is because of the incessant focus on “The Show” that has pervaded F1 thinking since the mid-2000s.
The theory is that F1 is a “Show” and that “The Show” is based on
- The excitement of the racing on track,
- The glamour of the life off the track,
- The leading-edge technology and
- The marketing polish that brings it all together into a TV-saleable package.
The theory is that if they just make it a good enough “Show”, we’ll all line up to give every cent we have. Let’s take a look at the flaws of this theory and how changes for next year, and perhaps beyond, won’t change the fundamental identity crisis F1 faces.
The Artificial Race
Beginning in 2005 there were small ventures into gimmick-land and cost-savings land.
Both these fairy tale lands are very real places in the minds of F1’s operators. However, they are fairy tale lands because those watching from the outside deep-down know a gimmick when they see one and almost every long time fan has witnessed how nothing changes in F1 without a massive expenditure of money to circumvent the new restrictions.
Despite the realities the fans saw, F1 pressed ahead with their “Cheaper” (Actually, more expensive) V8 engines, gimmicky sporting changes and bans on anything that led to an advantage. In hindsight, all these changes did was create a prolonged period of artificial competition.
Then it got worse. Sensing what they thought was boredom amongst fans, a brilliant idea came to the powers of F1–make the racing more exciting and more relevant to green road cars! Get rid of all those boring lap after lap processions and replace them with “exciting passing maneuvers”. So in 2009 they introduced KERS—the Kinetic energy recovery system. A kind of half-envirogreen / half-performance shakeup concept.
It failed however. While KERS initially brought a few more passing maneuvers, it didn’t really have any impact on the satisfaction of the fans. Very soon everyone had equally capable KERS systems and the status quo was essentially back. The green piece of the puzzle was never visible or important to anyone watching a race unless it failed.
Next, in 2011 the DRS (Drag reduction system) was introduced. An adjustable drag rear wing was allowed so one car could catch another on a straight and pass them in “exciting passing maneuvers”. It failed to make the racing exciting to a genuine fan because, again, they understood the pass wasn’t made on merit but on a techno-gimmick.
Around this time and through to the introduction of the latest hybrid turbo V6 concept in 2014, Red Bull was kicking everyone’s arse because they had technical guru Adrian Newey designing the car. It’s no accident that wherever Newey goes, championships follow—Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. So it was doubly painful to watch the gimmicks exploited to make the whole concept of “The Show” seem even more pathetic.
Today, the gimmicks like DRS are compounded by the removal of the perception of power via the new almost-quiet hybrid V6 turbos and the convoluted powertrains that obfuscate the driver’s ability to control them. I believe many current drivers like Kimi Raikkonen were robbed (in the prime of their careers), of the opportunity to show their talent by poor human-computer-car interface and control implementations. (In other words the driver pushes the gas, but instead of a predictable, repeatable response, they get confidence sapping random bad behavior from the car.)
The end result of all these gimmicks is that the viewer perceives a “manipulation” instead of a “race”.
Equally damaging were the tire gimmicks started in 2005 (Okay, grooved tires introduced in 1998 were a sham too). Artificially limiting when tires could be used over-complicated the rules and screamed “Fake racing” as well. And then it got worse. The “High degradation tire” was introduced to increase the spectacle. Well-meaning perhaps, but it has only clouded the perception of driver talent and the merit of race outcomes. There were many complaints and failures from these tires because they did not perform with repeatability–something you generally get when striving for maximum performance instead of cliff-diving grip levels.
The end result of all these gimmicks is that the viewer perceives a “manipulation” instead of a “race”.
The Glamour
I think about the only thing F1 hasn’t screwed up is the good looks of the women who wander about the paddock and pits. Reason is of course that the FIA can’t regulate it and Bernie Ecclestone would never change that.
The fact that F1 became a big business coincided with the sanitizing of almost every aspect of corporate branding—in and out of racing. The PC (Politically Correct) world took over, and the marketing of spit-and-polish personalities, controversy-free lifestyles, and faceless racing drivers became commonplace. I mean, when was the last time you saw any brand associated with someone of controversy?
Of course, despite the PC police attempting to keep everyone in jackboot lock-step, drivers and others in F1 do periodically crack and display the humanity we’ve missed in F1 for so long.
Leading Edge Technology
Probably the biggest fallacy is that F1 should be about advancing technology. Why is this a misleading notion? Up to about 20 years ago there was some truth to the concept that technology development on an F1 car made sense.
Road cars were employing technologies like ABS and traction control as a result of race car development and extensive testing.
Today however, hybrid technology is being fitted to a race car after it was put in a road car. The development path is 180 degrees in the opposite direction because long ago it was clear that road car technologies like ABS and traction control overshadowed the driver’s ability to demonstrate their full talents.
Most automakers can develop road car technology better outside of F1, especially when testing is so limited these days.
For automakers, the hybrid tech these days is only for marketing as it has been largely proven that road car development bears little resemblance to racing. Most automakers can develop road car technology better outside of F1, especially when testing is so limited these days.
The best evidence of this is the revolt about the fierceness of the engine sounds being replaced by the “Vacuum cleaner” sound. When Sebastien Vettel said the cars “Sound sh*t”, he spoke the truth—technology is not what makes F1 appealing to the racing fan.
Marketing Polish
Not so many years ago, the podiums in F1 were all unique. Just like the race tracks. At some point, the decision was made to make F1’s podium ceremony into a standardized piece of crap. The same back-drop and the same canned music. The interviews are now held on the podium and the questions asked often seem so simplistic or canned as to garner answers you’d hear at a Miss America pageant. “I just want to thank the team who did a great job…blah blah blah blah”. The former interviews in a press room with hard questions seem to be out of place with the current controlled format.
The Real Reasons For the Fall of F1
So are these the reasons that F1 is as bad as it is? Yes, but there is a great deal more to consider. The artificiality of F1 mentioned above is really more of an outward symptom of it’s stakeholder’s attempts to please everyone: Fans, shareholders, the general public, teams, and the sanctioning body.
However, the real problems F1 faces are at its core, below the surface…