“What fun is there in overtaking by accident? Suddenly you find yourself with a battery stronger than the car in front, and either you crash into it or you pass it. It’s an evasive maneuver.” These were the prescient words of Fernando Alonso before the Japanese Grand Prix. Prescient because only a few minutes later Oliver Bearman collided with the wall.
The situation in Formula 1 right now is untenable. While drivers like Max Verstappen or Fernando Alonso even threaten retirement, disheartened by the new rules, the FIA continues trying to keep in Formula 1 those who nobody needs or has asked to be there: the brands. There must be a choice: Max Verstappen or Audi and Honda.
Verstappen threatens to retire from Formula 1 if these rules persist
Formula 1 had a system that worked. Not a panacea, the old moderately electrified V6 engines at least offered a logical competition in which the driver still had a say, and where the differences between cars were small. But it decided to change everything for two names: Audi and Honda.
The two new manufacturers wanted to enter Formula 1, but by imposing a rule change to avoid starting so far behind. One cannot even imagine where Honda would be if their requests had not been heeded, but that is another story. As for Audi, it’s not like they are winning consecutive races, either.
The situation, in short, is clear. Nobody likes the new Formula 1. Audiences are plummeting dramatically, and drivers like Max Verstappen or Fernando Alonso already threaten to quit. They aren’t the only ones dissatisfied. In fact, everyone is unhappy except Mercedes, proud to win what will be the most-disrespected World Championship in history.
When a preelectoral Mohammed ben Sulayem suggested that he valued bringing back the V10s or at least the V8s, Honda first and Audi subsequently stepped in saying not to count on them. And perhaps that is the solution. Maybe Formula 1 has to ask itself whether it is normal to wreck an entire category so that brands that no one cares about are present.
And after all, trying today to make Formula 1 simultaneously a massive mass spectacle and a testing ground for the dull street tech is absurd. The public does not care whether Formula 1 runs with a team with a budget of 1,000 million or a shabby garage outfit. They do, however, appreciate the simplicity.
Formula 1 must make a decision this April: eject the drivers the public cheers for or eject the brands that no one cares about… but fill their pockets.
Images | Audi, Aston Martin
