Is Formula 1 overrated?
Many motorsport fans view Formula 1 to be the pinnacle of motorsport. But is it really? Is F1 the pinnacle in driver talent, circuit challenge and most importantly in providing the best show to the millions of people who watch it around the world?
Driving talent
Are the 20 men on the grid truly the best drivers in the world? I would suggest otherwise, with drivers such as Lance Stroll, Brendon Hartley, Stoffel Vandoorne and Marcus Ericsson certainly wouldn’t hold anything against some of motorsport's finest athletes from other series.
Outside the so-called golden circle of motorsport, there are many drivers who could take on F1’s finest and come out on top on their day. For instance, 5-times IndyCar Champion Scott Dixon is a driver which many have spoken about for a drive in F1 in the past, but due lack of funding and the resistance by the teams to take anyone from the wrong side of the pond, the Kiwi is unlikely ever to test never mind drive in F1.
Kimi Raikkonen may have dabbled in the world of rallying in 2010–11, but a true motorsport great has competed in gravel and mud for the best part of a decade. As current M-Sport Ford driver and 5-times WRC Champion Sebastien Ogier has proved himself in whatever circle he has taken to. Ogier will make his DTM debut in a Mercedes as a guest driver at the next round at the Red Bull Ring, which will be interesting to see how he adapts to circuit racing for the very first time.
Not only is the talent not deep enough, but the characters of the sport are diminishing fast; Mark Webber left at the end of 2013, Jenson Button at the end of 2016, Fernando Alonso will leave the sport at the end of this year. This will just leave the Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen as the last of the old breed, making F1 a sport which is too sterile and could soon be a sport without a box-office character to sell.
More still, young, fiery and exciting talented racers are not being given a fair crack by those who have supported them: take the Esteban Ocon and Mercedes dynamic, why hasn’t the Frenchman been put in a Silver Arrow for 2019? Because it will ruin the team dynamic and could make Hamilton feel uncomfortable with a young charger alongside, but isn’t that what F1 should be about?
This is why we should make it a true drivers championship, with each driver on the grid having to drive in each car across the course of the season, making it in everyone’s best interests to close the gap in competition. More on this later…
Circuits
Of the current 2018 calendar, there are four tracks which are not worthy of their place on the grid: Albert Park, Marina Bay, Sochi Autodrom and Yas Marina.
Albert Park in recent years has only produced a good race when it has rained, the last of which being the 2010 race which was won by Jenson Button in slippy conditions. The 2013 event wasn’t bad either due to high-degradation tyres which forced drivers into either a two or three-stop race.
But in the v6-hybrid era with durable tyres and a pronounced dirty air effect, it has been a race to forget more a less. So in a country where motorsport has so much history and heritage, why do we go racing at such a poor venue?
Marina Bay and Yas Marina have a similar issue; overtaking is minimal and with tyre wear minimal these days, the v6-era races have been a bit crap thus far. The issue is that they have the entertainment value of a Monaco GP, but the comparison is unjustified as these events don’t have the prestige of the principality, thus making their value worthless.
Sochi Autodrom has only run since 2014, but the racetrack which uses the outskirts of the Olympic Park has to be one of the worst circuits I have ever seen: one-line corners followed by a mickey-mouse sections and a longish front straight. I know Russia is a good market for the sport, but is the money it draws in important enough to sacrifice any sort of racing spectacle?
Instead of these four mediocre venues; why not have Mount Panaroma (Bathurst) as the season-opening Australian GP as well as races at Imola, Buenos Aires and finishing the year at Daytona or Road America as a symbol of the show F1 can provide, talking of which lets move on…
The show
Oh dear. When you realize that most of the spectacle of Grand Prix racing comes from tyre wear and management it is uncomparable to the lights-to-flag racing you get in the likes of Formula E, IndyCar and the BTCC. More still, due to the current level of the top three teams compared to the rest, only three teams can win at present unless something remarkable occurs. Is that really the pinnacle of motorsport?
For instance, in the BTCC Sam Tordoff became the 15th different winner of the year at Silverstone, where in F1 there have been just four winners this year: Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
And on a regular basis, it seems to be a battle between the German and the Brit for race victory. If they made parts cheaper and made less scope for development, then if six teams could win, we would all win in the end as that’s what we want: a show with variety.
Hence, we are in fifth year of the v6 hybrid era, but the story is not dissimilar as it was in year one: Mercedes looking on course for another championship double. Why would anyone want to enter this predictable name game?
Even in Formula E, where there were only 12-races last season, there were five different winners: Sam Bird, Felix Rosenqvist, Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Abt, Lucas Di Grassi representing four teams. And at least six teams had the potential to win last year, with both Renault e.dams and Jaguar within striking distance of victory, before ultimately faltering. That is what motorsport about; close, fast, unpredictable racing- not follow the leader exchanges which grow tiresome very quickly.
I understand that changes are being made to F1 to address some of the issues raised; lack of competition, driver quality and poor circuits. But with Formula E, IndyCar, WRC and WEC all providing that same level of competition in equal measure, is the so-called pinnacle of motorsport overrated?
