Monday, June 20, 2005

The Death of F1

Sunday’s disgrace at Indianapolis marked the end of F1 as we know it. The Max and Bernie show will last another year or two before the lights go out for good but rest assured the end is inevitable now. In its place will rise Grand Prix Racing (formerly known as GPWC).

Toyota, Renault, BMW, Mercedes and others will take their multi-hundred million dollar budgets and build their own sandbox. Bernie and Max will then have a new F1, likely renamed for their sole remaining team, Ferrari.

It serves them right. Other bloggers have asked if F1 is a sport or a spectacle. I answer that sport is spherical. What of Monaco - sport or spectacle? We saw one good pass the entire race (Heidfeld not Webber), the safety conditions are atrocious, yet it is the most popular GP of all.

If F1 were a only sport, the rules would be clear to all and the application of those rules uniform. Witness the rule about tire wear as but one example. Instead we have a loose set of guidelines that leave lots of room for creative interpretation – which is then capriciously rules on by Charlie Whiting. Witness BAR’s brake distribution system last season as an example of that. Instead we have something that is somewhere between Figure Skating and Pro Wrestling.

That Ferrari declined to join each and every other team in supporting running with a chicane – even with all Michelin teams willingly forfeiting all championship points is a shame. That the FOM/FIA bozos would not let them run is tragedy.

Welcome to the world of the Grand Prix Racing.

Oh yeah, like the IMSA/SCCA and ChampCar/IRL splits the biggest losers will be the fans.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

How would a "race" with a chicane where all Michelin teams forfeit points be a race?

I was at the USGP, and quite upset at what happened ... but would have been equally upset if they had run a sham race where 6 cars were trying and the other 14 didn't give a hoot.

What was the right answer? All the Michelin teams had tires they couldn't race, and the rules prohibited other tires. What's the way out of the catch-22?

I'm not sure there was one, but I'm glad of two things, and unhappy at one other:

Happy:
1) The IMS PA announcers (who I hate 99% of the time) made very sure to let fans know that IMS had nothing to do with what happened, therefore there's no sense in damaging the speedway.

2) The Indiana State Police were a very, very clear presence at the end of the race. I didn't see the riot gear, but I'm sure it was close by.

Unhappy:
3) The IMS never stopped selling alcohol - it was still available on the way out.

Anonymous said...

It was a farce, plain and simple. Here's a compromise that could have worked:

There's a rule that allows a tire change in an emergency. What's a more clear emergency than a dangerous tire? The Michelin teams should have been permitted to do a tire-change-only pit stop, and used the new tires that Michelin had airfreighted to the speedway.

Fuck Michelin.

Fuck Bernie.

Fuck the FIA.

Fuck Ferrari.

Fuck the mentally impaired yahoos who threw shit on the race course.

And just on general principle: Fuck Tony George.

After the farce of Michael gaming the finish of one USGP (to record the closest finish), the debacle of the painfully slow emergency response after Ralph's horrendous crash last year, and the farce of this race, I don't see any point in racing again at Indy, regardless of the outcome of the sanctioning body squabble. It's cursed.

Oh, and fuck Bernie.

Anonymous said...

The problem with changing to the other tires that Michelin brought (flew over last minute) was that on Sunday they decided that even those tires were not safe.

Anonymous said...

What a clusterfuck. I cleansed my palette by watching a Speed Touring car race. It was cool. They had a whole bunch of cars, rules to foster competition, people making passes n' stuff like that.

Just give me BTCC during the actual season, and that will be fine for me.

Maybe a "major league" open wheel series worth watching will emerge sometime this century.

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