Is Formula 1 rotten to its very core?

 
Adrian Musolino Columnist

By , 21 Sep 2009 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert

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Renault Formula 1 Grand Prix

Renault Formula 1 Grand Prix

They say Formula 1 is a sport between 2pm and 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, the rest of the time it’s just business. The race-fixing saga involving the Renault team has simply confirmed that even the racing isn’t sacred and has been corrupted.

The ins and outs of the events that unfolded last season in Singapore have been well discussed, but what of the impact on Formula 1 in a year that has taken the sport’s ability to generate controversy to a new high.

Many feel it is simply confirmation of the extent that the culture of the sport has been corrupted by greed.

“There is something fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula One,” said Sir Jackie Stewart, who raced in an era when crashing had grave and sometimes fatal consequences.

“Never in my experience has F1 been in such a mood of self-destruction.

“Millions of fans are amazed, if not disgusted, at a sport which now goes from crisis to crisis with everyone blaming everyone else,” he was quoted as saying in the British press.

Meanwhile Eddie Irvine, who raced at a time when F1 transformed itself into the multinational conglomerate it is today, suggested in an interview with the BBC that the public and media have overreacted to the race-fixing saga.

“Formula One has always been a war and in war all is fair,” he told Radio 5 live.

“This is probably slightly on the wrong side of the cheating thing but in days past every team have done whatever they could to win – cheat, bend the rules, break the rules, sabotage opponents. This is just the FIA going on a crusade,” he said.

But will this latest saga condemn the sport?

“There needs to be a fundamental reform of all the structures of governance and management of F1, from both a regulatory and commercial standpoint,” warned Stewart.

“Unless proper leadership is established soon within F1 at every level, the commercial sponsors will walk away and the sport will be seriously damaged for years to come,” he said.

However, despite another year of endless controversy and worldwide negative headlines, F1 seems to just role with the punches.

Sponsors aren’t exactly walking away from the sport.

Brawn GP, which has run most of the season with minimal sponsorship decals, has reportedly signed a title sponsor and numerous other backers for next season.

The Virgin Group, headed by the charismatic Sir Richard Branson, is set to have a controlling interest in one of the four new teams entering F1 next season.

Two manufacturers may have walked away from the sport in the past twelve months, but considering how severely the automotive industry was hit by the global financial crisis, it’s not exactly F1’s doing.

Fans won’t necessarily switch off when Formula 1 returns to the scene of the crime in Singapore next weekend.

Rather the controversy will only fuel interest in the sport.

F1 is able to sustain these blows because people are accepting that it is polluted, like a wrestling showcase on wheels.

It is a soap opera.

It may only be a sport on every second Sunday evening – and the term sport is debatable, but the rest of the time there is enough drama, controversy, intrigue and personality clashes to keeps its fans guessing.

But if F1 does suffer a backlash and needs to undertake fundamental change, can it?

Unlikely.

F1 has isolated itself from the real world to such an extent that only when it can no longer sustain itself will it have to face reality.

Existing in an isolated world so corrupted by money, greed and politics, should we really be surprised by ‘crashgate’?

Consider this: The expected future leader of the governing body that will pass judgment on Renault on Monday will be Jean Todt who, as Ferrari team boss, manufactured a number of results through blatant team orders, disrespecting the very notion of a fair sporting contest.

It only strengthens the point made by Sir Jackie Stewart; that F1 is corrupted to its core.

Stewart argues that “there is no respect or trust for the individuals, or the institutions that are meant to regulate and govern the sport.”

How can there be when they themselves are corruptible and duplicitous?

Perhaps people just need to accept F1 as a war on all fronts; corrupted and anything but a fair sporting contest.

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