The Malaysian Grand Prix proved that to make Formula 1 exhilarating, you need rain. And when you expect rain – and it stays dry – it’s not edge of your seat racing. It’s a disappointment that affects the sport.
I watched the race on Easter Sunday with a few close mates who get into the sport and a couple more who are sports keen but sit on the fence when it comes to Formula 1.
With 20 laps to go, the race was seemingly sewn up by Red Bull.
With no rain in sight, talk quickly moved onto when the Moto GP was starting and how Casey Stoner is shaping up this season. And how much chocolate we’d eaten.
Formula 1 can be too close to the bleeding edge for it’s own good. The top three or four teams are separated by tenths of a second over a lap.
Next to nothing.
The fastest cars are too grippy in front, and the ones chasing too sensitive to run closely enough behind to put real pressure on. Even in tough race conditions, with seamless-shift auto gearboxes, the drivers are in general too good to make mistakes.
Fernando Alonso showed the fun that could be had with manual gear changes as his clutch gave up downshifting on the parade lap, but good arguments would be made that this would reduce F1 from the pinnacle of motorsport.
Every other suggestion to “improve the show” (a terrible phrase) involves either slowing the cars down in some way, upsetting the true order, or handicapping fast teams.
Or if you ask supremo Bernie Ecclestone, doing something truly bizarre and introducing shortcuts which drivers can take a few times a race only.
This weekend proved that a reverse order grid creates a decent spectacle as the obviously fast cars charge through from the back. It’s not a solution to the problem though which is the difficulty of overtaking.
Lewis Hamilton is frankly box office in this regard and is constantly in the thick of it. Following his now two outstanding drives this season, he makes the passive drivers around him look second-rate.
Massa, in particular, doesn’t seem to be a barnstormer.
Brilliant at setting fast lap after fast lap out in unbreakable fashion out in front, but almost unwilling to take a chance like Hamilton, Alonso or Vettel. Mark Webber has a go too, even if he doesn’t always pull it off.
However, even Hamilton was eventually tucked up behind slower cars, unable to bustle a way through on his well worn rubber. I don’t think anyone actually wants overtaking to be as common as it is NASCAR – but it has to be more possible to have an enjoyable race.
Wild suggestions start taking on merit whilst watching a dull race. Cloud seeding, weather machines, stewards hosing down the track at an agreed time. The reintroduction of KERS – which is on the cards for 2011.
Great banter whilst sitting around watching a Ferrari stuck behind a Toro Rosso.
Adrian Musolino tweeted he was doing a rain dance as we all fondly relived the spectacle we had in Melbourne and wished for similar at Malaysia.
Perhaps we were just spoilt. Even FC Barcelona can’t thrill us in every game and we turn to the French leagues to find goals. But Formula 1 needs to be on the front foot in this regard to ensure the drama of Melbourne is not a once off.
The world’s fastest cars are wasted when they’re unable to thrill a crowd.
Hansie
Guest
Interesting and thank you for the link. That's a bigger crowd than I'd have expected. James' suggestion has merit, particularly the local interest factor with Lotus (well, kind of local given names like Jim Clark or Colin Chapman).
Tristan Rayner
Editor
James, Good thoughts, and Include Fairuz Fauzy to add to the Malaysian local spice to the event. Credit to the Malaysians too, at least they're really trying to get involved. I don't think Istanbul has had 98,000 people combined since it's inception! I wouldn't have minded getting over to Malaysia for the race but the back to back race weekends with Australia makes things a bit more difficult - unless you're on a chartered plane from Formula 1 management :)
James
Guest
Malaysia has been around for over ten years so the crowds are better than the likes of China and other new world races as the locals have had time to get to know the sport and they've had local interest - Alex Yoong, Petronas, Lotus, etc. A lot of Aussies go over to Sepang 'cause it's dirt cheap.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Fivehole, Totally agreed. This is why the double diffusers are banned from next year, in the hope of improving the dirty air behind to allow for better following. Numerous drivers have complained about just how hard it is to follow the car in front and put pressure on. KERS might be a solution to this if they give it enough power and restrict it enough so that it can't be used all the time which would just return the status quo. Hansie, The crowd for the race didn't look too bad on camera - apparently 98,000 turned up for the race. Not bad for a circuit that is 1 hr from the city and where rain is (usually) a certainty which doesn't make it easy. The Friday crowd was disappointing though - drivers outnumbered spectators! This was despite Friday being free entry, free grandstand tickets, and a free pitlane walk! By comparison at Melbourne, you had to pay very early or a small fortune to get the opportunity to walk the pitlane - and that was only on Wednesday for GP Advantage members - of which I must say were a very knowledgeable and appreciative group. You might be further interested to read that Malaysia are looking to upgrade their facilities and cutting prices as they target 100,000 attendees. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKSGE63506D20100406 Cheers
Hansie
Guest
Was there much of a crowd for the 2010 Malaysian GP? I'm always amazed that race stays on the schedule because there never seems to be much of a crowd, so surely the organisers are taking a financial bath each year.
Fivehole
Guest
They need to do something about the dirty air behind the cars, as soon as a car gets close to the car in front, the "dirty air" stops them really riding their tail and taking any small openings available. At present they sit back too far to utilise ay small openings.