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During an interview last week to promote his book and fan the flames of rumours that he might be returning to Formula One, former Team Principal and team owner Ross Brawn raised doubts about the current direction about F1.
Referring to Formula One’s new broadcast rights holder, Liberty Media, Brawn was surprisingly upbeat and identified a very simple yet obvious deficiency in the sport’s governance.
“I hope Liberty Media take on board the idea of creating a plan for the future which is contributed to by many elements,” Brawn told the BBC.
“What do we want F1 to look like in three to five years’ time? Are the criticisms made today fair and can they be addressed? Everyone wants to see more racing, but how much more racing do you want to see because you can have too much of a good thing.
“It can go seriously wrong if it’s there every week and never changes.”
From the outside it’s easy to believe that, in the face of uncertainty, the gatekeepers of the sport have tried various initiatives in the hope that one would stick. Effectively they are stepping on the gas without any concern for the direction we’re headed.
That’s how F1 ended up where it is – where people are looking to Moto GP, WEC, Formula E and even Indycar for more exciting races.
That’s how we managed to progressively tighten the team radio ban beyond any practical limits only for the rule to be overturned after it became clear it was hurting ‘The Show’.
It’s a swift reaction one way and then an even swifter reaction the other way. Lurching might describe the situation better.
That’s how we ended up with elimination qualifying – because if we can convert some of those race-day ticket sales into weekend passes the race organisers will be a lot happier. The problem is elimination qualifying came out of nowhere, completely untested and not only utterly ruined the spectacle of qualifying but reeked of change for change sake.
That’s how we can cobble together some aerodynamic changes designed to make the cars up to five seconds per lap faster on little more than a whim. If it’s possible now, why didn’t anyone think of it before!
“One of the frustrations for me has been that there never seemed to be a plan and everything was reactive,” claimed Brawn.
“F1 has a very impressive engine at the moment, but is that the engine for the future and where does that go? What’s going to be the engine in five years’ time and do we know what it is?”
F1 reactionary? Donald Trump wearing a t-shirt reading “I’m with Stupid” featuring an arrow that points directly upward couldn’t have hit the nail on the head more sweetly.
Too often the sport has looked at what’s possible, then convinced itself of the virtue of said possibilities. Having a clear goal gets everyone working in the same direction and innovating to achieve outcomes that were never thought possible.
How you get the teams, drivers, race organisers, paying fans, sponsors and broadcasters all on the same page. That might be a good one to add to that plan we were talking about.
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