Depsite Mercedes’ domination of Formula One and DJR Team Penske’s stronghold on the Supercars Championship, the attitude towards the two teams differs wildly.
Mercedes are running away with the championship once again this year and there are calls for regulation changes.
A fortnight ago, I wrote about how there was no need for Formula One to make any changes, seeing as this is the first season since the introduction of the current set of technical and sporting regulations, and there has been little regard for how the failings of Red Bull and Ferrari have contributed to Mercedes’ great success.
Here’s where the similarities between Formula One and the Supercars Championship re-emerge.
Jamie Whincup was Scott McLaughlin’s main championship rival this year, but any threat posed by the seven-time champion diminished as the season went on.
Much like with Red Bull and Ferrari in F1, there were driver errors from Whincup and team errors from Red Bull Holden which allowed McLaughlin to extend his advantage.
Scott McLaughlin (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
However, unlike F1, there have been no requests for Supercars to make changes – although this is probably because the quality of the racing has remained at a high standard.
That’s something that has also been influenced by tyre restrictions and the sprint race format, changes mainly made out of necessity due to the COVID pandemic.
I don’t think that makes my point any less valid though, seeing as when parity changes were introduced after McLaughlin’s dominant start to last year’s championship, a fair bit of opposition was generated.
While this opposition came mostly from Ford fans, it is nonetheless an example of how fans wanted the Mustangs to reap the full reward for what they had brought to the table.
You could say the same thing is happening in F1, except there is more support for changes to be made to stop Mercedes being streets ahead, hence the ban on changing engine modes. The FIA may hide behind their façade of wanting to police power unit legality – which, to be honest, is a pretty valid reason – but the timing of the ban makes it hard not to infer that it was an attempt to reel Mercedes in.
There was no backlash to this whatsoever.
At the end of the day, both Formula One and the Supercars are experiencing dominant spells from a driver at their peak and both championships will embark on major regulation changes in 2022.
But the Supercars fanbase seems to be more optimistic.
Perhaps it’s because Holden and Ford both have strong fanbases and so there will always be plenty of happy faces when either of them do well. You tend not to hear Mercedes fans shouting joyfully from the rooftops.
If some Formula One fans wish to be a bit doom and gloom about the sport , they’re more than welcome. I know all they want to see is some competitive racing.
However, as long as it continues to extend beyond a bit of healthy criticism and into a wall of negativity, you’ll find me with the Supercars crew.
Micko
Roar Rookie
The issue is if other competitors drop down in F1 (like RB & Ferrari now) then it could be years (and untold millions!) till other competitors develop their cars enough to be able to challenge, or wait for a complete overhaul of the regulations (like 2022) till they even stand a remote chance of competing at the top. The new regulations coming in 2022 are on the right track: the difference between the haves and have-nots in F1 needs to be reduced. There needs to be some optimism available for the backmarkers that they can turn it around within a year or two to at least come close to challenging for podiums.
Micko
Roar Rookie
With Supercars a lot of it is just down to Scott McLaughlin being at the peak of his powers. His teammate often doesn't even feature on the podium. Plus the fact with their tyre regulations and allocations and different race formats we still see a lot of other race winners throughout the season. The Holden teams seems to be happy about parity now, and I haven't heard any complaints this year from any teams about the Mustangs. Mercedes essentially have to have a bad day for both their cars to NOT to make the podium, and for one of their drivers NOT to win. As good as Verstappen is in that Red Bull this year, he still needed an exceptionally bad day for Mercedes (with their tyres literally exploding! :shocked: ) to obtain the race win. Monza was an exciting lottery with issues for both Mercedes, and even Max not having a great day.
HR
Roar Rookie
I think part of it is because there’s genuine pace parity between the different manufacturers, so there are a lot of drivers with a real chance to win, unlike in F1. The last few years of F1, races have essentially been a foregone conclusion, so people have a lot of time to grumble about what’s wrong with the sport rather than talking about the races themselves. Your reference to the debate over parity within the Supercars fanbase upon the introduction of the Mustang last year doesn’t quite convey how acrimonious that issue was though – it basically devolved into a slanging match between the red and blue armies, to the extent that using the word “parity” instantly flagged a comment for review over on Speedcafe (the main Australian motorsport site), and nearly every story focused on that issue. And then you get the same malcontents you get with any sport, who are utterly convinced that the whole thing has gone to the dogs, it was much better back in the day, and why can’t it just be like it used to be…
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Note the third paragraph has been edited, "seeing as this is the first season since the introduction of the current set of technical and sporting regulations" should read "seeing as this is the first season since the introduction of the current set of technical and sporting regulations in 2017 in which Mercedes have been largely unchallenged by their main competitors, Red Bull and Ferrari."