Qualifying, Politics and the Future...
- Max Davies
- Apr 9, 2016
- 4 min read
Former Motorsport.com writer Max Davies reflects on the last week's Bahrain Grand Prix and what the future holds.
Let’s have it right. Bernie Ecclestone has turned Formula One into the global brand it is today by picking it up by the scruff of the neck back in the 70’s, seeing the potential it offered, and growing it into a sport for the masses. He brokered deals here there and everywhere – all the while motivated by one single goal; to make himself as much money as he could.
Don’t think for one second he put the interests of the sport before his own. He didn’t. Like a true businessman, he saw a product being run into the ground by amateurs and shaped it into an attractive prospect, took it to the multi-nationals and said to the fat cats in suits: “You want your company to be seen? Then come to F1, I’ll get your brand seen by millions – oh, and make your immense banker’s cheque payable to Formula One Management...”
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Fast forward to 2016 and with the state that grand prix racing finds itself in, the 85 year old is seemingly hell bent on destroying the ‘empire’ he has built. At the moment, Formula One is quite simply, a laughing stock throughout the motorsport world.
Sure, the Bahrain Grand Prix was, in parts, exciting and kept the eyes of the fans away from the political tide that had been gaining momentum like an impending tsunami but as soon as the chequered flag fell on Sunday evening, murmurs of the future rose to the surface again and right into the spotlight.
Of course, Nico Rosberg drove superbly to claim his second consecutive win for Mercedes and Kimi Räikkönen earned a well-deserved podium finish for Ferrari but despite the many passing moves and occasional bumps between drivers, events on the Sakhair circuit were an insufficient dosage of medicine to alleviate Formula One of the diseased position it has placed upon itself.
Ye gods, it is like a mobile Houses of Parliament debate with politicians voting, re-voting, vetoing, clashing and killing the goodness of a sport they claim to love.
At its heart? Bernie Ecclestone. The sports former saviour has now become an accomplice to its slow but painful death.
Quizzed after Bahrain, he was asked for his thoughts on how and why the situation is as it is right now and what can be done for the future.
"My idea is a simple one," he said. "The reason we had the Concorde Agreement (the document by which F1 is run) was because it was a peace treaty. So that's how we got this stalemate and we haven't changed it. The world's changed, everything's changed but we've kept what we've got.”
Correction Bernie, you have kept what you wanted. You have been the main protagonist behind the changes in recent years that have stagnated the sport while we, the fans, are left to scream out in frustration.
If ever there was a perfect symptom of amnesia, his next comment was it:
"The FIA should write the regulations,” he began, “and say ‘these are the regulations, you [teams] all enter the championship, if you don't want to enter up to you.’ You are never going to get competitors to agree between them because they are competitors. They are all at the moment thinking: 2017 regulations, what is good for me? Simple."
Just as well you didn’t grant teams the right to vote on the rules in the first place when you re-negotiated the last Concorde Agreement Bernie. Oh, wait a second, yes you did...
In the days since the race, it appears sanity has prevailed – courtesy of the letter (signed by the 11 teams and given to Mr Ecclestone and FIA President Jean Todt, declaring that the sport must return, with immediate effect, to the previous qualifying format that was successfully implemented from 2006-2015.
Aware that their procrastinating antics have been suffocating the sport, the powers that be have relented and assured us that, until 2017 at least when a new format is to be installed, F1 will return to the old qualifying system and thus see some calmer waters within the piranha club – subject to approval from the World Motor Sport Council voting it through.
“At the unanimous request of the teams in a letter received today,” the FIA press release began, “Jean Todt, President of the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder representative, accepted, in the interests of the Championship, to submit a proposal to the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council to revert to the qualifying format in force in 2015.This proposal, if approved by the F1 governing bodies, will take effect as from the Chinese Grand Prix and will apply for the rest of the season. Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone welcomed the idea put forward by the teams to have a global assessment of the format of the weekend for 2017.”
So perhaps we shouldn’t rejoice too soon as there is still, very clearly, more political wrangling to come in the months ahead, but maybe (as I will outline in a further article) there is a radical qualifying format that would appease the wishes of both the fans and the competitors. Come to think of it, it may change the face of grand prix racing entirely – and in a good way too!
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