I don’t think I was alone in being quite excited in the run up to Sunday’s grand prix. The mix of returning champions, new team configurations and new rules made it feel like something good was going to happen. Well I was wrong. Only the most ardent of F1 train spotters could have found much excitement in the Bahrain procession.
For me the most interesting thing that happened in Bahrain was the past masters session where 20 former world champions burned around the track in the old school kit they won their championships in (all except Mansell who allegedly couldn’t fit in his old car and had to drive a wide bodied 1950’s Ferrari instead). Seeing them made me think back to the late 70’s and 80’s when F1 felt exciting and glamorous in a way it just doesn’t anymore. A lot of the glamour stemmed from the simple fact that back then (and particularly in the 70’s) F1 was incredibly dangerous. The glamour equation was simple – high speed risk + charismatic drivers + edgy technology = glamour.
So if today’s F1 is a bit flat what could it do to regain some of its former glamour?
Clearly making it more dangerous is not an option (it’s still very dangerous anyway).
It also feels a bit out of order asking the drivers to be more ‘charismatic’ when you think about the big brands they’re fronting and the degrees of fitness and technical expertise required to drive the current cars.
So that leaves the technology as the principle route to renewing F1’s glamour. It’s easy to think that technology can never be glamorous in a way that people and danger can, but I’m not sure that’s right. Technology does have the capacity to get lots of ‘ordinary’ people’s pulses racing (and by ordinary I mean not total geeks). A quick look at the way people lavish attention on their iPhones suggests technology might actually have more glamour potential up its chrome plated sleeve than we might think.
What’s the problem with current F1 technology?
Yes, the cars go very fast and they look pretty slick, but in the grand scheme of things the technology is pretty dull. At their heart the cars are still based on stuff that’s over a century old (combustion engines). And in many cases, the more cutting-edge stuff like the electronics and the aerodynamics are helping make things more dull rather than more exciting. Surely it’s crazy that current aerodynamics packages stop the cars getting close enough to one another to actually race?
So if technology is a potential route back to glamour and excitement for F1, what kind of thing could work?
Something a bit more full-on than rule tweaks maybe? Something that looks and feels as different to today’s audience as the first F1 cars did to people back in the 30’s?
Well how about electrifying and de-winging F1 next year? Hang on I can hear you saying. That could be very rubbish and not at all glamorous. Electric cars don’t go very fast and they look awful. Well I’m not sure that’s true any more – check out this footage http://bit.ly/a48MYB and look at what Porsche http://bit.ly/d6o2td and Ferrari http://bit.ly/cJZFEJ are up to on the road car front.
Electric is the future whether the petrol heads like it or not. F1 needs to be up there shaping the future if it wants to stand any chance of being glamorous again. An electric F1 could also have a dramatic impact on the development of next-gen electric car tech. Competition breeds innovation and there aren’t many things more competitive than F1….
My feeling is that glamour is on the verge of returning thanks to the much-needed return of Mr Branson! I can see female pit-crews in skin-tight lycra, and overnight pit garage experiences! What do you think?
Comment by stephen cribbett — March 18, 2010 @ 2:23 pm
Problem with making them electric is that part of being in an F1 paddock, or crowd, is the noise. The simple, inextricably loud, furious sounding clout of a V10, and (now) v8 is quite unbelievable. That is part of the experience. Hearing the hissy little electric piss-wagon version go around would be boring. Then you’d actually be able to a) hear the person next to you and b) end up maybe talking to the. Sorry but i can talk to my dad after.Make the tyres from more race tread rubber. reduce and strip out the aero packages. Whatever needs to be done to make the cars able to race; DO IT. If I watch another race where the whole weekend is decided on one hot lap on a Saturday afternoon I think I might start watching Football.
Comment by Steve Price — March 18, 2010 @ 2:31 pm