With two races to go and the 2016 Formula 1 world drivers championship still to be claimed, Bernie Ecclestone must be keeping his fingers crossed that the title race will not be decided until the final Grand Prix of the year in Abu Dhabi.
That’s the showman, trying to maintain the interest to the very end, because once the title is won the media interest fades and the races reflect an end of term atmosphere.
It is the show that is important and with the new shareholding of Liberty Media they will be hoping to revitalise Formula One.
But whilst Bernie’s has a knack of saying something controversial which stirs up the media, but he always has a point to make. Take for example his suggestion that walls be built on corners to force Formula One drivers to respect track limits to add a greater sense of danger.
In fact it was ironic that the subject of walls was raised in Mexico, bearing in mind Donald Trump’s promise of a great wall between the US and Mexico if he should become president!
Whilst Bernie’s wall suggestion is controversial and is unlikely to sit well with, or be treated seriously by the drivers and the governing FIA, does he have a point?
The amount of tarmac surrounding the actual circuits has grown enormously in recent years and drivers have repeatedly pushed the barriers of what constitutes track limits, of which the interpretation is that a car must have one wheel within the boundary of the racing track. However this has been seen regularly pushed to extreme interpretations.
In fact in the race in Mexico with both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s off track excursions, had there been a wall or gravel trap, then the results could have different. And would walls be that bad?
Of course initial reactions would be yes, but lets not forget that F1 races on road circuits such as Monaco, Singapore and the Baku circuit in Azerbaijan all are surrounded by hard walls and indeed the anticipated carnage of accidents never materialised at Baku.
Bernie’s comments were discussed in the FIA Friday press conference in Mexico with the team management representatives comprising Dave Ryan (Manor), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Eric Boullier (McLaren), Bob Fernley (Force India) and Mike O’Driscoll (Williams).
The question was phrased by Dieter Rencken of Racing Lines, which brought some interesting responses.
“Mr Ecclestone recently said he would like to see Formula One more exciting which some took to mean more dangerous. He was talking about walls around the circuits and whatever else. Your drivers were fairly dismissive about this. Being the people who pay the bills if they hit the walls, how do you feel about it?”
Bob Fernley (Force India): “All the things that Bernie says there is a message there and I think that message is that we need to get a little bit more excitement into the racing itself.
I think there are ways that we can deal with cars going off, track limits and things like that and give opportunities for drivers. I think we could do a lot more to get it more exciting without endangering the drivers in any way, or without making the tracks so they are F1-specific because we’ve also got think that a lot of these tracks are also doing MotoGP as well, so whatever we do has to fit in with those as well.
So I think yes, there are things we can do but I think Bernie’s message is let’s get it a little bit more exciting.”
Dave Ryan (Manor): “The drivers are over regulated on the track, some of the recent decisions and points and reprimands and so… personally, I think they are just too far. The drivers are discouraged from actively racing and some of the incidents that have been penalised I just don’t get, it’s just racing and you’re just not allowed to do it now.
We need to look carefully at how the sport is regulated when it comes to racing, and it would be a great help if the drivers were allowed to be themselves. There’s not many drivers who aren’t more than the corporate figurehead of the company. They’re not allowed to express opinions, or they are discouraged from it. I can understand that side of it but it would be nice if we had a few more personalities. Lewis gets criticised for what he does. Well, why? He’s just out there doing his thing and if we had a few more drivers doing that sort of thing I think it would add to the sport.”
Franz Tost (Toro Roso): “Formula One is dangerous, we know this, but currently at the race track, if you look, nothing happens any more. Some friends said to me ‘I don’t watch Formula One any more because there are the two Mercedes in front. If they don’t crash on the first lap, the race is gone. I can sleep somewhere else, not in front of the TV.’ This is absolutely wrong.
First of all, we need to come up with a parity between the different teams. The ideal case would be two or three teams would fight for the championship until the last race, Constructors’ championship as well as Drivers’. Then if drivers fight against each other and if they crash against each other and something happens, then they should not go to the stewards and get a penalty for this. People want to see real racing, people want to see that something is happening. This is not the case any more, currently.”
Eric Boullier (McLaren): “We want to have close racing which is why the fans like… which is why we like racing as well, and I think it’s going to come after every change of regulations, especially the last one with the power units. Obviously there is a lot of disparity between the cars and the performance but if you’re back to 2012 and 2013, I think if I remember, in the first ten races there were nine different winners. And then everybody was complaining that it was not good enough.”
Its interesting to actually hear Team Principals agreeing with each other, well almost, but what is clear is that everyone recognises the need for change. To be fair, the actual racing battles on track this year has been some of the best we have seen for years – provided you look back further than the two silver cars.
And that is the problem, the perception is that the racing is dull because it has been the predictability of Mercedes winning. They have done the job much better than the others and it is up to the opposition to catch up.
However they are hampered by the development that is allowed and you only have to look at the absurdity of Alonso’s 56 grid penalty for another engine change!
Final words go to Eric Boullier who has had to shoulder the burden of the McLaren Honda deficit: “I don’t think a wall will bring a solution and it’s expensive to build as well. I think it’s just making sure we can bring the regulations to a point where we can give a chance to every team to be competitive and if you have all the cars, all the drivers competitive, then you can have very good and close racing.”
Inside Line Opinion by Peter Burns
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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