OPINION: It is time for Formula One to go in a new direction
THIS evening is the end of the 2014 Formula One season, with a final race on the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.
The race is the culmination of what has been an interesting year both on and off the Formula One circuit. On the track, the races have been dominated by Mercedes, with their two drivers winning all but three races (Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo is the only other race winner). The Brackley-based Anglo-German enterprise has been the quickest to adjust to sweeping changes to the car engines and design that took place over the summer.
However, the final months of the season have been dominated as much by events off the track as on it. The community is still reeling from the major accident in Japan that left Marussia driver Jules Bianchi needing surgery. Seven weeks or so after the incident, Bianchi is now out of the medically-induced coma and is breathing unaided, which at the very least is a very good development.
In a further depressing turn of events, Marussia then ran out of money and has since folded, with the team unable to raise the needed £25million to enter the Abu Dhabi race and keep paying employees until the prize money is handed out in March. Marussia are not the only team facing major financial problems. Following a botched takeover earlier in the year and continued questions over their racing license ownership, Caterham F1 have experienced some very well documented problems, with the firm announcing 230 layoffs after a crowdfunding scheme to fund its participation in the Abu Dhabi race failed to reach the needed £2.3million. While down for a 2015 spot, the likelihood is that the team is now out of the sport.
With the sports two smallest teams by budget now insolvent, the More of the paddocks are in danger. There was talk before the US Grand Prix in Austin of a boycott by three more teams, with the teams reportedly being talked out of striking on the day of the race itself. Despite a boycott not materialising, things are not going well further down the grid from the Mercedes bunfight for the Driver’s Championship trophy.
Force India have been a team that is particularly concerned at its finances. The team auditors voiced concerns about their sustainability, with losses of over £38million in 2013, on top of further sustained losses in previous years. The escalation of costs is clearly causing them some problems, and the road still looks like its going to get bumpier before it gets any easier.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone is reportedly being sought for a meeting with Force India, Sauber and Lotus to try and repair their finances. Ecclestone seems to be agreeing that Formula One’s financial favour is too heavily calibrated towards the big name teams.
Nevertheless, Ecclestone is part of the problem. The bigwig has previously refused to engage with the smaller teams to get finances recalibrated, with the smaller teams accusing the sport’s bigger names of trying to drive them out of the sport. Certainly, the rumour that Red Bull and Ferrari have been commissioned to run three car team in 2015 probably doesn’t help.
Ecclestone hasn’t really helped. In interviews, he has unhelpfully compared the demise of Marussia and Caterham to the Oscar Pistorius trial, saying the teams were only famous for their well-documented problems.
A further unhelpful line from Ecclestone appeared in the same interview when he made comments that the sport should ignore the younger generation of fans. With advertising revenue, paying crowd attendances and TV viewers of races all declining, you might have expected the sport to try more to appeal to fans. But his unhelpful comments that Formula One should only try and appeal to over-70’s based on UBS and Rolex being core sponsors is idiotic.
Such a marketing proposition would be economically suicidal, would alienate potential future long-term fans and could even alienate future stars. After all, after joining Ferrari this week, Sebastian Vettel said that watching Michael Schumacher dominate the sport as a kid inspired him into his chosen career. Alienating the younger fans would therefore be even more detrimental long-term than it already is.
All of this points to the idea that the sport’s financial backers CVC Capital should jettison Ecclestone from the sport, which was certainly something that should have been done when paid a German court £60million to drop bribery charges. Indeed, its hard to know which of Ecclestone and FIFA President Sepp Blatter is sport’s more bumbling corrupt clown.
Certainly, were it not for him, the idiotic double points that could cost Lewis Hamilton what would be a deserved title tonight would not have been implemented.
But while ditching Bernie will help Formula One improve its reputation, substantially more has to be done to arrest the slide of a sport experiencing a bit of a slump. CVC Capital and any potential new investors – Rupert Murdoch has previously been linked to a takeover – would need a compelling strategy to ensure the sport’s recent decline doe not become terminal. Failure to do so could lead to the sport becoming even more of a procession for the big teams than it already is.