CONCORD, N.C. – Well, another Formula 1 season is in the books and here’s my reaction: Ho. Hum.
I get it. It’s about who does it right, who does it wrong and who just misses either way. It’s the same in motorsports all around the globe. Yet, in arguably the world’s most visible series, the discrepancy in competition is completely, utterly out of whack.
The fact that Red Bull has hit it the last three seasons is nothing new. The world driving championship is built on dynasties that lasted for decades. From Ferrari to Lotus to Tyrrell to McLaren to Williams, it’s always been that way. I get it.
Something about Red Bull seems to be a bit — much — at least for me.
Take the most recent race (as of this writing) at Qatar, though you could say the entire season has been lather, rinse and repeat for Max Verstappen and the merry band at Red Bull F1.
Verstappen was not only in another zip code, he was in another galaxy. There was no possible chance, short of a catastrophic engine failure, a bolt of lightning or a cosmic shift of gravity, that any car on the track not carrying the No. 1 would win that race.
He’s already clinched a third consecutive championship, the team has won the constructors’ title (in reality, they won it after the first race of the year, but there’s TV and all the commercial shenanigans to go through before slapping on the crown) and that’s that.
My question is: Is the spectacle enough, or should there be, I don’t know, ACTUAL competition?
The midfield scrap is usually entertaining, but is it enough?
On a bit of a rant here, I realize, but it’s been bugging me for quite some time.
I have no dog in this fight, other than being a fan, and I simply can’t watch the kind of competitive imbalance that is being displayed. When Mercedes and Ferrari are a second a lap behind, there’s no point in watching Verstappen joy ride at the front of the field for the 50th race in a row.
And that should concern F-1, the FIA and the rest of the people who run that show.
I get it.
Many, many times in modern motorsports, there have been eras of dominance. One team will build a better mousetrap and just kick everyone’s backside until the field catches up or the rules change. It happens in NASCAR, it happens in IndyCar, it happens in all forms of racing.
But this is supposed to be the world driving championship, not the “watch this driver win everything in a walk and laugh about it all the way to the bank.”
During the reign of King Lewis of Hamilton, in which he won eight championships and both McLaren and Mercedes were world-beaters, the chasm between the teams was not nearly so wide, at least from my perspective.
His teammates were at least able to race with Hamilton, sometimes to the detriment of the team overall, but that is what the sport is about: competition. If one driver can beat his teammate, that’s a bonus, not a bug. (See Schumacher, Michael).
If one driver is not allowed to beat his teammate, then it gets ridiculous.
Do I think they should have spec cars and spec engines and it’s the best driver who wins? Probably not, for economic reasons and because it is Formula 1. If the teams — and the backers and the money they bring — dry up, then what is left?
All I can deduce at this point is, this is what they have and this is what the FIA will roll with. Eventually, Red Bull will give way to the next Big Kid on the Block, just as it has been since 1950. Someone else will come up with a mousetrap that works even better, and the cycle will begin again.
My fear is, as a fan and devotee of the sport, that it won’t, that the money and backers will find something else to do with their cash and interest. Of course, that might just happen – as it has in other forms of the sport here at home.
That would not be a good thing.
This story appeared in the Oct 18, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
