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Formula 1 has advanced leaps and bounds technologically from what it was before, but has it with the passage of time, forgotten its prime essence, that is racing.
The incessant technological developments and regulations seem to have taken the sport far away from what it used to be, an out and out battle among the drivers for the title. F1, during its golden era, used to be a sport in which the drivers went flat out to race against each other.
In the current era of the sport, however, with the excessive use of technology, unnecessary politics, and too much artificiality have seemingly ruined the essence of the sport. When an F1 fan tunes in to watch a race, hoping to see wheel to wheel battle among the drivers and racing on the edge, witnesses an entirely different scenario, in which drivers are not racing, but are busy following team orders, preserving their tyres, or pressing one of numerous colorful buttons present on their steering wheel.
Through the years, there has been emergence of such aspects to the sport which have taken its attention away from what it was really there for i.e. racing. Today there are several facets to this sport that would seem to be highly absurd. It has been witnessed several times that drivers have to subject themselves to the whims of their teams and have to race according to their orders. It is a pitiful sight seeing one driver being overtaken by another just because of the wishes of the team.
The biggest example of this tyranny was during the 2001 Austrian Grand Prix, when early on in the season, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello had to let Michael Schumacher pass by just because the latter was preferred over the former by the team. Also, there have been several instances, when a driver has not been allowed to overtake his teammate, just to ensure maximum points for the team. For example in 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg, even though on a better race pace was not allowed to overtake his teammate Lewis Hamilton as the team feared they would lose points.
Japanese Grand Prix
Such team orders are understood when one driver is no longer in the championship fight and is helping his teammate to remain in contention for the same, but they become a source of irritation when orders have been enforced on the drivers just because they prefer one driver over another, or for their own personal gain.
The recently introduced DRS system has enabled the drivers to overtake more easily. Though this system was introduced to make race more exciting, it has had an opposite impact. Due to this technology we are not witnessing anymore the great overtaking maneuvers, which we used to see prior to this technology. Many technologies have been introduced to this sport, but most of them have taken away the human aspect of the sport.
F1, as it is an elite class of motorsport, should imbibe elite and deserving candidates. But instead, there has been a trend of hiring pay drivers, in which those drivers get a seat in the team, who bring sponsorship money with them. The ongoing battle for replacement to Kimi Raikkonen in Lotus is an apt example of this, where PDVSA sponsored Pastor Maldonado seems to be getting an upper hand in place of Nico Hulkenberg, who though highly talented, does not bring with him sponsorship money. Though pay drivers have existed in the sport for a long while, but recently they have become more common.
The recently concluded season was one of the most tiring and boring seasons in the sports history. This year, F1 seemed far from a pinnacle of motorsport, as one team dominated, while others were equivalent to sitting ducks. In a sport like this, there should be a level playing field, but instead we are witnessing teams with gargantuan budgets stamping their authority, while others are left fighting among themselves further back the grid.
As there are no budget caps, some teams have unbelievable budgets that dominate the sport, while others due to financial constraints are not able to compete with them and are busy fighting for lower spots on the grid. The new type of tyre compounds introduced during this year, almost mocked racing, as instead of fighting each other, the drivers were fighting with their own cars in order to preserve their tyres. The drivers even during an opportunity to overtake, were not overtaking because they had to be careful to not to degrade their tyres. Such kind of seasons, if continued in future, will only lead to a decrease in fan following for the sport and is detrimental for its existence in the long term.
It seems to be a bit of a shame that a driver, who ventures into this so called ‘pinnacle of motorsport’ with the dream of pure racing in the fastest cars in the world, has to comprehend a totally different scenario, when he enters the real scene. Instead of racing, a driver has to deal with and involve himself in politics, try to get sponsorship, work like a robot controlled by his team and be forced to drive in such a manner which is far and away from real racing. Formula 1 isn’t totally bad, but it needs to return to its roots, to what it really should be that is the epitome of pure racing.
