Formula 1: Forgiving ambitions, and mergers & acquisitions

There was a series that was abandoned few years ago, which went by the tagline as ‘The World Cup of Motorsport’. The series was fun according to many, and many are hoping that the series would restart as it was the perfect medium to showcase talent. Anyway, coming down to the point, that series had peculiar pit stops. It’s not that none of the other genres of motorsport follow it, but it’s just that this series had a more intriguing pit stop.

Each team was allowed to use 8 members during a pit stop, but only 4 were used for the purposes of changing tires, even that lollipop man wasn’t allowed until the car comes to a complete halt. The pit stops were mandatory, and the pit stops were done in a stipulated period. The number of mandatory pit stops changed according to the track.

It’s not that this was a foolproof mechanism to prevent accidents or fatalities during a pit stop, but it was something close to that. It’s ironic that F1 desires for more strategy during the race, but failed to introduce a so called mandatory pit stops, that is followed in its feeder series as well. We understand the decision to force Pirelli to soften compounds, but not at the cost of the driver. Something like mandatory pit stops would have forced teams to strategise their races.

Banning camera crew from the pitlane wasn’t an ideal solution, as even the pit crew were hurt by the incoming rookie drivers who mostly brake late due to lack of experience; it happened in the past. Maybe limiting the number of crew members, and asking the crew to come out of their garages only when the car halts, could be a perfect solution as well. Yes, these ideas might have been taken from the rival series, but it would not hurt the reputation of Formula 1. They could make the races long, beyond the 2 hour mark as specified now, but they would make the races safe for the pit crew.

Greed is the ultimate cause of many calamities across the globe. We have lost many teams in Formula 1 due to unfriendly conditions for the backmarkers. It’s hard to find support from those that matter. No, we aren’t blaming Bernie alone. We do agree he has done tons of work to make Formula 1 an global event. Maybe we have ended up blaming him for the amount of work that could be done by him. Time and time again, we have underestimated the importance of teams in Formula 1.

It’s high time that the teams get their deserved respect, especially the midfield teams, and the backmarkers. We are used to those bizarre decisions, maybe a certain more of those could save the future of certain teams, or even the series on the long run. We do hope many teams take part in Formula 1 for now and for the future, because racing is exciting when there are more people at work, but we do hope that teams take part in the races, not just for the sake of it.