Sunday, July 10, 2005
The Good and The Bad
The Good:
JPM won the Grand Prix today at Silverstone! Go JPM! I was at Indy when he won the Indy 500 and I've been a fan ever since. He's had his ups and his downs but, hopefully, this win will see more ups.
The Bad:
For those of us that like watching F1 we might be in trouble. The top people in the F1 leadership have been quoted as saying things like, "It's our championship," "If the teams don't like it, to be very blunt -- too bad," and "We could still fill our grid up if some of the manufacturers walked away. Nobody is going to run it like I do -- because I built it." There are several problems with statements like this that really remind me of a certain split in open-wheel racing here in the U.S. that has, more or less, seen the demise of the sport here (The Brickyard 400 at Indy has a greater pull and makes more money than the historic Indy 500).
While the FIA may run the Formula 1 World Championship, it takes more than the governing body to encompass the entire sport. It is their championship, but without teams to run the championship they really don't have much. The teams and the governing body have a symbiotic relationship. Maybe I am arguing the side of the teams too much, they've certainly done some ignorant things lately (the Indianapolis Grand Prix), but if the FIA is unwilling to listen to the teams the relationship won't last much longer.
Some of the manufacturers are talking about starting another series. This just goes back to my C.A.R.T vs IRL comparison. Even though the governing body says it has enough teams to fill the field (20 cars) if teams leave the numbers don't really add up. Currently there are only 20 cars running. A team might be added next year, but with the funding required, adding a team is always a wait and see proposition. The only way the FIA can fill the field would be to require some teams to run 3 cars rather than the current 2. This would add cost and stress on those teams and is not conducive to see those teams hanging around for long.
I certainly don't know what needs to be done. The relationship between the teams and the FIA leadership has deteriorated so much over the past few years, and even more over the past few months, that it doesn't seem likely there will be much of a positive outcome. Maybe the teams are bluffing, or maybe some of that European heritage I don't understand will come into play somehow, or maybe it really will all fall apart like open-wheel racing did here.
JPM won the Grand Prix today at Silverstone! Go JPM! I was at Indy when he won the Indy 500 and I've been a fan ever since. He's had his ups and his downs but, hopefully, this win will see more ups.
The Bad:
For those of us that like watching F1 we might be in trouble. The top people in the F1 leadership have been quoted as saying things like, "It's our championship," "If the teams don't like it, to be very blunt -- too bad," and "We could still fill our grid up if some of the manufacturers walked away. Nobody is going to run it like I do -- because I built it." There are several problems with statements like this that really remind me of a certain split in open-wheel racing here in the U.S. that has, more or less, seen the demise of the sport here (The Brickyard 400 at Indy has a greater pull and makes more money than the historic Indy 500).
While the FIA may run the Formula 1 World Championship, it takes more than the governing body to encompass the entire sport. It is their championship, but without teams to run the championship they really don't have much. The teams and the governing body have a symbiotic relationship. Maybe I am arguing the side of the teams too much, they've certainly done some ignorant things lately (the Indianapolis Grand Prix), but if the FIA is unwilling to listen to the teams the relationship won't last much longer.
Some of the manufacturers are talking about starting another series. This just goes back to my C.A.R.T vs IRL comparison. Even though the governing body says it has enough teams to fill the field (20 cars) if teams leave the numbers don't really add up. Currently there are only 20 cars running. A team might be added next year, but with the funding required, adding a team is always a wait and see proposition. The only way the FIA can fill the field would be to require some teams to run 3 cars rather than the current 2. This would add cost and stress on those teams and is not conducive to see those teams hanging around for long.
I certainly don't know what needs to be done. The relationship between the teams and the FIA leadership has deteriorated so much over the past few years, and even more over the past few months, that it doesn't seem likely there will be much of a positive outcome. Maybe the teams are bluffing, or maybe some of that European heritage I don't understand will come into play somehow, or maybe it really will all fall apart like open-wheel racing did here.
# posted by chilort @ 10:09 AM 
