All of a sudden the World Championship calendar is starting to look more than a little unbalanced – and, some would say, unstable. As of now, the 2009 schedule contains 17 races (two fewer than originally envisaged), and for the first time a majority of them will be run outside…
Filed under: Exclusive content, Formula 1, Nigel Roebuck's newsletter
It’s been Formula 1 all the way for Nigel – he started covering the sport in 1971. In the mid-1970s he worked for Graham Hill’s Embassy F1 team, before joining Autosport for whom he has written over 400 Grand Prix reports. Nigel joined Motor Sport full-time on Januray 1 2008. As well as reporting on F1 for national newspapers, he has written 19 books on motor racing. His insightful writing and candid interviews with the great names in racing have made him one of the recognised authorities on F1.
craig lightcap:
October 24th, 2008 2:34pm
Nigel,
I just finished Innes Ireland’s fine book “All Arms and Elbows” for the third time. In it he speaks sadly about the demise of the sporting aspect of Formula 1 and the advent of commercial intrests that were creaping into the sport. As you probably know he was speaking in 1964! I can’t begin to imagine what Dennis Jenkinson would say about the sport today. I beleive those of us who like the old days will have something to follow as long as we have great books to read about the past. I can’t imagine an author waxing nostalgic about the first night race in Singapore in 20 years time. One more thing, please write more books, you’re on of my favorites.
Thanks
Craig Lightcap, Delaware, USA
Ron Hillbury:
October 24th, 2008 2:57pm
When the corporate and financial leadership of a sport make changes that are for “the good of the sport” but result in alienating its fan base, they forget that without fans… they have no sport.
Eric Dunsdon:
October 24th, 2008 3:27pm
Personally, I became disenchanted a long time ago and refuse to watch races(?) held in places like Arabia Malaya and China however great their their contibutions to motor racing history might have been!.Those identi-kit computerised tracks with numbered ‘turns’ and empty grandstands hold no interest at all. It is however the way things are going to be. Ecclestone and Co. dont give a damn for ‘enthusiasts’. I long for the day when the whole sorry F1/TV mess falls to pieces and we can start again with a series of races (no real need for a Championship) which takes in Monza, Imola, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, and anywhere decent that the French and Germans can come up with. Maybe even pop over to the American Continent if you like!. Until then F1 rules..R.I.P Grand prix racing.
colin north:
October 24th, 2008 3:37pm
I have long since given up all hope of F1 caring about us {i saw my first F1 race in 1968] .Try the alternatives A1 GP-BTTC-British Superbikes,and almost any club meeting. Yours Colin North.
Peter Bowyer:
October 24th, 2008 3:54pm
I agree with Nigel’s comments, and those of Eric Dunsdon above. Let’s face it last week’s Chinese GP was a yawn from start to finish; well, the first lap was OK but it went down-hill from there, and we had to get up before dawn to watch it. Not only was the time inappropriate but we had to watch it whilst the coverage was constantly being interrupted by advertisments.
Next year’s switch to the BBC will be good for the UK fans, but not for the advertisers, and so one wonders for how long the BBC can continue to justify what must be a huge fee for providing the fans with this coverage. Will it last?
We will have to wait and see what next year’s rule changes bring, to see if we can actually have cars racing each other, stewards notwithstanding, but the introduction of such things as KERS will do nothing to increase the interest for the fans.
I understand that KERS will bring huge increased costs for the teams, which is the exact opposite of the original reasons for the introduction of these new technologies. I was at a talk this week given by someone who probably knows, Gordon Murray, who suggested that each team would be throwing away something like £150,000 of batteries in connection with the KERS system, after each race. Is that really going to benefit anyone, is it really making the sport greener?
A breakaway series, run by the manufacturers, has long been on the cards. If they can run such a series with cars which can overtake each other, under rules which actually allow, possibly even encourage, overtaking and racing, on tracks which have character, history and ambiance, then I think it is something that race fans would want to watch.
With the forthcoming worldwide recession the car manufacturers are going to be feeling the pinch, and anything that they can do reduce their costs, but increase their profile, is something that they will look at carefully.
Let’s hear it for the manufacturers who support this great sport, rather than the countries that host GP’s that no-one wants to go to…
martin tomlinson:
October 24th, 2008 4:54pm
Without wishing to sound too reactionary I do feel that we have already seen the best years of Formula One. I honestly feel sorry for any real enthusiasts who only know about night races, no overtaking, ‘identi-kit’ circuits and TV coverage of family members whilst there’s a race going on! They’ve missed out on so much. It’s very sad indeed!
I wonder what Ron Dennis, Frank Williams and anybody else who’s been around the block a few times thinks about the state of F1 nowadays? I wonder if they are aloud to say what they think?
When I saw my first Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1956 the 100.000 spectators were virtually all (if not all) real enthusiasts. They could talk (at different levels of technical ability) about the cars, about the drivers, the teams etc. From what I see on my TV, the highest level of background knowledge that most ‘new age’ spectators is being able wave a flag or a banner!
Reactionary? -You bet!
graham wagstaff:
October 24th, 2008 4:58pm
until the last couple of years ive always had a lot of respect for bernie ecclestone, but now im starting to think that in a few years time, he wont be remembered as the man who turned f1 into the global success it is today, but the man who got rich from selling this great sport down the river. bring on a manufacturers championship(with allowances for independants) and goodbye bernie and the fia.
Ady Stimpson:
October 24th, 2008 5:22pm
Give me big fat slick tyres, manual gear shifting, turbo-chargers and “four banger motors”, ban refuelling & slash the aerodynamics to a shadow of their current levels. Then give me filthy wet Spa on a typical August Ardennes day and seeing as this is totally hypothetical, give me Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Ayrton & Alain thrown into the mix with Jean Alesi & Michael Schumacher. Just add one Lewis Hamilton. Sit back in your trusty deckchair at Eau Rouge, Kemmel or Blanchimont & enjoy!
Chris Keeble:
October 24th, 2008 7:00pm
I have to agree with you entirely. I long for a championship using race tracks like Spa, Silverstone, Watkins Glen, Monza, Suzuka et al with not one Tilke “straight out of the box” circuit in sight!
Thank god for Motor Sport magazine and thank god I have kept all my old issues to delve into when I want to read about a proper race.(Remember when you had race reports and all the colour pictures were in a centre section of the magazine!!!!?
john fennell:
October 24th, 2008 7:07pm
I, like a good few of the real spectators, watched my first F1 in the fifties when I was at an impressionble age and later as a marshal and a stewart at the tracks I really looked forward to all the F1 races I was lucky to see,
I now never go to any F1 races (and I’ve been to quite a few Iternatnational tracks in my time)
Get rid of Ecclestone and his croniesat the FIA and start again with a new approch to the premier class of racing with more off the seats of the drivers pants driving and not the one man races we see today
Mel Hoffman:
October 24th, 2008 7:28pm
I can only agree with the comments posted by the previous contributors. I have been following motor sport since I was a boy in the late 50’s, when I would visit different types of motor racing with my father. Unfortunately, I never got to see the likes of Moss, Clarke, Hawthorn and other great drivers of that era but I did watch some GP’s in the 70’s/80’s and followed all of them in the motor sport press. I have watched numerous films through motor sport clubs and read numerous books on the subject. I am afraid that Bernie seems to have completely lost the plot in pursuit of money and has taken the sport down the same ‘business oriented’ route as football. It is unthinkable that the home of the sport is likely to be without a GP after the next Silverstone race (but highly likely). While I still follow F1 in the hope of seeing good racing it is almost a forlorn hope. The awful generic circuits produce processional races with few (if any) natural features that enable drivers to plan and execute real overtaking moves. The long straights with a sharp bend at the end is lip service to proper racing and overtaking opportunities. It can only be hoped that the manufacturers do get together and boycott the current set-up and convene together with a plan to produce cars that can race and slide through corners (as in GP motor cycle racing) and bring back the excitement for the true enthusiast. In the meantime, I will continue to follow other formalae that enable enthusiasts to get close to the teams and speak to the drivers and team owners (LMES or ALMS springs to mind). Long may they continue to entertain.
Dave Cubbedge:
October 24th, 2008 8:30pm
Since the advent of refuelling, races have morphed into two or three “sprints”. It is unfortuante that the record holder for most things F1 did his thing in this era of sprint races interrupted by the bloody pitstops. It used to be that a pitstop meant the end of your race.
I’ve been to many GPs here in North America, but no more. For enjoyment now, and to see real racing and overtaking, I go to USAC wingless Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown races here in the midwest USA, on both dirt and pavement. Here is a true grassroots style of racing, the drivers are still ‘characters’ like in the old days of Foyt and Andretti, and the overtaking is vicious and risky. Cars with 800+ bhp and, I’m not sure, but I would guess 1200 lbs are true beasts to drive and handle. Come to Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in late September and see the 4-Crown event and I guarantee any race fan would enjoy it and become hooked! I know I’m preaching to the choir, Nigel, I think you’ve been there!
The really neat thing is that it costs $25-30 for a ticket that includes a pit pass, one can wander the pits and talk to drivers, team owners, even NASCAR guys like Eldora Speedway owner Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne. And the racing is usually superb. This year at Eldora I saw maybe the best race EVER in the midget feature where three drivers swapped positions for the lead like MotoGP riders - two-three leaders per lap!
Compare with spending a ‘cheap’ $1500 for tickets and accomodations to the USGP at Indy and you can see it is a real entertainment bargain!
Simon Parsons:
October 24th, 2008 8:53pm
unlike many of the correspondents on the subject of the demise of Grand Prix racing, I didn’t really get interested in motor racing until the 1980s, a passion kindled watching Nigel Mansell winning his first GP for Williams at Brands Hatch and seeing the Porsche 956s etc thundering round at Le Mans. It was easy to turn my back on modern F1 and I have since absorbed all that I can in the way of DVDs and books on ’50s, ’60s and ’70s racing as well as attending what I can in the way of historic racing meetings around the UK. I do , however, blame modern F1 for one particular thing, the increase in the price of tickets for things like Goodwood, Silverstone classic etc. It seems that the more unpopular modern F1 becomes due to the shenanigans of Bernie, Max et al.The more expensive becomes my beloved sport.
Claudio Navonne:
October 24th, 2008 10:24pm
Dear Nigel: I can only agree with all those replies , I’m a fan from Argentina , and my first F1 race was the Argentine GP of 1972 and the last the 1998 one. I hate these awful tracks, I couldn’t understand a “night” GP. I was luck to watch those GP of the seventies and eighties and even I was more fortunate to visit Goodwood (and Motor sport stand)last September .Because in those GP in my country and in the Revival all the people were FANS and enthusiasts, everybody know about car, drivers, racing lines, history and everything. And like Martin Tomlison I do feel that we have already seen the best years of Formula One
Thanks,
Claudio Pablo Navonne, Buenos Aires,Argentina
David Ould:
October 24th, 2008 11:52pm
I do enjoy reading the thoughts of true racing enthusists and since moving to New Zealand always feel quite homesick in september when another Goodwood is missed, yet the memory of talking to Phil Hill,Moss,Bell, etc,to say nothing of watching Black Jack dicing with Sir Sterling,remains etched in the brain.
I do not think Singapore and the present crop of drivers will remain in our thoughts in quite the same way,however that probably has more to do with the constructors and the terrible twins than the true character of the corporate,p.c. driven spokesmen they have become,the last outspoken driver of note was old Eddy Irvine,not that long ago really !!! poor old Kimi makes me shudder , the other two would be champions are not in the same league as Alonso,such a shame his car is not up to speed,i would love to know the real reason he is not in a red car.I wonder how watertight those contracts really are, is it possible Kimi will loose his drive next year or are we going to have to sit through all of this again next season,i think my scalextric is about as exciting as the present scenario.
I just hope somebody or lots of collective somebodys will restore our sport and inject some real energy,overtaking techniques,and soul back into this force which has become so lacklustre,if this does’nt happen the future does indeed look bleak !!!
Roger White:
October 25th, 2008 12:16am
Dear Nigel,
I have been watching motorcycle racing, F1, indycars - you name it - for more than 40 yrs. I love motor racing.I became very disenchated when races started to be won from pitstops.Iam sure Jimmy clark,jochen Rindt,Ronnie Peterson etc.would turn in their graves if saw just what is happening to Formula one motor racing.And now they want us to watch cars with the same engines.Thats the the last straw for me,it has confirmed something that i have known for sometime now Moto Gp and Superbikes rule.Love your column love Motor sport keep up the good work Cheers Roger White.
Jack Reynolds:
October 25th, 2008 12:21am
Stop referring to our sport as Formula One and reinstate Grand Prix as the title. A Formula is minimalizing something that is the pinnacle or highest point of a given activity. Bernie and Max have become an insult to their stereotype. Executives to be insightful must review the past to ensure the future. Have them report on what is impossible.
Nick Wilson:
October 25th, 2008 7:27am
Dear Nigel,
We all forget that everything in this world changes, and the speed of change is ever quickening.
Bernie has made F1 global and safer.
We must not ignore the man’s vision and enterprise, and it is pathetic to expect him to work for nothing.
Bernie is not a Charity!!
Some races are more exciting than others , such as this year’s race art Spa.
But, motorsport still has the critical variable == the Drivers.
Whatever rules are decided, there are always a select cadre of Drivers who win repeatedly.
I watch F1 on television and have been to several British Grand Prixes.
I am eager to watch F1 on BBC, because I detest the way adverts always seem to be needed at a critical moment.
I do not like the way commercial pressures keep the general Public from the Drivers.
F1 could learn a lot from BTCC and DTM.
My suggestions for the future are no refuelling, slick tyres, and slit screen tv.
Bernie has F1 digital which was marvellous, why cannot he revisit the concept??
Watching the present broadcats on ITV with a laptop infront of you for timing data adds so much but also exposes the thin offering we tolerate.
Another idea could be subscription
MOTORSPORT tv????
If football Clubs can have their own tv station why not???
Kev Ambrose:
October 25th, 2008 12:15pm
Slowly the world of motor-racing seems to be waking up. For so long Bernie Ecclestone has been hailed as the man who brought Formula One to a larger audience and made it the huge global sport(?) it has become.
He is nothing of the sort. How much he is worth depends on your source of information but what is beyond dispute is that it is billions of pounds. Simply, that is money he has milked from F1. Nobody would begrudge him earning a living commensurate with his position and achievements but the money he has accrued is obscenely excessive.
His sole raison d’être has been to increase his wealth irrespective of the consequences to Grand Prix racing. He continues to do so ad infinitum and it seems it is virtually impossible for anyone to question his moves or motives.
Can you imagine how places like Silverstone, Monza and any other shabby, time-worn circuit could look if Ecclestone had thought to re-invest, say, just fifty per cent of the money he has made from Formula One back in to the sport?
Additionally and in parallel, we have Max Mosley using his position as President of the FIA as a showcase for his intellectual jousting. So keen is he to stamp his intellectual largesse upon the world of motor racing that he has become, to all intents and purposes, an intellectual bully. His fine imposed on McLaren last year and his smug smile when he forced Ron Dennis in to the submissive handshake at Spa for the ultimate ego-boosting photo opportunity followed by the inexplicable exoneration of Renault for exactly the same offence show that his motives are nothing to do with rules, fairness, equality or sportsmanship but are everything to do with impressing on the world his brand of genius.
He has nothing of value to offer the sport, he has clearly become absorbed with his own inflated opinion of his worth and should have been gone long ago.
Between Ecclestone and Mosley Formula One has been run, and ruined, by an English Mafia for way too long and the sooner their reign ends the better. Whether it will be too late to return F1 to a sport of technical brilliance again remains to be seen; I have to say I am not optimistic.
I ceased buying Autosport when Nigel Roebuck left and have only seen odd snippets of the Grands Prix this year. Thanks to the man who genuinely deserves the overused epithet of genius, Valentino Rossi, and the world of Moto GP I have felt no sense of loss. In fact it is a joy to get back to a sport where it is men and machines racing against each other with the sort of risk which precludes knocking each other off the track deliberately and cynically and where the sport manages to overrule, just, the necessary evil that is advertising and sponsorship.
Nigel, have you ever thought of writing about the world of two wheels? Your enthusiasm for the world of motorsport could well be re-vitalised and any sport which benefits from your writing skills can only be better off.
Regards, Kev Ambrose
Mike Holland:
October 25th, 2008 5:17pm
Whilst I hate the clinicalness of the new eastern and middle-eastern circuits, and agree how boring the China race was, wasn’t it a delight to be racing out in the open air again after the televised awfulness of the concrete of Valencia and Singapore?
Patrick O'Brien:
October 25th, 2008 7:02pm
I agree with most of the comments above; Turkey is the only interesting circuit built by Tilke and his circuits are as much to blame for the lack of passing as the aero is. Remember when the French GP moved from Ricard to Magny Cours? All those little bends in the road aren’t real curves but serve to create a single-file racing line through that part of the straight.
Ecclestone is not helping the sport with the moves mentioned above but how do you turn down $30 mm when the other guy is only paying you $10 mm. It seems he snookered the manufacturers, Ferrari included, when they agreed to play by his rules. His interest are not the same as theirs and that’s why they’re not in North America. Last time I looked, Ferrari, Honda, Toyota, et. al. sell about half their cars here. Now what do they do, kick and scream?
I can understand why Bernie does it and can’t say i wouldn’t do the same, how do you turn down that kind of money? What I don’t understand is why he needs to do it in such an insulting manner. I believe that Canada learned they were dropped from the calander via the media, not directly from FIA. When Tony George was trying to renegotiate the contract with Bernie, Bernie is commenting to the press that he doesn’t need the USA who have been nothing but trouble. It would be hard to imagine a member of the France family making similar comments. Does a high handed attitude sell on that side of the Atlantic?
By the way, for no reason I can explain, F1 remains my favorite form of the sport.
Casey:
October 26th, 2008 2:20am
Thanks for stirring up things Nigel, and I so appreciate the responses posted here. Amen to the manufacturers doing a breakaway series and leave the Sideshow of Bernie, Max, and the beancounters.
Rod Hollingsworth:
October 26th, 2008 4:44pm
Dear Nigel
If Ecclestone put just half into GP Racing of what he has taken out, Silverstone for instance, we would have the best circuit and rightly so to compete with the Government supported tracks of the world. My introduction to motor racing began at Ibsley near Ringwood in Hampshire in 1952 when an almost unknown driver called Mike Hawthorn blasted the opposition. The pits were oildrums and strawbales!!! the atmosphere was electric, the drivers were actually human beings and spoke to you (I had a cup of coffee with Ecurie Ecosse!mechanics who were racing with their “C” Types. It was real motor racing. The plastic nasty circuits of today yes certainly seems to bring in the money but the real excitement has gone out of the sport, the smell, the rain the lack of facilities, catered only for the real enthusiast. Do not forget that when it all started more than a hundred years ago the only spectators were at the roadside!! We cannot go back to those days but for heavens sake we must surely do better than what is on offer today. I would love to take my grandsons to a GP but for hundreds of pounds just to see a few mega rich drivers playing follow my leader(that cannot overtake in case some jobsworth says it was unfair) I am afraid this is now not a sport but a means of making a few rich men a little richer, Ecclestone you may have deep pockets and short arms but one thing is certain you have lost the plot, for God’s sake KEEP SILVERSTONE its the backbone of Motor Racing.
Steve Selasky:
October 27th, 2008 3:31am
Dear Nigel,
I have been watching F1 and Indycars for 32 years. I was first intoxicated by it in 1976 by James Hunt and Niki Lauda epic battle for the World Title.
F1 racing has come a long way since then. We have seen many tracks, teams, and drivers come and go. Some of these changes are for the good of the “sport”. It is a sport?
No, Ecclestone and Mosely have managed to turn into a business which is very confusing to understand. I and probably many others cannot tell what is the product. Is it an example of the finest cars and drivers? Or is it just - a contrived product to take as much money out of countries that will pay to have a race come to it? I think it is the later.
I for one - doubt that Ecclestone is going to find enough countries to replace the circuits that are being lost to the Eastern countries. Nor, do I think countries as a matter of principle are going to pay a fee with only gate receipts to compensate them.
What of the future? I say this now and with all seriousness - the only way the product is going to sustain itself in the next 10-15 years is for the following things to happen: a budget cap of 150M, customer cars, circuits controlling the commercial aspect of the race weekend, reasonable ticket prices, and a return to “classic” tracks that challenges the F1 drivers.
In closing, I want to thank you Nigel for being a voice supporting us F1 fans…
Cheers, Steve
Rockford, Michigan
Robin Richardson:
October 28th, 2008 8:53pm
Looks like we’re heading back to where we started with Grand Prix Racing - a regional championship. Ok,so the regions now are Middle East/AsiaPac and not Europe as it was pre war, but essentially, any pretence of this being a proper world championship in the not too distant future are receding fast.
It doesn’t matter if the complaints are from fans concerned about the loss of heritage and great tracks (no French GP! -racing pioneers must be spinning in their graves) or manufacturers worried about not competing in their key markets (it’s a long time since the known world didn’t include the Americas),they’ll just have to put up with it thanks to the stunning arrogance of those calling the shots for F1. Mosely says he’ll impose a one make approach (bye bye Ferrari)while Ecclestone has decided that he’s going to unilaterally change the points scoring to favour race winners. Given that there is very little racing these days once pole position has been settled, then why don’t we save all the bother and just award points after qualifying? Oh, but I forgot, the new tech rules for next year are going to give us proper racing back - just like all the other changes to the rules that didn’t! Say what you like about the current crop of F1 cars but at least they look leading edge. Is it just me, or does anybody else think that the combination of featureless tracks and GP2 lookalike cars is going to be really dull? How things have changed. Remember when Monaco was decried in the not too distant past as an anachronism with no place in modern F1? What would you rather have - unlimited boost ground effect turbo cars running on rocket fuel on the streets of the Principality, or the sight of a lone McLaren dwarfed by the size of the main grandstand in China seemingly cruising down that ridiculously proportioned main straight. And there you have the problem. FI today is all about the governments of nations new to F1 trying to outdo each other with ever swankier facilities and sod the racing. I tell you what, if they are brave enough, the people planning the rebirth of IndyCars have a real opportunity - if only they are brave enough to make it happen. Technical diversity, cars that look as if they are different to other classes, running on a mixture of ovals, tracks and street circuits could provide the sort of spectacle and racing that most real race fans crave. Ok, so it would ‘only’ be a Regional series, but I bet it would be better than the other one that we’re heading towards.
Rich Ambroson:
October 30th, 2008 3:00am
In reference to your last paragraph, I will be leaving my close following of Formula One after more than 20 years. My leisure time is tighter these days, so the racing I’ll focus on will be MotoGP and the ALMS, and the big one at La Sarthe in June.
If a true Grand Prix series returns, I’ll be interested. But the “F1™®” that Max and Bernie are promoting is a devolving into spec cars at “festival” events. It certainly reminds me of the direction the owners of ChampCar tried to take that series a few years ago. Worked out well for them, didn’t it… (at least the Panoz DPo1 was a decent looking car…)
John Millard:
November 5th, 2008 10:07pm
I’m older and luckier than many of your keen followers,remembering good and bad, G.P’s all over Europe, in the “bad old days”,and like you I remember the atmosphere amongst drivers and spectators alike.It was a sport, where you fought to come first however you could and at the finish had a story to tell. The only antiseptic was on the knocks from the days events not from commentators.
For sure it was dangerous; often it was boring and sometimes heartbreakingly sad.
Motor racing involves CARS and this is where it must go in future.Yes, it’s a sport but no manufacturer, either a multi-national like Ferrari, or a “Bitsa” using someone else,engine on a shed-built chassis,is going to want to exist on T-shirt sales.
I watch MotoGP,sometimes with hands over my eyes. It’s thrilling. I shout. I cheer. the riders are clearly visible and each has a character WHILST racing. In the paddock they talk, sometimes they say un-political things about the team or other riders.It’s fun to watch….
Lets get back to the real reason for Grand Prix. First past the flag and may the best CAR and DRIVER win the next race too!