Broken Is The Mighty

The Canadian Grand Prix has come and gone, and never has a race promised so much yet delivered so little. Last weekend's Grand Prix was one of the worst I have ever seen in all my years of watching F1. And I left my dad's house after watching the race with an emotion I had never felt before when watching F1 – hopelessness.

I am F1's biggest advocate, in fact motorsport's biggest advocate. Anyone who has talked to me or glanced at my twitter account for even a minute will know juts how passionate about motor racing I am. But what is happening right now is just totally unacceptable – it's frankly wrong.

During the 70-lap Canadian race at the wonderful Circuit Gilles Villenueve we saw nothing but fuel saving, brake saving, fuel saving, reliability woes, fuel saving, stupid engine penalties, fuel saving. This is the pinnacle of motorsport, or at least it is supposed to be. So how can the sport honestly justify fuel saving as a means of racing. Drivers should be pushing to the limits of their cars, not the ludicrous 100kg of fuel they have.

Unfortunately we're in this rut because apparently F1 needs to 'relevant to the road'. Yes, £25 million power units with a tendency to break are really representative to the little hatchback I'll be driving in some years time. Also, I don't see anyone on the road running a set of Pirelli Pzero Super Soft tyres, do you? Formula 1 lost its road relevance in the early 90's when electronic aids were all banned – and rightly so! F1 should never have any relevance to the road; it's relevance should lie in it having the best damn racing cars in the world. Leave the road rubbish to the World Endurance Championship where it is actually more relevant, in the case of the manufacturers and the ethos of the series. Hell, even Formula Ford has more of a bearing on the road than F1.

Mercedes are the dominant force in F1 at the moment, and I think that this is killing the sport. Now, before any hits me with “what about Red Bull blah, blah, blah”, I would just like to point out that Red Bull were fought by McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus. Those teams actually put their resources into racing, the fundamental idea upon which Formula 1 is built. Mercedes on the other hand put their money and time into the 2014 rule change, building mediocre cars in the interim to get from season to season. Some would say that this was smart. But I say this is wrong. They should have been building cars capable of winning titles in those years, not putting all their chips down on one season in the future. Don't believe me? Look at where those other teams that went racing are now.

Had Mercedes built this car off of the back of some successful title bids from 2010-2013 then yeah, fantastic job. But they haven't, and I honestly, had we other manufacturers doing the same thing, don't think they would have been as dominant. Quite the opposite in fact.

The problem now is that Mercedes have the say in the Strategy Group now, so any change to the rules to improve the sport will inevitably be blocked by the German marque if it means taking a performance advantage hit. Just look at their 'revolutionary solution' to the noise issue last year. Yeah, thanks for that Mercedes!

Now, Mercedes aren't really 100% at fault for the dire state we are in. That onus is on Mr B.Ecclestone and the FIA.

Eccelstone's ineptness to distribute funds correctly has led to teams collapsing and several more being brought to the brink. Not only that, but his treatment of the paying punter has alienated many fans. Instead of classic Grand Prix in Germany and France, we must endure the stale and uninspiring 'Tilkedromes' in the Middle East and Azerbaijan, places where there are no fans and questionable human rights records – looking at you, Baku. There is also the television rights. Want fully live coverage? Then you have to pay for SkyF1 which is frankly expensive and contains some of the worst journalism, if I can even call it that, I have ever heard

Now pay-per-view TV wouldn't bug me as much if the money generated actually found its way back into the sport, like in MotoGP. From 2017 Dorna, the commercial rights holder of MotoGP, aims to pay factory teams for bikes to give to the Staellite/open teams, thus seeing an entire grid made up of factory and satellite teams running factory bikes. That means that the money I pay each month is going into buying a bike for a team, which is kind of cool. Unfortunately that doesn't happen in F1 and probably never will.

Now to the FIA. Well, they introduced these rules that are currently ruining the sport, financially and entertainment wise. The most frustrating thing about these rules though is the restrictiveness. As a result Adrian Newey, the greatest designer this generation has seen, has left the sport. They also tie the hands of engine manufacturers. These regulations were introduced in a bid to bring back manufacturers, and it has somewhat worked with the return of Honda. Yet they've gone and cocked it up by disallowing new manufacturers the ability to upgrade their power unit to the same degree as the others. How is that good for a sport looking for competition when its governing body disallows a team to be competitive? How is that a good advert for other manufacturers looking to come into the sport? Well, it isn't.

F1 is broken, and no one in charge seems to see that. Where other series' are streaking ahead in fan involvement and the actual running of the series itself – MotoGP – F1 is circling the drain. I'm really losing my love for the sport, which has really upset me. This is a sport that excited so much when I was little that it inspired me as I got older.

Now look at it!

But, I look around my room at all the posters and models and signed bits and bobs, and it still draws me in. F1 is a bit like a younger sibling; they don't half piss you right off, but you'd miss them sorely if they weren't in your life. And as much as F1 is really fucking me off at the moment, I suspect that if I stopped watching I'd feel lost.

Who knows? Maybe something might set it on the path of change. I know I'll be behind it when that day comes.

#F1 #paddockgrump