Chiu’s Changes to F1: The Introduction (Pt 1)

Over 1000 Grand Prix and 70 seasons, Formula One has seen it all. There is often so much negativity from F1 fans about the sport but for once, lets be positive and look at why many of us still watch what is and probably always be, the pinnacle of motorsport.

The sport has seen 100 pole sitters, 108 different winners and 33 world champions crowned. Races and moments have been written into the archives with numerous drivers etching their name onto the history books.

Every year people say that this is the last time they will watch F1 as it “isn’t the same anymore” or its “best days are gone” etc. yet F1 is still one of the most watched sports in the world. Viewing figures have declined, but F1 is by no means dead with some races still achieving hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic and adoring fans flooding the grandstands and the circuit surroundings.

The racing is nowhere near as good as other motorsport series, there is not as much drama and the competition is not close with three teams very much at the front with a huge gap to the rest of the field. But, it has always been like that – this is not a new problem and it has been even worse in the past.

If you ignore seasons such as 1974, 1982 and 2012 which were the rare years when 7+ drivers won a race, the average number of race winners is generally 4-5. This century, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have taken 14 drivers’ championships out of 20. Patches of dominance has hurt the sport.

The increasing number of races has exaggerated the feel of dominance with championships finishing with a handful of Grand Prix remaining. Then, we have the issue of the lack of overtaking as the cars struggle to follow each other. Again, this has always been a problem in F1 and it always will be.

In some seasons, overtaking can be more difficult compared to other years but if you have a light, open wheel car with nearly 1000BHP and lots of aerodynamics then it will always be hard to follow the car in front.

Away from the racing side of things, F1 is clearly money driven. Pay TV deals, ever increasing costs and too many moves that are reactive rather than thoughtful have been made. Bernie Ecclestone did such excellent work to build the sport through the 80s, 90s and 2000s but he has also helped the recent decline in interest.

The teams have far too much power and want rules that will favour them and it will be hard to take this power away as they will inevitably negotiate and threaten to leave the sport.

However, F1 still does have some of the very best drivers in the world in the fastest cars that can get around a racetrack. This year’s cars are still the fastest cars we have ever seen and you can tell the drivers are buzzing after qualifying or the race.

Perhaps we do not appreciate the skill it takes to drive a car so fast around a track with the cameras not doing the speed any justice. It is still staggering how a car can average over 150MPH through Maggots and Becketts at Silverstone or The Esses at Suzuka.

When we do get overtakes and battles they can be superb. Spain 2017, for example is very much an underrated race which saw Hamilton and Vettel do battle all afternoon. Then you have Grand Prix such as Bahrain 2014, Imola 2005, Suzuka 2005, Hungary 1998, as well as Hungary, Austria and Italy last year –  races which see the drivers pushing incredibly hard with great intensity which you don’t necessarily get in other series because they are not going as fast.

When F1 is good, it can feel like the best sport in the world.

Of course, it is hard to stay completely positive and if I could make changes I would revamp Formula One to make it more exciting and to have closer competition.

In a series which Motorsport Radio are calling Chiu’s Changes, I will set out what I would do to change the sport including the racing, the format, the technical regulations, and the coverage.

In my opinion, Liberty Media missed out on a huge opportunity to innovate the sport in 2021 even with the enormous amount of research they did and the time they had to get a set of regulations which would make the sport even more thrilling and exciting. The announcement felt underwhelming after years of talk about 2021.

Time will tell but if I was on the team that was looking to change Formula One, this series will outline what I would have done.