Formula for 1 and all…..Formula 1 for all

Force India has garnered its maiden points in its second season in the last grand prix by placing their driver on podium and did it again in monza after sutil finished in top 5 proving that there is enough competition left in formula 1. Me?? Am not supporting Force India due to my nationality. The events/results of this years GP have a great bearing towards where formula 1 is heading.

Take the case of Force India gathering points from podium. Its truly endorses the stand of FIA that formula can be ran on a tight budget, and yet be competitive enough. Cars run above 300 km/hr in a race. Does that mean that there cant be an exciting competition at 250 km/hr?

In their quest to achive maximum speed formula one teams lost directions. Just up till recently, we had cars running with traction control and launch control systems…!! Come on guys, we know that this technologies exist and are being used in commercial cars for improved safety. But in a F1 car to assist a driver, just so that he can run the car at a higher speed without worrying about skidding?? Imagine a driver who just floors the acclerator at the green light without having to think about a spinning wheel!! Now wheres the driving ability in that? I still remember those races where in older drivers like barrichello chose to switch off launch control just to get the complete control over how he starts the race, instead of a computer carrying the job for him. Had the development in that direction not been stopped by FIA , drivers would have just become puppets inside the car, with computers handling even the gear upshift!!!

Lets talk about ethics. Great teams like mclaren had got itself entangled in the spygate. The pressure to generate revenues for their investors have forced many into unethical ways. Stealing data from a winning team is not very competitive. Neither is favouratism. Many a times have seen ferrari favouring micheal schumacher and skillfully forcing barrichello to back out. It was heartbreaking to see when it happened to barrichello in front of his home crowd.

Safety!! Formula 1 is considered as safest with high level of research and development in that direction..Well , rubbish that. Formula should be considered one of the most dangerous and life threatening sport. Atleast going by the standards followed now-a-days. Sheer pressure to perform has forced seasoned drivers in to mistakes, resulting in injuries and loss of life. Let me be frank, I started enjoying formula 1 when i didnt even know what it was, but the number of dramatic accidents taking place on track kept me glued. And my interest in formula 1 increased to a point that i became fairly versed with its in’s and out’s. Though the number of accidents decreased, no foolproof safety measures can be implemented. In the promos for the singapore GP, videos from last years GP are aired. A driver running across the track cannot be termed as safe. Also you cant say that its safe for drivers to just tear apart a fuel hose and take half its length dragging all along the pit lane. It could have resulted in major fire.

Analyse crash gate. A driver accused a team manager of giving him order to crash at a certain point on track so as to give advantage to his team mate. Forget the validity of this accusation or the ethical outlook if they are true. Hey formula one people!! This is very dangerous game plan not only for that particular driver but also for other drivers, track marshalls, spectators and formula one as a whole.

All in all formula one needs a radical change where in its not controlled by handful of majors but by all the participating interests. Take the case of Brawn GP. They got their funding just in the week of their first race and they have shown that they are winning material. Same with Redbull Racing. Same with Force India. These teams were ‘who are they?’ of formula 1. But they changed the tide of the game. Current recession has crippled many teams and a tight budget can be beneficial for their survival and that of formula 1. Whats the point in having a race without the full starting grid? Its the battle of all the orders, the top, the middle and the bottom..