Settle back. This is a season review blog, and it’s been a long old season.
Before the last wheel had turned in 2009 we welcomed the second British World Champion in two years, driving for a team that has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of another. All the talk coming into the final few races was whether Brawn could keep ahead of Red Bull but in the end it wasn’t even close. And shame on the poo-poo-ers that decry Brawn for its failure to perform consistently over the whole year: Schumacher and Ferrari did that and it nearly killed the sport. Besides, when you’re 6-0 up at half time you’re entitled to take it easier in the second half.
For me, the season was fun because Ferrari tugged around at the back, whichever driver drove, and in true Italian style the team gave up early and went home. McLaren looked to be in danger of suffering a similar fate but Martin pulled his boys together and the silver cars looked quick at the end. This bodes well for next season, especially if the brilliant Red Bull team can keep advancing and the midfield can start to get two drivers in the points, every now and then.
In 2010 the grid will look somewhat different, and not just because the cars will have swelled to carry a whole race’s worth of fuel. We’ll be a manufacturer lighter than in 2009, following the withdrawal of Toyota and BMW, replaced by Lotus, with only Ferrari and Renault remaining as true manufacturer teams. Three manufacturers; ten independents. This is A Good Thing because it focuses the sport on what it should be all about: racing. It is less likely to result in the technological arms race that was responsible for driving budgets to irresponsible levels in recent years despite hollow assertions to the contrary from – you guessed it – manufacturers like Ferrari and Toyota.
More importantly, it will result in racing through to the back of the grid, as independent teams duke it out for the lower places and gradually find their feet enough to – I hope – occasionally challenge the big boys at the front. With the ability that resides in some of the new teams, I fancy the upsets might be more than occasional.
Which makes Ferrari’s attitude (I paraphrase only a little: “we blame the sport’s authorities for allowing in this bunch of monkeys that are not worthy to compete with us”) all the more understandable. I think the team is running scared not of losing next year, but of having to spend upwards of $400m – ten times the formerly proposed budget cap – in order to do so.
It will be interesting too, to see how ex-Ferrari boss Jean Todt fills Max Moseley’s shoes at the FIA. Todt’s manifesto was a strangely bland mix of policies that sought to appeal to all but alienate none. We’ll see what he makes of it and the sport will give him a year to do so before rounding on him in its typically toothless style although to be fair, there are no mechanisms in the FIA constitution for sanctioning the organisation’s leader anyway.
Commercially, I think the F1 patient is stable and out of intensive care after liegate, crashgate and the manufacturer withdrawals which while they may be good for the sport, do have a negative impact on teams’ ability to attract sponsorship. With no Honda, Toyota or BMW there are no first fill deals for Esso or Petronas, no technology partnerships with Panasonic, Dell or Intel and a massive number of road cars that no longer need to start their lives on Bridgestones. Bridgestone too, will leave the sport at the end of 2010, completing a Japanese exodus that will see fewer sponsors from that part of the world despite the fact that the country retains its GP. Shame; Japanese fans are among the most passionate in the sport.
Yet I see reasons for commercial optimism. The grid will be 26 cars long next year. More cars means more sponsorship opportunities, at lower prices probably, which will mean that more brands can enter the sport. Some of the teams have already shown that it is possible to attract top partnerships (Virgin, Megafon). The geographic base of F1 team ownership continues to expand with Qadbak-Sauber and Lotus spreading the love eastwards. If Tony Fernandez can excite Malaysians behind their own team, then everyone will benefit; Sepang has been quiet in recent years because of the failure of Malaysian business to realise the benefits of F1.
I think the show will improve, on and off the track. Bernie is trying to sort out HDTV at Abu Dhabi which may go some way towards livening up a dull race at least by giving us a more detailed look at the facilities on the telly. Social media advances irrespective of copyright concerns; about half the drivers tweet and most have facebook sites. F1 Rocks added great value to the Singapore race and if they can get their contracts sorted out, should appear at more races next year.
All we need now is a British Grand Prix. As I write, it doesn’t exist, but I fully expect that this situation will change before the day is out. Watch this space.
By Scott Garrett on November 9th, 2009
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