Opinion Time to say bye to F1’s status quo

Even though the cars appear slower than the previous season, the action — as evidenced last weekend in Melbourne — seems to have speeded up.

March 20, 2014 02:56 AM IST First published on: Mar 20, 2014 at 02:56 AM IST

Silence is not comforting — that is the biggest news to come out of the F1 season-opener in Australia. The organisers at Albert Park and promoters of other races are already grumbling and waving arms, even pointing at contracts they claim are being breached — at the lack of noise associated with the new 1.6-litre V6 turbo power units.

They may be missing the woods for the trees. The idea of pushing these changes through was to get F1 back to its roots — to be at the forefront of development in the automotive industry. At a time when the sport is trying to put together a spectacle that will seduce spectators enough to get them to the stands — last season’s snooze-fest with Vettel winning nine in a row put many people off — the 2014 regulations are a step in the right direction. Many fans felt F1 was becoming disconnected with achieving technological excellence that was devoid of any real significance outside of racing.

There’s no point beating round the bush about another issue too — tree-hugging or not, F1 has to be sustainable for it to remain viable. Going green — there can hardly be a bigger misnomer for F1 — has not exactly reduced speed over the years. The math is simple. The better the fuel efficiency, the lesser fuel one needs to carry and the faster one can go. This season, there is a further spanner in the works with cars limited to 100kgs of fuel per race and asked to squeeze out more power from a limited amount of fuel.

For engine manufacturers and racing teams, this poses a challenge that teams have almost forgotten how to cope with — flux. New systems require time to bed in just as a paying public takes its time to warm to changes.

Even though the cars appear slower than the previous season, the action — as evidenced last weekend in Melbourne — seems to have speeded up. It is time to say goodbye to status quo. It is time to stop quibbling about the lack of noise. It is time to stop saying what traditionally F1 has been — loud noise, fast cars.

It is time to embrace F1 for what it is and give it a chance to give us a new perspective on what it can be.

(Hormazd is a senior sub-editor, based in New Delhi.)
hormazd@expressindia.com

# F1 season