Let me say this first: I am new to Formula 1.
As previously mentioned in a blog post, I have recently gotten into the sport thanks to the Netflix series, F1: Drive to Survive, and I couldn’t be more hooked. The competition, the personalities, the drama, it’s all top tier entertainment. That being said, lots of fans are livid on social media due to the dominance of Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
If you are a seasoned F1 fan, skip this paragraph. If you are new to the sport, I don’t mean to fansplain to you, but let me spell out the sport and the current controversy to you very briefly. In F1 there are 10 teams, each with two cars, and there are also two championships: The Constructors Cup and the World Drivers’ Championship. The Constructors Cup is awarded to the highest scoring team based on combined points earned by their two drivers throughout the season. The World Drivers’ Championship is won by the driver who scores the most points individually over the seasons’ 23 races. Each team builds their own race car based on the materials, measurements, and other specifications laid out by the FIA, which is the governing body of F1. This, combined with each team having different resources, technology, engineers, and data leads to some cars being faster than others. There are typically three teams that dominate the field, many that sit in what’s considered the midpack, and then there are a few that fight to get a single point in any season. This year, Red Bull has engineered one of the fastest F1 cars to date, and its performance blows away even the second and third best cars in the field. The team has eight straight wins, with the past seven going to Max Verstappen.
After the second race of the year in Saudi Arabia, seven time World Drivers’ Champion and eight time Constructors Cup Winner Lewis Hamilton had this to say about Red Bull’s car: “I have definitely never seen a car so fast”…“When we were fast, we were not that fast. It is the fastest car I have seen, especially compared to the rest.”
He continued, stating, “I don’t know how, but [Verstappen] came past me with some serious speed and I didn’t even bother to block him because there was a massive speed difference.”
Charles Lecleric, the star driver for Ferrari, took pole position in qualifying today and seems to have the same mindset when it comes to staying in front of the Red Bulls:
So, it’s not only the fans, but the top drivers in the world are disgruntled by the advantage Red Bull has with their race car.
Now, onto the question that I’ve seen make its way around socials:
SHOULD ALL TEAMS DRIVE THE EXACT SAME CAR?
If every team had an identical car, it would be easy to distinguish who the best driver in the world is, without a doubt. As they love to say in the Netflix series, “the stopwatch doesn’t lie”. But would this be what’s best for the sport?
I don’t think a newbie like me has the experience or knowledge to know what’s truly “best for the sport”, but I’ll try my hardest.
I think that at its heart, F1 is all about trying to get a car around a track as fast as possible. Before you say “No shit Sherlock!”, let me get to my point. As much as it’s a race to cross the finish line, it’s also a race to put together the fastest car before the season starts. If you were to remove the competition that is building the best car to beat all other teams, it would eliminate the desire to innovate. Innovation leads to a higher standard of race cars across the board through teams learning from their opposition, so in the long run, the performance of race cars would be slower if everybody were driving the same car than if they had their own.
In short: No competition – No innovation – comparatively slower cars over time.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
The current model that Formula 1 uses forces drivers to heavily rely on their teams to produce a fast car. What if that relationship were switched, but teams still engineered their own vehicles? What would that structure look like?
Here’s what I am proposing: Drivers race on qualifying day in identical cars, earning points towards the World Drivers’ Championship and setting the positions for the race on Sunday. On Sunday, drivers would race their team engineered cars, earning points towards both the Constructors Cup and the World Drivers’ Championship.
It would also make sense to have the qualifying race day award slightly more points to the World Drivers’ Championship than the real race day awards. This would severely help the drivers who are stuck with a bad car, granted they can earn points.
This system would keep the need to innovate, while also providing fans with a chance to see who the best driver really is. Not only would we get the best of both worlds, but we’d get to see more races. I understand the appeal of qualifying days with posting the fastest lap, but what beats 20 cars racing simultaneously?
Nothing.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and tune in Sunday morning, 9 am EST to watch the Belgian Grand Prix!