I guess in many ways this shift is a sign of the increasing reliance upon technology. But it also goes to show how the business of Formula One is focused on the mutual gain of those involved and not the raw entertainment of the audience.
Look at any other motorsport genre. Here in the UK, for example, we have awesome saloon car championships, and you will see that it is ran primarily as a spectator sport. Reverse grids, success ballast, mid-season rule changes to even up the field; anything is done in order to keep the racing close and the audience interested.
Drivers are not just a cog in the corporate machine, and the core factor is determining the difference between an easy podium finish and a hard-fought win.
In last season's F1 we saw this kind of atmosphere thrive at the McLaren team, both drivers fighting hard to get advantage over the other. Yet the team failed to manage this in any way correctly, ignoring it, playing it down, pretending it was not there.
In fact, it seemed the whole of F1 was not prepared for the idea of rivalry, something sport needs. So although we saw an exciting, intriguing three-way championship battle, this was generally condemned and now, one year later, we are back to generic, pre-packaged motorsport with no human emotion or sense of grounded reality.
Formula One needs desperately a reality check. The powers that be need reminding that we, the audience, are an important cog in the machine, and without our interest they may as well drive around wearing fluorescent pink leotards.
Finally, a word to the drivers too—show some personality. We like a laugh, we're human, you're human, show some emotion.
"Team Politics" do not own you. Without the drivers the teams would be nothing but a bunch of nerds with computers. They'd be left to chat on MSN and look at pornography.
So start entertaining us, both on and off the track. Everybody wants a character on their team.
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