Fantastic Start to New Formula 1 Season Overshadowed by Many off-Track Issues

This should be a happy time in the world of Formula One. The new season just began with an exciting, unpredictable race, and Ferrari appear ready to challenge Mercedes' two-year hegemony.

Instead—as is often the case—F1 finds itself mired in controversy. And most of it—as is often the case—is (or was) completely avoidable.

First, there was the qualifying debacle in Australia, which could have been averted with a little planning and forethought. Next, the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) issued an open letter blasting the rule-making process and calling for a change to F1's governance structure. Finally, Sky Sports announced that, starting in 2019, no F1 races (except for the British Grand Prix) will be available free-to-air in the UK or Ireland.

Altogether, not a great week for those who are supposed to be running the sport.

The attempt to revise the qualifying format sprang from some misguided idea that F1 needs scrambled grids to be interesting. This ignores the fact there was no problem for the first 65 years of the championship when the quickest drivers in qualifying were rewarded by starting the race at the front.

But instead of dealing with complicated issues such as the inequality of revenue distribution among the teams, F1's leadership opted for what seemed like an easy fix without fully thinking it through. The results were on display in Melbourne.

TOM GANDOLFINI/Getty Images

It could have been even worse, if F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone had gotten his way. "I wanted a very simple thing," he told the Independent's Christian Sylt. "I wanted qualifying to stay as it is, because it is good, and then if a guy is on pole and has won the last race he gets so many seconds added to his time so he has to fight through the bloody pack to get in the lead, which he would do in the end."

The live-elimination system agreed upon for Australia (which was then to be delayed until Spain, and then not) failed to significantly shake up the grid, and many drivers were eliminated sitting in their garages, unable to refuel and get back on the circuit in time for another lap.

By Sunday morning in Australia, the team bosses had agreed to revert to the previous qualifying format with immediate effect. Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff told the BBC's Andrew Benson he had spoken to Ecclestone, who agreed.

On Thursday, though, Autosport's Ian Parkes reported the F1 Strategy Group failed to unanimously agree to revert to the old qualifying format, so the live-elimination system will remain in place for the Bahrain Grand Prix, at least.

This is not the way a professional sport should be making its rules—knee-jerk reaction followed by public bickering followed by knee-jerk reaction. It's no wonder the GPDA felt the need to speak out and request a change in the rule-making process.

The letter, which was signed by Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and GPDA chairman Alex Wurz, states, "We would like to request and urge the owners and all stakeholders of Formula One to consider restructuring its own governance. The future directions and decisions of F1, be they short- or long-term, sporting, technical or business orientated, should be based on a clear master plan."

This is not a new sentiment in F1 circles, although it is novel that the drivers have spoken with one voice, in public, calling for such significant changes. Unfortunately, as ESPN F1's Maurice Hamilton points out, the drivers' letter is unlikely to get results unless they are prepared to take some kind of drastic action.

The F1 leadership has already proved itself remarkably deaf to any ideas the individuals involved do not believe will further their own interests. For example, the fan surveys conducted last year demonstrated that most fans do not want gimmicks designed to improve the spectacle of F1.

So what do Ecclestone et al. push for? A gimmicky qualifying process.

Surprisingly, per the BBC's Andrew Benson, Ecclestone responded to the GPDA letter with one of his own, agreeing that the governance structure and rule-making processes are broken. With the mess that is the current structure of the sport, though, Ecclestone may be unable to control the mess he helped create.

Finally, Sky Sports capped a problematic week for F1 by announcing it would be the UK and Ireland's exclusive F1 broadcaster from 2019. Television viewership figures have been declining in recent years as F1 coverage moves to pay TV in many traditional markets (read: Europe).

Ecclestone and the private investors who control F1's commercial rights receive more up-front money from these deals. If the sport continues to lose viewers, though, it could reach a critical mass where the companies paying for the broadcast rights can no longer justify the high fees.

The exclusive Sky Sports deal is not in the long-term best interests of F1. Sure, the company wrote a massive cheque to Ecclestone, but at the cost of how many fans and potential new fans?

"Shutting out the fans will, I fear, drive people away and they will never return," wrote longtime F1 journalist Joe Saward on his personal blog. "New generations will never discover the passion that the sport gave us. And it is all down to one thing: short-sighted greed."

The loss of competition for Sky's coverage (previously the BBC, now Channel 4), even if it was only for certain races, is unlikely to be beneficial for English-language fans. It is not often, in any business, that less competition leads to a better product.

As the GPDA letter suggests, F1 needs a master plan. Those in charge need to decide how they want the sport to look in 10 or 20 years and then, working backwards, develop a plan to get there. This might require the Strategy Group to use actual strategic thinking or, even better, the group could be disbanded.

Something must be done, though, because ad hoc rule-making does not work. At a time when F1 should be celebrating the start of a new season, the technical achievement of the cars and the renewed relevance of its most storied team, we instead have fan access being further restricted, drivers calling out their paymasters and the sport stuck on a qualifying-format merry-go-round that no one seems to know how to turn off.

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