That's likely the last Grand Prix I'll watch. 30 years of late Sunday nights, been to many a race and have some incredible memories but this year? What a fucking shitshow. And why? The damn Netflix crowd. That stupid soapie Drive to Survive has attracted a crowd that isn't race oriented and will back the first shiny thing they latch onto. Very smart play by F1 of course and no doubt helping the revenue for sure but Jesus H Christ; the people voting for Driver of the Day are voting purely on who they barrack for. Kimi Driver of the day in Abu Dhabi? He was in the pits by lap 20 sinking tinnies! Not that that means much to me but it shows the lack of credibility being offered to the purest fans but hey; I guess we're a dead breed. The lack of noise in F1? Thats not important now as 65% of the screen time for Formula One is on a mobile phone where volume isn't a thing. Shame but truly a sign of the times and I'll admit that this category really isn't for me or aimed at guys like me anymore. The sad part about this season for me has been the immaturity of the team bosses; particularly Red Bullshit F1 and it's dragged veterans into it (Hamilton). Yep, I'm a Hamilton fan but also believe the fastest should win. Thats now a problem in F1 and what was shown in Abu Dhabi was disgraceful. Retiring Perez so it was one car out of Vercrashen's way? The retirement of Raikonnen during the race so he could be seen on primetime to get a bit of a send off? Latifi sticking it into the fence Piquet Jnr in Singapore style? (Hint; look that one up) and then the contrived rubbish that was the safety car with lapped cars passing etc etc? Not for one second did I believe any of that was not 100% staged and made up on the go purely to appease the big final boss battle. Yuck, it was fucking shit to watch and embarrassing. And issuing half points for three laps behind safety car in Spa? Ha! Fuck off.
F1 is dumb. I hope the 2022 regulations fix some of the big problems but I fear it's just gonna be another TV drama made for Home & Away fans.
While this season has undoubtedly been marred by some really weird FIA decisions and inconsistent penalties (mostly at the expense of Verstappen who lets face it probably deserved most of them) to argue that F1 is being watered down to cater for soapy fans is giving it a nudge imo. F1 has (for far too long) been an aloof, insular and seemingly proud of its inaccessibility while simultaneously wondering how a bunch of suicidal rocket jockeys on a bit of Dallara scaffolding can pull 300,000+ capacity crowds at Indycar. For many years (especially pre-Webber) I was frustrated by the lack of knowledge, understanding and relatability for anyone involved in F1 (apart from knowing that Ron Dennis had pathological OCD) beyond a few snippets and background gleaned from
F1 Magazine and similar who were only really given what the team's PR Praetorian Guard decided would be allowed.
Liberty Media has jettisoned that protective carapace and given fans much more exposure, relatability and audience beyond what just tuning on a race weekend will do because lets face it - heaps of races have been, are and always will be boring af to watch due to being processions, hindered by stupid rules (grooved tyres wtf), by having one team wiping the floor with everyone else or being held at Monaco. Thanks to
Drive to Survive I now know that several people are either pretty cool or otherwise relatable and empathisable (new word) while confirming others are total chodes. And an episode devoted to
why this particular race is so important to some low ranking driver in order to keep his seat who otherwise you'd never give even the slightest shit about owing to zero exposure? Brilliant telly. Yes I'll agree that being a petulant wanker for the cameras for edge points (not sure who started this - that weird Haas guy?) is definitely a thing now but Horner has always been fucking useless when it comes to controlling his drivers and Marko seems to actively foster dickheads so not sure what can be done there. Plus thanks to DTS we got to see Horner's face when Abeitboul owned him over the Ricciardo move to Renault a season or two ago.
Ultimately Masi was always going to be crucified for the result - the howling and rage he would've received if he let the race finish under a safety car in the closest championship we've seen in decades would've probably finished his career, as would have not letting those unlapped cars through and not giving Verstappen a chance at Hamilton. At the end of the day F1 is for us - the fans. Something the sport seemed to not be overly attuned to for a while but now they are so I for one welcome our new overlords.
/ rant