27/04/2007
NEWS STORY
It doesn't come as too much of a surprise that Flavio Briatore is calling (once again) for F1 to be spiced up, having previously led the way when it came to changing the Friday format.
The Italian's latest suggestions however, are sure to have purists frothing at the mouth, as they would surely dumb the sport down to such a level that Formula One - as the pinnacle of motorsport - would become almost recognisable.
In essence, Briatore is calling for F1 to adopt a format similar to GP2, whereby instead of one single race, a Grand Prix would consist of two shorter events complete with reverse grids. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten, that Briatore is the man behind the F1 feeder series.
"Our job is racing, not testing," he told Italian magazine Autosprint. "We must have more Grands Prix, we must change qualifying, and the races too. We must try to adapt.
"Maybe we can change the times of races," he suggests. "Perhaps we should have races over two heats in order to give a chance to the drivers that didn't do well in the first one. It could be similar to the GP2 format, which at the moment is creating interest, by having two races on Sunday, not one and a half hours long, but, for example, one 45 minutes and the other 50."
His suggestion comes at a time when F1 is creating interesting however, mainly due to the emergence of Lewis Hamilton, and also the intriguing battle between Ferrari and McLaren, not to mention the internal battles within these teams. Then there is the emergence of BMW, not to mention the revival of Williams, and the struggles of Honda, Toyota and Briatore's own team, Renault.
F1 does have a lot more to offer, but resorting to the GP2 format is not the answer, far from it.
Apart from the fact that few fans would accept such a radical change, it is unlikely that TV broadcasters would want to dedicate time to two races, even if they were shorter. One only has to recall how quickly Sunday qualifying was dropped.
A further comment by Briatore is most telling: "Let's be honest," he says, "nothing happens after the second pitstop nowadays, unless there is an accident."
And sadly, that is true.
However, the sport will be made more interesting to current (and new fans) not by dumbing it down, making it attractive to the MTV generation with its minimal attention span, but by making the current package more exciting, which means looking at the rules and perhaps - shock horror - paying some real attention to responses to the FIA's fan surveys rather than merely using them for market research for Haymarket and the like.
It is a dreadful indictment of this sport when the boss of the reigning (back-to-back) World Champions admits that "nothing happens after the second pitstop", a dreadful indictment, and one that should have certain inhabitants of 'planet paddock' hanging their heads in shame for it is an admission that we are being short-changed. As if we didn't already know.