23/05/2012
FEATURE BY MAT COCH
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Formula One fans have been spoiled. Only now is it becoming apparent that what we had for so long, and that which we all complained about and labelled processional, boring and predictable, was in fact exactly what we wanted.
Throughout the 90s and until the banning of refuelling we witnessed Formula One in a form it had never been seen in before. Drivers and teams pushed the envelope of performance as they sprinted from start to finish replenishing fuel and tyres with gleeful abandon.
A sequence of qualifying laps by Michael Schumacher effectively won him the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix over David Coulthard. A strategy change made mid-race piled the pressure on the German, under which he excelled in pushed his and the car's combined ability for lap after lap in his desperate charge against the clock. It was that string of laps which won the race for Schumacher, not hunting down and passing Coulthard on track which is what most would consider 'racing'.
It was hailed a supreme drive by a supreme driver. The media waxed lyrical about the achievement failing to note the elephant in the room; there hadn't been any racing.
But we'd seen lap after lap of the best driver pushing his car into the realms of the unimaginable. It was poetry, of sorts, the like of which Ayrton Senna described his qualifying lap in Monaco in 1988.
To see Schumacher sprinting from pit stop to pit stop throughout the duration of a Grand Prix is a comparatively unusual way of going Grand Prix racing. It was a style that existed only while refuelling was within the regulations and a technique Schumacher demonstrated perfectly at that the Hungaroring. He went on to exploit it so mercilessly the FIA changed the regulations.
At first we applauded the change as it put an end to the dreary dull races we'd grown accustomed to, longing for the days of the 1980's where the driver could make the difference.
There is a photo taken in 1986 of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost sitting on a wall. It stands as a symbol of one of the greatest eras of the sport, we recall, when men were giants and stood as modern day gladiators in the motor sport amphitheatre.
The photo also symbolises an era when tyre and fuel management were critical factors in the outcome of races and the championship, a factor which has been forgotten in the 25-years since it was taken.
The 1986 championship was famous less for its knife edge racing as the closing stages of the final race of the year. The season took place during the height of the turbocharged era with engines whose brake horsepower was only marginally smaller than their rev limits. Fuel the nemesis as drivers dialled the boost up and down in an effort to reach the end. They did not sprint. Often they crawled.
That year's Australian Grand Prix was won by Alain Prost. Nigel Mansell blew a tyre as he speared down Brabham Straight, his foot firmly buried in the front bulkhead. His rear tyre screamed enough and in a shower of sparks his championship was over.
Prost, his McLaren all but empty of the elixir it needed to continue, spluttered to a halt just after the finish line. He'd won the race and with it the championship having managed his tyres and fuel perfectly. His rivals did not and they lost the championship because of it.
During that turbo era drivers rarely sprinted from beginning to end. They carefully measured their efforts to achieve the best result. Often that meant dropping off the back of a car ahead to save tyres. Passing did not enter the equation. It was not a large part of racing in the 1980's nor throughout the refuelling era.
Yet the two eras were not dissimilar. They are linked by their capacity to produce dull, uneventful racing. The 1986 Australian Grand Prix is remembered as a classic though watching it now is uninspiring. Only the dramatic twist brought about by a lack of tyre management prevented that title deciding event from being just another procession. We remember the drama and plot twists, though one could suggest hindsight has left us with an inflated sense of the entertainment the race had until those final moments.
Modern Formula One resides somewhere betwixt the conservative turbo era and the devastating Schumacher technique which presided over the sport for decade. We long for the gritty determination of drivers wrestling monstrous fuel thirsty beasts while at the same time we want to see drivers on the ragged edge hurling the most technologically advanced motor vehicles in the world around for lap after lap.
Why then do we find ourselves longing to watch Schumacher dance with his car on the very limit for lap after lap without the interruption of needless overtaking? Why do we also want to see the cunning way drivers and teams carefully constructed race wins during the 1980s with comparatively simple cars, without overtaking?
Currently the sport is offering us both, with overtaking. We have been given almost exactly what we claim we wanted, the best parts of both styles of racing over the last three decades, and yet the critics have not been silenced, the purists not appeased and the fans not titillated.
Drivers must manage their tyres and carefully construct a race while sprinting as quickly as they can to get to the next pit stop. Should they press on too hard they run the risk of ending their race in a shower of sparks, but not press on enough and they'll be swamped by the chasing heard. Formula One, and Grand Prix racing in general, has always been a careful balancing act. It's just never been so obvious before.
Perhaps then the problem is not that the sport is not delivering or failing to live up to our expectations. Perhaps it is those expectations that are the problem with the sport. We have been given the best of both worlds; drivers wrestling cars while managing and constructing a race with intelligence and ability beyond the comprehension of most. Perhaps the problem is simply that we are never satisfied and will always want more while at the same time lamenting that things aren't as good as they were in the good old days.
The question is; were the good old days really as good as we remember? Are we any less entertained now than we've ever been since the turbo era? Come on, be honest.
To check out previous features from Mat, click here