05/04/2015
NEWS STORY
We have long thought it odd - to put it mildly - that so much attention is focussed on celebrities who attend F1 races. You know, the multi-millionaire movie stars who reveal on the grid that they are long-time fans of the sport but have never actually attended a race before, or the 'actress', more famous for her love life, who breathlessly tells the TV commentator that she is looking forward to when the cars "take off"... referring to the start.
It was recently revealed that Bernie Ecclestone urged (then) Caterham boss Cyril Abiteboul to use the team's paddock passes to attract celebrities or glamorous ladies. Ironic that the FIA, in a reflection of the times, has banned the use of grid girls at WEC events.
When the major stars, we're talking Sinatra, Nicholson and the like, used to attend the big heavyweight fights, they were there as fans of the sport, attention remained fixed on the boxers. Sadly, F1 doesn't get it, the actors and singers are the stars, the drivers putting their lives on the line essentially bit-part players. After all, what got the Melbourne podium on the front of the world's press... the race, or the post-race podium interviews featuring the Terminator.
Pirelli Motorsport boss, Paul Hembery, is also concerned at the failure to recognise the drivers for the stars they are - or are meant to be - though he comes at the issue from a different angle.
"We have a sport which is very much dominated by technology," he told the Guardian. "But I'd like to see the drivers positioned so that they are the kings, the stars who people are following and looking up to.
"I'd like to see the drivers becoming the heroes," he continued. "The fans want a hero. They want an iconic person to follow. And they want to know that when driver X is winning he's actually making a difference.
"When people sit in a bar and watch Lewis Hamilton win a race they think great, but they also think that five other drivers in that Mercedes car could have done the same job, and that is a shame."
Hembery feels that F1 could learn much from the US, citing a Speedway event he attended in Las Vegas recently.
"The garages at the back of the pits had glass windows, so the fans were looking into the garages, and they also had a window which slid open at the back of the garage and the stars were giving autographs. This was an event that had 100,000 people, so people can't say more people go to F1.
"In NASCAR the driver is the king," he adds. "Even the guy at the bottom is a superstar with a multi-million dollar contract. I would love to see our drivers held in that esteem. In F1 the driver has to become an international superstar, like David Beckham. But we've got drivers who don't understand why it's crap to change a helmet every race, and moan and bitch about it."
Clearly a purist, the constant changes of helmet (who could he mean) particularly irks the Briton.
"Everyone knows an iconic driver's helmet, going back to Graham Hill and Ayrton Senna," he says. "It's part of their identity, because fans can't see them with their hats on. So it was a very good thing telling them to register a helmet design and keep with it."
Over the Malaysia GP weekend, Ecclestone put forward a number of suggestions as to how the sport might be spiced-up, including points for qualifying, artificially wet races, a championship for women and changes to the race weekend format.
"I thought qualifying on Friday night was a good idea," says Hembery, "so you can actually win something, and the promoters have something to sell. And maybe a sprint race on the Saturday, an extra product, so Saturday fans actually see a result and podium places.
"It's not for us to tell people what should change, and how it should change, but change is needed," he insists. "We're anxious to understand what's going to happen in 2017, when we (Pirelli) will be looking at a new contract. We'd like to see what the plan is. We are in the entertainment business. Some people get ruffled by that idea, but if we don't entertain people don't watch us, and then the sponsors won't come, and the cycle continues.
"The current business model is clearly not working for enough people. Change is needed and the current mechanism for change is very cumbersome and very slow. We've got too many people with different vested interests. Someone has got to put a marker in the ground and say this is it. We can't spend another year going round in circles trying to find the big compromise."