Quality and quantity

New teams are still far from competitive

The second stage of the 61st World Auto Racing Championship in the Formula 1 class has significantly tempered the critical mood that prevailed in the comments after the opening race in Bahrain. Rain, usually associated with boredom, turns even the most dull race on a completely boring track in Hungary into an exciting thriller with an unpredictable plot. What can we say about Melbourne, where the fun is overflowing and without additional heavenly outpourings. Two diametrically opposed races in essence and content at the start of the championship, two winners representing different teams, failures of the Red Bull drivers who have the fastest cars in the peloton, accusations of using illegal devices that leading teams throw at each other - in general, The Circus Maximus parade was a success, no matter what the ever-dissatisfied connoisseurs of the true beauty of motorsport may say.

The requirement to increase the number of overtakings, which, according to the generally accepted opinion, is the decoration of racing, is the same fixed idea in circuit racing, as is the problem with a drop in performance in football or hockey. Undoubtedly, the whole game is subordinated to one goal - to score a goal, without which it is, in principle, impossible to achieve victory. And it’s unlikely that even the biggest football fan will enjoy watching players stupidly roll the ball from goal to goal without a single hit on them. However, there is another question: how much will the quality of the football spectacle improve if teams start scoring goals every minute and the score on the scoreboard reaches double digits? And won’t the fans say in this case that they don’t need this kind of football either?

The intensity of the fight, which ensures the quality of the spectacle, directly depends on the skill of the participants involved in what is happening on the track or football field. Sometimes a goalless draw played by two excellent teams, where true ball wizards are gathered, turns out to be more interesting than the enchanting passions with an abundance of goals, which sometimes play out somewhere in the games of the teams of the qualifying group of the Oceania zone. Likewise, the number of overtakings may be inferior in quality to some dense traffic jam created by a slower car driven by a great racer. And, for example, watching with what virtuosity Felippe Massa defended his position in the last laps from the attacks of Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber was much more exciting than watching a series of overtakings by Fernando Alonso when he had to fight his way from the last rows after a turn: the slower cars of his rivals The Spaniard walked at full speed.

And here I would like to complain about the quality of the newcomers with whom the FIA ​​filled the starting grid. The experiment with expanding the number of participants in the championship, started last year by the federation at the instigation of its former leader Max Mosley, cannot be called successful. The three teams that have received the right to enter the Royal Race clearly do not reach the status of the motorsport elite. In both Bahrain and Melbourne, Virgin, Lotus and Spain were two seconds behind the worst of the old guard in qualifying. Disappointing results forced the organizers to once again recall the forgotten “107% rule”, according to which pilots who did not meet the qualification standards set by the regulations were not allowed to start.

Moreover, the “Spain” team, assembled literally from nothing, into which Campos turned at the last moment, whose owners could not find the means to ensure a normal existence in Formula 1, did not conduct a single training session before the start of the season. And the presence at the start of the cars of these teams, which, moreover, rarely reach the finish line due to constant technical problems, does not at all aggravate the competition, but only introduces a factor of chance, creating additional obstacles during qualifying or the race. In this regard, the FIA ​​should pay more attention to the selection of candidates for entry into the elite racing club. And Bernie Ecclestone, as the owner of Formula 1, needs to create more favorable conditions under which newcomers would not be suffocated by lack of funds, but would receive comprehensive assistance at first - both technical and material.

After all, the titled “McLaren” and “Williams” at the beginning of their journey were also not distinguished by speed and reliability, but they were admired by their enthusiasm and dedication to motorsport. It is thanks to such teams that Formula 1 has earned the love of fans. Perhaps in just a few years, Richard Branson's Virgin team will be fighting for the Constructors' Championship, and now the Malayan Lotus will become a worthy continuation of the history of its English ancestor, which has 79 Grand Prix victories and six championship titles.

For now, let's hope that the first season for none of the three teams will not be the last, no matter how bad their sporting results may be. I would like their example to prove that even without gigantic expenses that even global automakers can no longer afford, the flow of fresh blood in Formula 1 will never dry up.

Dmitry SITNIK