Why do we love F1?

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Brazilian Grand Prix - Race Day - Sao Paulo, Brazil

JULIEN BILLIOTTE

Once you have the chance to work and report on Formula One, it’s very easy to get caught up in details, tedious off-track stories, silly rumours, and tepid statements carefully woven by media-trained drivers. But when the lights go out, the bullshit stops and F1 truly becomes great.

TV does not really do justice to the sheer commitment and tremendous skills motor racing requires from the guys and girls at the wheel. You have to stand trackside to appreciate them living on a knife-edge, especially when drivers are running nose-to-tail.

I have never been a tech guy in that I don’t really care whether modern F1 machines are powered by 2.4-litre V8 normally-aspirated engines or propelled by 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged power units. All I want is for F1 machines to remain extreme, fast… and beautiful. Aesthetics do play a part in my interest in the sport.

Like any racing fan, I like spectacular wheel-to-wheel action and edge-of-your-seat moves but I understand we can’t be treated with classics every other Sunday. That said, you don’t need an overtaking fest to have a thrilling race.

Take Mexico this year; a rather processional affair for nearly 70 laps until all hell broke loose in the closing stages. And what about Monza, a rather ho-hum affair but Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo’s balls-out lunge on Valtteri Bottas’ Williams at the first corner was enough to make the event worth tuning in. If you want overtaking all over the place, there’s always MotoGP for you…

Above all, what draws me to F1 remains the human side of it, the tension, the drama, the off- and on-track shenanigans. That’s why a driver like Max Verstappen is so great. I don’t want to sound like a groupie there but the guy can drive and he tops it with a confident, borderline cocky, attitude that has already ruffled a few feathers in the establishment.

I like colourful characters, prima donnas, people making brash statements. Heck they’re racing incredible machines for a living; they might as well have the rockstar attitude as long as they deliver on track. That’s what makes someone like football diva Zlatan Ibrahimović so fun. Sebastian Vettel was chastised for swearing over the airwaves but seriously who did not enjoy it?

I am anxious to see what effect the new-for-2017 regulations will have on my favourite sport, though I wish the big wigs stopped tinkering with the recipe in the name of the almighty show – standing starts after each Safety Car period? You gotta be kidding me!

There is always room for improvement but F1 does not need any gimmick to be great, nor should it lose its essence in trying too hard to cater for younger fans. Despite its worldwide reach, I like the idea that the sport remains quite niche. It makes me feel part of a privileged club with its codes, references, and private jokes. You can’t please everybody and if some, if not many, don’t appreciate F1’s thrilling, high-octane nature then so be it.