Formula One - Politics or Sport?

Kunal stirs the pot with a conspiracy theory that makes Mercedes and Ferrari strange bedfellows.

After delivering ‘exit’ threats prematurely in the 2015 season, Red Bull Racing upped their verbal attacks further by suggesting that Mercedes helped Ferrari close the gap in 2015. The Milton Keynes based team termed the reason as ‘political.’ Mercedes needs Ferrari’s support to have the current V6 turbo era last beyond 2017. And Mercedes doesn’t want to be seen as the team ‘boring’ fans away. Make sense? Formula 1 is known to have the smartest people in the world pulling the string – political or not.

I’ll tell you why it makes sense to me though. In the discussion to ‘save’ the sport and reduce costs, the cheapest method is to ‘request’ Mercedes to slow down and allow the others to be more competitive. But, of course, this ‘request’ has to be from a certain Mr. E and no one else. He pays them to race in Formula 1 after all!

So, if Mercedes has slowed down a wee bit, is it making Ferrari, their new management, and new Baby Schumi look like heroes suddenly? Possibly. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Sauber, Ferrari’s engine customer, has expressed surprise in the sudden increase in power in their engine unit. One of Ferrari’s test drivers (or is it former test driver?) has claimed that such an improvement without a change in the rules hasn’t been witnessed by any Formula 1 team in the modern era.

I side with their former President (Luca di Montezemolo) when he claims that the Italian team got lucky. After all, Williams seem to have fallen back (or do they have a slightly slower version of the Mercedes engine?), Red Bull are fighting with Renault, and McLaren is busy justifying the lack of pace of their Honda power unit. I also think that a driver of Alonso’s caliber (cleverness in this case) would have known of Ferrari’s enviable development and subsequent increase in pace only a few months after his departure.

But this is speculation at best. I would love to prove the conspiracy theories, but I accept them with a pinch of salt knowing that for the powers that be Formula 1 is a business first and a sport later.

But it is a sport for the drivers (unless your name is Pastor), and this season has already thrown up Sainz Jr., Verstappen and Nasr as exceptional talents. It’s a bit of a shame that the number of good drivers progressing through and out of Formula 1 is higher than the number of good cars available.

Nico Hulkenberg has publicly expressed that the WEC may be his next move if a competitive drive doesn’t come his way (sigh!). Paul Di Resta has gone back to his earlier haunt in the coveted DTM series, as Honda reportedly blocked Alonso’s interest in the WEC (as he would be racing with their competitor Porsche), which makes me worry about the careers of these young racers and the millions that their families and sponsors have pledged on them. Button, on the other hand, could turn into a full time tweeter like he did in Bahrain!

But I guess, in the fast paced world of Formula1, if not a race seat, a test and development seat might come your way. If you’re lucky, a simulator too! This is where you realize the might, the talent and the luck that one needs to win multiple World Championships!

Read Kunal’s views at his F1 blog.