Formula 1 is the top tier of motor racing. The premier league of motorsport engineering and driving excellence. The budgets the teams and manufacturers have to work with are extraordinary, whilst the drivers earn millions to ply their trade at the top level.
But I just don’t feel like it’s real any more. The way the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP has just finished has made me question the legitimacy of the entire season.
Simply The Best
Taking its name from the type of fuel used in the early days of the sport, Formula 1 became the best category of motor racing back in the mid 20th century.
The cars were faster than anything ever seen and so only the best drivers could be trusted to handle them. Like a football World Cup or the Olympics, it was a competition that gave people the chance to prove which person (and machine) was the best each year.
We’ve witnessed some truly incredible drivers display their skills over more than 70 years as man and machine tackled differing tracks and weather conditions to reach the pinnacle of the sport.
Not Always Genuine
The problem is, as it is with any sport, that whilst we (the crowd) want to see fair and genuine competition so that the true champion is crowned, it doesn’t always happen that way.
There has always been cheating and ‘rule-bending’ and alternative interpretations of the rules. Even more so as the prize money increased. The more incentive there is to win, the harder you try to win it.
But on the whole, F1 has tried its best to deal with rule-breaking and keep the teams in line.
So what happens when the authorities themselves then decide to ‘bend’ a few rules?
2021 Will Be Forever Remembered As A Contentious Championship
The final curtain has now come down on the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship and it’s not exactly covered itself in glory.
The decision makers have had an unenviable task to try and maintain discipline between the two mighty foes battling for the crown, but the last race that became a title decider had a little too much ‘Hollywood‘ about it for my liking.
It’s widely known that an American bought the rights to F1 a few years ago and took on the challenge of making it more exciting. Ending the procession that it had become, and making the racing competitive again.
And that’s what sticks in my throat a little. American movies love drama and try to keep us on the edge of our seats. Movies and TV shows will see the hero deactivate the bomb at (literally) the last second to save the world.
So when the Formula 1 season is undecided on the last lap, of the last race, with the drivers equal on points – it just doesn’t feel right.
I don’t believe in coincidence. Everything happens for a reason and usually that reason is that someone MADE it happen that way. And given the extreme levels the race director and stewards have been involved this year, especially in the last 5 laps of this race, it all begins to stink.
I’m Done, F1.
When you get the impression that what you see isn’t real any more, there’s really no point watching any more. If it’s rigged right from the start, then what you’re watching is no longer a sporting competition, but a pantomime.
So with that in mind I’m off to find something real to watch. I’ve no idea what that thing is yet, but it won’t be F1.
