War in F1 - the Role of FIA and Bernie

A Question About Developments in F1 and the Role of FIA and Bernie


I'm reading about all the politics going on in F1 just now, the changes FIA/Bernie want, the resistance of the teams, etc.

My first reaction is always to want to "shoot" Bernie and Max for their seemingly ridiculous ideas and the ocean of changes they have been and are proposing and implying.

So often I tend to think that Bernie and Max (not that they are always on one line) are only driven by their lust for money and power and do not have the interest of F1 and its fans as a priority.

BUT is that really true? Are a lot of the protests (not all for sure) not simply motivated by a dislike of change as such?

Change is often initially rejected by powerful organizations and by large groups of people, only to find out that the changes really brought improvements and fresh air in the end...

So my question to you, F1-writers of BR, is: if you look back to the time just before the FIA (or rather Max) and Bernie became powerful and if you compare it with the present situation in F1, have they really "ruined" F1?

Present day Formula 1, with the huge number of fans attending the races, the world-wide media interest, the demands for safety and hence the strict rules that have to be applied to the circuits, the formidable size of the teams and their equipment...present-day F1 demands a very professional approach, if only we think about the aspect of logistics of a race weekend.

Have Max and Bernie provided (built up) such professional supporting organizations, as I'm pretty sure that 30 years or so ago it was much less needed and developed, or have they rather hindered this process?

It is clear that fans and teams are frustrated. Long-time favourite tracks are being deserted and desert-tracks came in their place; races tend to be dull, due to the lack of overtaking; all the technical regulations stand in the way of a creative development of the cars and now they are going to restrict the teams even so much more...it looks horrific what Bernie and Max are doing to F1.

OR should we acknowledge that spreading the races worldwide could have increased the number of fans and raised F1 popularity beyond Europe; that technical regulations meant that the cars of different teams had rather similar technical specs and thus the races are more closely fought.

Without the regulations just a few high-flying teams would have spent astronomical figures and outrun the other teams by street-lengths.

Races would have been rendered to slap-sticks or high-risk adventures with numerous collisions between fast and slow cars. And many more teams would have dropped out than now has been the case...

Have Bernie and FIA helped F1 progress over the years and have they just recently turned mad? Or have they always stood in the way of F1 developments? Without them F1 would now be much more advanced and respected? Or could it also be that they have done a lot of good and even their present day proposals might actually work well for F1 on the long run?

Guys, I really don't know the answers, I'm only a few years old in F1. My anger at Max and Bernie is shooting sky high, but yet I wonder if that anger is really justified.

I would be very happy if anyone can write some sort of historic evaluation of F1 organization and developments or point me to such an article that may already be existing here on BR.

But also simply any comment helping me to answer my questions will be highly appreciated.



Originally written on May 14, 2009 for BR  http://bleacherreport.com/articles/175088-a-question-about-developments-in-f1-an...