Because of an extended out of town work assignment, I wasn't able to watch the Australian Grand Prix. From what I've read about the race however, it appears I didn't miss much. Let me rephrase that, I didn't miss much on the track. Not only was the starting grid a paltry 15 cars, but the Mercedes drivers flat out ran away and hid from the rest of the field. Off the track, the action was a pretty hilarious comedy of errors. Red Bull and McLaren were only able to get one car on the grid for the race, which is still leaps and bounds ahead of poor Manor, who didn't get their cars started all weekend. Of course, the weekend's real winner for behind the scenes idiocy goes to Sauber. The idea of a driver suing his (supposed) team for the right to drive the car is pretty much absurd in its own right. A potential contempt of court charge for Sauber, which could have resulted in Sauber's equipment being impounded by Australian authorities, and potential jail time for team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, is simply incredible. This reminds me of the shenanigans Andrea Moda pulled back in 1992. (For those of you unfamiliar with greatness that was Andrea Moda, a team history can be found here. Unfortunately it looks like the best written account of Andrea Moda was lost to history when F1 Rejects was forced to close their site). Let's not forget either that after Mercedes blew the (metaphorical) doors off of all the other cars, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner threated to close the shop doors and go home.
I'll be honest, I feel Formula 1 could use a little bit more crazy in the paddock. If the racing on the track isn't going to be very exciting, stupid antics back in the garage is the next best thing to keep the fans interested. For this reason, I have long been a supporter of lowering the barriers to entry for small teams in Formula 1. Small, poorly organized teams, make for great headlines and help drive interest in the sport as a whole. Seriously. I love reading about the history of Formula 1, but I find the stories of how Andrea Moda tried to kill Perry McCarthy (ie, The Black Stig on Top Gear) at Spa, far more interesting then the stories of successful teams. In todays hyper competitive, highly professional world of Formula 1, we need a Hesketh Racing, a team that (at the surface) takes things a little bit less serious to shake things up a little bit.
While reading about the hijinks happening behind closed doors at the back of the paddock was definitely fun, it's a little bit troubling for the health of Formula 1. Just yesterday I wrote that the German Grand Prix (one of the classic races on the F1 calendar) had been canceled for 2015. Honda and Renault definitely appear to be struggling coming to grips with the hybrid-turbo-V6 power units Formula 1 has adopted. Furthermore, at least two teams (Force India and Manor) struggled to simply get their cars ready in time for the 2015 season. If Australia is any indication, 2015 is going to be an uphill struggle for a number of teams, and I'm fairly convinced that at least one of the teams that was in the garage area at Australia, won't be on the grid in 2016, possibly more then one.
Does all this doom and gloom mean that we're going to be the last generation to enjoy Formula 1? Probably not, but the trajectory we're on does seem to lead to an era of small grids, boring tracks no one cares about, and poor quality racing. As race fans, that should make all of us sad.
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