F1 faces "carnage" criticism after Australian GP turns into farce
Apr.3 - Formula 1 is facing near-unanimous backlash after "the show" overtook the sport at the Australian GP.
World champion and Melbourne winner Max Verstappen warned earlier in the weekend that he "won't be here long" if F1 pushes ahead with initiatives like the proposed sprint format shakeup for qualifying.
"This does not help in my decision to continue after 2028," the Dutchman was also quoted as saying by De Telegraaf.
But now, Formula 1 is facing widespread negative feedback after multiple red-flag periods and grid restarts - one of which with just two laps to go - turned the excitement into a farce.
"This is going to degenerate into big discussions," predicted Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.
"From a fan's point of view, an entertainment point of view, you can completely understand it," said the F1 veteran.
"From the driver's point of view or from the team's point of view, this American entertainment style is sometimes frustrating."
Alexander Albon (THA) Williams Racing FW45 crashed out of the race.
Australian Grand Prix, Sunday 2nd April 2023. Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.
And not just frustrating, but also potentially very dangerous.
"The rights holders were rubbing their hands," observed Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Andreas Haupt.
"But the show turned into carnage. The question inevitably arises now as to whether the show was deliberately placed above the sport."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: "I think the restarts are great and I am generally in favour of providing good entertainment.
"But we have to sit down and determine under what exact conditions a race is interrupted and when it is with a virtual safety car, a safety car, and a red flag."
Fellow Austrian Dr Helmut Marko, of Red Bull, added: "They could have used a virtual safety car for the last two laps.
"Sergio (Perez) had a new set of soft tyres, while some had used tyres, different compounds. And the safety car drove very, very slowly, the tyres cooled down, the whole thing was just dangerous.
"It wasn't necessary."
Others up and down pitlane, however, were even more scathing.
"The whole purpose of the red flags seemed to be to create a show," said McLaren's Lando Norris.
Valtteri Bottas added: "It's clear that if there are two laps left, there will be a big fight and a big mess."
Grand Prix Drivers' Association director George Russell commented: "It was completely unnecessary. For gravel?
"I don't know what is going on in the minds of race management to make such decisions. We have to work together to make things better."
Members of the media, meanwhile, were even more critical of the direction Formula 1 has headed in as Liberty Media moved to boost the 'show'.
"The show must go on," journalist Peter Kohl told Sport1, "but that doesn't mean you can throw all rational thought overboard."
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera's Flavio Vanetti observed: "A score of 8 for Verstappen, 5 for Leclerc, and absolutely zero for (race director Niels) Wittich.
"He was not a regulator but the animator of chaos."
Dutch F1 GP boss Jan Lammers told NOS: "Sure, debris on the track is dangerous, but much less dangerous than what we saw this afternoon.
Le Journal de Montreal's correspondent Louis Butcher said: "Since the Americans at Liberty Media acquired F1, everything has changed.
"And not necessarily for the better."
Veteran journalist Roger Benoit, of the Swiss newspaper Blick, said: "The sport was trampled on by nonsense unworthy of a sport that makes billions and has hundreds of millions of fans."
Juuso Taipale, writing in the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, insisted that Liberty Media "got what they ordered".
"The Americans have turned the pinnacle of motorsport into a product in which the show is the centre of everything."
With the final word is Ralf Schumacher, the former six-time grand prix winner: "The race management should be ashamed of themselves.
"You can't just say the drivers should be careful when they're given a situation like that. I'm sorry, but that's a bad joke."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Yeah - I must agree that the last two Red Flag incidents were frivolous and vexatious. The American's are turning F1 into a gun-fight with multiple Red Flags and Sprint Race qualifying.
Seems Liberty Media wants NASCAR and Indy type accidents and carnage to excite fans. They are completely missing the point of F1 - and motorsport in general.
I watch for the skill and strategy F1 represents. Not accidents, or manufactured opportunities of unnecessary risk and injury.
Excellent observation, my Canadian friend, but I cringed at your lumping IndyCars with BASHCAR. Liberty is a US media company. They are not racers. Easy for them to look at the popularity of the southern boys 'rubbing and wrecking' racing and adopting that format. Stupid, but understandable from a business point of view. Sad.
Good day Oh wise one , you've been a bit quiet recently, So how do you think the seasons going as a whole?
Race control seriously needs to stop red-flagging races for entertainment purposes for good, not only for sporting fairness' sake but also before someone possibly gets hurt (drivers in extreme cases or spectators from carbon fiber pieces flying over fencing), given the added risks & unintended consequences caused by artificial randomness.
He couldn't be more wrong - zero justification for red-flagging with four full laps left (or for Albon's incident based on worse instances in the past handled under SC neutralization) for Max over something safe enough to handle under SC neutralization (yes, carbon fiber/metal debris on track is safely retrievable with drivers circulating at SC train speeds), other than a desire for artificially-created drama & randomness, which is far from a justifiable reason for red-flagging.
People should've never become obsessed with finishing races under green-flag running as occasional neutralized finishes aren't a bad thing & never have been, yet the tone suddenly changed post-2020.
No worse than occasional race starts behind the SC without a standing start like most recently in the last Monaco GP & if anything, even worse this way around, so complaining about neutralized finishes is contradictory & hypocritical.
Ironically, the race still finished with the SC entering the pit lane on the final lap, as would've been the case with the last four laps entirely under neutralization.
Jere,
Isn’t it Race Control (i.e. FIA) who make these calls regarding VSC/SC/Red Flag?
Thanks!
Indeed
Thanks for confirming.
I agree with many of the comments concerning the poor way it was handled. But I wasn’t understanding why many are saying it was Liberty Media’s fault.
Cheers
The term "cluster phuck" comes to mind.
Aw c’mon we all know this is a commercial soap opera not a true sport played on a world stage and we all love it 😍. Just look at the cast of characters we all love to love or hate. Who cares who wins or loses at last we have a replacement for Dallas and dynasty.
The drivers need to take some responsibility here. "Stop me before I restart again!" shouldn't be a cry for help by people from whom we should expect a level of professionalism.
Near perfect finish commercially, lots of excitement to take home, crashes to feed the blood lust, potential change of winner in the last seconds and resulting controversy. Though surprisingly few have picked up on awarding ridiculously severe penalty points for a crash after the official finish! Expect more of the same, pure soap.
Welcome to the wacky world of Formula One, where once the rich and famous used to reign supreme, but now we have Cardi B and the TikTok crowd parading down the pit lane like some sort of budget aristocracy! What's next, Harry and Meghan waving the finish flag? Though it's good to see them out of their reclusive hideaway, we've missed them so much!
But wait, there's bigger news today - Formula One has officially sold its soul to the streaming giant Netflix, and from next season, it will be known as "The Netflix Big Race"! And to celebrate this new era of enlightenment, a bunch of celebrities, including Oprah, the ex-Prince and Princess of Sussex, Greta Thunberg, and the stars of TikTok and reality TV, will put their collective brains together to come up with creative ways to make the sport more exciting.
According to TikTok superstar Waste Oftime, the public is bored with the racing aspect of the sport and they are hoping to shorten the format to only include two sprint races. And as for the other "Look at me" shows, they will sit on a board to discuss the future direction of the sport. The ex-Princess of Sussex has announced that she will be pushing for more inclusivity, especially for black trans women, following the great success that Lewis Hamilton born a poor white bou has achieved and the example of diversity in the sport.
And that's not all, folks! Netflix has also announced that, thanks to them, even the peasants can now get interested in Formula One! So get ready to rub elbows with the rabble and witness the chaos that will ensue on "The Netflix Big Race" next season!