To a certain extent, ignorance is bliss when it comes to watching racing. While the mystery and tension around fuel mileage can be exciting in other championships, Formula 1 CEO and President Stefano Domenicali claims the fans want the wool pulled over their eyes. The Italian executive defended the disappearance of battery energy level graphics from F1’s television feed, completely downplaying the fan backlash on social media to the new technical regulations.
It’s true that this season’s F1 races have featured an unprecedented volume of overtaking. However, wheel-to-wheel action has featured “yo-yo racing” where a driver dumps their battery to complete a pass before quickly becoming a sitting duck to the driver behind. More intelligent drivers are making their passes definitive by keeping energy in reserve to defend their position, but more aggressive drivers just lose the place they just gained. Without energy levels for context, it can create an anticlimactic viewing experience where it’s assumed that every pass is temporary. Domenicali disagreed with that sentiment, telling Autosport:
“I think that the truth is exactly the other way around, because no one is interested in how you drive your car. The people are interested if you’re overtaking or not. That’s the vast majority of the people.”
F1 took things too far, but can’t go back
Unless you’ve been prescribed rose-tinted glasses after being deafened by V10 engines, no one wants to go back to the processional racing that defined F1 for decades. The championship’s organizers need to continually create a ruleset that encourages close racing and passing. For example, F1 introduced the Drag Reduction System in 2011 because the cars were so aerodynamically efficient that drivers could no longer draft in a car’s wake to slingshot ahead. The shift to a battery-limited formula sought to fix the two crucial issues with DRS: it couldn’t be used defensively and its use was restricted to lengthy straights.
F1 has admitted it took things too far by tweaking the regulations this season and moving away from a 47-53 electric-combustion power split in upcoming years. Regardless, Domenicali can hide the less-desirable parts of the rules to appease people who just want spectacle. Despite what fans on social media may have you believe, racing isn’t at its best where drivers are pushing flat-out every single lap. Drivers have been managing fuel use and tire wear since time immemorial. You just didn’t know it.
