Formula 1 Or Formula Business?

Nobody could really believe it when the FIA released the dates for this year's Formula 1 World Championship

Many of us remember the Race of Champions and the Daily Express Trophy meetings held on bleak spring dates at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. So why move the British Grand Prix from mid-July to an obviously unpopular date in April? After all our climate is not the same as that in the Mediterranean and the winter season will have left the ground in a soggy state. But nobody was willing to give an answer. Apart from the obvious problems regarding muddy public car parks, I was more concerned for the poor marshals who would, like I did many times back in the 70s and 80s, have needed to camp in cold damp conditions for a few days.

It would be obvious to all that the ground would still be exceptionally damp from the winter months - but no - the date was smugly confirmed as April 23rd, almost as if the organisers knew something we didn't.

It came as no surprise to find the British Easter Weekend - our Grand Prix weekend - wrecked by bad weather. The cold winds, and oh, - those car parks, which were very quickly transformed into the expected quagmires. Told you so! We knew it would happen, but no one was willing to take any responsibility for the date change. Now comes the interesting bit! I've told some porkies in my time (I was a car salesman in a previous job), but I couldn't believe the audacity of Bernie Ecclestone when he calmly announced in a television interview that he had no control over the controversial date change. He cited the inclusion of the US Grand Prix for disrupting the calendar and the British GP could have the Easter date or no date at all! To add further insult to our intelligence, a slight finger (no not that one) was pointed towards the organisers of the French GP for not being flexible with their date, due to internal politics. Now I'll ignore that pig that has just flown past my window and continue my flow, because some things have to be said. Whether you believe all you are told or whether you have the ability to form your own well balanced opinion will not be questioned here, but consider the following please:

If it was true that the organisers of the US GP had applied for a later date in 2000, wouldn't it have been fairer to show loyalty to those events well established events which formed the backbone of the championship since its inception. Specifically I refer to Monaco, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and of course Britain. Surely these events with pedigrees to be proud of, should have preferential choice when dates are allocated.

Apparently NOT.

OK, consider another argument. The European GP is not a territorial event and can be moved literally anywhere in the EU, and if need be, removed altogether in favour of accommodating a country's premier race.

Apparently NOT.

OK, lets consider another plausible argument. France, Germany and Italy all enjoy TWO GP races each year. Why not remove just one of the dates allocated to Magny Cours, Monaco, Monza, Imola, or Nurburgring.

Apparently NOT.

The reasoning behind this stubbornness becomes clearer when you further consider the recent wrangling between Silverstone and Brands Hatch for hosting the British GP in year 2002. The simple truth is that Grand Prix racing is no longer a sport. It is a business - a multi million pound business, with Ecclestone as Chairman. OK, we all knew that, and to be honest he has done an excellent job promoting Fl worldwide. He has grouped the whole package together and sold it as a package - a very expensive package - and that is what is now available to the highest bidder. At the end of the day, business is business and if the circuit cannot pay the asking price, or the organisers will not pay the asking price - the circus will go elsewhere. If that doesn't ruffle any feathers, a simple date change - to something extremely unpopular or inconvenient to everyone - will be arranged. And so it came to pass, we got lumbered the Easter weekend!

We all saw the horrendous TV pictures from Silverstone's public car parks, which prompted the organisers to issue an unprecedented request for spectators to stay away from the Saturday qualifying period! Those same quagmires were still laughably called car parks on the following day, but the long traffic queues (because it was a Bank Holiday) caused additional complications. Brian Rix couldn't have orchestrated a better farce. As a result, many spectators couldn't make it the circuit and Silverstone is reported to have lost £4 million in gate revenue and much more in corporate hospitality.

You can now see this business works, and be assured that long standing loyalties and pat performances count for absolutely zilch. In a nut shell - pay up, or pay dearly.

All the wrangling aside, this year's British GP was the first time I've watched a Fl race without nodding off in my armchair! For once it wasn't the prima-donna number one drivers who stole the show, it was the number two drivers (although teams deny any driver being their number one or two). For the first time this year there was a Ferrari on pole, Barrichello's, surely that was not in the script? He did it again at the start, disappearing into the distance leaving his team mate in eight place.

Come on chaps, please tell me how Button has shone so well (no pun intended but suffer anyway). He just keeps on improving. Here on round 4 he puts the car on the third row of the grid and pops in a fastest lap mid race. Obviously he had not read the script either!

As I said before, one of the best races I have seen for a long time, with daring overtaking moves on the track not in the pit lane, no distasteful protests and two British drivers in the top five.