Yahoo Autos Max Verstappen Is Killing Formula 1
So, 2024 is shaping up to be the most insipid Formula 1 season ever. Nothing but a series of inevitable victories for Max Verstappen, some half-hearted play acting that second matters, and the nail-biting suspense of the Haas team struggling to score a single point. And yet, somehow, F1 will grow even more popular.
Pity.
Meanwhile, last weekend NASCAR had a wild damned-near three-way dead heat at Atlanta, the World Endurance Championship is insanely and compellingly gonzo, IndyCar has become chaotic fun and even NHRA drag racing seems unpredictable and oddly charming. Practically every big-time racing series is now more competitive and entertaining than ever. But F1? Yawn. So why waste time on F1?
Right now, for at least the past two years and going into this one, Formula 1 is as much a transnational lifestyle brand than a race series. High rollers, European models, yachts, celebrities, and soap opera storylines. It’s all about brand marketing to people who’ve never heard the name Juan Manuel Fangio, look to be influenced by Kylie Jenner, and trash glamor. The racing has been, well, meh.
Fashion and lifestyle and all that is fine, but the racing must matter too. Competition that’s unpredictable, close and straightforward to follow. It’s not impossible to care about who is battling for seventh, but that’s a fight that is more obscure than one for the lead.
In the fifteenth of 22 races last year, Red Bull finally lost at the Singapore Grand Prix. Britain’s Guardian newspaper asked Verstappen if his team's domination was good for the sport. “I have zero interest in that,” he replied. “We got beaten and in a very clear way. I don’t think about what’s good for Formula 1. I don’t think it was necessarily bad what was happening to Formula 1, because we were just better than everyone else. If people can’t appreciate that, then you are not a real fan.”
What is a “real fan?” Verstappen and Red Bull’s excellence is wholly amazing. Legends are built on excellence. Tiger Woods won the 2000 Masters by 15 strokes. The 1972 Miami Dolphins went undefeated including their victory in Super Bowl VII. In the history of sanctioned bowling in the United States, only Robert Mushtare has bowled a 900 series (three perfect games in a row) twice. And Mark Donohue drove the Porsche 917/30 to victory in every Can-Am race in which they competed during 1973.
Now Verstappen was born in 1997 and has never lived in a world where F1 wasn’t a thriving circus of money. Many real fans, however, love the sport for many different reasons. Many can recall when teams were operated almost as a hobby by people like Rob Walker, Lord Hesketh or Ken Tyrrell. The ancient fanatics among us can chart their enthusiasm back to when the cars ran on wire wheels wrapped in skinny tires and aerodynamics were handled on a “best guess” basis. We were emotionally invested in F1 even when the only complete coverage came months after each Grand Prix in the pages of Road & Track.
Real fans loved the racing. They loved teams that took big engineering swings that produced landmark cars like the Shark Nose 1961 Ferrari 156 and the 1967 Lotus 49 that used the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine as a stressed part of the chassis. They rooted for glorious misfires like Tyrrell’s 1976 six-wheeled P34 and the 1978 Brabham BT46B “fan car” that sucked itself down to the track. They loved on-track rivalries like Senna vs. Prost, Lauda vs. Hunt, Piquet vs. Mansell, and dozens of others.
And no, it’s not all ancient history. Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton finished one-two six times during 2017. Verstappen’s first championship came in 2021 when five different drivers and four separate manufacturers won races. Formula 1 is better when the racing is closer.
Now, what innovation there is in the cars is inscrutable and mysterious. There’s no driver to seriously challenge Verstappen. And the teams that are already in F1 are basically a business cabal that won’t allow new competitors like Andretti Autosport to even try and make the grid. There’s a cynicism in F1 now, a money grab instead of a thirst for victory.
All that in mind, Formula 1 risks taking its own success for granted. When all the beautiful people tire of it and move on to whatever else catches their attention – international polo, sailing yachts, or maybe tree squirrels – what will be left or the real fans. Both the real fans who love Verstappen and his transcendence, and the real fans who crave on-track battles.
But F1 has pulled itself out of trouble before. In 2026, a new rule set will bring in new manufacturers and change the cars and that could shatter Red Bull’s stranglehold on the top podium spots. New drivers are coming in that may well be as talented as Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton may have some secret youth serum that will mean he can slay the world one more time when he moves to Ferrari.
Red Bull will probably win every race in 2024 and maybe Verstappen will be the only driver who finds the top of the podium. He’s been around racing since the moment he came out of his mother’s womb and was plopped down into a racing kart before the amniotic fluid had cleared from his lungs. Of course he’s brilliant.
The best thing that could happen to Formula 1, however, is that he starts losing.
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