F1: more show than sport
Corporate barons are more interested in promoting Formula One than in making races more interesting or competitive. This has been the case for years.
That’s why it’s surprising that Max Verstappen is the first driver to complain about the rank marketing of F1 at the expense of the sport itself.
As Las Vegas gears up to stage its first Formula One Grand Prix in more than 40 years, three-time world champion Max Verstappen appears unenthused by the prospect of racing in the glitzy host city.
‘I think it is 99% show, 1% sport,’ Verstappen told reporters on Wednesday, according to Reuters. ‘Some people like a show, I don’t like it at all.’ They [Formula One] still make money if I like it or not, so it is not up to me.”
(CNN, November 16, 2023)
Verstappen is right, of course. And, ironically, F1 promptly vindicated his complaint. Because only its barons focusing too much on the show and not enough on the race explains this:
The controversial Las Vegas Grand Prix has been hit by delays after a car was damaged by a loose manhole cover.
The opening practice round of the Formula One event was halted just eight minutes into the session when racer Carlos Sainz broke down in his Ferrari after it struck the object at around 200mph on Las Vegas Boulevard.
(Sky News, November 17, 2023)
F1: now more WWE than MMA
The problem is that Verstappen is only half right. Because the day stewards conspired to rob Lewis Hamilton of his record-setting 8th title betrayed just how far F1 had lost its way.
That day of infamy was two years ago. Ironically, Verstappen was the driving force behind that infamous conspiracy.
But he has also been the driving force in making F1 racing look every bit as fixed as professional wrestling. After all, Verstappen has won so many times since then that F1 races now seem every bit as scripted as WWE matches.
It’s now an open secret that WWE writers decide who wins based on creative storylines. Similarly, I suspect the dark secret is that F1 barons decide who wins based on marketing considerations. In other words, Verstappen’s dominance is going according to script.
Indeed, he has already won enough races to seal this year’s title. That alone makes all remaining races just for show.
Wither Lewis Hamilton
Sure enough, Verstappen looked straight out of central casting when he dethroned 7-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. I speculated, however, that this dethroning had more to do with politics and marketing than with sports and talent.
After all. Hamilton was doing for F1 what Tiger Woods had done for golf. And, just as with golf, F1 clearly thought having a Black as the face of its sport would atone for the systemic racism that characterized it.
But Hamilton suddenly went off-script. He began using his F1 platform to champion racial causes like BLM protests and F1 diversity. And that clearly did not help F1 market to its predominantly White fan base.
Still, I believed that, like Woods and Michael Jordan, Hamilton could do and say whatever he wanted because his sport needed him more than he needed his sport.
Except that Hamilton hasn’t won a Formula One Grand Prix since that grand conspiracy two years ago. That’s like Woods, before his fateful Thanksgiving fall from grace, not winning a tournament for two years.
Granted, it can’t help that Hamilton has seemed more interested in modeling clothes on a fashion runway than in racing cars on a racetrack. But seeing his legacy withering away, I became so dismayed that I published “Lewis Hamilton Should Retire from F1 Racing” on March 9, 2023.
Is it the car or the driver?
However, I felt compelled to comment on the seamless, scripted way Verstappen assumed Hamilton’s dominance. After all, it’s not as if, like Woods, Hamilton suffered public humiliation, which sapped him of his aura of invincibility and ability to win.
That’s why I channeled the famous Mars Blackmon to explain his ongoing losing streak. I concluded, alas, it had to be the car. In other words, winning F1 races nowadays is more about barons casting a driver in the best-built car than about the most skilled driver navigating their way to victory lane.
Accordingly, I stopped watching F1 races for the same reason I stopped watching WWE matches. But don’t be surprised if Verstappen’s complaint causes him to start losing races just as suddenly as Hamilton’s activism caused him to begin doing so.
I just hope Hamilton has the good sense to retire before he ends up like Woods, participating only to bask in his own fading glory.