Formula 1 is to return to the 2015 method of qualifying. Are you bovvered? No, nor me. I’m even glad that, for once, Rupert Murdoch is taking the most boring sport in the world away from mainstream TV from 2019, then hopefully for good.
There have been times in my life when I was vaguely interested in F1. I liked to to watch the start and later the finish, if I remembered to tune in or bothered to check. I did like Ayrton Senna who had real star quality or, as we media folk call it, a personality. This does not matter these days.
This is a guess on my part but given my limited understanding of the subject, I would say that Lewis Hamilton, that least charismatic of racing drivers, is the champion driver because he drives the fastest car. I find it hard to believe that when he laps some of the lesser teams, it is purely down to his superior driving skills, because if it is I would not trust some of those teams at the back of the grid to navigate a supermarket trolley round a supermarket.
I really am at a complete loss to understand why people find F1 even slightly interesting to watch on TV, never mind to actually go to a race. The latter is particularly bonkers, if you ask me. Pay an arm and a leg to sit in one part of the circuit and see the cars tear by once every 90 seconds or so and that’s it. (I have the same issue with horse racing, but that’s another boring story.)
Ideally, what F1 needs is some form of equality. The Grand National, for example, has a handicap system whereby the more successful and better horses carry weights which will slow them down. Perhaps we could try this in F1, by making the drivers wear wellies and boxing gloves. Or, better still, every driver driving the same car, a property meritocratic system where the best driver wins, rather than Lewis Hamilton all the time.
My best advice regarding F1 is to do what I do: don’t watch it.
