Anyone who has spent any time following Formula One knows that Bernie Ecclestone spends a lot of his time talking out of both sides of his mouth (and from other openings, it has been suggested).
Faced by some of the most boring racing on the planet (it would be the entire universe save for IndyCar’s snoozefests), Ecclestone and other F1 and FIA chiefs fell into action, allowing some technical changes to facilitate more passing – “more” being at least one more pass than prior. Among those tech changes were the addition of an adjustable rear wing, changes in ground effects, and widespread implementation of an on-demand horsepower boost system called KERS.
After eliminating pit stops for fueling (Ever see 12 guys screw up a pit stop? Add a fueling rig.) because of safety concerns, even those would not serve as a reliable means to reshuffle track placements. Without fueling, pit stops became minor four-second interruptions for cars holding 25-plus second leads, but never caused significant lead changes.
We were back to races being won by whomever took the pole. Yawn!
When Bridgestone ended its tire deal after the 2010 season, in Bernie’s mind tires became another means to “equalize” the racing and promote more passing. Bernie and the Jets suggested to tiremakers yearning to enter the F1 fountain – including, reportedly, Bridgestone and Michelin – that perhaps they could not make their tires so good, forcing teams to pit more often to replace faster wearing rubber.
In the interest of sport, Pirelli stepped up and pulled off the counterintuitive technical challenge: make a great, safe, high speed race tire but make sure teams use a lot of them on race day. And just the other day, Bernie publicly thanked Pirelli for their accomplishment.
"Only Pirelli would do it, and we must thank them," he said to a European magazine. "It was brave and the show has improved. Michelin and Bridgestone refused to build tires like this because they were worried about their image."
Well, Bernie may want to go back and check his standings as through four races this year, it has been the same teams and the same cars at the front, and passing remains as rare as Bernie being humble. Pirelli isn’t the blame there, to be sure; the issue is less about wings and KERS and tires and pit stops than it is about underfunded, low-tech teams getting trounced by well-monied, super high tech squads.
