As I see it: Bernie and Max have made F1 Big Business. But they seem to have forgotten what the business of racing is. For a "manufacturers' series", the business of racing is R&D - the ability to develop new technologies for production cars. But that's not what F1 is. FIA mandates car designs that have little or nothing to do with manufacturing. That puts "privateer" entries like BAR, McLaren, and Williams on a par with "real" manufacturers like Ferrari, Toyota, and Renault. But it means that the technology of F1 is "throw away". FIA is frantic to cut costs, because the teams get virtually nothing for their money -- no new technology, no new products. But beyond the R&D, the reason we go racing is for fun. And the reason fans watch racing is to empathize with the drivers and teams -- to share, in some small manner, in their triumphs and frustrations, but mostly to share in the fun. Is anybody having fun in F1? Not the drivers, when a bad single lap qualifying session or a loose fragment of debris puncturing a tire ruins their whole weekend. Not when they're told to lose a spot to preserve the "only set" tires. And certainly not when the tire manufacturers tell them to go park. The fans didn't have fun at Indy. But how much fun do they have in most F1 races, these days? Sure, we can follow the team standings and play with stats; we can debate the constant rules changes, and second guess the black flags, DQs and suspensions. But when did we laugh with a driver, instead of at one? When the F1 teammates were drafting each other around the Indy oval in hour long qualifying at Indy in 2000, the drivers were having fun -- and the fans watching were having a blast, too. When the drivers are racing each other, instead of throwing lawyers and rule books at each other, the fans have fun. And Bernie, -- in case you've forgotten -- the Business of F1 is the fans. The new tire rules are stupid and dangerous to the drivers. But allowing Michelin to use that as an excuse to demand that the track should be tailored to suit their tires shows bad faith from FIA, Michelin, and the impacted teams. The fans are your bread and butter. All of you: FIA, teams, and tire suppliers. Putting politics ahead of the fans is just bad business. F1 came to an oval track ... and got lost.
