CHINESE WATER TORTURE HITS F1
Rain threatens race but chiefs won’t switch days
FORMULA ONE’S reclusive new owners took the biggest gamble of their brief reign yesterday when they decided not to move the rain-threatened Chinese Grand Prix forward by a day.
Despite a grey sky with such bad visibility that the medical helicopter could not operate, causing most of the first practice session and the whole of the second to be abandoned, Liberty Media’s ‘three wise men’ left their sport prey to the elements.
Chase Carey, Sean Bratches and Ross Brawn — the triumvirate who have taken over from Bernie Ecclestone — considered switching the race to today, when the forecast is for better weather, but failed to follow through on the idea.
The forecast for tomorrow is less propitious, meaning that a crowd of some 50,000 could be left with nothing to watch if the helicopter is again grounded. That no-show would be an embarrassment on a par with the infamous 2005 American Grand Prix, in which only six cars took part.
Yesterday called for decisive action, which was not forthcoming.
One wondered how Ecclestone would have acted. Could he, for example, have reached into his extensive contacts book and won clearance from the local authorities to get the helicopter into the air?
In fairness to the FIA, the sport’s governing body, they tried out the roads between practice sessions to see if they could make the 23-mile journey to the official Shanghai hospital in 20 minutes — the maximum time permitted under the rules. They could not, and little wonder given the high level of traffic on the roads here.
Therefore, a flight is needed. This is a sensitive area for the sport after bad weather meant the helicopter could not leave the Suzuka track when Jules Bianchi was stricken by injuries that consequently killed him. No chances will be taken.
Yesterday was the dampest of squibs, with only Lewis Hamilton lifting the mood by ignoring the ban on walking across the track while the session is officially alive to sign and throw caps to fans. He whipped out his phone to record videos for his social media followers.
The triple world champion was outspoken afterwards. ‘Obviously not a great day,’ he said. ‘There’s a bigger picture. The track was absolutely fine and we could have run all day with no issue if it weren’t for the clouds. It’s not good for the fans watching on TV and even worse for all those people in the stands, who have paid money to come out here from the city or even from other countries.
‘They’ve barely seen a car on the track today, which must be tough for them. We need to work together with the FIA and FOM (Formula One Management, led by Liberty Media) to find a solution or an alternative plan of some kind when we have circumstances like this in the future.
‘It’s a chance for the bosses to be proactive and be creative.’
It is all very well the sport, from the new owners down, talking about doing this, that and the other for ‘the fans’, but yesterday was a moment they had to seize if their words were to be anything more than hot air.
It was a dispiriting day on another front with the Malaysian Grand Prix falling off the calendar for the first time in nearly two decades. Rising costs and dwindling audiences have put paid to it. This year’s staging in October will be the last.
Bratches, the sport’s new commercial boss, said: ‘It’s always sad to say goodbye to a member of the Formula One family.’ It was a funny comment given that the American — a former ESPN executive — has never attended the Kuala Lumpur race, having only become part of the said family a matter of weeks ago.
He also trotted out, without a trace of irony, the usual mantra about ‘ bringing our global fan base closer to the sport than ever before, providing an enhanced digital experience and creating new events’.
As for the racing here, there has been such little running that nothing useful has been gleaned. All we can expect is Mercedes and Ferrari to be contesting the spoils at the front. If there is a race, that is.