Matt Bishop: 'It's time to reboot Procar with a new F1 Masters series'

F1

F1's Porsche Supercup support series generates little excitement amongst fans. So why not reinvent it as an F1 masters series, and watch grand prix veterans go wheel to wheel once more, asks Matt Bishop?

Nigel Mansell on GP Masters podium at Kyalami with Emerson Fittipaldi and Riccardo Patrese

Nigel Mansell alongside Emerson Fittipaldi and Riccardo Patrese after winning 2005 F1 Masters race in Kyalami — which attracted more fans than the '92 and '93 grands prix

Clive Rose/Getty Images

Do you remember the BMW M1 Procar Championship (1979-80)? What about the Grand Prix Masters (2005-2006)? You do? Yes, so do I. They were great, weren’t they? Do you regard the Porsche Supercup (inaugurated in 1993 and still going) as equally exciting? You don’t? No, neither do I.

For the avoidance of doubt, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Porsche Supercup. Every petrolhead loves Porsche 911s – I have owned two of them myself, a 2011 997 GTS 2WD PDK and a 2017 991 GTS 2WD Manual – and the 992 GT3 2WD PDK raced in today’s Porsche Supercup is a sensationally capable machine. But what made the BMW M1 Procar Championship and the Grand Prix Masters an order of magnitude more exciting than the Porsche Supercup was the identity of the men in the hot seats. Here is a list of the drivers who won BMW M1 Procar Championship races: Elio de Angelis, Niki Lauda, Jacques Laffite, Jan Lammers, Manfred Schurti, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Carlos Reutemann, Didier Pironi, and Nelson Piquet. Here is a list of the drivers who won Grand Prix Masters races: Nigel Mansell and Eddie Cheever. And here is a list of the drivers who won Porsche Supercup races in 2024: Larry ten Voorde, Harry King, Marvin Klein, and Alessandro Ghiretti.

BMW Procar race at Monaco

Procar series put F1 stars in spec cars

Hoch Zwei/Getty Images

Porsche Supercup cars at Spa Francorchamps in 2024

Porsche Supercup could provide a modern equivalent

Porsche

Do you see what I mean? Do not misunderstand me: just as there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Porsche Supercup, there is also absolutely nothing wrong with ten Voorde, King, Klein, or Ghiretti. But even their families and friends would have to concede that, when it comes to stirring race fans’ souls, they are not in quite the same league as de Angelis, Lauda, Laffite, Reutemann, Pironi, Piquet, and Mansell, all of whom were multiple winners of world championship-status Formula 1 grands prix. Yes, we motor sport devotees dig race cars, of course we do, but it is the bravery and brilliance of the very best drivers that really get our juices flowing.

So let me take you back to the evening of Saturday, March 17, 2007. I was still a full-time journalist and magazine editor at that time, having not yet embraced comms and PR, and I was invited by Richard Woods (the FIA’s then director of communications) to dine in a swish Melbourne restaurant with him and two of his most senior FIA colleagues, Charlie Whiting (race director) and Herbie Blash (deputy race director). After we had done our damnedest to put the F1 world to rights over our starters and a good Puligny-Montrachet, we began to traverse memory lane over our mains and a fine Château Lynch-Bages. Since we had already bemoaned the recent demise of the Grand Prix Masters, I raised the subject of the BMW M1 Procar Championship – about which Whiting and Blash, who had been working together for Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham F1 team when Procar (as it was always abbreviated) had been an F1 support series, both waxed lyrical. I then took a deep breath and put to them my big idea, and it is that same big idea that I am hereby about to put to you, dear Motor Sport reader.

From the archive

“What do you think Bernie [Ecclestone] would say,” I began, “if a proposal were put to him whereby the best bits of the BMW M1 Procar Championship, the Grand Prix Masters, and the Porsche Supercup were combined, so as to reinvent and rebrand the latter to make it an all-new Porsche F1 Masters Supercup? It would be open to retired drivers over the age of 45 who had started at least one world championship-status F1 grand prix, and, like the current Porsche Supercup, it would be a series running on the support programme of about half the F1 season’s grands prix.

“Also, just think how many current F1 TV broadcasters employ as pundits ex-F1 drivers who meet those entry criteria. So just imagine how popular it would be with those F1 TV broadcasters, and their viewers, if they were contractually obliged to field at least one of their ex-F1 driver pundits as a Porsche F1 Masters Supercup driver. In addition, as I envisage it, each Porsche F1 Masters Supercup car would contain in-car cameras, filming its driver’s head, arms, and feet, and each driver would be mic’d up and instructed to make comments during his race. Then, as part of the contractual obligation I’ve described, each F1 TV broadcaster would be required to include in its pre-race show an agreed amount of Porsche F1 Masters Supercup footage, including its own ex-F1 driver pundit in action.

“So, for example, here in Melbourne, instead of tomorrow’s ITV pre-race show opening with Martin Brundle standing at Turns 1 and 2, the Brabham/Jones right-left combo, explaining to British TV viewers how Fernando Alonso [McLaren, P2 on the grid] might try to overtake Kimi Räikkönen [Ferrari, P1 on the grid] there, he’d make those points in the usual way, then the ITV feed would cut to in-car footage and in-car commentary from Brundle’s Porsche F1 Masters Supercup race from a couple of days before, in which he’d overtaken Christian Danner at Turns 1 and 2 on the final lap to take the lead and win. Oh and of course RTL Germany’s pre-race show would include Danner’s take on exactly the same move. The TV broadcasters would love it. It would be much easier to get sponsors for than it is for the Porsche Supercup as it is now, and some of that sponsorship money could be allocated to a driver prize fund, so the ex-F1 driver pundits would also love it. In fact they’d be queueing up to race in it. And, most important of all, the F1 fans would love it, too. What do you think, guys?”

Jenson Button and Mark Webber inthe F1 paddock

Pundits like Jenson Button and Mark Webber, plus Porsche Supercup cars, could provide a ready-made grid for a modern F1 Masters series

Whiting, Blash, and Woods all responded very positively – and it was not just the quality of the Puligny-Montrachet and the Château Lynch-Bages that had fuelled their enthusiasm because, early the next morning, Herbie texted me to ask me to come to see him and Charlie over breakfast in the F1 paddock. We discussed my idea again, at some length, and they asked me to write a white paper about it. That I did, and I emailed it to them, but these things always take longer to gain traction than one hopes, and everyone in F1 is super-busy, and by mid-season the infamous Spy-gate saga was taking up all their spare time. By the end of the year I had agreed terms to join McLaren as its new comms/PR chief, which I duly did on January 1, 2008, and that was the end of that.

But, now, 18 years after I first suggested it, it still strikes me as a good idea, even if I say it myself. The current Porsche Supercup is well organised, it makes a little bit of money for Porsche, but it fails to excite a significant fan base and, as a promotion for the 911, it is a tad stale. By contrast, if it were reinvented and rebranded now, as the Porsche F1 Masters Supercup, it would suddenly become a highlight of every F1 weekend on which it was part of the support race programme.

Rene Arnoux battles Jacques Laffite in Grand Prix Masters race

Rene Arnoux vs Jacques Laffite in Grand Prix Masters, 2005

Clive Rose/Getty Images

Sports fans love seniors’ tours. Just look at the PGA Senior Champions Tour – the series for ex-pro golfers over 50. It is widely televised and live-streamed, the tournaments are sell-outs, and the prize money is colossal. The top six PGA Senior Champions Tour lifetime earners are Bernhard Langer ($35,964,514), Hale Irwin ($27,158, 515), Gil Morgan ($20,631,930), Jay Haas ($19,886,530), Tom Kite ($16,303,747), and Tom Watson ($15,074,227).

And, to put it another way, when on Sunday, March 16, you sit down in front of your TV to watch the opening grand prix of the 2025 F1 season, from Melbourne, would you enjoy seeing how Sky Sports F1’s Jenson Button had raced hell for leather to beat Channel 4’s Mark Webber to win the first Porsche F1 Masters Supercup race of the year? You would, wouldn’t you? I would, too. We all would. So how about it, Stefano Domenicali?

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