The Editor: May 2024 The Editor: ‘24 race season is looking longer by the day for flat F1’

Zak Brown once got himself a tattoo after losing a bet with Daniel Ricciardo when the Australian won at Monza in 2021. He has reportedly made a similar bet with Oscar Piastri for the 2024 season. But it is another high-stakes wager that could prove a major embarrassment for Formula 1 as a whole.

It was placed by Jeff Dodds, the boss of rival racing series Formula E, during an interview. “I’ll tell you what,” he said when asked what he thought the chances were of Max Verstappen winning the 2024 F1 world title, “if any one of the other 19 drivers wins it, we’ll give a quarter of a million dollars to the charity of choice of the other driver that wins it. It wouldn’t be the worst day in the office to give a load of money to charity. But absolutely he [Max] is nailed on to win that season.”

Dodds went on to contrast the fact that while he knew who was going to win the F1 title, he would be turning up at his own FE races with no idea who would take victory from race to race.

Worryingly the wager was made prior to the season-opening Bahrain GP, which Max Verstappen won before sweeping to another victory in Saudi Arabia. Technical issues may have forced his retirement from the Australian GP but, as you can read about on page 29 where Mark Hughes casts the slide rule over those opening races of 2024, the Verstappen/Red Bull pairing remains in a class of its own.

Of course it is Dodd’s job to talk up his own racing series. I was at the second round of the Formula E championship in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia in January and he was already in full swing, telling us about the series’ investment and growth. And admittedly at the Diriyah track, which is pretty spectacular, curving its way through a Unesco world heritage site, it is easy to get carried away and forget the many flaws the series has.

But one thing it can’t be accused of is lacking in competitive edge and racing excitement. The round following Diriyah – the São Paulo ePrix – was one of the best I can remember as Sam Bird sealed one of the most dramatic victories in Formula E history, with a stunning final-lap move on former team-mate Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) to secure NEOM McLaren’s first win in the series.

“In Formula 1 there is a distinctly jaundiced atmosphere”

The race included 212 competitive overtakes, a number admittedly inflated by the advent of ‘peloton’ racing, used to manage energy reserves, but it even impressed a watching 93-year-old, who, in motor sport, has seen it all before: “It’s the first race I’ve been to and it looks super, super, super,” said Bernie Ecclestone. “Technically, it’s Formula 1 level.”

Last year the sport had seven different winners (in 16 races, compared to three different winners in 22 races for Formula 1). So far this year Formula E has had four different winners in the opening four rounds and nine different drivers have featured on the podium.

That level of competition is bound to energise and excite fans in a way that watching one driver and team romp home to victory week in, week out simply can’t. And even without Max, F1 feels flat – there was a dearth of wheel-to-wheel racing action at the Australian GP.

The problem is broader than simply F1 lacking on-track thrills. In Diriyah there was an upbeat optimism around the series. By contrast there is a distinctly jaundiced atmosphere surrounding F1.

The most obvious source of the rancour is the unpleasant furore around the allegations against Christian Horner which have been allowed to fester for weeks and appear, as we report on page 78, to show no sign of abating.

But there is more to it than that. Look at the simmering turf war between the FIA and the teams which periodically boils over – the most recent example being with accusations that the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem interfered with the Las Vegas GP last year and told officials not to certify the US track. A charge, subsequently found to be without merit, that would have infuriated F1 and the teams.

Then there is the ongoing disgrace of the teams refusing to admit Andretti as an 11th player. Try as they might to justify the reasoning, in the eyes of fans the move is seen for exactly what it is: a self-serving veto motivated by greed and coming at the expense of the sport and fans’ enjoyment.

Meanwhile, Susie Wolff, boss of the F1 Academy all-women support series and the wife of Mercedes team principal Toto, is taking legal action against the FIA regarding its investigation into an alleged conflict of interest. And then you have the seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton complaining on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix that there is no accountability in F1. “How can you trust a sport and what is happening when you don’t have that?” he asked the BBC.

Against this backdrop, is it any wonder that this year’s F1 season of 24 races is looking longer by the day.

F1 has long sucked the oxygen out of motor racing, dominating coverage, debate and money. It’s a privileged position that, at times like these, it appears to be doing little to deserve. At least come December if nothing changes one lucky charity may feel the benefit. If things continue as they are, few of us will.

Joe Dunn, editor
Follow Joe on Twitter @joedunn90

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