F1 Needs To Smell, Shriek And Shake

When he saw F1 for the first time the spine-tingling spectacle left a five-year-old boy trembling with excitement…

“It was raining at Hockenheim and the cars were coming out for installation laps in practice, and just to hear the sound of the cars, to feel it in the ground – these are the first memories I have," Sebastian Vettel recalled recently. “I just hope that in future we will not lose this excitement. I think the cars need to  be loud, they need to smell. F1 needs to give you something you never forget.”

Vettel fears that F1, now facing the biggest technical change in decades, is in danger of losing that vital thrill factor that first inspired him to become a driver in the sport he has come to dominate. His misgivings are particularly centred on the 2014 move to smaller, quieter, more energy-efficient turbo engines that highlight the conflict between the sport’s ever-escalating technical emphasis and the pure raw emotion the pinnacle of motorsport should generate in the hearts and minds of its fans - and its participants.

Many critics go much further than the quadruple world champion, despairing that the data-driven geeks and nerds now running the sport are ruining it by dumbing it up, not down, with absurdly over-engineered racing that diminishes the role of the drivers, mutes the soul-stirring sound and fury that little Seb Vettel found so unforgettable.

F1 is in desperate need of a back-to-basics overhaul. It should stop blinding us with science, stop trying to ‘improve the show’ by artificial means, with KERS, DRS, tyre trickery, more politically correct engines and bewilderingly complex strategy that even the drivers don’t understand.

Let the clever technophiles turn their fertile minds and their controlling computers to recovering the sport’s lost energy by returning to its old-fashioned, hardcore roots. Shrink the ever-thickening rule books (and cut costs) by simplifying the sport, making it less cold and clinical, more animated and alive. Concentrate on making the cars smell, shriek and shake the ground. Let the drivers race, let them be heroes. F1 must continue to thrill and inspire small boys.