Formula 1 has lost its charm, fix please!

It's all been pretty strange with F1 of late... I personally haven't watched most of this year because of lack of TV coverage where I am, weirdo timezones but ultimately because I haven't cared much.

From my perspective that's a strong statement (not caring about F1). I've been F1 crazy since around '96, I think my obsession peaked during varsity but I'm slowly falling out of love with F1. Why? Well I'd summarise it as follows; too much bullshit!!!

Let me try and explain:

F1 has always had its conspiracies, think Damon Hill vs Schumacher at Adelaide '94, think Villeneuve vs Schumacher at Jerez '97 think... ok screw this I'd go on forever if I have to continue like this. But during those times, I loved it. F1 had elements of excitement, intrigue and passion all rolled up into one.

What's changed in the past couple of years though is all this off-track political and espionage crap! As funny (and disturbing) as it was to watch Max go all Nazi S&M on us, we've witnessed too much politics in what is essentially a spectator sport. One or two I could handle but the combination of all of them (pick one: 2005 - Michelin fiasco /2006 - Renault Mass Dampers /2008 McLaren Stepney Gate/2009 - The double diffuser saga, Hamilton's Liar Gate, Flavio's Crash gate) makes me physically sick just thinking about it.

2009 really has been a low, no disrespect to Brawn, Button and Redbull Racing, but it's been hard to really care for F1 when I as a spectator feel so disillusioned by the sport. Some might say that because McLaren have sucked this year I've lost interest. I can promise you this isn't true, if you ask me, my favourite seasons of F1 have to be 2003, with the old memories of the '97 and '98 seasons coming in second and third (McLaren only had success in one of those three seasons - '98). Anyway, back to my point...

Now that I think about it, it's a combination of a few things that've made F1 suck:

• The off-track politics (detailed above)
• Tracks - Hands up, how many people would prefer Bernie's 20 races a year at 17 snoozefest exotic Hermann Tilke tracks at the expense of SpaFrancochamps, Suzuka, Hockenheim and the old Osterreichring in Austria which in my opinion epitomise the essence of F1. New locations like Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Singapore and Valencia have all been quite honestly horrible in terms of providing good racing. Dare I say it, but of Tilke's works, only Turkey and Malaysia has provided spectators with something worth watching (and with Malaysia, that's partly because of the storms we get there).
• Schumi - Was Schumi (not Ralf) that important for F1? I think so, judging by the excitment generated by his non-return to the grid to replace the injured Massa. But we really must try move on! Scrap this point - oh, now Kimi's gone too :(
• The FIA Stewards- what a lol! don't get me started
• The manufacturers - They really have stirred up more kak than providing us with something to cheer about. In fairness to them, they did try though. Atleast Honda and the departing BMW have set up some sort of continuity with takeovers (Brawn/Mercedes and Sauber). Same can't be said for Toyota, seems they've wasted both their time and ours since they joined F1... pity.
• Crazy yo-yo rule changes with qualifying, refuelling, penalites, etc...
• Certain cost cutting ventures - Sure you must cut costs in these times (I think the limited engine and gear box rules have been a success), but KERS for example has cost many millions in its development and is now scrapped after a solitary season.

Hope

Amid all this crap, there does seem to be some hope for the future of F1.

• The FIA has undergone a proper restructuring, Jean Todt at the top sounds alot better than Max Mosely. Together with running a better organisation, Todt should hopefully address the stewarding and rule change issues. Time will tell I guess.
• Contrary to what it sounds like, the exit of some manufacturers from the sport might not exactly be a disaster. The return of the era of private teams is back on the cards. The entrants for next year include Lotus, Campos, USF1, Manor, Force India, Redbull, Toro Roso and McLaren together with the manufacturer teams of Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault.
• Who knows, I might be back in GMT+2 :P

I don't know if the above will fix anything, but here's hoping...

To summarise, I wanna see is some good old fashioned racing, I wanna see drivers fighting each other after a crash, I wanna see last lap heroics. I don't want industrial espionage, I don't want teams telling their drivers to crash into a wall and I really don't wan't wanna see what FIA presidents do in their spare time.

Roll on 2010!