With the 2022 season kicking into high gear, all eyes are on the new cars, regulations, and drivers. Some of the new rules were years in the making, but a small group of them came as a result of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was one of the most anticipated races in the modern Formula One era. Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion looking for a record-breaking eighth title, and Max Verstappen, who was hunting down his maiden title, went into the final race on equal footing, down to the half point. The stakes could not have been higher going into the race weekend. Yet, by the time the checkered flag waved, few were left talking about the winners themselves. The conversation took a turn towards Race Control, sporting regulations, and the now-realized ramifications on the sport. But it also revealed a larger truth: the stories of F1 are outweighing the sport itself.
The stories of F1 are outweighing the sport itself.
Many, including the governing body of F1, have described and analyzed the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in an attempt to make sense of it. The quick version: Hamilton led most of the race with a comfortable ten to thirteen second lead to Vertsappen with little action between them. After an accident on lap 53 of 58 triggered a safety car, a vehicle that leads the cars around the track at a reduced pace to allow crews to clean up the track safely, everything changed. An unusual and unprecedented interpretation of standard protocol by Race Control, the referees of F1, left Hamilton without any of the anticipated safeguards to defend against Verstappen. On the last lap of the race, the safety car pulled into the pit lane, against regulations, and the Red Bull driver easily passed the Mercedes to go on and win his first world championship. While the outcome of the race was certainly discussed, a cloud of debates loomed over the F1 world. Many were left feeling that the pressure to create an ending worthy of the 2021 season had seeped into decision-making at the highest levels. In the UK alone, a record breaking 7.4 million people tuned in to watch the race live, making it the most watched grand prix ever shown live by the broadcaster. Worldwide, viewership skyrocketed to record highs. The world was indeed watching as the lights went out and F1 knew that.
This feeling is not without merit. In order to grasp the true implications of the final race of 2021, there are two key aspects to understand: F1’s core desire to expand viewership and who ultimately becomes the face of the sport.
The drama, the heartbreak, the joy - the fans aren’t there to rewatch the races from the season; they want to watch a show about the fastest drivers driving the fastest cars around the world.
Over the past five years, F1 has become a content driven entity. Liberty Media, a US-based media conglomerate, purchased F1 in 2016 and with the new owners came a new direction for the sport: to gain more fans in the US, particularly younger fans. To accomplish both, F1 as a sport needed to be marketable and meet these demographics where they exist, which is social media and streaming services. Lucrative deals with platforms such as ESPN have helped bring in swaths of fans but the crown jewel in Liberty Media’s plan is the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive”. The series brings fans behind-the-scenes of the season with the crew fully embedded in teams to provide a truly never-before seen experience. It highlights season-long stories, rivalries, triumphs, failures, but very little of the actual racing. Almost every season of the series has debuted at number one on Netflix and has been frequently cited as the source behind the staggering increase in viewership of the sport. But the success of the series is dependent on the stories created within the season.The drama, the heartbreak, the joy – the fans aren’t there to rewatch the races from the season; they want to watch a show about the fastest drivers driving the fastest cars around the world which is exactly what Drive To Survive delivers. On the other side, the F1 social media channels are filled with clips from interviews, dramatic moments, and digestible pieces of content that highlight the excitement of the sport. F1’s continued success and growth has become, by design, heavily dependent on their ability to have fans invested in the stories rather than the sport itself.
This is where the 2021 season comes into play. This past season has been heralded as one of the best in F1 history due to the intense rivalry between Mercedes and Red Bull, as well as their respective top drivers, Hamilton and Verstappen. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have been able to secure both the drivers and constructors championship well before the final race of the season for the past several years, leading many fans to complain that the sport had become boring and predictable with such a commanding force at the front. A complete Mercedes domination of the Hybrid Era (2014-2021) would have hurt F1’s plans of bringing in new fans and increasing viewership. But, Red Bull and Verstappen proved to be true challengers to Mercedes early on in 2021 and the push towards the championship became increasingly spectacular with crashes between the two on opening laps, strategy gambles, and exchanged words between the team principles. In this case, if the championship-deciding race had been an easy victory for Hamilton like many he and the team have had throughout the era, it would not have been the ending F1 wanted to see. This is despite the fact that if Hamilton had won, it would have meant one of the long-standing records in F1 would have been broken and Hamilton would have become the face of F1.
Having Hamilton, the first and only Black F1 driver, become the winningest driver in history didn’t sit well with many officials within the sport which meant that this couldn’t be the way the season ends.
But there was a vested interest in not letting that happen. Having Hamilton, the first and only Black F1 driver, become the winningest driver in history didn’t sit well with many officials within the sport which meant that this couldn’t be the way the season ends. F1, like many sports, has a diversity issue and one that they’re not keen on highlighting but Hamilton is one of the many drivers that are outspoken about the inequities within F1 and he isn’t afraid to use his fame to bring attention to those issues. This meant that having Hamilton become the ultimate face of F1 by breaking the record for winning the most world championships couldn’t be the defining story of the 2021 season. F1 saw this last race as a prime chance to generate the adrenaline-filled content that the sport craved for fans to continuously consume beyond the end of the season, and any potentially conflicting storyline that takes attention away from the content would not suit their purposes.
So in a split-second decision, an alternative path was forged that accomplished exactly what F1 wanted. Lap 57 had the world refreshing every news outlet, social media platform, and looking for answers wherever they could find them. The footage of the safety car was everywhere and everyone had an opinion on what happened. This wasn’t an accident or a bad strategy call, the result of the race was the outcome of the safety car regulations being disregarded and half enforced. The championship became the result of a decision someone outside the car and the teams made and for reasons outside the realm of racing. It was all for the sake of the 2021 season’s story.
With the new season now underway, the controversy has left a noticeable mark on the sport. After many insiders called for clearer regulations and more checks on decision-making, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile or the FIA, the governing body over F1 and other motorsport series, released a report that outlines new protocols in place to avoid the explosion of criticism that befell them following the Abu Dhabi GP. The document very clearly places no blame on the race director and carefully avoids making any statements on the implications of those decisions. This race will certainly take its place in F1 history for being the title decider in one of sport’s most epic rivalries but that would have been the case with or without interference from those in the high up in the organization.
It was all for the sake of the 2021 season’s story.
With the new season now underway, the controversy has left a noticeable mark on the sport. After many insiders called for clearer regulations and more checks on decision-making, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile or the FIA, the governing body over F1 and other motorsport series, released a report that outlines new protocols in place to avoid the explosion of criticism that befell them following the Abu Dhabi GP. The document very clearly places no blame on the race director and carefully avoids making any statements on the implications of those decisions. This race will certainly take its place in F1 history for being the title decider in one of sport’s most epic rivalries but that would have been the case with or without interference from those in the high up in the organization.
Avid fans are left feeling resigned to understand that the sport is purely for entertainment.
The Abu Dhabi GP was a brief but poignant reminder that F1 is a business. It’s a business that operates in many industries and entertainment is one of them. The final race of the season gave F1 the photo finish it had been hoping for but under circumstances that left many questioning the integrity of the officiating in the sport. The business that happens behind closed doors peeked through in Abu Dhabi and destroyed the illusion. Its very existence is something that is recognized in the fact that fans can watch F1 around the world and there’s an extremely popular documentary about it on Netflix but when that hand reaches out from the background and creates drama for its own sake, it’s devastating and disheartening. Avid fans are left feeling resigned to understand that the sport is purely for entertainment. The sporting aspect that drew many to F1 is merely a side element because even if a driver has a spectacular race and is on the way to breaking a previously untouchable record, there’s always a gray area of sporting regulations waiting for the right opportunity.
