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Good-bye Horseless Carriage

FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
24/02/2015

As recently as 1910 it was rather dashing to be in the Cavalry, and a young man with weak, or, compounding matters, poor horsemanship, was an object of pity. Indeed for a lady to show the remarkable ability to ride side-saddle would garner said lady significant respect in outdoor circles. Fast forward 100 years and dressage, a sport directly developed from the need for a cavalry man to be able to wheel and ‘dance’ his horse in combat to stay alive, is under pressure to be dropped from future Olympics, and is the quaint minority sport of the horse-loving fringe.

From two thousand years of land transport domination, and with mastery bestowing instant social status and respect upon coordinated individuals, to an expensive minority sport followed by an eccentric few; who for the most part pursue their hobby greatly untroubled by the soccer following masses, major corporate sponsorship deals, or (unless a Royal is riding) television cameras.

And so to the horseless carriage. From initial sprints and endurance races in France (the first race involving an electric car, which also tickles me given it is currently being pushed as 'new'... the electric car was with us in the nineteenth century. So much for Formula One moving fast on that one!) To plaything of the rich, to commercial horse replacement, to a statement of personal freedom, an embodiment of engineering and design delights. To a social status declaration. To a sporting wonder to match the Olympics and Soccer. Then to what?

I love nostalgia as much as the next former teenager. But the golden age of "love for the car" really was the 1950s and 1960s. This is not to be confused with the age of the 'best' car. That quite clearly is right now. Safety, quality, speed, simple effectiveness, as a mode of transport, are at an all-time high. Yet the love has gone.

As the planet becomes greener. As more and more computers monitor, guide and control our cars for us, so what of us as drivers? Double-declutch anyone? Cadence braking? Strong forearm technique for a recalcitrant dogbox/crashbox?

Where is that social mind-set to hound us into a driving frenzy, where Sundays spent maintaining a sweet clip down a deserted country lane is considered natural and delightful? British sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s would all be buried by the latest range of Japanese sport sedans and coupes (take a well-earned bow Evo, STi, and GT-R). Indeed, while I have sadly not had the chance to measure such, I believe a current "street spec, fresh from the dealer" Evo would dance cheerfully around any Ferrari built before the 1980s. But to what end? Where is the spirit, soul, simple delight and thrill of speed and motion in the mighty Evo, compared to the delights of a delicate 1960s (slower!) sports car?

As transport becomes increasingly automated (driving accident statistics way down, and hence - most reasonably - promoting yet more automation) the motor skills and simple joys of driving are fast fading from the group psyche. Just as no one passed a law forbidding the private use of horses, it simply fell away, so it will be with driving. Then what of motor sport? Where then?

The Chinese see the bicycle as a transport means you use because you are too poor to afford a car. As such they rarely aspire to battle in the Tour de France. Why would they want to clearly follow a poor man's pursuit?

So the following for professional road cycle racing is very low in China. No positive connection for the public. So no action.

Are we now in danger of this disconnect happening between the car using public and the excitement of Formula One? The public are increasingly using public transport, or they are increasingly regulated in their use of private cars. Stuck in inner city jams, or hounded by unmanned surveillance cameras on potentially "sporting" drives. How does that create a connection to the wonder of a Formula One race car at maximum attack on a race track?

I've had friends down the pub ask how Formula One drivers can be fit sportsmen as they sit down for the whole race, so how can it be tiring?

So quite apart from the issues confronting the sport as it looks internally, what about the external environment? The car as an appliance is not that many years away. Simply one manner in getting from location to location. As soon as all the automatic guidance issues are sorted (slowed more by regulation, and public acceptance now than technology) driving skills will go the same way as horsemanship. The quaint capability used by an eccentric few for a very expensive past time. And just as horses are banned on freeways, so too in the not so distant future will be human-in-the-loop cars.

What then for Formula One? Cars will be selling on safety features, comfort, and low cost, mixed with the brand elitism that already riddles the market. So what benefit sporting advantage? What interest driver involvement?

To remain relevant Formula One needs to make a deeper, one might venture spiritual, connection to the public. It needs to excite and entertain in ways that do not require the public to hammer a Lotus Seven down a Welsh back road to understand.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by Ola, 23/05/2015 3:21

"Excellent article. Just like skilfully manoeuvring horses fall out of fashion as people no longer can relate to it so might F1 as people no longer need to know how to drive a car. In spite of all the hype a truly self-driving car that can drive on any road is further away than what Google et al makes us believe. Then there is the phasing out of manually driven cars. I believe we are looking at a 50 year transition period. Plenty of time for the F1 community to figure out how they can develop the sport to keep the attention it so rightfully deserves. "

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2. Posted by Flip, 02/03/2015 15:31

"I agree, something needs to be done to keep F1 fans interested. Changing the rules every season only creates problems and most fans don't like it. I like the term used in the article, "we are not dancing on the edge of what is possible, simply the edge of what is allowed" as it describes modern F1. It has become more of an endurance or economy drive these days, with fuel and tyre saving taken to extreme. These have always been an issue, but now it is manufactured into regulations and not a natural process as it used to be. Let's get back to basics and let the drivers race flat out for the whole race, no matter how much fuel they use, or how many tyres or engines. F1 will never be green don't matter how many times they reduce the amount of fuel used in a race, a few hundred gallons of fuel used during a race, is nothing compared to the thousands used, transporting the whole show around the world in planes and many other fuel gussling vehicles. "

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3. Posted by Hondawho?, 01/03/2015 18:42

"You are all right of course, but I would prefer one of the those space pod racers (official name please I am sure someone on here knows it on here!) they used in Star Wars, whatever episode it may have been! That is the future but "not as we know it Jim" Damm he had passed away as well, just goes to prove you can think and dream but:

"Never make dreams your master " Rudyard Kipling. IF."

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4. Posted by emcomments, 01/03/2015 14:48

"'So the following for professional road cycle racing is very low in China.'

You are on the inter web you know? Try just a bit of googling for crying out loud!

Cumulated audiences show that the 2012 Tour of Beijing, which was viewed by 146.41million people, ranked in fourth position sitting behind only the three grand tours - See more at: http://www.tourofbeijing.net/2013/08/tour-of-beijing-amongst-most-watched-worldtour-races/#sthash.JRg8oyvE.dpuf"

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5. Posted by Max Noble, 26/02/2015 23:32

"@Canuck & @cricketpo
We are taking the first steps down a very interesting avenue of discussion. I feel the need to explore it further in the near future!
Compared to soccer and running F1 is highly complex. Compared to cycling and horse riding, both of which have an array of hardware to organise to support the athlete, F1 is still a remarkable, complex, team sport like no other. I like cricketpo love the technology. It delights me. For many other fans it holds little interest. It is the complexity of the sport reflected in the complexity of the fan base it attracts. We all come for our own, frequently very different, reasons. And by Jove do those governing the sport manage to snub or ignore across multiple interests and offend fans of all types in so many special ways! This is one area we all need to address together. For once teams, governing bodies, management, tracks and fans all pulling together for the common good. Heck Bernie might learn something from it to teach the EU and he'd love that! So we can all be winners!"

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6. Posted by cricketpo, 26/02/2015 16:58

"http://www.britishdressage.co.uk/weg_2014
Don't panic everybody looks like dressage is alive and well!
So can F1 be. I was in love with F1 long before I could drive so I am not concerned with it being unconnected to every day driving. Secondly it is a TV sport first and foremost. I have been to an F1 and quite frankly after the first set of tyre stops it is just a very noisy confusion. Leaders and back markers all mixed up. I have enjoyed it more from the comfort of my armchair than track side by a long chalk. F1 could do more to level the playing field for teams in terms of cost. I believe the "big four" have budgets that the saubers of this world can only dream of. However I like my F1 technical. I want good engineering and, more importantly, innovation to be rewarded. As I said in a previous comment it is the advance in technology that really makes it worthwhile, which team has the tech? Which team has followed a blind alley? I loved the diffuser row because it highlighted how engineers try to circumvent the rules for an edge. I love that F1 is such a circus of enormous Winnebago's, drivers who look like astronauts and cars that are out of this world. So bring on the 2015 season and may the best kit win. "

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7. Posted by intrepid, 26/02/2015 13:47

"Perhaps the most thoughtful, perceptive writing on the motor car, the driving public and Formula 1 that I have ever read. "

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8. Posted by Fangio, 26/02/2015 7:06

"He has hit the nail on the head. An excellent article."

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9. Posted by FormulaMcGruff, 26/02/2015 1:54

"What a great read!!! As an on and off follower of Formula 1, I was interested to see the reception of the new rules and regulations by the avid fans. It seems that the institution is losing the identity that so many of us have fallen in love with since watching our first GP. F1 needs to remember that the fans are one of the most integral aspects to any sport, and hence do right by them. It would be a real shame for racing progression to become stagnant under the weight of these exceedingly strict rules and regulations.

FormulaMcGruff"

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10. Posted by cricketpo, 26/02/2015 1:50

"My turn to wade into this argument. Please pardon spelling mistakes as this we hastily typed on my nasty android tablet in the wee small hours. Firstly nice article but I was left wondering whether we both watched the same season. The wranglings of the Mercedes team certainly peaked my interest along with the emergence of a young driver who nearly stole the show whilst those two Mercs tried to knock seven bells out of each other. That said the financial plight of two teams and their loss to the sport should be cause for concern. With the amount of money available in F1 it should not happen unless there is mismanagement. A fairer split of the money perhaps? What attracted me to F1 was always the technology. Turbo vs. Ground effect. Launch control. Turbo. KERS, self levelling suspension, even exhaust systems the joy was always who had the better tech and how the rules were interpreted/bent. I remember a time when drivers died on regular basis. I do not want to see a return to that era"

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11. Posted by Canuck, 25/02/2015 14:18

"@scf1fand & Max Noble - a very interesting article and debate back and forth. To some extent I agree as I have been following F1 since the 50s. But then I have always been interested in motors and motor racing. Like many of the old fans I remember when one could work on their cars with just a few spanners and I enjoyed getting grease under my finger nails. Today that is no longer possible. However their are new ways the get the youth interested in motor sports. How many motor sports "Electronic Games" exist? How many are sold each year? It is the same as "Electronic Baseball - American Football - Football (soccer)" and so many sports now being virtually played as opposed to physically played. I believe that these create interest in the real sport through the virtual world. Also the ability to have access to an unlimited supply of information through the WEB provides additional incentive to follow any sports. I believe the constant regulation changes and the losing of the old circuits are contributing factors to the lost interest. I also believe that the constant internal bitching about what is wrong by the sport principles as opposed to singing the virtues of the sport as also had a negative impact on the sport. Bernie complaining about the sound and that there is no need to attract youths because they cant afford a Rolex, the team principles complaining about sound, money, and stating individual interests as opposed to sport interest is certainly not helping. "

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12. Posted by Max Noble, 25/02/2015 4:56

"@scf1fan - we are potentially in violent agreement. :-). I am potentially trying to answer multiple aspects of the overall question all at once. While many of us do not play soccer every day, the majority of soccer fans either kicked a ball around as a youth, play in a senior five a side (indoor) league, or kick a ball around with junior. I'm sure many fans never did, and do not, do any of these and simply love the sport directly. Yet most grass roots sports have their fan-base built upon participation at some level. As the simple and direct connection of human-in-the-loop driving is replaced by automation all motor sport will lose a direct connection to the public... Just as horse-based transport did. So I propose in the article that motor sport is facing the same issue horse-based transport did at the start of the 20th century. This will cause the fan-base to shrink. By how much and how to stop it are the questions to answer. Or motor sport, and especially F1, will have great difficulty connecting with people once the automated passenger cars takeover. "

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13. Posted by scf1fan, 25/02/2015 3:26

"@Max Noble. Now that is an answer to a different question. The article as I read it was postulating that since the personal "driving" technology of the past was going away, the "popularity" of F1 as a sport would soon follow. (Which I disagree with, at least in the total sense.) Your response seems to be saying that it's important as to why the people are in the stands. (?) Although I would like them to appreciate the sport, I'll ask if that really matters? What you ascribe as "quick hits" are present in most of the major sports. Yes people bet on the horses, but they party and bet on football, baseball, and soccer games too, etc. etc. (Indy's "snake pit" is called that for a reason!) Those things may make a sport more popular for some people and less so for others. But the fact that we don't use horses, or footballs, or bows and arrows or drive 200 mph in most of our daily lives doesn't make those sports less interesting or popular amongst their fans!!! And as long as there are fans, those sports will carry on."

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14. Posted by Max Noble, 24/02/2015 22:57

"@scf1fan. Yes I tend to agree with you. If F1 gets the format right it has a glowing future, not unlike horse track racing. But the big driver here for horse racing is the betting and the "instant hit". Punters at the track get many races in a day, and the races last a few minutes each. Coupled with the excitement of placing a bet it gives a quick hit of excitement. The majority of people at a horse track have never sat on a horse. It's betting, fashion, and drink. The majority of us drive providing a direct link to the concept of F1. I'll explore other aspects of the challenges facing the sport in future articles... And thanks for the edit comments... I'll work to provide improved raw material to Chris next time! "

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15. Posted by nealio, 24/02/2015 19:03

"A well-reasoned argument which contains it's own conclusion, there is no future for F1 as society will not allow risk and economics will not pay for make-believe in an analog environment."

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