14/02/2005
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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In my last piece I wrote that Midland F1 was going to bring in Roman Rusinov for testing and Rusinov therefore becomes Russia's first Formula One (but not Grand Prix) driver. I was wrong on a point of fact, the first Russian F1 driver was actually Sergei Zlobin who has tested for work for Minardi.
Normally if I get a fact wrong I will get a sprinkling of good natured corrections. It doesn't happen often, but then I have Chris Balfe covering my back. Chris saw nothing wrong with the statement and only one person, Rafael Via Wilbers (thank you, Rafael) contacted me which shows how vividly Sergei Zlobin's F1 career has seared itself on the collective consciousness.
After signing for Minardi in 2002 Zlobin had three test stints up to August 2004 when he signed on again to the end of 2004. He is backed by a Russian businessman, Alexy Zborovskiy, who is someone who wants to see a Russian Grand Prix.
The Russian Grand Prix is the longest running story in motor racing and has been on the go since the President of the Moscow Automobile Club accepted an invitation to attend the 1958 International Trophy at Silverstone. Shortly afterwards came news of the Kharhov 'Grand Prix' car (actually built to break Russia's not very fast national speed record) and the Kharhov's ace driver, Valiery Nikitin, What a gift Nikitin would have been to a tobacco sponsor.
Want to get a drive? Change your name to Benson Hedges.
While Sergei Zlobin can hardly be said to have made much impact, it is clear that he fits someone else's wider agenda, which is to have a Grand Prix in Moscow or St. Petersburg. We have heard rumours of a Grand Prix in India for many years. Hardly is the ink dry on Narain Karthikeyan's contract with Jordan than Bernie announces there will be one within the next three years coincidence, or what?.
Some teams are happy to sell 'test contracts' though some of these drives are like the businessman who paid to go on a space mission. If you have outgrown roller coasters, where do you seek your next thrill? I am sure that some paid for test drives can be used by drivers and their sponsors to get their feet inside the door. Being part of the overall F1 scene may lead to deals which are not immediately apparent.
I have been looking at the list of recent F1 test drivers and the list is long and diverse in nationality. Here is a peculiar fact: as the FIA has tried to limit the testing, so the number of test drivers has increased.
It occurs to me that if one is serious about promoting Formula One, which includes raising its media profile in countries comparatively new to the sport which, in turn, will make it
more attractive to sponsors, there is an easy way. Why not have a one make series for F1 test drivers which would be part of the Grand Prix package?
The Pro car series of the early 1980s had current F1 drivers in BMW M1 coupés race on a Saturday afternoon and was an immensely popular popular feature, not least with some drivers. When he won the series in 1980, Nelson Piquet made more money from Pro car then Bernie was paying him to be Number One at Brabham. Pressure on F1 drivers today make it virtually impossible to repeat Pro car, but there is no reason why you could not assemble a field of Formula One test drivers.
We are seeing races appearing in new countries and the fans in those countries would welcome a local hero to cheer. It used to be possible for teams to run a third driver at races and it was usually a local hero who was buying a ride. It was a system which worked well for all concerned. The team made money, the driver and his sponsors got exposure, while the promoter and fans had local interest.
Formula One claims to be one of the great success stories of sports packaging, yet it has missed an essential point which is that local interest is of the essence in sport. Success is measured only by maths while ignoring poetry. We have the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championship. The Olympics get a massive TV audience, the World Athletics Championship attracts sports fans only.
Just about every country on earth is represented at the Olympics. At the opening ceremony you may see three athletes marching proudly behind the national flag of some tiny nation, but they are there. The country may be a dot in the ocean on a globe, but they are competing. Their three athletes are marching in the the stadium, behind their flag, in company with the athletes who will go home with the gongs. What is more, the crowd will usually give them a special cheer for having made the effort.
In England we have the Football Association Cup, a knock out competition open to any club which belongs to any league affiliated to the FA. This means any village which has a team even though its league is so far down the pecking order that it only plays other villages within a 25 mile radius. They compete in the preliminary rounds before the official First Round. Hundreds of games are played, on school fields and in parks, and then the handful of amateur teams which survive begin to meet the semi pros. In the Third Round you have all the major clubs, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, and so on, and it is possible that a village team can find itself playing one of the big clubs, Almost every year there is an upset, when a team of part timers knocks out some huge club. Sports journalists call that 'the magic of the Cup'.
In theory, a village team from Great Stirring in The Crotch could win the FA Cup and that is what makes the Cup competition so special. The point is that every village team is in the same competition as clubs where even the reserve players are multi millionaires and they are playing to the same rules. If Cold Christmas (there is such a village) can put the ball in the net more often than Manchester United, they not only win they become national heroes.
Recently Exeter City, a little club, met Man. Utd. in the Cup and held them to a draw in Manchester, though United had not fielded its strongest side. Man U had then to play in Exeter and Exeter City made so much money from the re match that I understand that its bank balance is now in the black for the first time in years. Manchester United fielded a strong team, won easily, and had the grace not to rub in its superiority too much.
There are guys who got no further in their football career than playing for Exeter City, and there are guys who have dropped down to Exeter, but they drew with Manchester United away from home and the replay was was shown on BBC television, live, every minute of it. Their praises will be sung in Exeter for years to come.
For whatever reasons Narain Karthikeyan has been signed by what we still call Jordan, you can bet that the impact on India will be immense. Every Indian has someone to follow in a Grand Prix. A big element of sport is the dream. The kid in India who sees Narain Karthikeyan driving in Formula One can think, If he can get there, I can get there. It makes all the difference when someone with whom you can identify makes the grade.
The people marketing Formula One have missed an essential point, which is aspiration on a personal level. Nobody participates in, or follows, a sport because they have made a rational commitment. We follow a sport because there is something in it which appeals to us in the heart.
Nobody else in my family is hooked on motor racing and I had three uncles who spent their entire working lives in the motor industry. My son, Mark, grew up not only being taken to race meetings but knowing top drivers on a social level. He decided that he preferred to cycle up and down mountains. It is whatever lights your wick, if you could put that special thing in a bottle you'd be a billionaire.
How many of we F1 fans have been bored rigid by a race, vowed never to watch another, not ever, yet have been back in front of the television when the next race comes around? There is no rational reason, we simply cannot help ourselves.
If Formula One is to really reach out to new markets, it is not enough to simply stage races hither and yon. The potential fans in those countries need their own heroes. There are not enough F1 seats to go around, but we have an enormous number of F1 test drivers.
I propose a series for F1 test drivers using identical GT cars prepared by a central agency. I am sure that a manufacturer could be found to supply them. Daewoo has just been rebranded Chevrolet, the Corvette springs to mind. There has been nothing but praise for the Nissan 350Z, but it lacks badge. The cars need not be super tuned, the important thing is that they should be quick and be evenly matched. By using production sports cars in standard tune, we do not encroach on open wheeled formulae like GP2.
A 20 lap race becomes a feature of every Grand Prix and is televised, though it is up to individual broadcasters whether or not they use the footage. The test driver and his sponsors become part of the Grand Prix weekend and the sponsors have their signwriting on the car. At every race there are two 'guest' cars so when, say, the circus visits China, there will be two Chinese drivers on the grid and they will be mixing it with F1 drivers.
The top teams have some pretty useful test drivers, like Alex Würz and Pedro de la Rosa, men who can set a standard. When did either of them actually race? We have just seen that David Coulthard could have been a test driver for McLaren or Ferrari, but he stuck out because he wanted to race. He is going to be with Red Bull so even a podium is out of the question, but he will be racing.
The enthusiast spectator, the sort who camps at a circuit on a Thursday and returns home on the following Monday, is fleeced in every which way someone can think of. The support programmes at Grands Prix have shrivelled.
Formula One has spawned a breed of F1 drivers who do not actually race. Every single one has a Superlicence, experience and talent. What is to be done with them? My suggestion is to let them race and give fans in every country a local hero to cheer. The local hero is as important as the guys on the podium spraying the bubbly.
To check out previous features from Mike, click here