28/02/2016
NEWS STORY
No matter how daft the rules, how processional the racing, or how early the title is secured, you can rest assured that one group of avid followers will be there until the bitter end, checking out the websites, trawling readers comments and seeking out the action clips on You Tube.
Let's hear it for the ever eager team of lawyers working for Formula One Management, that vigilant team working around the clock in the (business) interests of the sport's owners.
The latest 'victim' of this eagle-eyed squad is Haas driver Romain Grosjean, who innocently posted a series of videos on his Facebook page in order that fans could get unique behind-the scenes footage of he and his team at work.
Then came the 'request' to remove them.
Like many, at a time fans are turning away from the sport - a situation that won't be helped by Mercedes' performance in the opening round of testing - the Frenchman believes F1 should be doing more not only to retain the fans it has but to attract new blood.
However, having now come up against the sport's powers-that-be, Grosjean, like so many of us, is left frustrated.
"I ran a live video on my Facebook page during our filming day, as well as from my room yesterday," he told Motorsport.com. "And then FOM asked me to remove all the videos.
"We had more than a million views on all the videos," he added. "I think it's great, it allows people to see F1, what it's like inside, behind the scenes, but we're not allowed.
"F1 is too narrow-minded," he warned, "we say that we lose fans, but nowadays, social networks have so many billion people in the world - and we're not allowed to make the most of them."
And there, in a nutshell, is a clear example of one of the key problems facing the sport if it really wants to attract new fans, and thereby new sponsors, teams and manufacturers. Rather than encourage such interaction, the sport's powers-that-be stifle it, and all because they think they're missing out in terms of revenue.