The inconsistency of F1, a sport of details that does not allow its protagonists to train

Enough, come on, because the transition from grotesque to joke is really short. Formula 1 is the most exclusive, selective category of motorsport, in the throes of an unbridled overdose of technology, complex, inaccessible and has the wonderful distinction of being among the very few sports - if not perhaps the only one from memory - which does not allow its participants to train properly, to sharpen their blades as they should, preferring an unequal and useless waste of resources for simulation, for the virtual, for an ethereal and impractical dimension.

They are racing cars, expensive racing cars, made of carbon, steel, sophisticated metal alloys, machines stuffed with cables and electronics, which require competitions just to learn the basic functions of the steering wheel. But the driver - this chosen being endowed with the innate ability to bring the aforementioned beasts of almost 1000 hp to their limits - must learn to manage the single-seater by training on very expensive devices that give headaches, a bit like footballers instead to train they played on the playstation while waiting for the match.

Luckily at least there are free practices, but Liberty Media should get a move on, give up its own earning needs and therefore avoid putting thirty races on the calendar, some of which are unpresentable (countries known for having many defects apart from the vice of engines) , and give the teams the possibility of interrupting this dematerializing hemorrhaging of virtual work to get them back on track how, where and when the hell they want.

Far from septennates and interminable dominions, far from values ​​carved over the centuries, as firm as the megaliths of Stonehenge; let the drivers and engineers smell the asphalt, let them spend hours and hours on the track, until dusk to collect data, in peace and without other teams around, other than the free practice of the GPs which fly by between set-up and traffic tests away between a yellow flag and an accident.

The further we go, the worse we get. For the winter of 2021, only three days of collective testing are planned before the start of the season, i.e. one and a half days of work for each driver. Think about Sainz, Alonso, Vettel and who else will join. Anyone who changes (or returns) and has very few hours to work with the new team is a wrong, an injustice. Then we complain that we always see the same show.

Simplify the engines, give freedom back to the designers, throw some computers out the window and go back to filling the trucks with material to test on the track. And we turn – once again – to Stefano Domenicali, the next CEO of F1. Let him work to restore a human face to an otherwise depersonalizing category. Do you remember the test teams? Do you remember the fortunes of Ferrari thanks to the work of engineer Luigi Mazzola and the kilometers clocked up on the track by Badoer? Those too were emotions, sweat, effort. And they are missing.

Antonino Rendina 

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