What A Show, Don't Ruin It!

What A Show, Don't Ruin It!

Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, quite possibly one of the best Formula 1 races we have seen in the last decade, made me feel a range of different emotions. Passion: for a sport that I care deeply about there was nothing better than sitting on the edge of my seat watching the best drivers in the world fight it out tooth and nail for positions throughout the field. Confusion: Why the hell are some of the more prominent people in the sport still bad mouthing it?!

When the season started in Australia I watched with both intrigue and awe as the drivers hurtled these brand new cars around Albert Park in fantastic style and from the get go I have to say I was sold. Granted the engine isn't as noisy as previous years but what it provides is a car in which the drivers needs the use of all their skills to master. Lets move away from the engine noise for a second and consider some of the other aspects we have learned so far this season. We have an incredibly exciting intra - team rivalry between Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg that could possibly be on par with the Hill/Villeneuve or Prost/Senna battles to name a few. We have a four time World Champion in Sebastian Vettel who now has a car that certainly that no longer leads the pack and has a teammate who can really give him a run for his money. How he deals with this will be fascinating to watch throughout the season. You have overtaking...........LOTS of overtaking, the very thing fans have been demanding for years and Bahrain proved that we now have it in abundance. This new Formula 1 has a bit of everything!

So why do we still have the Bernie Eccelstones  and the Luca Di Montezemolos of this world crying out for change. We have heard numerous complaints including that the fuel limit is too low and is negatively effecting the racing. As far as I'm concerned I haven't seen anything to suggest that the racing is going in the wrong direction. I have heard reports that all of the attacks by certain prominent individuals in the sport are aimed at devaluing the sport so it can be bought out. If this is true than it is a travesty. I am a firm believer that  politics have no place in sport but unfortunately it's roots are long and deep within Formula 1. The last thing we want is a repeat of the fiasco we had with the FISA-FOCA war in the late 70s and early 80s. They are damaging, ugly and take away from the spectacle that is motor racing. Unfortunately it comes with the package that is Formula 1. As Ayrton Senna said early in his Formula 1 career "Formula 1 is money, Formula 1 is politics."

2014 has started on the right foot but thats the key word, "started". These new rules have only had 3 races, it is essential that the sport does not rush into making drastic changes at this early stage. The sport has under gone one of the biggest face lifts it has has ever experienced and need time to adjust. Things as they stand now will be very different come the end of the year, theres is very little doubt that the gap Mercedes have over the rest of the field at the minute won't decrease before the end of the season for example. For the moment lets enjoy what has been an exciting start to the 2014 Formula 1 season.