Yes, that’s called cultural heritage, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Indycar is almost entirely dependent on one single race each year to remain relevant.
Again, saying things like the races are snooze fest is fine, but those races mean more than every other motorsport on the planet. Good racing is NOT hard to find, meaningful racing is very hard to find. It’s the biggest mistake almost all motorsport series make. They think ‘good close racing’ will bring in fans. It doesn’t. Almost all sports that are successful require on more ‘cultural’ aspects. Football doesn’t rely on good games, it relies upon the cultural aspect of the sport that draws locals to support their local team. It speaks more to tribal aspects of humans, than of the game itself. Football happens to be a relatively well-balanced sport, and this combining with tribalism is a potent mix.
Bare in mind I don’t spend money going to watch F1, and I am not spending money to get TV coverage either. I am have a lot of problems with it, but it’s so far ahead of every other motorsport I don’t think people really appreciate that.
To go back to the ‘meaning’ thing. We can take TJ’s experience on this very forum. He was racing for Best Kart at SKUSA as part of their development effort. It immediately yielded interaction and interest at a much deeper level from the forum than had he just rocked up with a TonyKart. Nothing about the race changes. Same venue, same karts, same place, same time. What’s different is the ‘meaning’ the race had for us forum members. Suddenly there’s more interest, more risk, more reward.
Another example is Marc Marquez going to Ducati. MotoGP hasn’t changed but 2024 suddenly feels like it means a lot more.
So the season is over, I know the drivers don’t like the increase in the number of race weekends but I love it:). Not loving the sprints though. I was a skeptic of Vegas but will freely admit the race was good, way better than expected. Glamour and glitz not my thing🤷🏻♂️
Looking forward to next year as far as I’m aware there will be no driver changes. Only one somewhat up in the air is Logan Sargeant although I think it’s only a matter of time before he is confirmed for 2024. I really was willing him to do well but it just didn’t happen. I would not retain him this year personally. I think Williams need another experienced driver in the other seat although not sure who that would be. Roll on 2024.
Frankly I’m ok with f1 doing what it does. One day they will be unpleasantly surprised when the leopard eats their face. Promote douchily and prepare to get douched when public opinion shifts away from the plastic glamour of vapid trend and celebrity chasing.
They have done great stuff though… the guy who announces the drivers… that sort of stuff. Really fun. I think they definitely got this partially correct.
If f1 were to cease to exist, that would suck for us regular car drivers as we seem to benefit from their tech down the line (see Mercedes s-class for example).
I honestly think it’s the people that are more “into the racing” (if that makes any sense) that will have their faces eaten. Cynic in me suspects that F1\liberty will continue to be the media entity that it is and double down on it.
We can say a LOT of unkind things about Ecclestone, but at least he seemed to be all about BOTH making a ***k ton of money and keeping some semblance of racing focus.
Yah I was thinking about that the other day… the devil you know… he very much loved f1(I assume he must have since he was the brilliant architect of its last leg)… and he really tried.
In retrospect, it could have been worse, as we are now seeing.
