Gentlemen, Start Your Engines...I Guess.

So the Formula 1 season is back under way. The biggest question being: Does anybody really care? The problem with motor sport is that simply, it’s not a casual watch. A football match takes 2 hours tops of coverage. A racing weekend is exactly that, a whole weekend. 3 to 4 hours at a time. And it’s hardly an accessible sport either. Anyone at any age can pick up a tennis racket and hit a ball, not everyone can get in a car and drive it fast.

Want more proof? Look at how little faith F1 head Bernie Ecclestone, a cross between a dying oompa loompa and the German costume designer from Disney’s ‘The Incredibles’,shows in his own sport. Fake rain?... Fake Rain? Because completely ruining the credibility with fake acts of god is the way to increase excitement and thus viewing figures right? Wrong. (Fake rain reminds me of the brilliant Budweiser/FA premier league commercials, except these ideas are and remain more legitimate)

For a real lesson turn to cricket and the invention of twenty/20. A quick and easy watch that allows certain players to thrive, becoming household names where a lack of opportunity in longer forms of the game would prevent them, whilst maintaining the legacy and prestige afforded to those die hard fans.

And there’s your answer. These fans are perhaps where F1’s interests are best served. Surely ‘fake rain’ would only cause disillusion and alienate the core support. Focus on what is the best roster of drivers the grid has had in some time and leave the weather conditions to news reports.