Breakaway… success?

The FIA-FOTA war currently raging in the world of Formula 1 at the moment has set the sport on course towards a split, with the eight remaining teams in FOTA creating a breakaway series, unless one side can back down without loosing face, or a compromise can be reached. Today the parties seem to be as far away from an agreement as ever, at least publicly, so the prospect of a breakaway looms large. Many writers in the F1 world have cast doubt on the ability of FOTA to create a rival series at such short notice, and have stated that a split would be bad for the sport, drawing comparisons with the IRL/CART split in the US.  Perhaps this is true, and a breakaway is fraught with risks, and still may not happen, however I believe that a breakaway is by no means guaranteed to spell doom and gloom for the sport.

Firstly looking at whether or not a series could be set up at short notice;  I am no expert on how to set up a racing series, so this will be as brief as I can, but I do believe it is far from impossible. Assuming the season would start in late March, this would give FOTA just over 9 months to have everything in place.  The first problem is that FOTA exists only as a sum of its components, racing teams. Although they have a lot of experience in F1 they have not been organising it.  Organisational personnel will need to be brought in, along side rule makers, a policing structure, media staff and everything else which keeps a racing series going.  There are hundreds of racing series around the world, and the chance to work on a racing series as high profile as an F1 breakaway will likely be an attractive proposition for their staff, so recruiting should not be a huge hurdle.

The main problem FOTA will face is cost.  The major players in FOTA are massive corporations awash with cash, however it is unlikely they will put up funding for a new series at a time they are cutting costs and laying off starts.  The global economic downturn makes it a difficult time to find money, but it hasn’t all disappeared, the recent deal’s Real Madrid have done total £136million, which suggest investment can still be found. Finding the money is key, however FOTA do have the asset of broadcast rights and merchandising which they can either sell short term, or take loans out against, they will be all to aware though that they need to be careful when doing this to avoid the massive payments CVC have been committed to.

If a breakaway series was launched, there would be undoubtedly be consequences in terms of diluting advertising, both on television as well as trackside and on the cars. However F1 currently loses a lot of the cash it generates though repayments on the debt incurred by CVC when they purchased the sport, a new series would likely not see funds withdrawn from the sport at the same high level. If a breakaway championship can find a financial model which allows the sport to reinvest in itself, it should be able to flourish, and compete with the FIA championship.

The IRL/CART split which took place in 1996 is credited for almost destroying open wheel racing in the sates, and allowing stock car racing to supplant to become the dominant form of racing in the US. Formula one is however a global entity which is a very different beast to the American market. Stock cars were already an established series in the US and effectively created a 3 way battle with 2 series wounded from their falling out.

F1 does not have a major competitor at the moment; no other series has the same levels of global exposure so it would be a straight fight between the two series, in the short term at least. Far from annihilating each other, they will have to compete to win over the fans. F1 has been stagnant for far too long, it is the only major sport in the world not to have moved to HD broadcasting, and this is largely because they haven’t had the competition to push them. Major innovations were made about a decade ago when Bernie Ecclestone believed he could sell F1 as a premium pay for view product, although this failed it did drastically improve the quality of broadcasts. F1 has been slow to move on from this, the only new innovation of introducing line comparison graphics has so far only been seen once, and then in a free practice session.

The formula1.com website at the moment does generously provide live timing and some video highlights a week after a race, but a quick look at official websites of nascar.com or even the NFL shows what could be provided for fans. A breakaway would give us completion, which as the racetrack shows us forces standards up and breeds innovation.

Another element of F1 which has distressed the fans, has been the growing trend of classic races in f1 being lost from the calendar, to make room for new races on less inspiring tracks on the other side of the world. I am not saying f1 or a breakaway should not race outside Europe, but tracks should not be chosen on finance alone, and great racing tracks should not be ignored. If a breakaway forces the racing to go where the fans want it, again it can only be good for the sport as a whole. The regulations in F1 have been one of the bigger causes of the current fall-out between the teams and the FIA. Often fans have been left puzzled by rule changes which have hampered rather than helped the racing, with competition, the rules will be crucial in improving the show to attract more fans

F1’s dominance in global racing is largely down to the people who have been running the sport, however it is a long way from perfect, and this dominance has served to damage the sport to an extent, making it far less accessible to the fans, with exuberant ticket prices, and races from Asia early in the morning. A breakaway would force both series to connect with the fans to win them over, I believe the teams are better positioned to do this, but perhaps the current championship has more to lose, it could be an interesting fight, and I believe it could improve the sport. There are inherent risks, but as long as a split can be resolved in the short term, ideally less than 5 years, it should keep the sport at the peak of motorsport, and in the racing all the better for the fans.