Dear Ross Brawn. My 10 Point Plan To Fix F1

Dear Ross,

I imagine your in-tray is pretty full at the moment, you’ve inherited quite a job, everyone wanting to know how your going to fix ‘broken’ F1. Some would call it the poisoned chalice, or the F1 equivalent of the England managers job. If anyone can get it right though, it is going to be you. I personally don’t think F1 is as broken as many vocal neigh-sayers will have you believe. But if I were given the keys to your office, here are the ten steps I would take to improve the sport.

1. Fix up the revenue spread. Yes the winners should probably take home the most prize money, but it could definitely be a smoother curve to the bottom. More money for smaller teams improves their chance of springing a surprise and will in turn see more people want to enter a team due to it being a viable business model.
2. Ditch Friday practice. Too much practice makes for dull races. We like the unknown! Maybe run a young driver friday test just to ensure that the cars & tyres are suitable before running in anger.
3. Sprint Race on a Saturday. Lets do qualifying, then have a sprint race on super quick rubber. Maybe a GP2 (Sorry I mean Formula 2 right?) style reverse top 8 will make it super exciting.
4. Keep Sunday as it is! Its the big grandstand, its what we all love.
5. Award points for all finishers. This makes lots of sense, especially for those teams that don’t trouble the points, the Marussia / Caterham battles for who can score a 13th place to finish higher in the table didn’t make much sense to average Joe. If they’re scoring points it all makes more sense.
6. Have a team of official F1 twitter staff at races, Taking photos in the garages, on the grid, everywhere a fan would love to see! Have one sat in the stewards room giving the instant opinions of the referee.
7. Clean up car design. Get rid of shark fins, t-wings, ridiculous 8 slot front wings, clear up the aero through regulation, make teams stick to one specification wing for the whole year. This will make cars easier to follow and promote overtaking. Removing the ambiguity of the regulations and clearing lots of the aero vanes and appendages will only serve to improve the look & spectacle.
8. Create an Engine Manufacturer Championship, every manufacturer will want to take part. Conditions of entry must be a cheap supply to third party teams. Get it sponsored to pay for the prize money.
9. Improve launch week. Hold a three day event much like a motor show. Lots of razzmatazz, invite the worlds press, invite some competition winning fans and allow others to buy tickets. Each team gets their own slot to unveil their car and answer questions. Could be quite a spectacle. Add to the event seminars, merchandise stalls, driver appearances, retro F1 themed shows / sections (much like the Williams F1 event at the Autosport Show). You could create a go-to event for fans and greatly improve the media spectacle.
10. Make drivers do F1 PR. Make it a super license condition that all F1 driver must be available to F1 for promotional exercises for X amount of days. Get them all on TV chat shows, panel shows, get them doing silly stunts & charity Kart races. Work them hard to promote the sport. They are the heroes after all!

My plan is not all encompassing, but it will improve the spectacle whilst keeping the essence of F1 the same. It will provide greater exposure and push the drivers to become more available. The public will get to know their heroes. They will also be able to fight like gladiators on the track with cars that can overtake.

So Ross, I’ve done your job for you.. almost. I hope you like it.

Yours, in speed.

PGF1

P.S., to the readers of this, please comment below on what you think and which points you’d include.