Sports or entertainment? Fans of Sergio Pérez did not care about that question. They were cheering with a Mexican flag on Saturday after their hero had won the Baku sprint race. And less than 24 hours later, ‘Checo’ was again the winner on the podium in Azerbaijan in front of his supporters. One weekend, win twice. Former driver Jan Lammers doesn’t like it. “You take away the magic of the one and only grand prix on Sunday with such a sprint race,” says the sporting director of the Dutch GP in Zandvoort, where this extra part will not be held at the end of August.
Pérez had the race weekend of his life in Baku. The 33-year-old driver from Guadalajara won ‘a race and a half’ and was thé street fighter from Baku. He managed to reduce the gap to his teammate Max Verstappen in the World Cup standings to six points: 93 to 87. With this, Pérez dealt a small moral blow to the Dutchman, who is considered almost unapproachable, who, after the failure of his compatriot Nyck de Vries as race leader got into the pits just a little too early. That cost Verstappen the victory, after he had come no further than third place on Saturday.
The biggest winners in Baku, besides the Mexican, were perhaps the neutral spectators, who got to see two races for the first time this season. Though opinions on this are very divided. Verstappen doesn’t like changes and would rather see the sprint race disappear again. “It’s not really racing, it’s more like gambling,” Verstappen said afterwards during his press conference in Baku. “I think I’ll have better luck if I go to the casino in Las Vegas. I’m a real racer and I think this is more for show.”
That’s exactly how it is. Formula 1 is booming. The time when only motorsport enthusiasts showed interest is long gone. Last season, an average of approximately 70 million television viewers watched a grand prix, with a total of more than 1.5 billion over the entire season. The best-attended race weekend in 2022 with 440,000 spectators was the Grand Prix of the United States in Austin, in the south of the US where entertainment is more important than pure sport.
Modernization
The figures prove the success of Liberty Media, which acquired the commercial rights of the Formula One Group (FOM) for 4.5 billion euros in 2017. The main goal of the American telecom company is to modernize ‘the sport’ in such a way that, in addition to the aging group of enthusiasts, a new generation of young people embraces Formula 1 all over the world. The FOM does this in consultation with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which determines the rules.
Modernization can be done in different ways. Using Netflix turned out to be a golden move. Through the series Drive To Survive viewers were given a look behind the scenes through which they got to know the drivers and the sport in a playful way. As in the seventh episode of the fifth season, named hotseat, in which the eyes are on Pérez in Monaco. The Mexicans in particular enjoy a largely cultivated rivalry with his teammate Verstappen. The Dutchman continues to stoically claim that there is no conflict.
Almost every continent has its own favourites. Verstappen and Hamilton in Europe, Guanyu Zhou and Yuki Tsunoda in Asia, Oscar Piastri in Australia and Pérez, Lance Stroll and Logan Sargeant in North America. Drivers have become modern ‘pop stars’. The profile of the Formula 1 fan has changed. Younger and more varied. The number of women among the enthusiasts increased from 10 to 18 percent. They were also seen in Baku with Mexican flags.
Liberty Media wants to further modernize the sport following the example of its supporters. The American owner of Formula 1 particularly wanted to get rid of the boring image of the sport in which cars could hardly overtake each other, so that the winner was often determined after qualifying. The fact that Mercedes could dominate Formula 1 from 2014 to 2020 was proof of that.
With the introduction of new rules by the FIA, the hegemony was broken. Teams were forced to design new cars, and there was a cost cap for the development of the cars. The difference between the teams became smaller, which increased the tension. With the climax of the season in 2021 as the provisional highlight. At the time, Verstappen only decided the world championship in his Red Bull in his favor in the last lap of the last race.
Discussion on Saturday
Red Bull Racing is now unapproachable. Verstappen won his second world title last year and this season he shared all four victories with Pérez on the circuits of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Azerbaijan. Although Pérez is now ‘half a title’ ahead with his sprint race win. For the time being, no one seems to be able to resist Red Bull. A major change is only planned in three years’ time when the cars have to become more environmentally friendly, lighter and shorter.
Modernization is also done by changing the fixed, three-day program of training, qualifying and the race. That has been happening since 2021 when a sprint race on Saturday was added for the first time. A few days before this Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the setup was changed. The first of six sprint races this season saw only points to be earned and no qualifying order for the grand prix. The pole position was awarded on Friday afternoon, after a first practice session in the morning. Lammers: “That is the only advantage. All sessions matter.”
That was certainly the case in Baku. The public got to see battle on all three days. And perhaps the seventeen-lap sprint race through the streets of Baku was the most attractive part. In any case, it was the race that generated the most discussion. After Verstappen was already hit in the second corner by the Englishman George Russell, the win was up for grabs for Pérez. Afterwards, Verstappen went to get a story from his Mercedes opponent and called him “dickhead”. A moment that in the new Drive to Survive will undoubtedly be expanded. But that’s still a long way off.
Miami is the next stop. Formula 1 as the spectacle as Liberty Media envisions it; the American way along the Hard Rock stadium in Miami Gardens. But that goes without a sprint race next week. It will be held in Las Vegas on November 18. In that city, no one cares about whether sports and entertainment are still in balance.
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