We don’t love anymore, like we used to do 20 years ago. The love from 20 years ago I had for you became nothing more than a vague memory. A vague memory from the days V10s went mental on the circuits. The days Porsche attached two V6 engines with a Coca-Cola can. Yapping they build a brand-new V12 engine which Footwork would fall in love with eventually. The years that Sassetti and Gonzalez appeared on the grid from nowhere, only to be overshadowed by the Phoenix that did not raise from its ashes in 2002.
It is a story about the Formula One I felt in love with years, and years ago. Memories that become more and more distant with the modern F1. Today’s Formula One, as I have said many times, it is not my sport anymore. It is not the beauty anymore as she used to be. The passion is different; the vibe is different when I look at the Formula One now.
The Sport became a show, a show about greed. I mean 600million dollar for an entrée fee. Where the sport was once from us all it became now a sport for just them. Chased down by fans that want soaps on Netflix, and can’t watch a three hours race anymore. The show made the Formula One ugly. The circus made the sport amazing.
It feels like a terrible break-up that seems to drop you straight in the ground. Desperately clinching on the vague feelings you once had for her, desperately mourning about the vague memories that once was. The good old days that once was. We will never experience the feeling of Mark Webber scoring P5 in his Minardi PS02. Or Jos Verstappen doing the impossible with the Simtek S951 in Brazil. Günther Schmid deciding it is time to enter the Formula One again and appears with a small team named RIAL on the grid. Only to score points the same season. To disappear even quicker from the grid.
Luckily, there are plenty of historical Grand Prix around the globe. There are plenty of historic races. Hearing the scream 500CC formula’s around the circuit before the brutal sounds of V12s, V10s, V8s and some W12 will be unleased on the tracks. Giving us the goose bumps and joy we need. No drama, just a bunch of fans that love the history rather than the modern soap it became.
I will always be that weirdo that misses personalities like Tom Walkinshaw, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Fernando Gonzalez Luna, Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley, Cecilia Ekström. With teams like the First that died before it became a-life as the F190 a year later. Teams desperately trying to get through pre-qualification only to fail the qualification.
Now I think about it, I believe i broke up with the Formula One. While the same time she became part of my symphony again.
For those who still enjoy todays Formula One. I hope you all have a marvellous year with lots of overtaking, action and Ferrari that wins the title for the drivers and constructors. Although, I’m afraid it will be eventually a Red Bull show.
