We live in a world where everything is pitted against each other. Be it phones, computers, ideologies and even comic book heroes. Such is the case in motorsport too..
There’s a reason why a certain upcoming comic book superhero movie is called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice instead of Batman vs Superman. Trust me, the ‘v’ instead of ‘vs’ makes a huge difference and is not a printing error!
It indicates a co-existence of two different schools of thought and ideology despite an acknowledgement of that difference that even leads to conflict at times. Something like that has happened in the case of Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship, despite a long history of drivers competing in both grand prix and endurance racing either simultaneously or after being done with the more compact and intense of the two.
It has gotten many motorsport fans, who are all too keen to give voice to their thoughts on social media, up in arms.
GROUND REALITIES
F1’s popularity on account of its intense two-hour race format is still far greater than that of the WEC. Seeing more VIP and media on the Bahrain International Circuit’s straight during the 6 Hours of Bahrain’s gridwalk than people in the grandstand was proof of that.
There are valid criticisms of F1 however, mainly stemming from the modus operandi of its commercial bosses who shortchanged sportscar racing despite being tasked to promote it once.
“The F1 of today is not the F1 of 20 years ago,” said former Red Bull reserve driver and current Porsche LMP1 driver Neel Jani. “The economics have changed and require a driver who is not hired by a top team to have 20 million euros. I neither have that kind of money and if I did, I would invest it in something else!”
And while F1’s commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone may act like he has a personal vendetta against its advanced power units – Porsche has adopted a near identical approach in WEC and has prompted its defeated rivals to follow suit – their significance to the automotive industry, which holds WEC in high esteem (partly because Ecclestone has nothing to do with it!) gets overlooked.
“Not noting that the current F1 engines have close to 50 percent thermal efficiency is a huge oversight,” said former F1 driver and 2014 WEC LMP1 champion Anthony Davidson to autoX. “There’s no road car in the world that can match it.
“Social media has for the first time allowed the average guy in the street to voice his opinion and that’s great but people tend to have short memories. They hark back to the 80s and 90s but races back then were won by huge margins and one team dominated like is happening now with Mercedes. It all comes and goes in cycles and people tend to forget that.”
Most importantly, one only needs to look at this year’s Le Mans winners and LMP1 champions as well as last year’s drivers champions to see how both disciplines compliment one another. When drivers are done with the intensity of grand prix racing’s cutthroat and insulated environs, they switch to relaxed, co-operative but still competitive endurance racing careers. And it is good for the WEC to have interest from former and current F1 stars like Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso.
The disciplines may be different, but they are after the same thing. To go racing in their own unique ways, but still push the envelope and entertain.
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