F1 and the World (Part 7) - Conclusion
- File: world7.mp3
- Length: 03:06
- Size: 2.9 MB
- Transcript: world7.pdf
This is F1 and the World, a mini series brought to you by Sidepodcast. We’ve been looking at how Formula 1 fits into the world around it, from the environmental effects to the economical benefits. Now we have covered all our topics, it’s time to rustle up a quick conclusion to our findings.
There’s no denying that Formula is not the healthiest sport on the planet for the planet. It does use up resources and energy, but what we’ve learned in these six shows so far, will hopefully go some way to defending it.
The FIA are fully aware of the impact F1 has on the world around it and are doing their best to reduce any negative side effects of the sport. They already have projects on the go, both for the environment and for road safety, and where they can see gaps, they are looking to the future with new technologies and extensive research.
Individual team efforts vary across the grid, with Honda appearing to make the most effort. Their Earth Dreams initiative has raised large amounts for green charities and looks set to continue. However, other teams do their bit, reducing waste and looking for any way to tighten up their procedures and make things that little bit better.
Whilst Formula 1 is both a sport and big business, it also has relevance to the road car industry as well. Many manufacturing giants are involved in F1 and the research and development they do for the track can be transferred into the cars that you and I are driving every day. Of course we’re not going to be driving around at hundreds of miles an hour, or at least I hope not, but anything that can make our road experience a little bit easier is good in my book.
We also covered the potential revenue brought to a country when Formula 1 signs on the dotted line. The increased exposure for a country can be unprecedented and is difficult to achieve by any other means. It’s all about the added tourism which means a boom to the economy, development escalates, unemployment levels go down.
F1 is an easy target but there are other sports that shouldn’t get away lightly. Think of football. How many games are on a weekend? And how many fans are travelling to those games in a car? That’s needless fuel consumed travelling up and down the motorway. F1 is a global sport, and therefore the majority of fans are watching on their TVs, at home, not using a single ounce of petrol. This isn’t about passing the buck, but it’s too simplistic to pick on a sport simply because it uses up fuel. We need to take into account the bigger picture.
Personally, I would defend Formula 1 against any environmentalist.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series looking at the effect F1 has on the world. I may not have convinced you that F1 is the greenest sport on the planet, but then I wasn’t trying to. Hopefully, I’ve just brought some of the benefits of the sport to your attention and you can watch the races with a new set of facts behind you.
If you have any comments, feedback, anything you think I may have missed, please let me know via the usual methods. Leave a voicemail on 0121 28 87225, visit the Facebook group – just search for Sidepodcast, or send me an email christine@sidepodcast.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Theme Music: No Plastic Inside, Around the World
May 7th, 2008 at 9:05 pmSteven Roy said:
We all spend too much time discussing the on track aspects of the sport and the global political aspects including Max’s recreational activities. I may not agree with some of what has been said in this series but I have thoroughly enjoyed it and like the fact that you have taken on a different aspect of the sport. It is always good to look at something from an entirely different point of view.
The only comment I would make on the summary and it is a minor point is that it’s unfair to compare F1 to football. You need to compare all motor sport to football and most motor sports events are watched by people live rather than on TV.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:19 pmChristine said:
Perhaps it would be better to compare F1 to a specific type of football, some kind of league or something, but I don’t know enough about it. Fair point.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:23 pmme said:
the world cup could be seen to be comparable, but it’s only every four years.
or euro-2000-and-whatever, which sees thousands upon thousands of people travel by land, sea and air, to whichever nation is hosting the competition. i’d love to see the carbon footprint for those football fans
May 7th, 2008 at 10:58 pmAlianora La Canta said:
Or even the European Cup - the final has two British clubs jetting off to… …Moscow, Russia. Now that’s an unnecessary carbon footprint!
May 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pmGraham said:
Thank you for the informative mini-series. I am not sure that I am completely in favour of the budget capping and the long life engine because it restricts innovation. In fact I would argue that the rules are too prescriptive and that the rules need to be more open ended that encourage “appropriate” research and development. One “appropriate” area could be fuel consumption, I would suggest that the FIA restrict the size of hydrocarbon based fuel tank size and rate of flow of the refuelling rigs and not be prescriptive on engine format (size, no. cylinders, etc). If the amount of hydrocarbon based fuel was reduced from season to season then teams would need to develop technologies that made better use of the fuel or used alternative fuels. KERS could be part of that if a team thought it was the best approach. Some would argue that this would bring about disparity between the teams but F1 has never been a sport that promotes parity.
Sorry for the rant but maybe it will spark some discussion.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:15 pmScott Woodwiss said:
^^ Agreed. There needs to be more openness to this sport, so that we can get more teams, supplier, manufacturers and organisations involved. There shouldn’t be anything stopping F1 to go back to how it used to be. As I’ve mentioned before, there was a time when nearly 40 cars were entered for a single season, and I personally think seeing that again would be just fantastic.
As I’ve also mentioned, this sport is now being “handed over”, if you could call it that, to the big manufacturers, and because of this no-one wants to join the grid because they’re afraid they’ll just get shut out due to the costs and the constant domination of the works teams.
Minardi first entered F1 in 1985, and they were a team which had a very small budget, a relatively uncompetitive car and young but talented drivers, most of the time. Yet they manage to last until 2005! Yet Super Aguri, even with financial and material support from Honda, can only manage 2 and a bit seasons on a budget bigger than what Minardi managed from year to year! Ironic and somewhat stupid, don’t you think?
May 8th, 2008 at 7:18 pmAlianora La Canta said:
Indeed so! When a team can run up a debt of $100m to its supplier in two-and-a-quarter years, you know things are out of hand and that the FIA’s “cost-cutting” program has failed in its stated objective.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:22 pmAlenyaa said:
Many thanks for the mini-series, Christine and “Me”!
Offers just that extra bit of insight into the sport we love!