Budget caps, cranes and confusion: F1 risks losing new fans after latest chaos

For fans new to Formula One – and there a lot of them at the moment – it can be an arcane beast at the best of times. If it is to avoid alienating this new blood then it really has to better consider the optics. The last couple of days have been perceived as shocking, confusing and almost absurd. Not a good look for what the former FIA president Jean Todt always referred to as the “pinnacle of motorsport”.

The bulk of these issues now lie squarely in the hands of Todt’s successor, Mohammed ben Sulayem, whose record thus far has been patchy at best, not least in the ineffectual inquiry into the controversy at Abu Dhabi last year.

He has been noticeable this year in turning up on race day, hugging drivers and appearing on the podium. He announced the 2023 calendar before F1 itself, taking pleasure in celebrating the sport’s popularity, happily being quoted when the good times roll.

Yet over the last few days he has been conspicuous in his silence as the FIA contorts in an ungainly fashion, incomprehensible to seasoned watchers of the sport let alone newcomers.

Sunday’s Japanese GP should have been a climactic, celebratory affair with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen going for the title. Instead there was righteous fury from drivers when a crane was allowed on track in teeming rain, with no visibility. Pierre Gasly passed it at 200kmh and was blunt in saying he would have died had he hit it. The rest of the grid echoed his anger.

The FIA’s response was to state the bald facts that the use of a recovery vehicle behind the safety car is permitted in the rules. Oh, and to fine Gasly for speeding. A monumental example of organisational gaslighting and an even more egregious failure to read the room. It will investigate its procedures