FROM CLEAN RACING TO DIRTY AIR!

Allow me to take you back to the sweet memory of the 2022 season. The first half of the season, the opening few races after a dramatic and controversial end to the previous season that saw the end of the reign for Lewis Hamilton, saw Max Verstappen succeed to the throne. Those nights when everything seemed possible, a Ferrari 1-2 in the opening round at Bahrain, Charles Leclerc leading the Championship for the first time as a Ferrari driver and above all, the closest and most thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle we have seen in a long, long time (and the last step of every fan before tumbling into a deep abyss of despair). We were fed the hopes of this being the ultimate regulation ever, and even though Donald Trump wasn’t the President of America then, motor-racing was starting to look ‘GREAT’ again.

COMING OUT HOT!

Ferrari entered the season with guns blazing, sealing a 1-2  in the opening weekend of the season. After the dramatic end to the previous season, fans more or less agreed that there couldn’t have been a better start to the season. Had it not been for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the Ferrari fever would be painting the town red. The ‘inchident’ brothers found themselves in the heat of the action at the start of the season, and the intensity with which they were able to battle each other in the few races they were able to battle, made the fans believe that this was exactly the regulation change they had been hoping for. Much like most of our life decisions, no one was quite sure what or how this was working out, but it was.

The battle under the night light in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia sent fireworks all across the track, and the love story of Max and Charles reached its full circle in some way. Was the season shaping out to be the best one in recent times? Probably not, but it was the hope and promise of so much more that it brought with it. It was the promise of how much more interesting things could be if they could shift the beam to an even sweeter spot. It was not the verdict on what racing is now, but the hope of everything it will soon be! Unfortunately for the Ferrari fans, dreams don’t last that long, especially when they are playing out in real life.

CRACKS BEGIN TO APPEAr!

The sweet dream of this fairyland felt amazing while it lasted, the only unfortunate thing- it didn’t last very long. (I mean, it was the new era of Ferrari and Leclerc domination, of course, it didn’t last very long. It couldn’t.) The regulation shift brought its share of struggles for the teams and drivers. The cars soon started experiencing heavy porpoising in the high-speed straights, sending tremors right to the bones of the drivers, making the cars a whole different beast to tackle, and even though Toto Wolff had it ‘printed’, there wasn’t much that was focused on resolving this issue.

Physiotherapists made a fortune that year from Hamilton and Alonso’s back alone, I tell you. Now, if you are leading the race, challenging for the Pole and returning with nothing less than a win, you can trick yourself to ignore these problems to a great extent, however if you are stuck in a team like Mercedes or a McLaren who then found themselves in a place where they couldn’t extract a lot of performance from the car and reaching Q3 was a real struggle, the problem becomes crucial and if not, it atleast becomes the scapegoat you blame for all your issues. Ferrari’s fall from grace put a hold on any hope of a Championship battle, and Red Bull domination began its reign.

WHEN THE TITANIC SANK!

Things began to look bad when even tracks like Spain and Japan, as well as Imola, could deliver no more racing action and suspense than a track like Monaco. It was clear. The writing was on the wall, with big, bold, and red writing that every team had made their car a way that it dispatches the maximum amount of dirty air for the car behind, to minimise the situations where they find themselves battling for the positions that they now reserve much more peacefully. Fred Vasseur labelled this season as a ‘Qualifying Championship’, but is there any truth to this inference? The unavoidable fact stares right in our face that there will come a point in every race where the driver has to weigh his options carefully on whether to follow the dirty air of the car ahead and destroy his tyres or to go all in and chase them flat out.

We have seen races like Japan and Imola where turn 1, if not qualifying, has proved crucial in setting the scene for the entire Grand Prix. As a result, we have seen more daring from drivers in turn 1 or in their final run of qualifying. Consequently, we have been treated by some astronomical qualifying laps, like that of Verstappen’s in Suzuka, and intense turn 1 action between Verstappen and Piastri. On the other hand, we have seen drivers like Lando Norris crack under the same pressure. Even though the supreme pace does hold major shares still on the day of the Grand Prix, it is quite apparent that the advantage of a better position is imprinted deep in each driver’s subconscious.

IS THERE STILL HOPE?

Can motor-racing piece it all together? In all fairness, hoping for banger after banger each weekend is unfair on almost all the standards, but what we fans would love to see is for drivers not to have to think twice before chasing their rivals for every position on the grid, and next year's regulations promise just that. We move to an engine formula, and the newly assigned aerodynamics specs are expected to throw a curveball to the entire racing grid. For all we know, Lance Stroll could be dominating the first few seasons. (Okay, too far.) In fairness, no one can tell with complete certainty as to which car will have the upper hand and which other teams will have to play catch-up, but all we can hope from the upcoming set of regulations is that they ease off the exploitations every team has now made off of the current era of racing, and bring the pack closer not just on Saturday, but on the day of the Grand Prix.