Enough of the doom and gloom, F1 is still doing just great...
Tuesday 30 June 2015 15:26, UK
Enough of the doom and gloom! Ahead of this weekend’s British GP, here are a few reminders why F1 is, despite what you may have heard elsewhere, still in pole position…
1) Watched by over 400 million TV viewers across 190 nations, F1 is the most watched annual sport series in the world. That many people can't be wrong, can they?
2) And with races held in Europe, Australia, Asia, North America and South America, F1 is a truly global sport. What other sporting series sends its leading protagonists to take part in events of equal standing to all corners of the globe to the same extent as F1? The answer we think you're looking for is 'none'.
3) But despite its embrace of globalisation, F1 also represents the very best of British. Seven of the ten teams are currently based in the UK with ‘Motorsport Valley’ reckoned to be home to 4,300 companies, employing over 40,000 people and generating an annual turnover of around £9bn.
4) There's something for everyone: F1 is part sport, part showbiz, part politics, part business. There's nothing quite like it.
5) McLaren driver Jenson Button runs triathlons so you don't have to.
6) Think team work, think a pit-stop.
7) Want a close fight? Look no further. Approaching the halfway stage of the season, the two leading world championship contenders are separated by just ten points - equivalent to a fifth-placed finish.
8) Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was ranked as the world's most marketable athlete by SportsPro magazine last year ahead of a couple of also-rans named Cristiano Ronaldo and Usain Bolt.
9) This weekend's British GP is expected to draw a record-breaking crowd of around 350,000 spectators over the four days. Which is good news for George Osborne as well: Silverstone calculates that the British GP generates over £20m for the British economy.
10) Daniel Ricciardo has a smile which would make a cheshire cat feel envious.
11) The hybrid, energy-recovery technology F1 is currently advancing will be on your road car within a decade.
12) It isn't cricket. *
13) Of the 20 drivers on the grid, five are world champions.
14) F1 learns from its mistakes: Abu Double has been scrapped.
15) F1’s cutting-edge technology has been applied and adopted across the wider world, from health monitoring and pharmaceutical production to the construction of the The Beagle 2 spaceship.
16) F1 is anything but predictable. F1 has had as many different team champions - Ferrari, Renault, Brawn, Red Bull and Mercedes - in the last nine years as the Premier League has had in its entire history.
17) It doesn't hurt your ears anymore.
18) Both Red Bull and Ferrari are ranked in the top ten of the world's most powerful brands, according to a recently-revealed survey.
19) And big brands want to be associated with F1: a report last year found that around 300 brands currently sponsor the sport.
20) There's a British world champion – some of us got into F1 at a time when nuclear Armageddon seemed more likely than a British world champion.
21) DRS isn’t universally popular but was introduced after the sport listened to its fans, so cut it some slack. And best of all, it’s evidently possible to overtake without it, as we saw two weeks ago in Austria.
22) F1 is currently blessed with young talent – Max Verstappen doesn’t turn 18 for another three months. Think about that the next time you see him flinging his Toro Rosso around in the wet.
23) The feeling of anticipation as the cars form on the grid. Enough said.
24). Monaco. Not to mention Spa. Oh, and Singapore under the lights. And...
25) Overtaking in F1 has still more than doubled since the DRS rear wing and Pirelli tyres arrived on the scene in 2011.
* We're just joking. Not least because Crofty is a very good bowler.
Don’t miss Sky Sports F1’s live coverage of the 2015 British GP. The race begins at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up underway from 11.30am.
