F1 chief agrees with Alonso’s ‘poor’ racing comments

Formula 1’s commercial boss Sean Bratches has conceded that Fernando Alonso’s criticism of the championship’s racing is fair but says that there is a ‘plan’ to remedy the problem.

Alonso will leave F1 at the end of the season having become disillusioned with the lack of on-track battles and the seemingly insurmountable gap between the top three teams and the rest of the field.

Bratches agreed that the racing had become ‘predictable’ but was optimistic about enhancing the competitive environment in the future.

“Had I been his head of communications I would have advised him to use different words on his last lap so to speak,” said Bratches.

“But I think there is an opportunity for F1 to be less predictable, and I think it’s important that we get there.

“If you look since the 2015 grand prix season only three teams have won a grand prix, so it is pretty predictable.”

Bratches hopes for a similar situation to football, where the champion team generally comes from a select group but smaller clubs are able to pull off an upset on any given day.

“If you look at the (English) Premier League, since the 2014/15 season the bottom three teams have either beaten or tied the top six 29 percent of the time.

“So if you’re a let’s say a Cardiff fan, unless you’re a crazy optimist – Leicester City aside (2015/16 champions) – you might not think you’re going to win the Premier League, but when you play Chelsea or Manchester City you know that you can actually win the game, and it actually happens.

“It doesn’t happen in F1. I think he’s right, and we have a plan to fix it. I wish he was around for another 10 years to be part of that.

“I was disappointed from a business standpoint (that Alonso is leaving). He’s been around for a long time, at the highest peaks.

“I respect his decision to move on, and I hope we can engage him to be an ambassador of this great sport going forward.”

F1 resumes from its summer break this weekend in Belgium.

Grand Prix wins by team, hybrid era