If Lewis Hamilton was trying to hide his lack of enthusiasm at being stuck at a Mercedes-GP preseason news conference last week, he didn’t do a very good job of it.
Posting a picture on his Snapchat social media account of reporters at the event in Stuttgart, the Formula One drivers’ world champion wrote as a caption: “Same questions for the last 10 years zzzzzzzzzzzz.”
The Briton’s apparent boredom with the task of talking up his bid for a third successive world title was not exclusive, with Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s chief executive, saying in an interview last month “Formula One is the worst it has ever been”.
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It is not an understatement to say 2015 was a poor season for F1. A one-sided title fight, only one team fighting at the front, complicated rules and many teams struggling financially.
But, it was not all bad. Max Verstappen was an absolute revelation in his debut year for Toro Rosso.
The Dutch teenager wowed with his aggressive racing, willingness to go for audacious overtaking moves, and his fearlessness in standing up for himself, be it arguing with his mechanics over team orders or with other drivers in news conferences.
The only problem was he was stuck in the midfield throughout the year in his Toro Rosso, though he demonstrated his talent by finishing fourth in both Hungary and the United States.
However, while the F1 fraternity are well aware of the burgeoning superstar-in-the-making, fourth-place finishes and good overtaking moves for eighth or 12th spot do not cause headlines across the world.
Verstappen’s arrival in F1 12 months ago caused a row over whether, at the age of 17, he was too young. Fast forward to now and it is a case of great expectations for his second year, with the 18-year-old Dutchman a year wiser and now able to legally drive on the roads as well as race around Formula One tracks.
But there will only be so much he can do in the car beneath him. The Toro Rosso has looked solid in preseason testing, but it is no race winner, or even podium challenger.
Verstappen, along with teammate Carlos Sainz Jr, will be in a midfield battle with Red Bull Racing, Williams and Force India for the best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
That is great, and there is no doubt Verstappen will wrangle every ounce of performance from his car, but, F1 needs him fighting at the front; it needs something new.
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Global TV ratings are falling, there are empty seats at many of the tracks, and there does appear to be a genuine apathy growing around the sport, noted by Ecclestone on more than one occasion.
F1 needs to target a younger audience as they are the future spectators – at the track and at home – and they have a driver with the potential to do that in Verstappen.
But to do that they need Verstappen to be fighting at the front, and while that will not happen this year it could become a reality in 2017.
There will be possible vacancies at both Mercedes-GP and Ferrari, with Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen in the last year of their contracts. Both teams have already been linked with Verstappen, and it is hard to believe they will not look at him again when thoughts turn to next year’s racing.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari won races in 2015, with the German marque the dominant force. Verstappen will add intrigue to proceedings if he joined either team, not just because it would be a teenager in a race-winning car, but because it would be something new and unpredictable.
He would be paired with either Hamilton at Mercedes, or four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, both of whom have previous for acrimonious fallouts with competitive teammates.
They are the elite drivers in F1 and Verstappen would be going up against one of them in the same car.
Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Certainly more so then what is currently on offer, and Verstappen’s fortunes this year should be one of the most interesting talking points.
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