McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is delighted with the sporting and economic health of the Grands Prix with four teams and eight drivers in a position to win: unprecedented and suspense at all times!
The American manager was not present in Baku but he enjoyed the spectacle of the race in Azerbaijan from Nashville where he was attending the finale of the IndyCar championship.
While his driver Oscar Piastri won on the shores of the Caspian Sea, Pato O’Ward’s McLaren saw victory slip away from him a few laps from the finish on the Tennessee speedway to the benefit of Colton Herta (Andretti).
Brown is therefore well placed to compare the two competitions on either side of the Atlantic and he believes that F1 has never been more indecisive.
The show is on the agenda in IndyCar
“Motorsports are doing well, even though IndyCar is a national championship, Zak notes. The field is well stocked and the show is there with around fifteen candidates for the podium at each race while seven different drivers have won this season. It is not as popular as F1 but the trend has been on the rise since the takeover by Penske Entertainment and the new TV contract with FOX looks promising.”
“In Formula 1 we live the best season I can remember since I’ve been there, he said. 2021 was super exciting, but there were only two title contenders, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Now you have four good teams fighting for the win with different winners from one circuit to another.”
F1 more open than ever
“Having four teams who can win any weekend, including Sergio Perez who was clearly back in form, that’s eight riders going to Singapore hoping to win, he concludes. I don’t remember Formula 1 having such a level of competitiveness. It’s very exciting, especially since the public comes in large numbers and the sponsors are jostling to get in thanks to impressive television audiences.”
Indeed, seven drivers have won at least one Grand Prix this season and the top four in the championship are within 100 points of each other with seven rounds to go, all of them still in with a chance of being crowned, since the fourth (Piastri) has scored the most points over the last six races.
