How F1 Twitter dusted its own sport.

A Thread

Part 1. The Acquisition

This tragic tale of a self inflicted wound begins in the wintery months of 2017. On January 23rd 2017, Liberty Media's $4.4 billion takeover of the F1 group was completed. Bernie the Dictator had finally been toppled and Chase Carey and his Liberty Media goons entered the fray.

As the new Chief Executive of the sport, Chase Carey made his intentions abundantly clear. Liberty Media were going to rejuvenate F1, make it exciting, make it bigger and better then ever before. But still, respecting the nature of the sport.

At the time he said:

"I have talked about 21 Super Bowls and that is really what we should have. And then work with our partners - teams, sponsors, promoters, regulator - to ensure the race itself is everything it can be."

Carey immediately identified two elements of F1 to improve, the technical and the commercial. He talked of structural change and how things would be different, more democratic under Liberty Media then it had been under Bernie.

So far so good. He was making all the right sounds

Not only was he prepared to delegate decision making, he made it clear it that digital leverage would be a key component to their success. And that brings us to...Us. The wonderful own goal scorers.

"But the reality is to be competitive in today's world you need to continue to find ways to CONNECT and EXCITE FANS and we need to use all the DIGITAL PLATFORMS AVAILABLE, have a marketing capability to tell the stories of the rivalries of the stars."-Chase Carey, 2017

Filmed in 2018, the now infamous, "Drive to Survive" series was just one Carey's crews strategy to galvanise the digital. Indeed, a cursory glance at F1's social media pages will tell you how the online audience has grown exponentially since the Liberty takeover

Part 2. The Lay of the Land.

2014 to 2016 had been dreary for everyone bar Mercedes. Terrible. Horrendous. In those 3 years, Ferrari and Red Bull won 8 races between them, Mercedes won every other one.

But then in 2017, the Formula changed, the wider cars closed the gap.

In 2017, Although Ferrari and Red Bull ultimately fell short of toppling Mercedes,they provided the sternest rebellion seen in F1 since 2012.
They won 8 races, took 5 Poles and led 41.3% of all Laps raced in 2017, up from the 16% they managed the year before.

However despite this seemingly more competitive year, overtaking was down by 50% due to the new aerodynamic profile of the cars.A noticeable negative effect.Carey,who had "embarked on a listening and learning tour" was aware of this, but could only act in 2018 and boy did he act.

Part 3. A False Image.
2017 had ended in defeat, but progress had been made, Mercedes finally challenged, next year would be even better. And when pre-season testing began in 2018, Ferrari and Red Bull looked to be a real threat.

Experts, journalists,drivers and non-Mercedes fans were all in consensus that a real challenge could be mounted that year. The narrative that was pushed was that a close battle was set to begin on the 25th of March, 2018 in Melbourne.

Part 4. The Melbourne Meltdown.
On 24th March 2018. Whilst his teammate crashed, Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton ragged his W09 around the Albert Park circuit to claim Pole position by 0.8s

Whilst Mercedes fans danced on their ceilings, the entirety of F1 Twitter burst into tears.

The mood was abysmal. The advantage that was thought to have been eroded was still there. In every corner of the F1 internet, in the voices of commentators and in the eyes of the drivers, Formula 1 was distraught. 4 years of Mercedes dominance and they were still at square one.

Sunday didn't make it any better either despite Mercedes not winning the race. The race was lost through a VSC error, not an exciting duel. The GP was one of the worst of the season. Just 5 Overtakes happened after lap 1. Simply put, everyone was pissed.

Verstappen even went as far to say he would have switched off the race had he been a fan. This sentiment was echoed throughout the paddock and media all reinforced by the actual customers of the product, the fans online. Carey and Co,genuinely receptive to their audience saw this

Part 5. The Response.
Immediately F1 moved to discuss changes to the sport to improve overtaking. Failing to take into account the nature of Albert Park, the seemingly legitimate concern was acted upon. This was Carey's first "real" move as F1 boss.

F1 presented to the teams aero rule changes at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the VERY NEXT Grand Prix, 2 weeks later. These chances were what they thought would improve overtaking and the spectacle of the sport.

However not everyone was onboard with these changes. Horner, accurately predicting the rules to fail. Spoke 100% facts with none of his usual Shadetalk.

Others however, were in favour. Such as Mattia Binotto(), Paddy Lowe and Vasseur. Toto Wolff, later on that month after a processional Monaco GP ironically said:

Part 6. The Aftermath.
I don't think I need to remind anyone what happened in 2019. I'll just leave you with this fact.
Gap between 1st and and 2nd in the WCC
2017:146 points
2018: 84 points
2019: 235 points

Whilst Mercedes may not have been beaten regardless, the collective effort of the F1 community worked against its in own desires and removed any hint of genuine competition that briefly existed for a year.

The End.

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