What F1 can learn from videogames

Rarely a race goes by without comments from the great and the good about how the spectacle could be improved. We've heard everything from randomly sprinkling the track to shortcuts in the circuits themselves. However some of the more logical solutions have been right under F1's nose all along.

Internet search analysis reveals that there are more visitors to formula1.com, the official Formula One website, in the UK than in any other country. It also shows that the website is visited more frequently by graduate school educated men who have no children and are aged between 25 and 34. Is it really fair to assume that these are the kind of viewers who will spend two hours watching the Australian Grand Prix at 6am on a Sunday morning? Perhaps if they put the television on as they stagger in from a late night out but otherwise their audience cannot really be a given.

What can be guaranteed is that this audience plays videogames. Interestingly, the F1 videogames, which are as faithful a replication of the sport as you can get, usually have the option to play a speed race of 10 or 20 laps or less. The programmers know all too well that if players are forced to race through over 70 laps whenever they switch the game on, sales aren't likely to soar. If F1 wants to have 520m fans, rather than 520m casual viewers, then perhaps it should take a nod from the game by making F1 races more bitesize.

Then there's the small matter of the racing itself. Even on rain-strewn circuits F1 overtaking is not much different to that which can be seen on any motorway. If a car comes within striking distance of another it needs to make three or four attempts to pass before it can finally do so. It is hardly akin to the action from days gone by when we saw cars wheel-to-wheel for great chunks of a lap with sparks flying from underneath them.

Qualifying can be even more unbearable with only one or two cars on the track for well over an hour. It is hard to see how this can win fans from a generation which grew up on the rapid-fire action of WWE wrestling or the X Games. Again, F1 could take a nod from videogames to fix this.

Prior to starting work on its upcoming official F1 videogame, its programmers Codemasters carried out focus groups to find out what the public would ideally like to see in it. One of the items on their wish list was the ability to race drivers one-on-one against each other.

It's hardly surprising that this is the stuff of dreams. After all, how many people would want to see who is quicker around a single lap from a standing start if say Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren was pitted against Alonso in his Ferrari. Whilst Codemasters needs permission to implement features like this, there seems to be nothing stopping introducing it to qualifying.

This would see qualifying becoming a knock-out tournament consisting of a series of one-on-one one-lap races with the winner proceeding and grid position being determined by how far the drivers' get through. Not only would this give qualifying the same kind of electric atmosphere which is felt at football penalties but it would also mean that each one-on-one race would be different as the line-up of who races against who could be determined by finishing positions in the previous race.

It's hardly rocket science though F1 even seems to splutter in the digital world let alone the real one. On page 94 of this issue we look at how the recently-launched MotoGP videogame was produced. It allows players to create their own team and race it against the series' established names. In contrast Codemasters was barred from even incorporating the option for sponsors to switch teams depending on the player's decisions in the equivalent career mode of the F1 game.

It's hard to see why this wasn't allowed since the whole point of videogames is that they aren't real. They allow players to interact with fantasy worlds which are meant to be fun and this, above all, is an attribute which F1 may need to learn if the sport is to emerge unscathed from its recent dilemmas.