Word: formulaic
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...increasingly paid for by governments who view television coverage as a giant TV commercial for their city or country. Singapore hosts a spectacular nighttime race on city streets beneath twinkling lights. In 2008, its first year, the race took in $51 million, but cost $100 million, according to Formula Money. That's O.K. with Singapore. The government kicked in $60 million, leaving the local promoter with a tidy profit. "Singapore wasn't really on the map, and then they run this F1 night race, show it on TV and suddenly everyone knows where Singapore is," says Zak Brown, who runs...
That's a big reason why Formula One is moving steadily eastward. When it began in 1950, on the bumpy tracks of Monza and Silverstone, the championship was a race between European cars mostly driven by European drivers and watched by European fans. The drivers took their lives in their hands every time they got behind the wheel. Many didn't make it. Jackie Stewart, three-time F1 world champion, used to look back at his house before leaving to drive at Germany's original Nürburgring in case he never saw it again. "The Nürburgring...
...Magic Having dodged a hail of bullets last year, the barons of Formula One are breathing easier. Drivingwise, F1 looks a lot more exciting than it has in years. Last year's champion, Jenson Button, and 2008 winner Lewis Hamilton, both Brits, are driving for McLaren. Schumi's back and trying to win another championship at 41. Red Bull, last year's runner-up in the constructor's race, has a quick young German driver named Sebastian Vettel whose nickname is Baby Schumi. With Alonso and Felipe Massa behind the wheel, Ferrari is again a strong contender, and Ferrari...
...would help if it also retooled itself for an age of scarcity. No one wants to watch a race for the fastest Prius, but "people want to see some progress on fuel efficiency and carbon emissions," says McLaren's Whitmarsh, who also heads the recently formed Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), which represents what insiders hope will be a new spirit of harmony in a sport traditionally run by tough guys behaving badly. "There's much work to be done so that F1 is seen as relevant to society." (See a brief history of Formula...
Perhaps real change will have to wait for the retirement of Formula One's most influential figure. At most races sits a black-and-white bunker-mobile with blacked-out windows. That belongs to Ecclestone, who is not beloved and doesn't try to be - in an interview with the London Times last summer he appeared to give qualified praise to Adolf Hitler, saying that the German leader "could command a lot of people" and was "able to get things done...