Word: motor
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...crisp day in Valencia, Spain, early last month, a small man in a cardinal-red jumpsuit walked a few steps from a million-dollar motor home and ducked into a lavish hospitality tent, both in the same bright scarlet. No one was allowed anywhere near him, but throngs of Spaniards hanging over the railing of Valencia's Ricardo Tormo racetrack went crazy. "Look up here, Fernando! Te quiero, Fernando...
...past few years, Formula One has looked as ungovernable as California: big teams quit, and more threatened to do so; the financial industry canceled its lifeblood sponsorship almost en masse; track attendance is down; and scandals have tarnished everyone from a world champ to the former head of motor sport itself. Bernie Ecclestone, the septuagenarian who is usually described as F1's principal stakeholder (a description that doesn't come close to encompassing his power) insists that all is now well with the world. "The sport's in better shape than it's ever been," he says coolly to TIME...
...That leaves only three major carmakers - Ferrari (owned by Fiat), Mercedes-Benz and Renault (though the latter recently sold a majority stake in the racing team to Luxembourg investment firm Genii Capital) - still in F1. "The sport just wasn't delivering the value," says John Howett, head of Toyota Motor Sports. For the new season, some of the old names have been replaced by entrepreneurs with more dash than cash. Ecclestone calls the new teams "out of their depth" before the season has even started, while Ferrari's official website complained about the "much reduced" pace shown by newbies like...
...reason for the meltdown is money. Unlike most other motor sports, F1 is as much a battle between engineers as it is a race between drivers. Spurred on by a space-race mentality, F1 teams were research-and-developing themselves into oblivion. "The cost was growing beyond the point where you could have one or two teams," says McLaren's Whitmarsh...
Some critics have blamed these measures for making races less exciting. Drivers complained that the Car of Tomorrow limited their ability to drive aggressively. Harsher penalties for tough on-track tactics - in a motor sport in which "trading paint" used to be the norm - also contributed to more conservative driving...