Is Open Wheel Racing Dead? A Question I asked on twitter a few weeks back.

Well, over the last few weeks I have come to realise that open wheel racing is dead. Prototypes, GTs & Touring cars is where it is. #B12hr
— Tom Taylor (@taylortom1976) February 7, 2015

I had no resposes arguing the case for the single seaters.

With all the uncertainties in the world of F1 at the moment and their mentality on focusing on the big matters of the sport (one helmet design, per driver, per season!) I found myself pondering this very question.  We don't yet know, at time of writing, how many teams will make the grid at the Australian GP.  Even less certain is how many will still be around come November, and this is the sad part; I have been an F1 fan for over 30 years, I have watched more than half of the championships since its 1950 inception and I'm just not interested this year.

I asked the above question of my followers one of whom you may be, thank you if you are.  During the Bathurst 12 hour race, a race that I settled down to watch, on a Saturday evening (UK time) on my tablet, for the second time in the space of three weeks; the Daytona 24 hour being the first. It was during these events that the thought first struck me, my twitter timeline was full of like minded "friends" all commenting, agreeing and offering up their own take on what was unfolding - for a number of us, on a computer/tablet/mobile phone screen while sat in our homes.

Now, more and more race series seem to be using the medium of the internet to broadcast to a further audience and why not, most of the petrolheads I know watch anything with wheels and an engine if it is racing, if the opportunity is there, why not. I found myself catching 45 mins or so of the Dubai 24 hour during my lunch break at work earlier this year, same went for both the Le Mans and Nurburgring 24 hour events last summer, and for me, I feel that it will be inevitable for most non mainstream series to go this way once their current TV deals are concluded.

Why?

Glad you asked, F1 TV audiences are falling, partly - imo - due to costs - fans cannot afford or justify expensive ppv contracts - should they not already have them for 19 events a season.  I for one am one of those people, but got around it in a slightly different way. Living in the UK I purchased the installation of a European spec dish and system which picks up the signals from France, Germany & Spain and affords me live F1, Football and other such perks for a one off payment (of much less than a years subscription) 3 years ago.  Moving into season 4 of Sky F1 I haven't paid a penny since, woo points to me! But, many casual fans have left, the "oh-the-GP-is-on-I'll-give-it-a-watch-before-I-zzzzzzz" types wont really miss it, and in all honesty the racing over the last few seasons has hardly been the best, especially when you look elsewhere.

And where are we looking??

Step forth the World Endurance Championship!! *Fanfare*

For the first time in a long time we now have a proper prototype world championship; and boy is this championship going form strength to strength.  Now with four major manufacturers in the main LMP1 category (fighting for outright victory for any noobs!) not to mention the closely contested GT classes and the unpredicabillity of the samller LMP2 prototype category. Couple that with the fact the the UK broadcaster for this series (Le Mans 24 hour aside) is now free to most uk television viewers those casual F1 fans may just drift over there for between 6 and 24 hours a time...

But what of the other series, well, most have their own YouTube channels regardless, the German based DTM series even broadcasts their races here now anyway, as does the Japanese GT series - which apparently will also be available with English comentary for 2015, although this is just speculation at the moment. Motorsport over the next few years will become difficult to sell in Europe pending on what you have, many new series have popped up over the years and TV stations such as Motors TV only have a certain amount of schedule space they can realistically fill without upsetting too many established series.

However, lets gety back to the original question.

At the begining of the century single seater series were popping up left, right and centre. Formula 3 was a healthy national series with an option to move into the Euro series and onwards to F3000 (GP2) or GTs and Prototypes, Feeder Series such as (national) Formula Renault and Formula Master (now GP3) were thriving while BMW were busy lanching thier own series worldwide. Few now survive, national Formula Renault in the UK is mainly just a shortened "Winter" championship, F3 is in a decline on a national level and the less said about the Super League Football / Motorsport crossover rhe better! FBMW dissapeared as quickly as it arrived, the FIAs attempt to rival Bernie with it's own F1 feeder - the ressurected F2 lasted a few seasons while the US Indy Car championship looks to slowly be turning into a protoype series, lets not forget that the Delta Wing was suggested as a chassis for all teams to run a few years back!

The Success story seems to be the WSR or Formula Reanult World Series, UK coverage on BT Sports (for those of you who have it and are interested) and a good level of competiton from what I have seen of it in the past, while allowing drivers a shot at an F1 seat in a series almost equal to that of GP2.

IMO - FWIW, I feel that, give it a few years Single seater racing, F1 aside (and Indy Stateside) will be almost obsolete. WEC is back with such a force, while GT and Touring car series are going from strength to strength because manufacturers want to race a car that looks like the showroom model, which is why, I believe there are fewer "manufacturer" teams in F1 / single seater racing and more in touring and GT now.

Formula Renault *should* survive due to the companies F1 and GP2 commitments but in my opinion F3 needs to go back to being an FIA sanctioned national series (or is that what this Formula 4 is all about?), allowing drivers to climb the ladder into the FRen / GP3/2 championships.

Time will tell but for me, racing with a roof is the future.