Haas’ Guenther Steiner is of the view that F1 has to provide whole picture of a grand prix race on TV rather than only the front-end fight.
In F1, the people with the highest stakes is often shown on television the most. And, with the top three teams all having the higher stakes and the prospect of winning, these team’s tend to grace TV screens around the world the most during races.
This leaves the mid-field lacking coverage, despite it often having good quality racing due to the closeness. In 2019, it became a talking point among F1 fans, who were left dissatisfied due to the lacking coverage, of the crucial fights.
It was common during the whole of the 2019 F1 season where fights among teams like McLaren, Renault, Toro Rosso and Racing Point went unnoticed during the grand prix but fans only learnt about it through highlights or driver reactions.
At certain races, the fight at the front needs more importance, which is given, but it shouldn’t be a norm. The problem was again highlighted during the 2019 Abu Dhabi GP, where fans couldn’t see the fight among McLaren and Renault F1 drivers for points.
The grand prix was dominated by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and so the fight at the front was limited. The lack of TV coverage was brought about by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in earlier races and Haas’ Steiner joined in the chorus in support of the Spaniard.
When asked by FormulaRapida.net, the Italian understood that the fight at the front of the F1 grid needs to be shown but at the same time, he felt it was a shame that the mid-field wasn’t covered as extensively because fans needs to be shown the whole picture.
“In general, I think it [the mid-field] should be shown a little bit more because at the front there is not a lot happening in a lot of races,” he said. “You kneed to show the spectator the whole picture because otherwise, you don’t really understand why this [F1] is shown.
“If you give them a picture that people actually fight or something. If we take Abu Dhabi as example, there was no precision fight involving us because the Toro Rosso’s were behind, otherwise, maybe they would have shown more.
“It would be very nice if they could show more, obviously, in our perspective.” As mentioned above, Sainz campaigned for more coverage, as he felt it would add excitement for F1 fans. “I’m not going to talk too much about it,” he said.
“But I think everyone was talking about the fight for sixth place in the drivers’ championship. Then there was finally a fight in the last laps in Abu Dhabi and even the last corners, but even then they didn’t show it.
“So I think it’s strange that everyone was so enthusiastic about the fight, but nothing was actually seen on the TV.” There was similar call from Racing Point’s Sergio Perez as well. For mid-field teams, getting more coverage helps in sponsorship as well.
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The story was co-written by Duncan Leahy