Other FIA-imposed changes have made the teams cheer. The championship points system now will give points for teams who finish as far down as eighth place instead of only sixth, so the car in ninth place will still have something to fight for. And the difference between first and second place is reduced from four to two points, to try to slow Schumacher's inevitable progress toward a sixth championship.
Qualifying for races could now show some surprises too. A single hour-long session the day before the race used to see places on the starting grid determined by the best of their "flying" laps, set during three outings on track. Now it will be settled over two days. On Friday the cars will go out one at a time with just one flying lap to set the order of running for a second session on Saturday, when they will again have just one lap to decide starting places for the race. And cars will have to start the race with fuel left over from the qualifying session, which should rev up the drama of the first few laps. Teams will have to make tactical decisions about whether to carry a little fuel, go for a quick qualifying time and make a quick stop to fill up, or carry a lot, risk a lower place on the grid and keep going longer before having to make a stop. Williams agrees that "generally the changes will enhance the racing. There will be unusual qualifying situations, which will cause variations in the way that we line up on the grid and there will be more overtaking, which is what we need."
But is it enough? While the audience figures were slamming into the tire walls, the teams were simultaneously watching recession-pinched sponsors pull out. Formula One is not for fainthearted accountants. The total cost of putting on the show this year will be about $2 billion. In spite of the financial doldrums of parent company Fiat, Ferrari will spend around $443 million this year on Schumacher's little red number, and hope to sell more road cars on the back of its success, while Williams will be parting with over $350 million, and tiny Minardi will aim to struggle through on a paltry $39 million.
The championship has already been reduced to only 10 teams, since the team owned by former champion Alain Prost went bust just over a year ago. Arrows, which ran out of cash to pay for its engines halfway through last year, has now gone into receivership too. The same fate could easily have befallen Minardi and Jordan, who were struggling to meet the costs of keeping up with the ever-evolving technology. Last April Jordan was forced to dump 15% of its staff, and that was before it lost major sponsors Deutsche Post and Mastercard. Ecclestone has now proposed that the bigger teams subsidize the two strugglers from their TV earnings. Williams agrees: "The senior teams are in a mood to somehow financially help Jordan and Minardi survive for another year."
The real beneficiaries of the upheavals in the sport may actually end up being the fans. The TV coverage this year will be even better. Once Ecclestone realized the extent of the TV viewers' desertion, he agreed to allow free-to-air broadcasters access to some of the digital services previously available only to pay-per-view subscribers. They might get to know the drivers better too, as Mosley has proposed allowing television cameras into the drivers' Sunday morning briefing now that the cars won't be out on track for free practice. And fans in Bahrain and China can start looking forward to their own races next year, while St. Petersburg and Turkey are scheduled to join the circus in 2005.
Ultimately, the leading teams seem willing to make financial sacrifices because they recognize that even money-losing teams like Minardi — beloved by passionate fans precisely because they have never won a race — and Jordan are needed to keep the sport interesting. As Eddie Jordan puts it, "We take it seriously but we like to have a bit of fun and a bit of rock 'n' roll and a bit of razzmatazz." And the new rules may do just that. Start those engines.
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