Jeremy Clarkson feels Formula 1 is a better spectacle to watch on television than in person.
The world-renowned former host of Top Gear recently attended his first race in years at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at the invitation of the Crown Prince.
But while Clarkson’s excitement at being in attendance was obvious when he spoke to Martin Brundle on the grid before the start, in his Sunday Times column, he explained his big problem with seeing F1 live.
“At the 1973 British Grand Prix, I was in the stands at Silverstone’s Woodcote corner, which meant I was right there, in the thick of it, when Jody Scheckter’s Yardley McLaren put a wheel on the dirt at 160mph, spun into the wall and set in motion what was almost certainly the longest crash in Formula 1 history,” he wrote.
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“From where I was standing it looked like cars were hurtling into the dust cloud and then coming out on the other side in component form. It was backwards Lego, but incredibly no one died. And only one driver, Andrea de Adamich, was injured.
“It took an hour to cut him out of his Brabham, and afterwards he decided to continue in the sport. As a commentator. Can’t say I blame the poor man.
“And me? I was hooked and I vowed I would go to as many Grands Prix as I could for the rest of time. A vow that lasted until, ooh, about 15 minutes after the restart.
“It was a good race, packed with incidents and excitement. Jackie Stewart spun off while trying to pass Ronnie Peterson, James Hunt and Niki Lauda had the first of many battles to come. And Peter Revson staged a masterclass, going on to win. But I saw about none of it.
“This is the problem with Formula 1 as a live event.
“You have to be very lucky to see an incident, and even if you do it’s usually over in a flash and there are no slow-motion replays to help you understand what caused it. This, then, is a sport that has only ever really worked on television.”
Based on recent attendance figures, F1 certainly has no trouble filling the grandstands at most races on the calendar.
And Clarkson praised the role of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive for bringing the sport to the masses.
“This enabled us to meet not just the drivers but also the team bosses,” he continued. “I know that clever editing created storylines where there were none, and I know that series five is a bit “yee-hah” American, but suddenly we had goodies and baddies.
“And even more suddenly we found we were able to talk about the sport to our teenage daughters.
“My youngest had no interest in motorsport at all until Netflix came along. And now she knows Charles Leclerc’s inside leg measurements and wants, more than anything in life, to meet Pierre Gasly.”
That growth has also led to more and more celebrities turning up at race weekends, something Clarkson admits he has sympathy with Brundle for as he does his pre-race Gridwalk.
“I feel sorry for the poor chap these days. In the past he’d rush up and down the grid before the action started, trying to grab a few words with the Eurotrash-helmet men that no one at home knew, but we do know them now, so there’s no point,” he claimed.
“And anyway he couldn’t find a driver even if he wanted to because, post-Netflix, the grid is now invariably filled to overflowing with bewildered celebrities who don’t know who he is. And who just want to meet that guy from Haas [team principal Guenther Steiner] who swears a lot.
“I could see the look of relief in Martin’s eye when he found me because at last, he could talk to someone who has stuck with F1, albeit from the comfort of my own sofa, since I was 13 years old.
“Someone who would list an obscure French Canadian [Gilles Villeneuve] as his favourite driver of all time and who could talk (very quietly) about why the Benetton that Ayrton Senna was racing against at Imola on that fateful day in 1994 was so unbelievably fast.”