The British Grand Prix Proves F1 Just Doesn’t Get It Anymore

The initial race of the newly arranged World Championship of Drivers, what today we think of as Formula One, was held at the Silverstone racing circuit back in 1950 and despite Brands Hatch and even Aintree taking turns for thirty years it has always been the spiritual home of the British Grand Prix which is why last weekend the F1 circus descended on Whittlebury for the tenth race of the 2016 season…….and then made a complete fool of itself.

F1 World Championship

• Hamilton – 1/3
• Rosberg – 12/5
• Vettel – 80/1

It’s quite difficult to turn a sport that involves men driving at ultra high speeds in the most tripped out over developed and ridiculously expensive cars in the world into something dull and boring, but week in, week out, Formula One is proving that it can still be done if you try hard enough. The British Grand Prix was no exception. Anyone in the UK gambling news of a return to the previous qualification format would improve things is just kidding themselves, the problems in F1 go way deeper than that.

It was Lewis Hamilton of the unstoppable Mercedes team that grabbed pole seven tenths of a second ahead of teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg, which is a considerable gap and indeed Hamilton beat the lap record for the new layout of Silverstone getting a 1:29:243 perhaps indicating just how much he wanted to win the British Grand Prix in front of his home crowd, but with that much advantage over even Rosberg, what hope did anyone else have?

Did Anyone But Mercedes Have A Chance At The British Grand Prix?

British Grand Prix

• Location – Silverstone
• Turns – 18
• Length – 5.891 km

The answer, of course, is not much. The only time a non-Mercedes driver has won a Grand Prix this year is when young Max Verstappen over at Red Bull managed to grab a win at the Spanish Grand Prix after the Mercedes drivers took each other out of the race in a moment of self-entitled childishness that must make Toto Wolff despair. If you like to bet on sports in the UK this made wagers on the British Grand Prix pretty easy, just pick whichever Mercedes driver you like best.

Then, just when it looked like we were due another parade where the order of results just happens to mirror the amount each team spends on their car, it started to rain, and the British Grand Prix was suddenly up for grabs. In the wet F1 cars become more unpredictable, as do the races, and this could be an exciting spectacle of drivers attempting to balance caution and speed, betting their skills against the conditions. It could have been great to watch. So the powers that be put a stop to it.

British Grand Prix Sees Rain Rein In Racing

One of the best moments in any motorsport is the start, the build up of tension, the lights going out, the sudden burst of energy and life from the roaring beasts that streak away down to turn one. The British Grand Prix had none of that with the first five laps conducted under the safety car because apparently wet weather tires are just there for show. It was another disappointment for fans, health & safety once more destroying everyone’s fun because god forbid driving a car at 200mph should be dangerous.

Hamilton won the British Grand Prix in the end, cutting Rosberg’s lead down to just one point in the Championship and tightening his odds at Bet365 to just 1/3 he’ll win the season with Nico drifting out to 12/5. Sebastian Vettel, whose gear box let him down at Silverstone, is 80/1 in third place. So if you’re going to take advantage of UK gambling laws, just pick a Mercedes to bet on, everything else is just silly, and rather unfortunately the general public have spotted this too.

Does Health & Safety Scupper Real Racing?

The British Grand Prix may, once and for all, have put a stop to the constant insistence by those in F1 that the competition is catching up with Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel’s gearbox problems indicate that their nearest rivals Ferrari have issues, and were way off the pace of the silver arrows, and as for Mclaren, Williams, Lotus and Red Bull? They can only ever hope that the feud between Hamilton and Rosberg takes them out of races in the future, because that’s the only way they’ve a chance of winning.

It doesn’t take an expert on internet gambling in the UK to know that most people bet on Mercedes at the British Grand Prix, but the removal of a racing start meant the entire event was a bit of a farce, and as long as the pearl-necklace-clutching shock-and-horror brigade are allowed to dictate what is acceptable risk (apparently “none” is the only answer there) F1 will continue to be an exciting spectacle made childishly dull not just by Hamilton and Rosberg’s little tiffs, but by its own design.