Juan Pablo Montoya predicted the future of F1 after the Abu Dhabi GP, saying that the spectacle will guarantee more fans.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi GP saw spectacle take precedence over actual racing, as a direction from FIA Race Director Michael Masi saw the rules take a back seat and massive controversy ensue. The only winner aside from Max Verstappen was probably Netflix.
While most fans slammed the ending to the season, there will no doubt have been some who would have loved the drama, excitement and adrenaline rush of the finale. The odds of these viewers tuning in will probably be high.
Montoya predicted the future of F1 after the Abu Dhabi GP, and said that there might probably be an influx of new viewers into the sport.
“I think they tried to give the fans a really good show at the end of the race, and the people that don’t follow the sport every week got to see an amazing race and a great finish – you’re going to get new fans out of it,” he said, as quoted by Racingnews365.com.
“At the end of the day, (that) is the big picture and people are going to pay more attention to F1 – that is really important.”
Fast and loose
“If you’re involved in F1, or you’re a Formula 1 driver, you have a lot of questions,” he added.
“You see a lot of drivers and everybody’s like, ‘Why? What happened here? Why are you only waving the people between the two guys? Why are we not all getting the right position?’
“So they compromised (it) just to put a good show at the end of the race and, honestly, they shouldn’t do that. But they did and Red Bull took full advantage of it, and they did an amazing job,” he concluded.
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