Fanatical F1 fever is in danger of spilling over – Medland

F1

F1's boom is welcome from all areas of the paddock – but steps must be taken to keep drivers and fans safe, says Chris Medland

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Perez found himself at the centre of almost manic attention in Mexico

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Author

Chris Medland

Let’s call a spade a spade: The Mexico City Grand Prix was not a classic.

Sure, it had its moments – mainly Daniel Ricciardo’s late charge to seventh, even punting Yuki Tsunoda out of the way in the process – but the on-track action was pretty limited. You can’t say the same for the action in the paddock, though.

I was stood outside AlphaTauri on Saturday morning when drivers and team members were arriving and said to its head of digital Josh Kruse that it felt like the paddock was getting a little bit too hectic. Fans were crowding drivers just trying to walk to their respective team bases, sprinting after ones they’d missed.

One fan – with merchandise in hand that they wanted signing – came running past in pursuit of Carlos Sainz, then slowed dramatically when they noticed they’d overtaken a scrum. The fan clocked that Christian Horner was in the middle of it and decided to carry on. But while looking back, they came perilously close to wiping out another guest who was standing still minding their own business.

Lewis Hamilton in the stadium section at the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix

Mexico enjoys one of the best fan atmospheres of any race…

Mercedes

I found the near-miss almost amusing, but when a Red Bull team member said they had to lift up a child to stop them being knocked over in a crush around Sergio Perez, the risks stopped being quite so funny.

Home favourites are always going to get more attention, and the passion of the fans for Perez is incredible, but I felt for him when he was mobbed even in the media centre leaving the post-race press conference, with fans – who shouldn’t have been able to access that area – screaming in his face to sign things.

At that point, perhaps they were getting desperate as it was the end of the weekend. It’s certainly the case elsewhere too, as Kruse told me he had to get Tsunoda in a headlock in Japan to drag him through an initially polite crowd that got more and more frantic as they felt they might not get what they were seeking from him.

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…but the passion is in danger of getting out of hand at times

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That shows this isn’t just an issue relating to the race in Mexico, but a growing trend in Formula 1. Austin was also packed in the paddock, and it worked to my advantage: drivers were willing to do radio interviews with me while walking back to their hospitality units after the race, in the hope they would avoid being overwhelmed.

If you think the drivers are being overly precious at this point, think again. One such interview with Lando Norris saw a fan grab him and shout at him to sign something – not threateningly I must add but with complete ignorance to the fact he was talking into a live microphone as we both tried to do our jobs. It prompted Norris to break off and respond “I’m doing an interview!” before continuing.

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A similar incident occurred with McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward, who was doing an interview with ESPN’s Mexico broadcast team in the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez paddock when a fan overlooked the cameras and crew and just walked straight up to him requesting autographs.

It’s still minority behaviour, but as the sport continues to grow, so too do the numbers. 1% of a bigger number of more fanatical attendees means more people crossing a line that then causes the drivers to start to change their own way of dealing with fans. And that’s where the problem really lies.

The increased access to the paddock is a welcome change ever since Liberty Media took over. The drivers and teams should be more accessible to fans rather than locked away, even if Bernie always loved the exclusivity such an approach created. Now, everyone realises just what a big event they’re part of each and every day, and more fans get special moments.

But there needs to be respect that goes with that. As a few cross a line, then the drivers start to take action. Norris was arriving in a cap and black hoody – hood raised – in Mexico to try and go as unnoticed as possible, while others started trying to actively avoid busy areas of guests.

My post-race interview with Ricciardo saw us walk through the FIA hospitality, out through the kitchen, along the back of the paddock (through a channel created by security as fans still screamed at him) and then in through the McLaren kitchen to his driver room. It didn’t feel unnecessary at all given the way the rest of the weekend had been going, but that meant the majority of fans were unfairly denied the chance to see or get close to one of their heroes due to the actions of the few.

And yet, I can understand how we get such actions. The drivers are becoming ever-bigger superstars, and fans are more and more invested in them. They’re then entering an exclusive area either through invitation or at great expense, and are almost competing with other fans who also want to just get a photo or a signature.

The more fans that are trying to get to the driver, the less time the driver has, so the more forceful some are becoming to try and make sure they don’t miss what could be the only chance of their lives to have such an interaction, on what is likely one of their most special days.

That’s why the teams and F1 need to do their bit to try and defuse such situations. Guidelines would be a good start, but who really reads them? Firm rules that explain when drivers are off-limits are perhaps better.

For example, if every person who enters the paddock in a non-working capacity is told drivers can’t be approached when they are in their racesuits – the times when they need to be most focused or have recently jumped out of the car – then certain moments can be made less challenging.

Similarly, building in specific time when drivers are approachable each day would also just give certainty to fans and reduce the likelihood of them acting desperately not knowing if and when a chance might come.

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Steps should be taken to ensure fans can meet their heroes in a safe environment

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The latter is another strain on a driver’s demands, of course, but it’s about finding the trade-off between an acceptable increase in duties to help grow the sport and unacceptable by-products.

Drivers feeling the need to try and hide away or avoid the crowds only increases the pressure on the moments they are visible, so there needs to be solutions that allow that pressure to be released. And those are only going to come from the sport and teams themselves.

Let’s not blow it out of proportion, while some fans should act more calmly and respectfully the whole issue is a result of F1’s booming popularity. It’s a good problem to have, and the approach should be to ensure fans aren’t punished as a whole.

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