Joe Saward - one of the legends of Formula 1 journalism. He has been at the front for more than 30 years and since 1988 he hasn't missed a single Grand Prix, what has been in Formula 1 calendar. He is definitely one of the biggest Formula 1 fanatic, whom you have ever heard about. At the beginning of his career, when he hadn't been earning a lot of money from writing the articles, he used to be going for the Grand Prix for his own money, no at once sleeping in a tent. Fortunately, his career has gone the right direction - he had worked for BBC and Autosport and then he has created one of the most known website around the world - GrandPrix.com - in addition to that in 2007 he also created the very first e-magazine about F1, called GrandPrix+. For a couple of years he has been taking care mostly of his own blog. Despite the fact that he is extremely busy all the time, he found a couple of minutes to share with us his points for view for current situation in Formula 1.
Wojtek Paprota: We are in final part of the season with 4 races to go - do you think that it is already widely known who will be the world champion this year and it is just a matter of time to congratulate Lewis once again or we can't call it a day yet?
Joe Saward: "Lewis Hamilton will win the World Championship this year, no doubt about it!”
Wojtek: Due to their hard word since 2010, many research and development work, Mercedes has been an absolute dominant in Formula 1 for the last 2 seasons but sooner, or latter it will change. It shows us that to achieve successes in Formula 1 you have to have a long term program. What do you think, what is next team who can take the dominant role in F1 after Mercedes and why?
Joe: "Ferrari is already catching up with Mercedes. I think they will challenge for the championship next year”.
Wojtek: Why you haven't chosen McLaren-Honda?
Joe: "Of course McLaren-Honda will be closer next year, but they need more time to catch up”.
Wojtek: How important was keeping Jenson Button for McLaren-Honda? Do you think he was the best choice?
Joe: "He is a great racing driver and a good McLaren ambassador. He is the best choice”.
Wojtek: Gaining 0.1 of a second per lap by improving mechanical stuff in the car costs 10 times more than gaining 0.1 of a second per lap by improving aerodynamic package in the car. Does it mean that introducing hybrid engines to Formula 1 has caused the financial crisis?
Joe: "No. The problem is that there was no limit placed on the cost of customer engines”.
Wojtek: Do you think that increasing number of car manufactures (Honda and Renault now) involved in F1 is positive or negative and why?
Joe: "It is negative, because there are still not many manufactures in F1. I think that more will come when Bernie Ecclestone leaves and when the technology is more mature”.
Wojtek: I think that it will have a negative influence on financial side of this sport, because car manufactures are the ones who can invest a lot of money and raise the budget bar farther up, not allowing private teams to be as competitive as they would be when they developed their long-term program, like Mercedes - do you agree?
Joe: "Yes and no. Manufacturers bring money but so do big sponsors. They are being driven away by pay-TV and restrictions on what they can do”.
Wojtek: Do you think that current financial crisis in Formula 1 with many private teams struggling with money issues is just a matter of time and all those systems, like MGU-K, MGU-H, brake-by-wire etc will be cheaper year by year or due to the constant technology development it will be causing even bigger difference between rich ones and poor ones?
Joe: "I think that F1 performance will balance up quite quickly. Changing the rules always leads to one player getting an advantage at the beginning”.
Wojtek: What can you say about Haas' plans? Do they have a chance to play a first fiddle in F1 or they will rather be in the same position as Manor, or Caterham and HRT in the past? Romain Grosjean says that they are aiming to taste some champagne at the podium - is it realistic target?
Joe: "It is possible because the car will be very like a Ferrari. The team’s second year will be harder. The other problem is that the team is new and will make mistakes and will probably struggle to develop the cars at the same pace as the big teams”.
Wojtek: What will happen with "team from Enstone", what is about to be bought by Renault? How do you see their future in F1?
Joe: "Hopefully it will be bought by Renault”.
Wojtek: A few days ago Force India and Sauber made a compliment to European Union about unfair payment system in Formula 1. For me it is a bit strange because, as Bernie said, they knew the rules and the signed the contract and all the points in their contracts are being fairly followed and if they want to change something they will have to negotiate better rules in new Concorde agreement. But do think that the payment system with Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Williams getting more money than the other teams is a real problem?
Joe: "The other teams are right to complain. They had no choice but to sign up to the rules, but this does not mean they agreed with them. The current system is not good and not healthy”.
Wojtek: Do you think there would be no problems in Formula 1 when Bernie decided to pay all the team the same amount of money every year, without any extra prizes?
Joe: ”There will always be problems between competitors, but they would work together better if the payments were fair. They are not”.
