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Two of the most engaging factors in F1 are that it’s very dangerous and it costs an awful lot of money just to get in the game; so it’s either too risky or too expensive for ordinary people to get involved. It’s the glamorous playground of car manufacturers and independent entreptreneurs.

F1 became notorious because it presented the best racers, engaged in the fastest, most challenging and therefore the most dangerous racing. Surprisingly, since 1963 the fatality list is remarkably short; as demonstrated by the FIA’s safety analysis. When the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) was re-formed in 1994, the collective opinion of the drivers forced more significant emphasis on the safety of everyone involved; drivers, pit crew, officials and spectators. The unlikely result is that over the last 10 years the number of accidents has actually increased significantly as drivers push harder in the knowledge that they’ll be safe if they do fall off the black line.

So as F1 has become safer, and the personal risk that drivers take has decreased, the penalty for failing to be competitive has become a financial one. Herein lies the balancing point - push too hard and you risk going off and losing money, push too little and you risk getting a smaller share of the money generated by media coverage and sponsorship.

In the 2005 USA Grand Prix this balance was lost, and F1 suffered what could be a critical blow when 14 drivers refused to compete because of concerns that their Michelin tyres might fail at the flat out turn 13, which is bordered by the concrete walls that broke Ralf Schumacher’s back in 2004. The GPDA, Michelin and the Indianapolis track owner were in agreement that a temporary chicane would eliminate the problem of dangerous tyre wear, but the governing FIA disagreed.

This occured at a time when the FIA, has been at odds with many of the teams regarding the control of the sport after 2007 when the concorde agreement expires; the FIA’s stance is that high costs will render it impossible for independent teams to compete, resulting in a smaller number of teams and thus, the death of the sport. It appears that through some stubbornness that has grown from this slow burning argument, the FIA has scuttled the reputation of F1 in the richest free market in the world; and further estranged most of the major works teams by not intervening in the tyre issue.

Fundamentally today has down that the drivers won’t race if it’s too dangerous, suggesting that F1 is actually a very safe sport, and this is backed up by the FIA safety stats. The problem however, is that without the perception of danger, the whole F1 financial model fails because the glamour disappears.

For a sport that relies on money and danger, today could be the beginning of end.