HAD you read any of the motorsport press prior to the French Grand Prix, or watched any of the extensive coverage of practice and qualifying, there’s a good chance you would not have bothered watching the return of Formula One to Paul Ricard on Sunday night.

That’s because a vast majority of the teams, drivers and media covering the sport spent a most of their time talking down the chances of it being an exciting Grand Prix.

So instead of praising a return to an historic venue with real F1 history in a country (that invented the sport) crying out for a return to the Grand Prix circuit, a vast majority of pre-event hype was spent talking about the fact the layout was wrong and that passing would be extremely difficult, if not nigh on impossible.

So I say again: Had you sat through all of that what would be your motivation for staying up until 1:30am on a school night to watch the race?

For reasons of which I am still not completely certain, I did stay up for it and believe it or not, I enjoyed it.

It was not a thriller but the race I watched certainly had plenty of overtaking right through the grid.

Certainly it was much, much better than the show we saw from Monaco and Montreal.. combined.

From an angry German charging through the field or the different tyre strategies overlapping there was lots to like.

What’s more, the passing didn’t just come down the long Mistral straight, either. Though the DRS was certainly very powerful on the run into the back chicane, I saw plenty of passing on the run into the epic, 300km/hr Signes corner that followed.

Dan Ricciardo seemed to make his task owning people through the double-apex Du Beausset that followed, using the Aero performance of his Red Bull to scythe up the inside of people there. That was fun.

It wasn’t a classic that we’ll remember for years to come but as 90-odd minutes of entertainment, I felt like it was worthy of me keeping the heater cranking for a few more hours on a cold Sunday night.

So why, then, did the sport spend so much time talking it down in the lead-up?

Sure, we know that the current F1 cars aren’t exactly designed to promote close motor racing, but then again there hadn’t been a Grand Prix held at Paul Ricard since 1990 so how were we to know how the cars would perform there anyway?

What if it had rained? What if a leading driver turned cannonball into turn one and ended up scything their way though the field for the remainder of the race?

These are not far-out suggestions of things to occur during a Grand Prix and you’ll note that half of those potentials actually happened.

While I am all for drivers saying what they think and emphasizing that the show could definitely be better – because it definitely could.

No one is going to argue that the current generation of Formula One cars should be better at racing closely than they are.

However, there has to be a line somewhere between that and actively talking the sport down because that’s just counter productive to keeping people engaged.

Let me put it another way: Lets say you’re cuddled up with a significant other and about to enjoy some quality time together. However, before you get, err, stuck in you say ‘I’m warning you, this isn’t going to be very good’.

Not much chance of any magic occurring after that, is there?

If you had talked yourself up and it did ultimately end up being over in five seconds, at least you were still there in the first place.

Though I’m not sure my analogy completely works, the same can be said for the Grand Prix – or even the sport in general.

I’m not saying we should be cheerleaders for the sport, but there has to be some balance in pre-race discussions to manage expectations.

(The same can be said the other way: this year’s Indy 500 was a great race but fans expressed disappointment afterwards that it wasn’t the all-out thriller the last two years had seen. Hype works in both ways.)

Footy fans know that not every game can be an after-the-siren thriller. But they keep coming back in the knowledge that, eventually, they’ll get to see one.

The same can be said for motor racing.

If we keep talking races down before we even know if it’s going to be a good one or not, the next great race may eventually be watched by no one at all.

WORDS: Richard Craill
IMAGE: Nissan / NISMO