MPH: Mark Hughes on...

Given the headlines of global economic meltdown, the travails of Formula One seem fairly insignificant. But the two are linked, and actually it could lead F1 to a better place.

The economy has crashed as a result of bankers for the last 20-odd years funding borrowing from expected returns which have faltered, leaving them with way more debt than capital. During the same period F1 has funded its own spectacular growth based on future goodwill and income streams that may soon not be there.

For the last couple of decades at least, F1's direction has been dictated largely by the dovetailed drives for money and power of respectively Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley. Formula 1 has prospered commercially in the slipstream of that.

Emperor's clothes trick

But for some time it has been delivering a generally lousy show, spiced up occasionally by a bit of rain. Hardcore enthusiasts have needed to either become immersed in the technicalities to get a proper reading on who's doing a good job and why - or switch off and become 'it was better in my day' bores. There is fascination to be had from understanding the strategic battles and technical developments, but it requires you invest some effort. If you try following it casually, it's plain dull most of the time.

That's not a great model for a multi-billion dollar sport, and it's been successful despite this rather than because of it. The vast sums made available by car makers has enabled the teams to grow exponentially, so a top squad now has around 800 employees, eight times that of the '80s.

The vast growth in resource brought massively more knowledge to bear on technical problems, allowing huge leaps in performance. These had to be controlled for safety reasons, a task that perfectly suited the quest for power of Max. So as the controls got tighter and the budgets bigger, the arena in which the clever people sought to gain an advantage became ever more intricate. So the sport became ever-more intricate too, ever-less understandable to a mass audience.

The emperor's clothes trick worked because much of that audience was new, sucked in by the TV deals secured by Bernie. The TV companies paid big fees because the sport attracted big-paying advertisers.

As that market became saturated Bernie began moving races to places where governments would pay big fees for the privilege of having a grand prix. In the meantime, as Bernie cashed in his chips, the sport came under the ownership of a company laden with debt from other parts of its business - making it imperative F1 became even more of a cash cow. Hence more new races in places that will pay, and not necessarily at the expense of traditional European ones where the ballot box would never allow taxpayers' millions to be handed to a bunch of billionaires.

As long as the calendar's not filled with government-funded races, there's room for traditional ones - because the $5-10m per event they pay is better than nothing.

The show is generating this vast income, a significant proportion of which goes to pay off debts within the parent company, very little of which is invested back in the sport. There's virtually no marketing of the sport as an entity, virtually no effort to improve the show. This is the knot F1 has got itself into, sickened by too much money. Just as the economy became sick with too much money.

It's time for a new model. This one has worked despite its underlying wrongness, just as the economy flourished for years despite an underlying flaw. Previously the sport was led by the nose to whatever best met with the aims of its twin ringmeisters. Any resistance from the participants was broken down by divide and conquer.

F1's future in FOTA's hands

Left to the old model, F1 will go to ever-more government-funded events and there will be more technical standardisation, because that's the FIA's vision for improving the show. But that is taking the sport further away from its essence. Yes, it could make it easier to follow but in doing so would kill its heart, the very thing that makes F1 distinct from all the spec formulas - ie that it is a technical competition as well as a driver one.

Technical competition and great racing are not mutually exclusive. Max's vision would be spec chassis and engines painted up in different colours. That could kill F1. He's been prevented from implementing this because of the collective power of the car manufacturers.

Which brings us to FOTA, the recently formed Formula One Teams Association. This is much more than just a bureaucratic structure representing the team's interests. It holds the future of F1 in its hands.

With every team - including, critically, Ferrari - on board, it is in a position to present a united front. Within those teams is an acute understanding of the flaws of the current model.

All they need do now is stay together, to recognise and sidestep the divide and conquer issues (hint: there's one coming up called 'customer cars'), and take F1 to a healthier place. Given the world's economic circumstances, it'll be a ride with a lot of turbulence. Just fasten your seat belts and hang on.