After a week covering the Indy 500, Nate Saunders reports back on what Formula One could learn from one of the biggest races on the planet.
The trophy
While in Indianapolis, my ESPN colleague Ryan McGee told me the Borg Warner Trophy was "the greatest" in all of sports. After seeing it in person, I'm inclined to agree. The winners' trophy for any sporting event should be iconic -- after all, it is the reward for winning the most famous competitions in sport. To coin an Americanism, the Borg Warner looks awesome, and that's what a sporting trophy should look like. It should epitomise the event. Anyone who knows the Indy 500 knows the Borg Warner trophy and the sea of winning faces littered across its front.
Now, by contrast, try and imagine the Formula One world championship trophy. Some of you might be able to, but if so it's likely you also associate it with black tie events -- it is only awarded to the winner of the championship a week after the finale in Abu Dhabi at a gala event for dignitaries and media. That probably defines the Bernie Ecclestone era of F1 in a nutshell -- glitzy and glamorous, but with the fans just an afterthought. While the Borg Warner is proudly displayed throughout the Indy 500 week, F1's championship trophy appears after the conclusion of the season, sometimes months after the winner has been determined
And it's not just the Indy 500 that shows F1 up on this front. The Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup, the FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon, golf's Open Championship (the list could go on and on); all have famous trophies that are front and centre at all of their events from the moment they begin.
(In case you were wondering, here's the F1 world championship trophy)
Pomp and ceremony can be good
America knows how to put on a good show. So much so that when new American owners Liberty Media arrived in Formula One this year they declared they wanted to make every event "like a Super Bowl". Now, that is an unlikely thing to achieve as the Super Bowl's unique selling point is that it is a one-off event; it would lose its appeal slightly if the same event (and the huge interest that went with it) occurred 20 times during a season, the current length of the F1 calendar.
The Indy 500 is the epitome of American sporting showmanship. Some of my F1 colleagues at the circuit said two weeks was too long for one event and, compared to the identical format of every F1 weekend, it probably is. But Indianapolis stands alone as the flagship event on the IndyCar calendar -- it's the one event every fan wants to see and every driver wants to win. F1 has similar events on its own calendar, none more so than the Monaco Grand Prix which happens to occur the same week.
Making a bigger deal of the bigger events should not be considered a bad thing; F1 seems to be worried about giving some races greater emphasis than others but fans already know the prestigious events on the calendar. Let's have a bit of pomp and ceremony to go with them and really tweak the build-up so a race like Monaco or Monza legitimately stands out on the calendar as one of the jewels in the crown rather than just another race following the tired F1 weekend format.
Fans
Liberty Media have already shown greater fan engagement in the last few races than F1 showed in the past few years, putting the viewers top of the agenda at the Spanish Grand Prix as it rolled out a host of initiatives. This is an encouraging sign and one which looks set to increase further. The Indy 500 would be a good place to look for inspiration if they are struggling for ideas later in the year.
While the first week of the Indy 500 is devoted to on-track action, much of the second week serves little purpose other than to promote the event. Tuesday is international media day, with every driver dispatched to different corners of the U.S. to speak to the media -- imagine something similar happening before the U.S. Grand Prix. The following day is about fans; this year, Fernando Alonso visited an elementary school the Wednesday before the event. Friday, or 'Carb Day', has a single hour of track time for the main competition and the Indy Lights race, but there are concerts and festivities at the track for all.
Then on Saturday, drivers are introduced to the fans in reverse order of their starting position to collect a start ring commemorating their part in the race, before taking part in the parade in downtown Indianapolis. All of that happens before Sunday, where six hours of build-up are followed by the self-proclaimed greatest spectacle in racing. With everything that goes with the Indy 500, it's very difficult to argue against that title.