{"id":5175,"date":"2025-04-08T13:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T13:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/5175\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T13:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T13:03:08","slug":"why-bernie-ecclestones-sprinkler-idea-isnt-so-crazy-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/5175\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bernie Ecclestone’s sprinkler idea isn’t so crazy after all"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThat\u2019s all the highlights?\u201d Oscar Piastri asked incredulously after watching F1\u2019s very brief highlights reel at Suzuka. \u201cThat\u2019s all that happened in that race?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing happened,\u201d replied Lando Norris (and the 115,000-strong sellout crowd). \u201cI don\u2019t think there was one overtake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bring on the sprinklers!<\/p>\n

To be fair to the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix<\/a>, there were 15 in total \u2013 that\u2019s one every three-and-a-half laps.<\/p>\n

But of those 15, only one \u2013 Lewis Hamilton on Isack Hadjar \u2013 was amongst the top ten on the starting grid with that order, barring Hamilton on Hadjar, finishing as it started.<\/p>\n

So much for DRS, which as of next season will be replaced by a new system that gives the drivers a short burst of additional battery power when they are within one second of the car in front.<\/p>\n

Same, same, but different.<\/p>\n

More from the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Japanese GP conclusions: Verstappen\u2019s Alonso-esque rampage, McLaren tactics, the real Doohan mistake<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The updated Drivers\u2019 and Constructors\u2019 Championship standings<\/a><\/p>\n

But on a Sunday afternoon when even strategy couldn\u2019t spice up the race, eyes kept turning to the sky, hoping that the FIA\u2019s forecast of 40 per cent rain, even as it lessened to 20, would materialise.<\/p>\n

Even the message to Norris that there could be one lap of rain, biblical we dreamed as we crossed toes, grabbed that rabbit foot, and danced like no one but the rain gods were watching, proved to be a dry squib.<\/p>\n

And so for 53 laps we watched on, the drivers nowhere fast, as pole-sitter Max Verstappen clinched a deserved win as the top ten on the grid all became points-scorers at the Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Oh, how we wished for rain.<\/p>\n

A sudden downpour, torrential or otherwise. Intermittent showers. A handful of laps of the wet stuff. A slippery newly resurfaced Suzuka. Strategy chaos. Split-second decisions on which F1 legends are made or broken. 17th to first.<\/p>\n

If only there were a solution. A way to not only give the 115,000 people who paid good money to watch the Japanese GP from the grandstands a show and not a procession. To give those around the world who woke up at stupid o\u2019clock to watch something with a stronger kick than their coffee. Something that keeps the drivers from asking \u201cthat\u2019s all?\u201d.<\/p>\n

There is, it\u2019s called sprinklers, and it was an idea proposed by former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone back in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always had the most exciting races in the wet, so let\u2019s think of making rain,\u201d he said in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are race tracks you can make artificially wet and it would be easy to have such systems at a number of tracks. Why not let it \u2018rain\u2019 in the middle of a race for 20 minutes, or the last 10 laps? Maybe with a two-minute warning ahead of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuspense would be guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later added: \u201cThere\u2019s no reason why sprinklers shouldn\u2019t happen. There\u2019s so much support because wet races are always the best by far,\u201d he said as Sebastian Vettel marched towards the title with 11 wins in 19 races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe at the beginning it was a little crazy but it\u2019s surprising how much support that idea is getting now. Providing we do it so nobody would know when it was going to happen, like when it rains, I think it would make for a lot of entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it make F1 more exciting? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

It definitely would\u2019ve made the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix more exciting, that I can guarantee.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be honest with ourselves now, if Formula 1 can introduce the fake overtaking of DRS and power boosts, why not go the whole hog by installing sprinklers at some of the tracks?<\/p>\n

The drivers love racing at Suzuka, but they all admit that it is a track where you cannot overtake, it doesn\u2019t have a long enough straight to power through even with DRS, or a sharp enough braking zone to divebomb the car ahead.<\/p>\n

Only three times in the last decade has the driver who started on pole not won the Grand Prix, and twice it was Mercedes overhauling the other Mercedes.<\/p>\n

The puritans will scream, but they will always find something to rail against anyway (wait until next year\u2019s 50\/50 engine\/electricity split!), but any argument that it is \u2018too artificial\u2019 was undone the day Formula 1 introduced DRS.<\/p>\n

So Formula 1 has tried one artificial method to spice up the racing and, while it has succeeded at times, it has failed at others such as Sunday\u2019s Monaco-esque Japanese Grand Prix. Even Monaco is trying something new this year with two mandatory pit stops instead of just one.<\/p>\n

If Monaco, the crown jewel, can acknowledge that it needs to do something different, something to entertain, something to warrant its place on the Formula 1 calendar, than surely the sport\u2019s other venues can also try harder.<\/p>\n

May I, and Bernie, suggest a sprinkler or three?<\/p>\n

Read next: Explained: Why Piastri didn\u2019t attack Norris at the Japanese GP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat\u2019s all the highlights?\u201d Oscar Piastri asked incredulously after watching F1\u2019s very brief highlights reel at Suzuka. \u201cThat\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2894,225,858,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-5175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-f1-features","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-japanese-grand-prix","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114302484794512726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}