Transformation

The biggest handicap for politicians in office is that none of the work done on infrastructure ever translates into votes. Spending the budget on infrastructure means spending it on something nobody can see and whose results nobody feels straight away, rather than on something in plain view. You can lay kilometres of sewage pipe, but when people flush the toilet, nobody asks where that water goes or how it gets there. And on top of that you get criticised: "What is he even doing?"

We now have young drivers who are making a name for themselves in the paddock with their results abroad. Yet everyone keeps asking, "Why is there no Turkish driver in F1?" and "Our target should be Formula 1." Ladies and gentlemen… Formula 1 is a giant motorsport circus worth five billion euros. If money and technology from a given country do not go into the sport, then a driver from that country has no chance of being there, however talented. The first condition of being part of the world's most commercial motorsport organisation is being part of that commerce. If we are not, please let nobody keep pointing at F1 as a target for nothing.

As an architect who, back in 1999 when F1 races were still being broadcast free-to-air on Cine 5, drew up an F1 circuit project at Kurtköy for my university diploma, I ask this: F1 races were held in this country for years. What concrete benefit did they bring to motorsport? How many competitors came through, how many circuits were built, how many new sponsors came in, what technology was developed? Can anyone answer that? There is nothing, friends. Wake up from this F1 fairy tale. The advertising fee for a single sign inside that circuit during the race would fund a full season of a national championship. I will not even get into the money the state was asked to pay to the company holding F1's promotional rights. It is simply the waste of an amount many times greater than the federation budgets that should be spent on sport in this country, handed to a single company. Nothing else. If F1 is a business and someone wants to bring it here, please let them pay for it out of their own pocket. Transferring tens of millions of dollars from the state to a company and then chasing ticket revenue and the like does not make this commerce. Are we building electric cars like Tesla, that we should ask for state support? The WRC has a similar promoter system, so it may attract the same criticism, but comparing a freely viewable World Championship, at roughly a tenth of the budget yet with almost the same coverage and with Turkish competitors taking part in the same event, with the snobbish F1 circus is simply not fair.
Fortunately our youngsters are not caught up in these Formula 1 fantasies, and all of them appear to have realistic goals. There are plenty of top-level world championships out there. There is the WTCR, there is GT, there is Endurance. These series feature huge factory teams and fierce competition. And our youngsters are already standing on podiums there, and in the coming years they will be the drivers the big teams sign. Ayhancan Güven, Berkay Besler, Ali Türkkan. These young people represent our country successfully in the motorsport arena and have our national anthem played. Sometimes they wait patiently to attack, sometimes they fight bumper to bumper, showing signs that they are mentally prepared at the highest level too.

At the end of the 2018 season, in the first-ever FIA Nations Cup, the whole world saw what Salih Yoluç and Ayhancan Güven are capable of. There will be a sequel in 2019.

Another important point is that we now have top-level racing garages in our own country. Competitors racing abroad always used to rent cars from a local team there, and inevitably they could end up treated as second-class customers. Now Turkish teams carry our flag to events abroad not just with drivers, but as complete teams with cars, mechanics and management. In rallying Ford Motorsport Türkiye, on the circuits Borusan Motorsport, and in both rallying and circuit racing TokSport WRT now field cars at a level that catches the attention of even foreign crews. British young talent Chris Ingram and the vastly experienced Henning Solberg chose Toksport's Fabia R5 to compete in. In a global world where sport is not just sport, and must become an industry to build its own economy, these achievements are at least as important as our competitors' podiums.

And of course we are not only successful in cars. In motorcycling, following the path opened by Kenan, there is Toprak, whom Kenan even brought into his own team and took under his wing. Despite everything he went through after losing his father, the much-loved paddock figure Arif "Tekteker" Razgatlıoğlu, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu has been able to run the same pace with years of experience behind him, and is the closest candidate to fill the space Kenan has left. We should also mention the results abroad of Rodi Pak, son of Mümtaz Pak, who brought the Uşak circuit to life, but once we say motorcycling and young talent, it is impossible to pass over Deniz and Can Öncü. These brothers, who can stand on the podium in almost every championship they enter, sometimes even in the very first race, and who all the factory teams are already chasing, have the road to MotoGP open and are filling their careers with records. For now we make do with sitting in front of the screen for their races streamed live online. I hope that one day we will be celebrating world championships together in the grandstands and the paddock.

The motorsport federations are trying to support these competitors as far as they can within their budgets. At the same time they are bringing international championships to our country. September will truly be a festival. The motocross World Championship in Afyon in the first week of September, and the World Rally Championship in Marmaris in September. Personally, as a licensed competitor of both federations in recent years, I think both the TMF and TOSFED should now act on common ground on certain projects.

Our shop window is giving hope, both with the youngsters and with the events. The change and transformation currently under way in our country will naturally be reflected in sport too. Although 2019 looks like a season in which everyone will be on alert economically, it could be a breakthrough year for infrastructure. At the 2017 champions' night, TOSFED President Serkan Yazıcı announced 2018 as a transition year. Let's see what surprises 2019 will bring.

We will wait and see…