What happend to F1 - can it recover?

[Mubbers]

F1 is boring.

Discuss.




Seriously - I was a big race fan and for many years I would not be disturbed on a Sunday afternoon. This year I haven't watched a single race.

In many respects F1 is like the music industry (various threads) over priced and of poor quality.

What can be done to improve (save) the sport?

 

[sboulema]

totally agree with you! you dont even have to watch a race because you know that ferrari will win... I think that if you give all the teams the same budget they have a better change of winning. Ferrari has lots of cash and the are a few years ahead of the rest. the other teams doesnt have the money to keep up with ferrari

 

[Shrek]

I voted for ban driver aids as what is the point of having drivers if the cars change gears on their own, also I would bring back slicks, have one tyre supplier, limit testing, reduce downforce, one lap for qualifying like their have in superbikes that would mix the grid up a bit.

 

[Mubbers]

I missed a big bug bear of mine from the poll and that was circuit design.

Basically all of the circuits these day barring perhaps Spar are a load of rubbish - and look what they did to Hockenheim.

There is not enough overtaking spaces on the modern circuits and Monaco - terrible. Just a catwalk for the rich and famous!!

 

[Sazar]

seriously... you are blaimng ferrari?

remember just a couple of years ago williams ruled to roost?

its all because of schumacher that the italian team is top... he helps with the testing and when he came a lot of TOP technical personnel also came with him...

schumacher is the reason I watch the sport... he may play dirty but so do all the others... its a sport after all... prost and senna also had their moments in the sun...

the way the cars and safety features are designed is more of a factor than anything else...

I wish they would remove restrictions and also remove dependence on downward force to make the cars competetive.. if you run too close to teh car in front... you get less air flow to engines AND less air flow to push the front end down so you loose traction...

make that less of a difference and take electronics out so the drivers are more of a factor and you will get fans back... also overtaking is a factor... need more space for it.. yes you guys are all correct in that assumption

 

[Mubbers]

Originally posted by Sazar
seriously... you are blaimng ferrari?

remember just a couple of years ago williams ruled to roost?
....

Sazar you are right Williams had a good run and so have McLaren and it obviously isn't always about the cash. McLaren Williams and Ferrari all have massive bugets.

The problem is that for some reason we've been watching the same race for the last three may be four years.

And at the rate F1 is losing fans in the UK it'll be finished before too long - the're asking us to pay £12 to watch a race - I think not.

F1 HAS to find a way of making the races more competetive. Capping budgets would certainly work and so would improving track design. The other ideas are merely a function of how much money you have to spend. Small budget - no traction control etc...

Mub's

 

[Sazar]

I don't know if the salary cap will work though for international teams... can't imagine how it would be implemented...

a lot of the money these teams earn is from advertising spots on the cars as well... the little stickers for cigarettes and whiskey and what not...

in a way senna's death brought in all the safety aids... kinda ironic what?

 

[Mubbers]

zzzzoooooooooooooooom

Yeah the best driver died and now the circuits are being imasculated in celebration.

I was thinking along the lines that a team would have a maximum of (say) £25M or $40M to spend on everything but drivers salaries.

However what about the drivers? In the old days drivers more or less chose who they drove for on a race by race basis. I heard that Fangio would just pick the best car for the race!

Also drivers should not be salaried by the team but instead would support themselves from personal sponsorship...

In any respect that should work because teams could easily be audited for exepndature. The bottom line is that you could do away with quite a few rules as teams would have to choose carefully what aids etc. they could afford. If they tried to pack 'em all in reliability might suffer or they couldn't afford development for next year etc...

Perhaps the best way would be to have all the drivers race each other to jump in their cars - just like the old days!

Mubbers.

 

[Henyman]

getting rid of driver aids is a gd idea.