27/08/2008
NEWS STORY
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He whispered it, embarrassed, almost as if he was about to confess to downloading porn or stealing from the charity box; "it was so boring I turned over to something else," he confessed.
Trouble is, I don't think Adrian, of the Stop and Shop pet shop in Collier Row, was alone, after all, didn't GrandPrix.com's Joe Saward refer to Sunday's race as a "siesta rather than a fiesta"?
But this Talking Point is not about rubbishing the European Grand Prix or the Valencia Street Circuit, after all, despite my personal misgivings about the track this was the maiden event and I am pretty sure the organizers will take the criticism on board as they plan ahead for next year's race.
From the opening practice session the grey barriers that line the circuit reminded us of those countless races on American tracks all those years ago, when Bernie was quite happy to pitch up the F1 circus in a car park as long as it meant another addition to the calendar. One can only hope that Singapore proves to be a little more exhilarating, though I won't hold my breath.
Ahead of the race, and for much of the weekend, team bosses, drivers and F1 insiders talked up the track, waxing lyrical as they described it as the 'new Monaco', but one couldn't help but feel that one was being sold something. In full corporate mode, Martin Whitmarsh claimed Valencia would "set a new standard for Formula 1". He was right, it did, but not in the way intended.
Formula One is fast approaching a key moment in its history, and for me, Valencia was a clear indication of what lies in store, and it worries me.
Despite the denials, it is a fact that in the not too distant future Ron Dennis will finally climb down off the pit-wall and go off in search of ways to spend his vast fortune. Frank Williams and Flavio Briatore are also no doubt counting the days before they too opt to take things a little easier. And let's not forget that Max has vowed to stand down - no pun intended - next year, while Bernie can only continue for so much longer. But then what, where will the sport go from there?
Once the few remaining characters leave the sport, once the manufacturers and suits take control, what happens to F1 then, will Valencia really be "the standard"?
Despite the fact that with six races remaining both titles are up for grabs, F1 is not pulling in the punters. Even in the UK, despite the 'Hamilton factor' and the best work of certain members of the British media, F1 is not what people are talking about in the pubs - not unless they're telling jokes about the FIA President.
Despite Hamilton winning the British Grand Prix as far as the media was concerned it was the Men's final at Wimbledon that grabbed the headlines, and even if the Stevenage Rocket does succeed in winning the title he will need to go some if he is to knock Rebecca Adlington and Co off the podium in terms of the people's favourite.
Something is missing from F1, but I'm not quite sure what. Is it the racing, is it the damage wreaked by the spy scandal, the sex scandal or is it that the sport is missing an anti-hero, a Michael Schumacher.
We have said it before and we'll say it again, just so that there is no misunderstanding. The talk of BBC winning the rights to broadcast F1 from 2009 is incorrect. ITV, who had the rights, relinquished them, they chose to walk away from F1. Fact is, the British broadcaster - which unlike the BBC does not receive its funding from viewers on pain of a criminal record and possible imprisonment - realised that, despite the Hamilton factor, it can make more (advertising) money from a midweek soccer match than a weekend Grand Prix. Consequently, ITV gave F1 back to Bernie who had no alternative - since it is a condition of the Concorde Agreement that the sport has to be on free-to-air TV - but to give it to the BBC, in as much as Bernie gives anything away.
Speaking in Valencia at the weekend, Briatore, a marketing man but never what one might describe as a suit, warned that F1 must not forget its customers, the fans. He warned that the sport continues to lose track of what it is really about.
"I think it's very difficult to understand why we need a thousand people to run two cars," he said. "This is my philosophy, it's too many. We are racing. Everybody forgets what the public wants. I don't see so many people from the public interested in our gearbox. I don't see so many people interested in Fernando's suspension. I don't see the public going crazy about Fernando's brakes or Kubica's. I think we have all generations of press, media, IQ but they always ask the same questions. I think this is wrong. The world has changed, we are in the entertainment business as well. We are not in the mechanical engineering business. The money is coming from the commercial side from marketing. It's not coming from selling a piece of suspension or gearbox or used cars. We are not car dealers. This is what I think about Formula One. It's as simple as that."
But is it as simple as that, does F1 have to be entertaining? While the public might not be interested in gearboxes and suspension, purists are, and see F1 as a sport rather than entertainment.
It is only a matter of time before the bean counters take control of the sport, but what of F1 then, where does it go? If the sport continues on its current path is it possible that more and more fans will lose faith, that other broadcasters might follow ITV's example. After all, let's not forget that when TV viewing figures have been good the powers-that-be are the first to shout about it from the roof tops, but when was the last time you heard anything about record viewing figures. While seats remained unsold in Valencia - for its maiden Grand Prix - cast your mind back to Hockenheim, when, despite German drivers occupying 25 per cent of the grid, there were swathes of empty grandstand seats.
In our latest Talking Point, we want your thoughts on the current state of F1, has it gone off track and if so what is needed to get it back on track. Is it, like Flavio says, entertainment, or should it remain first and foremost a sport? It's your call.
Chris Balfe
Editor
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Paul Smith
The problem can be summed up very simply using the old phrase, F1 is a circus. But a circus where the Teams, the Drives, the FIA and Bernie seem content to put on a posh show ‘in the tent' for themselves only emerging briefly to put in an appearance on the track for those annoying people called fans/spectators. Valencia was a prime example of this, loads of hype about facilities for the teams, talk of the new Monaco, boring circuit for the watching fan. The only redeeming light was Jackie Stewart openly saying it was more like a dock than a harbour.
I don't want to hear how well the drivers and teams are looked after or what corporate events they've been scrubbed up for I want to see a return to the days where the pits were more on view to the fans; where drivers were more accessible; where drivers actually expressed an honest opinion rather than the ‘party line'; where have the Eddie Irvine's of this world gone. Everything is too slick, too ordered, run to a pre determined unchangeable timetable nothing seems to be ad hoc. Like a fool I'll still keep watching.
Frieda Tweehuysen - South Africa
As a great supporter of F1 in South Africa, I have to say that we do not get F1 free-to-air and since I do not have satellite TV, I have to make a concerted effort to watch F1. That I did for Valencia, but I had more fun watching the GP2 race. Even though I would love to see a live race, the cost are to high – and that's just to get to the country, never mind getting in to the track. Seeing that Bernie is putting the races at times that suit the European viewing public, it is terribly annoying for someone like me, that can't possibly get there, to see that the Europeans aren't even interested!
That said, I do wish that the racing was more interesting. F1 is both a sport and entertainment, which is a fine balance that is difficult to maintain. Everything has become commercialized and there can't be an anti-hero like Schumacher was. Either they are hyped up like Hamilton, or trashed as Alonso has been lately. There are no characters and no special "personalities" to tempt us. Maybe with the new rule changes for next year may throw up some interest, but I doubt it. The leaders now are the ones with the money to be leaders in the new year. Hoping that I'm wrong and that next year is full of surprises!
Tony Toms - Cape Town
F1 should be about racing which is visible to viewers and spectators alike. There needs to be a measure of uncertainty about the outcome of a race, a measure of tension regarding who will get the better of whom.
Races which become a procession or are decided through superior fuel or tyre strategies with overtaking during pit stops have become the order of the day, but they are not the real thing.
F1 have been told repeatedly that it s all about overtaking, but the authorities don't seem to want to listen.
Peter Mann
There are two things wrong with F1: crap tracks where overtaking is impossible (for whatever reason) and crap TV coverage and commentary – specifically James Allen (in fairness, this may be at the instruction of his producers) who rarely commentates on what is happening on screen (other than at the start) but prefers to remind everyone what happened earlier in the race or talk about some side issue.
I find it amazing that either he or his producers think that millions of people have just switched on immediately after an ad break and therefore need to know what they've missed – or that the entire viewing audience has just woken up to find that it's lap 45 and need to be told all over again that on lap 10 so-and-so shunted into the back of someone.
And then there's the TV coverage of the races with the constant use of longshots so that the detail is lost. Motor racing is about speed, noise and drama – how often does that come across? Almost never. When was the last time you gripped the edge of your seat because the pictures and commentary were riveting and the sound of an F1 engine on full song unmissable?
Formula One is first and foremost a vital – yes vital – technical business (because of the training and spin-offs that percolate down to our everyday lives) that only becomes a sport at a grand prix weekend. This is when it becomes entertainment – and when all those involved in directing the broadcasting should strive very hard to match the quality of the machinery and driving they are covering.
Yes, they need help to make the races more exciting, either through rule change so that aero effect that kills overtaking is neutralised and/or the circuits are modified to making overtaking possible, but fundamentally the TV producers need to look at what they are doing and improve it dramatically.
Gregor Veble - Slovenia
There is actually very little wrong with F1 these days. What is, however, probably worrisome for most of those directly involved is that the sport has reached a plateau in terms of viewership and therefore incomes. Most business plans in F1 likely depended on the exponential growth of F1 as was seen at the turn of the millennium, and this is probably what worries the investors these days. There is only a certain percentage of the population that will be interested in motorsports of the "old world", and the emerging markets don't quite seem to be embracing F1.
The sport is therefore fundamentally healthy, it should just stop obsessing over trying to be the most filthy rich pointless exercise on the planet. There exists a loyal viewership, and there are manufacturers and other sponsors who are willing to support the series. Once the sport realizes that and doesn't try to grow just for growth's sake, it will likely return more to its roots of actually being a sport.
I also don't think that there exists a dichotomy between sport and entertainment. If a sport sticks to its fundamentals of being a competition testing the absolute limits of human physical and mental strength, it becomes good entertainment.
There is, however, a sharp divide between business and sport. As long as F1 tries to present an immaculate, glamorous picture of itself and neglects the human element, it is also going to fail as entertainment. People are willing to be fed the corporate image and logos for only that long. If they can't relate to the human side of the competitors, be it either drivers or engineers, then they will find the whole exercise rather dull.
A lot is being said about how the current technical regulations are not providing for proper on track action due to the lack of overtaking, and there is certainly a point to that. One needs to, however, just look at the Schumacher and Alonso duels at Imola in 2005 and 2006 to see where the problem actually lies. Those battles were probably some of the most epic in recent history, yet no actual overtaking took place. The reason is that it was a battle between two larger than life characters at the
top of their game. That is what most people find fascinating, not the fact that car A drove past car B. With F1 teams trying to make every young driver as corporate as possible, they are doing their very best to rob the fans of sporting excitement.
In short: F1 simply needs to pull its head out of its corporate behind. The obsession with growth needs to stop, and the sport should try to focus more on the actual people involved in it. These days, even the technical regulations seem to be steering in the right way after the many blunders in the past, which went unrecognized simply because the sport was getting bigger and bigger. There is therefore a lot to look forward to, but only as long as the sporting values prevail.
Robert Passman - Maryland, USA
I have been a fan of Formula 1 for over 45 years. It has become rather boring, and I have come close to turning off the televised races as have others. While it is unfortunate that it takes so many people and so much money to compete in the top flight of racing, the engine design freeze and standardization effots have not improved the racing. The fact that frozen engine design and restrictions on testing has narrowed qualifying time gaps to 2 seconds has not helped either.
Innovators are stifiled. Briatore's implication that the car designs don't matter is wrong. The idea that a cookie cutter series such as IRL or NASCAR is the way to go in F1 just isn't going to work. As you know NASCAR recently told Toyota teams to cut the power of their motor. Sooner or later, they will just provide engines for everyone from the same pool. The cars already have to fit templates to ensure no one has any advantage over the others.
The "entertainment" will become less entertaining as standardization efforts continue. The teams that have already made substantial investments in wind tunnels, etc. shouldn't be required to throw them out. If you want to be relevant, require innovative approaches like KERS without limits. Obviously, the well heeled are going to be more successful but that is always going to be the case but, at least, their can be developments with a meaningful impact on automotive design for the public.
In the late fifties, in a high school presentation, I asked Roger Ward, Indianapolis 500 winner, why Indy cars were slow to adopt disc brakes already in use in F1. His response was quite unpleasant and ignorant. Of course, they did finally go forward. This is where innovation comes from. Put Alonso, Raikkonen et al in NASCAR and see how it goes. Juan Montoya is a perfect example. If you don't have the strongest car, you are not going to win. His initial advantages on road courses has been
negated. His car is not as fast as others and the others have caught up in capabilities.
Paul Elliott
Sadly the FIA (Mad Max) and Bernie etc. have turned a spectacular, progressive and innovative sport into a so so event, an event of faces rather than action. They need to have free competition in all areas of the sport including tyres which used to be very effective for racing when provided by differing manufacturers. The fact that MM has stifled these areas with his stupid need to keep bringing in rules is killing the spectacle of the sport.
In reality I have to accept it for what it's become and that's a business for making money. It makes money for Bernie, the FIA and the teams. The drivers are not allowed to let their personalities come through as they may upset a sponsor or two. They cannot complain about the event as MM would no doubt bring in a new rule to punish them, unless it's a Ferrari driver. I guess the way the sport is heading is that all the cars will one day be built by a single manufacturer to an FIA (MM) standard. Ferrari chassis and engines etc and that teams will be allocated cars. Ferrari will of course then be the winner without having to cheat or have rules bent to suit their requirements.
Paul Martin - BexleyHeath, UK
F1 is definitely well and truly off course, of that there is no doubt. It is simply not an attractive proposition to waste a Sunday afternoon watching nothing happen in a race for 2 hours and leave you wondering why you bothered. I am as diehard a fan of F1 as you get who started watching F1 when I was about 10 years old, over 30 years ago
Now, the big problem that seems set to destroy F1 is quite how dull in reality the races are with nobody in F1 , or the F1 press prepared to accept that. At least if some hacks said that it may jolt some response but all the loves in the sport remain tight lipped and keep saying how great it all is. It simply costs billions of pounds of manufacturers money to bore their audience which surely wont last forever. Unless the people in F1 take their heads out of the sand and stop getting off on F1 materials and engineering that matters not one jot to their TV audience the better. F1 cars are so very quick now in reality but don't look quicker than a 70's F1 race and that's merely because you don't see F1 cars move around enough on the track, especially under braking and exiting bends. Now, isn't that supposed to be somewhere to get some overtaking ?... Don't get me wrong, F1 cars are better without TC etc but they haven't gone far enough, at least not far enough to prevent the Worlds most expensively boring spectacle , Valencia's maiden GP from happening...
Problem is the F1 Engineers are so good. With all the computing power at their disposal together with the money and people available it seems unavoidable to make an F1 car set up for 20 to 25 lap sprints anything less than pretty much spot on. So now nobody has an advantage, its all simply way too tight. Now, with cars utterly optimised and nailed to the track for these 20 lap sprints we need to look at why historically cars were better to watch. Well, a driver having to make his car last and handle on full tanks and empty tanks and tyres going off over full race distances etc means that realistically F1's weird obsession with pit-stops has to be addressed. The inherent problems one gets when F1 cars are compromised by having to run on tanks of 60 to 70 laps is what allowed for cars to come into and out of sweet spots at varying times during a race distance. Pit stops therefore need to be stopped or much more regulated ( even if its one stop per race would be an improvement if F1 seem incapable of thinking of a race without a pit stop - maybe just to keep themselves awake ) ) otherwise F1 will continue to delude themselves and us and eventually wither away as a bankable product together with losing all of our attention
There are those thinking next year will of course be better due to the rule changes but am I the only one that thinks F1 has yet again gone in the wrong direction ? Personally I reckon it will be worse than this year. Lets not presume a decision on the future of F1 is for the benefit of the audience !! It rarely happens after all
F1 must entertain on TV or fall short of the Manufacturer's marketing expectations. If it does it has to also learn the *bums on seats* rules to spending money in a sport and accept much less cash being put in. Only then may the arrogance of F1 wake up to the product they are boring us with and actually do something about it... Or maybe F1 just has to take the lead from Monaco and admit there is little chance of overtaking , don't sell it to us on that basis and merely make all tracks a nice spectacle then we don't feel let down .. Just a thought. But lets have some respect for our leader Max as he could see F1 having such a boring season he decided to go and spice his life up by doing something much more exciting so as to forget what happens at the weekend, who wins and who gets beaten and so forth , so lets all get em down and start enjoying the weeks more and let F1 wallow in processions
Stephen Keast
Thanks for the chance to express a point of view about F1.
As a viewer in the US, the biggest problem is, as it's been for the last 30 years or so, the abysmal TV coverage of the sport. Our TV viewing has all to do with advertising (every few minutes, another interruption) and little to do with the sport. Sometimes we can watch the race "live"( of course, our commentators are not actually at the track, they stay home and guess at what's happening) and sometimes the rights to cover the event are sold to another network and broadcast
"delayed". In either case, it's clear that the F1 races some of our lucky European fans watch uninterrupted are not the same ones we see part of. Then there's the constant "porno music" that must accompany every spare moment.The broadcast networks overlook the opportunity to sell us pay-per-view real time races without the cheesy commercials. For the average "entertainment" viewer, this arrangement may be fine (as with the Coverage here of the Olympics where it's all about watching the US competitors in between commercials) but for an enthusiast, it's low grade, amateur coverage through and through.
Ian Perry
Having been involved in motorsport since the sixties and still am to this day with my youngest son in karting....last weekend was the first time ever I have turned off a Formula 1 race....The place looked boring and ports are never going to do it in the Glamour stakes...and the race did what it did, totally uninteresting to the viewer.
Shame to say but true, roll on SPA, hope it's wet.
Ray Drinkwater - Richmond, VA, USA
What is missing in Formula 1? Where to begin? What is nonexistent is the sport of auto racing. We now watch an extravaganza—largely orchestrated by persons other the drivers, mechanics, and team principles—that lacks the very essence of what F1 was year, decades ago—passion. We once cared about drivers and teams because we could relate to them. Now we watch an event that is largely determined before the race even begins. You are free to hype qualifying all you like, but I thought the purpose of F1 was to race, not merely set a fast lap during some pre-race activity.
You want to know what is wrong with F1 today? What the movie Grand Prix. I am the first to say that it, like most motion pictures about motor sports, is flawed and lapses into inaccuracies and romanticism. But it does capture the human essence of the sport that has now been supplanted by mega corporations, contrived, boring circuits, and greed.
I for one would welcome less cutting edge technology, and more driver artistry. I grew up with F1. I know it prides itself on being on forefront in engineering. But perhaps it is time to temper the latter and permit races to be determined by drivers and their teams, rather than who has the most money and computer models.
Whenever I watch F1 on television now, I think about how much I used to really care about men and machines; to revel in real competition—leaders passed each other on the track, not only in the pits—and to celebrate when Jimmy Clark or Graham Hill worked real magic.
Eric Mogensen - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
I remember reading Pitpass Talking Point comments similar to what Flavio Briatore has just said about F1. That was three or four years ago, which means Pitpass readers are a prescient group, or F1 team managers are just now waking up to the fact there may be some problems.
Things have gotten drearier since then, and F1 remains more out of touch than ever. One could argue endlessly whether it's a sport or entertainment but really, isn't it a bit of both? Sports teams, whether they be football, or NASCAR, or MOTOGP, or F1 teams, are competing but they are also there to entertain the (paying) public who chooses to participate either in person or via TV. This is a sport that has lost its way and is foundering, whether it acknowledges the fact or not. I've been a dedicated fan for decades, but now I watch four or five races a year and only if it's convenient. I know I'm probably not missing much.
One of the few things that keeps me interested in F1 is Pitpass, which is odd that a site about the sport has overtaken my direct interest in the sport itself. It's like subscribing to a knitting magazine rather than making socks.
There are many other racing series on two and four wheels managed by people who understand what a fan is, and how to reach them. There are many other racing series that provide far more excitement over three laps than an entire F1 weekend can muster. There are riders and drivers in other series who are allowed to be real people, have opinions, rivalries, and emotions. F1 has become a self-promoting surgical exercize that engenders as much excitement and passion as a colonoscopy, and often the race results take as long to determine as it does to hear back from the doctor. Even podium ceremonies now look stiff and contrived.
Dull and duller are F1 bywords and that is disappointing for anyone who would love to marvel at a group of elite racers drive the wheels off their cars every few weeks. When is the last time you yelled in excitement at your TV, or jumped up and down, or got a pulse rate higher than 70 during a race, and what decade was that? F1 drivers may well be driving the wheels off their cars, but given the commercial considerations that have enforced corporate correctness, the ever-changing rules, the truly remarkable car designs that don't really act like cars anymore, and the new generation of Scalextric tracks, it's very hard to tell. F1 is a boring, processional, and tedious endeavour, and it needs a massive overhaul that it most likely won't get. The key players have built their world to the exclusion of everyone else. Sad.
Craig Holmes - USA
I believe Hemingway once said something to the effect that there are only 3 sports, boxing, bullfighting and motor racing. Everything else is a game. On the other hand, a race has for a very long time been called a show by it's participants. It is both sport and entertainment and F1's claim to fame is it's technological superiority over the other racing formulae. So this time I must disagree with Flav, it must still focus on better gearboxes or brakes etc. to keep it's place in motorsport to survive.
It is this top-rung perception that brought the characters into the sport that are now nearing departure and if F1 maintains this perception then there will be new characters aspiring to take their places. But if it falls into being another spec series the characters will not be drawn to F1 and the fan base will dwindle. And as for the empty seats in the stands, I think the state of the world's economy may play a larger part in that than waning fan interest.
F1 will only prosper if it keeps it's place at the top of the sport. Admittedly it could be done more cheaply, but I think it is the constant short sighted and ill-advised "cost saving" rule changes coming from the FIA are the biggest problem, to name just one example, frozen engines completely designed around TC, then banning TC while still keeping the freeze. The cheapest way to race is to have set of rules and leave them unchanged as much as possible.
To thrive in the coming times, F1 must preserve it's "pinnacle of motorsports" identity and it must be wisely governed. Under the present cast of characters I am worried about the future of the sport I have loved since Sir Stirling was my favorite driver.
Peter Wells - Cape Town, South Africa
Ban:
All the gizmos.
Back to manual gearchange - with a stick.
Stop the race being run behind the pit wall.
No refueling - its dangerous.
Add to that:
One hour qualifying - no Q1 Q2 etc - fastest in the hour takes it. No need to guess who got pole cause they were light etc etc.
Get rid of Max and Bernie.
Thomas Firth - Thornton Le dale, England
i think personally that f1 is getting closer to Borden since Ive been watching it. Not because schumacher has left or because of a lack of circuits plainly because all F1 is about now is money if you have money you have a decent car so the team wins the championship leaving the underdogs such as super aguri and toro rosso with no money and no wins which destroys the sport if F1 was more fair in money and simular to A1 gp as in there's a limit to how much power difference each team has then it would be a much closer race and the fans would begin to return because of the wheel to wheel action that at the moment even the oval of the US have more close action then F1 i hope F1 can rebuild its image as the pinnacle of motorsport or else more fans will leave.
Chris Wiebe
You ask if F1 is entertainment or a sport, I ask what's the difference. People watch sports to be entertained so there for they are a form of entertainment. If it's not entertaining then as a fan what's the point of watching? I find myself watching less and less F1 because the races are boring, I still read all the webpages because I'm interested the championship, what happened in the races, etc and want to cheer on my favourite drives but the sad thing is I really don't get a thrill from watching a 2 hour parade. I want passing and drama on the track. I get more of a thrill watching our local karting races...
Mike Dodson
I didn't particularly like the Valencia circuit. Too much like a new neighborhood. Sterile. More to the point, the issue is about enjoying the races. The curent technical regulations for Formula 1 seem to be the culprit, as much as the dull ambience of the many corporate 'suits'. Yeah, the high-tech is nice, the cars are swoopy (if, one must admit, also a bit silly, with more protrusions than a puffer fish in full pissed mode), Flavio is amusing, and the girls are pretty, but...I find many of the races boring. If one thinks about it, races should primarily be decided on the track, and not by evil math geniuses working behind the pit walls.
Before it's suggested that I be tarred and feathered and burned at the stake to rid me of this heresy, I would just ask all of you to watch a couple of GP2 races. Yes, they're slower than F1, but, they're out there racing. Holy smokes (and here comes another rarely used word in F1 circles), they're passing... excuse me, I'm American. They're overtaking. GP2 is fun to watch, and truth be told, more fun to watch than many recent F1 races.
I can only hope that next year's regulations serve to allow the fun back into F1. These guys need to race, and not play follow the leader!
Probably off the main point, but I just couldn't hold it back anymore.
George Slater
I have followed F1 for many years and was the winner of an MR2 in ITV's Fantasy F1 game in 2002.
F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motor sport pushing technology to the limit but is being dumbed down as far as I can see.
If there was a call for a formula where everyone drove the same car then there are other formats that fulfill that spot.
The ability of teams and manufacturers to pull something out of the hat has now been minimised by the regulations and it really is now “watch the start and the last few laps” because there is not much else happening in between!
Jim Wagstaff
Don't know if I'm typical. I'm 44, saw my first GP at Silverstone in 79. My last GP was Donnington in 93.
My mate and I still watch, but we mock it now.
- usually the lack of passing and excitement.
- sometimes the Hamilton w**kfest.
I wish the cars looked different from one another, I miss Autosport showing some redical new Lotus or Brabham.
Thing is, I don't think F1 can be repaired.
Time changes things and knowledge can't be uninvented -
• Simulation & aero understanding
• The drivers know their car is safe, so block blatantly
• Corporate blandness
Tony Manton
I started to watch F1 during 1962 – Jim Clark, Graham Hill and co – I don't think it is looking at the past through rose tinted glasses – the racing was great, every one was trying and there were genuine technological advances that you could see and understand. And the drivers money was rubbish. And I could afford to go with my family. I understand the cheapest grandstand seats at Valencia were almost €200 – just a little out of reach of the average family of 4.
Now there is too much money is splashing round F1. Most of the drivers are mid field and still get paid millions, do they really earn their money? The top 4 or 6 do, but the rest…
I have had a tour round the Mclaren Technology Centre – the money spent on the bits we were allowed to see was out of all proportion to what we see on a Sunday afternoon. Goodness knows how much was/is spent on the bits we were not allowed to see.
Whilst you cannot turn the clock back, there should be a move to return to simpler technology, look at NASCAR and the crowds that pulls in for 35 races per year, almost all in one country.
Perhaps a standard chassis and gearbox, minimal aero but free technology on power plants would do the trick, after all, the major manufacturers all make their own engines but mostly get someone else to make chassis.
Lets hope for a more exciting future for our favorite sport.
Brian Mancinelli - Easton, Connecticut, USA
Sport as entertainment must have compelling characters. drama, suspense, and excitement.
Allow the characters in the show to speak. (So what, if they something stupid every once in a while.)
Retain only enough "aero stuff" to maintain safety.
Create more overtaking opportunities. (Let the teams actually RACE!)
Dave Kane - Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
The specifications are too tight; innovation is discouraged unless it's FIA driven. The cars all sound the same, and the new circuits lack personality. Need a point bonus system for passing or the number of spots you improve from your qualifying position. Forget about entertaining the pretty people and get back to racing. For every rich and pretty person there are 1,000 race fans that will pay to see real racing. Why do you suppose NASCAR drivers watch F1? Because they want more technology! F1 wants NASCAR's numbers; F1 needs to find the sweet spot that's somewhere n the middle. NASCAR embraces the average bloke, F1 spits on him. Let Pat McNally worry about powdering the butts of the rich and famous. Embrace the public.
Who wants to watch fancy Formula Ford? Speaking of Formula Ford, I wonder what Walter Hayes would think of this current mess?
As for Max Moseley, he lacks both common sense and common decency; AND yes since he is a major public figure on the International stage, his behavior or his lack thereof does count big time. What kind of example is he setting? It undermines the integrity of the sport/entertainment business. If he behaved that way in a business corporation he'd been fired immediately. We all have to act responsibly or we might as well all move into the Brothel. They still joke about Bill Clinton in this country, AND they always will!
Neal Weingart
Formula One's problems are many but I will dwell on just one, F1's MOTORsport not sport. Now if you are the type of bloke who finds the mechanics of speed interesting and the mastery demonstated by men challenging physics to go faster, then racing (including F1) is entertaining.
The manipulation of technical regs. and racing rules have become so restrictive that it has forced the engineering down a deadend street named aerodynamics. There is so much invested in this one area that the boffins and team principles are loath to change course.
The "surface planes" being raced today bear little in their operational dynamics to the autos that people (including F1 fans) drive. And as has been demonstrated time and again they don't like flying near one another. Not good for racinghead to head is it?
Sn. Briatore stated that few people are interested in the technical parts of F1. Where can anyone find any info on the technology used in the bleedin cars? One would sooner find out the results of Mr. Dennis's latest Colinoscopy ( sorry about the spelling, but you get the idea) than learn about the workings of McLarens latest tranmission or how Ferrari engines continue to gain horsepower despite the "engine freeze".
As I stated, F1 has many challenges going forward, but until an cross-the-board redirection of the technical underpinnings of this motorsport are taken the prospects for sustained growth are in my opinion poor.
Phillip Saudino
I want smaller teams (say: 50 employees) Including everybody (marketing, pit mechanics, etc.) This would be a team. 500 people is not a team. It's an organization. I guess what I want is character. Personalities. Not big faceless corporations that can change the team manager at any time. If the guy is really bad then he goes bankrupt and that is his story. I'd like a budget cap, lots of passing and not just due to the pits. I would like the F1 of the 70's. I want change. I want Williams to win one year, then MacLaren another, etc...change.
Crazy idea, it would be nice if it could work but???:
I'm an Alonso fan but I don't like that the only way a driver can win is if he's with a good team. What if drivers had to change cars every race? Wouldn't that be interesting? The drivers' champion could then really be called a champion and be regarded as the best driver since he got the most out of all the cars. There would still be the constructors championship same as always. Anyway... I know it's crazy but... right now... F1 is BOOOORing!! I'm not really sure why I still watch. I think its more the stories that I follow. The soap opera and not the actual racing. How sad is that!?
Mark Steven Smith - Statesville, North Carolina, USA
Formula one needs to go back to where they were 5-10 years ago. Engine changes shouldn't be a problem neither should launch or traction control. Team orders shouldn't matter, go back to the V 10s (They sounded so sweet at nearly 20,000 RPM.) and screw the multiple race per engine rule. They claim to have made all these
"advancements" in the name of cost cutting. Hey, F1 is a rich mans game. If you can't afford it then don't play. NASCAR is doing the same thing over here. They've designed a car that everyone must race and it doesn't even look like the car it's supposed to represent. What defines the car (Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc.) is the decals they put on it. Line them up and they're all the same. Technically all one needs to do to race in NASCAR now is to make a V8 engine. If Volkswagen or Kia made a V8 they could slap a set of decals on one of NASCARs car and be legal. We refer to it as "high speed professional wrestling". All those rules and regs. are exactly why I switched to F1. I reveled in watching Schumacher drive away from the field. Go back to those days and make the other manufacturers catch up. For example, if Ferrari is running away with every race that should mean that McLaren, Renault, Williams and the rest of the lot should work harder to catch them instead of having the FIA try to level the playing field or complaining if a car gets bumped or spun. Competition breeds excellence and NASCAR is a prime example of how NOT to run a racing organization. The last race I went to was completely caution free except for the cautions that were planned. After the 3rd lap everyone was playing follow the leader until it was time to pit. Fortunately I had free tickets. If I'd paid my hard earned money for them I would've been pissed instead of just bored. Sadly the FIA is taking F1 in the same direction. I admit it, I've already turned off a couple of races because they were just boring. Lastly the tracks. Valencia was a godsend. Racing over city streets. I remember when they ran Detroit in the '80s. God I loved that. I'm looking forward to Singapore. They need to lose some of the Herman Tilke designed tracks. Some of them are OK but most aren't. They're to sterile. In detroit they ran over manhole covers and even a set of railroad tracks, I think. Go back to some of the old tracks like the original Nurburgring or the old high banks of Monza or the long treks through the forest of the Hockenheimring. To hell with Bernie and his traveling circus if they don't like something about the track or the city. F1 isn't about him it's about the pinnacle of motor racing. It's about the technology and the speed and being the best and having everyone else trying to be the best. That's Entertainment!
Scott Wilson - Canada
Not sure of an answer, but I do feel the excitement when we go to the race. Maybe the sport has reach a peak and we need to enjoy it for what it is. Flavio has made some good points about it, it is entertainment. I really enjoy the sport on TV when the entagibles happen though. They have tried so many things over the past few years to make it more competative and it has not really happened. Perhaps there is to much money spent creating a perfect car and the result is that most times the money wins. It is no longer NASCAR, it is big business and from my point of view, big business SUCKS the life out of everything.
Peter Savidge - Trenton, Ontario, Canada
I agree with Flavio. In North America, since CART and Indy merged I have become much more interested in following that series than F1. That is because the results are NEVER predicable! The technology of the cars is interesting to me, but I mainly like the racing, which to me means someone trying to overtake someone else. If the cars are mismatched this cannot happen, but if the cars are very close, then it's up to the drivers, and that's what it's about to me. And why can't sport be entertaining?
Isn't that why we follow a series, for entertainment? I have been following F1 since the days of the Vanwalls and BRMs (remember them?), and I am still there but losing interest fast. Flavio is right though when he says that generally fans are not interested in the technology of the cars, however I blame the teams for that because everything is so hush-hush in case another team gets wind of something advantageous. In the old days I can remember detailed photos and cutaway drawings of the current cars so that fans could see the technology involved in the cars. I can't recall the last time I saw something like that about today's cars.
Damien March - Sydney, Australia
For the last twenty-five years I have not been interested in Formula 1, but, rather, obsessed. There can be no doubt that Grand Prix cars are awe-inspiring machines. Their abilities of acceleration, deceleration and lateral grip are stupendous. They are really more akin to land-locked fighter aircraft then automobile, and for the last decade they have certainly looked like it. But even I have now tired of the actual events themselves. Who but a relative few would care about the Saturn/Apollo program if it did not take our species to the moon?
When global commercialisaiton hit F1 in the eighties, and again after Ayrton Senna's death, numerous individuals and organisations became seriously wealthy, not just Bernie Ecclestone. As Keke Rosberg noted during the Dallas fiasco in 1984, Grand Prix racing will turn tricks for anyone, anywhere as long as the price is right. The organisers of Valencia should be congratulated on their mastery of logistics, but the event may as well have been in the car park of a casino somewhere. Numerous F1 journalists have long complained about the sterility of Herman Tilke circuits, but even they must admit they have more character then D.O.A street circuits. And further, they must also admit that Istanbul is a fantastic circuit by any measure. But the location of Grand Prix is only a small part of the problem.
As teams have morphed from racing teams into high-tech engineering firms run buy enormously wealthy individuals, the reasons for the development of the cars themselves has become completely subverted. Up until the mid 'sixties, Grand Prix were up to 500kms in length. Races are now nominally still 300kms, but this is misleading. The races have been butchered to suit the equipment currently being built. Grand Prix have been reduced to 65 – 100 km club sprints that happen to be run back to back. It is impossible to create a racing car that will maintain its efficiency across the entire length of a race, hence the reason why Brown, Lautenschlager, Boillot, Wagner, Nuvolaria, Varzi, Wimille, Carraciola, Ascari, Fangio, Moss, Collins, Clark, Hill, Rodriguez, Stewart, Peterson, Lauda, Prost, Senna...were paid great sums as their immense skill was able to minimise, or even wholly negate, the efficiency deficits of their cars. To race, they needed cars. Now it is very much the reverse: cars need drivers to race.
The FIA nearly saved contemporary F1 when it temporarily banned tyre changes in 2005. But Bridgestone and Ferrari complained that their respective product and star driver were being shown up after five years of domination. So the status quo was quickly reinstated. Up until 1993, Schumacher was extremely quick but he was never able to truly master the art of tyre management combined with race-wining speed. This is why he impressed but did not shine whilst racing sports cars. During that year, he often made more stops then his fellow leading lights. The situation is being repeated now with Lewis Hamilton. He is extremely quick, but like Michael Schumacher, had they both raced entirely pre '94, their achievements would not bare much semblance to what the history books record. Grand Prix used to be a supreme test of speed, stamina, and car management, all predominantly the driver's responsibility once the race was under way.
This is patently no longer the case. Those who maintain that it is impossible to put the genie back into the bottle are ignoring the fact the technical regulations of sports car racing has been reinvented more times then the 'Phantom of the Opera' has been staged… The simple fact of the matter is that too many people share in hundreds of millions of dollars of global booty and thus will do everything possible to ensure that the present situation continues. Fortunately for me, sports car racing still has elements of motor racing's glorious past. The Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, Le Mans are events that stir my passion and imagination. I cannot belief my own blatant ignorance, how could I have been blinded to Stefan Bellof roing around the Nordshleife in little over six minutes, Jaguar and Porsche going hammer and tong in the late eighties, and need anyone go further than Le Mans just a few months ago. Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello WON that race. My dream has always been to go to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. It is now to travel to La Sarthe in June.
When those who have been obsessed for their entire adult life have given up, why be surprised that grand stands are empty. Watching people generate obscene wealth doesn't really constitute avante garde motor racing does it?
Jeremy Braithwaite - Australia
We're missing ANY racing!!!!
Go and watch any Formula Ford race and you'll see 100 times more racing than we get on F1.
It's a combination of the cars and the circuits. The aero prevents other cars following closely and it is no longer possible to slipstream and overtake. The mega short braking distances don't help either. The corners mostly have a tendency to be single line so after the first lap we have lost any possibility of a race.
Until F1 fixes this it is on a long downhill slippery slide.
Maybe it's time for some seriously radical rethink. For one:
1. Standard chassis and body – half the size of the present cars. Removes much of the costs. Body is low downforce, medium drag.
2. Control tyres designed to provide much less grip than current equivalents and to last a full race.
3. 750 cc. Free formula. You can run turbo's, electric, etc. Free drive train, but all has to fit within standard bodywork.
4. Standard brakes – medium performance – designed to double present braking distances.
5. 495kg minimum weight.
6. Very small fuel tank using bio fuel – say 30 litres.
7. Double the size of the grid.
What would you get:
1. Incredible racing on the track as well as a huge range of strategies with the need to balance power and fuel consumption.
2. Much easier access to F1 for young drivers. The class would be so cheap you could have regional championships as well as a world championship – rather than meaningless junior classes. This works in Nascar as well as Aussie V8's.
3. The category would be meaningful to the manufacturer's and would totally align race budgets with required development for road cars.
4. Responsible racing. F1 would be seen to lead the green revolution. Changing tyres every 20 laps is no longer relevant to the spectacle and is perceived by many to be irresponsible.
5. Three cars per team plus three new teams.
Ed Leach - Vancouver B.C. Canada
I have been a fan of F1 from the East London days way back when Jimmy Clark and Moss etc were racing and like your selves and many other F1 followers around the world, do not like what we see or hear about our "sport".
In my opinion we need less FIA or at least a consistant FIA. We are sadly missing race drivers with charisma, charm, daring and the drive that we saw in Nigel Mansel, Ayrton Senna, James Hunt, to name just a few.
The "sport" has lost both the attractiveness of the character driver, open, undulating "country" style race tracks, (there are still a few mind you--, thank heavens) and a governing body that has the fans as well as the teams best interests foremost.
I am so gratefull for all the years of past F1 races that I and my friends can remember and talk about and do feel sad about the future of F1.
Graydon Orr - San Diego California, USA
To make F1 what it should be rather than the drivel we have come to expect on Sundays, I propose the following F1 rule changes in no particular order:
General F1 rules:
1. Cap the teams financially.
2. Open the field to 30 race cars. If 35 show up, top 30 qualifiers take the start.
3. Allow customer cars.
4. All manufacturer teams BMW, Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Toyota and Ferrari must make their engines and chassis available to privateer customers.
5. Illegal for privateer teams to pass test data to supplying manufacturer ie. no Ferrari light team
6. Allow single vehicle teams. no more than two race cars per team.
7. Teams can have 1 spare car for each race car at the track.
8. Only 1 complete drivetrain per car per race. If the tranny, motor or gearbox need to be replaced, or drivers needs to switch to spare car, he starts from the back of the grid.
9. Cars must use pump gas up to 110 octane.
10. Season entry fee includes transportation costs of all equipment needed for a race weekend. Priced for single car team or two car team.
11. Teams race the full season with the number of cars entered at the beginning of the season. A single car team can't expand till the following season and visa versa.
12. No test teams.
13. Max of 10 days of testing in the off season.
14. Friday's of the GP weekend are unlimited open track full test days
15. Absolutely no electronic driver aids AT ALL.
16. No electronic pit lane speed limiters
17. Return of slick tyres with choice of whichever manufacturers wish to compete.
18. Tyre manufacturers must drastically reduce the amount of rubber that breaks off the tire creating marbles off line, thus making it impossible to move off the line under braking in order to attempt a pass.
19. Cars must start race on fuel load required to finish the race. No refueling in the pits during the race.
20. The majority of downforce should be generated with the underbody as in GP2 cars, thus allowing F1 cars to draft into turns better without losing front end grip.
21. All pit to car and car to pit comms broadcast on public airwaves on TV and available at the tracks to the fans.
22. Before the season starts, three marshals are elected from a pool of former F1 drivers with a minimum of 2 years F1 racing (not testing) experience. These marshals work an entire season on site at the races. It is an elected position with all current drivers and team owners having a vote.
23. All on track infringements must be ruled on my the marshals before the end of the race unless the infringement occurs within the last 5 minutes. In which case the results are not final affording an additional 5 minutes to make a judgement post checkered flag.
Race weekend
1. Friday is full day open track testing including a test driver in one of the spare cars.
2. 90 minutes open qualifying session. Run when you want and each car must do at least 12 laps. Intentional blocking starts from back of grid
3. Saturday practice from 10am - 12pm and qualifying for 90 mins from 1pm - 2:30pm.
4. Sunday practice 9am-10am race green light 2:30pm
5. 3 points for pole, 1 point for each on track pass for position
.
6. Driver and manufacturer points from 1st through 10th: 30-20-15-10-7-5-4-3-2-1
7. Prize money awarded per race for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Drivers contract with his team determines how much of that he keeps. Winnings made public
8. Under safety car, lapped traffic can make up the lap by passing the safety car and lining up at the back again.
9. Accident on first lap involving 5 or more cars results in race restart with the crashed cars starting from the back of the grid in their spare cars.
10. During pit stops car can have one crew per wheel, one lollipop man, one front jack man one rear jack man.
11. Qualify the car in whatever trim is fastest including low fuel load.
12. Apart from adding fuel, cars must start the race in same configuration as they are in at the end of qualifying.
13. If it is raining on race day and cars qualified in the dry, any adjustments apart from wet tyres can only be made during pit stops
14. Any combination of the available tyre compounds allowed between front and back and side to side. Can't change selection during race.
Anyway when I am king I will make these changes, until then MotoGP has EARNED a new customer. Oh, and when I'm King I will also order someone to invent a coffee pot that doesn't drip when you pour.
Andrew Quinn
The only true F1 fan's I know are in the engineering profession. We are definitely interested in the technical aspect of the sport. In fact every motor sport fan I know is also technically savvy, even outside F1.
I for one stopped watching the local touring car racing when they banned the interesting technical competition. If F1 goes to far with cost cutting and standardisation, it will face the same fate.
I wish that the teams or the FIA would do a better job of telling us about their technologies, and operations. How about making the teams share all the CFD data they generate both full analysis results (for there competitors) and nice animations for us observers. This would certainly put a damper on the teams desire to spend millions on analysis!
I do not believe in the cost cutting initiatives of the FIA. Teams will always spend as much as they have.
As a spectator, it is more interesting and impressive to watch qualifying with a 20,000RPM engine that is thrown out after the lap, than a car that has an old engine with some slightly more optimised aerodynamics, which we currently have at the same cost to the teams. Across the board, the FIA cost cutting initiatives invariably shift the cost to more obscure aspects of development that occur behind the scenes.
F1 should be about engineering the best car, not engine freezing and cost cutting (that does not work).
I would be very happy to see the sport with a technically open rule book, with the only limitation being a budget cap and a fuel consumption limit for the race (including qualifying). Allow any engine configuration, including turbo's, but limit the total fuel available for the race, this would put a premium on strategy and allow a driver to use additional power when required for passing (but at risk of running out of fuel near the end of the race). Every year reduce the race fuel allocation. Allow hybrids, regen braking and all wheel drive, for that matter allow 6 wheel drive.
Next years rules are a step in the right direction but allow driver controlled movable aerodynamics. FIA rules can be formulated to provide suitable safety factors and redundancy in these systems to ensure that they are just as safe as the current aerodynamic devices. This would immediately cure the overtaking situation we have today. If the following vehicle can increase its wing angles to regain the down force lost by following another car then immediately overtaking becomes a much more common occurrence.
Finally, it infuriates me when the TV commentators assume that the audience knows nothing about F1 (like what the wings do). This may be true of a small number of people at each race, but it does not mean that the coverage should be pitched at that level, every race.
Paul Keats
These days I have to watch F1 on 'fast forward' after taping it. It is too boring to sit through the whole lot but I like to know what has happened. All F1 needs is less 'aero' and more mechanical grip. Brakes are too efficient so it is very difficult to pass under brakes. Bring back brake fade! Cut costs through control brakes, control rear wing and customer cars for lesser teams. F1 admission prices are too expensive.
Timmi Rasmussen - Copenhagen S, Denmark
So it's that entertaining?
In my opinion, yes. I do love the sport, but I agree, that I should be slightly concerned, because I don't think that Formula 1 is headed in the right diredtion.
But it is not just ONE thing, it is several things, in fact maybe too many, to point out here, but here goes. Formula 1 has, and should always be, the pinacle of mototrsport. Yet it seems that much effort os taken in reducincg the cars output, enginewise, and recently cutting back on downforce. Thereby making the car going slower, to enhance safety for the drivers. At least that's what they tell us. And the there is the money issue, which also takes it toll, on the sport. As constantly reducing cost, inevitably makes the cars a bit "dull" and average, almost GP2 like. Not that they are at the moment.
I watch, and go to Grand Prix to to see the maximum of what is possible, to get out of a car. But the new rules, despite some think they might be necessary, is killing the sport..
One thing that attracts people to the sport is overtaking, and they do come up short some times. And regarding the track in Valencia, I think it looks cool, but they forgot that tiny important factor, which makes or brakes the interests of Formula 1, overtaking. This is where they should allow slicks back in, so the cars get more mechanical grip, and thereby making overtaking possible again. But where I think Bernie and Co, has it all wrong is cutting downforce, by replacing it with slicks (at the start of season 2009)back into the picture. I say keep them both. I get the idea that, the car shouldn't be so depended on downforce but more mechanical grip, But I do belive that to emphasise on both, might be the key. Maybe the we will see drivers getting close to each other, instead of keeping needed distance to make sure they have enogh downforce to brake in time. And drivers also being able to cornering faster, due to improved aerodynamichal grip.
One major thing that comes to mind is Formula 1 is very much a sport behind closed doors, unfortunately. Someone (read everyone) has a tendency to forget, that no sport exists without its fans. For instance, I see a really cool picture on Formula1.com and I would like it on my dektop, I right click on my mousebutton, just to have a sign saying: "The entire content on this site is protected by copyright, trademark right and database rights. No reproduction without the consent of the relevant owner". Which makes me wonder, why? I'm just a fan who would like a picture of my favourite team. Why all this hiding away? I am perfectly aware that Formula 1 is costly sport, but there is no reason to charge people for even the smallest things. A bit more openmindedness towards the fans, will give the sport some good pr.
The Schumacher factor was enourmous, probably bigger than what people expected, therefore the empty stands in Hockenheim. Not so much because the race isn't entertaining itself. Which brings me to the next subject. The drivers. Where are they? Again Formula 1 is sport behind closed doors, but there is no need to hide the drivers. That's why everyone is there. Basically you only see them 3 times doing a race day. Drivers parade, The race and on the podium. They are the main reason people go to a Grand Prix, and why people watch it. I've been to Grand Prix the last 4 years in a row. And only in 2005 where there a show prior the race. Which was quality entertaining, But nothing has been there ever since, which I don't seem to understand why.
I could go on, but I might loose some some people along the way.
So, all in all, to sum up just few of the points: Better contact between the fans and the sport, stop downsizing the cars any further. Make and keep Formula , the best of all motorsport.
Pete Thurlow - Leeds, UK
It is not long ago that an international survey took place asking what people wanted out of F1. We were asked about our interest in technical developments, in F1 as a research test bed for engineering,etc,etc. When the people spoke the overwhelming response was 'overtaking, overtaking, overtaking.'
How many times this year have we heard drivers, team principals and commentators say, "well, qualifying is all-important…." Let's just pick that phrase apart a little. The implication of 'all important' is that nothing else matters. That effectively means that the race is over at the end of Q3, and that Sunday is merely a high speed procession where the qualifying order is validated barring accidents, mechanical failures or rain. In addition, how many circuits are known for their lack of overtaking opportunities? Five, six.. half? Yet the races still take place.
If technical development is so important, let's look at what it has given us. In the recent past, aerodynamic refinements to the extent that cars bristle with fins which, should they do their job properly, make it increasingly difficult for following cars to manoeuvre into any kind of overtaking position. So even on circuits which are considered genuine racing circuits the very activity of racing is prohibited by the cars' own technology. We have had anti-lock, anti-stall, electronic assisted starts- all of which have contributed to a perception, rightly or wrongly, that the driver's role is incidental. I do not miss the passing of such technology.
Many people in F1 also have a perception that Ferrari, behind the scenes, have a controlling interest in the sport. The treatment of McLaren last year may have added to that. The domination of the sport by Ferrari in recent years (and other marques before that) could also be seen as a yawn factor although the occasions in the early stages when Schumacher was dragging an underperforming car to victory through sheer driving talent remain memorable.
In addition, the high profile activities of Bernie Ecclestone have served to convince many people that F1 is not a sport; it's a business franchise selling a marketing experience. In what other sport would a country 's inclusion be at risk because the costs, the licensing and the appropriateness of the venue are controlled so much by one individual?
So, what to do? Create a fair, competitive playing field where driver talent shines. The rules governing technological development should constrain such development where it has an active effect on other competitors' ability to race, and I would argue that that is the case with present aero configurations. Circuits known to strangle genuine racing should be obliged to modify their layouts (sorry Monaco, but you're a spectacle only, a showcase nearer the Edinburgh Tattoo than a competitive round of a world sporting championship). Bernie is too high profile- his presence only reminds punters of the cash cow that F1 has become. The public needs convincing that F1 is still a sport.
Alan Cherry
Valencia - Looking at the layout, and the positioning of the grandstands, must be one of the worst spectator circuits ever.
Formula should be sport that is capable of providing superb entertainment. Radical suggestions to make everyone want to watch.
1. Once a race has started close the exit to the pit lane for the entire race -no refuelling, no tyre changes races are won or lost by the drivers look after your tyres. If fuel tanks can't be made big enough, then run 2 races per afternoon for 1/2 points until fuel tanks are large enough. Cars and drivers should win races, not techies behind a keyboard, or the pit crew !
2.The starting grid will be the reverse of the world championship standings (or for the first GP the standings from the previous seasons with newbies at the front) Those too timid will not get the results - too much agression will result in retirement. Overtaking will happen, and the smartest drivers will end up at the sharp end. Overtaking will happen - mind you the slower cars will need better mirrors. If they can make wide angle mirrors for my towing transit, I'm sure it's not beyond the engineers in the F1 teams to come up with something.
3. Manufacturers will only be in F1 for financial reasons - not for the love of the sport . The sport should be controlled now so that it won't collapse through financial reasons if/when the big money manufacturers pull out. Not quite the Cosworth DFV/Hewland kit car days, but lets keep it simple - is KERS anything more than an expensive white elephant, or did Max just omit the Wan at the front ?
Sorry - I'll get me coat...
Mark Renfrow
Today's F1 racing entertainment is smoke and mirrors. There are numerous contrived complexities and bits of drama added to make up for dull racing. Two tire compounds, the new qualifying, joker rule, complex safety car rules, etc etc.
All in an effort to overcome the lack of on track battles.
An over emphasis on aero development have left the cars unable to race each other closely and that's where most of the drama lies, in impending or actual on track battles for position.
A secondary problem is a lack of parity. A fan's favorite team or driver may never win or have any chance of contending. Most other sports have the chance of springing a surprise on you by having your favorite team or athlete win in an upset.
Steve Brandon
It's a sport, which any sport is nothing more than entertainment for a spectator! This is where the problem is, the technical the cars get, the less of a sporting chance anyone but the three or four top teams have. In the last two years, the most exciting race has been the race where rain was involved, and all cars are equalized. Then it's just plain driver skill, and aggression.
Peter Howard - Forster, Australia
What's wrong with F1 hey?
Well I can tell you that in my opinion the reason there are such swathes of empty seats at certain GP's can be put down to 2 reasons:
Firstly, there's too many Grand Prixs in Europe. Fans just have too many options to attend races within a few hours of each other that they can pick and choose (or ignore) far too easily. Contrast that with the situation for those in the Americas who have but two races, across two continents. There's not even a single race in Africa! Is this the Formula One World Championship or the Formula One European Championship with a few guest races in other areas? To generate fan interest in attending the races, Bernie should have been pushing for races in countries F1 hasn't seen in awhile - South Africa, Mexico, and Argentina for example - rather than giving a second race to the notoriously fickle Spanish. Less choice for the picky Europeans and more races in far flung but F1 loving countries will in my opinion result in larger crowds everywhere the Championship visits.
Secondly, the cost of attending is beyond the reach for many fans these days. In Australia, it costs me almost $4000 for my weekend of F1 each year (lion's share in airfares, grandstand tickets, good accomodation, food, and petrol). It's a serious financial outlay for us mere mortals but Bernie's quite happy to swan down to Australia and collect his ludicrous fee - bugger the fans getting value for money - and then return to Europe with his fistful of cash.
I'm sorry, but the problems in F1 are so blindingly easy to solve that it really does get my back up even jotting them down for Pitpass.
Colin Grayson
F1 a sport ?... it hasn't been for many a long year ... as the mafia used to say ... it's only business !
bernie is one of the greatest marketing men of all time; just think back to when the interest in F1 in germany was negligable, big market, a must have; a promising young driver called MS came along, and whatever he did didn't matter, he got away with it; huge interest in germany as he was winning; see how good bernie's judgement was .. have a look at the attendance this year with no german driver in contention! watch vettel get all the breaks now
go back a few years when interest in spain was at the same level as cricket ; promising young spanish driver comes along , his manager gets TV rights from bernie , he takes him into the renault team ... special tyres (the french connection), special electronics, and the spanish markets take off
now? hamilton appears ... the real deal , easily best since senna; worldwide interest (first time since MS); better handicap him so we don't get another driver winning too much
sport?
you cannot be serious ... just go where the money is
Dan Pereda
I agree that there is a problem with F1. I live in the USA and I record most of the races and watch them later in the day. I fully admit that I have started to fast forward though a lot of the race. I also ask my self why?
Well I think Michael Schumacher has alot to do with it. Ferrari and Schumacher have dominated F1 for so long, that it has become an institution and frankly many of the races were Boring, but we watched in amazement to see if they could continue their streak. If Schumacher was not winning then he was a threat and made it interesting, and if he was out of the race we got a surprise winner in the end. In the past, every race was a win win for lot of fans. If Schumacher won, we were amazed that he did it again, if he lost it was a surprise and we still enjoyed the race.
Now, even though this has been an exciting year with many different lead changes, every time I press play I am pretty much set to watch Ferrari or Mclaren run away with a win. The victories by Ferrari or Mclaren are so much, that it is not fun to watch. Even with BMW catching up. For me it seems like it is just a 2 team race anymore and none of the drivers excite me. I don't have anyone to root for.
The lack of any real driver interviews about what happened during the race also leave be a bit empty and not really involved. I can't even root for the underdog as no media covers their story. The teams secretive nature does not allow one to get to know and like any one team or driver.
Other issue for me are:
1. I live in the USA and there is no F1 race here anymore.
2. There are no American Drivers to root for ( not F1's fault)
Jean de Chalain
As a fan watching an F1 race , the only thing wrong at present is that a slower car can keep a faster one behind because of the aero dynamic effect , but it's a big enough factor to destroy races and turn them into boring high speed parades , as we have seen too many times already. With slicks back next year , and restrictions on aero., I believe that will unlock massive potential for teams to be able to explore different strategies , as they have done in the past . Honestly, I don't watch F1 expecting continual overtaking , for someone who does , watch Nascar , DTM or whatever else , but what I do expect , and believe most fans to , is seeing their favourite driver/team tucked behind a slower car and unable to deliver their full potential during a race. In other words , a high speed procession.
Sandy Murdoch
OK. My view:
1. No country may hold a GP unless that country has invested in a driver capable of taking part. That driver should then be offered a drive in his/her nation's race by the reigning constructors champions. Obviously testing should be allowed for the driver beforehand. Local driver will increase local interest, no more empty stands in Turkey, Valencia, Malaysia, China etc etc.
2. The new 09 regs do not go far enough. Aerodynamics should be further reigned in. How about IndyCar Superspeedway front and rear wings around Monaco!
3. Ban refuelling. Cars must start and finish without any additional top ups. Show F1 as a pseudo environmental discipline in addition to KERS
4. Reverse grids - without warning, at least five events should have reverse grids after qualifying. Teams and media only told after qualifying. At those races, top 3 in qualifying are given 3-2-1 extra points dependent on position
5. Increase points difference between top three. So, 1st - 15points, 2nd 10 points, 3rd 6 etc.
6. Steel brakes. Quicker on straights then longer braking distances.
7. Maybe fake wet conditions once in a while (not Britain, obviously!)
8. Bring back V10's with rev ceiling!
9. Restrict wind tunnel time
10. Open the pits and paddock! Less 'corporate' more 'customer'. It's the customers who allow the corporates to be entertained!
11. Get the drivers out to the public. See Moto GP....and World Superbikes
12. Every engine manufacturer has to offer engines to at least one other team
13. There should be ideally 26 cars in each race. When less, the leading 3 or 4 teams would have to run third cars without scoring constructor points
and finally.....
World motorsports and F1 especially is run by old men. Tell them 'thanks but go retire' and bring in some new blood. Same goes for the same old faces that run most of the teams.....BRING IN NEW FACES AND NEW BLOOD. F1 is in stasis.
There. That's my beef. F1 should wonder, when Moto GP is in a rut of misguided regulations and small grids, why do people get a bigger kick out of, and a far greater sense of loyalty from the two wheeled Grand Prix series....?
Roland Eckert - Wokingham
I watched the race and to be honest, I found it the most boring of "events" I have ever witnessed. Compare it with Moto GP, now that was entertainment.
It may be unfair to compare the two but the current F1 cars are just too fast and the tracks aren't wide enough to have two or more lines, so no overtaking.
To look at the "new F1 of 2009" I honestly cant see how the cars will be any better, Why cant the front wings just be taken off, and the rears have no vertical dams, that way the cars will slide more.
On another note, to go to a GP these days is the equivalent of paying for a two week holiday for a small family, Yet at a National event, you can practically walk anywhere, see the drivers tucking into bacon and eggs, even see them in the toilets…
F1 has just got too clinical, all for the TV viewers and not the paying public, then on top of it all you pay through your nose to watch a procession!
On another note what odds Kimi Raikkonen retiring the end of the year and Alonso taking his seat? All the signs are there, he has achieved his dream and as a true racer he knows that F1 is not where he wants to be in the future.
Pity, as apart from Lewis Hamilton he is the only entertainer in F1.
David Murray - Hemel Hempstead, Herts
Yes, I'm getting bored with F1 - and I've been following it for 40 odd years. The tracks are too easy, the cars are too easy or the gap between teams is too great (face it, even Senna, Nigel or Schumi couldn't do what Hamilton managed - and he's not that good). There is no incentive to race: 'oh, I'll better just rack up a few points'. The points should be 10, 4 and 2. That's it. No team radio, no penalties for back markers unless they are deliberatly blocking - let the top drivers prove how good they are at getting past. Some form of shaking up the grid - one quali lap each used to help with that. No testing except at races. No refuelling - lets get back to 5 second pit stops and for gawds sake LET THE DRIVERS SAY WHAT THEY WANT.
Stephane Caron - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I've written about the talking point entitled 'THE FUTURE OF F1' with other earlier texts and I remembered that I ended up my analysis with a provocative question: Am I wrong to think that we could see the beginning of the end that is F1? And now what do I think of the spectacle that Flavio Briatore thinks should be? What about the 'show' that we saw up to date this year? I haven't seen one race out of two in 2008! And I hammered with my head at half the race of the European Grand-Prix. That's how I'm astonished about myself lately, me a professed purist! I've followed F1 since 1989 - THE SENNA-PROST FEUD. All the races since 1989! For the last two years, it was difficult to motivate myself thought. The pursuit of perfection at a high cost. The deliberation between man and machine. Now? All I think about when I see an F1 race is to buy a BMW, a Vodafone cell and a quick Red Bull to be a part of the gang! Everything is taken for granted by the F1 world these days. HOURAY! Yeah right!
With all that has happened to the structure of the sport in the last three years: mostly the sex scandal that was a prelude to the anti-Mosley with his 'reforms'. He has won his war with the public opinion and against much unknown opponents who didn't give a dam about the sport. Mosley's 'green F1' of a sham will be safely imposed and no one knows how it will turn out. There was a time when the sport was self absorbed about it's status (the destruction of the big opponent to F1, the Sports Prototypes category by BIG Bernie 'FOCA' with a little help from Max), now Max is self absorbed about his current an future ideological control of F1 itself (Max the Messiah?), destroying even it's racing bases (GP2 vs F2 is stupid) to cut the grass under his friend's feet.
The key players, the team owners, the constructors, and the ring master himself, have all a responsibility of the sorry state of the sport. They offer no vision. Only vague dreams and blurred images of surreal over-takings, clashes of the new titans kind of rhetoric and even their precious council of what could be. They offer little motivation or action in return for our hard earned money that we spend in a F1 Grand-Prix weekend. I've been waiting for the last 5 years of talks of reforms and vision. I've seen nothing worth wile! Only BMWs, Vodafones and Red Bull cans drank by the 'new yuppies' of the world. I really think they all count their money for that safe retirement we all dream.
As for the drivers, I see no one who's worthy of gaining the title World Champion! Lewis Hamilton? A kid who got it big too quickly and caries himself for big cash finish. Kimi Räikõnnen? A guy who was lucky last year and now cannot be consistent for a driver of his caliber. Felipe Massa? Future World Champion? Are you kidding me? What has happened this year is that the whole playing field was flattened to the bottom of the specter of the performance curve with all the other guys. No difficult (if not impossible) cars for any exceptional drivers to shine above all like in the not too distant past. The F1 teams learned from the best technical drivers and have evolved to function without them. The Schumacher era made sure of that. It was the last time that a constructor endured the reign of a technical driver to grow itself out of misery and be self-sufficient. Now the constructors want just good boys controlled by a Wii stick with photogenic faces and a psychological trait that reassembles the marketing department's multi-layered messages. Consume the lifestyle that this driver iterates, not who he is!
I've written about some of the weaknesses for the past two years about the sport that I've followed for almost 20 years. I don't think I've got the patience to go through all that again. I've got souvenirs and tons of F1 magazines that whisper of great sporting moments (not catch word phrases) and some of the progress in the automotive art that is F1. The contributions that F1 has made to the car industry and to the world at large in the 80's and up to the mid-nineties.
Now, F1 is taking the wrong path! There is no 'F1 must be saved' or 'entertainment first' anymore. The rhetoric is now passed due and must be acknowledged as such. I only get news out of F1 thought F1 tech magazines now. The deliberation for the motivation to do F1 is at stake. Not the necessity to be there by 'marketing and corporate image advantages'! Not by the need to be somebody in a somebody's crowd on a great deal of new circuits lately!
F1 must ask itself: am I still now the deliberation of man and machine? Have I the same motivations as the F1 of the 1950s? Even before F1 was created? If not, am I a sham? But like a lot of rich geeks, when they notice that a lot of people watch them for whatever reason, they say 'Here I am, so I am beautiful and perfect!'
Until that fundamental identity concept of automotive progress vs man can be understood by the vast numbers of F1 fans of young and old, I can only think of one thing: Felipe Massa is as fast as a Big Mac minute (no disrespect intended to the driver, but that's what I think).
Tony Geran - Sydney
I for one will be happy when the bean counters take control of F1.
After all we will see less wastage, less money spent on really important things like Entertainment Centres (whatever happened to Motor homes), wind tunnels that use the power of a small town so that teams can find a 0.001 second advantage, less testing and more money spent on attracting in putting backsides on seats, whether they be in front of the telly or at the track.
While he must take a bow for growing F1 into what it is today, BCE must also take some blame for the parlous state of F1. I visited my first live GP for over a decade in Melbourne this year and frankly it will be a while before I ever go back, if ever. Granted, I was spoilt in my youth by a couple of overseas trips where I saw F1 at Brands Hatch, the old Nurburgring, the original Zeltweg and Zandvoort, not to mention seeing qualifying at Silverstone in 1985. The facilities for extracting money from the paying public in Melbourne were very efficient but my shock at peering at F1 cars through steel bars left me cold. The weekend cost me $1500 with accommodation and airfares meals etc. To get a better view of the track would have meant my paying close to $2000 for a weekend away! Crikey I could take my family away for a week for that! Sorry, I will be watching next year's race from the comfort of my lounge where I don't have to put up with Joe Public wandering past every 30 seconds looking for a beer, bathroom or burger. However the sight of a packed terminal at Melbourne airport the next morning suggested a lot of money poured into Melbourne that weekend. The problem is that ticket prices are so high because the circuits only get money from seat sales, which is a ridiculous situation especially given that most tracks are built around holding the one major event per year being the GP. Surely BCE will realise this sooner or later, however when there are lunatics like the guys that run Donington who are happy to pay through the nose for a race are still around, that day looks like being some time off.
When you think about it all the teams bar four are owned by car manufacturers, why is there any need to charge so much for a product where the majority of the money goes to those manufacturers?
If Valencia is any guide, Singapore looks like be a circuit noted for one thing, being a night race as it there will be very little racing given the nature of the layout. Given that there is so much discussion about the lack of overtaking opportunities Herr Tilke built a track that gave none! Seeing there is so much computer simulation power available why wasn't that used in mapping out this new circuit? I gave up after about 5 laps and went to bed given the spread of the field at that point. Thank God Spa is on next week.
So when the paying public decide that parting with a fortnight's wages for a weekend at a race is too much and circuits realise that they cannot fund a GP we will see less people watching and paying. So ultimately the bean counters will take notice that there aren't enough beans to count and make some long needed changes to the way F1 is run.
Bring it on.
By the way, I am not an accountant.
Paul Semnacher - Los Angeles, USA
In answer to your question about the state of F-1. The Piranha Club died a long time ago, I can't put my finger on it but it was sometime when Mr. Dennis sold to Mercedes Benz or when Messrs Minardi, Stoddard and Jordan took their final bows. Anyway, that said, this is a new deal and it is a process that must run its course over time. The questions is how long will the transition take for a full blown F-1 Championship contested between teams with a more equal distribution of funds to ensure an even playing field and where the rules are applied evenly.
The transition is still underway. The governing body is known to favor some teams over others and officiating has shown it to be bias; this indicates a petulant and muddled management. The disparity of budgets of the teams is huge as is the distribution of funds to the teams who shoulder the burden of bringing the meat to the table. It is disproportionate compared to the profits made by the governing body and the owners / investors; this indicates a poor distribution of wealth. And finally, the result of these two aforementioned problems is the product. The product is boring and no matter how many times the F-1 PR machine of Bernie and Max try to sell this as a beautiful silk purse, it is in fact a sows ear. It is, sadly a bore.
To compete for the entertainment dollar in this age the F-1 'Circus' cannot rely on the die-hard fan that would, for example, take a peak at this website. It must compete with and convince the casual observer that their money should be spent on F-1 instead of whatever is vying for their attention. To do this F-1 must lower their ticket prices and open the doors as it were, to allow folks to see the machine and drivers and then create a spectacle that will have them asking for more. Not the procession on that has been the case for the last 10 years. Think about it, Schumacher took 7 championships meaning that he and Ferrari won more that 90 % of the races, that's not exciting, that's predictable. Over the last 2 years who has won the races: Ferrari, McLaren and BMW (1). This is not a spectacle it is predictable and boring. Sadly for many the interest in F-1 is not who wins but who finishes in 8th.
F-1 is a bore because the management and power brokers have made it so and if F-1 is going to survive it must change. The guys who are running the show really have not a clue how mundane their product is; they have been drunk on their own punch, a punch called hubris. Bernie and Max have made their point and have left their mark: some good and some bad. But now it is time to go and leave the management and marketing to a group of folks who have the sport in their blood and not in their back pocket.
Harry Stiller - UK
In my opinion, the two cannot be divorced; F1 is really no different to any other professional sport such as football, rugby, cricket etc. It's all sporting business with huge sums of money and commercial sponsors involved. All have a public following and fan bases, some more than others. It's all supposed to provide entertainment for those who follow their particular preference or choices. TV has brought it into the living rooms of millions who cannot afford the venue ticket prices or the cost of travel around Europe or the Globe and gives them the opportunity of following their individual heroes on a regular basis. F1 is unique in that it stands alone as an almost monopoly; for thirty odd years, the commercial side of it has been controlled by one man as a personal fiefdom, with the assistance of another, who has controlled the regulation of it via the sport's self-appointed official body. What one could call a closed shop!
Whilst Bernie Ecclestone has made himself a wealthy man from F1, he has also made a lot of other people very rich from their agreement to let him have the reigns for so long. Nobody can deny that he has single-handedly made F1 what it is today as a spectator sport and a very lucrative business. There has however been a price to pay for all of those involved which sometimes has ended in tears, non more so than some of the venues who have come off for the worse for having invested many huge sums into their infrastructures in order to gain a contract to stage the show, a good example being Silverstone who recently lost its contract, though it can be said that it was more of its own making than anything else. What I cannot understand is why when the teams, the drivers and the manufacturers all have their own associations to represent them, the circuits do not! That to me is still a mystery and one of the new ideas I would encourage so that all the venues would have a much better bargaining power when it came to contract arrangements and might make it a more level playing field.
Let us turn to the question of the actual racing itself. Now whilst I have spent 50 odd years involved in the sport/business and have petrol running through my veins, today's F1 has, in my opinion, gone backwards in many respects. Firstly, the grids have been reduced from 34-36 starters in the sixties to today's 20. This is in spite of the circuit updates to meet safety requirements. In the second instance, spectators have been barred from the paddock areas of F1 and can no longer get close up to the cars and drivers or their heroes, unlike in America where the promoters realise the value of this which, in turn, brings more people to the venue and gives them more of feeling of involvement and value for money. My biggest gripe is that in F1 the team with the biggest budget will more often than not run off and hide from the rest of the field which makes the whole thing boring. There has been for many years now a distinct lack of overtaking and close racing throughout the field which is another reason for dropping attendances and viewing and could easily be changed by reducing downforce and going back to big fat tyres; if you then adopt the old pop-off valve idea to everyone's engine…. bingo! You would equalise the field and get some real close racing. There is not the amount of difference in skill level we see amongst the F1drivers today that the racing itself suggests. I therefore advocate the above mentioned changes to the cars themselves and that way we might see a hell of an increase in competitive racing in F1 instead of the biggest interest for the past few years being more the Spy scandals, alleged cheating….all topped off and laced with a good old sex scandal to boot! As a final note, I'd like to see more private teams encouraged into F1 to get the grids back up to size; yes, customer cars for all and why not if it makes for better racing. We all love the David and Goliath syndrome; I'd personally love to see Anthony Davidson in a Lola-Ford special customer car giving Massa and Hamilton a hard time and a run for the money!
In conclusion, the only way we might see any such improvements and some good sporting entertainment is if both Bernie and Max both say enough is enough and make way for some new blood, with a lot of fresh thinking and nous, to take F1 to a new level where it will still maintain the glamour but will make it real racing again. Who knows, with such radical changes we might see all the car manufacturers trying to get back into F1?
Paul Fauth - Australia
This year I have put my hard earned on the line and followed the GP circuit and what a waste it has been. I will go to Monza and Singapore but that is it.
Unless a car qualifies in the first six it would appear that there is no chance to see any form of upset. The grids are so tight that unless the moves are made in the first lap, the race is decided at the end of the first lap.
So what to do, obviously the current folmula is not working
Flavio is right F1 is in the entertainment business, so entertain
The current F1 cars are ugly and do not relate to any other vehicles
To change this
1. Tyre widths front and rear to be cut by 200 millimetres and the tyres able to last an entire race
2. Ride height to be a mimimum of 300 millimetres
3. Aero grip to be derived to a mimimum of 80% of the total aero grip from FIA issued two plane front and rear wings which have a maximum adjustment range of 10 degrees. The wings to be of the current size to allow for advertising but be at least 50% less efficient than the current wings
4. The remaining 20% of aero downforce to be generated by bodywork shape with no additional aero devices other than the FIA issued wings
5. Brake ducting to be limited to 50% of the current legal brake ducting sizes
6. Suspension arms to be circular, not aerdynamic.
7. Diffusers to be a single channel and must end at the midpoint of the rear wing
8. Engine exhausts must pass under the engine and end in a line generated by a plumb line dropped from the rearmost point of the rear wing
9. Stepped noses to be banned with a flat floor from the foremost front point of the vehicle to the start of the diffuser which may not start until the end of the gearbox.
10.Car numbers and driver name must be clearly visible on telvision from a range of 50 metres.
To make F1 more competitive and more relative.
1. Engine size to be limited to 2.5 litres
2. The bottom end of each engine must be derived from a production version of the manufacturer
3. The head of the engine to be free
4. The gearbox must derive 80% of its components from a current production road vehicle
5. All software must be derived from software currently available on the manufactures road cars. At least 80% of the software in the F1 car must be identical toa current road vehicle produced by the manufacturer
6. Electronic differentials be banned. Differentials may be adjusted from the cockpit but only by mechanical means.
7. Brake bias adjustment must be manual.
8. Telemetry to the F1 car is limited only to the lap number, distance in time to the vehicle in front and the vehicle behind and race position
9. A rev limit of 15,000 RPM imposed on all vehicles
10. All vehicles must carry a fuel load for qualifying which would allow that car to complete a race without refuelling.
To get rid of the "mystique" of Formula 1
1. Drivers to appear in public at least once per day of an F1 meeting and available for autographs. (A la champ car/irl/v8supercars)
2. Each team to display publicly a "third" car This car to be a kosher F1 car which could be used in the event of damage to a "race" car
3. Pit walks to be far more public, not limited to corporate heavy weights
4. Press conferences to be a public event
5. Public interviews of drivers/team managers after each practice /qualifying session
6. Every third race the top 10 drivers enter a lottery where they draw their starting position from a "hat"
7. All drivers to compete in a one make series by in vehicles provided by a non involved manufacturer say at the moment Volkswagen
9. A championship for the mechanics in go karts . The karts to be supplied by a single maufacturer and the chassis number picked at random at the start of the meeting
10. BAN REFUELLING
My contribution. I love the sport but am saddened to see the curent farce
Pete Fenelon
In theory, contemporary F1 should be brilliant. Gone are the days of total domination by one driver or marque; BMW are snapping at the heels of the McLaren/Ferrari battle, and there's a crop of talented young drivers including Hamilton, Kubica, Vettel, Rosberg and Kovalainen.
Even some of the new circuits aren't too shabby. Mr Tilke almost produced a proper GP circuit in Istanbul, and Valencia looks magnificent.
Why then do I find myself finding something else to do on Sunday afternoons?
Because it doesn't feel like racing. For most of the Valencia race there was never more than one car in shot. Two-stop races turn a GP into a series of sprints barely as long as an F3 race, and subordinate everything to pit strategy. I have always believed that refuelling has no place in a Grand Prix. (And, while we're on this theme, IF one accepts that refuelling is an essential or even legitimate part of 'the show', then why aren't GPs standardised on time rather than distance? Monza barely lasts as long as an old F3000 race these days, what's 'Grand' about that?)
The cars look like the unholy offspring of a mutant moth and the less successful projects of a 1930s aeronautical laboratory, with ugly protruberances and Flash Gordon rocketship components strewn all over the place. The constant high-pitched whine of the engines (although, thankfully, no longer disfigured by traction control) is monotonous. And the whining of the team principals over unfairness / inconsistency/ favouritism and all those other little FIA quirks is just as annoying - although often justifiable.
There's no thrill, no joy, no element of surprise. The way to win in F1 isn't to outrace the other guys, it's to outspend and outstrategise them.
Sadly, the blight in F1 has now affected pretty much every single-seater formula below it (and which rocket scientist conceived of something as tedious and lacklustre as the FIA's F2 proposal? After all, Formula Palmer Audi was *such* a success, wasn't it?)
Single seaters in Europe are dead and the corpse stinks.
The best racing in the world at the moment in is the LMP2 class in the American Le Mans Series. A superb battle between five teams, two manufacturers and a whole bunch of star drivers. There's advanced strategic and tactical thinking going on, as well as balls-to-the-wall wheel-to-wheel scrapping - and it's clean and sportsmanlike.
Stu Watson - California
It costs too much to attend an F1 race and that's the only way one gets hooked on the sport. Just watching on television will never match that, even a race at Spa.
Stephen Morgan
Valencia was the 37th Grand Prix I have attended since 1984, and it was without question the worst! Probably Valencia will be my last GP. I have said that before, so maybe I will change my mind again, but somehow I don't think so this time. I feel I have been ripped off by F1 too often!
So, what was wrong with Valencia? Well, for a start there was no general admission. I have heard the fact that it is an all seater venue described as a plus, somehow a step forward. In reality what that means - coupled to the fact that unlike at every other GP I have attended, there was no roaming between stands on Friday or Saturday - was three days of staring at the same bit of concrete in front of the same warehouse. Bernie, if you are reading this, a warehouse is not a marina! To be fair, I could see a sliver of sea between the warehouses.
Aside from the view from stand T5, what were the other state of the art facilities, you know, the sort of thing so obviously lacking at Silverstone that it is soon to go the same way as Brands Hatch? Well, the facilities consisted of a tent selling beer and hot dogs (in stale bread) a tent selling fruit and fruit juice, and a tent selling ice cream, all located in a small tarmac and pot-holed dirt enclosure. A walk back past the entrance to T4 enabled me to buy a program and visit the Grand Prix village. There was no air display, there was no radio commentary, though I guess that's a good thing if you are in the Kangaroo TV rental business. How could Silverstone possibly hope to compete with that? Quite easily actually! Far from being a Monaco for the 21st century Valencia compared most unfavourably to the 1980's Birmingham Super Prix.
It is so obvious that aside from one or two high profile figures (Flavio Briatore and Patrick Head spring to mind) F1 doesn't give a damn about the paying fans, all that matters is the thickness of the red carpet rolled out for the attention seeking "celebrities" whose opinions we are subjected to on TV before each race, and the quality of the hospitality and media areas. As a fan I first of all want to see great racing. Touring cars provide it, as does A1GP to name but two, and at a fraction of the price. And, although one has to pay Grand Prix prices to see them, GP2 and the Porsche Super Cup drivers proved that even at a track as grey and dull as Valencia proper racing was possible. The only excitement, if that is the right word, in the main event was provided by Ferrari's pit lane tribute to the Keystone Cops.
"It was shit for racing" Mark Webber is quoted as saying in Autosport magazine, while its letter of the week refers to a "tedious single-file, slalom style demonstration run". When I last looked 89.39% of the Pit Pass poll gave Valencia a thumbs down, yet all we hear from official channels is praise, if problems are acknowledged they are simply ones of a cosmetic nature. Again in Autosport Bernie is quoted as saying "its really a prototype". Well that's alright then, shame they didn't accept prototype cash! In any other business, customers require the finished article, they won't pay for something that needs further work, and why should they? So why should the F1 fan be expected too?
Dr Iain Corness
What did we learn from Valencia?
The first thing we learned was that despite producing a reasonable orange, Valencia certainly managed to produce a dreadfully boring Grand Prix. It was so boring, the only exciting information that James Allen could give us was the fact that there will be the annual tomato throwing competition next week. I suggest that next year they combine the Grand Prix and the Tomato Throwing. Fans can then throw oranges at Bernie and the FIA stewards, and tomatoes at the F1 procession which takes place around Valencia's streets.
I will get to the race, but let's deal with the stewards decision first. Massa's Ferrari is released into the path of Adrian Sutil's Vindaloo Special. Well covered by TV, guilty as charged, yer Honor. However, the chicken excreta stewards say their decision will be given after the race. After? What were they waiting for? A brown envelope from Ferrari perhaps? Or perhaps a word from Bernie? However, one hour later they did hand down their decision. With the wisdom of Solomon, Massa was found not guilty, but fined 10,000 euros and given a reprimand! Come on, chaps. If he's not guilty, why the fine? Cluck, cluck, cluck and another handful of corn for the stewards. Mind you, what Massa is going to do with that incredible trophy, I do not know. Obviously the Valencia people had forgotten about a trophy for the winner and in desperation stole the rudder from some yacht in the harbor!
Perhaps much can be explained by the first lap demise of the Sulky Spaniard after being rear ended by the Kamikaze Kid in the Williams. With no Spaniard in the race, the television schedule was thrown into complete chaos. In fact, the TV director probably expected the race to be stopped, but he didn't know about our Bernie, did he? In actual fact, if they had stopped the race it would have been more exciting.
And so to the race. Did anyone see any passing? I didn't, other than another of Coulthard's super-optimistic lunges that didn't come off. I'll miss him next year. The other drivers won't though. Raikkonen needs his bottom spanked for another surly performance. Kubica got a plastic bag stuck under his nose which slowed him for a couple of laps, but a quick sneeze and he was back up to speed. As for the rest? Forget it!
Pierre Jacobs - South Africa
F1 is big business that becomes a sport for 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon. The pinnacle of racing that is F1 is a sporting phenomenon born as a direct result of the pioneering and competitive spirit of man. We can only reminisce about the past, the beginning when it was truly about the challenge, victory and the unwavering bravery of racers that captured our imagination. Remember the days of the two man, shoe string budget teams, with racers emerging from their cars with exhausted, blackened faces - those were the days when racers put their bodies on the line for victory and the respect of their fans - they were the pioneers and the true racers..
Today we refer to these men as pilots or drivers with salaries in access of the entire annual budget of a racing team back in the days. The Bernie and Max era has brought marketing and big money to F1 and the once revered sport of racing has become big business. F1 has become the development platform for the automotive, aerospace, telemetry and special or exotic materials industry and although the benefit of the technologies eventually filter through to man on the street the ideology and spirit of the racer only lives on in our memory. Unfortunately F1 has developed to a point where turning back is not an option and the next generation of Bernie's, Ron's etc. have the unenviable task of securing the financial and prosperous future of F1. However the real challenges facing F1 comes from the so called feeder series, the likes of GP2 and perhaps A1GP as the cars have developed to the extent that any regression in the development of F1 kit could loose them the unwanted reputation as the "technology series". We the purist have come to expect that F1 technology drives the sport and any deviation from this perception is totally taboo and evokes series debate and to a lesser extend we the fans are indirectly responsible for the dilemma facing F1 today. I sincerely believe that teams have the technology and resources to develop a basic race car that could once again capture our imagination with real racing. The past, well it will live on in our memory, the era of Rindt, McLaren etc was a privilege an honor to experience and the future of F1 will remain just that ''The Future". I don't have the answers but trust that the challenges bestowed on the next generation will be overcome to ensure the future of F1.
Thom Tompkins
Plain and simple, Formula one is no longer exciting, that's the problem with the sport.
Sure, I still wake up at strange hours to watch qualifying and races live, but only just..... I wake up now thinking "do I really want to do this?". My friends are the same way. Two of them who initiated me into the sport, now record the races so they can quickly scan through all the boring bits. That's sad.
In an effort to save costs, Formula One has been dumbed down by the FIA to the point where its no longer consistently thrilling. Lets face it: I think most Formula One fans are tech driven. We enjoyed the boundless technology, the development, the horsepower and all of the things that went with it. And reducing airo and engine development only stifles the result. Its sad that teams now have to gain advantage by moving a carbon fiber bit from one place to another to increase speed or gain advantage. Now that's boring and I doubt that it saves money when all of the wind tunnel labor is factored in.
And why try to reduce speeds?
Its racing isn't it... and if someone wants to put themselves on the line for fame and glory who are we to tell them that they shouldn't? No one gets into racing because its a healthy endeavor. They do it because of the Adrenalin rush they receive when they are pulling 5 G's and going 180 mph. They also like the idea of having 1,000 horsepower 12 inches behind their backs. And that's what fans love about it too.
In an effort to reduce costs to save the privateers (that we've largely lost anyway) we've strangled the development opportunities, growth and tech driven gusto that makes the sport what it should be. The manufacturers cant be happy about that.
If I ruled the world I would make these changes:
Keep the two race limit on engines but remove development restrictions (this would add the edge back to the sport for many of us)
Stop the refueling nonsense. If they need gas, get gas.....
Drop the silly tire regulations that require the use of specific compounds during the race. Dry, intermediate and wet and everyone gets the same compounds. Use them when you want.
If the teams want to test, let them test. Its their money after all.
Remove some of the more restrictive airo regulations to accommodate the horsepower increases that will come.
No traction control.
Remove paddle shifting and throw back to an old school mechanical clutch and gear shift. This would put the driver back in the game big time and would quickly separate the men from the boys. (and would add all sorts of unpredictable opportunities to pass or fail which would be very exciting)
Simplify qualifying. For the past five years its been too laborious for the average fan. The drivers have to privately hate it too. Each driver should get one recon lap and one qualifying lap. No one else is on the track when this happens and they have an unrestricted opportunity to show what they've got. This would improve the show for the fans and stop all of the unnecessary track time and jockeying for position that now takes place. It would also make it easier for the fans to track the results.
Formula One is now in jeapordy of becoming a lesser Formula and we need to have a very clear demarcation between all of them. Formula One needs to stand out strongly as the most technologically advanced, cutting edge and dangerously fast motor sport in the world. If things continue to proceed the way they have been, this will be a thing of the past. If the FIA dont start considerng this, rather than how they can slow the cars down, save money and equal the field: Formula One will no longer be worth watching.
Howard Russo - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
I think F1 stopped being a sport and became (bad) entertainment around the time that Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley became the dictators of the circus instead of the leaders of the FIA etc. We started losing the sport to commercial interests back when advertising first appeared in the late 60's (not that that was a particularly bad thing) but now we have pay drivers who shouldn't even be in A1GP let alone F1, tracks that should be scrapped in favour of real circuits (most of which have unfortunately disappeared or gone into disrepair), morons in charge who don't understand or care about the history of the sport, even though they participated in that history (yes, I mean Max and Bernie), embarrassing (for the sport) sex scandals, teams that disappear due to ridiculous rules changes every year that do nothing for the racing but do everything to INCREASE budgets even when they are supposedly being decreased, and inconsistent rules enforcement that makes a mockery of the rule book. I guess in that case it is OK to do something very dangerous as long as nothing happens, like someone is killed or many people are injured (i.e. what Massa did in Valencia). I know back in the day when we had REAL racing instead of pit stop chess matches, we didn't have drivers blaming back markers for not getting out of the way in the pits, and we actually had on-track passing in EVERY race, so why aren't we now laughing our heads off at Massa's STUPID comments about that pit stop, and making him out for the egomaniacal FOOL he has shown himself to be??? Are we really that afraid of Bernie and Max that we can't show F1 up as the joke that it has become? I, for one, won't put up with the idiotic rules enforcement that has happened this year (twice with Massa, once in qualy in France with that yellow flag that wasn't a yellow flag, and now in Valencia with a dangerous release that was OK because no one was killed) if it continues on in the future. F1 can disappear for all I care if this is what we have to look forward to! Unless the next round of endless rule changes actually produces some real racing (i.e. some actual on-track passes) then I won't be watching open wheel racing for a VERY long time.
And the sooner that Max and Bernie are dispatched to gardening leave, the better for the sport!!!!!!!
Chris Grint - UK
Cast your mind back - some of the most memorable races over the years have been those which were run at least in part, in the wet.There can be no doubt a wet track brings F1 to life , maybe it is time for a radical rethink of F1 and install sprinkler systems at certain tracks , perhaps then the predictability element would be removed and we would all start sitting on the edge of our seats instead of dozing off.
Pat Jeal
Valencia was the first GP I've turned off and walked away from. I don't watch them all but I've never before turned one off.
Was it the circuit? Was it the disconnected close ups rather than a good visual race presentation? Was it the bloody awful wittering commentary on ITV? Was it that I'd just had two weeks of Olympics with people who I could see trying their hardest with, in general, very knowledgeable commentators and presentation?
Probably all of those. But it surprised me that I really didn't care how the race went or who won. The racing seems just an incidental to F1 now. Spectators aren't really wanted, except to fund the circuits. So I'll read the stories and be interested in the cars. Just don't expect me to care about the racing.
Thomas Sjolund - Sweden
F1 can and should be both a sport and entertainment. What people wants to see is overtaking and wheel-to-wheel fighting, something that is impossible to get on circuits as Hungaroring, Monaco and now Valencia. OK, keep Monaco for the history and glamour of the place, but please make sure that any new track F1 goes to is able to provide ample overtaking opportunities.