I just couldn't bare to finish watching the race on Sunday. It was the worst race I have ever seen. Every car was about 5 secs apart. It wasnt a race. If F1 keeps this up then it's going to lose this loyal supporter right here. And I absolutely love F1. So what can be done? Love to hear peoples views on what is wrong and what can be done practically without upsetting the apple cart to much. My top 3 things: - smaller cars. The current cars are huge compared to 10 years ago. How do you expect them to race on a calendar of tight circuits? Madness. - to many employees in the back room controlling the car. Its OTT. They have the race figured out before it's even run. - Money. I don't mind prize money split. But if we want an equal field then the spend needs to be equalised. The Gap is just astronomical. Mercedes will always have the better chance if they invest more money in it. Bottom teams are spending enough if not enough to barely survive.
The cars are a bit wider, but when the previous narrower cars came out in 1998 everyone said they looked ridiculous. They were widened a few years ago to increase their track and thus mechanical grip, but aside from Monaco I don't think it has a major bearing on overtaking as there aren't that many narrow circuits around. The budget cap is probably the one main thing that would change the order of the field. Everything else is just messing around with rules/regs to which the well funded teams will always do better. If there is a salary cap, and a genuine one which can't be manipulated, then you are back to the teams using their brains and ingenuity to design the cars and get around the problems, rather than who can afford the best computer to work out the solution.
Give everyone the same engine? Edit: I know this will never happen but can't not say it! Long overdue thread.
It's more than just the engine, if it was then Ferrari would be winning this year. In theory, Mercedes (works) have the same engine as Force India and Williams. Look at the time gaps between them. So much is down to the differences in the cars, mainly those that have shed loads of cash and those that don't. Limit the amount of spending and that limits the time and resources that can be spent developing. The more efficient teams will probably fair better too as they are more used to spending their money wisely, whereas Mercedes, Ferrari, RBR etc can just chuck as much cash at whatever they want. If it doesn;t work, chuck it away and start again.
It's not "tradition" but I'd like to see a short Saturday qualifying race. You can't put the fastest cars and the front and slowest at the back and then expect a race to happen in todays bullet-proof reliability days. Could even have a short race (grid reverse championship order) and average it with a qualifying session result. We've had 2 day qualifying before after all. 2m is fine for car width, but they are monstrously long, longer than the most ott Rolls Royce. This is however related to having to fit 105kg of fuel into the car, which is like 130 litres or something? That's a lot of space designated to fuel tank. Also DRS.... it's stupid, really stupid. It's a push to pass system, why not make it tactical, give drivers 90 seconds of use (or whatever) for the race and let them choose how and where they want to use it. The PU rules are also a bit extreme, I get why they do it but one extra of each unit would go a long way to not strangling the drivers with mileage.
Just throwing out a few thoughts here, so this is all going to be a bit random and not fully thought out, so take it for what it is.... By the nature of the sport, there will likely always be one team that interprets the rules better than everybody else. The problem is that once a team has an advantage, it's all but impossible for the competition to catch up and the season is effectively over... So that has to be addressed. I'd like to see the technical regs opened up a bit so that teams have a bit more room to innovate and have cars that are a bit more unique again.(The alternative ot that would be have a standard aero kit for every car and make them all identical.) The days where you get cars that really suit certain tracks is long gone. Also, open up testing a bit. Yes, the haves will benefit more from that, but better that than a season locked in from race one. Let teams pick tyre compounds for each race and drop the two compound rule. Let teams play with strat. I'm also for refuling. Fire incidents are rare and small in most other Motorsport. That tied with more tyre freedom might shake things up strat wise. Changing qualifying so that each driver gets one hot lap each might make the grid a bit more random at times. Granted quali would be short, but it's currently a borefest anyway, so better short and exciting. Is it worth having a two tier championship? One for the big boys who want to throw the kitchen sink at the sport and a second tier that's budget capped? Not completely thought this through, but it might encourage smaller entries and give those teams something to fight for. Also, crazy one here... But how about some kind of points for positions gained? Would a top team gamble to qualify mid pack and try to win from there for bonus points. Not thought this one through at all. But just some bullets: Reduce aero, get rid of the wake, encourage slipstreaming and close racing Increase number of engines and other components. Tyres that drivers can really give some hammer. Open compound selection. More testing, more in-season development Indy style push to pass Reduce the massive amounts of tarmac run off. Sprinklers... Obvs
Everytime somebody says 'for sure', drink!! At least then we'd be so boozed up by the time the lights went out, we'd have no recollection of any of it.
Yes . I think a genuine salary cap is the way to go , or at least an important part . Worry about the employees though .
One thing i noticed recently was the teams allowing Pirelli to run a tyre test using the Williams car because they're so far behind nobody fears them getting an advantage. That made me wonder if the way to go might be a sort of "Behind the scenes BOP". In the largely failed attempts to cut costs there are so many restrictions on development now. On track testing is nearly non-existent, CFD and Wind Tunnel time is also heavily limited. Whilst nobody wants to see overt BOP like ballast, I wouldn't be opposed to reducing those development limits in inverse championship order. Is the sport really benefiting from the FIA telling the likes of McLaren that they've had their 30 hours of CFD this week and to turn the computers off?
If you take this objective seriously and after reading the comments, I believe you first have to start with what is the objective? Obviously close racing and overtaking are required but what are the objectives in getting there. For example, Do we want a season where a car is so good it will never seriously be challenged till late in the season. Do we want a team like Williams stuck at the back so early in the season and no easy route back Do we want the drivers to be the heroes on track Do we want new teams to enter the sport with comparative ease etc. etc, Then design solutions for the objectives. If I take the first one, restricting in season testing prevents others from catching up. Repeatedly in the F1 history, we see one team rise to the top and stay there for some time, but in doing so, they force the others to push harder to be better, this raises the game throughout the paddock until eventually a new team rises to the top. We need this process to work but with shorter time frames. I do believe what is at stake, for the manufacturers, is market share and growth, as such this is not only driven by racing aspirations, which is, in some respects, part of the problem. What we know is it will never be perfect.
Formula 1 teams are set to meet up with the FIA and Pirelli to discuss the possibility of returning to the 2018 tyre compounds for the rest of the season. It seems that most teams would support changing back to the old tyres as it seems to be only Mercedes who have made the tyres work for them so far this year. It is thought that teams have already spoken in private but this meeting will be an official one with the powers that be. Would this in any way help to fix F1? Isn't this the same as lowering the pass mark for an exam because some students didn't do their homework? Just wondering....Would it make sense to reposition the goal posts so that an out of form football could score? They need to stop putting plaster to cover other problems. Why not sharing Ferrari unfair purse with the smaller team and putting things on a more level playing field. To be fair, why should Ferrari be given more money than Mercedes and they are not even winning???? They need to get those things right first.
You could say. Hey!! How come Williams are getting more money than Racing point, Sauber and Toro Rosso when they are coming last!!
I'm also of the opinion that we should stop changing the rules every season, it only helps the most efficient and complete teams...... for example, Mercedes. Look what we had at the back end of last season, compare that to now. Were the changes over winter really worth it?
Someone on here had a great suggestion a while ago (few years) that FIA should open up more testing. The further back your team is, the more hours of track time testing you get. The teams with less money can sell up to half their allotted testing time to anyone except the team at the top (merc) at a set price (say £5m for a day session). That would help close the gap in both performance at the front and help finance the back-markers.
You would have to prevent Alfa from selling time to Ferrari, a tad incestuous I think. More testing for the back teams, certainly. Selling time would have to be policed if allowed.
yeah, lol, in between typing that and you posting I'd realised that, so you can't sell time to your engine supplier.
I would like to see refuelling back, as the expected lift and coast strategies have never really played out as a major factor, and if it has the audience certainly haven't been aware. Refuelling gives a mix of strategies and race paces. Everything else technical regulations wise should be aimed at the cars going as fast as possible, because turning them into family saloons has made them too reliable.
all you need do is close your eyes and imagine today's Austrian gp without drs.... drs is artifical passing technology that's been expanded and expanded until it's now at the point where a Honda could pass a ferrari. ok a bit extreme but literally it's not contest. for me.... a) refuel, make the tank small enough to ensure 2 stop races. b) shorten cars and strip off a good bit of air flow management on the sides etc. c) tyres. sorry but if they fall off a cliff after a bit of racing whats the point. d) engines... which parts actually cost most. do we really want teams saving engines and have 3 a year and have more and more races... can't we reverse this? can't we find a means with the amount of money in the sport to give teams an allotment of engines without breaking the bank?
