[Closed] F1 to Officially Become a Pantomime ?

Surely this is a PR stunt or something?

If you want to make it more 'slippy' wouldn't you just get rid of downforce & make the tyres out of a really hard compound??

I don't think he's going far enough - snipers, mines, maybe a grease/oil gun on the back of each car. Le Mans start, but involving a swim across a river of chocolate milk - with robot crocodiles in there ?

This is how they killed Senna isn't it? Leave the power the same but reduce wing size, that'll make it more exciting. Crash boom, one of the world's finest racing drivers dead.

Hmm, maybe we should have reduced the power first.

Although granted, a better driver might not have crashed.

Perhaps they could take some ideas from this too...
[img] [/img]

Bernie in PR stunt shocker. It'll never happen, but it keeps F1 in the headlines (he first came out with this around the time the Bahrain GP was going south, then again just before the Oz GP - coincidence?). Bernie's great at coming up with daft ideas like his medals scheme, or recent witterings about 4 cyl turbos.

@samuri - there's a bit more to it than that. Massa's accident was another example of how all the rule changes in the world can't account for a freak occurrence.

This is how they killed Senna isn't it? Leave the power the same but reduce wing size, that'll make it more exciting. Crash boom, one of the world's finest racing drivers dead.

Or just let the apprentice weld the steering column.

Adding water. Soon they'll add grit and make the surface uneven.

Eventually it'll become WRC II and be exciting 😉

i find it hard to believe you can make the stunning sight of F! more exciting. Leave it as it is IMHO loud procession decided by pit stop strategies ....now that is excitment.

remove 2 wheels, put the engine between the front and rear wheels, replace the steering wheel with handlebars.....

I think, like has been said before, Ecclestone is just looking for some publicity. If he wants un-predictable weather conditions then just hold races in rainy seasons of the given country.

I do like the idea of cars having oil sprays in the back though .... just like Wacky racers!

@iDave - what like the empty tracked thrill-fest that MotoGP offered up on Sunday? Can't wait for more of that, just as soon as the lawn's finished growing and this 1000L tin of paint has all dried...

I think it was the end of last season that this was first talked about.

As above no need for sprinklers if you just hold the races in the rainy season for each country as opposed to the driest times as is done now.

Ah but hold on if they do that they would then just follow the safety car round for 2 hrs, or refuse to get out and race...

put the engine between the front and rear wheels

Where is it at the moment, then??

Yeah, if they are gonna go for stupid 'gimmick's in races to add excitement, then why not go the whole hog with Mario Kart style 'speed up' pads that are off the racing line, virtual 'power-ups' that can either improve your cars performance or hinder all the others momentarily, with the obligatory 'power-up' that does you more harm than good.

unfortunately F1 was destroyed by Max Mosely after the Senna and Roland Ratzenberger accidents - as he had very little idea of the technical side, he simply sought to make the cars slower in corners with a battery of crap rules - under ground planks, smaller tyres, flat undertrays, and this made F1 push more into the Aero side of things, so the cars are fast when not having to be behind another one (i.e. TO OVERTAKE!) instead of backing out of all of this when things got boring and teams at the top spent bazillions on new tiny aero parts and 24/7 wind-tunnels, and the recession hit, he simply tried to bully the manufacturers into what he wanted (single spec engine series), and so they almost all left -
and now we are left with the wreck of a series, that wants to cut costs (hence the new engine regulations for 2013) cut staff and cut up-time of staff, in order to try and keep business and sponsors interested in investing because the costs are so low....problem is this also means that the 'show' for us viewers is still crap as the FIA has not gone anywhere near far enough to change the past as described above, because, it would actually cost far too much to totally revise the cars for all the teams, and might actually make the Business Money leave the sport....and we all know what makes the world go round, especially in F1.

Its just what happens when a sport turns into a business - if the teams were left to get on with it, and just raced, it'd be fine.

@iDave - what like the empty tracked thrill-fest that MotoGP offered up on Sunday? Can't wait for more of that, just as soon as the lawn's finished growing and this 1000L tin of paint has all dried...

No, like GP2 😉

Mastiles
Why did you have to remind me of Frogger
thats my afternoon then! 🙂

everything roady_tony said +1

F1 is still impressive as a feat of engineering, but for racing, dull dull dull. scrap the rule book IMO.

What a pile of ******* shite!

How about they just sort out the regs to allow overtaking. More mechanical grip less aero and encourage track modifications that are better for overtaking.

Spa, Canada, Brazil, and Suzuka being good examples of tracks where you can overtake

More mechanical grip less aero

So that's what happens when it rains, right?

...or is HRH Crown Prince Bernard of Ecclestone gradually trying to turn F1 into Death Race after he saw it on TV at the weekend ? ...

No when it rains, Jenson complains it'll ruin his hair, Webber gets a sick note from his mum and Lewis goes on to all and sundry about how he's going to win becuase he can levitate his car over the Atlantic, only to shove it in the first gravel trap he can find.

I actually think its modern circuits that are alot to blame for the poor racing. The corners are all steady/smooth radius and quite frankly dull. Go back to circuits of old with undulation, corners that are not continuous radius, get rid of the stupid huge run off areas.

Get cars with smaller wings, skinny tyres but just as much power.

Then again there is an argument for 2 top series. 1 for drivers basically as above, and then 2 one for technology where they can use whatever technology they want so technology in turn gets transferred to road cars. I think they are already at the stage where a computer could drive a car quicker round a track than a human.

"More mechanical grip less aero"

How would you go about doing that then, the whole point of Colin Chapman etc developing aero was because they had exploited mechanical grip as much as possible... apart from having super fat tyres.

there is huge amounts of research and tech still left in mechanical grip, (suspension, tyres, compounds) let alone how that power is derived (ie petrol, bio fuel, kers, hybrids etc) and the types of engines (turbo, supercharged etc). Colin chapman's era was years ago, and even now with non ground effect cars, we are faster and gain more grip than even the biggest aero effects used in those times ...

people said turbos and superchargers were dead in the 80's because of poor MPG, look at them all come back now - VW have a tiny engine with BOTH fitted with massive mpg...

As i stated before F1 is trapped into cost-cutting measures, yet the need to revamp the sport without having everyone throw thier toys out of the Pram because they are used to the status quo and getting tons of cash!!!

Personally they should free up the engine and technology regulations and instead standardise the main chassis, all the gearbox's, transmission, ecu's and nuts n bolts that dont make a huge heap of difference, and just allow changes to the front wings. standard rear wings, exhaust exits and diffusers to allow big hole in the air for better overtaking ....

i'd like to get back to seeing a grid of varied design cars and engines, that some are better than others on short twisty tracks, long tracks, in the wet, in the cold, in the hot, etc etc

wouldnt it be great to see a big v12 ferrari take on a hybrid kers based bi-turbo'd williams?

oh and to add

BIG F OFF TYRES!

I'd like to see it all moved of the telly and loads of cycle racing on instead. All types human powered cycle racing would be good and healthy change.

A lot of folk seem to forget that back in the day, F1 was almost a spec engine series. In the early 1970s (one of the eras quoted as the golden days of the sport) almost the entire grid ran the Cosworth DFV - in some years it won every race in the season but I don't remember them being called dull races.

With regard to the 'more mechanical less aero' claims, there was a counter argument put forward a few years ago that says "a lot of excitement happens when it rains and the driver's skills are really on show, and in that case there's less mechanical grip and the emphasis is on the aero", so why not go that way?

F1 is all about innovation - finding that loophole in the rules that gives you the advantage, whether that's sticking a wing on, using ground effect, adding an F-duct or using fancy front exhaust systems. Chapman, Tyrrell, Murray & co managed to do that without spending a small fortune so if we could get back to a series that rewards engineering design without costing a fortune you'd get full grids and loads more development, with sponsors more able to afford to come into the sport and get a return.

All you naysayers either didn't watch last season, or have extremely selective memory of any other period of F1. Overtaking has always been difficult in F1. It is [i]supposed[/i] to be difficult!

Only a few more days - I can't bloody wait!

Oh - and I did [i]try[/i] and watch the Moto GP. Jeez.

Eventually it'll become WRC II and be exciting

It'll be like the return of Group B

I’m Quite Glad there’s No Bahrain GP this year, it’s a circuit that just produces almost no overtaking and turns it into a boring procession of a race…

While I can see what the poison dwarf is getting at I think he’s forgotten that real weather conditions and teams trying to predict and plan for them has actually been one of the key tactical elements of the sport over the years, the whole watch the radar and choose whether to play it safe and pull a driver in or bank on drizzle and keep the drys on is a key part of it…

Some courses would be total crap if you insisted on soaking them half way through the race, and drivers tip-toeing round in the wet kills overtaking and drives up the yawn factor…
As soon as you flick on the sprinklers you might be helping the team with an overheating engine, Nah it’s an awful idea, and quite obviously intended to wind the fans up… if they actually did it I would be astounded…

As for his pre-season predictions. They seems a little premature, lets see how the cars and drivers fair over a full race weekend before we start predicting the whole season…

Personally I’d be happy to keep the no refuelling rule as it keeps pressure on the pit crews to get their wheel changes nailed. I’d like to see a little less regulation over the technology used in the cars though, allow V10s again maybe, Less restriction on Aero features, more tires suppliers let them develop their own ECUs again, anything which encourages a bit of diversity in the design of the cars again, the F duct is a case in point: a new idea, judged to be inside the rules, which gave an edge for a couple of rounds till other teams could develop their own versions, which the regulations are banning this year…

Most importantly I would like to see the current testing restrictions repealed. Yes it helps keep costs down But I think it seriously impacts on the overall safety of the sport and lets be frank, this is F1 it’s not supposed to be “Cost efficient” or economical, it’s supposed to be the fastest single seat racing championship in the world, where the best engineers push new technologies as far as they can in order to win races… Not as far as a fixed budget and restricted testing allows…

Over restriction of budget and testing stifles the pace of development and teams ability to respond to their competition and changes in the rules… and now Bernie wants to piss on the track, maybe have some randomly released marbles, it’s a knockout at 200mph…

F1 (and Indy/rallying) would be far more exciting if it was like Mario Kart, Wipeout or F-Zero. Just as football would be more interesting if it was like Speedball 2.

Personally I’d be happy to keep the no refuelling rule as it keeps pressure on the pit crews to get their wheel changes nailed.

I rather re-introduce refueling but make the fuel and tyre stops separate this fuel conservation strategy to make the end of a race is rubbish