Formula One: Faster, closer, more exciting -- drivers' plea to new owners
54 replies, posted
[b]Formula One: Faster, closer, more exciting -- drivers' plea to new owners[/b]
Via [url=http://www.france24.com/en/20160915-formula-one-faster-closer-more-exciting-drivers-plea-new-owners?ref=tw_i]France24[/url]
_________________________
[quote][img]http://i.imgur.com/CaqgOr3.jpg[/img]
SINGAPORE (AFP) - Sebastian Vettel led a chorus of drivers Thursday urging Formula One's new owners to make racing closer, faster and more exciting as the sport enters a new era in Singapore this weekend.
Drivers were asked what changes they would like to see brought in by US billionaire John Malone's Liberty Media, which is buying out F1's parent company in a deal which values the sport at $8 billion.
"As a driver you want to go faster, you want to drive the most exciting cars," four-time world champion Vettel told reporters.
Force India's Sergio Perez said fans wanted tighter battles on the track. Mercedes have dominated the past three seasons, and before that Vettel won four straight drivers' championships with Red Bull.
"I would love to see Formula One a lot closer, giving the midfield teams the opportunity to be capable of winning a race, fighting for titles," said Perez.
"I think that would be just something great for the fans to see -- one race Williams on top, another race another team."
The drivers may get a chance to voice their opinions to the sport's new owners in person as early as Friday, if paddock rumours are to be believed.
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone originally said he would not attend the Singapore race, but the word around the circuit on Thursday was that he had changed his mind.
German paper Bild reported the CEO would arrive at the Marina Bay track Friday accompanying the sport's new chairman Chase Carey.[/quote]
A-fuckin'-men. Basically, they'd like it if F1 went back 20 years or so. Too bad Bernie and the rest of the FIA brass probably doesn't feel the same way.
[editline]16th September 2016[/editline]
So far I can make do with MotoGP and WRC, by far more exciting than current F1. But I'd love to go back and watch F1 like I used to, back in the late '90s and early '00s.
As for the a return of the old howling V12s,
[hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92aYYjK_0Ww[/hd]
The sound difference between the old ones and the new ones is quite palpable.
I'm all for it! I honestly think all they need to do is let the teams refuel again, let the teams shove as much fuel through these V6s as the engine can mechanically withstand, dump the then-redundant KERS bullshit, and let them contract out their tires to whatever company can make a safe, strong tire to a given size specification for fairness' sake.
Do that, and the racing should return to the sport. And so will I!
Edit: I loathed Vettel back in the day, mostly because saying he won the race was right 80-90% of the time, but hot damn do I agree with him on bringing back the V-12s. They sound positively orgasmic. PRobably the best sound in F1, tied IMO with the legendary growl of the old DFV V8s.
Bring back the excitement of the early 2000's and go crazier.
Supercharged V12s instead of NA V12s. :v:
F1 is seriously boring to watch now, Formula E is even more interesting than F1 because its really all raw drivers skill because the cars are inherently gimped, shit gets chaotic.
[editline]17th September 2016[/editline]
Hell another suggestion would be removing the engine requirements, let teams use whatever they want.
Imagine rotaries mixed in with V12s and various other shit.
[QUOTE=The golden;51062553]F1 should be about madness and insanity on wheels. Extremely skilled drivers at the wheels of seriously insane machines. Loud, fast, exciting. That's what it should be about.[/QUOTE]
At some point, it was. Now WRC holds that mantle. Obviously it's a far cry from the Group B from the 80s, but it's leaps and bounds more vicious than F1.
[QUOTE=Reagy;51062583]
Imagine rotaries mixed in with V12s and various other shit.[/QUOTE]
Would be funny if a team decided they would use 2 cycle engines with it smoking the entire way down the track
There's a lot more excitement in the Aussie V8 Supercars races than on F1 races.
[hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAFRS5r2g8E[/hd]
Wasnt the point of F1 restrictions was to push for advancements in vehicle tech and specs.
[QUOTE=The golden;51062553]F1 right now is all about extremely uptight anal regulations and extremely fucked up overly-engineered workarounds.
F1 should be about madness and insanity on wheels. Extremely skilled drivers at the wheels of seriously insane machines. Loud, fast, exciting. That's what it should be about.[/QUOTE]
That's why F1 is very meh and NASCAR can be very exciting, even if NASCAR goes around and around and around and around. They're all touching bumpers and 2-3 wide start to finish at 180+ miles per hour. Even though it's boring as shit when it isn't a road course, it's actual racing. No one races in F1 anymore there's gaps tens of seconds wide between cars
[QUOTE=Reagy;51062583]Bring back the excitement of the early 2000's and go crazier.
Supercharged V12s instead of NA V12s. :v:
F1 is seriously boring to watch now, Formula E is even more interesting than F1 because its really all raw drivers skill because the cars are inherently gimped, shit gets chaotic.
[editline]17th September 2016[/editline]
Hell another suggestion would be removing the engine requirements, let teams use whatever they want.
Imagine rotaries mixed in with V12s and various other shit.[/QUOTE]
Despite the strict regulations now to ensure that only driver skill matters in winning races, Mercedes has still found a way to dominate under the new regulations. To throw away engine regulations would mean a greater disparity in performance between the cars themselves, leading to far less tight racing than we see now. It would also see costs skyrocket, also leading to smaller grid sizes.
We might think that motorsports like F1 are managed by people who have no idea about what they're doing. But they've been doing this stuff for decades, and they know their shit. They remember Group A touring car racing which was pretty much what you're suggesting, and they remember how the Sierra Cosworth came along and absolutely mopped the floor with everything else, then the Skyline GT-R came along and did the same to even the Sierras. Driver skill didn't matter as much as what car you drove. And on top of that, costs skyrocketed by several factors over only one decade. They shut down Group A for very good reasons.
[QUOTE=Reagy;51062583]Hell another suggestion would be removing the engine requirements, let teams use whatever they want.
Imagine rotaries mixed in with V12s and various other shit.[/QUOTE]
FUCK YES. In my perfect world, the new and improved F1 would allow all kinds of engine configurations.
Vs, Ws, Boxers and even rotaries.
Imagine a Mercedes W12 battling against a Ferrari with a flat 12, like the old 512 from Le Mans.
[hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5J8X54pITE[/hd]
It'd be INCREDIBLE.
[QUOTE=TheTalon;51062681]That's why F1 is very meh and NASCAR can be very exciting, even if NASCAR goes around and around and around and around. They're all touching bumpers and 2-3 wide start to finish at 180+ miles per hour. Even though it's boring as shit when it isn't a road course, it's actual racing. No one races in F1 anymore there's gaps tens of seconds wide between cars[/QUOTE]
I wish there was a NASCAR road course series. I would watch the hell out of that.
[QUOTE=TheTalon;51062681]That's why F1 is very meh and NASCAR can be very exciting, even if NASCAR goes around and around and around and around. They're all touching bumpers and 2-3 wide start to finish at 180+ miles per hour. Even though it's boring as shit when it isn't a road course, it's actual racing. No one races in F1 anymore there's gaps tens of seconds wide between cars[/QUOTE]
If people think regulations in F1 are anal, NASCAR is the full-on anal double penetration in terms of regulations. There's nothing stock about the sprint cup cars anymore, unlike the Australian V8 Supercars they don't even use the same body shell as their road-going counterparts.
Everything is regulated to hell and back to ensure parity, and yes, that's part of why NASCAR is great. The racing is tight (because of the very tight regulations), the grid sizes are huge (because the tight regulations bring costs of preparing a competitive car down), the crashes are spectacular, and racing on ovals means all spectators can see all cars at all times, as opposed to watching say a F1 race where the leading car passes where you're sitting probably once every two minutes. There's a lot that other motorsports can learn from NASCAR.
[QUOTE=TheTalon;51062681]That's why F1 is very meh and NASCAR can be very exciting, even if NASCAR goes around and around and around and around. They're all touching bumpers and 2-3 wide start to finish at 180+ miles per hour. Even though it's boring as shit when it isn't a road course, it's actual racing. No one races in F1 anymore there's gaps tens of seconds wide between cars[/QUOTE]
NASCAR has a ton of problems itself, though. The new points system is a laughing stock that no one should take seriously, the viewership is at a record low because their cars have handled like crap for over a decade and there is a lot of money-based influence that makes the rich get richer and keeps the worse teams bad with the new regulations practically being designed specifically to shut down the possibility of newer teams entering the sport and rising as if they were city-based franchisees or something. This has helped make the teams more lopsided than ever and instead of improving, they're becoming more like F1 in all the wrong places and none of the right ones. F1 has a ton of issues, but at least it does not actively try to abandon fanbases in pursuit for younger audiences that ultimately didn't even give a shit about the changes supposedly catered to them. That's ignoring all the other crap like blatant yellow flag manipulation and them turning the series from stock to spec despite having stock car as part of their name's acronym and other things. As an ex-NASCAR fan, they deserve the losses of millions of viewers they've received in the last few years because it's no longer what it was when people were drawn into it in the late 90s.
They completely robbed F1 of its spirit but the same can be said for most (automotive) sports. In the early days of anything you always have so much diversity in the competition. As time goes on everything becomes more and more streamlined until you end up with this, or NASCAR where they're all racing the same chassis with a different body shell. Stock Car racing actually used to be interesting to watch when it was just modified production cars.
[QUOTE=Cmx;51062700]I wish there was a NASCAR road course series. I would watch the hell out of that.[/QUOTE]
I thought the sprint cup cars already race at road courses like Sonoma, Watkins Glen etc?
[QUOTE=sb27;51062724]I thought the sprint cup cars already race at road courses like Sonoma, Watkins Glen etc?[/QUOTE]
2 races out of 36 per year =/= road course series, NASCAR doesn't even use the boot at Watkins Glen like IndyCar and most other series do, and use a somewhat simplified layout for Sonoma.
All engines should be required to rev to beyond 20,000
[QUOTE=abcpea;51062744]All engines should be required to rev to beyond 20,000[/QUOTE]
That's a good joke
[QUOTE=Cmx;51062700]I wish there was a NASCAR road course series. I would watch the hell out of that.[/QUOTE]
Well, they do have 2 road races in their schedule; Watkins Glen and that other road course that I can't remember its name.
Just recently, we've had this race finish
[hd]https://youtu.be/5x96AuE-zbE[/hd]
F1 cars are already plenty fast. If they wanted to make races more exciting by encouraging more passing, they need to do something about the cars being so insanely good at stopping and handling. Tons of downforce and brakes that are [i]too[/i] effective at scrubbing speed mean passing at corners is basically impossible. The drag reduction system is also a super dumb idea that encourages passing in the wrong way, that is, by artificially increasing your speed over the guy in the lead and not by any use of skill.
[QUOTE=sb27;51062750]That's a good joke[/QUOTE]
You do know that the BMW V10 engine from '04-'05 could rev up to 19,500 RPM, right?
They should add a sick loop de loop to all the tracks.
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;51062670]There's a lot more excitement in the Aussie V8 Supercars races than on F1 races.
[hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAFRS5r2g8E[/hd][/QUOTE]
6:08 is why McLaughlin has been my hero ever since
[editline]17th September 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;51062787]You do know that the BMW V10 engine from '04-'05 could rev up to 19,500 RPM, right?[/QUOTE]
Which isn't beyond 20,000 RPM
ok ok, 18000
[QUOTE=sb27;51062793]Which isn't beyond 20,000 RPM[/QUOTE]
They might as well make 2-stroke engines :v:
[QUOTE=The_Funk;51062782]F1 cars are already plenty fast. If they wanted to make races more exciting by encouraging more passing, they need to do something about the cars being so insanely good at stopping and handling. Tons of downforce and brakes that are [i]too[/i] effective at scrubbing speed mean passing at corners is basically impossible. The drag reduction system is also a super dumb idea that encourages passing in the wrong way, that is, by artificially increasing your speed over the guy in the lead and not by any use of skill.[/QUOTE]
The drivers are actually complaining that the cars have much less grip than they used to have, because of the new control tyre
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;51062772]Well, they do have 2 road races in their schedule; Watkins Glen and that other road course that I can't remember its name.
[/QUOTE]
This year for road courses they have/had:
-Mid Ohio
-Road America
-Sears Point
-Watkins Glen
-Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport?)
[QUOTE=The golden;51062553]F1 right now is all about extremely uptight anal regulations and extremely fucked up overly-engineered workarounds.
F1 should be about madness and insanity on wheels. Extremely skilled drivers at the wheels of seriously insane machines. Loud, fast, exciting. That's what it should be about.[/QUOTE]
And also about pushing automotive technology. I want to see the newest, greatest, lighted, fastest motor or aerodynamic changes possible
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;51062837]They might as well make 2-stroke engines :v:[/QUOTE]
They would likely lose power going to a two stroke. You get significantly less of the actual stroke to extract energy and raw fuel goes flying right out the x-fer ports. Not only that, but due to the tolerances, gas flow, and oiling needs(Plus, you know, not creating a slick for the guy behind you to crash in/get blinded by), they'd have to be a uniflow type like the big Detroit Diesels were. Which means any weight savings are right out the window, you [b]must[/b] have a supercharger for that engine to function as they cannot aspirate otherwise(And are considered N/A if they have only that blower).
[QUOTE=sb27;51062793]
Which isn't beyond 20,000 RPM[/QUOTE]
FIA caps =|= actual capabilities of the engines.
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;51062787]You do know that the BMW V10 engine from '04-'05 could rev up to 19,500 RPM, right?[/QUOTE]
And the V8s that followed it were mechanically sound up to 22,000RPM and got rev-capped at 18K by the rulebooks. The V10s were probably also mechanically sound up to those kinds of ludicrous speeds.
[QUOTE=Fireblade RX7;51062953]This year for road courses they have/had:
-Mid Ohio
-Road America
-Sears Point
-Watkins Glen
-Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport?)[/QUOTE]
Sears Point was the one I had in mind, but I totally forgot that now there are more than those 2 race courses!
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.