FIA do something about F1!!!!

[Zenki]

Following the latest "thrilling" installment of the "Michael Schumacher show" I am now of the opinion that F1 is seriously in danger of disappearing up it's own ass. I am not taking anything away from the natural and annoyingly superb ability that Schumi has but the regs now need changing as each race is becoming a waste of 2 hours. Over the past couple of years F1 has deteriorated into a tedious procession where the upper placings are decided in the first corner over 95% of races. The amount of money it generates is now becoming irrelevant to the racing and is one big advertising bandwagon. If I were one of the sponsors, say Mr Veltins, then I would be making severe representations to Mr Ecclestone & Co about the regulations and the fact that the finishing positions can be almost predicted for each race. They may as well put each teams engine on a test rig and run it at 16000rpm for 2 hrs and see whose lasts the distance!!
I think the FIA need to make some SERIOUS changes to the regs to allow a little more competitiveness to break thro. There are some brilliant drivers in F1 now that have shone in the lower ranks of motorsport and because they are with the "little league" teams they don't stand a chance of diceing with Montoya or Schumi. I have been an avid follower of F1 since the 1970's but now I just hope that the FIA can see F1 has lost its excitement otherwise the viewers will switch off, sponsors will go elsewhere and F1 will dwindle into obscurity :(
Rant over.:D

[shadowninja]

you're not wrong...

I watched the first 5 minutes of the race, stared at the tv for another 5 minutes, started dozing off, said to my wife "boring isn't it!" and picked up a magazine.

what also irritates me is that the cars are sooo flimsy... haven't they heard of Araldite? it's irritating when an otherwise perfect performance is ruined by a slight bump resulting in all the bodywork falling off.

also mildly annoying is the driver aids that are slowly appearing... I hear next year's ferrari will have 7 seats, satnav, aircon, 10 speaker Bose hifi, and 4 12" sub woofers in the boot.

thank god for GT and touring car racing.

-Darren

[JB]

Bike racing and rallying is where it's at. The only time F1 becomes interesting is when you watch it in black and white with no commentary and try to work out what's what :(

[Chris_Lacey]

The reason it's so ****e is because of the prevailance of Aerodynamic grip over mechanical grip, every time the cars try to overtake each other they enter "dirty" air and can't make the move stick, the grooved tyres made this worse not better. The teams also should have a limit on spending enforced, I mean Ferraris car budget is like 150 million and Minardis is 40 Million, if you lost a couple of noughts that's like comparing a 40k car to a 150k car...

They need to get it sorted fast, GT Racing, Bike racing and touriong car are all bags more fun to watch, because stuff actually happens!!

[AshT_200]

NASCAR is Tops! Especially the crashes :D

[Pol]

Must agree with the majority of what you guys are saying but I would argue that no matter what happened, you'd still see Schui at the front of the pack - when is the last time Rubens or swirvin Irvin were able to beat him? I had thought that many of the top teams were planning to breakaway from the championship in some kind of protest to the onslaught of stupid and pointless new rules that is set to ruin the sport completely?
I've been a huge fan of F1 for 10 years now and have only missed 1 or 2 races in that time and am increasingly annoyed with all the new regulations set to 'make things fair for the smaller teams' such as limiting the drivers to one engine per weekend - really if anyones engine will be unreliable it's gonna be the minardi's/arrows isn't it? I'm still not sure about the mechanical/aerodynamic grip - the change has happened because the teams are restriced by things like grooved tyres and narrower cars so have to run more downforce to get the grip - the traction control gives better mechanical grip but doesn't let us see the driver working hard - and there's still not enough overtaking, every race we're treated to the phrase 'it's very difficult to pass on this track' - whys that then? Cos the muppets at the FIA made it like that thats why. Personally I used to love it when it rained and the likes of Schumacher/Senna would leave the idiots behind - usually minutes behind - because they could DRIVE and not simply press the pedal and turn the wheel at the corner, no doubt this will be deemed too dangerous before too long, and they'll stop the race if it looks like being cloudy if we're not careful, sorry guys I've gone on a bit here haven't I.

[shadow21]

The teams also should have a limit on spending enforced, I mean Ferraris car budget is like 150 million and Minardis is 40 Million, if you lost a couple of noughts that's like comparing a 40k car to a 150k car...

I'm not really sure: isn't B.A.R. the "richest" team?
Anyway, I must agree with the general feeling: FIA is slowly killing entertainement provided by a good race...
Mmmmh, the good old 'turbo' time, when engines were 1300+ HP...

[Dave H]

Originally posted by shadow21


Mmmmh, the good old 'turbo' time, when engines were 1300+ HP...

And the drivers had to use the throttle to balance the car not 'cough fart bang fart cough traction control' I wonder how many of the new 'wonderboys' in F1 would be able to drive a pre TC car?

oh and launch control WTF is going on, just press a button and your away :rolleyes:

I used to watch every GP without fail, now I just can't be arsed unless its raining!!

Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,B oring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Boring,Bo ring,Boring.

[Zenki]

I watched some junior formula ford racing today and it was feckin great. Wheel to wheel stuff, loadsa overtakes, the lead changed about 6 times and the race was decided on the LAST corner of the race and not the first. And the cars didn't fall to bits the moment they touched.
I believe it is money and the greed for it that has killed F1. It happened to the DTM which was a superb series back in the early nineties and then the costs got ridiculous so there was Mercedes and Opel left.....thrilling. The same thing really happened to the BTCC. Remember when Steve Soper used the bang door mirrors with John Cleland and Will Hoy had that MASSIVE crash on the GP circuit at Brands. Not any longer. You now pay £25 to get into Brands to see a boring sh1te processional race and they won't even let you park your car in the circuit coz it's full of corporate bloody hospitality tents!!!!:mad:
Bring back the 60's and 70's when you saw Jim Clark driving a Lotus at Monaco one weekend and the next weekend he was powersliding a Lotus Cortina round Goodwood. Proper seat of the pants driving with none of this launch control and traction aids. :(

[Clong]

I used to enjoy the F1 racing, untill about 9 years ago. I sat down to watch it, and promptly fell asleep after 3 laps. When i woke up a couple of cars had fell off , a few positions had changed and i thought it was aboout 10 laps further in the race. Turns out it was the penultimate lap, i have never watched it since. It made me laugh when the introduction of pitstops were meant to liven things up, WTF? i want to watch driving, not some one working in a glorified shell garage. I watch rallying and superbikes since there is a big element of skill involved, and it hasn't been diluted by the introduction of technology.

[dave_s13]

Agree with u all.
I reckon the qualifying is more exiting to watch than the actual race, at least there's some position changes and stuff.

[Branners]

The days of adjustable boost on F1 cars made it much better, just up the boost to go past and then turn it down again.

The simplest solution would be to stop the cars being refulled and limit the amount of fuel they have on board. Then they can turn up the fuelling to get past something and then have to turn it down again. It would also make the teams build engines that were more fuel economical. Then each year they just reduce the amount of fuel allowed per race and that would make them go slower instead of changing the specs on wings and stuff each year.

JB

[Alex H]

knock off the wings but make sure the cars make a big hole for drafting :D

All mechanical grip + I agree with branners about the fuel thing give em one amount of fuel and let the drivers manage it. Re-fueling is just dangerous and a waste of time...

[Minesapint]

Originally posted by Alex H
knock off the wings but make sure the cars make a big hole for drafting :D


Didn't Minardi try this tactic?

I remember watching F1 when I was a kid and it was like a procession then (I think it was Prost and Lauda in McLarens).

Part of the fascination of F1 is how fast they actually go so slowing them down is not the way forward but I do like the boost idea. (Maybe they should try NOS!)
BTCC is not as good as it was AND the budgets are lower than they were. Watching a load of maxed Astras doesn't seem to have the same appeal!

I agree its a bit boring but it has helped me catch up on some much needed sleep.
I think we will have to sit it out and hope ****emeister gets a bit of Rubens luck. Remember we didnt used to moan when Nigel Mansell & Damon Hill were dominating things (well I didnt)

[Alex H]

I mean't knock off the wings to return them to mechanical grip so that out braking, overtaking and out handling become part of the "sport" again.

I think carbon disc rotors should be banned and steel brake disc size and pad thickness limited to increase stopping distances make sure the pads can't last a full race used at max...let the driver regulate how hard he brakes and how quickly his brakes wear away...and if they screw up and try to change the pads that's an instant stop go penalty...

Ahhh bollox just give em some go-karts


As for the BTCC it hasn't been the same since Alfa brought in wings though the original winged warriors the RS500's were fantastic. This season and last season has been dulled by the lack of competition its just a rolling Vauxhall advertisement. I like the use of small coupe's but no-one else is running them...competatively. That IS200 was wicked last year! The back of the pack is where its at, low budget yet utterly gripping!

The BTCC needs to limit further what the teams can and can't do to the cars...I think add a safety cage, some coilover suspension and some light engine mods and that's it....come on show us what your ROAD cars can do....