Debate

[Jonny288]

Hi everyone, :wave:

In a couple of weeks I am doing a debate on F1 to a group of 50 or so, where the majority wouldn't watch or like it, ie. it's only cars going around in circles blah, blah... So, I was wondering if anyone could help me enlighten those who have not yet seen the light!

The motion i got was:
That F1 is the ultimate sport in the world.

I am for the motion. As far as i'm aware my opponent is going with the line that F1 is dangerous, boring, polluting the environment and inspires speeding on public roads, less accessible i.e. you need money.

Any suggestions, tips, especially reasons why you like F1 are very welcome. Thanks. :)

[philipbain]

ok, I can try and help you with some random ammunition!

F1 has the largest world wide audience for any sport that occurs on a annual basis (the only ones that are greater are the olympics and football world cup, each take place every 4 years).

F1 boasts the worlds highest paid athletes.

F1 is the richest sport in the world in terms of money spent per participant by some margin.
http://www.fastmachines.com/f1/the-price-of-formula-1/ states that in 2004 F1 budgets ammounted to over $2.1 billion, with budget increases, inflation and the weakening of the dollar i'd put that over $3 billion in 2008.

a quote from Ernest Hemmingway - "Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports. . . all others are games."

I'll try to think of some others, hope this gets the ball rolling

[Jonny288]

Sound for that some nice facts :)

[Jonny288]

keep 'em coming, please :)

[D-Type]

In how many other sports can you get killed if you make a mistake?

[christophulus]

In how many other sports can you get killed if you make a mistake?

How does that help him exactly? All sports are dangerous if the players are careless

[Valve Bounce]

Hi everyone, :wave:



The motion i got was:
That F1 is the ultimate sport in the world.

Thanks. :)

I take it you missed the V8 Supercars at Mt Panorama last weekend. If you want to know more, use google.

[Valve Bounce]

OK, I did a lot of searching, and here are some clips from the greatest motor racing circuit in the world. Hope you like it: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn7-FHy_3kM

For those who want more, just look up Bathurst 1000 on youtube. I think there's even one clip about the meeting with the 'roo.

[ArrowsFA1]

Why is F1 is the ultimate sport in the world? Because it says it is, that's why :p

[PolePosition_1]

Why is F1 is the ultimate sport in the world? Because it says it is, that's why :p

I must be honest, "its the ultimate sport in the world" argument is a pretty poor argument. I don't want to sound too critical, so I'm going to try to be as constructive as positive here.

But if your going to argue for Formula 1, EVERYTHING must be based on facts, that way, they cannot fight back, facts are right and wrong. If you base your arguments purely on facts, they cannot say your wrong.

Starting an argument as saying "F1 is the ultimate sport in the world" would be totally wrong, to us it may be, but say that to a non-F1 fan, they'll laugh at you.

I read that the F1 World Championship is the 3rd most watched sporting event in the world, behind the superbowl and something else. If you can source that, you'd have a strong basis for supporting its popularity.

You can also state how F1 and everyone in F1 (in particular the drivers) love their sport more than the average sportsman, they're willing to die doing the sport they love. Use case studies, Alex Zanardi is inspirational, he lost both legs and yet continues racing, Johnny Herbert, Mika Hakkinen, all classic examples, where these have come close to death, but come back for more.

Then you can also comment on the economics of F1. If the debate is based in the UK, you have a strong case for how positive the economics of F1 has been hugely beneficial to the midlands in the surrounding oxfordshire/northampton area. Where we have a high end technology cluster, purely because of the F1 teams clustering there. Its basically similar to the Silicone Valley cluster. It brings huge economic and reputation benefits to the UK.

We also have F1 being the leading technological automotor racing championship in the world. Lots of technology based on F1, has been transferred over to road cars, we've seen this with the paddle gear shifting, traction control, I'm sure if you research it, you'll find many examples. The mere fact that manufacturs are now dominating F1, shows how it serves as both a perfect marketing tool, as well as a good area for developing technologies which can be transferred over to road car technology.

They're obviously going to argue the green creditionals of F1. First thing first, point out that Formula 1 is a carbon free sport, and has been for many years now. Also point out how F1 is pushing green technology forward, with the introduction of KERS, this will without doubt be transferred over to roadcars in the future. Try find a link on how many roadcars Toyota, BMW, Renault, Mercs, Ferrari have on the roads of today. Thats how many cars will have KERS, a green technology in the future. Thats a pretty huge worldwide impact.

The boring argument. Unfortunately you can't do much about that, even I can understand why people may see this as boring.

But you can argue this, in that the "boring" label is totally subjective. Some may say football is boring, thats not a fact, insist you respect their opinion that its boring, but also highlight fact of its worldwide popularity, 3rd most watched sporting event in the world, highlight how countries are fighting for F1 to host a GP in their country, because of the status an F1 race can bring, the economic and marketing impact it has.

Main focus is fact and opinion. If they criticise F1 with an opinion "i.e its boring", point out thats an opinion, base your argument on facts, such as what I've posted above, and then be sure to remind them you've based why F1 is good, on purely facts, they can't argue it.

Good luck :)

[Valve Bounce]

Read my lips - see my post above!!

[D-Type]

How does that help him exactly? All sports are dangerous if the players are carelessWhat I was trying to get at is that the ultimate sport must be the most exciting. What makes it exciting? The chance of getting killed. And of these contenders for the ultimatesport, F1 has the highest profile. But Hemingway expressed it better.

[Valve Bounce]

What I was trying to get at is that the ultimate sport must be the most exciting. What makes it exciting? The chance of getting killed. And of these contenders for the ultimatesport, F1 has the highest profile. But Hemingway expressed it better.

You could try extreme ski-ing/snow boarding where these guys come down on a very steep icy slope in a narrow rocky gully with a width of icy snow less than 1 metre width in parts. I saw a film clip of these guys doing that in Scandinavia - my teeth hurt just from clenching my jaws watching them.

[Jonny288]

Crikey :eek: , thanks guys for that.
Some good facts which i can expand on.
Just hope i'll be able to do it justice!
:)

[philipbain]

What I was trying to get at is that the ultimate sport must be the most exciting. What makes it exciting? The chance of getting killed. And of these contenders for the ultimatesport, F1 has the highest profile. But Hemingway expressed it better.

If the risk of death = the ultimate then 3 Day Eventing on horses is much more ultimate than F1 as the chances of getting killed to death are much higher!

[Knock-on]

How does that help him exactly? All sports are dangerous if the players are careless


Yeah, I received a brutal ping pong ball on the forearm once. Put me off the sport for life :(

[Knock-on]

PolePosition has made many excellent points.

Be wary of some FIA statistics on viewing figures. About year 2000 before F1 started to decline a bit in popularity (and consequently the FIA stopped producing figures ;) ) they were claiming that 10X the population of the world were watching F1. Now, I know how they get to this figure and it's smoke and mirrors so have a search around for actual viewers who watch an element of F1 each year.

Green credentials is a good one and this is likely to become more so in the future but F1 has been carbon neutral since the start of the millennium.

Safety. Very good point. The last fatality in F1 was back in 1994.

F1 does not feature in the top 10 most dangerous sports for fatalities (which Lawn Bowls tops because of the age of the participants).

F1 safety technology filters down to road cars an further improves road safety.

F1 and motorsport employees thousands of people in the UK.

[ioan]

Hi everyone, :wave:

In a couple of weeks I am doing a debate on F1 to a group of 50 or so, where the majority wouldn't watch or like it, ie. it's only cars going around in circles blah, blah... So, I was wondering if anyone could help me enlighten those who have not yet seen the light!

The motion i got was:
That F1 is the ultimate sport in the world.

I am for the motion. As far as i'm aware my opponent is going with the line that F1 is dangerous, boring, polluting the environment and inspires speeding on public roads, less accessible i.e. you need money.

Any suggestions, tips, especially reasons why you like F1 are very welcome. Thanks. :)

Not being an F1 driver or engineer it will be difficult to support that motion.
I'm a huge F1 follower and I can't say that F1 is the ultimate sport in the world.
You can prove it's a sport, more so than other sports (i.e. billiards, snooker, golf and other sports where participants use some kind of tools but require significantly less physical preparation) because drivers need to train x hours everyday in a gym, also they have so many training days and race days a year, where their physical strength (talk about the enormous G forces that their bodies have to support several hundred times each race) is tested.

On the other hand I can't see how it can be called the ultimate sport. You could argue that because of the very high speeds involved the drivers need to have the best visual acuity and best reflexes, and hope that the opponent will not think about sports that need more than it's needed in F1.

However it will be more than enough for him to come up with another rather extreme sport, for example alpine skiing competitions (pick any of them) to negate any of your arguments.