Proposed changes for 2009

[christophulus]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71451

At the moment the teams and the FIA are discussing

A point for the fastest driver in Q2[/*:m:2ggyre2f]
Engines to last 3 races[/*:m:2ggyre2f]
Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers[/*:m:2ggyre2f]
One car at each test[/*:m:2ggyre2f]
Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays[/*:m:2ggyre2f]
Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes[/*:m:2ggyre2f]It sounds as though there is some agreement on these issues, whether that's a good or bad thing is another matter..

[leopard]

Would they classify Sato an inexperienced driver?

[Big Ben]

-A point for the fastest driver in Q2
How about giving up doing the Q3 with fuel load for the race and give that point (if they really have to) for the pole position?

-Engines to last 3 races
It might be a good think. If they agree then maybe they can do it and we won't get the title decided by the engine that blows less often.

-Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers
I think it would be great if instead of all this testing we had more races. Let them do all their testing on Fridays every race weekends. To me that should be just enough

-One car at each test
I don't really care.

-Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays
Why not playing ping-pong with the fans. It would be more fun.

-Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes
Don't like it. Don't change it if it's not broken... I think that's what they say.

[ShiftingGears]

A point for the fastest driver in Q2 - don't know why.
Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes - joke.
Fans want more action, so they propose less racing. Ridiculous.


Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers - what will this achieve?

Seriously WTF is wrong with these people? There is nothing wrong with the 300km format. Why is it even a point of discussion?

[Dave B]

A point for the fastest driver in Q2 - pointless, as Q2 doesn't really count for anything other than eliminating the 5 slowest cars.

Engines to last 3 races - fair enough, but the R&D on reliability carries its own cost

Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers - I'd reduce it still further and mandate longer testing on GP weekends with very little running during the off-season

One car at each test - pointless, the cost is mainly in getting the personnel and equipment to the track. One more car will hardly make a difference.

Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays - why not reward the drivers so that for every hour they spend giving autographs buys them so many km of extra testing?

Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes - this assumes that we have the attention span of a gnat. A Grand Prix is supposed to be part speed, part endurance. Insulting idea.


The worst idea I've heard this week is to have three sprint races per weekend, as the start is often the most exciting part. Along with reverse grids this is a sure-fire way to dumb down F1. :down:

[ioan]

Bernie and Max :down: :down: :down:

[F1boat]

* A point for the fastest driver in Q2
No. Qualy is qualy, race is race.
* Engines to last 3 races
No. This is not endurance racing.
* Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers
Don't care
* One car at each test
Don't care
* Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays
Don't care ;)
* Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes
NOOOOOOOOO!

[Ranger]

How about we replace all the cars with bicycles and get the teams to create a model car that sits on top of the drivers helmets.

Environmentally friendly and also a ****house idea... it works perfectly with FIA/FOM guidelines!

:down:

All of those proposals are rubbish.

The only decent one is the autograph session.

[DazzlaF1]

A point for the fastest driver in Q2 - Whats wrong with a point for pole, makes more sense than a point for fastest in one certain segment

Engines to last 3 races - No, i think the current rule is going far enough, this would pull it to extremes

Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers - This rule is pointless, especially considering Ferrari have their own testing facility, a perfect loophole for them to have

One car at each test - Again, pointless

Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays - Why not have the autograph session for the day most fans turn up for, RACE DAY!!!!!

Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes - The daftest idea of all, seems like if Bernie and Max had their way, the Le Mans 24 Hours would become the Le Mans 24 minutes

[yodasarmpit]

Bernie and Max :down: :down: :down:
I agree, but this is being proposed by the teams.

[Areez2006]

Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes - The daftest idea of all, seems like if Bernie and Max had their way, the Le Mans 24 Hours would become the Le Mans 24 minutes

Lol...but, yeah these are terrible ideas and they should just try to take it one year at time.

[wedge]

One good proposal (autograph session) and even that gets slated!

What is wrong with the forum these days?

:crazy:

[Knock-on]

A point for the fastest driver in Q2

Hate it, it's a gimmick.

Engines to last 3 races

If that's what the teams want then it sounds a reasonable cost cutting measure.

Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers

I would give them 2 tests. One before the season and one midway through along with 2 hours of track testing on Friday

One car at each test

Don't understand this. How can you baseline new innovations?

Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays

I'm not an autograph hunter but it's good for the people that like that.

Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes[/LIST]It sounds as though there is some agreement on these issues, whether that's a good or bad thing is another matter..[/QUOTE]

I don't like this at all. Some of the best races are wet weather ones that last near the 2 hours.

I'm wondering if there could be a sprint race on Saturday for 15 laps (offering half points) to make up for it.

[gloomyDAY]

Seriously WTF is wrong with these people? I don't know. Maybe it's time they stepped down and moved to Florida.

[truefan72]

the only things that need to change are the stupid engine freeze rules, SC rules and the race fuel Q3 period.

...oh and the Stewards

[Corny]

MAN I get soo sick of this rule changing.. C'mon men, make some simple (and easy to follow!!!) rules.. (like MotoGP for example!)

[Nikki Katz]

The race length reduction - 90 minutes is only lopping 10-15 minutes off the average race, which isn't great but I guess we can live with it if we really have to. Not that I really see why we should, getting cars that are already there to go a few extra miles isn't a huge expense. But how far do the cars actually go in that period? Surely that would depend on the speed of the track. So would somewhere like Monza therefore fall foul of the other limit by some way?

I'm a little more worried that this is leading up to a no pit-stop rule, where races will presumably have to be reduced to about an hour if they don't want the cars radically redesigned.

The engine rule - I think it wouldn't be a bad idea, but it's at completely the wrong time. We're only a couple of years into a 5 year engine freeze, where Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW have frankly already cheated and found loopholes to let them develop their engines, to the extent that Honda, Toyota and Renault have been told to develop theirs in the off-season. What would extending the engine life another race do to this???

When will they realise that the huge cost of F1 is mostly in designing and testing weird bits of aerodynamics, which tend to have the effect of making the cars impossible to pass? Perhaps a budget cap would be more appropriate. Actually, I thought that Max was implementing a somewhat half-arsed budget cap as it is, what happened to that? Too many loopholes?

The increasing number of races in the middle and far east aren't exactly helping travel costs either, but I won't dare complain about that as they've already axed USA and Canada as an excuse and will get rid of Australia at the next opportunity, I don't want to tempt fate...

[BobbyC]

My thoughts:

Q2: Instead of just one point, redo the points as a result:

1st - 15
2nd - 11
3rd - 8
4th - 6
5th - 4
6th - 3
7th - 2
8th - 1

Fastest in Q1 - 1
Fastest in Q2 - 1
Pole Winner - 2
Sweep of Q1, Q2, and Q3 - 1 (must earn all 3)

Leading the most laps - 1

Clean Sweep (All 3 qualifying sessions, leading the most laps, win the race) - 1

Total: 22 points. Every qualifying session counts, every lap counts.

3 Race Engines - Good to think about it but . . . that's only if you go to 150-mile races instead of the 190-mile races.

Testing distances - How to enforce?

One car - Now this one isn't sensible.

Autograph sessions - Someone's seen the short-track auto racing book on how it's done.

Race distance cut to 156 miles/90 minutes - Aaargh! This will easily make many races go to the time limit. Personally, I say get rid of the time limit of two hours!

[DazzlaF1]

My thoughts:

Q2: Instead of just one point, redo the points as a result:

1st - 15
2nd - 11
3rd - 8
4th - 6
5th - 4
6th - 3
7th - 2
8th - 1

Fastest in Q1 - 1
Fastest in Q2 - 1
Pole Winner - 2
Sweep of Q1, Q2, and Q3 - 1 (must earn all 3)

Leading the most laps - 1

Clean Sweep (All 3 qualifying sessions, leading the most laps, win the race) - 1

Total: 22 points. Every qualifying session counts, every lap counts.
I would'nt go as extreme as that, id just reduce the 2nd place's points from 8 to 7, to put more emphasis on winning races, just like with the old 10-6-4-3-2-1 system

And (a bit like the non-turbo championship in the 1980's) id bring in some sort of BTCC like independents championship for the likes of Williams, Red Bull, STR and Force India, you know, give them a chance for some glory, it might even tempt a couple more independent teams into the sport, especially with the new aero-regs coming into force making the sport much cheaper as a result.

[jso1985]

point for the fastest driver in Q2
aye... artificial measures to enhance the spectacle... sorry didn't know this was NASCAR...

Engines to last 3 races
and how's that gonna help to cut costs?

Reducing in testing from 30,000km - 20,000km per season, including four separate days for inexperienced drivers
good idea, make it better by forcing teams to do at least 2/3 of their testing on GP weekends

One car at each test
kinda kills my previous idea...

Autograph sessions compulsory for drivers on Fridays
good idea, don't care really but a good idea

Reduce race time to 250km / 90 minutes
dumbest idea I've heard in a while...

[christophulus]

They all seem like pretty stupid regulations that do nothing to enhance the sport.. but then what did we expect? :p

Personally I like the qualifying rules, it's now one hour of action rather than 20 mins right at the end. More races per engine? Fair enough. Less testing? OK

Randomly handing out points for the fastest driver in Q2 is a daft idea though, as is reducing the race time. It's been fine for the past however-many years so why change now?

[cy bais]

seriously ... give these guys something to do. :)