The Ruining of F1

[Roamy]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

[dj_bytedisaster]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

At least for this year the friday in fact becomes vitally important. With no testing allowed all season, the friday is the only opportunity to test some new components. And if the two practices of today are anything to go by, the usual suspects (Ferrari, McLaren, BMW) have quite a lot they need to improve.

But on the other hand I'm with you. Midget-Bernie and Sadomaso-Max are pretty much driving the final nail into F1's coffin. For a starter the cars are mindbogglingly ugly - in fact they take ugly to a whole new level. Don't let your kids watch F1 - they will not only be scared, they'll also vomit explosively all over your dining room carpet.
Lets just pretend the new rules work, so the uglieness at least serves a purpose, but I see quite a few flaws with that :

a) Those traytable front wings for instance. I'm hard pressed to believe that more than 50% of them will still be in place after the first lap of the race. I mean they are designed to improve overtaking, which usually involves close wheel-to-wheel racing - aint gonna happen with these things on - get close to a rival and you'll undress your ride.

b) The tires. The Bridgestone folk seem to have degraded into a bunch of dribbling half-wits. None of the tires worked today. Just two gems from today's onboard soundbites on BBC in the 2nd free practice :

Kubica: "It's undriveable, I'm not driving the car, *it* is driving me. I'm just sliding all over the place."
BMW: *silence*

Sutil: "I think there's something wrong with the car. It's totally undriveable"
Engineer: " 'fraid that's what the tires are going to be."

So how are we going to see more overtaking, when the best drivers in the world are having a hard time getting around the track on their own? Anybody seen the Ferraris in the last 15 minutes? They were all over the place for pete's sake.

Well, Mosley's better off scouting some hookers and having them whoop is arse, so he's far enough away from the chance to ruin F1 even more and the Midget, well just send him off to a pensioneers home.

[AndyRAC]

While costs have run out of control - I don't like the idea of a spec series, which is what it is increasingly looking like. And don't get me started on control tyres. The anti-Michelin stance is wrong (a mistake in 1 race Indy 2005).
Surely the whole idea of F1 is to show off the latest technology and be innovative - sadly , it seems this is no longer allowed.

[Mark]

The drivers never like the cars they are given, but they have to get on with it! That's what seperates the good from the great.

[wedge]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

How it should be.

The less predictable it is the better the racing.

[V12]

Agree on the tyres thing - as far as I perceived it Michelin were driven out of the sport for political reasons after "Indygate", disgusting. As it is Bridgestone pretty much have licence to do what they want, whereas Michelin's involvement not only gave us some exciting unpredictable races but also means competitiors keep each other on their toes. Any problem with BS's BS is going to be a case of F1 lying in the bed it's made for itself I'm afraid.

I think a sensible trade-off from the testing ban would have been to allow free running on Fridays, whereby the engine and and tyre allocations are unaffected - basically like a test at a Grand Prix. At least this way these "testing" sessions would make Fridays more meaningful and add to the spectacle for the fans at the track.

[ioan]

Agree on the tyres thing - as far as I perceived it Michelin were driven out of the sport for political reasons after "Indygate", disgusting. As it is Bridgestone pretty much have licence to do what they want, whereas Michelin's involvement not only gave us some exciting unpredictable races but also means competitiors keep each other on their toes. Any problem with BS's BS is going to be a case of F1 lying in the bed it's made for itself I'm afraid.

I do not agree with your views about Michelin being thrown out of F1 for political reasons.
One of them had to go because the tire war was almost as costly as the aero development!

The FIA put up a tender and if I'm not wrong Michelin decided on their own to live F1 1 year before the change to only one manufacturer was going to happen.

Also who in their right mind would have chosen as unique tire manufacturer the one that failed to do their job?!

[Shifter]

Overtaking is not a single form. Take a look back at Kimi's pass on Fisichella at Suzuka. He applied pressure, Fisi blocked and compromised his run, and Kimi got the drop on him into turn 1. It was like war, like a chess match. I fear that now, though there will be more overtaking, it will simply be because a driver made a mistake while trying to deal with the new car and the other went slower and didn't make a mistake.

The proof will be in the pudding. Let's see how the first 2-3 races go down.

[wedge]

Overtaking is overtaking. It's easy to discredit manoeuvres in most cases because there's a reason to it eg. Mansell passed Piquet at Silverstone in '87 because Mansell changed tyres and Piquet didn't; Jacques Villeneuve passed Schumi on the outside of Parabolica at Estoril '97 because Schumi was baulked by a backmarker; Alonso passed Schumi on the outside into 130R at Suzuka '05 because Alonso blatantly had the faster car, the list is endless.

At a given time and place you have to make the most of the situation given.

[DexDexter]

I'm tired of all this complaining, whatever happens people always complain how things were better before changes, come to think of it F1 was best when it started in 1950 because there weren't any good old days to long for. When people get older, they oppose everything that upsets their personal status quo. The points system is a different matter, however :) .

[Dr. Krogshöj]

I watched the entire P2 this morning and it was pretty lively, the sitting in the garage argument doesn't really stand up.

[UltimateDanGTR]

'The ruining of F1' wtf? yes, Bernie is a nut job T***, Mosley is a Nazi slapper and the FIA dont like Hamilton, but so what?

just accept F1 for what it is, Friday Practice? yes I agree teams may need it to get some serious testing time but the most important aspect is the race. simple as. F1 this year will probably be epic, so theres nothing wrong with that. come to think of it, from now on I would like to propose a list of rules for F1 fans everywhere:

1. Concentrate on the qualifying and race and who actually wins

2. Love the sport for what it is

3. Ignore anything Bernie says and have faith in FOTA

4. Any politics involved, just ignore it and accept whatever the result is

There we go, seems fair to me..

[V12]

I'm tired of all this complaining, whatever happens people always complain how things were better before changes, come to think of it F1 was best when it started in 1950 because there weren't any good old days to long for. When people get older, they oppose everything that upsets their personal status quo. The points system is a different matter, however :) .

I understand your point - I remember when I was a kid watching F1 in the 90s people were saying how much better it was in the 70s and 80s, and even back then there were probably people who detested the change to sponsorship and the wings that started sprouting up in the late 60s.

Yes, change is the natural order of life. What I don't agree with however is change for changes sake. There's a very old saying that goes "if it aint broke don't try and fix it"

For example the increasing sanitization of the sport and demise of the likes of the Nurburgring and old Spa is one example of change that, while in many ways was sad, was probably necessary to stop drivers dying every other month.

The banning of technologies such as turbos and ground effects were also safety-led. The banning of technologies such as traction control, ABS, active suspension etc. were necessary to ensure the driver remained more than a glorified passenger.

What HASN'T been necessary IMO though are all the various changes, most taken since the end of 2002, that have contributed nothing. All the various qualifying system changes (many taken to correct previous changes that didn't work!), homologated engines, engine change penalties, the single tyre, talk of standard parts, standard engines and so on. And some that happened earlier - grooved tyres (why not just make them narrower?), the 12 team "franchising" thing that may be removed if Bernie's latest noises are to be believed, and so on....

Change in many ways is great, drivers, teams, personnel come and go, sponsors, suppliers come and go, but what attracted me to Grand Prix racing in the first place was the purity of the competition, man and machine in an balls-out contest to the flag - contest that is uniquely both human and technical in equal measure - in that way it hasn't changed much since the late 19th century, but it's in grave danger of doing so if they're not careful :(

[rickos]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

So what's to be held on Friday's? Juggling acts? Political speeches?
Time to attend a race that has better held on to its traditions. Maybe LeMans.

[VkmSpouge]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

Does anyone ever go to an F1 weekend and say "You know I like the race and qualifying but what really gets me excited are the free practice sessions!" I really wouldn't care if it was just a Saturday-Sunday event with a practice, qualifying and a race.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Who needs to watch practice? Cant imagine anything more boring. The support events give the entertainment value to a GP weekend on the Friday and Saturday. The qualifying format I actually enjoy and I think I might actually watch more of the races based on what I saw in OZ.