Fixing F1...

[The Artist.....]

As the first practice for the Monza GP was ongoing, I had a great idea about how to "fix" broken F1. One of the problems that has existed for the last 25 years or so is how predictable F1 is. The fastest cars start at the front, and generally, drive away, with the order at the end often determined by the order at the start - and why should that be surprising, given that you spend two days practicing, and then line the drivers up from fastest to slowest.

I'm not going to suggest artificial mechanisms, such as reverse grids, but, for me, the key to make F1 really thrilling again, is to introduce uncertainty, and randomness. In particular, we need fair ways of mixing the grid up.

My solution is to change the order of the sessions. You can keep the practice sessions running on a Friday and Saturday, but, first practice as it currently is, becomes qualifying, and the other sessions are then free-practice for setting up the car for the race. You would get more cases of teams realising that the baseline set-up that they have brought needs changing during qualifying, and you'd likely end up with more out-of-position cars.

You might say - well sometimes (particularly for flyaway races), the cars have been put together slightly incorrectly. Again, this is easy to fix, in that you give all teams two shake-down laps in the 30 minutes before qualifying, where they have to pass through the pitlane between each lap...

Yes, we'd probably see the same winners in the end, but there would be far more likelihood of mistakes in qualifying. There would be far more likelihood of jumbled grids...

 

[cider_and_toast]

While it's a great idea in theory, it would then come down to which team has the most accurate (expensive) simulation software to predict the ideal settings for qualification.

Sadly F1 teams know too much these days and the differences between all of the variables are so small that the order of fastest to slowest rarely changes.

While most races across most seasons of F1 have rarely seen actual battles for the top three in a wheel banging, breathless, lap after lap punch up like we seem to think we remember, they were certainly way more unpredictable.

Then you've got the problem of the teams who would quite cheerfully hack off their own noses to spite their faces. The idea for example of the sprint race result determining the starting grid was, I thought, a pretty good one. At least it gave the stupid sprint races some sort of purpose. The teams kicked that idea into touch.

At least, thank God, McLaren are letting their drivers go at it, and to be fair Mercedes have done in previous championship years.

Seeing as F1 Chassis are now completely irrelevant in terms of modern motoring cross over, the best way to fix F1 is to develop a standard chassis for all teams and develop three standard tyre compounds, a soft, medium and hard. Then let the powertrain manufacturers do their thing bolted to common mounts, with common inlets and outlets.

At a stroke we can save costs, reduce aero influence, let the manufacturers concentrate on the only bit they really give a shit about anyway and finally allow Adrian Newey to retire.