Historic Formula One Championship

RasputinLives

No passing through my dirty air please
Contributor
Rumours are circulating that Bernie Ecclestone is planning a 'Historic Formula One Championship' as a support race to the F1 weekend. See the Wall Street journal no less

http://m.europe.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303663604579503311815114556?mobile=y

Ex F1 drivers of 40 plus would compete in the series. Martin Brundle and Gerhard Berger have expressed an interest. Irvine has said no (horrah) and Damon Hill is tentative thinking about the safety aspect.

Is this something we want to see? I'm sure it would be initally exciting to see some old faces in modern cars but I'm sure they tried this before back in 2005 and it all got a bit depressing when former greats were too fat to fit in cars or too unfit to get through the race.

Is this something people want to see?
 
I'd love that if they weren't fat and depressing. We may not see 'greats' but I'd love to see the likes of Berger and Brundle (hopefully Hill) back in the cars.
 
I know last time they tried this, they made the cars not all that fast so these guys could compete without any physical difficulty but at the same time made them pretty difficult to drive with long braking distance and not the most grip in order to see who could still really drive. Not a bad idea if you ask me, could catch on as a little sideshow if run alongside of F1.
 
Interesting concept, but they'd have to be careful not to make it faster than current F1!

I'm thinking something similar to the 1990s CART or generally the pre-DW12 IndyCars, with a spec chassis and V8s or V10s revving at 20k. Possibly different engines, but homologated so as not to provide an advantage (like in the V8 Supercars, although the parity has been debated recently).

Or, another way of thinking about the cars - mid-late 1990s F1 cars but with better safety standards. In general though, I want to see less downforce. That will make the racing exciting, keep them slower than F1 cars and probably keep costs down too.
 
An historic F1 championship should be for historic F1 cars not drivers. The GP Masters was a bit meh and didn't last long, perhaps if Bernie ties it in with the F1 races and gives it to the circuits and TV networks for free then it will get some traction. Personally I'd rather see new young talent coming through in a spec series than all the old gits huffing and puffing in similar cars and if Bernie has money burning a hole in his pocket it would be better spent there.
 
They had historic F1 at Silverstone in 2012. It was fantastic despite the monsoon. Huge 'yes please' from me.

Historic racing is a funny one though. Typically the winner is the one with the newest car. It would be good if the cars each driver had were chosen at random for each race.
 
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I think the whole point is that Bernie is taking the rights to the name back from the current 'Historic F1' , which is races with the old cars, to create a spec series in modern cars with the 'historic' drivers.

Have to say I think I'm with you on this one FB
 
Is this just a knee jerk reaction to address the lack of noise at a GP? More support races would be good especially for the tracks which don't get much use but I think this is just typical Ecclestone trying to deflect a problem which may not exist.
 
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