How could F1 be improved?

[FB]

The FOTA teams met recently to discuss ways to improve F1 for the humble fans. Amongst the things discussed were reducing a race weekend from 3 days to 2, although I'm not sure exactly how this would make things better.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87441

So open forum for you to make your suggestions on all aspects of an F1 race weekend. Should it only last for 2 days? Would that really encourage more people to actually go to the tracks? Should qualifying be revised? Back to a 1 hour free for all, aggregate times for a set number of flying laps, more or less cars through in each section using the current system, drawing lots, two races - one for qualifying on Saturday and then the race on Sunday? Qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday with the fastest time (or aggregate time) determining grid position? Q tyres? Should there be points for pole, fastest lap and most laps led? Weight penalties for winning cars (as in DTM)? No mandatory tyre stops? Bring back refueling? Free choice to fuel or not to fuel? Limited pit crews on pit stops? More wheel nuts meaning pit stops will take longer? More freedom in car design? Less freedom in car design? Tougher fuel limits? Air intake restrictors to more evenly balance engine power outputs? More freedom in engine design? Less freedom in engine design? Bring back in-season testing?

Just a few ideas for discussion but I'm sure you will have more especially if you watch other forms of motor racing which are, perhaps, more competitive through the field than F1 racing. FOTA want suggestions so let's give them some...

 

[F1Yorkshire]

The current qualifying format is one of the best they have used. I didn't miss the 50 minute snoozefest followed by 10 mins of madness that used to happen and when they changed it so only 1 car ran at a time for a lap it was a joke especially if rain compromised the end of the session.

Keep qualifying as it is. The system works which is rare for F1

What they need to change are the level of restrictions placed on the designers. They have to design all the parts to within set parameters so its no wonder that all the cars end up looking the same with similar performance levels. The number of innovations that have come from F1 has been declining rapidly over the last few years.

I liked Mosleys suggestion of telling the teams they only have a £40 million but then they had technical freedom to design the car how they want. I think they should take this a step further. Teams could run upto 4 cars but they would only be allowed to spend a maximum of £20 million per car. This level of funding will attract more privateers to F1. The advances of CFD mean anyone with a powerful PC and a degree in aerodyamics can design an F1 car, there is no shortage of young drivers with the potential to win and there's always investors ready to put money into the next big thing.

With an increase in the number of entrants pre-qualifying should be re-introduced on the Fridays to get the number of drivers down to 26 to take part in the main qualifying session on Saturday. I'm too young to remember the days of 40 cars showing up for a race weekend but I'm sure many of you guys agree they were the fun days of F1

They may need to re-introduce a standard sized powerplant but if it is a 2 litre turbo that could be used for all forms of racing this would attract more interest from the big car companies. F1 used to be the pinnacle of motorsport but recently it has become too elitist and only the mega rich could take part.

The other thing that needs to change is the current track selection but I'll let someone else rant about that!

 

[chreden]

Although not directly related to racing, but definitely related to the fan's enjoyment: cheaper tickets. I was looking at Silverstone tickets for next year and an average price of £200 has made me think twice about it. I'll probably buy in the end, but so many more people would think about going if it was less of an investment.

 

[Speshal]

Frikkin front mounted laser cannon.

 

[FB]

I sort of miss the old 1 hour qualie and 10 minutes of madness and at the end of the session. Not sure about the laser cannons though Spesh

Have to agree with Chreden on the ticket prices. I'm hoping to get to a race in Europe next year (maybe Italy) but haven't had the courage to find out how much it's going to cost yet.

 

[fat jez]

I think the best thing for F1 would be the retirement of two people - one B Ecclestone and one H Tilke. Bernie keeps coming up with hair brained schemes (like medals) and going to countries with no racing heritage just because they are willing to pay through the nose to hold a race. You then end up with empty stands. Meanwhile, he charges circuits like Silverstone a premium to hold the race and pocketing all the track-side adverts, leaving the circuits to charge exorbitant prices to break even.

As for Tilke, he may be a good architect, but his circuits lack all the ingredients of a classic like Interlagos, or Silverstone and are too formulaic. But instead of having a competitive tender process where several architects can submit designs for a circuit based around the land available, it goes by default to Tilke, meaning he doesn't have to up his game (although this is also Bernie's fault).

We've seen the back of Mosely, now it's time to get rid of the rest of the old guard and allow the sport to move on.

 

[KekeTheKing]

One thing I've never understood about this year's regulations is the parc ferme conditions between qualifying and the race. Why force teams to compromise their setups in Qualifying so that they'll be more effective (legal) in the Grand Prix? I think they should be allowed two different setups for the two vastly different car weights.

That way teams wouldn't have to devise clever ways to have their cars sneakily change ride height in the middle of the night, right Christian

 

[Speshal]

I think the best thing for F1 would be the retirement of two people - one B Ecclestone and one H Tilke. Bernie keeps coming up with hair brained schemes (like medals) and going to countries with no racing heritage just because they are willing to pay through the nose to hold a race. You then end up with empty stands. Meanwhile, he charges circuits like Silverstone a premium to hold the race and pocketing all the track-side adverts, leaving the circuits to charge exorbitant prices to break even.

Couldn't agree more with this, unless it involved laser cannons.

 

[Galahad]

When Bernie retires, whoever replaces him will follow exactly the same policy - the problem is the ownership of the commercial rights. So what I would like to see is the sale of F1 from CVC to a consortium of the teams (I am well aware this will not happen in any kind of foreseeable future).

Putting aside the technical regs, in terms of sporting changes I would stick with the 3-day format but get rid of conventional qualifying altogether. Have a short qualifying race on the Saturday - say 30 minutes or so - in place of the current session, with the grid lined up in reverse championship order. The results of this race then form the grid for the main event, with the short race winner on pole position. This would compel designers to factor in overtaking when designing their cars - if this was allied to more liberal aero regulations (i.e. flexibility/adjustability), variable-boost turbos and KERS then we would see more innovative solutions I am sure.

I'm open to suggestions on how to determine the grid for the opening race of the season.

For the races, get rid of the mandatory tyre stop and the two compounds rule - in fact, open up the tyre supply completely, with multiple manufacturers and compound options. Set an energy limit for all cars for the start of the race, and then any energy you can recover from the car is "free of charge". Powertrain regs could be opened up for different engine configurations and fuels, and the energy limit reduced by, say 7% per year to encourage focus on efficiency.

Somehow, we need to get away from this thing of drivers saving their engines at every possible opportunity rather than trying to race. If the thing is overheating then that's OK of course, but don't do it because you don't fancy your chances against the guy in front and you might need the engine for an event over a month away! The only thing I can think of is going back to one engine per weekend (excluding Fridays) unless anyone else has a bright idea?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

I'm open to suggestions on how to determine the grid for the opening race of the season.

They could start in car number order. The method they use for assigning numbers would work here.

Have to agree with Chreden on the ticket prices. I'm hoping to get to a race in Europe next year (maybe Italy) but haven't had the courage to find out how much it's going to cost yet.

I'm planning on heading there as well. I looked at the price of a weekend general admission ticket for Silverstone and realised I could get a grandstand seat at the Parabolica for the same price. I'm going to make a holiday out of it and take the missus around northern Italy at the same time.

 

[siffert_fan]

I pretty much agree with everything Galahad says. The engine rules are ruining the sport.

I would also like to see a banning of carbon brakes. Returning to steel brakes would lengthen braking distances and possibly create greater opportunities for outbraking to occur. In an ideal world, I would like to see a return to manual gearboxes as well (and think of the money THAT would save).

By the way, does anyone know just how long CVC owns the commercial rights? Hopefully it in not "in perpetuity"!

 

[Brogan]

By the way, does anyone know just how long CVC owns the commercial rights? Hopefully it in not "in perpetuity"!

I think they were sold for 100 years but I could be wrong.

 

[FB]

Siffert Fan said:

I would also like to see a banning of carbon brakes. Returning to steel brakes would lengthen braking distances and possibly create greater opportunities for outbraking to occur.

It's an opinion I've held for quite some time SF but was slapped down when I suggested it in another place as not being true. The story I was told was that Alessandor Zanardi, who was struggling with the the F1 Williams compared to the cars he had driven in the US, did back to back tests comparing steel and carbon with little difference in lap times or stopping distance.

I've never managed to find anything to substantiate this so if anyone knows I would be grateful for some background. The only other thing is that braking technology has probably moved on massively since Zanardi drove an F1 car so it may not still be the case.

 

[FB]

Found something on steel vs carbon brakes, although it is just another forum the people posting sound quite well informed.

http://forums.autosport.com/lofiversion ... 29153.html

and

http://www.atlasf1.com/news/1999/aug/1561.htm

 

[LifeW12]

The problem with F1 is the pothetic crowds that turn up to some races so they need to publicise it more

 

[cider_and_toast]

I agree with pretty much everything that's already been written here.

The trouble is, there hasn't ever really been that much wrong with F1 at any time in it's history with perhaps one exception and that was the height of the Schumacher/Brawn/Ferrari years when it seemed as if everyone else need not bother to turn up. Since around 2002 it's all been about trying to ensure that doesn't happen again. You can't have a sport that runs on "re-active" rules. F1 has to move forward and develop constantly in order to maintain peoples interest. There is too much of "here comes the old boss, same as the new boss".

Let teams have areas they can develop, allow outside manufacturers more access to the sport (one tyre supplier for example, is not the way the sport should go) and resolve the Bernie/CVC thing so that money can be put back into the sport and not used to plug a huge debt.

Finally we as motorsport fans need to admit to ourselves that it's never going to be as good as it was in our favourite era and leave it at that.

(But it would be great if we could return to huge turbos, black and gold cars and epic battles between drivers like Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet etc etc)

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Galahad said:I'm open to suggestions on how to determine the grid for the opening race of the season.

How about a short qualifying race on the Saturday - say 30 minutes or so - with the grid lined up in reverse championship order from the previous season?
(Rookie drivers would just have to start the Saturday race from the back of the grid)

 

[tooncheese]

On another thread TBY i think mentioned HRT have the same setup for every race. I this became a rule then the big teams would all find a happy equlibrium, teams who rarely score would try somthing that may only suit a couple of tracks, and mix it all up a bit .

 

[BlackCountryBob]

To further reflect on engine regs, I would like the engine management stuff done right, forget all this fuel mix stuff, if the drivers need to save fuel then it should be done using their right boot.

I don't really mind the mandatory tyre change rule but I would like to see pit stops as a bigger penalty, maybe by limiting the number of guys able to work on the car, to me it is a disappointment that you ca get a 15 second gap and make a pitstop from the lead without having to drop back into traffic, I would like to see more cars having to drop back into the Kubica train for a few laps.

I think one of the practice sessions could be better used, unsure exactly how but maybe Saturday morning could have some kind of reward to it to encourage the cars out to the track, not points but maybe some reward like fastest driver gets an extra set of tyres or a free extra engine change in the season.

Laser cannons would be nice but I think oil slicks and Gatling guns would be good, a Gatling gun on the front nose would really help with putting weight over the front wheels

 

[Richard James]

Just read the posts and thought you might be interested in www.divergentgovernance.co.uk It is a website dedicated to my proposed fix of all thing wrong with contemporary circuit racing (including Formula 1). The fix is slowly gathering momentum within the motorsport industry and an insider (ex FIA technical advisor) has suggested that I try to generate as much publicity for the idea as I can. Please take a look and let me know what you think..

Rich