Is Formula One the Pinnacle of Motorsport?

[siffert_fan]

The world of motorsports is huge. If you want spectacle and fantastic sound, go to the Reno air races in Nevada. You can see P-51 mustangs, Hawker Sea Furies and F-8 Bearcats racing each other! Now THAT is my idea of "pinnacle". You should also check out offshore power boat racing.

 

[Fenderman]

Ah, now we're getting into loftier realms and treading in deeper water

 

[Jen]

Ah, now we're getting into loftier realms and treading in deeper water

Pardon?

 

[Fenderman]

Oh c'mon Jenov! Air racing and powerboating? loftier as in high as in sky? Deeper water as in sea? Just playing with words

 

[MCLS]

You might need your jacket now......

 

[Slyboogy]

Is F1 the pinnacle of motorsport? I like to think so...but however the past few years it has been on the decline with all the knee-jerk rule changes and trying to grab that casual viewer (who will always find a fault).

Trying to promote the 'green' image in F1? That I am afraid will never happen as F1 isn't green.

 

[MCLS]

look at Singapore, that race weekend is hardly green

 

[Slyboogy]

look at Singapore, that race weekend is hardly green

Exactly! Same could be said about KERS and the batttery stuff etc, plus Abu Dhabi being half a night race.

 

[gethinceri]

I am with Snowy, so my answer's no.
I think Motorsport is too broad to have a pinnacle and it's a case of "horses for courses" too. While I watch as much motorsport as I can get away with it's F1 that I'm allowed to devote most TV time to so I feel I know it better, there are too many other forms of motorsport that are different and certain series/events are the pinnacle of those. The current "best" F1 driver may not be able ever to win a stage of the Dakar or a Nascar race. Has Carlos Sainz driven in the pinnacle of motorsport? He's certainly reached the top of two series that I have a deep interest in, and there are other truly great drivers who would be very uncomfortable if told that they hadn't reached the top because they hadn't driven in F1.
Good thread though, with some very lucid answers.

 

[Jen]

Oh c'mon Jenov! Air racing and powerboating? loftier as in high as in sky? Deeper water as in sea? Just playing with words

Please call me Jen

 

[Slyboogy]

I am with Snowy, so my answer's no.
I think Motorsport is too broad to have a pinnacle and it's a case of "horses for courses" too. While I watch as much motorsport as I can get away with it's F1 that I'm allowed to devote most TV time to so I feel I know it better, there are too many other forms of motorsport that are different and certain series/events are the pinnacle of those. The current "best" F1 driver may not be able ever to win a stage of the Dakar or a Nascar race. Has Carlos Sainz driven in the pinnacle of motorsport? He's certainly reached the top of two series that I have a deep interest in, and there are other truly great drivers who would be very uncomfortable if told that they hadn't reached the top because they hadn't driven in F1.
Good thread though, with some very lucid answers.

They may not win but the top half of the F1 drivers will always be competitive, same can not be said about other motorsport categorys.

Graham Hill, John Surtees and other dudes(bad memory sorry) from back then won in different motorsport categorys or where competitive.

Schumacher was competitive in bikes, Hakkinen won a few races in DTM, and most currently Raikkonen is competitive in Rally and and in his first NASCAR race.

 

[gethinceri]

I'm not sure I can agree. Schumacher did not ride in a top category, Hakkinen did not become DTM champion and Raikonnen has not become WR Champion.

 

[Slyboogy]

I'm not sure I can agree. Schumacher did not ride in a top category, Hakkinen did not become DTM champion and Raikonnen has not become WR Champion.

True about Schumacher, but the other two have been strong runners in those categorys.

 

[Jru]

I think that in the past, when car speed was limited by technology rather than regulations, F1 (to my knowledge) was at the forefront of development in the race to go ever faster. At this point it probably was the pinnacle. The problem is that now cars can go too fast and so the regulations limiting the cars have had to be brought in, beyond safety or cost grounds. This means that any developments in F1 will likely only be relevant to that set of regulations, and if any major step in speed is made, it would soon need to be removed again! This may explain the drive to make F1 explore different boundaries other than the regulations themselves (e.g. DDD, F duct, flexiwing etc), at least if the cars are going faster because they have managed to make a better more efficient engine it could mean something to someone else other than just the points table, for this reason I don't mind the idea of being relevant to road cars at least in some capacity. There are many different formulae now, and each one pushes a different set of boundaries - to define any one of those set of boundaries as the pinnacle relative to another would be incorrect. In effect then you can no longer look for a pinnacle on these criteria.

If you were to look at different criteria, be it car speed, (Bernie's favourite) income, viewers, perceived quality of drivers, history, prestige - I think F1 does still come out near the top if not at the top, and so in my mind it is the pinnacle but in a very different and much diminished sense to what used to be.

I wasn't going to say this but given the above posts: I think the driver quality in F1 is very high, possibly more so than others. When you say - ah he may be an F1 champ but he couldn't win this other motorsport, well fine but I think that in general they would fare a lot worse coming the other way! To be at the top in several catagories would be incredible, to be near enough the top in special enough and I think F1 still has this.

 

[Fenderman]

I wonder how much of the disparity between performance in one category against another is down to the years of conditioning the muscles of the body and the connections between neurons in the brain? If we take musicianship for example, one can become extremely proficient on one instrument and maybe reasonable on many others. It will always be the instrument one plays the most that will really show the class. Take any multi-instrumentalist and they will be average on all but their most preferred instrument. Most musicians (if they want to and make the effort) can play other instruments because they understand (consciously or otherwise) the principles of music - i.e. timing, tonality, harmony and discord, etc. but a multi-instrumentalist who is exceptional on more than one or two instruments is a very rare bird.

 

[MCLS]

Oh c'mon Jenov! Air racing and powerboating? loftier as in high as in sky? Deeper water as in sea? Just playing with words

Never EVER, use Jennifer though, it's not a good idea

Anyway, to give a breif(ish) answer, motorsport is too wide a category that I think there is no pinnacle, how can a 4 wheel category be the pinnacle of something that includes 2 wheels, (or no wheels in some cases)?

 

[Fenderman]

As a matter of interest, does anyone know who it was who originally made the claim? It's been banded around for so many years now yet it seems only recently the whole notion of "The Pinnacle" has been challenged and certanly not with the depth of reasoning as represented in the many views in this thread. I don't know about you lot but I for one find this truly remarkable and it's an honour to be in such good company.

 

[Slyboogy]

As a matter of interest, does anyone know who it was who originally made the claim? It's been banded around for so many years now yet it seems only recently the whole notion of "The Pinnacle" has been challenged and certanly not with the depth of reasoning as represented in the many views in this thread. I don't know about you lot but I for one find this truly remarkable and it's an honour to be in such good company.

Me

 

[Fenderman]

Nah. You're way too young, mate.

 

[Speshal]

@ Fender

From Andrew Benson's blog this week.

We still need to be the pinnacle," Webber said. "We need to be able to push the cars to the limit throughout a grand prix and have very strong lap times, man against machine.