The Future of F1

[teabagyokel]

What Grand Prix should we see coming in the future. It seems Bernie (& the mop) want every Grand Prix by 2020 to be bankrolled by some rich Arab or the Fernando Alonso Appreciation Society (sorry, Spanish public).

Should we be moving to placate the traditional fans of F1 with more European Grand Prix or searching out more exciting new fans?

Will it soon be possible to run an F1 team from Asia? (Toyota/Honda watch out)

And how will F1's expansion be reflected on the calendar... will the Grand Prix of Britain, France or Belgium (as seems likely) be makeweight?

Should we all just quit and watch A1?

Views?

 

[Guest]

Cant stand Hungary , such a processional race

I do like Tilke's tracks , they've given us some of the most exiting races and overtaking of recent years , so he gets the thumbs up from me

 

[Penske666]

Wow Tilke has got a lot of work on...
1999 Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
2004 Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain
2004 Shanghai International Circuit, China
2005 Istanbul Racing Circuit, Turkey
2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Singapore
2008 Valencia Street Circuit, Spain
2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, UAE
2009 Cape Town Grand Prix, South Africa
2010 Korean International Circuit, South Korea
2010 Volokolamsk, Russia (Planned MotoGP Venue)
International Circuit Simon Bolivar, Venezuela
2010 Indian Grand Prix, India (Planned F1 Venue)
(source Wiki)

Still can't forgive him for wrecking Hockenheim though

 

[Brogan]

I think they should be thinking really outside the box to attract new fans.

The Abu Dhabi GP for example could be set in the dunes.
Bridgestone will have to come up with an oversized off-road tyre to accomodate the undulating sandy course but it could be fun

Tilke did do a great job of Turkey though - turn 8 is superb. Why hasn't that got a name yet?

I'm not looking forward to the night race this year.
I feel it is a step too far for F1 and should never have even been considered.

Oh and get rid of all street circuits. They're rubbish.

 

[ChiaveInglese]

I was a bit torn between the first and last options.

A return to the US would be a good thing, but the Brickyard in its F1 layout reminds me too much of Rockingham. How about Laguna Seca?

Austria would be good, but I remember it as the Österreichring not the castrated A1-Ring that it became.

A return to the Imola circuit would be a wonderful idea.

However, i would have gone for Hermann Tilke were it not for the fact that I do not personally wish him any harm. As the FIA's poodle he has swamped the calendar with bland, vanilla flavour circuits. I realise that he is working within strict guidelines that make it impossible to incorporate the exciting features from older circuits, but enough is enough. If this is the best that can be done, I would suggest that no more new circuits be considered - ever.

 

[Penske666]

Vanilla is made from orchids - don't besmirch their name

 

[ChiaveInglese]

Good ice cream from real vanilla is wonderful (Salcome Dairies is my favourite) although a cheap confections use vanillin, a product of the petrochemical industry. I apologise for any offence I may have given to the Mexican Vanilla Producers Cooperative - and wish them well for the possible return of F1 to Mexico.

btw - only the missus can give me a Mosley ( ) - and that only on her birthday.

 

[bogaTYR]

personally, i don't think the future of f1 lies with a circuit. cos of rules and regulations they tend to be more and more the same anyway. some specifics are left but thats it. like the cars there are too many rules and regulations and it doesn't make for a good spectacle anymore. plus it gets less and less. with the cars you can blame aerodynamics, and with circuits all the chicanes and whatever people can think of to mess up a perfectly good circuit.

we need at least something decent happening during a race. like overtaking and a circuit should accomodate at least that. and then i am not buvvered where the circuit is. its all on tv anyway.

and as far as money is concerned, it seems to make sense there is more money in f1 in funny countries then in the west. ever since the ban on smoking advertising got into place, F1 has suffered. There are just not a lot of true global brands left to back an international event like F1. But i can imagine in a country like china, even a 'small local brand' can be the same as an international brand. so why not?

and its the same as with teams, drivers and whatever... circuits come and go. great for nostalgia but not much else.

 

[Guest]

I'm sort of stuck between number 1 and number 4. I have a certain fondness for the old tracks like San Marino and The A1 Ring but I realise that the sport needs to move to where the money is as well. Personally I don't have a problem with the Hungaroring.. it's Turkey I can't stand.

As for having races in the dark .. we shall see, it sounds interesting but if the illumination is the same as you would expect during the day whats the point other than to televise the event at a time which suits European audiences? The die-hard fans would get up at 3am anyway.. I know I do for Oz and the like ... and in future, when races are held outwith "normal" hours, we have the forum here to talk about events as they happen and 606 is shut lol

 

[Brogan]

it's Turkey I can't stand.

Wash your mouth with soap immediately!

Out of interest, what it is you don't like about Turkey?
I always thought it was one of the better new tracks.

Turn 8 always sorts the men from the boys and turns 1 & 2 are also good for some opportunistic overtaking.

and in future, when races are held outwith "normal" hours, we have the forum here to talk about events as they happen and 606 is shut

I've been trying to use that as a "selling point" lol

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry .. I just find Turkey BORING I know they say that turn 8 is challenging but I can't see it.

Maybe I'm the type that takes a while to get into a new circuit .. that's my excuse quick salti ... get out of this before you did yourself in any deeper

 

[bogaTYR]

i for one am not looking forward to these night races. i saw a moto race once on tv which was held at night and it was weird.

all the colours looked off plus they drove throught his black feautureless nothing, i think is the best way to describe it. didn't like it.

 

[Guest]

Boga's comment made me smile, at Lewis would be able to see the red stop signs at the end of the pit lane then .. in the dark

PS I'm only joking

 

[teabagyokel]

I love how "ditch the Hungaroring" is the favourite option on this poll! I mean, the 2006 race was good lol! All we need to do is water the track and it'll be really exciting!

I just hope they don't get rid of the Circuit de Gilles Villenuve; its great... The track breaks up, its fast and close to the walls, the pitlane lights are on the blink lol... Its always exciting! from me!

Hermann Tilke has probably hired some security staff to avoid some of you guys!

I think theres a new breed of F1 sponsors, namely Santander Bank, ING and Vodafone...

 

[bogaTYR]

i made an observation.

so we have this man called bernie travelling all over to world, right?
he goes to all kinds of far faraway countries to 'open new markets for f1'
he gets all kinds of local people involved to sponsor the race and to make publicity for the race
he gets the local tv involved and he makes sure there's a whole bunch of facilities and even some racing teams
he goes on tv telling everyone how many more people f1 will reach in this new territory

and then he plans the race in the middle of the night locally to suit western, especially western european tv viewers.

isn't this a wee bit odd? isn't our bernie making a fundamental thinking error here? do people in, say, china stay up in the middle of the night to watch their local f1 race? is a night race the thing local people are waiting for?

and then our friend bernie goes on tv telling everyone the future of f1 lies in these far away countries. dear sir, these far away countries don't even get to see the races this way!

 

[Guest]

That's certainly an interesting perspective Boga and one that I hadn't fully thought about.

I had crossed my mind that I wouldn't be too keen sitting out in the open in Singapore on a potentially chilly evening watching racing in the semi-darkness.

But you are right, if I lived in one of those countries being asked to stage a GP at a weird time of the night I don't think it would encourage me to go and, its also really a bit of an insult to be told have your race in the middle of the night because the European audiences are more important.

Difficult decisions need to be made, i really think that the expansion eastwards is more to do with making money for himself (Bernie) rather than getting a bigger fanbase into F!.

Personally I'd rather watch the race in daylight, live.. even in the middle of the night, the more causual sports fans who watch but are not F1 nuts will watch the recorded race later in the day .. so whats the problem? I'm really not a fan of some of the new races though, maybe its to do with age and familiarity but I loved some of the old tracks that have been replaced.

 

[teabagyokel]

If any of you (and I'm not assuming you did) watched the football World Cup in 2002, which was held in Japan/Korea, you'll remember that games that kicked off at about 7-8 o'clock in East Asia were shown at midday in Western Europe.

Simply, what I'm saying is that in the Far East the races will not be run in the early hours in the Far East, they'll just be run at primetime rather than lunchtime.

A thought comes to me though, that surely it would be more pleasant for everyone involved if the Singapore "night" race was run in mid-summer and therefore both in the early evening daylight and at a convenient time for European viewers. (Don't explain about the traditional European season, I know...)

As for watching Grand Prix in the middle of the night, I personally can't be bothered. And a good job too, because I'd've been right peeved if I's got up in the middle of the night for last years Japanese GP and ended up watching 21 laps of Safety Car running. They edited out the stuff that didn't involve Felipe Massa spinning or Ferrari ignoring the rules regarding extreme wet tyres...

I say move the Singapore GP to July and the British GP to September (wet races are always more exciting!)

 

[Zvonimir]

The new owner of the F1 has once in a lifetime opportunity to make some changes urgently needed. 25 races calendar, maybe, but what about the logistics. They should lower the race weekend ticket prices firstly. It's too expensive for the normal people.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Yesterday was difficult resulting in less than 5 minutes on the internet. I managed to get to the BBC F1 gossip, there was a headline about that nice MR Ecclestone saying that F1 needed sprucing up and that having two races on a weekend would be better, unfortunately it was behind a pay wall, I feel that it may have been the Sunday Times. Today it is gone, anyone see anything about it?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Having said that it has appeared at Ecclestone: Two 40-minute races would be good for F1 | GRAND PRIX 247

I disagree, but then I don't own it.