Your thoughts on the direction of F1
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Hopefully there isn’t already a thread like this but if not –
What are your thoughts on the direction F1 is heading in?
What do you think of things like DRS, KERS, the new engine reg’s, electric power only in the pit lane, the return to periscope exhausts and lower noses, pay per view TV, the rise in the no. of pay drivers etc. etc. ?
you sound like someone who really means: F1 isn’t what it used to be and it’s only getting worse
However… I shall go through each point you brought up.
DRS is great and I’m glad it’s here, the tech will get better and so will the techies so DRS could one day become very exciting. People like to complain about DRS saying that it makes it far too easy to overtake and it’s artificial. I disagree, I think that having tires that go off quickly makes overtaking far easier than DRS and that is far more artificial. The most basic principle of over taking is that you have a fast car behind a slow car, the FIA is making this happen.
KERS is hybrid technology and I love the idea of a strategic boost that drivers can use anywhere on the lap. This aids the over taking and as it progresses with more power on the Kers button more interesting and intense duels made more interesting by KERS. Also with the cars being as perfectly reliable as they are now it’s nice to have something that can break down on the fastest car.
New engine regulations for 2014: Love them, no idea what everyones complaining about. The sound will still be nice, maybe not as loud but the turbo era was hardly quiet.
Silent pit lane: I like being able to hear clearly what the presenters in the pits are saying, I welcome this. People like to complain about loosing the soulwhen the sound goes away but those people have never been in a fast electric car. It’s a whole different type of magic to see a car waft past silently, and something else entirely to be in one.
Periscope exhausts: from what I heard the exhausts are to come straight out the back end of the car. I have no problem with new regs.
Lower noses: I did not think they were following through with this.
Pay Per View TV: The UK has without doubt the best coverage in the world from the BBC. Sky might do a decent job with presenting because everyone will be comparing them to the BBC coverage. If you don’t want to pay for Sky I’m sure you have a mate who has Sky and you can ask to join them to watch the races.
It’s better than no coverage at all.
Rise in Pay Drivers: What rise? There have always been pay drivers, If you are refering to the likes of Petrov and Maldonado; at least they are not totally hopeless. There used to be alot more pay drivers.
TOMMY will probably come along in a minute and say “There is a discussion on this subject elswhere.” I couldn’t find one that was still open and asked where it was.
What did I get?
That’s right “There is a discussion on this subject elswhere.” but no indication where it is they ALL seem to be closed. They don’t want you to discuss it!
Today I’ve been thinking about DRS, I think it is a bad thing. Because I watched the 2008 Australian Grand Prix and the battles caused lots of drama with collisions and stuff and I was thinking that if there was DRS then none of those battles would have happened because the DRS would have let the chasing car past without having an entertaining battle. I think thats what happened at this years Australian Grand Prix, all the battles automatically ended because of DRS so we didnt get as much battles and stuff.
The tire rules suck. It is fair but use of tires for quilifing and the race we never really know how fast the cars could go in quilifing. I think they f1 should go back to quilifing tires the only teams benifiting from the tires they use is the slower teams they always make it in with the 107% rule look about 20 years ago when they didnt even pre-quilify.
I love KERS- it’s just a modern version of the old turbo boost button. It adds an extra dimension to the on-track action, even if it is quite small.
I’m still sitting on the fence with regard to DRS. Without doubt it’s made races more exciting, but on the other hand, I always enjoyed races before DRS anyway.
So far as the new engine regulations are concerned, I see no problem. So long as we’re not sacrificing performance in the name of “being green”, I don’t mind what engines F1 uses. I must admit that I love the sound of the V12s from the late 90s/early 2000s, but I can get over slightly quieter engines.
I’ve already talked a lot about the BBC/Sky deal in various places on the site, but suffice to say I’m very upset. If FOM wanted to keep F1 on free-to-air, they could. The BBC have been told to save money, but F1 makes hundreds of millions per year- they could easily subsidies BBC coverage. I don’t have a problem with pay-to-view in itself- it’s the ludicrous amounts of money that Sky charges.
On the “rise of the numbers of pay drivers”- surely that’s not true? Yes, there are plenty of drivers on the grid with ties to a particular sponsor, but most of them are good drivers who’d deserve a place in F1 regardless of money. The only major exception is Karthikeyan, but he’s been dropped already
Racing wise. Perfect.
Couldn’t have dreamed of better racing than we’ve had this year. Every Grand Prix (except Valencia) has been a classic Grand Prix and one of the best in recent times.
Shame we’ll only get to see half of them live next year.
I have to say the racing has been great this year.
In regard to DRS I think the tracks where it hasnt been easy to breeze by are better. I can cope with with it being ‘artificial’ if it just keeps the gap small for a driver to pass at another area of the track, or really fight for it just after the zone. However a few zones are slightly too long making it easy. However it is the first year so fine tweaking the zones is something for next year.
Tires are good in my opinion. It brings back some of the strategy missed from refueling and actually brings quite alot of overtaking.
I hope for the continuation of this great season for years to come.
KERs Im also happy with but would perfer some more on screen graphics to show it more often, its interesting how drivers use it at differnt points of the track.
I am a bit worried about going too green in the future and getting more and more electric but I’m not going to wait and see with that one before I pass judgement.
I live in Denmark now but am from the UK and can understand the uproar over the SKY deal. Of corse it would be better if F1 stayed on the BBC but you cant blame SKY for wanting it on their channel. You have to blame the way SKY was able to buy the rights in the first place.
In Denmark we get F1 on our version of sky which costs me about £320 a year for HD which I dont mind paying… but there is a big difference between 300 odd quid to 600.
I wouldn’t rather have any other era of Formula 1 rules than the ones we have now. There’s room for improvement but right now I think they’ve got it as good as the various interest groups in F1 can allow.
Not at all Zadak, I think between this and last year we’ve had some really great races – maybe my mind is not made up on a few of the changes but just wanted to hear some other opinions.
I was a bit against DRS at one stage but think they’ve used it really sensibly in the last few races.I pretty much agree with what BrawnGP is saying about DRS, tyres and KERS.
I’d like to see them maybe try something else with the tyres in qualifying, maybe a qualifying tyre or something to allow the guys in Q3 to duke it out a bit more.
I’m not really bothered about going all electric in the pit lane – it’s only a tiny stretch and could actually be quite interesting and showcase some F1 technology.
I was a bit worried about the I4 engines but I think the new V6’s as well as some new changes will be exciting – it had to change at some point, I think we’ve had the same engines long enough now. I think though that the loud engines are part of the charm of F1 and hope that stays a part of it.
F1 has been on pay per view for a while now in South Africa – doesn’t bother me – I can’t live without satellite T.V. with the quality of our local broadcaster so I was interested to hear what those living in Britain thought.
I’m with Icthyes in that we are in a great era of F1 – even though this year the championship is pretty much decided, the battle for 2nd place is turning out to be epic! I think that we’ve got a really talented field at the moment too!
I feel like F1 has taken a dramatic turn for the worse in the last 9 months. DRS and push-to-defend KERS combine to make dry races predictable (2011 has so far been saved by a large amount of inclement weather in the race and some in qualifying). The FIA has forgotten its own regulations by trying to impose new non-safety regulations mid-season, with predictable results. Bernie’s money-grabbing, previously bad, has taken on series-killing proportions and he doesn’t even appear to understand the effects he’s having on F1’s medium-term future.
The high level of team and driver performance, along with the fact F1 still entertains when the weather shakes things up, is what currently keeps F1 watchable. However, I can tell they are very much swimming against the tide.
F1 often gets a bad press – lack of overtaking for example which is then overcome (?) by introducing a low drag setting for the rear wing which seems to be an odd way to deal with an issue! Drivers too can take a battering – is Vettel the best of is he only any good out front?
The race order at present will only be shaken up by mistakes, weather, worn our tyres, slow pit stops etc. as in F1 the fastest driver starts at the front!
So how about qualification for the first race only, and for the rest of the season the cars start in reverse finishing order, unless they have failed to complete the previous grand prix where they would be relegated to the back?
We would see overtaking and then arguably the best driver ending up as champion – as well as a real opportunity for the lower teams to shine especially in changeable conditions.
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