Ferrari Mailing List: Re: The fate of F-1 in the US

[Rick Moseley (ramosel]

Like you were reading my mind...  Nicely presented Mr. Perry!

There are so many in F1 who seem to want F1 to be a driver's series.  That's what the feeder series is for.   The F1 rule book is too thick.   I do like #5 but not the way is used.

F1, like most aspects of life, has become a bureaucratic (socialist) mess.   When one team dominates because they have the best car, driver and tires and everyone is allowed to push like hell to catch up it is very intriguing.   When one team dominates because they have the best car and the other teams are handcuffed (motor freeze, no testings, stupid tires) then its merely interesting.  I used to get up to watch every event.  Now the DVR will do.  Its a shame when drivers like Alonzo languish...  and I'm not an Alonzo fan.

As to number 2, YES.  The "green" aspect... such a hypocrisy... talk to anyone connected with F1 power units and they'll tell you about $400K worth of batteries being discarded by the teams each weekend...  now there is an uber expensive toxic mass for the environment.  That money would be better spent on testing.

Oh, and your #6 is the most important to me...  as an engineer, the mass damper and FRIC were elegant devices (for non-engineers, "elegant" is a good as it gets).  I think F1 should be an all out assault on technology and innovation.  My "heroes" in F1 are the likes of Chapman, Tyrrell, Murray, Brawn and Newey.  (although Chapman's designs killed a lot of the top drivers).  Think where F1 could be today if Adrian Newey had the handcuffs and blinders removed?  He was never in F1, but Smokey Yunick is right up there too.

Rick

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We’ve hashed some of these before, but I think in general:

1) Fans don’t care what F1 costs except inasmuch as keeping a good number of teams running

2) Fans have no interest whatsoever in F1 being green

3) Fans have maybe the tiniest marginal interest in race tech becoming street tech

 

Things they’ve done that have killed the ENTERTAINMENT facet of F1:

1) Killed re-fueling, and thus any interest in related race-strategy

2) Killed tire strategy by limiting sets of tires and requiring multiple compound use, and thus any interest in related race-strategy

3) Killed continuous unlimited testing and development throughout the season, and thus any interest in season results changing past the first few races

4) Killed the great sounding engines of the past (although I think this is far less important than the current debate makes it seem)

5) Introduced DRS to artificially improve passing statistics

6) Cut anything that interests us from a technical “state of the art” standpoint – traction control/electronics, fixed ECUs, active aero, dictated aero vs. mechanical grip, blown diffusers, etc.

7) Limited number of engines / transmissions and artificial grid penalties unrelated to driver performance

8) Killed “qualifying setups” – hot engines and related fuel strategy management