Just let F1 die!

[BigH]

Brad, some inside info....

Shell were suffering badly after the Brent Spar fiasco, and the Green party in Germany were gaining a lot of ground on the mainstream parties, and looking like genuine candidates. Shells answer to this PR problem was to sponsor Ferrari and finance the signing and wages of MS. I'd be surprised if Ferrari/Fiat spend much, if any of their profits on F1.

Not many people know that...

H

[Barry]

I have watched F1 from the late sixties, during this time we have seen many teams have a technical advantage over others (turbos, high wings, rear engines , 6 wheels fans etc.). However it was up to the drivers how they adapted to the cars. IMHO the problem lies in the electronic bag of tricks that are used today, which makes it differcult for a excellent driver in an average car to bridge the gap between himself and a competant driver in a brilliant car. When you get a skilled driver and an excellent car (Schumi & Ferrari) plus electronic driver packages you will get the boring procession at the front that you get today, the only intrest being further down the pack.
Hope they ban all electronics, bring back carbs if that is what it takes to stop teams using back door driver aids.

LM brought me back to watching 4 wheels, after many years only watching motorcycling, where not coincidentally it is much more differcult to intigrate electronics into the package.
 
Bernie and co have already been looking at MotoGP, hopefully for ideas on how to make F1 more exciting. I just pray they don't buy the franchise, and f*ck that up to.

[pretzel]

I have seen all the arguments about one teams' dominance making it a 'Boring' sport being aired before - remember 1988 (well some of us are old enough to unfortunately) when McLaren won 15 out of 16 reace with Prost and Senna? Look at them now - can't put enough nuts and bolts together in the right order to finish a race most times!

What goes around comes around and even if you don't like it at the moment things will inevitably change, Ferrari will wane in comparison to others and the very front of the field will be more competitive.  

You cannot ignore the supremacy of Ferrari at the moment, it is a superb achievement. (I do not speak as a Ferrari supporter BTW). As others have said it's up to the others to catch up, but they must be given an opportunity to do so without having to spend within an inch of bankruptcy. That's where the administration come in, and I believe some of the rule changes are designed to halt the spiralling costs.

So don't let F1 die, after all it is fundamentally motorsport. Just be patient.

[Barry]

Spot on Pretzel, 1988 had the advantage that Prost and Senna raced each other as though their lives depended on it.

What might be intresting next year or when Schumi retires, is if his seat is taken by a certain Mr Rossi, who due to his brilliance, and some sensible rule changes by the governing body (2 strokes were a dead end), has reinvigorated GP bike racing after the dominance of Mick Doohan & Honda.

Rossi doing a John Surtees Could that be done in this day and age?

[Steve Pyro]

Rossi doing a John Surtees Could that be done in this day and age?

Damon Hill did.

[Ferrari Spider]

also Mike the bike hailwood, now who's showing their age!!

[Ballast]

Pretzel makes a very valid point about the spiraling costs in F1. Simply by saying that a washer will be used on an F1 car increases its cost by 500%! ..... BUT..... and this is a big BUT, F1 teams will spend there budgets no matter what. Even if they were forced to run a 2CV they would still spend 100million a year running and developing the thing. It's a sad fact, but F1 is an animal that is out of control and until the Concorde agreement is removed and the rules and regulations returned ,in full, to the governing body F1 will remain a very deep money pit.

As for the racing, remove MS and the racing would actually be quite interesting. And that's coming from someone who is NOT a F1 fan!

[Fax]

A couple of points of interest here.  First of all I have no problem with one team gaining a technical superiority from time to time.  This has happened many times during the history of the sport (Ferrari in 1961, Lotus in 1978, McLaren in 88, Williams in '92, etc.) and yes it is up to the other teams to raise their game not for the FIA to legislate them back to the others, thats what NASCAR does over here.  IN response to the idea that Americans don't understand F1?  Actually they understand F1 too well! Thats the reason it hasn't done well over here in recent times,  F1 these days is all about big hype but very little substance under it.  When F1 raced at the Glen it drew huge crowds who came to see the best in the world and knew what kind of show they were getting.  Most of them don't even bother going to Indy.   If you only started following F1 in the past ten years or so, yes you might think its the greatest thing going but if your old enough to remember Alan Jones and Gilles Villeneueve splashing around Watkins Glen in 1979, you realise what a pile a sh*t F1 has become.  Excuse me about the driver talent but the driver doesn 't have to f**k*ng drive the car anymore!  In the middle of a corner he simply has to put his foot down and let the traction conrtol do the rest, no finesse or delicate touch here, just drive like a rock ape and the electronics will look after you, same thing with the start, just initiate the launch controll sequence and point it in the right direction.   And how about the circuts now, all over-sized kart tracks,  I remember when F1 went to Vegas for a few years in the early eighties, everyone quite rightly blasted the circut but if you look at some of the circuts they race on now, the Ceasar's Palace circut looks like fricking Spa.  Its all gotten way too gimicky, the FIA constantly fooling with the practice and qualifying format is just stupid, the way it was for thirty years was just fine thank you.  And finally, yes F1 fans now look and act like NASCAR fans!  I've seen both and there's little to choose between them, mostly a bunch of twats who know and care little for the history of the sport but are there to simply look and act like a jackass all in the good name of their favorite pretentious celebrity.
John

[Ballast]

Can anyone find Fax a soap box to stand on!  

[bird]

As for the racing, remove MS and the racing would actually be quite interesting. And that's coming from someone who is NOT a F1 fan!

no-one likes a winner eh?    

[Dave H]

Jeezus John!  So I guess you're not sending Bernie Christmas cards anymore!

Sorry I haven't got back to you - I'll drop you a line this week.

I'm not sure if I'd say drivers are doing nothing now.  I'll certainly agree that there's an enormous amount of electronic assistance, but I think you'd find there's more driver input than you're letting onto.

And you know I'm in to the hospitality stuff, so it's right up my street!

[Ballast]

 

[saveloy]

 don't forget barry sheene, and steve parrish also done quite well on 4 wheels. All the riders mentioned had some success, although mike hailwood was just magic in both sports, Surtees' record is unlikely to be matched

[Robbo SPS]

I agree with Fax / John on this one.

F1 sends me to sleep. How much longer can Shu-smack ead get away with his antics, its not racing, its boring.

The racing ( except Sato ) is cruddy. There is NO compertion, no real excitement. The pinacle of GP's has gone. Its such a problem that nearly 1 million worldwide TV viewers are turning off each race.

Mercedes have made themselves look stupid with their efforts, BMW, who cares, FIAT - it still wont help sell cars, Ford / Jaguar and Toyota, too far of the pace.

I agree - Let F1 die, but the money and evil pixie bernie will go else where - Sportscars ?

Get the cars back to racing, stop letting that German monster do what ever he likes on the track, and i may watch a GP from start to finish.

Rossi in GP's - That would be good.

Long Live beter forms of motorsport - LM, ALMS, Moto GP, BTCC, WRC

[Barry]

Rossi doing a John Surtees Could that be done in this day and age?

Damon Hill did.

Sorry, meant does Rossi have the potential to be a world champ in both disciplines, something only the great John Surtees has achieved.