What would you change?
Discussion
So Bernie's been sacked and they've put you in charge of F1. What are you going to change? Here are some ideas off the top of my head to increase the overall spectacle of F1.
- Remove the TV pay wall.
- Watch live on F1.com.
- Free comprehensive live timing on F1.com.
- Produce a free comprehensive highlights package which will be shown on F1.com 2 hours after the TV coverage finishes.
- Reduce general admission prices.
- Unclaimed complimentary/sponsorship passes to be sold on the gate.
- Points for qualifying. Points for lap times.
- V12 Engines. No forced induction. No electric motors. Spec fuel.
- Work out total possible mileage for a season. 10 engines to use, each can cover 1/10th of the mileage of a season. No limit on swaps. At the end of the season all engines can be examined by all teams.
- Fuel Limit of 95 litres for the race with plan to reduce every season. Use what you want in qualifying.
- Car must fit inside a mandated size box.
- 10 Tyre compounds. 2 can be chosen for a weekend. Use what you want in qualifying. Must use both compounds in the race.
- Reduce overall aerodynamic grip. No aerodynamic appendages.
- More aerodynamic grip to be generated by the floor.
- Increase mechanical grip.
- Reduce amount of settings that can be changed during the race by the driver. The team cannot make the changes either.
- Limit radio to pit instructions, gap information and instruction to stop the car.
- Make driver numbers readable from track side.
- Helmets of drivers in the same team must be noticeably different from track side.
- 1 test week prior to season. All other tests to be held Monday-Wednesday following a GP. No hiding of pit boxes and garages during testing.
- All drivers to participate in a charity event whereby they all drive the same car on a Thursday before a race a couple of times a season. This will change between road cars, track cars, off road cars and lower level formula cars.
- Remove the TV pay wall.
- Watch live on F1.com.
- Free comprehensive live timing on F1.com.
- Produce a free comprehensive highlights package which will be shown on F1.com 2 hours after the TV coverage finishes.
- Reduce general admission prices.
- Unclaimed complimentary/sponsorship passes to be sold on the gate.
- Points for qualifying. Points for lap times.
- V12 Engines. No forced induction. No electric motors. Spec fuel.
- Work out total possible mileage for a season. 10 engines to use, each can cover 1/10th of the mileage of a season. No limit on swaps. At the end of the season all engines can be examined by all teams.
- Fuel Limit of 95 litres for the race with plan to reduce every season. Use what you want in qualifying.
- Car must fit inside a mandated size box.
- 10 Tyre compounds. 2 can be chosen for a weekend. Use what you want in qualifying. Must use both compounds in the race.
- Reduce overall aerodynamic grip. No aerodynamic appendages.
- More aerodynamic grip to be generated by the floor.
- Increase mechanical grip.
- Reduce amount of settings that can be changed during the race by the driver. The team cannot make the changes either.
- Limit radio to pit instructions, gap information and instruction to stop the car.
- Make driver numbers readable from track side.
- Helmets of drivers in the same team must be noticeably different from track side.
- 1 test week prior to season. All other tests to be held Monday-Wednesday following a GP. No hiding of pit boxes and garages during testing.
- All drivers to participate in a charity event whereby they all drive the same car on a Thursday before a race a couple of times a season. This will change between road cars, track cars, off road cars and lower level formula cars.
Free to air coverage
1 engine per grand prix weekend, per car.
The car must send no telemetry or settings to the pitwall or driver whilst in motion, other than safety-related information.
The driver and pitwall are not able to alter any settings on the car whilst it's in motion, other than safety-related changes.
Quarterly testing, to be held post-grand prix at the circuit the race has just been held on.
Even distribution of revenues to all teams
1 engine per grand prix weekend, per car.
The car must send no telemetry or settings to the pitwall or driver whilst in motion, other than safety-related information.
The driver and pitwall are not able to alter any settings on the car whilst it's in motion, other than safety-related changes.
Quarterly testing, to be held post-grand prix at the circuit the race has just been held on.
Even distribution of revenues to all teams
Allow engine development throughout 2016 and then lock down in 2017
Allow teams to use whatever configuration of engine they desire BUT whether it be v6,8,10,12 they must be limited to 1000hp and must adhere to point 1 above
Get rid of fuel flow restrictions
No driver aids such as traction control
Aero development is free
Fuel is the same for each car
Mixed grids that's decided after quali
Any compound of tyre you wish
No communication between pit and driver unless emergency
during safety car I think a grid restart as its a lot safer
If you win a race you automatically start at the back during the next race
Test days are unlimited if teams wish to do it they can
Allow teams to use whatever configuration of engine they desire BUT whether it be v6,8,10,12 they must be limited to 1000hp and must adhere to point 1 above
Get rid of fuel flow restrictions
No driver aids such as traction control
Aero development is free
Fuel is the same for each car
Mixed grids that's decided after quali
Any compound of tyre you wish
No communication between pit and driver unless emergency
during safety car I think a grid restart as its a lot safer
If you win a race you automatically start at the back during the next race
Test days are unlimited if teams wish to do it they can
I think genuine excitement and thrills comes more out of chance than being contrived by tweaking the rules. Too many variables make it akin to balancing a snooker ball on pin.
Also the safety rules have removed a lot of true thrills, but no one wants dead drivers.
The powerplants should be much more varied. Perhaps there should be no rules except no ionising radiation or (too much) toxic waste produced.
Also the safety rules have removed a lot of true thrills, but no one wants dead drivers.
The powerplants should be much more varied. Perhaps there should be no rules except no ionising radiation or (too much) toxic waste produced.
Total Engine / Electric motor horsepower cap say up to 1000bhp then anything goes.
Re-fueling is a must to bring back F1 cars being constantly driven flat out between stops.
Multiple tyre manufacturers for a good old fashioned tyre war.
Points for pole lap and fastest lap during the race.
No driver aids they will only get paddle gearshift and mechanical brake bias adjustment.
Unlimited aero let the designers do what they want.
I like the idea of the car has to fit in a box, one size fits all.
Get rid of the blue flags then the drivers have to make passing manoeuvres on slower cars.
Re-fueling is a must to bring back F1 cars being constantly driven flat out between stops.
Multiple tyre manufacturers for a good old fashioned tyre war.
Points for pole lap and fastest lap during the race.
No driver aids they will only get paddle gearshift and mechanical brake bias adjustment.
Unlimited aero let the designers do what they want.
I like the idea of the car has to fit in a box, one size fits all.
Get rid of the blue flags then the drivers have to make passing manoeuvres on slower cars.
Ahh... Armchair fixers of F1, we can't resist it can we? 
Since the OP took the time to come up with a pretty full on list let's start with those...
- Remove the TV pay wall. <- I've no objection to paying for F1, it's just that £50 a month as a result of it being on Sky is rediculous. £2-3 a month on F1.com or similar? no problem with me
- Watch live on F1.com. <- See above
- Free comprehensive live timing on F1.com. <- Agreed!
- Produce a free comprehensive highlights package which will be shown on F1.com 2 hours after the TV coverage finishes.<- Would be nice but there is no way this would ever happen as too many people would just not bother with the live and that will kill the sport. Maybe a shorter length one would be viable though?
- Reduce general admission prices. <- Agreed!
- Unclaimed complimentary/sponsorship passes to be sold on the gate. <- Cool idea, not sure how you'd administer it though.
- Points for qualifying. Points for lap times. <- Agreed
- V12 Engines. No forced induction. No electric motors. Spec fuel. <- V12s are too difficult a sell for the manufacturers I'm afraid. I'd open it up though and allow much more freedom.
- Work out total possible mileage for a season. 10 engines to use, each can cover 1/10th of the mileage of a season. No limit on swaps. At the end of the season all engines can be examined by all teams. <- Upping the numbers of engines would be good but it would only be viable if the engines could be cheap enough.
- Fuel Limit of 95 litres for the race with plan to reduce every season. Use what you want in qualifying. <- Agreed!
- Car must fit inside a mandated size box. <- Agreed, you need more specific regs than that for safety purposes of course but it's a great start.
- 10 Tyre compounds. 2 can be chosen for a weekend. Use what you want in qualifying. Must use both compounds in the race. <- Agreed!
- Reduce overall aerodynamic grip. No aerodynamic appendages. <- It's not 1960 any more, wings etc are here to stay. You can restrict but getting rid entirely would be insane.
- More aerodynamic grip to be generated by the floor.<- Agreed, to my layman's brain surely this would help with the dirty air effect.
- Increase mechanical grip. <- downside to this is that you would lose a lot of the need for car control skill.
- Reduce amount of settings that can be changed during the race by the driver. The team cannot make the changes either. <- Disagree - settings etc keep the driver workload high. Agreed to restrict what the team can change directly (and I think this is already the case is it not?)
- Limit radio to pit instructions, gap information and instruction to stop the car. <- They have already done this haven't they?
- Make driver numbers readable from track side. <- Agreed
- Helmets of drivers in the same team must be noticeably different from track side. <- Surely the above makes this irrelevant?
- 1 test week prior to season. All other tests to be held Monday-Wednesday following a GP. No hiding of pit boxes and garages during testing.<- Agreed
- All drivers to participate in a charity event whereby they all drive the same car on a Thursday before a race a couple of times a season. This will change between road cars, track cars, off road cars and lower level formula cars.<- Could be fun
And from me...
-Sunday morning sprint race that is half the GP distance that gives half the points and have that race either:
(a) set a reverse grid for the full GP. There's precedent in other formulae and you'll get some epic drives in the GP or (b) have it run by reserve drivers, gives the young guys some seat time, means teams can get sponsorship cash from backers of the young drivers for not that much extra outlay, after all the cars and teams are already there at the circuit.
-Allow customer cars but that they run in a set parallel championships. so the first finishing driver of a customer car "wins" their race and so on if you see what I mean.
-Real flight of fancy here but how about a change to GP2 where it runs with year-old F1 cars which teams could buy. This would mean that drivers in the feeder series would have near-as-dammit F1 experience to help them transition and also mean that all those expensive an now "obsolete" cars and bits wouldn't just be junk any more which would help the business model of the smaller constructors. If there were concerns about it being too close to F1 in terms of speed you could hamper it a bit by reducing the power output by say, 50bhp?
Since the OP took the time to come up with a pretty full on list let's start with those...
- Remove the TV pay wall. <- I've no objection to paying for F1, it's just that £50 a month as a result of it being on Sky is rediculous. £2-3 a month on F1.com or similar? no problem with me
- Watch live on F1.com. <- See above
- Free comprehensive live timing on F1.com. <- Agreed!
- Produce a free comprehensive highlights package which will be shown on F1.com 2 hours after the TV coverage finishes.<- Would be nice but there is no way this would ever happen as too many people would just not bother with the live and that will kill the sport. Maybe a shorter length one would be viable though?
- Reduce general admission prices. <- Agreed!
- Unclaimed complimentary/sponsorship passes to be sold on the gate. <- Cool idea, not sure how you'd administer it though.
- Points for qualifying. Points for lap times. <- Agreed
- V12 Engines. No forced induction. No electric motors. Spec fuel. <- V12s are too difficult a sell for the manufacturers I'm afraid. I'd open it up though and allow much more freedom.
- Work out total possible mileage for a season. 10 engines to use, each can cover 1/10th of the mileage of a season. No limit on swaps. At the end of the season all engines can be examined by all teams. <- Upping the numbers of engines would be good but it would only be viable if the engines could be cheap enough.
- Fuel Limit of 95 litres for the race with plan to reduce every season. Use what you want in qualifying. <- Agreed!
- Car must fit inside a mandated size box. <- Agreed, you need more specific regs than that for safety purposes of course but it's a great start.
- 10 Tyre compounds. 2 can be chosen for a weekend. Use what you want in qualifying. Must use both compounds in the race. <- Agreed!
- Reduce overall aerodynamic grip. No aerodynamic appendages. <- It's not 1960 any more, wings etc are here to stay. You can restrict but getting rid entirely would be insane.
- More aerodynamic grip to be generated by the floor.<- Agreed, to my layman's brain surely this would help with the dirty air effect.
- Increase mechanical grip. <- downside to this is that you would lose a lot of the need for car control skill.
- Reduce amount of settings that can be changed during the race by the driver. The team cannot make the changes either. <- Disagree - settings etc keep the driver workload high. Agreed to restrict what the team can change directly (and I think this is already the case is it not?)
- Limit radio to pit instructions, gap information and instruction to stop the car. <- They have already done this haven't they?
- Make driver numbers readable from track side. <- Agreed
- Helmets of drivers in the same team must be noticeably different from track side. <- Surely the above makes this irrelevant?
- 1 test week prior to season. All other tests to be held Monday-Wednesday following a GP. No hiding of pit boxes and garages during testing.<- Agreed
- All drivers to participate in a charity event whereby they all drive the same car on a Thursday before a race a couple of times a season. This will change between road cars, track cars, off road cars and lower level formula cars.<- Could be fun
And from me...
-Sunday morning sprint race that is half the GP distance that gives half the points and have that race either:
(a) set a reverse grid for the full GP. There's precedent in other formulae and you'll get some epic drives in the GP or (b) have it run by reserve drivers, gives the young guys some seat time, means teams can get sponsorship cash from backers of the young drivers for not that much extra outlay, after all the cars and teams are already there at the circuit.
-Allow customer cars but that they run in a set parallel championships. so the first finishing driver of a customer car "wins" their race and so on if you see what I mean.
-Real flight of fancy here but how about a change to GP2 where it runs with year-old F1 cars which teams could buy. This would mean that drivers in the feeder series would have near-as-dammit F1 experience to help them transition and also mean that all those expensive an now "obsolete" cars and bits wouldn't just be junk any more which would help the business model of the smaller constructors. If there were concerns about it being too close to F1 in terms of speed you could hamper it a bit by reducing the power output by say, 50bhp?
Ban the use of wind tunnels. So the design comes back to the imagination of the designer rather than what the computer generates. The cars will start to look different again as differing ideas are tried out.
Bring back in season testing. That way the likes of Honda & Renault can catch up, clossing up the field during the year.
Take all of the buttons off the steering wheel, save for brake bias. If they set something wrong in the pit lane, they have to drive around it. So if someone down the field 'nails' their diff settings, or what ever, they have a chance to move up the field.
Increase the size of the rear tyres. Cos it looks better.
Introduce 6 or 7 different tyre compounds and let the teams choose which 2 they are going to use. Again it introduces a variable which is 'natural', i.e. down to human choice that can have the same effect as diff settings I mentioned above.
In other words, introduce more choices that have to be made by humans not computers.
Bring back in season testing. That way the likes of Honda & Renault can catch up, clossing up the field during the year.
Take all of the buttons off the steering wheel, save for brake bias. If they set something wrong in the pit lane, they have to drive around it. So if someone down the field 'nails' their diff settings, or what ever, they have a chance to move up the field.
Increase the size of the rear tyres. Cos it looks better.
Introduce 6 or 7 different tyre compounds and let the teams choose which 2 they are going to use. Again it introduces a variable which is 'natural', i.e. down to human choice that can have the same effect as diff settings I mentioned above.
In other words, introduce more choices that have to be made by humans not computers.
Less prescriptive engine regs - maybe something like the old Group C where you had a fuel allocation and could use any engine design you liked ( e.g. Jaguar NA V12 v. Mercedes turbo V8 )
I like the 'car to fit in a box' idea - leave it up to the designers what they do within that - F1 DeltaWing ?
Visually I think the cars looked better when they were wider
I like the 'car to fit in a box' idea - leave it up to the designers what they do within that - F1 DeltaWing ?
Visually I think the cars looked better when they were wider
Ahonen said:
lee_fr200 said:
during safety car I think a grid restart as its a lot safer
In what way is a standing start safer than a current Safety Car restart? You think it's safer to let the tyres cool down on the grid, then bunch the cars up into the first turn off a standing start?My reason for suggesting this is safety! And ppl pick up punctures from shards of carbon fibre!
Plus at a proper restart you will get full on racing again whereas with safety car the lead car backs everyone up then makes a break for it at least with a grid start you get a race again
Galileo said:
Ban the use of wind tunnels computers. So the design comes back to the imagination of the designer rather than what the computer generates. The cars will start to look different again as differing ideas are tried out.
Fixed 
Galileo said:
Bring back in season testing. That way the likes of Honda & Renault can catch up, clossing up the field during the year.
Increase the size of the rear tyres. Cos it looks better.
Introduce 6 or 7 different tyre compounds and let the teams choose which 2 they are going to use. Again it introduces a variable which is 'natural', i.e. down to human choice that can have the same effect as diff settings I mentioned above.
In other words, introduce more choices that have to be made by humans not computers.
Yes!Increase the size of the rear tyres. Cos it looks better.
Introduce 6 or 7 different tyre compounds and let the teams choose which 2 they are going to use. Again it introduces a variable which is 'natural', i.e. down to human choice that can have the same effect as diff settings I mentioned above.
In other words, introduce more choices that have to be made by humans not computers.
Galileo said:
Take all of the buttons off the steering wheel, save for brake bias. If they set something wrong in the pit lane, they have to drive around it. So if someone down the field 'nails' their diff settings, or what ever, they have a chance to move up the field.
I'd go a step further and get rid of the flappy gear and clutch paddles. Gear-changing is an essential skill, and mistakes by one driver create racing opportunities for others.MartG said:
Less prescriptive engine regs - maybe something like the old Group C where you had a fuel allocation and could use any engine design you liked ( e.g. Jaguar NA V12 v. Mercedes turbo V8 )
I like the 'car to fit in a box' idea - leave it up to the designers what they do within that - F1 DeltaWing ?
Visually I think the cars looked better when they were wider
Mostly agree, although I would mandate a standard single-element front and rear wing that all teams must use.I like the 'car to fit in a box' idea - leave it up to the designers what they do within that - F1 DeltaWing ?
Visually I think the cars looked better when they were wider
Also ban car-pit radio.
Galileo said:
Ban the use of wind tunnels. So the design comes back to the imagination of the designer rather than what the computer generates. The cars will start to look different again as differing ideas are tried out.
You could ban wind tunnels completely (and for what you're aiming for you'd have to ban CFD as well) but all that would happen is that you'd get cars that all look very, very similar to the last car they produced before the ban. Imagine a conversation between F1 designer and his Team Principal:
F1 Designer - "I've got this great idea for the aero package for our new car, it's completely different from anything we've tried before"
Team Principal - "Great! What data have you got to show how much faster it is?"
F1 Designer - "Erm..none. The regs won't let us simulate it or put it in a wind tunnel. But it looks like it should be fast?"
Team Principal - "So... you want to spend tens of millions of pounds making something that may or may not be a complete white elephant?"
F1 Designer - "Or we could just use what we do have data for and know that it's at least in the right ball park?"
Team Prinicpal - "Lets do that then."
Galileo said:
Bring back in season testing. That way the likes of Honda & Renault can catch up, clossing up the field during the year.
Agreed - It doesn't have to be unlimited and tacking it on to race weekends would keep costs down.KaraK said:
Galileo said:
Ban the use of wind tunnels. So the design comes back to the imagination of the designer rather than what the computer generates. The cars will start to look different again as differing ideas are tried out.
You could ban wind tunnels completely (and for what you're aiming for you'd have to ban CFD as well) but all that would happen is that you'd get cars that all look very, very similar to the last car they produced before the ban. Imagine a conversation between F1 designer and his Team Principal:
F1 Designer - "I've got this great idea for the aero package for our new car, it's completely different from anything we've tried before"
Team Principal - "Great! What data have you got to show how much faster it is?"
F1 Designer - "Erm..none. The regs won't let us simulate it or put it in a wind tunnel. But it looks like it should be fast?"
Team Principal - "So... you want to spend tens of millions of pounds making something that may or may not be a complete white elephant?"
F1 Designer - "Or we could just use what we do have data for and know that it's at least in the right ball park?"
Team Prinicpal - "Lets do that then."
Galileo said:
Bring back in season testing. That way the likes of Honda & Renault can catch up, clossing up the field during the year.
Agreed - It doesn't have to be unlimited and tacking it on to race weekends would keep costs down.Edited by Galileo on Thursday 16th July 13:10
Galileo said:
Ok, but when the rules are changed again, what data would they use then? And after the following rule change the data will become even more diluted. When the tyre compounds are changed their data is diluted once more. To a point where their previous data is worthless. and that could me made to happen quite quickly.
But if you want to allow a decent amount of designer freedom how do you prevent them from "freely" choosing a very similar design to before? And if you do get to what you are describing you'd have a formula that would be the laughing stock of the world - even a designer like Adrian Newey doing things by eye and pen and paper calculations is never going to be able to produce something faster then even an average one using the simulation tools and wind tunnels. As a result a "from scratch" F1 design done this way wouldn't see which way a GP2 car had gone. F1 has always been positioned as the pinnacle of motorsport and preventing them using the basic tools that every car design department in the world both in motorsport and road cars and even some Formula Student teams have would kind of go against that. Hell.. you can get wind-tunnel simulation software off the shelf for a couple of hundred quid a year in subscription!Edited by Galileo on Thursday 16th July 13:10
Ok, I hear what your saying. Fair enough. So how about this idea, (I'm not advocating it, just interested in others opinions);
No Wings. At all. Take the aero developement race back to the stone ages. I think we might end up with a FFord on steriods but it would make for close racing.
No Wings. At all. Take the aero developement race back to the stone ages. I think we might end up with a FFord on steriods but it would make for close racing.
Galileo said:
Ok, I hear what your saying. Fair enough. So how about this idea, (I'm not advocating it, just interested in others opinions);
No Wings. At all. Take the aero developement race back to the stone ages. I think we might end up with a FFord on steriods but it would make for close racing.
It would make for close racing yes, but equally given even FFord cars have wings now I believe it would give you the fairly ridiculous situation that just about any of the junior formulae would be quicker, and to be honest at some tracks I could even see road cars being quicker!No Wings. At all. Take the aero developement race back to the stone ages. I think we might end up with a FFord on steriods but it would make for close racing.
Really though wings and aero in general aren't an all or nothing situation - F1 has had wings since 1962 (ish), the problem is the current regs leading aero down the path that makes it very hard to follow other cars and there are some very clever aerodynamicists in the world of F1 so to me the solution would be for the F1 to work with the teams to produce a set of rules that still allow cars to follow each other reasonably. Yes you'll always have the fundamental link between the more downforce the car in front has the more likely the air is to be "dirty" but I do think they will be able to take steps to mitigate this, I know they tried similar with the 2009-spec front wings and it didn't quite work as intended but that doesn't mean there isn't a solution that does work.
Surely a good way of doing it would be to come up with some different options then get all the teams together for a big test week to try them out, that way you can actually find out in the real world how it affects the following drivers and then you can prevent any ideas that really don't work from blighting an actual season. Yes it would be an expensive thing to do and you'd probably need to get the FIA/FOM to cover the cost so all the teams can participate but I think given the potential for massively improving the sport it'd be worth it surely?
Galileo said:
Ok, I hear what your saying. Fair enough. So how about this idea, (I'm not advocating it, just interested in others opinions);
No Wings. At all. Take the aero developement race back to the stone ages. I think we might end up with a FFord on steriods but it would make for close racing.
So why not just put a bigger engine in a FFord and have them race that?No Wings. At all. Take the aero developement race back to the stone ages. I think we might end up with a FFord on steriods but it would make for close racing.
F1 should be F1. All this talk of banning wings and aero is as foolhardy as opening up the regs completely and having a 'box'
With the former, you'd get 1000bhp FFords. With the latter, an Adrian Newey would develop something awesome and you'd have Red Bull-style domination again.
The car needs to look good and be able to race closely. It should not be too easy to drive, and also needs to be the halo formulae in terms of challenge and engineering.
However, you also have to reign in 'unlimited' as you'll have Group B-style creations and people dying again.
It's a tough balancing act. However, I don't think turning the clock back is the way forward.
I don't see what's wrong with the hybrids, save for (possibly) the noise and the fact that one team has built one better than the others. Noise is easily fixable and the other teams just need a bit more freedom to catch up.
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