F1 - Sport or Spectacle
Discussion
Apologies if this has been brought up before, but....
F1 is motorsport. Should the FIA just let the teams get on with it and stop trying to force it to be entertaining? From a purist point of view, sport is about the best team/person winning, not about entertainment and so shouldn't be medled with. It seems that F1 is now more about money, i.e. make it entertaining so that more people watch so that more money can be made, than it is about sport. Opinions please.
F1 is motorsport. Should the FIA just let the teams get on with it and stop trying to force it to be entertaining? From a purist point of view, sport is about the best team/person winning, not about entertainment and so shouldn't be medled with. It seems that F1 is now more about money, i.e. make it entertaining so that more people watch so that more money can be made, than it is about sport. Opinions please.
Don't think that the FIA is really focussing on making the sport entertaining at the moment. Bernie and the media might, but non of the governing bodies recent proposals have that focus, as they don't really care.
The FIA are attacking on two fronts, costs and safety. If the costs came to within a reasonable level, then more of the ten teams could compete, thus making the sport more of a sport (it is better to be the best of ten, than the best of two or three, which is presently the case). The safety case speaks for itself - we will never see the bravery of old again, society will simply not tolerate this.
All sports have rules, whether it is the size of the goals on a Football pitch to the weight of a Golfball. I agree with you that the best team should win (and disagree with Bernie that grid slots should be out of a hat), but for all sorts of reasons, the rules have to be strict in this game.
Alot of the suggestions on here would help both camps. Standard rear wings for instance would help the sport be more fun (and therefore entertaining), but would also reduce the costs for the teams, whilst leaving plenty of other areas where they could make a difference and win by being the best.
The FIA are attacking on two fronts, costs and safety. If the costs came to within a reasonable level, then more of the ten teams could compete, thus making the sport more of a sport (it is better to be the best of ten, than the best of two or three, which is presently the case). The safety case speaks for itself - we will never see the bravery of old again, society will simply not tolerate this.
All sports have rules, whether it is the size of the goals on a Football pitch to the weight of a Golfball. I agree with you that the best team should win (and disagree with Bernie that grid slots should be out of a hat), but for all sorts of reasons, the rules have to be strict in this game.
Alot of the suggestions on here would help both camps. Standard rear wings for instance would help the sport be more fun (and therefore entertaining), but would also reduce the costs for the teams, whilst leaving plenty of other areas where they could make a difference and win by being the best.
Whats needed is driving variation.
Currently the cars reach a steady 'optimum' state too easily with little compromise in any area of the car. In the old days you could risk out-braking someone but your brakes would be ropey for a while afterwards, or if you put in some hot laps you then needed to nurse your tyres for a bit & so the guy could get back at you.
Braking, turning, accelerating, thats all there is to it. The ability for the driver to 'modify' these states in order to gain an advantage is whats required
Braking - Brakes which shouldn't be used to the max everytime, but can be 'pushed' every so often
Turning - Tyres which degrade according to the quality and fierceness of the driving
Accelerating - 'Boost' allowing the car to run rich or lean, again allowing a driver to make a decision
But, oh dear there's a sport which saw all this years ago - Indycar - and thats American so can't be a good idea
Now they just get everything up to temp and parade round the track waiting for negative driver actions not positive ones.
Sorry, but MS would still piss over everyone else...
>> Edited by prussianblue450 on Wednesday 7th July 09:46
Currently the cars reach a steady 'optimum' state too easily with little compromise in any area of the car. In the old days you could risk out-braking someone but your brakes would be ropey for a while afterwards, or if you put in some hot laps you then needed to nurse your tyres for a bit & so the guy could get back at you.
Braking, turning, accelerating, thats all there is to it. The ability for the driver to 'modify' these states in order to gain an advantage is whats required
Braking - Brakes which shouldn't be used to the max everytime, but can be 'pushed' every so often
Turning - Tyres which degrade according to the quality and fierceness of the driving
Accelerating - 'Boost' allowing the car to run rich or lean, again allowing a driver to make a decision
But, oh dear there's a sport which saw all this years ago - Indycar - and thats American so can't be a good idea
Now they just get everything up to temp and parade round the track waiting for negative driver actions not positive ones.
Sorry, but MS would still piss over everyone else...
>> Edited by prussianblue450 on Wednesday 7th July 09:46
F1 ceased being "sport" many years ago. Luckily, motor sport still exists outside of F1 so if you want to see motor racing, it is still available.
The problem is that many people seem to think that "F1" is all there is in motor racing. How often have you heard the following conversation:-
Person 1 - "I'm a real motor racing fan".
Person 2 - "Oh, I think F1 is so boring".
That is not an unusual scenario. 90% of motor racing is NOT F1.
The problem is that many people seem to think that "F1" is all there is in motor racing. How often have you heard the following conversation:-
Person 1 - "I'm a real motor racing fan".
Person 2 - "Oh, I think F1 is so boring".
That is not an unusual scenario. 90% of motor racing is NOT F1.
prussianblue450 said:Indeed he would - but he's the best, so he should do.
Sorry, but MS would still piss over everyone else...
I'm a big fan of cost reduction (I'd even like to see investigations into funding caps - although I understand the difficulties). I have a problem in that whilst some teams can either do meaningful research into, say, steering or brakes, the bigger teams can do both. Whilst that state exists, then we are never going to change the status quo at the front.
In my idealistic world, the cleaverest engineers and best drivers would wil regardless. Some may say that that is the situation now, but leveling the playing field would make things so much more transparent.
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