How should F1 be made exciting again?

Cryptopygia

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Just toss ideas on how we can bring some competitiveness back into the sport. My ideas:

For the cars:

1. Dump the required engine layout rule- Allow the manufacturers to develop their own unique engines. V12's, V8, flat-12s, whatever. Allow varying displacements, with the old 1.5 liter rule on turbocharged engines. To even the field, each engine gets a specific air-restrictor, and turbos are limited to a certain boost. Horsepower should be around whatever each engine can reliably reach, but each engine must reliably reach reach a certain horsepower limit. To allow more privateers into the game, a fitting, and competitive engine will be provided to such teams, similar in theory to the Cosworth DFV.

2. Ban driver aids- Traction control, ABS, launch control, ditch it. This puts more focus on drivers with better car control skills, and a gentler touch to the controls. Rain plays a more significant factor in a race.

3. Restriction on aero devices- My plan calls for the wings, the underbody diffuser, barge boards, and those curved bodywork extensions in front of the rear wheels, seen below. Increases drag and reduces downforce. Modelled similarly to late 80s, early-90s cars.
AlexWurzCanada2006.jpg


4. Steel brake discs increase braking distances, allowing for more overtaking in the braking zones.

5. Weight penalty system Likened to that used in the FIA GT championship, teams start out with a set amount of ballast. Drivers finishes per race determine how much ballast is added or removed, allowing for more drivers to contend for a win, and requiring further skill to overcome a weight handicap. Crashing out means no weight change

6. Onboard starter motors Allow drivers who would previously retire after stalling the engine to re-enter the race.

The rules:

1. Overthrow Mosley and Ecclestone-replace with a pair of us FinalGear members. Short and simple.:mrgreen:

2. Reduce starting up fees- Provides more incentive for privateers/manufacturers to enter. Makes it less cost-prohibitive to enter as well.

The tracks:

1. Bring back Adelaide- Melbourne is not an F1 city. Adelaide is.

2. Bring back Suzuka- Kinda obvious.

3. More street circuits- Personal preference for street circuits.

Your turn. Think them through.
 
Point 5 = rubbish. It goes against the very essence of the sport and competition.

I think on the whole, the sport is fine as it is. If I could change it, I'd remove the fuel burn of Q3, go back to single race engines, lower the front wings and remove some of the aero pieces. And of course, Adelaide back in place of Melbourne :)

At the moment, we have a thrilling four way battle for the championship which could go anyones way. The races have been exciting to watch and there's been enough political intrigue to fill a John MacDonald novel.

F1 is in a very healthy state at the moment and doesn't need to have any dramatic changes applied.
 
I like the idea's that don't restrict technology. I've said this before but I'll say it once more; if the FIA wants to slow the teams down, limit them by requiring them to use a specific fuel, meet fuel economy (I.e. a specific amount of fuel for each race), and meet noise and emissions standards. This will make F1 actually a useful testing bed again for street cars. This may keep privateers out, but the manufacturers may prefer it more.

The above could also work quite well for a few other series as well.

The next thing is, drivers get paid based on their position in a race, better you do the more you get paid. The driver that wins the title at the end of the season, gets a bonus. As a kicker, the bottom few places don't get a damn dime, if you are consistently at the back of the pack... you lose your license.

Oh and bring 2 races to the US. One for the west coasters (Long Beach anyone?), and one for the north east. I wouldn't be surprised if Canada would like similar treatment.

edit: one way to reduce costs perhaps would be for manufacturers to be required to use a production based engine.
 
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The next thing is, drivers get paid based on their position in a race, better you do the more you get paid. The driver that wins the title at the end of the season, gets a bonus. As a kicker, the bottom few places don't get a damn dime, if you are consistently at the back of the pack... you lose your license.

Thats a bit unfair. How is Button able to drag his ass to the front of the grid in a Honda? :mrgreen:
 
I think it should be completely unrestricted. And no BS FIA politics.
 
Maybe set a budget limit but let all else go.
 
To make F1 more exciting we should:

1. Handcuff Alonso and Hamilton to each other
2. Give the Spykers a turbo
3. Force rain upon the lame tracks, Hungary and Monaco. There's a way to do it and I'm not joking, they do it in China for some reason or another.
 
Ok well I have been putting off posting up my thoughts on how to improve the sport for quite some time so I might as well do it here.

Important thing is to balance what is feasible and practical against best case scenario. Mosley seems to think we need to completely revolutionise the sport. Bullshit. We have a successful formula. All it needs is a few tweaks.

Its all very well to say just allow anything but 1. They tried that with Can-Am and the racing was shit 2. I don't want to see cars become upside fighter jets anymore than they are now. Also people seem to think overtaking= good racing. You need to allow more opportunities to overtake. Not just have cars mindlessly passing each other five times a lap. Hence my car proposals:

1. Banning TC was a brilliant move. It won't make a huge difference but more mistakes will creep in from drivers adding an element of uncertainty. Will also place more emphasis on the truly skillful. All other driver aids of course banned

2. Semi-auto gearboxes should stay I think. While we would all love to see the current crop of drivers hell-toeing their way down through the box I have grown used to the paddle shifts.

3. Engines. The current engine rules have created reliability unheard of in F1. Therefore they should stay. The go like the absolute clappers, sound great and don't blow up much. I like them. However they need to be converted to be "environmentally friendly". Obviously that is not going to happen but bio-fuel is the way forward. Not least because it allows more power!!!! Yeehaa!! Will return to this later.

4. Aero. Given that everyone is pushing for more link between road and race applications I find the current aero craze stupid and unnecessary. Keep the big wings of course but ban all those stupid little aero offshoots that mean the cars can't follow one another and make them look horrible. This will be incredibly difficult to enforce, but thats not my problem. Each team is allowed 1 wind tunnel.

5. Tyres. To offset the decreased aero cars will revert back to slicks. Given its a control tyre they can be made as hard or soft as they need to be. However, more mechanical grip, less aero disturbance means cars can get close enough to actually race one another.

6. Finally less electronics. Driver adjustment during the race is banned. Brake bias and maybe 3 engine mappings are allowed. E-diffs etc. all gone. You muck up your race set-up, tough shit drive around it. Not more in car tweaking for every single lap/corner (something Schuey was a master at).

Rules:
Current qualifying is a good system I think, creates a lot of excitement so I think it should stay. Obviously Q3 needs a bit of tweaking. We want to stop the mindless fuel burn phase but if it is low tanks only we get the rubbish spectacle of no cars on track!! Maybe limit it to 10 minutes to make everything a bit more frantic??

Calendar:
Alright this is my biggest shake-up. I got this idea from (shock, horror) NASCAR after reading that Ambrose had something like 16 races in 19 weekends or something and thought I wish F1 was on that much. Well why not?? So here goes:

Race season expanded to 25 races+ (might write out an actual calendar later). All races in geographically similar regions are held back to back. 2 week break only when teams need to travel a great distance to the next grand prix. Maybe a 4 or 5 week mid season break to give everyone a chance to kick back! This extended season will also allow F1 to reach more tracks and more people. What about testing?? Test days as we know them now are banned. THAT will save some money.

Testing will now be done on Fridays and Thursdays at selected circuits (open to the public, therefore raising more revenue). Race drivers are limited by Km therefore allowing 3rd drivers into play (need to get the next race drivers from somewhere!). First two days (when thursdays are possible) limited by current testing regulations.

Making F1 green.....the hard bit. I hardly think myself qualified but had an idea nonetheless. A certain percentage of each teams budget (probably 5-10%) goes to environmentally friendly research. As the cars will be running on biofuel. Obviously bio-fuel needs to be grown and harvested and refined. I'm not sure how much that will all cost but considering 10% of all F1 teams budgets would be around the $200-250million mark. I'm going to take a punt that that will cover a fair chunk of it!!!! This will actually have a decent effect on road car technology as it will quicken the rate at which cars are effectively made "carbon neutral".

Finally, the future of this sport should not be in the hands of people like Mosley and Ecclestone. Should be in the hands of people that actually know whats possible like Willis, Brawn, Dennis, Briatore etc. Might add more if I think of it but my head now hurts from thinking too much :S Geez I wish I could write uni assignments that fast....but they aren't nearly as interesting as F1
 
I think it should be completely unrestricted. And no BS FIA politics.

They would soon get so fast that a human couldn't drive it and the amount of deaths would be massive.
 
I think in some instances, the FIA are fantastic. We need more independant teams though and no pay drivers.
 
I think in some instances, the FIA are fantastic. We need more independant teams though and no pay drivers.

Those two points basically contradict each other.
 
Independent teams rely heavily on driver funding to remain competitive. Take out the pay drivers and the gulf between the privateers and the manafacturers becomes larger. We may not like it but F1 is now really a car manafacturers game.
 
^ Yep thats a valid point.

But if F1 cleans itself up and can't attract new sponsors, then pay drivers will become extinct.

This is where the FIA needs to be tougher. Ferrari still have Marlboro sponsorship, even though it's banned. There are many sponsors, Virgin etc who refuse to enter F1 as a sponsor until ALL tobacco sponsors are gone.

If private teams, with this new customer car deal, can gain some big sponsors, then this can be done.

My personal F1 decision if I was boss would be to make all teams run 3 cars, with the highest two cars scoring team points and all the drivers scoring championship points.

It can be done. Garages are big enough. Imagine 36 cars on the grid :)
 
Ok here's a calendar to support my "more grand prix" theory.

Possible calendar:
March 3: Albert Park
March 10: Sepang
March 17: Singapore
March 24: Suzuka/Fuji
March 31: Shanghai
April 13: Bahrain
April 20: Abu Dhabi
April 27: Turkey
May 11: Hungaroring
May 18: A1 Ring
May 25: Imola
May 31: Monaco
July 5: Valencia
July 12: Catalunya
July 19: Monza
July 26: Magny-Cours
August 2: Hockenheim
August 9: Nurburgring
August 16: Zandvoort
August 23: Spa-Francorchamps
August 30: Silverstone
September 6: Montreal
September 13: Indy
September 20: Interlagos

Feel free to modify it. I have tried to group things geographically to keep travel costs down. However feel free to put different tracks in, change the order etc. Season could be extended by about another 3 weeks and still take no longer than the current season. Maybe a couple of two week breaks in there somewhere???

I get the feeling I am putting too much thought into this......
 
I'd like to see this if I was given the choice to design a calendar

R01: Abu Dhabi
1 week
R02: Bahrain
2 weeks
R03: Fuji
1 week
R04: Sepang
2 weeks
R05: San Marino
2 weeks
R06: Spain
2 weeks
R07: Monaco
2 weeks
R08: France
1 week
R09: Britain
2 weeks
R10: Canada
1 week
R11: USA
1 week
R12: Brazil
3 weeks
R13: European
1 week
R14: Germany
2 weeks
R15: Hungary
2 weeks
R16: Italy
1 week
R17: Turkey
3 weeks
R18: Belgium
2 weeks
R19: India
1 week
R20: Suzuka
1 week
R21: China
1 week
R22: South Korea
1 week

R23: Singapore
1 week
R24: Adelaide

Two 3 week breaks at 1/3 and 2/3 of the season. No testing ban. 1 week gap between all fly-away's.

Adelaide regains season finale :D
 
Thats a loooooonnngg season though. 6 weeks longer than mine (not that I mind but the teams might). South Korean Grand Prix?? Not sure about 2 Jap grand prix either......

By the way, I didn't mean banning off season testing either. free for all there.
 
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Testing ban refers to the current rules which are being observed at the moment. No testing for 3 weeks over summer.
 
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