Viewing Thread:
"What can be done to save F1 ?"

I have been a big fan of F1 for years but the sport is in major decline. The racing just isn’t fun or exciting to watch anymore and the number of television viewers is rapidly decreasing with every race.

I think one of the major issues that are causing this, have to be all of the driver assists that are now available to them. There is very little skill required to drive an F1 car nowadays in relation to say, back in the 80's or 90's.

What the sport needs to do is remove ALL driver assists e.g. Traction Control, Launch Control and they should also re-introduce manual gears into the frame. There is also too much assistance being used from the pits when the cars are still actually out on the circuit, the cars can get power boosts by a computer signal sent from the pits to the cars which provides the cars with an unfair advantage over other cars in the race. If this were removed then there would be a lot more entertainment value added to the pit stops, as they would become more common and unpredictable.

If Traction Control was removed then the drivers would have to take more care around corners which would test their abilities more, because Traction Control just allows the drivers to simply just, brake, steer, accelerate without having to worry about any tail slide which makes watching the drivers taking some corners that could be spectacular, very dull indeed. Launch Control is one of the utmost horrid Driver Aids ever, the start of a race should be exciting, with a lot of atmosphere in the air. But all the drivers’ do is press a button to go, how lovely. There is very little need for Clutch Control anymore during the start of a race, which makes the drivers skill level very much redundant.

Teams should also restricted to the amount of money they are allowed to spend on each race, as obviously the richer teams can afford all of the little bits and bobs that allow them to win all the time, (Ferrari anyone?). If they were given a certain budget, then the like of Minardi, Jordan, Jaguar etc, wouldn’t struggle so much to keep up with the other teams so much, in terms of finance. Just look at the Orange Arrows team and also Prost. They went into Liquidation because they couldn’t afford the amount required to keep up with the higher teams. This also results in the racing becoming even more boring, why? Well because there are 4 less cars on the circuit, which means less competition for the racers in the middle of the grid, so there are very big gaps between the cars whilst racing which means no more close races, no more contact between cars and no more excitement for the fans, which takes me to my next point.

The FIA do not seem to care about fans anymore, it feels as if us fans are just put to the side which is a big mistake on their part, No Fans = No Viewers = No Money = No Sport. Which would be a real shame, the sport has been running for over 50 years now and it would be a shame for it to fall apart just for the sake of a few big wigs trying to make money. It has been rumoured that 4 more teams will be leaving the sport at the beginning of the next season, resulting in 6 less cars on the circuit due to financial reasons.

Cars should be given weight penalties as they do in the BTCC. This would keep the races closer and the championship would be closer overall. If a driver is running away with the championship then they should be given some kind of restriction which would give them a slight disadvantage over the other cars. It is no good when there are 5 races left in the season, but the championship is already decided, there’s no fun in that now, is there? Team orders NEED to be removed, when Barrichello had to let Schumacher pass in Austria, I was very peeved off like most other fans were, there was absolutely no reason for this to happen, Schumacher was miles ahead for the Title and Barrichello worked really hard to get into first place for his second win off his career, I really felt for him when Schumacher went passed, it was a real shame. There is no point in having a race when the same guy is going to win over and over, even when he clearly shouldn’t have.


Well, those were some of my ideas on how to improve the sport, let me know if you agree or disagree. If you have any ideas of your own, then please let us know.

Thanks for reading

Cartel Thug

I thnk the only way you can make F1 more exciting is to pinch one of the Ferrari's wheels, that should make it more fair.

Thats good to know GrandPrix, hopefully they will come to a sensible conclusion, at least get rid of Launch Control, thats the worst.

The FIA have recently stated that they want to remove traction control and other 'driver aids' to cut costs. They are having a meeting to discuss it within the next 2 weeks.

Yeh I agree, the FIA don't seem to have the first clue how to patch up Formula One. All they've done is dabbled with qualifying a lot - qualifying was good enough as it was muppets! It may make the races more exciting, but it's more likely to backfire all over them.

I must admit I'm all for weight penalties like the BTCC as well, even if the big teams don't want them.

Solskjær wrote:
> Well done! Even if you are Shaneo...!
>
> You're the first person I've seen win GAD in this forum for ages!
> Besides myself, of course. ;D

Thanks, I can reasure you that I aint Shaneo...

:)

AfroJoe wrote:
> Well done.
>
> But why the change to Shaneo, Mr. Thug?
>
> :-D

Cartel Thug sounded crap, so I decided to change it. And since everyone else has had a go at being Shaneo, I thought I may as well too.

:D

Cartel Thug wrote:
> I have been a big fan of F1 for years but the sport is in major
> decline. The racing just isn’t fun or exciting to watch anymore and
> the number of television viewers is rapidly decreasing with every
> race.

I have also been a huge F1 fan for years. I don't think I'll ever stop watching.

> What the sport needs to do is remove ALL driver assists e.g. Traction
> Control, Launch Control and they should also re-introduce manual gears
> into the frame.

I'm not a fan of manual gears. Semi-automatic was much better. The reason why Traction control was brought back was because it was impossible to police. It was rumoured that most of the grid had some form of traction control before it was brought back.

> Launch Control is one of the utmost horrid Driver Aids ever, the start > of a race should be exciting, with a lot of atmosphere in the air. But > all the drivers’ do is press a button to go, how lovely. There is very > little need for Clutch Control anymore during the start of a race, which > makes the drivers skill level very much redundant.

Launch control is a bad driver aid and should be scrapped. Also, you wouldn't be able to rest that much power on the clutch.

> Teams should also restricted to the amount of money they are allowed
> to spend on each race...

Well, there is that one engine rule coming into effect. Also, teams have the choice of unlimited testing or an extra practise session on a Friday. Something to that effect anyway.

> The FIA do not seem to care about fans anymore...

They do care, they just don't have much of a clue on how to fix it.

> Cars should be given weight penalties as they do in the BTCC.

Weight penalties wouldn't work because a lot of the big teams are actually put their own weights on the car to improve handling and to reach the minimum weight limit. The big teams will find a way to maximise this to an advantage.

> Team orders NEED to be removed...

The FIA have stated that team orders will be illegal but the issue of policing this has not been dealt with.

Well done! Even if you are Shaneo...!

You're the first person I've seen win GAD in this forum for ages!
Besides myself, of course. ;D

Well done.

But why the change to Shaneo, Mr. Thug?

:-D

Hey, Thanks SR, you've really made my day! Thanks again!

:-D