With all of the political entrapments, failing teams and the usual Bernie Ecclestone headlines surrounding the world of F1, it is easy to miss the biggest problem of all: the racing sucks! F1 has geared down towards safety and conformity so hard that nowadays that the sport has lost all allure, and both Kimi Raikkonen and F1 legend Niki Lauda agree that a change needs to take place in order to bring fans back.
Raikkonen told Canal+ France ,”When I came into Formula 1, it was more exciting for everybody, it was like really the top, it was a long time ago. We would have expected that cars would be faster and more exciting, but there is the rules changes … they try to make it slower. I’m sure something has to be done to make it more exciting to people to watch and also to really see the speed and make it a little bit more dangerous. It is part of the game. We don’t want anybody to get hurt but it also makes it more exciting.”
A week later, Lauda told Bild, “”When I stepped up from Formula 2 to Formula 1, I shat my pants. It must be for men to drive, not just youngsters who can play with the buttons on the steering wheel. Only drivers with the best driving skill, and I mean real driving skill, should be in Formula 1. There is too much control, too many rules, and no characters left. The engineers and constructors must be given freedom. What is important, however, they must be harder to drive. We can’t turn back the wheel. The drivers need to have their hand on the clutch, and not just drive by buttons, like now. The top limit and the risk factor have been lost.”
But does that mean things should be more dangerous? Is that the “X factor” that is missing from Formula 1 right now…the danger? Lauda points out: “Dangerous, no. But riskier. I’m not saying that safety should be neglected. But at the moment, if the cars were faster, then the thrill for both the drivers and the spectators would automatically be better. In that way, we have to go back. Any type of manipulation is the worst thing you can do to a sport. I mean artificial elements, like reverse grids or adding weight to cars, like Bernie Ecclestone has suggested. It can’t happen.”
If anyone can use words against Bernie Ecclestone, the drivers can. And Lauda especially, who is F1’s face for dangerous racing. The likelihood for Ecclestone to listen to Raikkonen and Lauda is right up there with him relinquishing control of F1, sadly, so unless a miracle is performed, don’t hold your breath just yet. At least the drivers know what’s wrong with the series.
(Courtesy: motorsport.com)
Amen to Laudas comments, they are true for all forms of racing now. Aero and engineers have pretty much ruined racing. Wonder how the youngsters would do with 1000hp turbo cars that have a clutch pedal and were driven with one hand on the mechanical shift linkage?
F1 should be the pinnacle, Indy cars are faster yet just as safe. Why are the tyre side walls so high?, they should be using rubber band depth hoops of glue to give grip and high corner speeds, give them a 600 to 800 HP V8
1) Indy cars are slower by a substantial amount
2) IndyCar’s safety is questionable at best
3) Indy cars are even more boring to watch and closer to F1 when it comes to becoming scripted automotive professional wrestling [ FYI NASCAR is already there ] what with Press to Pass , ludicrous all show and no go ineffective aerodynamics [ ask any engineer ] homogenized cars to the point of becoming motorsport milk toast etc etc etc
4) The sidewall thing is an ancient and out of date safety regulation in a futile attempt to slow down cornering speeds . Suffice it to say … it don’t work
5) F1 motors already put out a solid [ or at least admitted to ] 600 bhp with all rumors saying AMG Mercedes is plunking out around 750
For the record Sebastian Vettel is on board with those two as well . He stated in a recent interview he can see no reason why any fan would take the time .. never mind spend the money to watch / follow or attend an F1 event these days
Funny thing is … EVERYBODY and his/her freaking brother with the sole exception of the Bought & Paid For F1 press and the FIA is on board .
The current F1 sucks …. big time !
Problem is the powers that be and the big money behind it all [ including the manufactures with the sole exception of Ferrari ] aren’t listening .. refusing to change .. preferring to watch the whole thing collapse under its own weight rather than admit THEY … effed it up … big time !
As an addendum/proof ;
F1 TV viewership – Down 60% this year alone
Attendance 2015 – Down some 35%
Sponsorship dollars – Down a good 40%
Interest from potential new sponsors – ZERO
Interest from potential new manufactures – ZERO
Number of current manufactures/teams either considering or finding themselves being forced out of the sport due to financial constraints/costs etc – At least FOUR [ Marussia , Lotus , Renault , AMG Mercedes .. the later due to the board and Daimler’s investors questioning the viability and marketing benefits of their participation in F1 ]
Less sophisticated cars won’t interest major auto manufacturers. Formula 1 is a showcase of technology, for better or worse. Take away the garbage that hurts the sport, namely the DRS and the Hybrid powertrain, and it’s no longer interesting to sponsors and the OEM’s. To a company like Mercedes, they can point at the amazing gadgetry that goes into a modern F1 car and then point at the gadgetry, related or not, in their road car and tell their well heeled consumers that they’re correlated.
Thus, if a Mercedes isn’t happy with their current cost outlay on F1, that doesn’t change if you remove cost from the cars in areas they can promote for their other efforts. McLaren, for example, deal heavily in engineering outside of motorsports and their road cars. Would they want a throw back car?
You also can’t kill tech for cost- every time it happens, teams that have the money will spend it polishing the cars down to the nth-degree and still wind up with a way, way better product than the other guys. Look at Hendrick and Penske over here…
Customer cars would help get more teams interested. Probably never happen again.
Better racing… A 70’s style car, with modern safety? But again, the OEM’s would hate that.
Heroes… Kimi does Kimi. But your average F1 driver (or Indy, or WEC, or NASCAR or…) has, and I mean has, to play Mr. Easily Palatable brand image representative. And those guys don’t exactly captivate people. Look at Jimmie Johnson- dude’s a six time champion and 90 percent of the comments you’ll see made about him in a public forum are about how boring he is. (The rest of course, being about how he’s a dirty rotten no good cheater.)
The other aspect on that being- Clark and Hill and Brabham and Hulme and Gurney and McLaren and Rindt and Stewart and on and on and on were heroes because the cars AND the tracks were stone cold killers. Merely strapping on one of those cars took stones. Kimi and Sebastian and Hamilton- they’ll never have that insanity to contend with, or to enhance their legend either.