Gimmicks in motorsports. (where) will it stop?

[itannum990]

A pet hate is gimmicky, lowest common denominator, crowd pleasing, brand-dilluting artificially dramatised 'revolutions'.

More and more championships are picking these up, bsb showdown, nascar chase, f1 drs (and fake eco bullcrap) formula e insert-list-here (and what's the point of greenifying f1 in the same year as this starts??) Success ballast, boost restrictions, open vs factory rules (motogp) 1000 yard '1/4 mile' etc ect etc.

It's not new, I know that. It is however getting worse, and more and more common. Last year's bsb's champion won purely because of the daft rules (ironically I'm happy, being a bigger fan of Lowes than Shakey, but that's beside the point no?) It surely can't attract new viewers to series's if there are so many quirks that are near impenetrable to the casual and sometimes experienced fan to understand?

Formula 1 is perhaps the worst for this, race fueling in, then out, then in again, than out again, grooved slicks - failed experiments that the fans new shouldn't happen but did anyway, this year's producing excellent racing but at what cost?

I do not understand why the is such a need for constant meddling, innovation yes, progress yes, but the meddling in motorsport is reaching EU like scales, merely increasing cost and complexity whilst reducing the appeal to fans new/seasoned alike. What do the drivers, engineers and team members think of it? Who benefits? How far will it go before we all just turn it off like a daytime tv gameshow?

[itannum990]

37chevy said:

this is why I like drag racing and bike racing more and more...theres no gimmicks, no success ballast, equalising of cars/bikes, no drs, ers etc etc, just flat out, loud, bad ass racing, best man or woman wins..theres no need for gimmicks if you get the rules package and formula right in the first place

personally i don't want to see environmentally friendly racing, race cars that share technology with road cars, i want to see loud, bad ass cars with tonnes of BHP, racing on the edge...

Motogp being restricted to less and less fuel year on year, factory vs open tyres, ecu's tank capacities.. superbikes always making allowances for ducatis, showdown bullocks like i said, bike's aren't immune at all I'm afraid.

Drag is possibly mostly the last pure(ish) genre?

[itannum990]

kambites said:

Motorsport has been about artificial limitations since cars have been able to move faster than walking pace. I can't see it stopping any time soon.

I'll give you that. Restrictions/rules/formula create the classes. I fear that spurious 'artificial limitations' however are being scattered unnecessarily and without enough thought for the consequences.