F1 v (A)LMS - better bang for buck?

[Jungles]

With FOTA threatening to pull out of F1, I was wondering how many of them would make a move to ALMS or European LMS? Several teams have experience in sportscar racing: Ferrari, Toyota, McLaren, Renault, with considerable success. It seems that if those teams are to pull out of F1 yet stay in top-level motorsport, ALMS or LMS would be a logical shift.

So the questions:

Which series is more enjoyable to watching, from spectators' and viewers' point of view?
Which series is more rewarding from manufacturers' point of view (ie. more value for money)?

Additionally, which teams do you think will make the switch if they pull out of F1? I suspect Red Bull would be interested in running or title-sponsoring a team.

[zac510]

I think it's safe to say 'less' on all those matters. Even though I am a big sportscar fan it just doesn't get the big media coverage. The big media coverage is what it needs to pick up new fans.

If you switched to LMS you could do that series and probably still afford to do a BTCC team, WTCC team, IRC team and maybe an ALMS team too with the change!

[groomi]

If two or three of those teams pitch up in ALMS with a full works assault, then the media coverage would grow accordingly and the series would rapidly become a World Le Mans Series.

Would only be a good thing IMO.

[williamp]

agreed. Think of the media interest when Mclaren joined the BPR Global Gt series in the mid 90s, racing against older F40s etc. Then Porsche and Mercedes and turned up and spoilt things, but with tightr rules this should'nt happen again.

[haggy]

That would be great if they did!

[german tony]

Given that chief complaint about F1 (from the casual fan) seems to be that the races take too long & feature little/no over-taking/accidents seems to me that Sportscar racing with their much longer races & even less overtaking/accidents is the wrong way to go.

What Joe Public wants is touring car racing - cars they can recognise getting beaten-up in some sort of controlled demolition derby faeturung revered grids for added over-taking. The WTCC therefore.

Those of us with our minds on higher things can watch the sportscars featured at the same events (saving on camera personnel etc) & F1 can shuffle off & die like the dinosauer it has become, in a huge firey explosion.

I wonder how much Bernie has offerd Max for the rights to the WTCC/FIA GT package.

[groomi]

But Touring Car races don't feature exotic cars so it can never have the Kudos of 'proper' racing cars.

Ferrari aren't going to race their cars against a Chevrolet badged Daewoo...

[stephen300o]

german tony said:

Given that chief complaint about F1 (from the casual fan) seems to be that the races take too long & feature little/no over-taking/accidents seems to me that Sportscar racing with their much longer races & even less overtaking/accidents is the wrong way to go.

What Joe Public wants is touring car racing - cars they can recognise getting beaten-up in some sort of controlled demolition derby faeturung revered grids for added over-taking. The WTCC therefore.

Those of us with our minds on higher things can watch the sportscars featured at the same events (saving on camera personnel etc) & F1 can shuffle off & die like the dinosauer it has become, in a huge firey explosion.

I wonder how much Bernie has offerd Max for the rights to the WTCC/FIA GT package.

WTCC is on this weekend, no thread I surmise, equals no interest?
F1 is still king of motorsport by a massive margin, it's not going anywhere.

[Racefan_uk]

german tony said:

Given that chief complaint about F1 (from the casual fan) seems to be that the races take too long & feature little/no over-taking/accidents seems to me that Sportscar racing with their much longer races & even less overtaking/accidents is the wrong way to go.

What Joe Public wants is touring car racing - cars they can recognise getting beaten-up in some sort of controlled demolition derby faeturung revered grids for added over-taking. The WTCC therefore.

Those of us with our minds on higher things can watch the sportscars featured at the same events (saving on camera personnel etc) & F1 can shuffle off & die like the dinosauer it has become, in a huge firey explosion.

I wonder how much Bernie has offerd Max for the rights to the WTCC/FIA GT package.

You're behind the drag curve a bit. FIA GT and WTCC haven't been on the same bill for the last three years!

And it would be LMS that the manufacturers would go to, as it would allow them to do Le Mans, which Toyota, Ferrari and McLaren have all done before now anyway, I should think Toyota are eyeing that again quite seriously, they haven't won there and the budget to go and do a handful of decent races a year would be a pittance compared to the F1 season they're currently stuck in. Long distance races have more overtaking, with the LMPs passing the GT cars on a regular basis, more scope for upset in the long sporstcar race than a traffic jam around Monaco!