How to make F1 more exciting
Discussion
bruce fielding said:
Sprinkle drawing pins across the track randomly!
Seriously, Spa was the first interesting GP for months and months and all thanks to shards of carbon fibre puncturing tyres.
Well, it's cheap and makes the racing exciting...
Got any better ideas?
Make Shumacher wear the Panda suit....
I'd prefer to see more competitive racing rather than see drivers nail themselves to the armco after 180+mph blow-outs - luckily no one was hurt today. It could have been very different.
Seeing marshalls running around with brooms in the age of the vortex vacuum cleaner amazes me. Don't Hoover or Dyson see the promotional opportunity of a battery powered three foot wide roller brush with an F'ing big logo stamped on the operatives back?
Seeing marshalls running around with brooms in the age of the vortex vacuum cleaner amazes me. Don't Hoover or Dyson see the promotional opportunity of a battery powered three foot wide roller brush with an F'ing big logo stamped on the operatives back?
On a more serious note :-
1) ban pit <-> driver radio (or at the very least make it free to all to listen to in real time - removing the secrecy bit)
2) provide a bonus point for the driver who started the lowest and finished the highest (most progression up the grid)
3) award points for qualifying positions
4) force the teams to declare their # of planned pitstops in advance (hence can only refuel this # of times)
5) force the top 4 teams each year to run a 3rd car with 'guest drivers' in each race - drivers to be selected from past F1 drivers and top drivers from other formulas
6) have Jordan sponsorder by Spearmint Rhino
7) have a ducking stool for James Allen - to be used every time he makes a mistake
Just my two penneth
Ian
1) ban pit <-> driver radio (or at the very least make it free to all to listen to in real time - removing the secrecy bit)
2) provide a bonus point for the driver who started the lowest and finished the highest (most progression up the grid)
3) award points for qualifying positions
4) force the teams to declare their # of planned pitstops in advance (hence can only refuel this # of times)
5) force the top 4 teams each year to run a 3rd car with 'guest drivers' in each race - drivers to be selected from past F1 drivers and top drivers from other formulas
6) have Jordan sponsorder by Spearmint Rhino
7) have a ducking stool for James Allen - to be used every time he makes a mistake
Just my two penneth
Ian
No-one wants to see a driver hurt in an accident, but I think the reason we find races like today's so entertaining, and most of F1 so boring, is that there is nothing entertaining about everything going to plan. In nearly every other race this year, most of the racing was made up of cars and drivers doing exactly what they had planned to do. No-one plans to get overtaken so it doesn't tend to happen very often when everything runs like clockwork(or near enough).
I didn't enjoy seeing drivers crash out and lose their chance to score points, but what was really entertaining was watching F1 have to think on its feet and adapt after each pear-shaped incident. How far apart were the two McLaren pitstops, 20 seconds? Who didn't whince when Kimi's comfortable lead was taken away in seconds so near to the end? I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the safety car to come off. It was all made even more tense by the fact that any one of them could have had a puncture at any time.
It was a grand almighty mess out there, but I think it highlighted exactly what is missing from modern F1 - unpredictability.
I didn't enjoy seeing drivers crash out and lose their chance to score points, but what was really entertaining was watching F1 have to think on its feet and adapt after each pear-shaped incident. How far apart were the two McLaren pitstops, 20 seconds? Who didn't whince when Kimi's comfortable lead was taken away in seconds so near to the end? I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the safety car to come off. It was all made even more tense by the fact that any one of them could have had a puncture at any time.
It was a grand almighty mess out there, but I think it highlighted exactly what is missing from modern F1 - unpredictability.
get rid of traction control and power steering and any paddles shift gearchanges, H pattern with clutch only! and finally, slicks but much less widthTotally agree with Bad Boy.
Now it's all a matter of pointing the car in the right direction at the right speed, which is in itself not easy of course, but did you ever see Stirling Moss (or any other driver from the 50's or 60's) 4-wheel drifting through the corners?
Now that was racing!
Alex
Now it's all a matter of pointing the car in the right direction at the right speed, which is in itself not easy of course, but did you ever see Stirling Moss (or any other driver from the 50's or 60's) 4-wheel drifting through the corners?
Now that was racing!
Alex
tvrforever said:
Why not just race the hoovers?
Really spice it up with every odd numbered grid position having a hoover and the even ones having a car
Didn't Lotus experiment with an F1 hoover back in the ground effects days? I think the idea was to mount a fan in the chassis which would increase airflow under the car and create ultra low pressure.
The state of the art ride along hoover with ground effects could vastly increase cornering speeds and yet encourage safety when fitted with a side bagger to pick up debris. Drivers could even get points for how much debris they pick up. Pit stops would involve loading on fuel and offloading splinters, marbles and dust bunnies. Pit bunnies in maids outfits.
Incredible!
Why do Lotus always get credit for thing's they either didn't invent or didn't even do?
The "Fan Car" was a Brabham - designed by the great Gordon Murray under the auspices of team owner, one Mr B Ecclestone. It won its one and only GP, the Swedish GP of 1978, and was then withdrawn by BE following protests by other drivers. Note that they didn't protest the engineeering principles behind the fan concept - but the danger caused by dust and stones being ejected by the fan exhaust into the face of the following drivers.
The idea of using a fan to create a low pressure area under the car was first tried by the innovator par excellence, Jim Hall, of Chapparal fame. He ran a car in the 1970 Can Am series which featured a fan (and sliding skirts) - 8 years before F1.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 31st August 14:41
The "Fan Car" was a Brabham - designed by the great Gordon Murray under the auspices of team owner, one Mr B Ecclestone. It won its one and only GP, the Swedish GP of 1978, and was then withdrawn by BE following protests by other drivers. Note that they didn't protest the engineeering principles behind the fan concept - but the danger caused by dust and stones being ejected by the fan exhaust into the face of the following drivers.
The idea of using a fan to create a low pressure area under the car was first tried by the innovator par excellence, Jim Hall, of Chapparal fame. He ran a car in the 1970 Can Am series which featured a fan (and sliding skirts) - 8 years before F1.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 31st August 14:41
Have been reflecting on this more and really like the Schumacher in a panda suit idea.
Extrapolating more generally, I think all of drivers should be suited up in animal costume and forced to a sprint to the cars at the beginning of each race, a la Le Mans. The ensuing struggle of trying to squeeze a fat arse bear or elephant costume into a modern F1 cockpit would push TV viewership through the roof and engage the younger generations.
Think Rubens Bear-ichello.
Taking this a step further, why not have the animals fight over the cars, so that this herd of ludicrous cartoon animals would all be wobbling over towards the Ferraris in the opening seconds. In a stirring reminder of Darwin's laws of natural selection, the stronger animals would get the Ferraris and the weaker ones would skulk off and face extinction in the Minardis.
Hand to hand combat would introduce a new variable to throw the traditional grid order up in the air. I just don't think Schumie could take Webber in a straight fight in padded neoprine suits.
Extrapolating more generally, I think all of drivers should be suited up in animal costume and forced to a sprint to the cars at the beginning of each race, a la Le Mans. The ensuing struggle of trying to squeeze a fat arse bear or elephant costume into a modern F1 cockpit would push TV viewership through the roof and engage the younger generations.
Think Rubens Bear-ichello.
Taking this a step further, why not have the animals fight over the cars, so that this herd of ludicrous cartoon animals would all be wobbling over towards the Ferraris in the opening seconds. In a stirring reminder of Darwin's laws of natural selection, the stronger animals would get the Ferraris and the weaker ones would skulk off and face extinction in the Minardis.
Hand to hand combat would introduce a new variable to throw the traditional grid order up in the air. I just don't think Schumie could take Webber in a straight fight in padded neoprine suits.
Eric Mc said:
Why do Lotus always get credit for thing's they either didn't invent or didn't even do?
The "Fan Car" was a Brabham - designed by the great Gordon Murray under the auspices of team owner, one Mr B Ecclestone. It won its one and only GP, the Swedish GP of 1978, and was then withdrawn by BE following protests by other drivers. Note that they didn't protest the engineeering principles behind the fan concept - but the danger caused by dust and stones being ejected by the fan exhaust into the face of the following drivers.
The idea of using a fan to create a low pressure area under the car was first tried by the innovator par excellence, Jim Hall, of Chapparal fame. He ran a car in the 1970 Can Am series which featured a fan (and sliding skirts) - 8 years before F1.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 31st August 14:41
I think my side-bagger idea would deal with the fan exhaust problem in a safe and environmentally conscious manner.
Munter said:
My current ideas for more exciting F1 are:
Only allow 1 wheel at the rear of the car. (I'd suggest putting it in the center).
Or you can only provide power to one wheel. Front or rear but only one.
Or how about one wheel at the back and one at the front and call it something like Moto GP
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