Massa wants shorter races

[Muzzlehatch]

What purpose would that serve, other than perhaps saving a trivial amount in consumables?

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/03/04/massa-wo...

Ahh, now it all becomes clear:

Massa said:

How frequently do we really see much happen in the final fifteen laps?

Now, Felipe, think back to your most recent race...

[Eric Mc]

I wonder about the intelligence of some drivers.

I am sure that, even if the races were shortened, there would still be a "final 15 laps" in each race.

They're too short as they are. They used to be over 3 hours or 300 miles.

[kaese]

He's probably thinking of what happened at Hungary too...

[rev-erend]

Two one hour races like they have in World Superbikes would make F1 much more interesting.

[taffyracer]

i'd agree, 1hr should be enough and would spice things up, i always look forward to the races, plan myu sunday around them, start watching and fall asleep waking up in between and then for the last 5 laps or so, seriously, why do they need to be endurance races, it would also cut down on wear and tear reducing costs

[Cara Van Man]

More sour grapes from the fat little gnome.

I thought he'd got past all this whingeing after the Brazilian GP.

Obviously not.

[Muzzlehatch]

If F1 races are reduced to 1hr, then together with the preformance reductions and other fixed developments, it'll end up being just be another GP2/F3000/etc.

Surely F1 is meant to be about extremes - on drivers, pit crew, chassis, engines, tyres, technical development, and of course spectators' emotions?

[SamHH]

Cara Van Man said:

More sour grapes from the fat little gnome.

I thought he'd got past all this whingeing after the Brazilian GP.

Obviously not.

How is it sour grapes to say he'd prefer shorter races?

[Cara Van Man]

SamHH said:

Cara Van Man said:

More sour grapes from the fat little gnome.

I thought he'd got past all this whingeing after the Brazilian GP.

Obviously not.

How is it sour grapes to say he'd prefer shorter races?

Look at when things went wrong for him last season, for sure.

Generally it was in the last 1/4 of a race, for sure.....reliability issues etc, for sure.

[SamHH]

Cara Van Man said:

Look at when things went wrong for him last season, for sure.

Generally it was in the last 1/4 of a race, for sure.....reliability issues etc, for sure.

I'm sure he's clever enough to realise that shorter races won't make him less prone to retirements due to unreliability. You'd have to be stretching his comments pretty far to interpret them as sour grapes

[williamp]

kaese said:

He's probably thinking of what happened at Hungary too...

..and valencia, when he stopped on tha last lap if I remember correctly??

[kevin ritson]

To be fair, the poor lamb has to concentrate really hard to stay on the track, so an hour would be easier for him.

Keep them at the 200 mile/2 hour duration, it works fine. Look what happened to rallying when they tried to make it fit the short attention span generation. Besides, most pitch sports have run at around 90 minutes for years, so it's in line with them.

[Cara Van Man]

SamHH said:

Cara Van Man said:

Look at when things went wrong for him last season, for sure.

Generally it was in the last 1/4 of a race, for sure.....reliability issues etc, for sure.

I'm sure he's clever enough to realise that shorter races won't make him less prone to retirements due to unreliability. You'd have to be stretching his comments pretty far to interpret them as sour grapes

Not really.

Let's look at Silverstone last year as an example.

If the race was an hour long, then he would have only spun in the region of 6 times rather than the 12 he did in 2 hours

I guess he is clever.

[zac510]

Less mileage for the engines, too!

[Eric Mc]

Not likely (I hope).

As the technology gets MORE reliable, maybe they should be extending the races - not shortening them.

The "Grand" is gradually being removed from "Grand Prix".

[Altrezia]

Fine, fillipe, as long as we can reduce your pay by the same amount...

[stockhatcher]

i'd like to see a 2 race format, the first race being a 40 min sprint, no pit stops, the result of which determines the grid for the second race, which is a 60 mins, single pit stop race. Seprated by say 20 mins.

imho

[flemke]

One has the sense that, when Massa retires from driving, his next job won't be as Ferrari Team Principal.

An F1 race is already shorter than a football match, and an F1 driver will do fewer than half as many races in a season as a football team will play matches.
If F1 were to follow the example of some other series, where each round would have two 150km races with the finishing order for the first being the reversed grid for the second, that could be fun.

[FourWheelDrift]

rev-erend said:

Two one hour races like they have in World Superbikes would make F1 much more interesting.

And reverse the grid by the race 1 finishing order for race 2.

[dpbird90]

stockhatcher said:

i'd like to see a 2 race format, the first race being a 40 min sprint, no pit stops, the result of which determines the grid for the second race, which is a 60 mins, single pit stop race. Seprated by say 20 mins.

imho

GP2. There you go.

But no Felipe, if anything races should be made longer, and the regulations should be relaxed, as it's already been said F1 is all about extremes, the pinnacle of all motorsport, a title it is rapidly losing because the drivers get penalties handed out to them like fish and chips and the designers aren't given enough free reign; they should allow their minds to run free, and even for just one special race, be allowed to go nuts.