and cheap to operate. I've said this before: somewhere along the way, F1 tilted from a motorsport to a technosport, and in a sport where all it takes to go fast is ooodles of money, it ceases to be a sport. If you cannot SURVIVE with MAJOR MAJOR sponsorship, then it's not a sport. Could the NFL survive without television money ? Not the way it is now. Folks need to be rethinking some things, and they are not. Folks think we have hit a bump inthe road, and it will be right back where it (F1) was, and I'm saying 'not so fast, my friend'. (pun NOT intended) 'Speed costs money - how fast do you want to go ?' was neat 25 years ago, today it is an enigma.
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I had the pleasure of restoring a 70's era F-1 car some time ago. We took it completely apart and put it back together to run in today's vintage events safely. The side pods were simple aluminum that held -- get this ---60 gallons of gas with no fuel cell. If you get T-boned, you're toast. I thought to myself just how brave the drivers had to be at that time. No crumple zones, your feet practically hanging out the front of the car, and a rear wing that looked like it would decapticate you in a rear end crash into a barrier. If F-1 has done one thing right since then, it's been to advance the cause of safety in racing and cars in general. That's one cost of technology that was well spent.
I hope F1 goes back to embracing new technology...bring back traction control, allow ABS, hybrid-power regeneration, ect...I would love to see a 1000hp 2 liter 4 cylinder turbo formula...F1 should be innovative and develop new technology which will improve road cars in the future...leave the old tech to vintage racing series...
i agree with bdelp, the safety technology is incredible and the old cars just don't have it. but today we need cars that maximize, not minimize, the effects of driver error. so things like traction control, ABS need to stay OUT of F1. 1000hp would result in even more aero which i think would make passing even more difficult than it is today. i'd like to see push-to-pass (hybrid or possibly other tech) and bring back movable aero (in a safe way).
F5000, Formula A, whatever you want to call them, they were bad! Hobbs, Redman, Stewart, Donahue, Andretti, all the great drivers drove them. I've worked with a fellow who won SVRA's Most Improved Driver Award this year in a McKee F5000 car. Heck, he drove the darned thing in the RAIN at Mid-Ohio. Deserved it for just getting out there... Talk about needing to be a throttle artist!
Guys, I think we are all fully aware that 'they' could never bring back 70's era F1 cars because of safety -er- lawsuits, no matter HOW MANY forms you sign or how well and how often a driver states they are fully aware of the repurcussions, but it's nice to DREAM a little bit, isn't it ? As far as I am concerned, new fuel cells could be constructed in the same areas, as opposed to just having an open gas 'tank', and that's about all I would mandate. I keep thinking 'drivers and all involved know it's an unsafe sport', but that said, as some know, A good friend of mine died in a racing accident, he knew the odds, he signed in at the pit gate, but that didn't stop his wife from suing everybody involved, and winning. It's a shame all sports have come to that, that LIFE has come to that: no matter what bad happens, someone ELSE is at fault, sue them.
While safety should certainly be a factor, technological innovation should be the focus of F1 IMHO...F1 should represent the pinnacle of automotive technology...not old school/non-ABS/TC racing.
Can't stop technical progress. those with more money and a better mousetrap will always have an advantage. we have gone from unlimited technology to very controlled technology in F1. weight and aerodynamics are huge now. when someone makes an innovation the competitors call it cheating. Then you have a NASCAR which the cars are just about all the same. and a huge effort to prevent cheating is one of the costs.
I'd love to see F1 go back to fairly simple machines like back then, albeit a little more save. around the same how they looked in the mid 90's, a front wing, rear wing and a safe carbon monocoque. No electronic nannies bar F1 shift. no pissing about and bending the rules (ferrari, mclaren, renault [former benetton]. I'm looking your way) with hidden maps for starts, E-diffs, clever active wings (although I found it BRILLIANT, I dont mind them, but its just to show a way of 'bending the rules')... Let the driver do the actual driving, make the sport really exciting again. And toss pornoMAX and Bernie on a space ship and send them far away.
As cool as the cars were (I LOVE to watch them at vintage races), cutting back F1 technology to a standard of decades ago will mean its death. F1 has always been about pushing the limits of car engineering, and if it ceases to do so, the series will die.
There has to be an alternative that can give us world-wide open wheel racing without needing a a quarter-BILLION dollar budget, that's all I am saying.
check this out: http://www.f5000registry.com/home.html Phil, IMO the problem with 'cheating' usually comes when creativity is attempted to be snuffed out. Don't have rules you can't enforce is something they should consider. If I could reinvent F1, I would go back to its' roots where it was a true international sport, where the teams and drivers actually portrayed where they were from. Today, are not all the teams except for Ferrari based in Britain ? (honestly - I don't know..) I wish I could be in the position to blow about 200 million bucks on running a series for 10 years based on a 'stock' strategy. I'd resurrect the ideas of the F5000 car, and say any mechanical piece used must be available to anyone 'nearly' off-the-shelf, and you cannot make parts from exotic pieces, ie carbon fibre usage is at a minimum. I would have to find a way to not allow 'star' drivers as well... I just keep thinking there has to be a way to have one helluva series without needing a million dollars just to make the field. *
@ Whisky damn I don't know which I would like to drive first..the vintage F1 car or your avatar on a serious note: bring back manual shifting into F1 PLEASE and SLICKS DAMMIT !!!
