Ecclestone, Di Montezemelo and Todt hold meeting to improve F1

What is your point exactly?

 

I'd have to disagree with that. Had the Paddock club/Ferrari Hospitality service now at 5 different tracks and it is a good mix of passionate fans who love the noise, to the novice that is is intrigued by it. Some of the less educated US based fans are more intrigued by the sound at Austin than by anything else in my experience. In Monaco the Yachts are the place to be and my now wife took an instant liking to F1 based just off the sound......we could hear GP2 from our Hotel up on the hill, and she could "feel" the sound from head to toe while on the back of yacht near the pool complex
My first experience on the other hand was Montreal 2008, and the shear volume hooked me. as we arrived via the Subway. The lawnmowers of today have me only going to one race this year VS. three the previous 4 years. So I guess I am pounding 2/3 the sand that some have suggested one with my opinion should do.

Each to his own, but recall the Melbourne promoter was complaining from day one, he has a vested interest, and without butts in the seats most promoters not backed by a dictatorship of sorts needs those tickets sold to pay Bernie.

 

Fair points.

 

We used to have very good races in the past with neither refueling, nor tire changes.
Why can't we go back to that format?

I never understood why compulsory pit stop were introduced for 200 miles or 2 hours maximum races.

It's a drivers championship, not a pit stop championship, for goodness sake!

The only strategy I want is driving flat out, and not some strategy devised by boffins behind computers during the race.

 

Simply with respect to the complaints, several posted in this thread, that the new 2014 F1 races will be economy runs with power dialed way back to save fuel for a significant portion of the races - that fear has not materialized, the two races so far have not shown any sign of being the feared economy runs.

The season is underway, the races aren't actually economy runs - I might have thought that the people genuinely concerned about this possibility might have actually been watching for this and noticed that the concern has not proven to be real. It's therefore a bit funny that some people in this thread, after two races, are still repeating dire warnings about fuel economy races, despite evidence of two races disproving their fears.

Sure, some of the concerns about the new F1 are genuine, I don't suggest everything is rosy - but the credibility of the complaints is diminished when the complainers didn't bother to notice that the fear of fuel economy runs has been unrealized.

 

They were dialing back for fuel economy several times at Mayalsia if you were paying close attention. Only when it came to pit stop time did they put on the limit to not get passed while some one else was on fresh tires.

I do agree though - never liked refueling in F1, was glad to see it go, but I wish there was some lee way on needing to dial back as much.

 

Ferrari, Ecclestone want quick F1 rule changes

Ferrari, Ecclestone want quick F1 rule changes | News | Motorsport.com



The solution to the fuel flow problem? Make the race shorter!! LOL



F1 heading for EUR 150m budget cap - Todt

F1 heading for EUR 150m budget cap - Todt | News | Motorsport.com



And also, the budget cap theory rears its ugly head again.
How do they expect to control that is another question.

 

Sounds like sour grapes from the under performing teams to me with a handy excuse.

“You can please some of the people some of the time all of the people some of the time some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.” ― Abraham Lincoln

 

I agree with most of the above, however making the cars louder wont be easier but its more that, the rules have robbed us of any sort of racing, bring back testing. F1 is expensive enough as it is, what difference would testing make. Why penalise team who have testing facilities?

With testing you also may find a better calibre of young driver entering F1, with more experience of actually driving an F1 car.

F1 is a pinnacle of motorsport but these new rules make the sport green for no purpose, bring back V10's and like, a few F1 cars a few times a year isn't going to radically increase pollution.

 

But these rules were agreed by the main protagonists.
How can they contest them now?

They were not written specifically to reduce pollution on the track, but to be in tune with the new technology available in ordinary cars.

 

they should forego open whell prototypes, adopt WEC LMP1 rules, invite Audi, Toyota and Porsche to the party and be done with it.

Seriously, WEC is making the F1 look really boring. There is so much variety in engines(all 3 manufacturers use completely different engine configurations and on top of that they also use different hybrid systems), cars look different - and yet, for all that variety LMP1 teams are far more evenly matched than F1 cars that all use, basically, the same engine+hybrid combo.

Tell me I'm wrong...

 

Errr ..... you may be right to a certain point.

The purists could argue that LMP1 cars are more designed for long distance than GPs, but there is certainly as much technology in WEC than in WDC/WCC, and a lot more diversity.

Also, I find LMP cars better looking than the last generation of F1 with silly noses and front wings like origami exercises.

I am wondering also how long F1 will stick to the open wheels and open cockpit configuration.

 

Andrew Benson

"There has been a lot of, ahem, noise in the last few weeks about the sound of the new F1 engines, with some - including Bernie Ecclestone claiming it is affecting interest in the sport. Well, not in the UK, it's not. Silverstone held a briefing this lunchtime in Bahrain ahead of the British Grand Prix, and they reported that ticket sales are on a par with last year, and that there has been a spike on the Mondays after both of this year's races. Silverstone are planning a 'fan day' on the Thursday ahead of this year's event, which runs from 3-6 July, including a concert by the Kaiser Chiefs in the evening, when the F1 pit lane will also be opened to fans."

 

You are not wrong; in some aspects it reminds me of formula one in the seventies with the various engine configurations, and these cars will have more trickle down tech to street cars than f1 does- f1 needs to be loud fast and sexy, not the current formula of quiet slow and ugly. New rules=massive fail IMHO. This year is done but next year I guarantee no fuel limits and increased rev limits. Vettel says the cars sound like poop and Fred says they are slow. Two of the most respected drivers on the grid have spoken, and the fact that after 2 races meetings are being held to improve the show points out how much they really lost the plot.

 

Which part of most watched sport in the world did you not understand?

How Ecclestone turned Formula One into the world's most watched series - Autoweek

10 Geeky Reasons You Should Be Watching Formula One | GeekDad | Wired.com

Formula for success: How F1 built a billion dollar business - CNN.com

What is the second most watched sport in the world

Urban Dictionary: f1

As for numbers: Over 500 million viewers for a single race, totalling 40 billion (with a b) viewers annually

 

Here is part of the problem, an engineer that does not know his stuff. The sound has nothing to do with RPM's. The best sounding n/a engine ever redlined @14,500 the 1994 Ferrari 412 T1b. The incredibly loud and powerful turbo's of 1986 were only running @ 12,000rpm's.

The fact that the new Renault only has 1 turbo VS. 2 in the 80's is a major part of the problem and that 1 large stovepipe exhaust is another part of it. They should go visit all the retired mechanics from the 80's to learn how to do it right.

 

So, I skipped urban dictionary, asi i tend to find that is not safe for work, but
your wired article has a F1 link (Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website) which says in 2010 it was 527M people annually.
The wiki.answers.com has your quote of 40B people, but with absolutely no references. All of the other articles have no reference to annual viewership (that I saw, perhaps I missed it), just talking about all the money F1 makes.

So, if there is an article on formula1.com claiming 2010 was 527M viewer over the entire season, I am gonna go out on a limb and say the NFL probably gets pretty close, considering 12-16 games a week, for 17 weeks, then 3 rounds of playoffs before the Superbowl which gets ~30% of F1 total anual viewers.
Your article that asks "what is the worlds second most watch sport" relied on the FIA to report back data, which conveniently leaves out Football and Baseball.
Heck Baseball might even have higher viewership considering it is big in US and Japan (same sport, just different leagues) and has a 162 game schedule.

Moral of the story, 40B viewers is bull. somewhere between 450M and 600M (it was 527M in 2010) would be accurate.
If I have time, I will check the NFLs US viewerships to see how close the US's largest sport gets to the viewership of the worlds largest sport.

 

As usual I see Ferrari politics at hand... Ferrari are not doing well, so change the game...

I'm not so crazed about the noise... the car are UGLY for no good reason. I think what is needed is a go back to the regulations of the 80's with modern safety implications.

WAY, WAY too much aero emphasis, not enough ground breaking technology- so you have to be alble to alow them to use computers, abs etc... just limit the "G"s for driver safety, and all inputs have to come from the driver.

may be a 1L multi cylinder, multi turbo engine vs. 2L V-6 single turbo engine?

F-1 needs a tire war as well... Michelin, Pirelli, and Goodyear....or Bridgstone or all 4...

KERS, and active aero are good ... keep it but it has to be highlighted.


and if i were an F-1 team I'd fit loud speakers with a good engine noise ... tied to RPMs..... and hook up with Sony or Kenwood etc....

 

Quick links:
Record 108.4 million viewers for NFL opening weekend | Awful Announcing
First week of 2013 NFL season had 108.3M viewers

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/11/27/15-nfl-games-top-25-million-viewers-in-2013-nfl-games-two-most-watched-shows-of-the-week/218766/
Claims that the 24 most watched games from Sept through Nov (no data for December or the playoffs) had 594M viewer (I did some math).

So, looks to me like the NFL a "US Only Sport" is larger in viewership than F1. I will admit the rest of the world doesn't watch American Football, so we can call F1 the worlds largest non-american sport, or the worlds largest international sport, but it is not the worlds largest sport in terms of viewership. (Assuming the US and the rest of the world track viewership by similar metrics).

 

I was waiting for you to quote 40 billion viewers annually.

Lets to the math.

There are 7 billion people on earth from 0-110years old. There are 18 races in a season.

If EVERYONE watched F1 during the year it would be 126 BILLION. At 40 Billion that 30% of the worlds ENTIRE population watching F1. You honestly think 3 in EVERY 10 people in the entire world watch F1?

It is estimated that only about 20% of the WORLDS population even has access to TV.

500 million was what the SEASON viewership was back in 2010. Last year it was 450 Million.

 

F1 wouldn't even be the worlds largest non-us sport. Soccer, Cricket, Tennis, Golf are all higher and more accessable to more people and more countries.

I love F1 and wish it were more popular but it just isn't.

Appearly the 50 million loss of viewers over Vettels domination has caused Bernie to try to change the rules, I would be willing to bet they have lost another 50 Million between AUS and MAL.

 

Feel free to ignore the facts.

 

Does it matter, it is still very popular and still discussed in great lengths.

The key is accessible, they have shafted us in the UK unless you pay for Sky sports, that's what hacks me off.

 

You can only lead a horse to water.

Facts are facts.