Historically Grand Prix racing has been about the teams. The constructor's title predates the driver's championship by decades. While many of today's fans follow drivers teams have legions of fans as well. After all this is a Ferrari forum not an Alonso nor a Kimi nor a Schumacher forum.
Drivers, even the greats, come and go. They're employees of the larger entity. It's the teams that abide.
Bingo. Even Button won a WDC. If not for Vettel, Webber would have walked away with several, too. Hell, Felipe was one corner (really, one midseason late-race engine failure) away. These guys are all good, but none is great. The team leaders (e.g. Brawn, Todt, Newey) are the real source of F1 success and the car has more to do with the outcome than the driver. Look how many races more or less start and finish with the teams 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, etc.
The team builds the car, the team fixes the car, the team devises a strategy before the race, the team analyzes telemetry etc etc. The driver drives the car. It's still a team sport if there is no radio driving aid. IMO the driver has to have the feel for the car and drive accordingly. It makes it more honest, and separates boys from men.
My concern is that the new regulation can only promote confusion and subterfuge, making competition _less_ honest. If the driver is not to given advice throughout the race then do away with the radio entirely.
A lot of modern tech seperates the men from the boys. Singling out just one bit of technology for banning makes little sense unless it is to handicap a dominant team. As we've seen repeatedly great drivers can't win championships in second rate cars while lesser talents win championships if they have a first class ride.
Not true, the constructors championship started in 1958, 8 years faster the top level of Motorsport was renamed Formula One. From around 1905 until 1957 there was no constructors championship. Pete
Agreed completely. So let's think about this. The "team" design and build the car, race prepare it and do everything except for those ~70 laps. The "team" does not need to be involved in those laps otherwise why have a driver at all! Get rid of the radio and let the driver do his 1% of the team event by himself for flip sake. If team members cannot get satisfaction from their enormous involvement then there is something wrong with them ... what do they want? To run the United Nations or something? Pete
My apologies! - There are so many nick names for various teams/drivers/races etc., used in the F1 section that I had mistakenly assumed you were referring to LeMans! However, thinking that F1 drivers should require the same sort of information as a LeMons runner is even worse than thinking they should need the same level of information as a LeMans runner! I stand by My statement that the supposedly best drivers in the World should be able to race without being told how to during a race! I say ban the radio's completely! - Got a problem with your car? - Drive round it yourself, that's what the truly greats do!
True. However, their strategy can, and often does, change *during* the race.... Ross & Michael were the masters of this! Depending upon traffic & what others are doing etc etc. Particularly without DRS when overtaking was virtually impossible.... I'm not sure how a lack of radio would "separate the boys from the men"? One could argue, as was once done, that pit boards should be outlawed too..... They're a "driver aid" too.... Personally, and FWIW, I fall firmly in the middle! telling him "he's x kph faster than you into turn 2" is real time driver coaching, and shouldn't be allowed at this level. OTOH, changing strategy and pitting earlier/later based on traffic or whatever is smart and shows an ability to outthink the other guy. Cheers, Ian
Couldn't agree more! I guess the question is should he be "alone" once the lights go out? Poll coming to a forum near you soon. Cheers, Ian
Without radio, drivers would write their own strategy by reading pit signals once a lap and their own observations, rather than being managed by the stategists from the pits. One way to reduce the costs would be to sack all the computer staff you see in the pits too!! Analysts, strategists, and so on ... get rid of them !!! Just let the drivers race, for Christ sake!!
I can see radio's for safety. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they used your idea! Very interesting! Fun as well!
A valid opinion.... I disagree, but that's cool! The pinnacle of motorsport? Without any of the geeks that are needed just to fire the things up these days?... Dunno about that!..... Maybe.... And note that radios aren't really needed for 'safety' either - They've all got displays on the wheel that show them status (blue, green, yellow, SC, DRS etc). But, would it actually improve the racing is I guess my question? I'm not sure..... Cheers, Ian
If he didn't invent them he was the one who brought them mainstream. Now back to your thread, already in progress.
When I said "Radio aid", I meant driver coaching. So we agree, for the msot part. I still think the radio should be limited to "Pit now" types of messages.
