Is Bernie just trying to be a troublemaker?

Bernie says Ferrari could lead a breakaway series. He also said recently F1 should go all-electric.

Hmmmm . . . . . Perhaps he's trying to devalue the series so he can buy it back??

http://www.planetf1.com/news/ecclestone-ferrari-could-lead-breakaway-series/

 

I would not mind a break-away series. Road relevance vs motorsport.......I would go to the motorsport.

 

He's just not used to being an irrelevant *****. He'll get over it eventually, or die. Either way is good with me.

 

"The Scuderia have threatened to quit the sport if the new regulations for the 2021 season and beyond are not in line with their expectations."

A breakaway series sounds good depending on what their "expectations" are.

 

That sounds like something Bernie would do.

 

I saw this... and I had the same feeling that maybe he was stirring up trouble.

But MAYBE Sergio is using him as his mouth piece too to either test the waters or force Liberty to change.

In F1 there is so much politics it's hard to tell who is being truthful and who is playing poker.

IMO, Ferrari could talk to Mercedes and Renault and break away. The F1 would have no engines and their series would end. But it's expensive and risky and rebuilding the brand would take years.

F1 is unusual in Sports because the have no home town and even home country in many cases. Imagine if the NY Yankees decided to form their own baseball league and took LA and Chicago with them. Would people still go to MLB games in other cities without them? Sure.

Taking Ferrari and Mercedes out of F1 would really hurt the sport.

 

Road relevant would not include Halo.........

 

Well . . . . that's because road cars have windscreens and roofs and all that sort of kit, right?

 

If fighter jets can use a clear canopy, why can't F1 cars?

The reason is the FIA decided this was "better" and quicker to do. Politics and perceptions of "doing something" was more important than being safer while caring for the fans.

 

100% agreement with that. The good news is, rules can be changed. Let's hope that comes quickly . . .

 

"Change" will only come 2 ways

1) fans need to show they are not in favor of it and attendance and viewership will drop. Look at the NFL. An 8% drop and they go into a panic
2) someone needs to find a reasonable alternative that all the teams will agree too. No way that will happen this year

 

I wonder if halo would have prevented the Felipe Massa incident when a spring came off of Barrichello's Brawn? My guess is no . . .

 

Except...

Ferrari wants to stick with the status quo...the road relevant side of the equation.

 

yep, F1 is certainly at a crossroads. Euro. manufacturers are pushing electric--->#FIA #EuropeanCommunity.

 

With a Halo device fitted, it would have be pot-luck if the errant spring hit it in the first place due to its size, and it would have been pot-luck as to which way the spring would have gone if it did hit a Halo device - It could have flown up out of harms way, or it could have spun downwards into the cockpit causing major body trauma to Massa.

The fact is, the Halo device is not intended to prevent incidents such as Massa's (nor is it really intended to help in an incident such as Bianchi's, before anyone brings that one up!).

The Halo has been introduced to prevent injuries/deaths from large pieces of "debris" hitting a drivers head such as an errant wheel or engine/gearbox part, as happened with Justin Wilson and Henry Surtees.

It is also designed to help prevent another car from striking a drivers head in an incident (such as Grosjean's car flying across Alonso's Ferrari in Spa, or Alonso's McLaren ending on top of Kimi's Ferrari in Austria 2015: Both of those incidents could have ended up with a driver being smashed in the head by an F1 car, or even decapitated, had things gone only slightly differently!)

 

1) Most, if not all modern fighter jets have some form of air conditioning built into the cockpit to keep it cool.

An F1 car would also require air con as the heat build up in the cockpit would be too much, especially around tracks such as Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, Brazil and Texas, to name a few - Basically, the driver would be driving around in a greenhouse!

It wouldn't be impossible to do, but it would add weight to the cars yet again, and would pose a serious risk to the driver's ability to concentrate/drive the car if it were to fail.


2) Fighter jets don't tend to throw out the coolant/fuel/oil/debris that F1 cars do.

F1 cars are pretty leaky machines (as shown by the crappy state of cars at the end of races, that have been following other cars closely for long periods of the race).

An F1 car with a canopy coated in oil/coolant/fuel/tyre debris/road debris represents a serious safety risk to the driver (Especially in a wet race!)


3) Fighter jet canopies are pretty large!

An F1 car's cockpit is a lot smaller than a fighter jets, and so would require a much smaller canopy. This would mean that the curvature of the canopy would be far more pronounced, causing a much higher rate of visual distortion and visual problems for the driver.


4) In the event of a car going upside down and the canopy not breaking, a driver could be trapped inside the car, and his rescue could be seriously hampered (fighter pilots tend to eject when their planes get into trouble - An F1 driver wouldn't have that option).


5) In the event of a car going upside down in a violent manner, such as Alonso's car in Melbourne, should the canopy shatter, there would be a high risk of the driver's body being punctured by a piece of canopy material.

A clear canopy on an F1 car would not be totally impossible to do, but there are issues that would need to be overcome.

 

I never meant to imply a complete covered canopy. I meant using the technology of how we make fighter jets to solve the problem.

Indycar is in the right direction. Use the technology and advanced optics the US has to create a glass screen in front of the driver.

 

As for Bernie - He's just pointing out something that a lot of F1/Ferrari fans are thinking.

The likes of McLaren's Zak Brown are suggesting that Ferrari's threat to quit is just posturing, and an empty threat. He's made public statements telling Liberty Media to stand up to Ferrari's threat and not give in to their demands, again suggesting that Ferrari have no intention of quitting.

All Bernie has done, is suggest that Ferrari's threat to quit is real, and should be taken seriously by Liberty Media.

So is he trying to be a trouble maker? - I don't think so. As I see it, he's just giving his opinion on the situation, and telling people not to take Ferrari's threat to quit as lightly as some are suggesting!

 

Watch the dirt/debris/s:censored:t that collects on the on-board camera pictures during an F1 race, and look at how often drivers have to dispose of tear off's from their visors - How are they going to deal with that with any sort of canopy/screen?

My monies on there being a problem in Indy car with the screen, should any car/cars develop a leak during a race and start spraying cars behind them,

 

For sure there will be issues. But with "air skirts" and other devices I'm sure it could work a lot better than halo in the future.

There are always compromises. Halo is also a compromise.

 

I think it's Bernie being Bernie, always stirring the pot, whether it's drivers, teams, or race tracks.

 

They've already talked about tear offs for the Indy car screens, but they are still, at least a year away, probably more. Also look at LMP1 and LMP2 cars. Their cockpits are barely wider than a single seater these days and they have a wrap around screen as well. Yes they have wipers, but I don't see them being used during a race.

 

subscribed, this seems like a very interesting thread

 

welcome aboard....