Making a potential breakaway series successful

Red Bull could be the company that pulls it off creating the series and having title sponsorship instead of being a race team.

 

No other teams are going to join a new series basically run by Ferrari and Mercedes, they would not stand a chance it would be a procession even more so than F1 is now.

Its the usual sabre rattling at negotiation time, Bernie used to call their bluff every time as none of them wanted to run such a set up really and he knew that, so they all then fell into line time and time again.

Also the tracks and promoters are not going to break away from the FIA just so they can host one race a year that they make no money on anyway.

They do need to sort it out though, I followed F1 since 1976 as an 8 year old, I knew every car and every driver in detail for the next 3 decades. Not watched an F1 race in the last 3 years.

 

Here's my take on a breakaway series: It won't happen.

 

The most important rule: It only costs the city/track $10M to host an event, down from the $25M for the F1 circus as it is today.

But if you want close racing,
a) you have to get rid of 80%-odd of the aero
a.1) single plane front wing, fixed wing angle, used for entire season--same wing for Monaco and Monza
a.2) single plane rear wing, fixed angle, used for entire season--same wing for Monaco and Monza
a.3) convex hull rule for underbody
a.4) no winglettes, no barge boards, shark fins, no diffusers, monkey seats, front tea tray, rear tray
b) Qualified car can start on qualifying tires with pit stops or tires one step harder and go entire race without pit stop
c) Engines:: car gets 6T Joules of energy, any engine configuration the team wants.
c.1) engine has to last 1 race weekend.
c.2) transmission has to last 1 race weekend
c.3) engine or transmission fails:: car does not participate in race
d) Brakes:: with the restricted aero brake regulations don't matter.
e) race distance: 200 miles or 2 hours

 

To be honest, rather than a break away F1-esque series I'd rather Ferrari and Mercedes focus more on their GT programs. They both already do a fairly good job of it (especially Mercedes) but I'd love to see a true factory team from both.

 

Why Ferrari is threatening a breakaway series. It's because they want to keep the status quo. Merc and Ferrari wouldn't simplify the rules; the current regs suit their competitive advantages.

-For 2018 it was Marchionne that blocked staying with 4 engines rather than continuing the step down to 3 engines.

-For 2021 it is Marchionne that is threatening to leave if they simplify the engine regs away from the current hybrid PU's. Red Bull had even proposed going back to the NA engines, the manufacturers shot that down pretty quickly.

-On the aero side Merc and Ferrari have army's of aero engineers. Simplify that part of the formula and suddenly another big competitive advantage falls away.

A breakaway series run by the manufacturers would magnify all that's currently wrong with F1.

 

^ This...

People read the headlines about a breakaway series and instantly forget why and jump to other conclusions. Then, when everybody begins to add their two cents, there are wildly differing ideas about how this breakaway series should work...almost none of which are inline with the reasons Ferrari and Mercedes are giving for their threats.

Ross Brawn is desperately needed by the sport, but has a gigantic challenge ahead of him.

 

I get what you’re saying and it makes sense as a stand-alone argument. In the context of Ferrari’s current threat, it is very wide of the mark, though. And, like I mentioned above, the “sensible approach” varies from person to person to the point that a few posters in an Internet thread can’t agree on what it means...let alone millions of fans (and drivers/teams/sanctioning bodies) around the world.

When consensus is so far away, somebody (if not everybody) will be disappointed.

 

A major works team with their sponsors fully onboard would have to go to make it work. One of many problems is none of the teams would see the new rules as a middle ground, they would always say they favor one over the other etc, the politics would be ludicrous. It's like beginning a new political party

 

If engine, aero, and materials rules are not simplified, F1 is a cost competition and the team that can spend the most will be the most competitive. Very few teams can afford to have 400-500 people on the payroll, plus the cost of plant and equipment. The big manufacturers (Merc and Ferrari) can bury even more of the cost within their corporate R&D departments.

Basically, it's just gotten out of hand, and teams have different motivations. Clearly, Mercedes and Ferrari have different overall goals than Red Bull or Haas.

F1 shouldn't become a spec series, but it could be far less technically complicated and produce even more compelling racing.

 

Get rid of those stupid grid penalties. This is racing, things are going to break. You race a Camry balls out, and it will break. You qualify and things break, fix it without fear of starting in pit lane.

 

FI has become something akin to the Titanic,with Admiral Todt at the wheel,has drifted way off course but continues full steam ahead, they have an inexperienced look out on the deck ,Capt Liberty,who has no clue what he is doing but muddling along in the fog, hoping for the best, they hired an experienced shipwright Brawn but he is hampered by his lack of authority...if they fail to turn around the ship they will surely bump into something rather large,just starting to appear on the sonar...

 

Hmmm, so if Merc could run the AMG GTR motor, and Ferrari ran the 488 motor, it would be possible. Just need to redesign some parts around the chassis. Of course, easier said than done.

 

You just described a twenty year old Saab.

The turbo concept being used in F1...harvesting heat and kinetic energy and electrically pre-spooling...will definitely be seen in road vehicles soon. These are the sorts of technologies that will extend the life of the internal combustion engine.

 

Actually, we have a lot to agree to...

I like the power unit... you don't. We can agree to disagree.

However, we are in lockstep with ridiculous nature of the aero package...

Without the ''force field" I think the power unit would be really impressive... that's the overlap of our views.

I keep saying that wholesale change is not productive. IOW, I don't think that the aero AND power unit should change simultaneously. The power units are close... the focus should be on eliminating the force field.

 

Surely IndyCar is all the proof you need of what a disastrous idea a breakaway series is?