The latest on the survival of Monza on the F1 calendar doesn't augur too good. Monza's F1 future in jeopardy as talks stall Monza's F1 future in jeopardy as talks stall | FORMULA 1 news | Motorsport.com Losing Italian GP would be 'as bad' as no German GP, says Heidfeld Losing Italian GP would be 'as bad' as no German GP, says Heidfeld | FORMULA 1 news | Motorsport.com Already no French GP anymore, no German GP this year, and now the Italian GP under threat, and now a proposal to ban alcohol sponsorship in F1 F1 under pressure to ban alcohol sponsorship F1 under pressure to ban alcohol sponsorship | FORMULA 1 news | Motorsport.com Still, some people think that refuelling could solve the problem!
To be honest... I've stopped watching already. Boring cars/engines, pitstops are boring... qualifying is boring. Hell, the last q3 I watched there weren't any cars out on the track for the first half of the session! It's practically a parade for some random # of laps at this point. Its not racing anymore :/
Monza, spa, suzuka, interlagos, monreal, silverstone and monaco are the only decent tracks left for me, take them and i stop watching...
Great list. What was the track - Turkey? - with several very high speed left handers leading to a long straight? That looked like an amazing set of corners.
Its because of the new concepts of the "classical western world" with their influence on the sport that the F1 cars no longer sound like they did. The sooner F1 leaves the traditional markets, and finds new ones that welcome motorsport, the better the racing will be. There is NOTHING wrong if F1 picks up the economy of China, India, Russia, Saudia Arabia, etc, and loses the tiny little parts of Italy or France. F1 is a giant waste of oxygen welding to carbon to the new way of "euro thinking". For F1 to survive, it has to find new homes. People like to call F1 a Global sport, if the entire calendar has few exceptions, but wraps itself around an area smaller than a NASCAR schedule that only visits one country, is it really?
F1 is a lot bigger then it was decades ago when I first started following it. the spectacle has expanded beyond the event held on sunday at your local race track, into something that is truly world wide and thanks to social media is now covered every hour of every day. As a friend of mine calls it "Its a world wide traveling super bowl with a media presence to back it up as such." It is a business, not only for the sport itself, but also for people and companies who attach themselves to it. there is a lot at stake, so I can understand the sanctioning fee, if a race were to be canceled last minute it could be a very expensive fix. As for improvements to Monza, thats really on the track, and it really really needs it. now bernie is not the easiest guy to deal with, I can only imagine its like dealing with a used car salesman... however he does lay out the terms, its up to the tracks to meet them. In Monza's case they have know this for years, they could have secured funding, or found other ways of raising money, not to mention that they received 200 million to renovate the infrastructure.
Too many rules killed the sport. Not only they are not getting new fans but they are losing the existing ones.
The problem is that China, India, Russia, or Saudia Arabia [!] are not the natural environment of F1, and these countries have almost no tradition of motorsport. Like it or not, the market for motor racing and the F1 audience is mostly among the Western world. If it turns its back to that audience, F1 will not survive. The Bahrain, Baku, Shanghai, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur GPs won't fix F1. I have yet to see huge public demand for motor racing in Azerbijan, Korea, or Russia. Apart from state subsidised GPs to advertise the country or flatter its government, there is hardly any motorsport activity in most of the new countries F1 has visited in the last few years. F1 increasingly visit places where only the country elite and foreign F1 fans can afford a ticket to attend. Public attendance at some venues has been very low, as shown by the spectacle of empty grandstands. But losing France, Germany, maybe Italy and possibly Britain one day (whilst the future of the US GP is not certain), will certainly create a void. It's so funny that MotoGP understands that, but Bernie and the FIA don't. MotoGP goes where its audience is. There are in 2015, no less than 4 MotoGPs in Spain!!!
It's not easy for Monza. It's a track in the middle of a national park that is protected by law. There is so much the track owners and organisers are allowed to do. For example, they cannot cut trees; that limits their chances to alter the track to improve run-off areas. Bernie can blackmail cash-strapped European tracks, because he has a list of potential countries ready to pay him almost anything to have a place of the GP calendar. Mind you, in some countries, people have started to question the need for that expense. Circuits in Europe, like Monza, Silverstone, Magny Cours, don't receive state subsidies like their counterpart in Bahrain, Shanghai or Sochi. Bernie would like every circuit in Europe to tear up their grandstands and pit area and build new ones at huge cost. He doesn't care where the money comes from...
If the so-called "emerging markets" are so eager, let them subsidize the heritage venues. Bernie shouldn't have too much trouble "convincing" them to do that....... You know, "for the good of the sport."
Assuming F1 closes shop next year, i won't miss it a bit. They have been so bad at managing the entire sport, i've just lost confidence in everything. Stupid cars, stupid rules, desert races, managing, not racing, etc.
Forget about locations. To me is the damn restrictions, which have lead to the current boring engines. Rather than a book of restrictions, just restrict FUEL. And a reasonable amount, to at least bring back V8s. But enough to allow V10s would be awesome. And to avoid excessive speeds, maybe establish an electronic speed limit. That's it. Let innovation once more be what rules F1. Yes, underfunded teams won't be competitive, but they're not competitive now. Let them just keep creating traffic, like they do now. All wishful thinking, I know. And no, I won't spend my money on another F1 race until (and if) it changes enough to make the cars AND the races exciting again. Right now I put the DVR in fast forward, and finish the race in about 15 minutes. And most of them are a waste of my time ... just waiting for a nice pass, or something else worth stopping the fast forward.
Germany had no tradition of motorsport, until Mercedes and Auto Union were funded to attempt to win GP's by the government. What I'm trying to say may be difficult to understand, but F1 needs to find new home that is friendly to motor racing. Europe is extremely anti-automobile. A continued European base, will result in increasingly castrated F1 rules.
What is your basis for that sweeping statement? Euro governments may be anti-automobile as they see it as anathema to their impulse to control their citizens, but I don't think Europeans are anti-automobile at all. Europe (I include the UK in this) still produces the best, most innovative cars in the world. Take a look at magazine stands. There are far more automotive publications emanating from Europe than the U.S. Aside from NASCAR, virtually all racing technology, design and manufacturing come from Europe. The UK/Eurozone has many more rallies, high end concours, historic racing activities, etc than we do. I think the automobile culture, and thus the automobile, in Europe is actually alive and quite well.
I agree with much of what you have to say. One of the most memorable F1 races I attended was Phoenix in 1990. The circuit was absolutely dreadful but the acoustics were an aural delight--several V12's, V10's and V8's. It was music to the enthusiast's ear, the current formula is an abomination. Mercedes wrote the rulebook, they should be vilified.
You can suck the lifeblood out of a sport for just so long. Bernie & co. have been taking and taking for years returning little to the fans or to the sport itself. The pigeons are coming home to roost.