Mercedes: Muted sound of F1 has brought families to the track...
Mercedes: Muted sound of F1 has brought families to the track http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/705809/Mercedes_Muted_sound_of_F1_has_brought_families_to_the_track/ Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell says the muffled and less aggressive sound of F1's hybrid engines has encouraged families to attend Grand Prix weekends. Formula 1's engines have seen incredible advancements in terms of energy efficiency since the advent of the hybrid era in 2014. But for all the technological prowess achieved by the sport's power unit engineers, one area in which the engines have failed in the ears of the fans is sound. The low-key strangled melody of today's F1 engine is a far cry - pun intended - from the screaming, earth-shattering, soul-stirring, high-revving pitch of the V10s and V8s from the previous decade or the nineties. But Cowell - the man who supplies the power to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas cars from Mercedes' HPP factory in Brixworth - believes F1's typical hybrid engine sound has had a positive impact on race attendance figures. "In 2014, none of our engines were particularly well tuned, we were running a light-weight exhaust system, and so not equal length primaries," said Cowell, speaking in a Motorsport magazine podcast. "I think now everybody's got a very well tuned engine, all the lengths are a nice equal size, and I think the sound is pleasant, the volume isn't high, but it's still pretty noisy. "Now all the other supporting championships have got turbocharged engines, and they all sound fairly similar. I think we're seeing more families go to the circuit. "Previously, with the screaming V8s and the screaming V10s, there was no way a child would go anywhere near a circuit. You wouldn't inflict that on your child.
I wonder how many have stopped going because of the muffled lawnmower sound? F1 needs to trash the hybrid engines. Bring back the NA V8/V10’s.
F1 Disneyland is just around the corner. Next up - live concerts ordered to turn down their audio volume to 4, so that families can enjoy their picnics and bickering in peace
Yep, straight to crap is the direction, glad I had the opportunity to attend over 20 races in person when it was worth going...
Give the kids ear protection and let it rip. The sound was one of the features of our annual trips to the Glen and Montreal. That article is b@**@@it!
This is utter bull ****. Correlation without causation. I think this must be Simon Cowell. F1 will be better off when MBz finally leaves.
I can see the F1 races in 2025. Father: You see son, daddy has a hybrid engine just like Lewis! Son: But daddy, your car sounds nothing like his car. Father: It is because my car is better for the environment. We need to worry about our carbon footprint and noise pollution.
I have seen the V10, V8 and the V6 Hybrid. I was at Singapore and had seen the Hybrids for the first time. For once I left a race early, could not deal with how boring the motors sound.
What's amusing about this story is Mercs home GP attendance actually went down this year Image Unavailable, Please Login Record crowds were during the "noisy" era Image Unavailable, Please Login
Actually F1 is even more family friendly, there has been no need to even watch the race unless Mercedes or its drivers made an error as there has never been a more dominant team and car in the history of the sport. Without having to watch the race and the quiet nature of the PUs parents can spend quality time with their children without distraction of an actual event featuring anything remotely resembling interesting or exciting, isn’t the world a better kinder place now.....
We were attending, and there was a lot of crowd boo's for the British Mercedes driver. Odd ! Great race though.
exactly. Took my son to the NASCAR Roval race here in Charlotte. Gave him earplugs. He loved it. Amazingly - and no one will believe this - he survived!
Having a German driver competing for wins, part of the time in a team with no history of dominance, probably helped a lot. The Mercedes F1 team is a British operation with a #1 driver who is also British and topping it off, to those who are just asshats in general, with being black. Only German thing about it is the engines and a few names
A survey done a couple of years ago on behalf of the organisers showed that German spectators mostly objected to the ticket prices. There was no indication of the influence of the nationality of teams or drivers. That, in the richest country in the EU, with top standards of living, and where people enjoy higher disposable income than in most other European countries. Maybe the ticket prices have reached the limits of what the general public is ready to accept?
Indeed, in the early 80s I could pay for attending a GP in spite of still being a student - it was already significant money but I think it's totally got out of hands in the last decade (... or my perception could be wrong, I do not have actual data to check the ticket pricing evolution).