Add to the Show

Here's an idea to spice up the F1 show, give lower end teams a chance to capture a WCC point or two, and give exposure manufacturer products in F1

During each race weekend, on Fridays, there would be a fast lap challenge which all drivers would compete in, the winner of which would earn a point, just one point, for their team in the constructers standings. Each driver would get a single lap to set a time.

The car everyone would compete in would change from race to race with each team having a choice. The only stipulation is that it's a road car. This would give the Ferrari's, MAC's and others a chance to feature their road going cars during the race weekend.

It would allow for drivers to showcase their skills in equal equipment, it would allow manufacturers to showcase their equipment and drive brand recognition/loyalty, & it would allow teams at the very bottom of the grid to have a shot at earning a point. It would force them to hire truly fast, capable drivers.

Finally it would add an element of fun to the weekend that helps the show.

Now, it's not without issue, it's a bit contrived & doesn't fit the "history" of F1, it allows teams to earn WCC points without succeeding with their F1 package, it takes away from the norm.

My response to that is...F1 is always changing, the success of the sport is predicated on drawing an audience, things like this would help regular folks identify with the sport more, finally it helps sell cars, which hopefully helps drive budget into F1.

Alright, kill my idea now, that's what forum's are for.

 

why bother with all that when they could just have a running or bicycle race for a lap?

 

F1 did something similar in 1979 and 1980, with the BMW M1 Procar Championship, run as a supporting race series at European F1 race weekends and featuring the current F1 drivers. Niki Lauda won the 79 Procar championship, and Nelson Piquet won in 1980. Drivers on the F1 grid earned spots in the Procar race based on their F1 practice performance.

Check out BMW M1 Procar Championship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more info!

 

Interesting. I would think that an F1 driver would not want to confuse their muscle memory in the middle of a race weekend driving a completely different type of race car. But then again, F1 drivers are exceptional athletes and maybe it's not a big deal for them.

 

The F1 drivers really enjoyed competing in the BMW Pro Car Championship on F1 race weekends. This is a post, describing the series, and with a few photos taken during the race preceding the 1979 Monaco Grand Prix, that I posted on another thread:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142308603-post1175.html

 

I just think the ability to showcase your road cars would be so appealing to the teams (which most have road cars, others would have a chance to grab additional sponsor money for selecting a car on their weekend). Plus it gives the back end of the grid the chance to grab more of a share of the commercial money by having great drivers.

 

Bernie doesn't care. Everything that was remotely cool about F1 in the past has been stripped away to sell just the qual/race sessions. TV audience numbers > fans attending numbers.

You want changes in F1 buy out Bernie + co


EVO magazine had an article a few months ago about Senna's 190E. It was a one off race. The closest we have to this now is Race of Champions.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swlgR4BB8ZA]F1 1984 Mercedes 190 Nurburgring Race - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=664k0onPaVY]Senna's Mercedes 190E race car | INSIDE evo - YouTube[/ame]

 

There's the problem, though - even back in 79/80, the teams that manufactured cars did not allow their drivers to take part in the Procar races - Ferrari did not allow Villeneuve and Scheckter, for example, to drive the M1 Procars because if they did well they would be promoting the BMW M1 mid-engine car, a competitor to their own V8 308s. Nowadays, Infiniti would not allow Vettel to race a Ferrari, Mercedes would not allow Rosberg to race a McLaren road car, etc.

 

Do you think they'd maybe allow it since each manufacturer would have the chance to have their car showcased? Maybe Vettel would drive the Ferrari since the Infiniti would be the car of the weekend on Red Bulls weekend to choose?

Well at least it was fun dreaming about...would be really cool to see the best drivers competing in the same car across a season, talk about bragging rights in the paddock

 

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