F1 owner wants grid to be reversed.

A lot of people only read the name of the topic and didn't read what Patrick Head suggested in the article. Then they run around saying "Who would want to qualify only to be last".

 

A lot of people have an instant negative reaction to reversed grid without actually thinking it through. If they would think it through, I bet it would look a lot more appealing.

Years ago a friend of mine brought it up to me and my reaction was the same: This is just ridiculous and sacrilege and how can you think of such a goofy thing. Then we argued for a while and I went home thinking about it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was right. Then you start looking at all the races where some form of reversed grid happened (e.g. Hungary in 2006 with Alonso and Schumacher relegated 10 spots on a track you allegedly can't pass or Monaco in 2006 with MS and his Rascasse parking incident) and you realize what mesmerizing races those were and that the best drivers still managed to pull it off.

Not every race the points leader would make it through the field and to the top of the podium. But I think that's actually a bonus to have once in a while different people on the podium. But because they wouldn't score full points that race, the next race they wouldn't start all the way from the back and score a podium. The races would be better, the championship closer and we'd have more variety of people on the podium.

 

I like Head's idea quite a bit.

I consider myself a racing fan, and I disagree with the above comment. I want MORE than watching fast drivers drive the fastest cars without much need to pass. It would be an interesting stat to see how many cars a race winner had to pass for position. I'd guess the answer would mostly be 0 1 or 2. That's it. I DO want to see more passing and I don't consider ANY F1 drivers "poor" drivers. If anything I think the cars are more unequal than the drivers.

 

Reality is that the champs starting at the end of the grid have always come forward during a race to at least 6th position, sometimes more. And if they don't manage, they won't get as many points and hence start the next race no longer from the back end. It is a self regulating system.

But don't worry: It will never happen because the world doesn't have enough Patrick Heads who can recognize a good thing when they see it.

 

Teams and sponsors are not hot about reversed grid because it doesn't allow the front runner cars to shine from the start. Particularly if their guy doesn't make it all the way to the top. Sponsors and manufacturers would only cave in to reversed grid if TV ratings would fall into the basement. But that won't happen. Not even the dominating years of Schumacher when ratings fell like rocks drove them down enough to consider drastic measures. Well they did by changing the tire rules and it worked.

 

Good point. It's almost as if F1 needs one of those old-fashioned, non-points race to serve as "pre-season" to test things like this out. I get the feeling that reversed grids would make for maybe a couple extra laps of overtaking, and then turn into less of a factor. Since most of the mid-pack cars are so close performance-wise, it wouldn't enhance the action. It would only mean Nico Rosberg would be following Mark Webber around the track instead of the other way around.

 

I agree that the shoveling around in the midpack wouldn't be as phenomenal. But the heavy hitters would mix things up working their way through the field. I bet that would take them at least half the race, so at least up to the 2nd pitstops things would be entertaining. Thereafter it'd be the usual snooze to the finish line.

I'm 100% convinced reversed grid would work and enliven things. Its real draw back is the loss of qualifying. But quite frankly as long as we have the no refueling rule, qualifying to me has lost a lot of its meaning since you never know what fuel loads they're on. A pole doesn't have the same value anymore as in the eighties, nineties etc.

 

I agree with 62 250 GTO. Under a perfect reverse grid situation, all the cars would arrive at the first corner at the same time. If anyone got through, they would win. Worse than the first corner situation (which would probably carry on for a few more corners until things sorted out a bit) would be the blocking, which "250" points out so well. I personally think that Barichello should have gotten a penalty for swerving all over the track to block Kimi yesterday. It is one thing to mantain a fast line to compete equally for position, it is another to block all avenues of passing for a faster car. Racing isn't about parity (communism is), it's about being the best, and working to get there. If F1 is in such bad shape, why is everyone trying so hard to get a race in their country?