.....+ola. Four practice sessions, Friday and Saturday. Fastest drivers' lap of any of the sessions set the grid. Simple. No gimmicks. "Racing" every session to achieve that special lap.
That would be my favourite format, and get more cars on the track at every session, IMO. You never know what the weather conditions will be next, hence interest to put down good times early on.
If only it was that simple - Very appealing format but with no limits on the amount of running time then teams will be forced to keep running endless laps and clocking up endless mileage on engines and components which will need replacing. The strategy for reduced costs & testing is killing the sport, not the qualifying. The sprint is just a shortened version for the race, saves time for all & stops you getting bored with a 1.5hr race.
Obviously the unlimited running during practice sessions would have to go together with abandoning the ban on testing, and the limit on components. The financial constraints put on the teams are what will kill F1. F1 need deregulation, and no budget limits.
Alas, it is that simple. 'Not my idea...it worked well. Heaven forbid the pinnacle of auto racing actually be the pinnacle of auto racing, as it once was...... Mssr william, once more we agree.
Neutral. I did not feel any excitement or anything. They should have have 2 races and reverse grids. The current sprint race gives us nothing but pretty much a preview of how the actual race will be next day.
Totally agree. Underwhelmed. I don’t think they (FIA) are, or ever will be, brave enough to use the gimmick of a reverse grid. As far as it breaks from tradition at least it would guarantee “something different”, which I assume was the whole point of trying something different in the first place. Why not go “all-in”. It’s not for every round anyway. No harm in trying it but they would need to give same points for both races so drivers don’t try and not win the first race to move higher up the grid! The Devil is in the Details (as with everything) but I hope they do try it at least once to see how it pans out. EDIT: I suppose the problem will occur from P10 to 20 with cars trying to get behind each other if they are out of the points. How to solve that I’m not entirely sure. Maybe points all the way down to last is an option for these rounds! Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
I think it's important that teams/drivers show what they are capable of. What is the reason to watch the races, if every week there's the same results?
If the reverse grids are successful, people will forget about this whole 'gimmick' thing within 2-3 races.
F1 has always been about rewarding the best. Reverse grid giving an advantage to the slowest would be the opposite of that.
I was all for the sprint races actually expecting a race. Well contrary to what Gordon Ramsey and Co. said on Sky the sprint on Saturday was anything but. Completely underwhelming and quite frankly unnecessary. In fact it diminished the results of qualifying the previous day. Unless there are real points to be gained in a sprint race (other than the miserly three for winning it) no team/driver (Perez being the dumb exception) will ever risk anything in this. Which makes it kinda pointless. Whether they keep sprint races or not at this point doesn't really make a whole lot of a difference. Or to put it more succinctly: Without real WDC points the exercise is pointless. Quite literally.
What the sprint race at Silverstone has achieved was to rob the fastest driver in qualifs to be able to claim Pole. That had never happened before. I hope the FIA will stop the experiment; it doesn't bring anything.
It would be a LOT more interesting if they actually awarded WDC points to the first ten. Maybe half the points for a real race, but still points worth fighting for. In the current format it is pointless.
More and more, we are moving away from what F1 is all about. If the FIA keeps bowing to commercial interests and media pressure, there will be no sport left, only a show.
True. A process that begun decades ago. Ecclestone's commercialization has as much with it to do as the first sponsor sticker (Shell IIRC) on a driver's suit. Not necessarily. That largely depends on what the fans want to see. If the fanbase prefers show over racing then yes. Commerce per se is unbiased, it pleases the audience and their wishes. So if we all want to see more pure racing and less show, I bet you that's what would happen. Problem is that older guys like you and me are likely to have a very different taste from the guys in their twenties (and who will dictate with their $ where the sport heads). To put it differently: I much rather have the FIA bow to commercial interests than to its own "higher goals". They have a tendency to screw many a race up with their nanny state refereeing.
I don't think the "fans" have much of a say in this. It's the TV companies, and the advertisers that seem to call the shots to me. They indirectly are slowly dictating to Liberty and therefore the FIA the format. Shorter races are easier to schedule than longer ones, and that's what producers want. Most of the programs are 55/60 minutes, because studies have found that beyond that, the attention span decrease from the viewers point of view. TV companies would prefer to broadcast 2 short races on consecutive days than a long one. I can see in the introduction of the Sprint races that Liberty is putting a toe in the water to test public reaction. TV companies are dependent from their clients, the advertisers and will take their orders from them. The public, the audience will take what ever is offered to them. If the package is entertaining, they will buy it.
F1 used to show what teams were capable of. Now it's becoming more and more of an advertisers "orchestrated" show for supposed "race" fans to watch. Infomercials so to speak. (I used to enjoy watching the Wok one over and over again years ago. Very entertaining but I knew I was watching an infomercial, not a real cooking show. The reason to watch real racing is to see what teams can design, build, develop and race their best efforts.A team dominating (like Merc of late), being chased by the others, is an awesome thing to be witnessing. IndyCar.....identical formula cars in their wonderfully "exciting" scripted show.....exists for those that don't get it. Return F1 to it's roots.
If that's the way it goes, I will have to accept it, but I think the adoption of the 2 race format will somehow affect the value of a GP. All series that adopt that format struggle with the fact there is no clear winner for the event, just a winner for each heat.
