Agreed that he obviously thinks he's above the rules, above the sport ... but in the land of reality, he's become an embarrassment to the sport.
I think it was done tongue in cheek to make a point, a FU kind of thing. Probably that Wittich guy didn't see the funny side.
I think it's possible to find the harmless snark and spite amusing while still thinking the aforementioned within the realm of possibility.
Honestly what he didn’t bother me one bit. I found it as silly as the outfit Norris and ricciardo wore Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Agree Lots of things are going into a wrong way: Drs, red flags, too heavy and large cars. No engine noise.. Someone could be brave enough to create a brand new formula with 595 kgs, small cars, V12 with synthetic fuel ?
I do occasionally think about it. IMO the very biggest problem is to get the right teams (not necessarily F1 based) behind it. Best would be to have an extreme sports promotor behind it, like Red Bull (though a bit unlikely given their significant commitment to F1). I guess Monster wouldn't mind backing it if the figures are right. Streaming would be easy enough via youtube. Reliable and live. Expanded streaming with more livetiming etc via own app/subscription. 2nd really big hurdle is get team to commit to building their own chassis. I guess in the beginning it would be possible to get Dallara chassis and teams can figure out their own aero around it (within box limitations), and then eventually they can start building their own chassis. In the recent past we've had 2 series set up which failed miserably in getting followers. A1 GP, which used a chassis based on the F2004 (why they started with cars that made it hard to follow each other is utterly beyond me), and before that used F3000 chassis. It was reasonably popular for a little bit all things considered, but serious mismanagement and expense soon ruined it. Then there was superleague formula...which certainly got the engine noise right but literally everything else wrong. For some reason they decided to combine racing with football clubs. It had too few races and later on a decent amount of races, but half of them at utterly unknown tracks. Of course now with social media much stronger, the chance of succeeding is a bit higher. But a real F1 rival will be extremely difficult. Though I guess with F1 starting to abandon traditional tracks, exploiting that would definitely one of the routes to go. I would say that originally setting out as a rival to F2 series and growing from there would be a more interesting move. Each time must plant a tree every race they enter.
That would be the most sensible thing to do, IMO. F2 has come under the F1 umbrella, and gets hardly any publicity. There were far more single-seater races in Europe in the past, with national and regional championships. Since F1 has taken F2 and F3 under its wing, those races have disappeared. There is a vaccum to fill there, with a less technical (and cheaper) series, not seen as a staircase to F1, but standing on its own (like IRL for instance).
The graduation path from F2 to F1 has become less and less clear over the last few years as well, which makes spending 3 or so million on an F2 seat a bit silly if you're only going to end up in an FE seat. F2 cars still have reliability issues on the engine/clutch side which hasn't helped the perception of the series much, either. To (initially at least) make it between F1 and F2 speed wise, I think cost can actually be kept reasonably low much like Indycar, which starts at around 3 mllion a season despite running at 17 tracks all over the states. I seriously doubt many drivers dreaming of an F1 seat are actually happy giving up on that dream when they don't get a seat and end up in Formula E. Sure, it's a paid job...but everything is said with that. A decent series with exciting cars and great racing might just be a valid option...
Be careful there: Indycar is a specs series operating in one country. In an alternative series with freedom of choice for chassis and engines, the cost will go up, although a price cap can be brought in. I could see a viable series, not wishing to compete against F1, but in a different league, developing its own following, interesting several chassis and engines builders, affordable for private teams, visiting tracks neglected by Liberty, and providing value for money to participants and the public alike. Like you say, all it needs is a promoter to kickstart it.
I would think "spec" series initially would be the way forward. No one will come in, design a car on their own dime, in a series with unknown anything. I do think having the interest of several chassis builders would be a fairly realistic probability, same going for engines (though massively restricted in materials). Give team owners a share in it all much like NFL. Paddy Lowe's new company is Zero Petroleum, a synthetic fuel company, could supply fuel. He's not the only one, of course Porsche has their own fuel now as well and I'm sure the likes of Shell, BP and so on are not too far behind. There's the sponsorship for the teams...I do think a cost cap should exist, and it can't go crazy high either. You're correct, it shouldn't pretend to be an alternative to F1.
Very close to exactly the same amount of "saving the environment" that the current cars are currently doing for the various manufactures. That is:: Not a single thing.
A little classless from a guy who used to stand for it. It’s a surprise any driver is allowed to race with jewelry
Now I tend to believe Mercedes won’t be able to fix their car’s problems this year. The concept seems really flawed. They all know this already.
This track suits their car I think. Hot temps, smooth asphalt and low downforce. They're bringing more updates to Spain, that'll be the real test. If they're still absolutely nowhere then...
Yep all about damage limitation really… if only (for them) they could have more power… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That’s how they dominated the last 7 years, their cars had more hp than anyone else. RB was close, but Ferrari was a bit behind. Seems the new regulations evened the playing field, maybe in Ferraris favor, which I’ll gladly take the fifth on lol