Is this the end of F1?

Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren and other sportcars manufacturers don't adopt hybrid technology for the fun of it, to save 4 bucks to their customers or because it make their cars more sexy.

They are just pro-active and get ready for possible future legislation that will ban ANY carbon emission in town for example. What will be the use of a gas-guzzling multi-cylinder mega CU engine if you aren't allowed to drive it to town?

 

Sorry Mayor, but I beg to disagree (not for the sake of disagreing)...the fans have never paid for the show, at least here.

The fans pay a certain amount, which does not suffice for validating & buying the show; then the government, or local authorities, top-up this amount with public money to fill Bernie's pocket to the brim. And that's precisely what the government doesn't want to do anymore, because it doesn't see any point in spending public money to sponsor something that is consider not "relevant" to today's society anymore.

The fans haven't decided that the French Grand Prix had to die; it died because the governement, local authorities, etc...decided it was not relevant anymore to today's world, at least not enough to receive public money.

So the French Grand Prix is dead and gone; on the other hand, the A.C.O (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) is still attracting a large public without any government money for the 24h du Mans, where a lot of cars have those hybrid powertrains (and despite these, their "show" is not too shabby, believe me)
I know this is all about symbols, and that public attending Le Mans may well pollute more than any attendance to a Grand Prix, but by "going hybrid" the ACO saved the 24h of LeMans...

(Those fans who are still paying something here for Formula One are those who subscribed to the paying TV that still broadcast it; it is not broadcasted for free anymore, because no TV wanted to pay Bernie what he asked)

Rgds

 

If for you checking that technical rules have been followed is spoiling your fun, maybe you are watching the wrong sport.

Technical infringements give a team an unfair advantage, and that's what led to Ricciardo's exclusion.
I happen to approve of that, so we are on completely different level here ...

Hunt was disqualified because of dimensions infringement (wing too high), some were disqualified because of weight below the limit, other because of insufficient fuel left in the tank, etc... All these giving a potential advantage.

 

Guys, the technological leap is great. Hopefully the race battles will get better. But what F1 is missing is the sound! Ferrari would not be Ferrari without the sound, and the same is true for F1..... And that has not gone unnoticed!! Latest headline:
"Bernie Ecclestone promises 'noisier' F1 cars as promoter of Australian Grand Prix could sue"

 

Bernie Ecclestone promises 'noisier' F1 cars as promoter of Australian Grand Prix could sue - Telegraph

 

Caught red handed - No they were being monitored and certainly knew this. It is in fact possible that their own systems showed accurate data is it not? Red Bull have every right to disagree with this and they will have to provide the appeal panel the data they themselves used to ignore the FIA. I don't see what the issue is here.

They knew what they were doing and feel the FIA was in error. If so watch all the other teams ignore the FIA as well. They are all publicly saying one thing and thinking another on this one. Im happy Red Bull are challenging this.

Also why did the all knowing FIA not black flag them rather than let it go to the end. There is a lot here that could have been done rather than have the fans wait HOURS.

 

Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) chairman Walker:
"We (the Grand Prix Corporation) are an entertainment company and we have to entertain the public.

"Everybody was talking about it. When you take the excitement away, you have trouble selling tickets."

 

You must be a kid then.

I went to my first GP a Rheims in 1961, and to my first Le Mans in 1963.

Anyone can beat that?

 

Ecclestone said: "I was not horrified by the noise, I was horrified by the lack of it. And I was sorry to be proved right with what I've said all along; these cars don't sound like racing cars.
LOL

 

Well, then what's left is agreing to disagree: it's not as simple as the fans only, and you must know it.
If the three main engine providers that are Mercedes, Honda and Renault find no relevance in Formula One because the technology used cannot be the showcase for their know-how for the future of "everyday's cars", fans or no fans, it will die. Whether we like it or not, F1 has no other choice but going hybrid in some way.
The french do not want a G.P not because it's not green; they do not want one anymore because they do not see justified to put public money each year in something that has not shown the slightest interest in considering tomorrow's question in count.
The ACO did, on the other hand, for the 24h of le Mans. Porsche has seen that light, and even Ferrari is beginning to wonder...

As for myself, I know that I will still watch Formula One in the future even with hybrid cars (although I would approve simpler regulations and simpler cars, anything that it not biased by the will to "enhance the spectacle" through stupid artificial improvments) on old traditional circuits. And I trust all the stakeholders to finetune the spectacle relativly quickly.
But I would not watch it, even with more performance and bigger engines, on all those "Tilkodromes" that are more or less all alike; I have already stopped watching those races.

Rgds

 

Care to explain Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, India, Korea??
I suspect Russia will the same attendance problems. I don't think they will have the fans paying to go to the track judging by the Olympics at Sochi earlier this year. They had to bring in the military to fill in some of those empty seats.

 

If those people are unable to understand that F1 has a fuel flow rule at present, it's just too bad.

I presume people wouldn't understand either when Hunt was disqualified because the wing on his car was millimeters too high .

Grand Prix survived

 

Bernie Ecclestone, easily...

 

Bloody hell William, I started going to the track in 1972 but no GPs until the first Adelaide GP in 83 , I am so jealous

The 60s were very dangerous for drivers, you must have witnessed many horrific events as well as the most beautiful F1 cars made (pre-wings)
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I may have to rethink the upcoming Formula E series. After thinking it would never succeed,
it looks like it may have a shot, and one day overtake F1. When you're running a car that you
can hardly hear, and when you do, don't know whether it's having problems or not, because they sound so bad, Formula E starts looking pretty good. If political correctness and caving to environmentalists continues in F1, it'll suck what little life is left in it. We need to start a petition to bring back F1.

 

To go back to the topic of this thread; is it the end of F1?

No quite yet, but in the long term, I cannot see F1 living eternally.

It is already not so much as sport as an engineering competition fuelled by powerful financial means. The increasing technology will make it impossible for private teams to carry on alone, without the technical involvement of car manufacturers. How long they will be interested remains a question.

It is also possible that technology will render motor racing less interesting for the public, and GPs will become a show. Just like the birth of the jet age announced the death of air racing, too much technology could make GP almost unattractive to watch.

We don’t know yet what will be the taste of future generations, their ethics and their priority. Maybe motor racing in general will be seen as futile, and GP as some sort of car display visiting different countries once a year. The idea of competition itself may die in the mind of future generations.

The mere idea of speed is already judged anti-social in some quarters. Just like boxing is regularly under threat, and there are animal rights lobbies that would ban hunting or horse racing, motor racing may well be considered unethical in a future society. Who know ?

 

Well said

 

Never thought of it this way. Great post

 

Great post, completely agree.

 

When I was 12 years old I remember sitting in my kitchen enjoying the latest sugar loaded cereal. I was also enjoying my favorite Sunday activity of flipping through the basic cable TV channels. I soon found interest in a race I have never seen before, it was a race that was led by a silver car and a red car followed behind. I couldn't stop watching , the engine noise the desperation to finish first in the last lap of the race was must see racing.

I haven't missed much F1 since, having attended 2 races in my lifettime. With all these changes it has been really hard for me to watch thus far. There is no emotion in it for me anymore. Hearing a lack luster 1.6 engine go down the track and seeing that the 2014 cars are nearly 8 seconds slower from the likes of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari in 2004 just doesn't don't for me anymore. F1 is dying and I for see a few big names teams leaving the sport and focus their efforts on another series. F1 will live on but it will be far from what it used to be.

I hope to see the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, and others to focus on other leagues.

 

I was refering more to the idea that perhaps a majority of the younger fans may be "ecological fanatics"... thus this type of formula with complex technical specs may attract them.

Someone somewhere in the past / present (Jean Todt?! , Bernie (!?) , Max Mosely (????) , Charlie Whiting?!) has taken a decision to go down this path and he somehow managed to get the teams to buy into this ridiculous nonsense of evolving the formula.

Between the restriction on tyres, fuel, aero, engine and performance somewhere the essence of racing has been lost for the older fans. My point is that perhaps this is what it takes to attract new younger fans.

In any case... F1 will only end if Ferrari pull out. As long as Ferrari stick around to race in whatever convuluted version of F1 there is, F1 will survive. Without Ferrari there is no F1.

 

Spot on.

As it should be.

 

John,

Pardon me for nitpicking, but the first Australian Grand Prix in Adelaïde was 1985, not 1983?

Rgds