Sorry F1...I think I’m done.

Take it or leave it is the choice. I've been an F1 fan forever having taken many trips to Watkins Glen and so forth. I'm not giving up just because things change a bit here and there.

 

Halo in some form is never going away. We have to deal with it.

 

Form follows function. But God, this form is really hideous!!

I think that Halo would be a good temporary measure before a more elegant solution could be developed. But the same I thought about DRS and it´s still there.

 

You can’t do full canopy because a car may end up upside down. But you have to wonder how a driver would squeeze through halo in the same situation. I don’t think drivers would go for a system where it required outside help to escape.

Unless the canopy broke into pieces but then, how good can it be in hitting a tire at 150mph?

 

Could be worse, It could be Nascar........
Que up the banjo!

 

Nearly every other type of racing has the driver fully enclosed, what's the difference?
I will bet what will happen is there will be a crash, and the halo will be broken and spear or stab a driver...
If you think about it you now have a 'bar' (called a halo) in close proximity to a driver, most crashes happen
when a car hits something, and everything is thrust back to the rear - where the driver is and beyond.
It'll happen...

Maybe they should just totally get rid of open wheel F1 and bring in ALMS or WEC cars and call that the new F1?
Don't laugh - that's not far off.

 

I hate the halo however despite it I think the cars look really good and this one of the best looking Ferrari monoposto cars in a long time! They're back to Italian Racing Red with less of the detracting white trim and without the silly redundancy of the second logo on the side of the air intake. Forza Ferrari!!!

 

Hello,

I'm humbly inserting myself into the conversation as an admitted 'noob' to F1. 2015 was my inaugural season for context. Here are newcomers thoughts.

Rebranding - I am agnostic on the logos as I never had a vested familiarity with the old ones or the old music themes.

New infographics - these I like - I find it hard for anyone not to like the new more accessible charts, graphs, and progress bars. Especially the ones that show what battles are in play. The real game changer for me is F1 TV where you can switch to live view on any of the 20 cars.

Halo - I don't pretend to be a safety expert, but my personal opinion is anything added to cars to improve the safety of the driver without lowering the speed drastically, is a good thing; aesthetics be damned!

Grid Kids - Sure, I'm a warm-blooded male, and eye-candy is something that I appreciate. To me, this is strictly a business decision to widen applicability to women and kids. Sure, there will be a cohort that leaves because of it, but I think the number of women demographic will outweigh that segment. (yes I will name the name that must not be named: - Nascar has a huge women contingent because of marketing efforts, even though they still have Monster Girls) - I want more women and kids to be involved in the sport.

Announcers - I've been stuck with American NBC's version last few years, that while charming, I prefer Skysports coverage - so moving over to that network already was a vast improvement - changes withing Skysports - I'm too new to discern.

Hope this amateur's take proves a different angle of viewing the changes, I respect those that will still vehemently disagree;l but thank in advance at least reading my point of view.

 

My objection to the halo is that it looks so completely unnatural on the car. it looks like a total afterthought. From the front it is ridiculous. There's no need for it to look that way.

 

There is a difference. These other events have DOORS or in the case of Nascar, a Window to jump out of. There are no doors or windows in the single seat race car.

 

So does that silly trapezoidal shark fin.

 

Don't disagree with that. The cars have jumped the shark on all this bits and pieces business. The halo looks almost like it's a joke from the front. No reason for that design.

 

How about Justin Wilson?
How about Henry Surtees?

Yes they weren't driving F1 cars, but both were driving open cockpit cars, and both died from head injuries due to parts of other cars hitting them.

That is the sort of incident the Halo is supposed to protect against - Not Jules Bianchi's accident (something which has been pointed out by the FIA in the past)

Also, think back to Roman Grosjean at Spa, flying across Alonso's Ferrari cockpit at the start of the race - Had that gone slightly differently, you could have watched Alonso have his head severed from his body on live TV!

How about Alonso's McLaren landing on top of Kimi's Ferrari in Austria? - Again, had that gone differently, you could have been watching Kimi get his neck broken due to a whole car pressing down on his head, live, as it happened!

These are the sorts of scenario's that the FIA are trying to prevent before they ever happen.

 

Yes but last year, live on TV, we saw an NFL football player literally snap his spine while doing a tackle. Painful to watch. And we did see Senna die from something going into his helmet live on TV. Halo would not have stopped that.

A baseball coming back a a pitcher hitting him the head can certainly kill. Sports do have a degree of risk. You can't remove them all. Otherwise just stop racing.

 

So, it is a different shade of red this season? I thought I may have been imagining that. Darker, right?

I noticed the uniforms of the drivers look a lot cleaner without the Santander stuff on it.

 

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I think it's a new shade every year. I was referring to the graphics on the side of the Ferrari. Last several years it had the Scuderia logo as designed / installed by Philip Morris that included another cavallino rampante shield with a silly design around it up on the side of the air intake. It was too busy, redundant, and silly looking. It's gone now.

 

Got it. I knew something looked better, in spite of the halo.

 

Forget the halo. No grid girls pisses me off to no end. Next will they go into the stands and eject improperly clothed females?

 

They're gonna make them wear hijabs or worse

 

long, long time fan of F1, but this year is shaping up to be a pile of ****. the ESPN coverage just sucks - taking someone else's feed and overlaying your commercials at random times with zero ability to catch you up on what might have happened during the intermission. the cars (the halo) is awful. i'm certainly not against driver safety, but this solution looks like **** and obscures the driver from view. let's hope it actually does it job since it's so awful to accept. my favorite announcers were always varsha, hobbs, and machett - they were brilliant together and funny, enjoyable to listen to. will probably get used to the new (for US audiences) guys, but will certainly miss hobbs and machett. grid girls... really? do you know who thinks women are objectified? let me say this, it's not the pretty and attractive ones. they get jobs based on their looks and seemingly have no issue with the concept. the rest of the women believe they are being objectified. i don't mind the idea of the replacement children, but there was NOTHING wrong with grid girls. everyone is caving into the pressure and it's pathetic. let's bring back James Hunt and fix F1!!!

 

I know some smoking hot women that would disagree with your opinion.

 

Well, if you can figure out how to bring back James Hunt . . .