I would probably watch it but I wouldn't be fussed if I missed a race. Would I still attend races? No. BTCC is damn interesting but so far I haven't found a driver I like so I sometimes forget to tune in and watch it .
Steve, I used to like the BTCC in the days when there were BMWs, Volvo estates (!), Mondeos, and the like, but when most of those disappeared and there were only a handful of different cars I found it much less interesting.
Might watch it if it didn't conflict with being at sportscar races. F1 may be the faster but the creativity is short of what is being accomplished in prototypes. As mentioned on page 1, I too lost interest after Michael retired - Ferrari has gone down-hill since those days. Carol
Besides winning a Drivers title in 2007 and Constructors title in 2007/8, yeah Ferrari has gone down hill Whisky: Why would you assume Monza would want to host a race if Ferrari pulled out? I have been to a MonzaGP it was 220,000 Ferrari supporters and 100 others Monza would become a ghost town without Ferrari. What Max Mosley really needs to ask is can F1 survive without Max Mosley and the answer to that is **** YES!
Considering that they've been there every year, there have been years where Ferrari has been so ineffectual that it's as if they weren't there at all. If you think 2009 has been bad so far, consider the point totals for the following years: 1969: 7 1973: 12 1980: 8
I keep watching F1 as long as it is the pinnacle in motorsports. If there were a split and Ferrari & Co. started their own open wheel racing series with cars that end up going faster around a road course than the official F1 cars, that'd be the moment to drop F1 for good and follow the new pinnacle series. It is not about Ferrari, the FIA, Mosley & Bernie. It is about the fastest race cars on the planet.
I agree. But according to the poll it seems there are some folk here who aren't really all that interested in F1, they only watch it because there are Ferraris involved. I'd much prefer to see people become fans of F1, then become a fan of a particular team.
Well, it could be worse: I know a lot of Ferrari folks who don't give a damn about F1. Personally I can't even begin to understand that line of thinking.
Yep, it really is Andreas. And once that line was crossed with another series, it would only be a matter of time before F1 became irrelevant or, can you imagine, bemoaned. It isn't as though they've been reciprocally kind or faithful to the great unwashed...
Indeed. Ferrari and F1 were made for each other and one of them ceased to exist I would have trouble supporting the other.
That's just it: it's not the pinnacle of motorsports. It hasn't been, since they started all the "spec" garbage, and courtroom melodrama. I gave up on F1 for several years, after they imposed the pop-off valves on the turbo cars. When they went to the V10's, I started watching again, but it's just not the same. At this point, the only reason to watch is Ferrari and the connection to the past history. If I had to pick a pinnacle of motorsports, today, I'd have to say it was shifter karts. You get a lot more actual competitive driving on the track there than in F1. (But it doesn't get the TV coverage.) The "fastest cars" run at the Bonneville salt flats. Drag racing produces the highest acceleration. Rallye cars can slam around tight corners faster. "Fastest car" has always been an argument point, rather than a verifiable claim. F1 used to have pretty good competitive racing on the track. Those days have been replaced by a car on option tires overtaking a car struggling on primes, or a car on new tires passing a car that's spun off on worn out options, or a car with a different diffuser overtaking a car struggling with oversteer, or struggling with a bad KERS, or .... F1 has only a tenuous connection to the days of actual racing. That connection is Ferrari.
If you had bothered to read my entire post you would have seen, that I define pinnacle of motorsports as "cars that end up going fastest around a road course" and as such F1 remains king. Your shifter karts argument is ridiculous (not only speedwise but also technologywise), as are the straight line rockets of Bonneville and we have seen what a rally car can do in comparison to a F1: Just dig out the episode of TopGear where they do that experiment around Silverstone. F1 are the fastest racecars around a roadcourse on the planet. Hence they are the pinnacle of motorsports. Has nothing to do whether Ferrari is part of that or not.
I can understand that easily enough - a lot of people don't like sport, any sport. Just because you own a Ferrari doesn't mean you have to like motor racing. I get about on two legs, it doesn't give me a compulsion to watch athletics.
I would understand it, if Ferraris were normal cars like a Honda or Toyota. But they are everything but normal. They are crazy vehicles, which aren't for normal daily use. They cost an extraorbitant amount of money because they come with a huge name made in 60+ years of racing history. If you're only interested in hp, then why not just buy a much cheaper Nissan GTR or supercharged Corvette? If you crave the attention, Lambos with scissor doors do a better job. A Ferrari is all that PLUS the racing heritage. At least to me.
That would be akin to watching the NBA in the US if the Lakers left to join a European Basketball League. I wouldn't have any interest in the NBA anymore. Maybe it's the tribal nature of sports in the U.S., but I only enjoy a sport if I have interest in a particular team. F1 without Ferrari would be like IRL to me...
