[bahrains27]

With Bernie taking F1 to the highest bidder and empty grandstands to boot at some of the new races I wonder how long things can carry on as is. Monaco or Indy 500 to watch next weekend. Well the lucky ones will see both but I reckon I know which one will be the most entertaining. With US open wheel racing unified Bernie had better get the "racing " spectacle going in F1 if he wants to repay the debt on CVC's borrowings.

Yesterday Lorenzo came secong in the MotoGP race with two broken ankles. The drivers all had a laugh. Rossi stopped after winning and Nieto rode the bike back to the paddock with Rossi behind him. In F1 the winner cannot grab a national flag, do a doughnut or be anything but grey and boring. The MotoGP racing was fast and furious. Overtaking happened, yes its true. Watch Indy for that as well. F1 is loosing touch with reality and putting on a show that requires Mark Hughes to explain really what is going on.

I know many here will think I am talking rubbish but having followed F1 since I was six or so I have/had a deep affection which I am loosing. They are all so pleased with themselves that I am actually starting to find I care a lot less than I wanted.

At least I have the 125's, 250's, MotoGP, IRL, but if others start to think like this ( and many do ).

Just wait for a F1 sponsor to go to the IRL...and it will happen.

[Immampdah]

On the other hand, in the DTM there is even less overtaking than in F-1

[gechaheritt]

With Bernie taking F1 to the highest bidder and empty grandstands to boot at some of the new races I wonder how long things can carry on as is. Monaco or Indy 500 to watch next weekend. Well the lucky ones will see both but I reckon I know which one will be the most entertaining. With US open wheel racing unified Bernie had better get the "racing " spectacle going in F1 if he wants to repay the debt on CVC's borrowings.

Yesterday Lorenzo came secong in the MotoGP race with two broken ankles. The drivers all had a laugh. Rossi stopped after winning and Nieto rode the bike back to the paddock with Rossi behind him. In F1 the winner cannot grab a national flag, do a doughnut or be anything but grey and boring. The MotoGP racing was fast and furious. Overtaking happened, yes its true. Watch Indy for that as well. F1 is loosing touch with reality and putting on a show that requires Mark Hughes to explain really what is going on.

I know many here will think I am talking rubbish but having followed F1 since I was six or so I have/had a deep affection which I am loosing. They are all so pleased with themselves that I am actually starting to find I care a lot less than I wanted.

At least I have the 125's, 250's, MotoGP, IRL, but if others start to think like this ( and many do ).

Just wait for a F1 sponsor to go to the IRL...and it will happen.

Improved 'racing' will hopefully be one of the benefits of the 2009 F1 regulations, so hopefully they will be more condusive to racing than the past few years' regs.

Other than that I agree with your post. Although MotoGP has to revert to no TC sooner rather than later. Whilst still head and shoulders above most racing series in terms of racing, going from 990cc to 800cc has been disappointing from a racing perspective.

[Loxaeed]

My main problem with F1 is its propensity to go to boring circuits to try and solve the lack of passing instead of fixing problems inherent in the regulations of the cars. F1 needs more faster and twistier circuits - the driver's circuits.

MotoGP is great but I'm more into car racing. As for the IRL - haven't seen it. But Champ Car was great, especially some of their venues.

[Heopretg2006]

I know many here will think I am talking rubbish but having followed F1 since I was six or so I have/had a deep affection which I am loosing. They are all so pleased with themselves that I am actually starting to find I care a lot less than I wanted.

Is it a sign of getting old? "Things aren't what they used to be" and all that?

Having said that, there is an arrogance about F1 that leads it to believe its position at the top of the motorsport ladder is unassailable. That attitude, unchecked, may eventually prove to be its undoing.

[JediReturns84]

Is it a sign of getting old? "Things aren't what they used to be" and all that?

Having said that, there is an arrogance about F1 that leads it to believe its position at the top of the motorsport ladder is unassailable. That attitude, unchecked, may eventually prove to be its undoing.

I thought you gave up the notion of getting old years ago

Compared to a few years ago, F1 is improving, slowly.

Lets hope it continues.

How will F1 win back the fans though because there is still a perception that it's boring which is criminal for a sport like F1.

F1 = Boring is like accusing Julian Clary of being straight

[Ferrotoral]

F1 is loosing touch with reality and putting on a show that requires Mark Hughes to explain really what is going on.

All subjective. The only thing that matters is TV ratings, and as long as the figures keep improving (which they have for the past couple of years) then there is nothing wrong with F1, from a business point of view.

having followed F1 since I was six or so I have/had a deep affection which I am loosing. They are all so pleased with themselves that I am actually starting to find I care a lot less than I wanted.

Something similar happened to me about football (soccer). I watched it passionately and eagerly since I was a kid, following all the national teams and clubs and crying tears of joy when Manchester United won the treble.

Then I suddenly found myself losing interest slowly but surely from about 2000. Now a days I barely know any of the modern players.

But that doesn't mean football has is worst than it was in the past century. Only that my taste has changed.

Something similar might be happening to you and F1.

[AdobebePhoto]

Maybe Bernie's attitude is that for every European or "traditional" fan he loses, he gains 3 in Asia or the Middle East where he wants more GPs?

[duawLauff]

How will F1 win back the fans though because there is still a perception that it's boring which is criminal for a sport like F1.

I think this is probably the biggest problem for F1 in terms of its perception. However, there are other things at play, and being 'too pleased with itself' might be quite a good summation. Even leaving aside the dislike of F1 that some have developed for environmental reasons, I can understand why many are turned off by its conspicuous display of wealth and big business. This may once have been OK, but now it is starting to seem vulgar and arrogant. It certainly isn't glamorous in the proper sense of the word.

[Heopretg2006]

This might be worth a read in light of this thread:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67562

Briatore - "We never learn from our mistakes, we just spend more money."

[duawLauff]

This might be worth a read in light of this thread:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67562

Briatore - "We never learn from our mistakes, we just spend more money."

Some very good, perceptive points are made by those interviewed for that article. What, then, is holding F1 back from becoming more attractive and less arrogant? I can think of a couple of possible answers...

[Loxaeed]

Briatore - "We never learn from our mistakes, we just spend more money."

That is a great quote.

[goolen4you]

There is no 'ragged' edge in F1 anymore and the teams have had reliability foisted upon them which is an unnatural state for a racing team. The cars are now to the point that mechanical failure is no longer a variable in racing for the top teams.

In my opinion, the cars and the drivers have become so good that F1 racing looks too easy. There are different drivers winning the races but they are winning each race the same way. The poll driver generally leads the entire race and most passing occurs during pit stops.

I have always considered 2kg ballast per WDC point handicap as being the way to even up the field. Either that or narrower wheels.

[sestomosi]

Certainly in the past 10 years I've noticed F1 get progressively less and less interesting every season. It's nothing to do with how "boring" the racing is for me to be honest, I mean when I started watching it in 1992 (when my interest in the sport was also at it's peak) Mansell was winning races by over a minute and taking pole by upwards of 2 or 3 seconds at some races. In the "good old days" of the 50s and 60s you'd get drivers also winning races by huge margins.

And before I am (rightly) accused of some sort of Mansell-bias in this assessment, 2002 was a Schumacher (who I could never stand) and Ferrari benefit, yet it was still better for me IMO than any year that has followed it.

Since then we've had a multitude of silly qualifying formats, engine change penalties, parc ferme regulations, engine homologation, 2.4 litre V8s, spec tyres, and that other stupid rule that says you HAVE to use two compounds of tyres in one race.

And what do we have to look forward to in the future? Well, unenforceable budget caps for one, and the equally unenforceable wind tunnel ban, not to mention this whole "KERS" soap opera (just legalise the concept and let the teams get on with it, or not get on with it, whatever they choose). And all the while Bernie will be sitting on a huge pile of cash while he organises new GPs in French Polynesia, Siberia and The Moon.

But to be honest I think it's not a case of F1 being too pleased with itself, if anything, in the past decade or so F1 has constantly been in a panic, running around trying to fix things which aren't broken - and obviously breaking them in the process. And it gets worse and worse every season. If you ask me the whole thing needs tearing down and being started again from scratch.

IMHO of course.

[MidwestMadman]

At least I have the 125's, 250's, MotoGP, IRL, but if others start to think like this ( and many do ).

Just wait for a F1 sponsor to go to the IRL...and it will happen.

Good bye then, happy watching of IRL with their 100000 overtakings per race, it is massively interesting.

[Cgnebksb]

Certainly in the past 10 years I've noticed F1 get progressively less and less interesting every season. It's nothing to do with how "boring" the racing is for me to be honest, I mean when I started watching it in 1992 (when my interest in the sport was also at it's peak) Mansell was winning races by over a minute and taking pole by upwards of 2 or 3 seconds at some races. In the "good old days" of the 50s and 60s you'd get drivers also winning races by huge margins.

And before I am (rightly) accused of some sort of Mansell-bias in this assessment, 2002 was a Schumacher (who I could never stand) and Ferrari benefit, yet it was still better for me IMO than any year that has followed it.

Since then we've had a multitude of silly qualifying formats, engine change penalties, parc ferme regulations, engine homologation, 2.4 litre V8s, spec tyres, and that other stupid rule that says you HAVE to use two compounds of tyres in one race.

And what do we have to look forward to in the future? Well, unenforceable budget caps for one, and the equally unenforceable wind tunnel ban, not to mention this whole "KERS" soap opera (just legalise the concept and let the teams get on with it, or not get on with it, whatever they choose). And all the while Bernie will be sitting on a huge pile of cash while he organises new GPs in French Polynesia, Siberia and The Moon.

But to be honest I think it's not a case of F1 being too pleased with itself, if anything, in the past decade or so F1 has constantly been in a panic, running around trying to fix things which aren't broken - and obviously breaking them in the process. And it gets worse and worse every season. If you ask me the whole thing needs tearing down and being started again from scratch.

IMHO of course.

If you think F1 has problems, I'd hate to think what you think of the WRC. Now that really does have problems. At least F1 has the interest of the big Manufacturers, and while that is the case things aren't too bad. Yeah, things aren't perfect, the chopping of changes of qualifying, regs, etc can't help.

[sestomosi]

< OT alert >

Ah....don't get me started on the WRC, I totally agree. Taking our national event in isolation it has gone from a glorious tour of Great Britain to verging on a few laps of a car park in Wales somewhere, and all that Super Rally stuff...argh. I hear from the MotoGP guys that even that form of racing has gone a little downhill in the past couple of years (although I actually enjoy it when I watch a race). In fact IndyCar with the merger is the only form of motorsport on an upswing (IMO) at the minute, and even that is still a de-facto spec series with a female midpacker as its most recognizable "star" for the forseeable future anyway...

< /OT alert >

I just think that F1, and indeed all forms of motor sport, would be best served getting back to the essence of what it is about with no gimmicks and BS, sometimes it will be a bit of a procession, on occasions it will have you on the edge of your seat (and therefore be appreciated much more than if the "drama" was fabricated every fortnight), some people will love it for what it is, some will watch casually because they have nothing better to do and may (like myself in 1991) be sucked in, or maybe not, and others will not care for it and watch football and soaps.

But money talks I guess!

[AbraxiaAsus]

15 years from now, the new generation of F1 fans will be saying how great this decade was.

[Cgnebksb]

Motorsport is no different to any other sport, but when it becomes more professional, media savvy and polished - the big money rolls in, then all the old charm and character is lost. It's happened to all Motorsport. Just look at F1 now, it's a highly professional, highly polished media event. What happens on track is merely part of the story. Sadly, it looks as though MotoGP is starting to go that way - even if it is slowly.
Yes it would be nice if a private team could turn up with a cheap customer engine and a year old chassis and race. It's not what Bernie wants is it? F1 is now meant to be 'exclusive' - only the elite can join. Sad!!

[iqxdvjgmat]

another quote from the article, by Nick Fry...

The real mission for F1 is to attract a Volkswagen, an Audi or another big consumer business into the sport and not attempt to bring in more privateers, who may end up in the same position as teams like Arrows and Prost.

The problem, both in the past and at present, is that the numbers for the cost of running an F1 program was crunched by these same entities, and was passed over for other options.

Flavio Briatore said it best, when recounting his past experience incomparison to the present climate...

I remember when I sold Ligier [in 1997] – there were six or seven people interested in buying the team. There were people queuing up to buy it. What has happened with Super Aguri sends out the clear message that fewer people are interested in investing in an F1 team these days.

The real worrying aspect for Formula 1 is a matter of what will happen in IndyCar by '10. If the new chassis & engine rules prove to be what the market considers favorable, we could see a return to what they were from '89 to '95 under CART; a considerable force and a constant pressure point for FOM & the FIA.