Red Bull Boss: F1 Is Not Racing Any More

[ChillDoubt]

It's jusy an exercise in tyre management:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22509847

He is right though. How can a driver do as Vettel did in Q3 a few weeks back, where he purposely did not set a time in order to preserve tyres for the race?

It certainly needs addressing.

[THEMOTLEY1]

stopped watching it last year, it's become very boring

[LazyGun]

First time I have watched an F1 in years, yesterday - confined to the sofa because of a stinker of a cold - and i have to say, I can see his point. Totally uninteresting, i thought, and everything has become about the tires..

I would much rather watch motor rallying, or saloon car racing- both seem far more exciting and truer to the spirit of motor racing...

[cazzz1975]

F1 isnt racing anymore, anyone who has watched racing in the past compared to today can see it isnt racing anymore. the drivers have to radio the team to ask what to do and what is happening..

[vulcan42]

Glorified scalextric and has been for years.

[ToraToraTora]

yes he has a point, I'm an avid watcher but the tyre thing is killing it off. They should just dereg the tyres completely and leave it up to the teams. Forget all the markings and let the teams do what they like in any race.

[Bazile]

tora

This from the Pirelli boss

//"Some of you - some of you - would like us to do a one-stop where the tyres aren't a factor. You can go back to processional racing where the qualifying positions are the end positions." //

He has a point .

[douglas9401]

The job of the Pirelli boss is to have the words Pirelli and tyre mentioned as often as possible and give plausible reasons for engineering in failure to a product that is essential for racing.
Let's lose the tyre monopoly, burn all the blue flags, bring back refuelling and ditch team orders.
There may even be a case, sooner rather than later for Mr Ecclestone to be edged out.

[SeaJayPea]

Why anybody would think that providing tyres that are wear out after 50 miles is a good marketing ploy is beyond me.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes Bazille that point is also valid. Leaving aside wets and inters, what I'm saying is that the teams should source there own tyres and do their own strategy for each race. No standard markings no standard suppliers. Then the teams will have different stop strategies and suppliers and grip v wear choices. Should make for actual car racing.

[piggynose]

talking as total novice, non fan, I found the race quite exciting, if not interesting. mind you i suppose its now similar to football now, only having 2 serious contenders in Alonso and that finnish bloke. I was surprised at the ultra quick pitt stops. what could they get done in 4 secs?if i blinked i wouldn't see what they actually did in the pitt stops, yes i blinked a lot.
As a footnote, i only saw the race due to it being on the telly in my restaurant while i was eating my lunch.

[jomifl]

Bernie seems keen on preventing the drivers from actually racing and people from actually watching. Why doe it cost twice as much to watch an F1 race as a Moto GP which is much more exciting. I've seen the leaders of a bike race overtake one another several times in one lap.

[vulcan42]

I've often thought sidecar racing is the most exciting to watch, a pity it's not on "normal" TV.

[SlackAlice]

I'm an avid fan of F1 but I think there are too many rules and monopolies now.
They should have free choice of tyre suppliers, petrol/diesel suppliers and whether they want to re-fuel or not. Why restrict it to rear wheel drive as well, should have the choice of front or all wheel drive if they want.

Only things to ban should be carbon fibre brakes, anti-lock braking and automatic clutches in my opinion.

As long as nothing compromises driver safety it would improve racing to reduce the rules.

[New Judge]

“Let's lose the tyre monopoly,” - Agreed. Let teams source their tyres from wherever they please but simply stipulate that no one set can cover more than, say 55% of the race laps, limit the number available for practice and qualifying and insist (as at present) that the car begins the race on the tyres it qualified on..

“Burn all the blue flags“ - Agreed. But once a car has been lapped it immediately withdraws from the race. I know of no recent example of a lapped car going on to score significant points and in fact I can think of only one or two isolated examples of a lapped car scoring any points at all. All the

“Bring back refuelling” - Agreed. You can’t beat the sight of a car pulling out of the pits with the fuelling hose still attached and of course you can’t beat a good pit fire for entertainment!

“Ditch team orders.” - Agreed, but as has been shown many times, very difficult to enforce.

As far as not setting a time in Q3 to save tyres - simple to cure. Any driver not setting a time in Q3 goes to the back of the Q2 section (16th) leaving somebody who did not quite make it to Q3 with a place in the top 10.

F1 has always been a very technically based sport. Anybody wanting out and out racing should look elsewhere. But the recent tyre debacle has not done the sport any good at all, and they continue to have races on tracks which are completely unsuitable for the formula. But having said that, if they did away with races at such venues it would surely see the end of Monaco - which is my favourite Grand Prix!

[Bazile]

Why not make more things on the cars similiar , so that those with the mega budgets and expertise have lesser of an advantage to those in the middle and back of the pack .

That would make for closer racing and more excitement

[New Judge]

Because part of the annual competetion is a constructors' championship. Many other formulae involve identical cars. F1 provides for constructors to innovate and develop their cars (usually pitting their wits against the rule makers) and this, for some, is an interesting aspect.

[bibblebub]

Spa-Francorchamps + rain provides the only interesting races

[Hopkirk]

I only watch the first corner.
If they don't have a big crash, I do something else.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

We were at the Spanish F1 at the weekend sitting at turn 9...after 4 laps we had'nt a bloody clue what was going on!