"whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU" (whiskey-business)
11/02/2015 at 12:13 • Filed to: F1, Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone
2
10|
"whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU" (whiskey-business)
11/02/2015 at 12:13 • Filed to: F1, Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone | 2
| 10 |
There has been a lot written about Formula 1 as of late. With all of the drama between the Mercedes teammates, unreliable power units, and Bernie Ecclestone’s spiraling insanity, it seems a lot of focus is being taken away from what made F1 such an exciting prospect for so many years. For decades, the series was a hotbed of innovation and cutting-edge engineering solutions with the sole purpose of being competitive. Due to this relentless progression of technology, the racing was exciting, the cars were cutting edge, and teams traded blows as they fought for dominance of the sport.
Perhaps I am oversimplifying the situation, but I believe slow progression of regulations in the sport are what drove this pursuit of perfection. Whereas a completely unregulated racing series is doomed for irrelevance and cancellation, as has been seen with FIA Group B and Can-Am, the inevitable tide of regulations prevented one team from being dominant for too long. However, despite consistently keeping the playing field as level as possible, engineers could still come up with solutions to the problems they saw and their teams could thrive because of them. Key examples are BMW’s turbocharging in ‘86, Benetton’s traction control and McLaren’s CFRP monocoque to mention a few, and all of those have found their way into passenger vehicles. And the outlandish loopholes like the second brake pedal, fan cars, mass dampers, and 6-wheeled cars added some freaks to the show that livened things up.
But no longer. The restrictions in F1 are so tight in their current form that it is unrealistic to expect these kinds of developments. Simply put, the teams with the most money, this season being Mercedes, win because they can afford to develop the best permutation of the given Formula. Hamilton and his team have dominated two seasons now, with little chance for smaller teams or other drivers to make a name for themselves. Regulation is so tight that the unorthodox innovations that made the series what it is are no longer possible, and it shows in the final products. Formula One has regulated itself out of relevance.
And to counteract this, the coverage of the sport has been made into a caricature. Instead of fascinating articles about the newest tech, the bitter rivalries between teams, and races that kept everyone on the edge of their seats, we have a bunch of hybrids racing, with two Silver Arrows at the front every time, and the rest of F1 being made into a soap opera. Hamilton’s #blessed personality has become more important than the speed, and Bernie’s comments about Putin being a great guy mean more than the racing. How have things gone so wrong? How has one of the fastest endeavors in the world become stale?
davedave1111
> whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
11/02/2015 at 12:29 |
|
“Bernie Ecclestone’s spiraling insanity, it seems a lot of focus is being taken away from what made F1 such an exciting prospect for so many years.”
Jalopnik has unfortunately jumped on the anti-Bernie bandwagon, but the reality is that there’s a very good reason the teams want him to remain in charge. And ignoring the fact that he was at least as influential as Jackie Stewart in making F1 safer is just so wrong I don’t know where to start.
“For decades, the series was a hotbed of innovation and cutting-edge engineering solutions with the sole purpose of being competitive.”
That’s simply not true. The series has been deliberately restricted to stop cars getting too fast since its inception. Every few years they change the rules in a fairly radical way in order to reset the progress made under the last set of rules. That’s why in different eras we’ve had different kinds of cars - the ground effect era, for example.
“I believe slow progression of regulations in the sport are what drove this pursuit of perfection.”
Since the slow progression is a false perception of yours, your faith in that proposition is hard to justify.
“Simply put, the teams with the most money, this season being Mercedes, win because they can afford to develop the best permutation of the given Formula.”
Well, duh. That’s how top level motorsport has always worked, literally since the very first motor-race.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris%E2%…
Why do you think the Silver Arrows dominated in the thirties? Why do you think Ferrari has been a top team for so long? Why did Williams beat everyone with the FW14? Think of most of the famous racing liveries - Martini, Gulf, JPS, Marlboro-McLaren, and so-on - and what they represent is a company paying big bucks to a team, making it the richest, to make sure they were advertised by a winning car.
“And to counteract this, the coverage of the sport has been made into a caricature.”
Maybe you should stop getting your F1 coverage from Jalopnik. It’s really not something they do well. Try F1 Fanatic instead or something.
|
whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
> davedave1111
11/02/2015 at 12:39 |
|
I appreciate your input. Yes, this is entirely based on my perception, as is any piece of writing. All facts are filtered through our view of the world and interpreted differently, and I was simply laying out my view of things in as factual a manner as possible. I have not been around F1, for the world for that manner, long enough to have a complete picture of the sport, and if my opinion is skewed, so be it. It is still my opinion and I thought it might be though provoking to other fans of the sport.
|
davedave1111
> whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
11/02/2015 at 12:42 |
|
Reading back, that sounded more like I was telling you off than answering you. Sorry about that. But essentially the same thing has been said by relatively new fans every time they’ve made a major rule-change and started a new era.
McMike
> whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
11/02/2015 at 12:50 |
|
I think the engine development freeze sucks. The rest of it is just racing, and F1 has been this way for years.
Red Bull dominated for several years, and had some clever shit that some other teams started using.
Renault dominated for a few years, too.
Ferrari dominated before that.
Show up in April with a turd of an engine, you’re stuck with a turd. The. Whole. Goddamned. Season.
Teams should be allowed to develop the engine.
|
whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
> McMike
11/02/2015 at 12:52 |
|
I think that is an excellent point.
|
McMike
> whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
11/02/2015 at 13:04 |
|
Every time someone does something really clever, the rule book gets a little thicker. Mass Damper, double difusser, fiddle brakes, the fan cars, active suspension, cooled fuel rigs, F-Ducts, ABS, blown diffusers, flexible floors&wings etc.. It’s all brilliant.
I think the best innovation are the ones that are deemed legal, and the other teams scramble like hell to catch up, (see: Brawn’s diffuser, F-duct, helium powered wheel guns, wheel shrouds, RB’s blown diffuser, and whatever the fuck Ferrari was doing with refrigerant to inflate their tires back in the mid 00s) then are banned for the next year. I love that shit.
I’m sure there are a lot more (like McLaren’s weird interchangable rear wishbones last year) that didn’t work that we’ll never hear about.
The thicker the rulebook gets, the fewer and fewer loopholes exist, and they have to try harder to find new things.
Some of these innovations were under the engine cover, and it makes me sad that Volkswagen is the only manufactuer to deploy clever cheater technology in the last 5 years.
Margin Of Error
> whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
11/02/2015 at 13:18 |
|
Bernie Ecclestone have little to nothing to do with the technical specs of the cars. This is the FIA that decides.
Bernie is owns the F1 business, he’s selling events to local promoters and makes TV and sponsorship deals.
Bernie was against the V6 Hybrid engines, BTW.
Put it this way : Bernie responsible for shit races shuch as Barhain and Sochi and no GP in France. He’s also responsible for F1 clips getting removed from youtube.
The FIA, on the other hand is responsible for RBR not getting an engine next year and the poor sound of the engines.
McLarry
> whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
11/02/2015 at 13:25 |
|
It’s not just money... McLaren is one of the richer teams, yet is doing dismally (if I had to guess, I’d say Ferrari spends the most). Toward the end of the V8 era the engines were all pretty comparable and Red Bull had the best aero so they had the edge for years. Now it’s down to the new engines and Mercedes made a way better engine than anyone else, and nobody is allowed to improve their engine’s performance (only reliability) because apparently that would be unfair, so now there’s no choice but to finish out a season that was decided before it began.
Even so, I don’t think F1 is boring. Maybe it’s not so jaw-dropping to see 200mph anymore (though I’m sure it would be in person), but the racing is still good, and hey even one of the more reliable cars might have an engine failure or some such thing this year. I agree there should be more variety; run a V6 if you want, run a V12 if you want, just keep under some power/fuel figure to keep it competitive. Want 6 wheels? Sure, give it a go. I wouldn’t go so far as to say all the regs are bad, though, the sport is much safer for it so I think it’s a fine trade.
gin-san - shitpost specialist
> McLarry
11/04/2015 at 16:13 |
|
Since we’re talking about money, Toyota spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their F1 effort and have nothing to show for it. Not even a single race victory. I like to think that if they had a more capable driver, they could have done something - their cars were fast enough to battle for pole position at some tracks, although 2009 would have been a tough year anyway since Brawn was strong from the beginning and Red Bull finally came into form. I feel like a bit more money for the right drivers could've had a tremendous impact. Money certainly helps, but it needs to be spent in the right places. I think Mercedes and Ferrari put their money in the right places by getting Hamilton and Vettel. Time will tell how the flood of Red Bull drivers do...
|
McLarry
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
11/04/2015 at 18:17 |
|
That’s a fair point. I don’t think Alonso was an inadequate driver or anything, but Ferrari needed to shake things up. I’m not sure to what extend Mercedes was expecting their newfound dominance, but to pull Hamilton from McLaren in a time when McLaren was 2nd in the standings behind Red Bull and Mercedes was struggling even with the legendary Michael Schumacher still blows my mind.