How to fix F1, aka my manifesto is complete.

"blacktruck18" (blacktruck14) 11/24/2014 at 09:56 • Filed to: None

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I made a post on Black Flag awhile ago that was similar to this but I have refined it and added to it.

1. Institute a budget cap for a minimum of the next 5 years with an option to extend it out on a yearly basis as far as 10 years. Everything the teams spend (except for the Constructor's Group travel fund which I will get to later) for the year will come out of this budget. This will encourage new teams to join the sport and allow them to get established.

a. Calculate the average of what all of the teams spent this season except for the biggest spending team, which using the numbers from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013 is Red bull having spent a little over $300,000,000. Allow a yearly increase of 2% for the first 5 years and then 5% a year for any of the years beyond that to 10.

b. To prevent teams from cheating the FIA will have outside auditors check all of the team's financial records and the FIA will make all rulings based on violations of the cap. If a team is proven to have violated the cap they will be fined as a percentage of the budget cap based on the number of races left in the season and they will be dropped from the points and an amount equal to the same percentage as their fine will come out of their budget for the next season and added to the other team's budgets.

Using the 2014 season of 19 races and a budget cap of $100mil as an example. Each race will be worth about $5.3mil in fines. So if Williams is found to have violated the budget with 3 races to go they will be fined $15.9mil for the current season which will be distributed to the rest of the teams and added to their budgets for that season or the next based on a vote by the Constructor's Group. If they cannot come up with the cash to pay the fine they are parked until the fine is paid.

They would also be fined $16.1mil for the 2015 season, based on the 2% budget cap increase and 19 races, which will come out of their budget the next year and be equally distributed to all the other teams as an increase in their budgets.

The minimum fine will be 2 races worth of fines.

c. 20% of any money the teams have remaining from the budget cap at the end of the season will go to the GP mechanics trust ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ). The rest will go back to CVC.

2. Create a Constructor's Group where all of the teams have an equal vote on anything that they wish to address. The rules are kind of ridiculous but they are meant to make everything civil.

a. All teams will have to vote in the meetings. As soon as the meeting begins the team that called the meeting will get thirty minutes to explain why they called the meeting and then all the other teams will get 15 minutes to explain how they feel about it. If they don't want to use their 15 minutes they can give it another team that wants to use it. Once everyone has used or declined to use or given away their allotted time a vote will be taken. Majority rules and no team can take repercussions on another team for their vote such as if Lotus doesn't agree with Red Bull, Red bull cannot jack up their engine price beyond what the other teams are paying. Any team can add to the agenda of a meeting and the same time rules will apply.

b. The only representative's that can be sent to the Constructor's Group meetings are the Technical Director or a majority owner. This will prevent teams from sending the right rear tire changer to the meeting because they are protesting the meeting.

c. Any member of the Constructor's Group will be able to call a meeting at any time but the meetings will have to happen within 96 hours of the meeting being called. Meetings should be held preferably at the racetrack during a race weekend or at a team shop during off time. No teams can call a meeting in Antarctica or anything crazy like that. All teams will have to be present for any called meeting or face a fine or 5% of their budget.

d. All of the teams will have to put a flat amount of $500,000 into a travel and expenses fund when they sign the Concorde Agreement for the first year of the Constructor's Group. This money will not come from the budget cap. Each team will then have to put an equal amount into the fund to build it back up every year when they sign the agreement if any teams drop out the cost will go to the remaining teams and if new teams come in they will have to pay $500,000 the first year and then an equal amount to everyone else the rest of the years they are in F1

e. No one from the FIA or CVC will be allowed at the meetings unless they are invited by a team member but they cannot be present for the team allotted discussion times or when the vote is taken. No one in the meetings can comment on how any member voted in the meetings or again face a fine of 5% of their budget.

3. Give 60% of the F1 revenues straight back to the teams.

a. 50% of the revenue will be divided equally among all of the teams that competed in the full championship. There can be exceptions made for situations like what happened with Jules Bianchi. All exceptions will be decided on by the Constructor's Group but will be limited to 2 races. The remaining 10% will be given to the top 10 teams as a performance bonus based on Manufactures points. But if a team has scored no points but would be in the top ten they are not given any money and it would get divided among the rest of the teams.

For easy math I will use $100mil

$50mil goes straight back to the teams divided equally among the 10 remaining teams. Each team would get $5mil just for completing the season

b. Then the other ten percent would get divided like so, based on the current manufacturer points and team count. Caterham or Sauber would be #10 but since the scored 0 points they get nothing and their 1% just gets split between eveveyone else.

1. Mercedes would get 19% of the remaining 10% which is $1.9m

2. Red Bull 17% $1.7m

3. Williams 15% $1.5m

4. Ferrari 13% $1.3m

5. McLaren 11% $1.1m

6. Force India 9% $900,000

7. STR 7% $700,000

8. Lotus 5% $500,000

9. Marussia 3% $300,000

10. Caterham 0% $0

d. If somehow the revenue sharing is adds up to more than the budget cap (which it won't) while the budget cap is in place the excess goes back to CVC.

3. Bring back customer cars.

I have thought this in the past but I wasn't sure how to implement it. Then I read a post on Will Buxton's blog ( ) and realized he had almost it figured out but I did add to it.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

a. Allow teams that are new to buy a one year old chassis from established teams for their first 3 years. They can begin using a new car of their own design at any time in that 3 years but if they do not race their own car they will have to buy a year old car for their first 3 years. If they buy a year old in their 1 st season and they want to keep it and it is still legal for their 2 nd season they can use it but they still have to buy a year old car from an another team. They will not be forced to use it but they will be forced to buy it.

b. If a team buys a new car they will be allowed access to all the data and technical materials the team they bought the car from used. But they cannot share that information with any other teams.

c. All cars will be given a value based how they finished in the Manufacturer Championship. Based as a percent of the budget cap, 1 st and 2 nd will be maxed out at 40% of the budget and then down equally based on the number of teams but, the minimum will be 10%. This will add another incentive for teams to finishing well in the Manufacturer's Championship.

1. Mercedes 40% of budget cap

2. Red Bull 40% of budget cap

3. Williams 32% of budget cap

4. Ferrari 32% of budget cap

5. McLaren 26% of budget cap

6. Force India 26% of budget cap

7. STR 18% of budget cap

8. Lotus 18% of budget cap

9Marussia 10% of budget cap

10. Sauber 10% of budget cap

11. Caterham 10% of Budget cap

d. The new teams can continue developing the cars and will have to make whatever mandated changes that are necessary by the rules on their cars but, they cannot buy the new parts from the team they got the car from.

So if a new team a buys a chassis from Mercedes but a new rule comes out that makes the nose on the car they bought illegal they cannot buy the new nose from Mercedes. They would have to design their own nose.

c. If new teams buy a customer car they cannot use the same engine that was originally used in the car.

e. If a new team buys a car for the first season they are in competition they can contract the maintenance to the team they got the car from or an outside contractor. But they have to have their own pit crews and race staff. If they are doing their own maintenance they will be allowed to call upon the team they bought the car from for advice or questions.

4. FUEL

a. I hate the idea of the fuel limit. I understand refueling is unsafe and none of the teams want to do it. But I hate the idea of the team's running to a fuel number and not a speed number because of the rules. If the teams want to conserve fuel as part of their strategy let them do it but if they want to burn an entire Tyrannosaurus per race let them.

So, ask all the teams how much fuel they would ideally want in their cars then, use whatever the highest number anyone asks for as the fuel tank limit. If Sauber says they want 200kgs and the highest anyone else asks for is 190kgs than all of the tanks will be 200kgs and they teams can put as much fuel as they want up to 200kgs. Right before the cars go on the grid on race day the FIA will fill all the cars up to 200kgs to ensure the tanks are legal then, take back out however much the teams don't want in their tank. The teams will be allowed to change the amount of fuel they put in their cars per race.

5. Hybrid drivetrains- I think they should be in the cars as they are the leading edge of automotive technology. But, I hate the sound of them and there is so much controversy about them.

a. Keep the drivetrains for at least the upcoming season. This will allow the engine manufacturers to make some more of their money back on them. After this year it is up to the Constructor's Group to vote. For what type of engines they want.

b. The Constructor's Group will vote on whether or not they want to unfreeze the engines and how much they want to spend if they do. But all teams will put in an equal amount towards development of all engines. That amount will come out of their budget for the year. The engine builders can spend as much as they want on the engines but they will only receive the amount agreed upon by all the teams, any overages are on the engine builder to cover.

c. Any team or outside contractor building engines for sale to teams has to sell them for the same price to all the teams that want to buy them and that money will not be added to the seller's budget cap if they are a race team, also if a team develops an engine that money will not come from their budget cap they can use sponsor money or whatever to develop the engine. But, they will have an amount equal to whatever they are selling their engines for removed from their budget.

If Mercedes sells their engines to McClaren for $100,000 per engine Mercedes will lose $100,000 per engine they personally use from their budget.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > blacktruck18 11/24/2014 at 13:23

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Well you can't police a budget cap, especially in the factory teams, its impossible. They know the game and you could never figure out where Merc or Ferrari were spending. They need to distribute more to the lower teams for sure, that would really help. McLaren said twin turbos would bring some sound back, Ron wants that. But Webber is right, they should be allowed to push the whole race, not manage tires. The WEC should do more ERS, KERS, Fuel etc.. because its endurance like the real world. I have thought that maybe we are at a turning point in F1 racing, in the past they were moving forward until they reached the limit of what the Human body can endure. Can we build faster cars, easily, but they will kill people. Should they keep getting more complicated? Where is the balance between the sport and this modern argument with relevance? Mark Webber's criticisms are correct from a racing point of view, Kimi not being allowed to push every lap in a car meant to do so is a crime. When I first heard of all the tech coming, I thought ok this is the future and its' going to be interesting. I'm not so sure now, I say let the LMP1 cars sort out the hybrid tech and whatever else. I think F1 needs to be a flat out, fastest car/driver out there, its a sport. Its a complex question, history is history and what do we do with the future.

blacktruck18 > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 11/24/2014 at 22:24

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I wouldn't say policing the budget cap would be impossible. Very hard, yes but not impossible. But that is why I think the penalties should be so harsh. It make just make the teams work harder to hide their spending but then again it could (hopefully) make them respect the rules even more.

As I stated I would love to see F1 go back to the turbo engines just for the noise and the speed. But, the flip side to that for me is, F1 should be the leading edge of vehicular technology, space ships on 4 wheels. Which in this case is the hybrid drivetrain. But they should also be as fast as humanly possible. IF the hybrids could be faster than the old engine than I fully support them. But if an internal combustion engine could do the job better, switch back to that and wait for the technology to catch up. Maybe they should go back to bigger engines with the KERS, and ERS. I don't know why that wouldn't work. I am really stuck in the middle here. F1 cars should be the fastest racing cars possible. But they Whatever the teams feel like would get them there is what should be in the cars.

You are preaching to the choir about letting the cars run flat out. I hate everything about saving the tires, saving fuel, the only time the teams should be worried about that is if it is their strategy play. The cars should run as fast as the teams want to run them. It is F1 Racing not Prius racing.