I always believed that F1 should be the balls out league, however, every year they introduce new rules that are designed to make autistic kids in the back of the class run with the big boys. Eventually, I see them running the league into the ground, it will be way to boring to watch.

 

Sunday's race did seem a bit "nascarish" ... like you have said, each year it seem to be getting worse. I'm with Chris; bring back fuel for one, and loosen the regs up a bit for more "interpretation".

 

Interesting follow-up comments by Bernie.

Teams must not write rules, says Ecclestone - Formula 1 news - GPUpdate.net

 

Regarding aero, I do think the regs have it bass-ackwards. We allow all the wings, but mandate completely flat underbodies, then wonder why there's no passing (because you lose front grip when you enter the turbulent airstream of the car in front and get slower). As Chris suggests, lower the amount of wings and endplates, and whatnot, but let the teams go hog-wild with the ground-effects, which generate good downforce, but are less turbulence, and lower sensitivity to other cars' turbulence.

Also, the testing ban just seems ludicrous. If the idea is to control costs, set a budget that the teams can't exceed, then loosen the sporting regs, and let them get creative. Want more track time? Sure, but you can't afford as much wind-tunnel time, or as many CFD designers. Teams like Ferrari that have their own wind-tunnels could be required to 'charge' themselves a certain amount for the use of that facility, but the core idea is to treat F1 as the pinnacle of innovation it's supposed to be. As time goes on, it turns into more of a spec series.

 

I gotta agree with him this time, teams should not make the rules.

I also have to say that the idea of 2 mandatory pit stops seems silly to me.

 

The slip-stream issue is huge in F1.

Unlike NASCAR where you can "draft" past another car, in F1 you lose speed the closer you get to the back of your competitor. That is a great point.

The testing ban is not only ludicrous but impossible to properly police.

I can't believe that - with so much at stake - Ferrari and McLaren don't have top secret places that they test these cars year round.

 

I have to agree with the last few posts. There are a lot of things I would change about Formula 1. There needs to be more engine development, more testing, and less aero. I think another thing that would make the series more interesting would be if they brought back V10 engines and let the teams choose to run either a V8 (with potentially less power, but better fuel consumption) or a V10 (with more power and more fuel consumption) with the same refueling ban. That would make the strategies involved a little more interesting as well.

 

I think it is interesting that you are calling the procession that happened last Sunday "Nascarish". You and others may not like Nascar, which is perfectly fine, BUT... Nascar typically has very close finishes (often a car length or less will determine the winner), 10-20 passes for the lead in any given race, side-by-side racing on every lap all throughout the field, full contact between cars in that they bump other cars on all 4 sides without ending their day, and any driver can win any race regardless of where they qualify.

Yes, Nascar is decidedly low tech(carburetors and push-rods!?), and the races can be too long sometimes, but if F1 had the qualities that I just listed, wouldn't you consider that good racing?

I think that F1 needs to remain the technological tour de force that it is, but they should take some lessons from other "lesser" racing series that manage to put on better shows every single race: Keep the field together, don't make aero the effective determinant of the winner, and making the races a little longer so that multiple tire/fuel strategies are possible are just a few things that come to mind.

 

↑ Jeff is right about NASCAR. I love it.

What makes NASCAR so much fun is the constant passing and running three wide!!

It is not uncommon for a good driver to qualify last and still win the race. Nobody is ever really out of a NASCAR race.

 

NASCAR might be great, I personally don't like it, but do we really need 2 of them? Nascar and "Nascar" F1? I think they should stay distinctly different. If F1 was like Nascar with just different appearance package, I don't think I would watch it either.