Yeah yeah, unrelated right?
Just bear with me for a second. A long second.
Goal scoring = overtaking.
NHL Hockey was reaching a breaking point here in North America. The league wanted salary caps because it could not continue it's solvency as a league if it was not put in place. Some teams were for the idea of the caps, but all of the players were not. Trouble was there was also rule changes being brought in from the higher ups. Nobody could reach a consensus on what are basically technical regulations.
People didn't want shootouts at the end of every tie game. Goalies were up in arms as their equipment was about to be downsized, and their ability to skate from their net if need be was partially taken away. The lack of goals was making the games boring to watch, and made it hard for many players to do what they do best, skate fast and score goals.
The league (Gary Bettman) and the NHLPA (NHL Players Association, their union), could not reach a middle ground on salary caps, and distribution of money from various sources.
In Hockey and most team sports, your main expense is the Stadium first, then the players after. This is comparable to a chassis and the facilities to build it, and drivers.
The rules were tweaked every year or two, trying to "open up the game". Little things like decreasing the size of the crease, moving the goal line forward so there was more room behind the net, experimenting with penalties being called or not (hacking) , but these all made small changes, and opened up the game in other ways that may not have been expected.
F1 has been doing the same thing for a long time. Little band aid fixes here and there.... 3.5 liter engines, down to 3, grooved tires, v8's, etc. We know all this.
F1 and Hockey came to the same conclusion, this is NOT working anymore.
What hockey did was take a year off. Instead of panicking and folding under Bettman's thumb pressure, the strike stayed and a settlement was not reached. The talks and non-talks ran into the next "season", until it was declared there was not enough games to even have half a season.
Eventually, a settlement was reached, and nobody reacted knee jerk style. We had no Hockey for a year, but when it did come back, the game, the excitement, the goals, and by the greatest magnitude, the PASSION were back.
I am actually beginning to wonder if what F1 needs is a year off to regroup. It worked for Hockey, could it work for Formula 1?
During the downtime, there could be non championship races in last years cars, set up by the teams and manufacturers. Having a couple of sprint races in the weekend of each non championship race, giving the drivers and for sure the testers and reserves some actual track time.
There could also be the occasional one make race with all the drivers at whatever tracks. Who wouldn't want to see all of the current F1 drivers in evenly matched cars, like the Procar series of old the BMW ran with M1's? Schumi and Mika could even stop in for a race. I think that would brew up some passion in the fans and the people of Formula 1.
I think a year off could possibly do less harm then good. Teams could have time to restructure properly for a budget cap, and new teams would have suficient time to produce a possibly decent car for their first season.
My passion is the only thing keeping me interested in Formula 1. We all talk on this site like we build F1 cars for a living and have a wind tunnel in our backyard sheds. It's great having knowledge that average fan does not, but at the end of the day, us hacks just love the sport for the sheer excitement of it, and year off I think might do me well.
Like Joni Mitchell said:
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot"
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