Cost cutting is getting boring

[PlatinumZealot]

Sick and tired of reading news of cost cutting in F1. It's not news to me and its just boring. Same old soundbites repeated over and over again for the last 10 years. It's happening and is gonna happen one way or another, who cares how it happens anyway.

This is one side of F1 I don't really care that much about. Let the teams sort it out, but don't report about it every bleeding day.

[jdlive]

Once again, a hopeless attempt at trying to appeal to a mainstream audience ("hey look, we are saving money in these financial hard times") which doesn't care either way. Let the costs rise and please the fans and only them ffs!

[Harvey]

Once again, a hopeless attempt at trying to appeal to a mainstream audience ("hey look, we are saving money in these financial hard times") which doesn't care either way. Let the costs rise and please the fans and only them ffs!

How wonderfully narrow minded and short sighted!

[Jersey Tom]

Reducing the cost required to compete is a good thing (e.g. by setting a spending cap). Bring the field closer together. If you have it unlimited there's no reason for any new team of really coming in because there's no chance in hell of competing with The Big Boys. And even with the field being what it is, in any given year you have a handful of contenders and the rest of the cars have almost no chance of winning (other than by the random number generator this year of crap tires).

Close competition is good for racing. It can be good in many sports in general.

[Harvey]

Close competition isn't just good for racing, it is the very essence of racing. And exactly what fans have been crying out for for the past 10years.

[jdlive]

Once again, a hopeless attempt at trying to appeal to a mainstream audience ("hey look, we are saving money in these financial hard times") which doesn't care either way. Let the costs rise and please the fans and only them ffs!

How wonderfully narrow minded and short sighted!

Thank you, we need narrowmindedness in what is nothing more, nor ever will be more than a narrowminded niche anyway.

[Nando]

Once again, a hopeless attempt at trying to appeal to a mainstream audience ("hey look, we are saving money in these financial hard times") which doesn't care either way. Let the costs rise and please the fans and only them ffs!

How wonderfully narrow minded and short sighted!

Agreed,

To not understand the fundamental rule of the RRA is baffling to say the least.

[Nando]

Thank you, we need narrowmindedness in what is nothing more, nor ever will be more than a narrowminded niche anyway.

F1 is nothing more and never will be anything more then a niche?

Now i´ve heard it all....Formula 1 is a niche....you sir, are pure gold.

[PlatinumZealot]

I think he means it has a niche following.

[Nando]

I think he means it has a niche following.

Still in high doubt.

[bhall]

Close competition isn't just good for racing, it is the very essence of racing. And exactly what fans have been crying out for for the past 10years.

Any fans crying out for close competition for the sake of close competition aren't F1 fans; they just want to be F1 fans. They're tapping into a false sense of a nostalgia that really never was and, frankly, should never really be.

I'm all for competition that's as close as ingenuity will allow. But, dictating close competition through spending caps and regulations more narrow than even the narrowest of minds? No, thanks. We have spec series for that.

Cost cutting is, indeed, boring.

[Lycoming]

was it really necessary to start a thread just about how boring it is to hear about it in the news?

[Just_a_fan]

The irony is that you can have cost cutting and competition but you have to open the rules book. F1 would need to be a fairly open, anything goes type series. Why? Because that way allows people to think of clever methods of providing performance.

F1 is expensive because, salaries aside, the rules are so tightly defined that performance gains are focussed on a small number of areas which are, themselves, already well developed. The law of dimishing returns means that any well defined, highly optimised areas will require huge amounts of investment to bring small improvements.

So, open the rules whilst carefully defining key safety issues e.g. impact tests, driver protection etc. and you will allow competition to exist within a cost framework. At least initially, anyway.

[natehall]

My beliefs about all of this cost control etc etc is coming from the companies at the top - trying to maximise profits. What I would love to see in F1 is simple..

Complete freedom of engine configuration, displacement and amount of miles it has to complete as well as on car design
Limit the working hours for mechanics on race weekends and out of race weekends - but not the number (IE you could have 2 shifts if you wanted to rebuild the car over night)
Drop this Parc Ferme idea after qualifying
Pitstops are not mandatory - but provide tyres that can not last a race.
Simple 1 hour Qualifying window
110% rule - Only steward dispensation is for mechanical breakddown and if you can proove you have been within this limit thorugh the weekend
Multiple Tyre Manufacturers
Current Safety standards!

Manufacturers come and go, trying to control costs to keep manufacturers is wrong! If the F1 team fails to make a profit - then quite simply it goes bust - the money a team brings in relates to how good it is as a commercial deal to companies!