Welcome to the *NEW* F1!

[Conceptual]

Now where it is a simple race of attriton. Where those who just finish score points, and those who score points don't even HAVE TO FINISH! Where money and drama are the only points that count, and they are measured by television ratings, not race standings.

It is no longer about the best constructors and the best drivers, it is about the marketability of the product. Where the Mid-Field is the place to be to get your world feed air time, since it is apparent that the builders of the new standard racing brain have total mastery as their confounded, thus equal playing field creates action that is epic and memorable to all that behold it. Where drivers are mere actors in this stage of politics and money. They are now the product of years of driver development that is at least as scientific as their mechanical counterparts of Aero and Suspension and their soon to be forgotten Engine departments. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we have withnessed the birth of the corporate owned and operated test tube drivers.

How the sport has changed!

Sure, if the FIA want to promote technology, a race of attrition is the perfect route. Why try to hold them within the bounds with regulations if you can simply steal their brain and then tell them what to do? How easy would it have been to standardize the ECU Software Develelopment Toolbox and not include TC integrations instead of giving one of the competitiors the opportunity to co-develop the brain for the entire series with their current competitor as the testbed? What car did MES use to develop the ECU?

And this stuff of grabbing the teams by the throat and only allowing them to breathe when you allow them is in my view the true trap of this mess. Like the gearbox. What is going to happen when going into the last 5 races of the season, the top 3-4 championship contenders simply ALL CHANGE GEARBOXES? What if they talk everyone into doing it? What a rediculous notion to believe that it is going to make a difference when F1 teams share drivers/data/information/personell ALL OF THE TIME!?!?? They are all clones of eachother anyways. Remember, these people don't do this for the money, they do it for the love of being number one in the world. So they can be more efficiently marketed and distributed.

People like Peter Windsor of SpeedTV in the USA fame are quite smitten with how amazing it all is. He travels the world stalking his man/boy fetishes and creating drama in any way he can. ITV does the same when it comes to Lewis Hamilton, the manufactured driver that he is. Marketability of the champions, and visibility of the rest. To the benefit of all involved... financially.

Welcome to the new F1.

Chris

[Conceptual]

221 views and zero comments.

Either it was really good, or so far off that no one even justifies a response!

Is there any disagreement with what I wrote? Agreement? Or does anyone have something to add that I may have missed?

I was looking to a good discussion about this, but maybe just no one cares?

Chris

[axle]

I disagree with the SECU comments. The design was on the table long before the units arrived, the teams had to adjust which might have mean't binning some expensive gear from last year but otherwise hasn't really hampered anyone...if it did we'd have seen some obvious issue's in Winter Testing and it would be all over the web...of course they had a tiny advantage in using their existing design of fitting and location but it's not like they love McLaren atm after that fine so it's hardly like how they help Ferrari to the checkered flag!

[greenpower dude reloaded]

I started a huuge reply and then my laptop died.. But basically to summerise it, I started ranting as to how dangerous the sport has now become just over the winter I thought the FIA were supposed to reduce costs and improve safety all I saw was a dagerous expensive race.

It was certainly a spectacle but at what cost??

Another thing I wasn't too keen on was cars that didn't finish claiming points, I like Bourdais but I'd rather he didn't get any points at all because he didn't finish regardless as to how close to the checkered flag he was. I know in LeMans you need to complete something like 75% of the race to be classified but thats not for points and if you complete 75% of 24hrs I think you've probably earned it!

Just a few of my thoughts.

[West]

Just watching the coverage on Speed... they are trying to make it so glamorous. That is so lame. I try to skip all the fancy-nancy stuff and just watch the race. I can't stomach all the "drama" Speed tries to build. In the end it's always Ferrari or McLaren running the show.

I never liked the grid walk on IVT and now they have it on Speed. I liked the little mini-interviews they did before that. The only nice thing now is the "Racing per Matchett" segment.

[johny]

I also felt a bit dissapointed with today's race and Conceptual, i share many of your thoughts.

I saw the race tape delayed, had many interesting things to do on a saturday night , and i expected much more for the new season, all the new cars, drivers surelly everything looks new and atracts you but that's maybe because i'm a diehard fan and i'm not 100% objetive.

I wanted to see some racing but before getting into the race massa was test crashing both his car and the tire walls, and when we recovered after that the race was established and we were again watching a parade. How could we sort it out? with some good engeneering? new rules? nah, just with crashing cars and bits of carbon fiber you have the pinnacle of motorsport, a spectacle that's getting more and more predictable and the only changes are stupid new rules to make fans go dizzy, like no refueling after q3 or the new safety car regs.

Maybe it's because i haven't got a good day or maybe because my expectation was so high but yesterday i didn't saw racing anywhere.

[Conceptual]

I disagree with the SECU comments. The design was on the table long before the units arrived, the teams had to adjust which might have mean't binning some expensive gear from last year but otherwise hasn't really hampered anyone...if it did we'd have seen some obvious issue's in Winter Testing and it would be all over the web...of course they had a tiny advantage in using their existing design of fitting and location but it's not like they love McLaren atm after that fine so it's hardly like how they help Ferrari to the checkered flag!

Axle,

Do you think that Ferrari got the same exact technical support as McLaren did when integrating the SECU into their program? Particularly since it would be sheer folly for a team like BMW to invite the MES people to Hinwil for help with the expectation that upon returning to headquarters the MES engineers wouldn't just divulge all gained information to the McLaren team.

There WERE in fact some huge issues during winter testing. Renault couldnt even get their engine to fire. How much top secret inside information do you think that Renault had to compromise when they called MES for tech support? How much time was lost? How much would the resources that were wasted during that test have been better utilised somewhere else? How many of these problems do you think the McLaren team had to spend time/money/resources/attention on just to get THEIR engine to fire? Now you can see where the advantage truly lies. When you have all teams working 24/7, avoided problems are one thousand times more valuable than solved problems.

It is a lose-lose situation for all involved EXCEPT McLaren, and that alone gives them an unfair competitive advantage.

Sure, they had the design early enough to understand it well, but I refuse to believe that ANY team knows the ins and outs of it better than the creators.

Chris

[donskar]

Conceptual, good post. Low level of response might be attributable to the fact that there are 3 or 4 post-race threads.

Overall, I agree with you, especially with the assumption that you intentionally went over the top in order to get some discussion going. In another thread I wrote that this was ANOTHER of the MANY recent F1 events ("race" just does not seem to fit anymore) in which the winner won from pole and passed no one on the road.

Purists will say that passing does not equate with racing (I can't agree) and say that it is the excitement of the technology that is one of F1's great charms. BUT technology is being strangled, limited, and watered down. It's not a great exagerration to say that the only technology that matters is aerodynamics. F1 - by regulation - does NOT push technology to the limits. It was always a sprint race, where Colin Chapman (?) said the ideal F1 car would fall to bits immediately after taking the checkered. In other words, F1 was supposed to be the arena where racing technology was pushed to the limits in order to win a time/distance-limited sprint race. Now it's an enduro, with longevity requirements on engines and transmissions.

And, yes, it is a marketing event, with actors, scripts, plots, and sponsors.

[DaveKillens]

Some of the most boring races I have ever seen have been in Formula One. Nobody hates a high speed procession as much as I. And I would like to see more than just starting order and pit strategy to determine the winner. I'd like to see some on-track action, please.
Mutterings, mutterings, mutterings about McLaren's probable advantage by the use of the new ECU. Yup, it isn't as easy as going 1 - 2 - 3 in the instruction book to get this piece of hardware integrated. And I also believe that McLaren had a "slight" advantage in initial integration of this ECU. They wasted little time on this system, while others most likely had to channel precious development time and resources to get the ECU to function was desired.
So what?

Somebody had to build this new piece of kit, McLaren and Microsoft were awarded the job by the FIA in what had to be as fair and transparent manner as possible. But in the end, whoever designs and builds it has to have a leg up on the opposition. So what, last year Ferrari enjoyed their tight relationship with Bridgestone and missed most of the problems others had with integrating new tires (Honda as a very good example). I have no doubt in my mind that McLaren enjoys an advantage with the new ECU, it was the same kind of advantage Ferrari enjoyed when we went to a single-source tire supplier. Funny thing, the press was pretty hushed about this Ferrari - Bridgestone relationship last year, and now they are pretty hushed about the Mclaren - ECU thing.
As a purist, I wish Formula One (and all racing series) were "fair and equal" to everyone. But this is the racing game, about competition and gaining that "unfair advantage". No, it isn't fair, and yes, I wish that Mclaren didn't gain anything in the application of the ECU. But they probably did, sadly.
But last year Ferrari had an advantage with the switch to Bridgestone, just as much as McLaren now enjoy with the ECU. But somehow, amazingly (actually, not really) there are howls of protest.. now.

Now to get to the part where my left side and right side of my brain are in conflict. One part tells me it's racing, gentlemen dashing about in fine sport, racing each other to "Tally-ho", and cracking good fun. But my other side knows it's a business these days, a form of entertainment. It's certainly not fair, socially redeeming, or responsible. It's a cut-throat business where teams compete for TV time, ratings, advertising time... I hate to say this but in a business sense, there's little difference between pro wrassling and racing. You put the athletes in front of the camera, let them do their thing, the fans watch, advertisers get their air time, and all is good in the universe.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

Maybe I'm being a bit controversial here but...

...I liked the race, and they way F1 is turning out to be.

The SECU will always cause some unrest, but having a SECU is a good thing, no more TC and all that is good in my eyes.

F1 should be not just the pinnicle of motorsport, but also a showcase of man versus machine. As an example:

Flappy-paddle gearboxes are good, they speed up the cars but the driver must still change gear. His job doesn't become so much easier just because he's not using a foot clutch and gear stick. i.e, having a semi-auto 'box in my own road car makes changing gear quicker, but not that much easier or harder (an auto cluch would help when stuck in London's many traffic jams though! )

TC is bad IMO, as it removes a simple job for the driver to do. I have to modulate the throttle in my car - so why should the supposed best in the world not have to?

People ranted and raved bout sorting the men from the boys, and how it would play into the hands of the Lewis', Kimi's and Fernando's of this world but in fact it was Kimi who lost his cool making mistakes that - with TC & the Engine Braking assistance MAY have been avoided. And thanks to the banning of the driver aids, Massa's shortcommings were rather well displayed.

Yes I do agree that having failed to finish surely Kimi cannot be awarded a point for "FINISHING 8th?!" keyword being "Finished" - something he did not do.

BUT this would have been the case for years before hand also. I think i've seen something similar a while ago but I can't remember but I do remember there wasn't all this fuss about it.

The idea the new ECU is increasing costs and reducing safety is statistically correct, but as a NET result I think its the opposite - the cost of a car retireing from the race is negligeble compared to the cost that the teams WOULD have sent developing the ECU's (seeing as there's an engine development freze atm), and the crashes caused by a lack of the aids are hardly going to kill somebody - they haven't done between 1994 and 2001 (when they were re-introduced) and since then the cars are stronger - so wheres the safty issue? All the lower leagues don't need these gizmo's for supposed driver saefty so neither should F1 especially since these guys are meant to be the best the world has to offer!

And how can you complain its too "predictable" - correct me if I'm wrong but the general concessus was that Kimi and Ferrari would dominate (least thats what a lot of the media thought) and look what happened. Also ho many people honestly expected a race with so many retirements?

We had a race like this at Melbourne in 2002, and nobody complained that was a boring pressession.

Lewis is a manufactured driver - yes, does that actually detract from his ability - no. Wow, he's been nurtured by a teams "youth academy" if you like. Because David Beckham didn't benifit from the same thing at Man Utd, or Ryan Giggs for that matter, or David Bentley @ Arsenal??? Sportsmen being TRAINED from an early age - what a shocking discovery!

If anything drivers being trained to do this is better than having a Kamikaze madman planting his Ferrari directly into the wall at turn one without touching anything to punt him off the track!

I think we have to ask not what's happened to F1 - but what's happened to US?! We are complaining about NOT having driver aids and NOT having all 22 cars finish without difficulty?! Welcome not to the new F1, but welcome insted to the NEW F1 Fan - one who CANNOT be happy - not matter what the FIA does.

[Ogami musashi]

I'm puzzled by all posts above, many of view surely get some points right, but it seems to me you're discussing a single thing with each one having his own reality as basis...

There was a race actually, and i think you should take appart ITV or SPEED or whatever you want, i live in france and while i'm far to say that our commentators are good (as far as commenting is concerned) there was nothing of what you post (except a very predictable bourdais mania starting....).

Parade???? does anybody has missed to raikkonen attemps? the kovalainen on alonso then alonso back?

I read so many times, that people miss the error, hell you had a bunch of HUGE errors (thank you to the ferrari drivers, they made my night), drivers struggling to handle their car while in the wake of some (no TC:Loss of downforce even worse) a sebastian bourdais that kept in respect kovalainen alonso and raikkonen for a bunch of laps etc..


It IS racing when you start from pole and passe no one (of course you pass no one..you're on pole!), yes it is racing to make mistakes when you want to overtake ! this is racing when you do driving mistakes anyway..

I really don't understand you (nobody especially aimed at this "you") last year you were all crying because of lack of driver skill and now that you saw that drivers had a shakeup you're here to cry on the SECU , glamour and still see parade racing..

I ask then, will you be one day statisfied? i'm really asking it seriously...it seems to me a lot of F1 fans are never satisfied, always waiting for something else..


The only thing that was really depressing to me was the evident problem of the wake (and those grooved tyres) were raikkonen was struck behind barichello for 19 laps and as soon as he was clear of him posted lap 2 seconds faster.

Sebastien bourdais did give his diary of the race (in french) and said the cars in traffic were just impossible to drive as the grip just flew away at the least solicitation.

He said "i think every driver will be glad to get slicks next year".


So to me actually that first race (and the qualifying) was very good and a first step towards the next season were we could finally get faster drivers being able to overtake the slowers.

Now next year, some other things won't be there anymore (the proportion of aero grip will diminish which will make the car more predictable for example) so more feed to complain about.


I love F1 because it is a changing series, always pose different driving challenge, i watch races...don't care about the coverage.

[Roland Ehnström]

I totally agree with the last two (great) posts above, well said Spencifer_Murphy and Ogami musashi! =D>

[Conceptual]

Some things:

I wasn't complaining about Lewis winning from pole. He did the best quali lap, and utterly deserved his position.

My issues come with Heikki (managed by Briatore) letting Alonso by on the front straight. No one thinks that he was allowed by just to stroke Alonso's ego?

And the SECU... The FIA should have known better than to give the contract to a company that is part of a competitor in the series. It is even more rediculous since the ECU's didnt need to be changed at all, they just needed to standardize the ECU software development kit. The software could have easily been made to break the integrations that are necessary for TC/Engine Braking without giving a competitive advantage to a competitor of the series.

And about Ferrari hoarding all of their Bridgestone data... Did you completely miss the emails between Alonso and de la Rosa last year? It had EVERYTHING to do with "stolen" tyre data. It was also Bridgestones job to disseminate the data to the other teams, not Ferrari's. Maybe if Ferrari owned Bridgestone then your point would be sharp, but it isn't, thus making it very dull indeed.

We will see in the upcoming races. And I sincerely hope all of the teams can catch up with McLaren in their understanding of the SECU, so we can see the team that has the best development capabilities instead of the teams being confounded by the SECU and relinquishing the season the McLaren.

I hope that with the return of slicks, and a return to team-based ECU's in 2009, because if this is how the championships are going to be decided, I think I would need to change the channel to the IRL/CCWS instead of watching a runaway season due to an unfair competitive advantage.

Chris

[axle]

The single ECU has to tay in one form or another - but that wouldn't preclude a 3rd party taking it on.

[Roland Ehnström]

My issues come with Heikki (managed by Briatore) letting Alonso by on the front straight. No one thinks that he was allowed by just to stroke Alonso's ego?

Excuse me?!