Little if anything? Hrumph. Yeah, sure,
you shouldn't try to learn something from your main competitor, the one that has stolen from you the world's largest market for sport racing. And some people wonder why US is in free fall... Remember: the border between stupidity and retardation in a post is a fine line you have to walk.
I don't deny that you can learn the good and the bad (and the ugly) when watching other people for too long, but if I've been trained toward something in my professional life is to learn from others. So, here you have my short version of "walking the line" (I hope
this post to be only moderately stupid, instead of amazingly retarded) :
Top ten things (and one more!) F1 can learn from NASCAR:
10.
Do not allow it to become a family bussiness: the issue with the France family is ridiculous. The "family based" drivers are usually a big flop. Sometimes it's like watching Smokey and the Bandit: the deputy is always the nephew of the Police Commisioner. As Bill France says, NASCAR produces "opportunities for family members". Puaj, allow me to throw up. Done. Let's continue: Slavica Ecclestone is the greatest danger to the continuity of F1 and I mean it. Remember, the old guy is becoming older by the minute.
9.
Do not become a regional based franchise. FOM has barely understood it, but even with those feeble attempts, european fans are upset about it. From roughly 10 races in France, Germany and England, F1 has spent 50 years before moving to Asia. And that's
only to Asia and
only if by "Asia" you mean the ex-british colonies, oil producing countries included. Actually, in my not very humble opinion (IMNVHO) there is NOT a world based racing series on this Earth. Formula One still is a "developed world thing", strictly associated with the euro. Keep reading, at least the next paragraph, if you wish to know where the problem comes from:
8.
Create feeder series and take them seriously, instead of treating them as a last minute thought. I don't know when these people is going to understand the concept of "feeder series" that FIFA (not FIA, but FIFA) handles so well. A1GP is a sorry attempt to play the "nationality" thing.
The key concept here is "ascend and descend series". The idea of showing the ascending series on Saturday TV is a good one. You know, IMNVHO, the ascend/descend thing should include the TEAMS. Yes, my friends, if I were the honcho in charge, top team in F3 shall move to F1 and last F1 team should be demoted to F3. Same goes for drivers. That should move things a bit.
7.
Use more cameras and a decent TV director: blimps, helicopters, sidetrack cameras, NASCAR has them even into the soup. F1 cameras are worried about showing the liveries of the top racing teams and little more. I'm bored to death with just one point of view atop the driver for on-board cameras, including the cute (taken from SEGA or COLECO, I'd say) G-forces clock and the "manga" style RPM indicator. I've never seen,
in camera, a Formula One car passing by and
shaking the ground, if you know what I mean. That's the most played camera take in NASCAR: I call it "the rumble". NASCAR uses the sound of cars! When have you heard the sound of a Formula One car from the side of the track? The concept of repeating an overtaking has not entered into the hard cranium of F1 TV directors: cameras stay with the two top guys even if they're alone in the track. Camera director allows you to watch five or six of the twenty-something overtakes that happen in a race.
Who are these people? I would hire a top movie director to manage the TV thing, and I would make a deal including a couple of movies about F1! Not for the big screen, but for Discovery or NatGeo, you know what I mean: NatGeo is able to produce a ten chapter series about excavators, for heaven's sake! Sadly, you are NOT allowed to vote for me to become FIA president.
6.
Include a couple of drivers that actually have balls. Most F1 drivers are skimpy little things that could be blown away by the wind, and I'm not talking about their personality: that is even flimsier. JPM, where are you? Mmmmm... in NASCAR. Why? You know why: most F1 drivers have the attitude of a ballet dancer and the same "diva-ish" character. You have to suspect if half of the grid is gay. I'm not asking for NASCAR-type drivers, those guys that make you wonder if they're going to fart on camera, but you know what I mean: drivers with an attitude shouldn't be
automatically penalized by "the system".
5.
Open the radio. NASCAR allows team to negotiate. On public radio. Enough said, you know how radio is treated by F1 teams: like the british communications during WWII: "walls have ears".
4.
Do not include stupid guys as commentators. Yes, I've seen James Allen, but you should hear that guy Darrell Walltrip saying "boogity, boogity, boogity" every weekend. I would hire a top team of stars to handle the english transmission, guys so good that local cable stations would rely on them, instead of hiring a couple of local, burnt ex-drivers and an out-of-work anchor from the evening news.
3.
Do not interrupt the transmission every five minutes. Well, you know how the americans handle the sports: even the pit thing is timed to handle the adverts. Do not follow that path.
2.
Eternal races. My wife asks me during NASCAR transmissions just this: "how much"? I only answer "three hundred and twenty eight". We understand each other: I know and she knows that we're talking about how many laps to the end. I don't know where NASCAR got the idea of four hour races, but this place should be nuked.
1.
Be proud of your history. Every NASCAR race is a lesson in history. What else could I add?
0.
High definition TV. When are those people going to awake to the XXIth century?
Man, is fun to write here. Sad I was carried away and nobody will read it because this post is way too damn long.
Shouldn't they be just stock cars (i.e. unmodified road cars)? The likes of modern Mustang vs Camaro vs Challenger would be a waaaaay better looking grid.
