Is a Oval race the missing link between America and F1?

[langwadt]

I just wonder if one of the reasons for small US audience of F1 is not the lack of oval racing but just the time difference between US and counties where most of the races are held.

This.

It's pretty much futile to try to get ordinary people interested in a 20-race series when only 3 of them are watchable at normal hours.

Maybe a different approach is to merge the IndyCar and F1 series, and to let each driver participate in up to 20 races. That way, everyone around the world can have their fill of races in their timezones, while at the same time there's still a global competition going on.

Indy controls cost too much to ever compete with F1.

yeh, The entire budget for an Indy team probably wouldn't get you half an engine deal in F1

[Edax]

To me many of these proposals are about the same as saying that Motorhead should incorporate more of Taylor Swift's repertoire to capture a broader audience. Or that showjumping should incorporate more rodeo elements to become popular in the southern US. It's bordering sacrilegious.

Don't get me wrong I actually like to watch oval racing.

But I like oval racing for what it is just as I like F1. US racing is about raw power, straightline speed and torque, European racing is about aerodynamics, cornering speed and engine sophistication. US racing is perhaps slightly more about driver skill and European racing is more about car development. Each of those has its attractions,

But combining those in any way or form is a bad idea. Look at the abomination that is called the United Sports car championship.

As for F1 in the US. I think the years at Indy have done F1 a very bad service in The US. The infield track is simply not capable of producing top level racing. With the Houston track F1 has a much better chance of impressing and capturing an audience but that takes time. Perhaps a adding a second race would help. In that case my vote would be for the Glen (for old times sake).

But an oval race will only show that these cars are not designed for ovals.

[flynfrog]

maybe add a few to the calendar??

[Moxie]

The reason I agree with holding at least one oval race has nothing to do with the American market. It is about competition, specifically the team competition between constructors, and their engineers.

The vast difference between an oval like Indy and a tight street course like Monaco, creates opportunity for increased competition. In fact I would prefer if several Tilke tracks were dropped for tracks with unique character. Not so long ago the middling team of Torro Rosso were the fastest cars in a straight line, and proved it in Monza. Increasing the variety of tracks used by F1 give teams like this a chance to shine, take podium positions, perhaps even win. The teams with real WCC hopes will engineer the cars to the average in hopes of capturing the most wins. However less well funded teams might gain exposure for themselves by aiming for wins at the most extreme tracks.

Coupled with rules that limit the number of updates there might be a way to introducing some excitement into F1 without gimmicks.

[ian_s]

if they were to do an oval track, it would have to be one of the short-tracks so that the brakes actually get used a bit, and also so the track doesnt seem empty.
i'd love to see 20 f1 cars at bristol

[mertol]

No brakes needed for bristol. Maybe martinsville?

[FW17]

F1 always seems to have a desire for a big share of American sponsorship but do not want cater to American motorsport fans.

Unlike Europe where you have road racing fans, rally fans, sportscar fans, MotoGP fans etc Americans have an additional Oval race fans. The issue is Oval fans are in a significant number more than road racing fans.

COTA has done the job in getting a lot of road racing fans to the races but to cater to the larger community of motor racing fans of US F1 needs to cater oval race fans if interested in US sponsors.

[sgth0mas]

Americans dont like oval racing because of the oval. They like oval racing because of the 43 thunderous V8s in sight at almost all times. All 43 of them rubbing, drafting and pushing each other out of the way. They like the spectacular crashes and closer pack racing. Indy isnt as extreme but still close.

F1 would embarass itself if it tried to compete with that. Youd have a spread out field scared to get within 20m of each other driving engines quieter than half the vehicles in the parking lot.

F1 is also quite whiney...look at horner and anyone else trying to get their way. Even when nascar drivers have an issue with someone...they dont just cry about how theyre not friends with the person any more like lewis did all last year. They either literally scrap it outside of the car or return the favor on track.

[sgth0mas]

Its also worth noting that american companies want to advertise in f1 for the globalization. Theyre not going to jump in to advertise to the same people that nascar and indy do because the costs to advertise in f1 are 5-10x as much. Why pay way more for the same thing?

If HAAS does well...thats the best chance F1 has at american entrants.

[Tommy Cookers]

No brakes needed for bristol. Maybe martinsville?

going back to the previous page, brakes at Pocono for the 6 deg banked turn ?

[sgth0mas]

Why would you not need brakes for a short track? At least in nascar they put the brakes at a premium.

Also dont forget that highly banked tracks will still need speed restrictions to keep drivers from passing out...anyone remember TMS at the CART inagural firehawk 600?

[mertol]

Because it has 30° banking. I'm pretty sure it will be flat out.

[mertol]

I did a quick test in iracing with the williams fw31 using baseline high df setup. In 10 laps of practice I did 11.5secs lap with 250km/h at the apex and top speed 270km/h. With assymetric setup and less fuel they might even start removing wing:

[sgth0mas]

Because it has 30° banking. I'm pretty sure it will be flat out.

I still think they may need some brakes as indy did(edit: maybe not an actual race just a similar dallara), but i guess that depends on their aero choice. Also, at 30degrees they will have to be top speed limited...so it most likely wont be any faster than indy.

on another interesting note...a large portion of the nascar grid agree that reduced downforce makes better racing on ovals.

http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2015/7/1 ... es-package

"There were a track-record 22 green-flag passes for the lead and 2,665 green-flag passes throughout the field, more than doubling last year's total of 1,147."

2665 passes in one race...lol

[Andres125sx]

a large portion of the nascar grid agree that reduced downforce makes better racing on ovals.

Please let me modify your statement to be more precise

a large portion of the world agree that reduced downforce makes better racing anywhere