Negativity and Haterism trend....

[ParkerArt]

As long as the cars hit 370 km/h on the straights, everybody will be happy, while nobody can tell if they are slower in the corners.

Besides, it will all be compensated by close racing.

No offense, but you aren't "everybody". For me F1 without wings would be hideous. And as said the wings are there for a performance reason. F1 isn't drag racing.

Doesn't matter what you think either, Formula 1 has almost totally lost its lure to the public and sponsors, with or without wings.

The the switch to paid programming isn't a factor at all. I'm Canadian and I have no way to legally watch live F1 except for the US and Canadian GPs.

If SKY offered their live streaming to people not on their UK subscriptions world wide, viewership would explode. Say, for example, there was a F1-Only plan that was ~$50 for the season and that allowed to to have a lag free, HD stream of all SkyF1 programming? Cheap enough that the people that don't have cable TV to watch it with quality online. Or $5 for each race weekend to get full programming coverage.

F1 and Sky just hate money though.

[Gaz.]

As long as the cars hit 370 km/h on the straights, everybody will be happy, while nobody can tell if they are slower in the corners.

Besides, it will all be compensated by close racing.

No offense, but you aren't "everybody". For me F1 without wings would be hideous. And as said the wings are there for a performance reason. F1 isn't drag racing.

Doesn't matter what you think either, Formula 1 has almost totally lost its lure to the public and sponsors, with or without wings.

Viewing figures are dropping for all motorsports, for MotoGP the audience has halved in the UK. Just taking the UK TV audience into account:

F1 averages 4 million viewers.
MotoGP averages 500k
BTCC averages 200k
WRC -the only figure I could find was the finale with 140k
Le Mans 24h, 148k peak, 56k average. (couldn't find a WEC season average)
Bathurst 1000- 20k
Indy 500- 18k, the only Indycar race to register a BARB score.
NASCAR 8k season average

[dans79]

Every complaint I've heard this season was in essence "I don't like change"......

To those people, I have to say you're watching the wrong sport, because racing is about constant change, always pushing, always building on what has been learned from the past.

[Andres125sx]

F1 isn't going down. stop seeing collapse and disaster. There is no iceberg ahead.

When fans all around the world are complaining about the sport, it´s not someone´s paranoia, there must be some problem...


Yes, F1 is going down, if revenues continue increasing it´s only because of the increasing feeds for tracks and TV´s, but audience is going down, so it´s just a matter of time the whole thing will collapse. Once audience is low enough, no sponsor will pay the high feeds because it´s not worth the investment.

No sponsors, no money, no F1.

[Blanchimont]

How many of the people in power in F1 are actually there because they are racers(Frank Williams, Peter Sauber, Colin Chapman) and how many of the people in power work in F1 to promote a certain car related product(hybrid engine)? Maybe this is the real underlying problem?!

[will_bmx]

Personal opinion using bullet points as writing sentences that make sense on a phone sucks:

It seems to be a business first. Sport second.

I actually don't mind DRS, simply because it gains you back what you lose due to the wake.

Tyres are basically qualifying tyres for racing with.

Full tanks cause drivers to hold back to look after said bubblegum tyres.

Fuelling isn't really an issue so I have no problem with a fuel limit.

Couldn't they have simply limited the fuel amount for the race and the engine manufacturers made the engines how they wished to get the most from it? Then you'd have had diversification.

To those who say you can't tell between someone pushing at 100% vs 90%, are you serious? There's a difference between a fast car and one that's dancing on the balance point.

To simplify what I'd change:

Stop caring about the "business" and focus on the sport, as long as its profitable that's cool, don't be greedy.

Tyres that don't overheat within one or two laps of 100%.

Refuelling.

Retain DRS to keep the cars close and making up what is lost due to the nature of aero.

Watch more V8 supercars for inspiration haha.

Will

[turbof1]

The comparisons to foregone glory, with the associated clutter of images and videos, are getting out of hand. Time for another round of cleaning.

[hollus]

At the risk of derailing the thread back on topic, I think this old post of mine is actually on topic here, at least after some trimming. This is partly why there is so much negativism, IMO:

There is such thing as an activation energy, we know it from chemistry:



And in the forum posting world, it looks like this:



The green zone is invisible, it only comes to light if a member makes a random post inspired by the weather, or maybe by a couple of beers; only people in the blue and orange zones are normally bothered to actually make a post, and it is good like that, or we would be flooded! In forums, as in real life, anger is a more powerful action trigger than happiness.

And there you go, you have been degraded not only to ants, but to soul-less molecules. Forum psichohistory* anyone?

*I wonder how many people here get the reference, does it mean I am old?

[MOWOG]

I would respond except the weather depresses me and I have had a few beers.

Actually, your bell curve could apply to politics as well. Extremists on either end of the spectrum make all the noise.

[strad]

Why the obsession with out and out speed?
Try caring about racing and not the speed the cars go. You can't tell the difference between 185 and 198, but you can darn sure tell when there is no racing.
Be honest, How many minutes all season have you been on the edge of your seat yelling at the TV?
I can honestly say I don't think I have been like that for five minutes all season.
Get rid of supper soft tires that spread clag so they cannot go offline to try a pass and you'll go a long way towards improving the racing.

[dans79]

Be honest, How many minutes all season have you been on the edge of your seat yelling at the TV?

I think that really depends what teams/drivers you follow, I for one have done it a lot this year, and several of the people I know have as well.

[Manoah2u]

Be honest, How many minutes all season have you been on the edge of your seat yelling at the TV?

and how many times has that been in the entire history of F1?

I didn't count though. I do recall however having been excited of the races all season long with the exception
of Sochi which was insanely boring. The rest of the year? Great.

[Andres125sx]

Every complaint I've heard this season was in essence "I don't like change"......

I´ve complained, I like turbo engines, I like change, I actually think F1 does need a huge change

Bernie out
Crappy tires out, they must last much more and produce much less marbles
DRS out or free use (active wings)
Remove engine freeze, at least allow 2-3 updates per seasson
Reduce wings
Allow ground effect with active suspension
Reduce wheel settings so cars are more difficult to drive


And I don´t think I´m alone, many people complain about the changes, but IMO the reason is not because they don´t like changes, but because they think most changes and ideas are absurd and do not help the sport.


I you think about it, it´s ironical BE is not interested in young people, but his ideas are sparks mechanisms, sprinklers, exhaust trumpets..... Does he really think mature people will enjoy those ideas?

[hollus]

Get rid of supper soft tires that spread clag so they cannot go offline to try a pass and you'll go a long way towards improving the racing.

...Crappy tires out, they must last much more and produce much less marbles

Are we really getting that many marbles in 2014? I don't remember any complaints this year. One of the pictures below is from Sochi, hardly ideal for comparison, I know!

I´m not sure what people are talking about but comparing to the last 10 years no season has had this much battles going on.
Not even close as a matter of fact.

edit: also someone mentioned marbles, this was the extent of marbles in Sochi.



Last year we had this,

[donskar]

I'll be getting up at 6:00 am Sunday morning to watch the last race of a season I have not enjoyed as much as earlier years. I am not a "hater," but I do not care about F1 nearly as much as I used to. This season I have watched a lot of races on tape delay and often fast forward through parts of them. So, not a hater, but no longer a fanatic.

Very few of the preceding posts have even approached objectivity. (X did, more than once.) I'll try:

It is a fact that attendance and -- more important for the business of F1 -- viewership is down. Sponsors want "eyeballs." F1 is not delivering them to the extent sponsors want. (That is a fact.) Therefore, sponsors are getting much harder to find. Fewer sponsor means fewer competitive teams. Fewer competitive teams . . . Well, you know, don't you?

My mantra is, "It's not a sport' it's a business." It follows that those of us who take part in sites like this one mean very little to the people who run F1 -- "the suits." They want maximum exposure for their dollars. Some think they aren't getting it (or won't get it). That is the crux: how can F1 attract more watchers ("eyeballs," not necessarily fans). Will it get better? No reason to think so, especially after Bernie's recent senile outburst that a younger demographic is not necessary or even desirable. That rant helped alienate (IMO) sponsors who make their living off fast food, sporting goods, leisure wear, electronics, etc, etc .

Next season I won't watch F1 if it is on a premium (extra cost) station. I'll save my money for a turbo for my car.