AndreaModa wrote:If you feel that the sport is going the wrong way, then how about suggesting what you'd do instead? Because all I've seen is lots of angry people without any idea at all what they'd do if given the chance. It's like complaining for the sake of it, because that's apparently what we do now when a new rule comes out. Put up or shut up.
I read this the other day, and thought I'd do my putting up, as I'm not particularly inclined towards shutting up.
On the Race WeekendI would personally return to straight-up single-lap qualifying, although rather than giving the winner from the previous week the advantage of a rubbered in track, why not get the drivers to set their laps in a random order? It should serve to mix the grid up a little bit (if a driver runs wide, he doesn't get a second chance) and be easy to understand for the casual F1 fan, as opposed to this weird 90-second knockout format we're currently looking at. It also means that you can see every car on the grid for an entire lap, which might be more appealing for sponsors than the current format.
As for the race itself, I wouldn't make many changes. The only thing I'd do differently is bring back re-fuelling; currently, we have bugger-all overtaking because the fastest cars are always at the front. One way of mixing things up is having genuinely varied pit strategies (and longer pit stops), and one way of ensuring that they're not always the fastest car is by making them fat with fuel. It wouldn't fix everything, but it might help.
On the whole seasonIdeally, I would like to see the season pared back to sixteen Championship races, even if it means that many great circuits only host Championship Grands Prix every other year. There's nothing that says they have to be the same sixteen circuits.
I'd also quite like to see the return of non-Championship races at other Grade 1 (or 1T) circuits as testing opportunities, with teams only required to send one car (but also allowed to send as many as three) to these events. There could also be a fleet of unaffiliated cars built by lower-midfield teams for local drivers to use. These races could also be flogged to TV separately from the Championship for even greater profits!
On BernieGo away.
On visibilityGrands Prix need to be on free-to-air TV, and not hidden behind a pay-wall. If that means extended highlights as opposed to live coverage, than that might have to do - so long as those extended highlights are to be broadcast in primetime slots. Otherwise, find a new TV provider.
However much money F1 currently harvests from pay TV, I believe that the entire sport still makes less dosh than some top football clubs, so it could be doing better. Better visibility is more important than short-term money-grabbing.
On tech and regs and things I don't fully understandIf F1 has to move towards being a spec-chassis series (and really, the regulations are so restrictive that we're not so far away already) in order to promote overtaking, then so be it. Or, provide much more relaxed regulations, but a tight budget cap so that teams can use mass dampers and double diffusers and all of those other controversial things - but can't afford to do them all at once. Of course, the only way for this to happen is if it were run by a committee of people with no vested interests - who do not have a financial stake in any team, or in the sport itself; there's no way that Ferrari and the rest of the turkeys will vote for Christmas.
Stricter budget caps or spec chassis should both make it easier for new teams to enter Formula One, which is something I'd like to see. Grid sizes of about 30 shouldn't be unmanageable with a but of planning.
