Formula 1

[Bleach22]

Just watching the formula 1 as I mostly do on a Sunday, thought i'd make a thread to have a talk on about it.

If anyone else has heard, whats your opinions on McLaren's $100,000,000 fine for Fernando Alonso stealing info. from Ferrari?

And the race today is on the Belgian track Spa, great track :D

WTF 666 POSTS!

[Lotus 111s]

Formula 1 is a complete waste of time now, there is no overtaking manoeuvre's really, and when there is it's dull dull and dull. I used to watch it all the time but now i have lost all interest in it. They seriously need to change the cars if they ever want to get the excitement back into it.

Here is what i would do.

1. Remove the rear wing, this will seriously reduce the turbulent air and allow slipstreaming to return (Ferrari said this easily possible with a little car redesign and would not reduce the lap times that much) and that will also allow cars to follow others alot closer facilitating more overtaking.

2. Bring back the Gearstick, stop all this flappy paddle bollox and as for the button that they press that makes the car change down from 7th to 2nd in less than a second that is just plain stupid.

3. Remove car-to-pit radio's they are not needed, make the driver work things out himself instead of computers doing all the tactical thinking and that info being relayed to the driver. Just use pit boards like they used to.

4. Give them a boost button for that last for say 60secs that they can use when ever they want for as long or short as they want, this will aid overtaking as well.

5. REMOVE TRACTION CONTROL, this is just a joke these drivers are supposed to be the best in the world, stop letting the computers do the work.

6. This is part of 5 really. no launch control, let them make mistakes of the line much more fun that way.

I am sure there are many other things i can think of as well but that will do for now.

Right i am going to watch the MotoGP later, NOW THAT IS RACING.

[Bleach22]

Yeah, good ideas, but I still like it :P

[JasonA]

Will there be an F1 game for Xbox360 ?? I used to have a few PS2 ones...

[Bleach22]

Not sure, but the one on PS3 is immense. Especially using the PSP's as wingmirrors.

[Rossko_UK]

F1 died for me when it made the switch from BBC to ITV. How you can have adverts in the middle of a race is beyond me and makes it totally unwatchable.

[max2663]

yeh i see where your alkl coming from but this season theres been a lot more overtaking and exciting racing really

[FoolInjection]

Formula 1 is a complete waste of time now, there is no overtaking manoeuvre's really, and when there is it's dull dull and dull. I used to watch it all the time but now i have lost all interest in it. They seriously need to change the cars if they ever want to get the excitement back into it.

Here is what i would do.

1. Remove the rear wing, this will seriously reduce the turbulent air and allow slipstreaming to return (Ferrari said this easily possible with a little car redesign and would not reduce the lap times that much) and that will also allow cars to follow others alot closer facilitating more overtaking.

Great Idea... however I'm not keen on it only because those huge rear wings on the cars are the essance of Formula 1. Back in the 80's and 90's those wings were huge.

2. Bring back the Gearstick, stop all this flappy paddle bollox and as for the button that they press that makes the car change down from 7th to 2nd in less than a second that is just plain stupid.

Can't tell you how much I aggree with this. Ayrton Senna was a driving god and to see him taking a huge corner like the Parabolica with one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear stick just makes you think how even if Micheal Schumacher has all his records now he is still the number one Formula 1 driver of ALL TIME. They need to bring that back for sure.

3. Remove car-to-pit radio's they are not needed, make the driver work things out himself instead of computers doing all the tactical thinking and that info being relayed to the driver. Just use pit boards like they used to.

I don't think so much remove the car to pit radios... however... I would take out all the computer gubbins that can change setups and things on the fly. They can at times completely fix a cars problem without it ever leaving the track and thats just plain wrong.

4. Give them a boost button for that last for say 60secs that they can use when ever they want for as long or short as they want, this will aid overtaking as well.

They used to have this. Each driver has a limited supply of OT (Over Take) Gas or Boost or whatever you want to call it... which could be used with a push of a button on the wheel. Made for some interesting racing.

5. REMOVE TRACTION CONTROL, this is just a joke these drivers are supposed to be the best in the world, stop letting the computers do the work.

Aggreed

6. This is part of 5 really. no launch control, let them make mistakes of the line much more fun that way.

Aggreed

I am sure there are many other things i can think of as well but that will do for now.

Right i am going to watch the MotoGP later, NOW THAT IS RACING.

I think basicly they should give them back Slick tyres and like the technology Senna had in the 90's all be it with all the new saftey regs.

[myk83]

Ok, so the racing in Formula 1 is rubbish at the moment, and we all know that barring freak weather/accidents a Ferrari or a McLaren will win. But the basic consensus here as to how to improve F1 is:

1) Change the cars so they no longer resemble F1 cars (which would basically make it a new series)
2) Go back to the way things were "in the good old days"
3) Copy some bits from other racing series in the hopes it'll make it more interesting.

I think the problems with F1 are caused by too much changing of all the rules and regulations. When you change the cars, you put the emphasis on the team to design and built better machines and systems, and the drivers are only working to that. If the teams got to a point where the cars were as advanced as they could make them within the current rules, then the drivers would again make a difference.

I am totally against going backwards in any way with the sport (with 2 exceptions, which I'll point out later) and any suggestion to this end is ruining what I think is the best part of F1 - innovation. The sport has evolved for over a century, from racing normal road cars, through heavily modified cars, to custom made cars, to things that don't even resemble cars any more. Technology is such a huge part of F1, and many of the innovations made there have directly benefitted not just road cars, but many other areas of technology.

Changing F1 and going backwards is like Microsoft announcing the next XBox will get rid of the "blade" interface, and return to DOS prompts and text-only games, because "that's how Bill Gates used to do it, and he's a computer god!" which we all know is ridiculous.

The only rules I think should be revisited are single lap qualifying, and the 1 tyre-per-race rule. A lot of people didn't like single lap, but at least you got a chance to see everyone driving, and could get a decent comparison of the cars. Now, you see about 3 or 4 cars in a session, and miss most of the people out on track. Lewis Hamilton's "popularity" has had a massive effect in this area, and there have been several qualifying sessions this year (especially Q1 and Q2) where we haven't seen any of the teams trying to stay in the sessions, because they've focused on one of the top teams doing a meaningless run on old tyres because they're fast enough to get through without trying.

Keep Q1 and Q2 the same if you must, but change Q3 to single lap and have a proper pole shoot-out, where you can't make any mistakes, and it will also make Q2 more interesting because it would determine the running order for Q3 and thus make it more important.

The 1 tyre rule is one that really annoyed me. They introduced it for 2005, to reduce speed, reduce costs, and make the races more interesting towards the end, as opposed to all-done by the last pit stop. Everyone hated the idea of it at first, and pit stops looked pretty stupid with 22 guys still round the car and only the 2 fuel men doing anything. But what did it achieve? It cut speeds, reduced costs, and made the races a lot more interesting. So the FIA then get rid of it the next year...

Explain that one for me! It made the races better, and a big part of that was that the much harder rubber reduced the crap that accumulates off the racing line in corners, so cars actually had grip when overtaking. Brilliant!

Anyway, I've ranted for too long now, and I'm kind of losing my way. Summary: let the teams push the envelope of technology (launch control is banned by the way, and TC is going next year, but should stay as most road cars are getting this now), go back to 1 tyre per race (let them have a range of softer qualifying only tyres if they want) and do something to make all stages of qualifying important for all the drivers, and not just the ones that are struggling in slow cars.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!

[Lotus 111s]

I do agree that F1 is at the forefront of technology and that going backwards is a little daft, but the reason the sport has become so boring is that technology has removed errors and driver skill (well reduced driver skill required). So we get the precession of cars going round for 70 laps race after race with barely any real overtaking manoeuvres. Yeah you might get a McLaren/Ferrari overtake one of the lesser teams but that is all. How many times has a McLaren or Ferrari passed each other outside of the pits this year or after the first couple of laps, i would guess very very little.

This brings me again back to the technology thing, only 2 teams can compete at the top. This isn't entirely down to funding as Toyota are the team with the biggest budget and i am sure BMW throw some serious money at it to but for most of the others money is to tight

. It is not easy for FIA to control the technology race without stiffiling innovation, but i think they really need to be brave and do something to put the racing back into F1. MotoGP did a brave move by reducing engine size down from 999cc to 800cc but it has made the sport even more enthralling than it already was. Also while i am on MotoGP, this now attracts more visitors to the same race circuits than F1 manages why?? simple its proper racing and it is currently (in Britain at least) half the price to watch at the same circuit than F1 is. F1 needs to be less greedy as well.

I could go on and on but i will stop for now (i need a shower)

At the end of the day i SO want F1 to get back to racing on the track and not in pits and i hope they can do something to help this.

PS. Glad to see they are dropping TC at last.

[Sage]

Jay you probably wont see a F1 game on 360 because sony has all the rights(i think)

[FoolInjection]

Jay you probably wont see a F1 game on 360 because sony has all the rights(i think)

Yeah Sony snapped up the rights to Formula 1 making it a Playstation 2 & 3 exclusive till something like the year 2015.