2023 Silly Season Bordering on Absurd

[Ruttman98]

In today's F1, there is seemingly zero reverence for the rich history of the series beyond mouthing the name "Senna" in fluff pieces and observing a hush whenever "Imola" is intoned.

Ever since Gold Leaf Tobacco appeared on cars in the late 1960s, sponsorship has been necessary but most teams were not defined by their bankroll. Maserati, BRM, Vanwall, Ferrari, McLaren, Brabham, Surtees, Lotus (Colin Chapman), Williams, Toyota, Honda, etc. were either individuals*, racing teams, or car marques (sometimes both!) At their core, team names should bear some semblance to the actual team owner/corporate body and not be changed like underwear when a new cash infusion looms (pun intended).**

The author of the attached piece forgets when there were two "Lotus" teams on the grid--one running black and gold livery under the bespoke moniker and one in green and gold as "Caterham." Yes, intellectual property rights and other concerns played a role in that fiasco, but it dilutes the "pur sang" per se of Formula 1.

*My two cents--F1 NEEDS Andretti as much as the latter needs F1. The teams opposing expansion ignores the cache of a legendary name and the real need for at least two additional teams. Concern about who gets X amount of dollars from the total pie will be moot if the fanbase loses interest in the F1 circus.

**Sidenote to history: KC "Hollywood" Spurlock campaigned an NHRA funnycar in the 1990s flying the "Fruit of the Loom" banner.

Mooted name change for Red Bull's other F1 team is problematic - The Race

The question of what the second Red Bull F1 team is called from 2024 brings up the troublesome of topic of identity under the franchise model.

the-race.com

 

[jgf]

Don't forget in 1978 an F1 team was sponsored by Durex (condoms).

While all racing series pay lip service to their history and tradition, it is no more than that.

If F1 cared about such they would still be using the real Silverstone, not that modern atrocity; they would still allow privateers, not just their little rich boys' club who sign their totalitarian concorde agreement. And what of the national aspect of F1? Where is British Racing Green, Italian Red, French Blue, etc.? Modern F1 tradition is, "we will race anywhere someone will build a track to our specifications then pay us to come there".

NASCARE constantly harps on their history, yet the name of the entire series changes every time there's a new sponsor. I once heard a commentator state "Richard Petty was a seven time Sprint Cup champion". BS! Petty was NEVER a Sprint Cup champion. He was, however, NASCAR Grand National Champion and NASCARE Winston Cup champion. He had retired long before the series was "Sprint Cup". A deep pockets investor once built a new track, but there was no space on the schedule for it; so he bought North Wilkesboro (one of the series first tracks), and closed it. Now there was space on the schedule for his track. Tradition?

"Indycar" has had no tradition since the CART/IRL split, other than the IMS itself. Remember IRL? - "American cars with American engines driven by Americans on American tracks". By the end of the first season it was British cars with Japanese engines driven by an international group of drivers ... but they were on American tracks.

Once you are past club racing and vintage racing there is no actual racing anymore, thus no tradition. Like other professional sports today it is all about money. The cars are what the sponsors want, the schedule is what the sponsors want, the rules are what the sponsors want.

Ecclestone was once asked if F1 is about business or racing. "F1 is a big business that happens to go racing every two weeks".

Mike Herrill was asked if NASCARE would race at a certain new track. "If they would like NASCAR to appear in their market......"
????
Appear in their market?!
What about "race on their track"?

In each case the phrase told me all I needed to know about the series.

 

[Pete Conway]

Yeah, the ten teams don't want anyone else taking a slice of their pie... but the pie is getting bigger, and they shouldn't be allowed to get fat and wallow in their own self importance, I believe we could do with:
Smaller cars
More teams

 

[jgf]

And more races.

 

[blekenbleu]

And more races.

If I got to choose, more racing would have priority over more races.

 

[Durge Driven]

 

[Antony Snook]

The Problem in F1 is you have major manufacturers Like Honda, Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. Well Honda's pulling the Plug and going to Ford. That said the factory teams have full control of engine and Gearbox. So a privateer team who buys it from them cant do any work on it. Red Bull had a Renault and where told they could not modify or change engine. If there is a problem it just gets sent to be sorted over by official people from manufacturer. As long as the team pays the money for the engine and gearbox they should be free to do what they like. But the intellectual property of engine and gearbox is so top secret you don't want a simple engineer from team A taking a job at team B. And spilling the beans as to what team A is doing. This is why top people have gardening leave a whole year vacation away from what is going on.

As for Andretti they have money to get into F1 and know smart people that can get them up front in 3 years. Meaning small teams will be steamrolled and loose money. At a time when they may be progesing forwards. So Andretti will aventualy push them back. But Andretti want to be the all American team chassis gearbox and engine and that is good as the sport is growing in America. And we don't have American drivers (Well we have Logan Sagrant but he is not good) I mean a top flight American driver from NASCAR or INDYCAR fame. A real Hero who the American fans can look up to. Amarica is a big fan base for exotic sports cars like Ferrari and Mercedes with many Hollywood celebraties like Jay Lenno and Garages full of of cars Old clasics and modern. So this is a good market and great place to grow F1.

 

[Antony Snook]

And more races.

Obviousley you dont work for a team. Nore do i but i hear it is hard with constant traveling. We are also at a point where contracts for egsiting races are coming to a end, and they may not renew due to terms and conditions of a new contract. So we need new locations to fill in holes. But to me 20 races a year is plentey. Or you get cookie cutter tracks that resemble other tracks. Witch is less than exiting.

 

[jgf]

cookie cutter tracks that resemble other tracks

Which describes virtually every F1 track of the past thirty years. Let's see F1 back at Mosport, Brands Hatch, Watkins Glen. "Variety is the spice of life."

Obviousley you dont work for a team.

No. But 35 years seat time in everything from SCCA Jr to TransAm to test driving IMSA and Group C.

 

[Antony Snook]

Don't forget in 1978 an F1 team was sponsored by Durex (condoms).

While all racing series pay lip service to their history and tradition, it is no more than that.

If F1 cared about such they would still be using the real Silverstone, not that modern atrocity; they would still allow privateers, not just their little rich boys' club who sign their totalitarian concorde agreement. And what of the national aspect of F1? Where is British Racing Green, Italian Red, French Blue, etc.? Modern F1 tradition is, "we will race anywhere someone will build a track to our specifications then pay us to come there".

NASCARE constantly harps on their history, yet the name of the entire series changes every time there's a new sponsor. I once heard a commentator state "Richard Petty was a seven time Sprint Cup champion". BS! Petty was NEVER a Sprint Cup champion. He was, however, NASCAR Grand National Champion and NASCARE Winston Cup champion. He had retired long before the series was "Sprint Cup". A deep pockets investor once built a new track, but there was no space on the schedule for it; so he bought North Wilkesboro (one of the series first tracks), and closed it. Now there was space on the schedule for his track. Tradition?

"Indycar" has had no tradition since the CART/IRL split, other than the IMS itself. Remember IRL? - "American cars with American engines driven by Americans on American tracks". By the end of the first season it was British cars with Japanese engines driven by an international group of drivers ... but they were on American tracks.

Once you are past club racing and vintage racing there is no actual racing anymore, thus no tradition. Like other professional sports today it is all about money. The cars are what the sponsors want, the schedule is what the sponsors want, the rules are what the sponsors want.

Ecclestone was once asked if F1 is about business or racing. "F1 is a big business that happens to go racing every two weeks".

Mike Herrill was asked if NASCARE would race at a certain new track. "If they would like NASCAR to appear in their market......"
????
Appear in their market?!
What about "race on their track"?

In each case the phrase told me all I needed to know about the series.

The reason F1 goes to the new Silverstone with the infield zip up and down the middle is becuse Bernie who ran FOM moaned about the facilities whitch where bad. Not up to modern F1 track standards. So Bernie said i will send race to Brands Hatch (In my Opinioun the better track) So Silverstone invested a lot of money to save the race. A big problem is it is a old RAF airfield so it needs strong cross winds for small planes to take off. Cross winds don't work well with F1 cars. And can cause verry big acidents. So you want car to chainge direction as much as possible.

 

[Pete Conway]

The trouble for most historic F1 tracks is that they don't have the infrastructure needed to cater for the deluge of fans expected, Brands Hatch doesn't have room to expand for the volume of traffic that a modern GP race brings, and Donington doesn't have the capacity to support one either, they're two of my favourite tracks but... there was 480k crowd for Silverstone, that would be difficult at both of those venues without their councils spending a fortune on roads, (and we all know councils don't wanna fix a pothole let alone a new transport infrastructure for a short term once a year race contract) and gate numbers count, and TV numbers value a longer track.
The new rules and regs are pointing further away from the sport and deeper into the financial columns... deeper and deeper

 

[jgf]

The solution is simple. For tracks with limited capacity, make them "premium" events; sell, at premium prices, only enough tickets for what the facilities can support. But televise the event. Those who truly want to attend live will gladly pay the prices for exclusive attendance, and the rest of us can watch on TV.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

A big problem is it is a old RAF airfield so it needs strong cross winds for small planes to take off. Cross winds don't work well with F1 cars. And can cause verry big acidents. So you want car to chainge direction as much as possible.

Crosswinds are definitely not what you want when taking off, crosswinds don't work well with planes either. Runways are typically built so that they provide a headwind most of the time.

 

[Terry Rock]

Well!... that is one way to state your opinion WITHOUT a single word.
I must use this image more often. Seems fitting.

 

[Terry Rock]

Yeah, the ten teams don't want anyone else taking a slice of their pie... but the pie is getting bigger, and they shouldn't be allowed to get fat and wallow in their own self importance, I believe we could do with:
Smaller cars
More teams

It is the classic chicken and egg scenario.
A few teams want to preserve their slice of the existing pie by not adding any additional mouths.
On the other hand that pie could be bigger, if interest sparked by a team like Andretti add to the North American spectator base.

 

[jgf]

if interest sparked by a team like Andretti add to the North American spectator base.

The effect will be minimal, for several reasons. Interest will only be generated by a true "US" team - the chassis and engine designed and built by US companies; a British chassis with a German engine will not be an "American" car. And for many people this will have to be an established company; much of NASCARE's popularity is due to it still calling its cars "Ford, "Chevy", "Dodge", even though none bear any relation to any stock car. This will be further hamstrung by the vicious circle of investment - it will take untold millions to form the team, design the car, throw some money around Europe to get the team into F1, etc.; but people with those resources are loathe to invest where something doesn't yet exist and there's little public interest, but there will be little interest until the team is created.

But there remains another, more insurmountable, problem with F1 gaining any popularity in the US - people are not going to get fired up over one race a year in this country. In Europe there are eight or nine GPs every year, no matter where you live it's little more than a day trip to attend several of them; the US is larger than all Europe but there would be just one race here, many fans would be facing a 2000 mile, or more, trip. Imagine if in Europe, from Britain to Italy, from Spain to Austria, there was one F1 race per year. Years ago they tried a USGP East and a USGP West, but even considering the Canadian GP and Mexican GP you had a mere four races on a land mass three or four times the size of Europe, with the races thousands of miles apart. There is no viable solution for this.

 

[Durge Driven]

No Zandy news thread yet, they slept in ?
This esports console stuff is starting to affect real motorsports.

Damon commenting describes Tarzan as a cartoon.
E.R.Borroughs would be impressed.