Eric Bouiller: "F1 has shot itself in the foot"

[Jordan Wilkins]

Although the F1 community is collectively on a "Summer break" that doesn't mean that F1 is shutting down during this period.

This time of year is usually a time for everyone in the F1 community to either look back on the first half of the season, or to look forward to a new year. This Summer break has been no different so far with some of the latest news coming out in the last few days being McLaren Sporting Director Eric Boullier voicing his opinion on the current state of F1.

Boullier has recently made public his views that F1 is "shooting itself in the foot" because of the overly negative reaction to the new 2014 F1 regulations, particularly the new engine noise and fuel flow limits. Compounding the negative response from several key figures in F1 are falling TV audiences across Europe.

Boullier instead feels F1 should be doing more to promote itself and is quoted as saying "We have more countries interested in hosting grand prix's and we should be pushing and supporting these changes because it's great to see F1 going to new countries." He later added "F1 should be engaging more with the fans and engaging more with new technologies."

Photo via grandprix247.com​

 

[XXn0v42XX]

F1 needs to listen to the feedback from the People who are involved. Germany this years was a good example, race day half the stands were full. This sport is always changing, but sometimes not fast enough. Kind of the F1 track record.....

 

[RichardHessels]

Nowadays tickets are much to expensive, broadcast for most races are behind a decoder.
Half of the races have empty grandstands because the inhabitants of some new economy can't pay the entrance fee or rather watch cricket or camel races.
Than the latest problem, they don't make enough noise and there are enough roadcars that equal or better F1 in raw HP.
So the F1 supercar status for the best of the best drivers of yesteryear is also fading...
Spoiled 17 year olds can get them self in F1 if they have (sponsor) wallets deep enough.
F1 is making itself obsolete if they continue like this.
Sponsors don't want to pay the truckloads of money anymore, also because there is no global free broadcast anymore. It's getting in a downward spiral this way.
Less interest means less money leads to.. go back to the start of this sentence and repeat...
I'm not watching F1 for quite some while anymore.
I rather read about it here, that's more exiting...

 

[Jos Swarthoff]

I like f1 better then last year, the cars are harder to drive and slide around more, not bothered with the sound really since sound always sucks on tv, fuel is no problem also.

I also like the hamilton - rosberg battle, seeing a close battle of the championship is great.

 

[Craig Stevenson]

I stopped watching F1 when Sky took over the TV rights, I won't watch it again unless it returns to FTA, leaving that aside my mate tells me the racing has been good this year BUT I have had the misfortune to watch portions of some races while I have been visiting him on race days and I'm sorry but the racing is so damn false, you haven't been able to "defend" for years apart from one move and now you have the overtake button, couple that with the pathetic sound, over-regulation, P!ssing around with Points, Ecclestone, Corruption etc and there is no wonder F1 is dying and will continue to die, very sad.

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

Give us back the 3L V10's reving up to 20.000rpm with more than 1000bhp and stay with the current aero even if they dont look as good, but the problem F1 now has, that it is getting way too slow.
I mean there was some nice battleing and I enjoyed this season so far, but e.g. Kamui Kobayashi said, that with there pace they could run GP2 and save 10th of million of cash, because on some tracks the Caterhams and Marussia in race trim were not any faster than a GP2 car.

They should stop slowing the cars down that much. When driving F1 cars in sims especially the ones, that had too much grip and power compared to what we have had in the last few years. I could really appreciate the skill involved driving an F1 car as it even on a sim pushed me right to the limits of my reaction times and was a big mental challange, but with the current regulations that is fading away.

 

[Salut Gilles]

Tell king bernie to stop being so repulsively greedy. Better: kick his corrupt self out of Formula 1. Problem no. 1 solved. Problem no. 2: Sell the game's license to another (and much better) company than bugsmasters. Problem no. 3... (the rest of them).

 

[Chris Jenkins]

1000+bhp at 20k revs with 2014 aero?

It'll be funeral city! No thanks!

Plus no engine manufacturers would do it.

 

[morsify]

F1 needs to remove some of the comms and ability of the teams to control and change software and settings during the race i.e put some control & planning and car management back on the driver - the technology is destroying any belief that the driver has to be exceptional in any way.

I'm getting disappointed and I reckon Formula 1 needs a major reinvention. The racing is certainly improved this year, which has kept me watching, but the overall 'glamourous, mega-bucks' image, with people buying the majority of their seats, is wearing thin and looking more and more distasteful.

Contrast it with the MotoGP paddock - skilful riders who have not lost their sense of reality and willingness to talk openly to the media.

 

[vee10]

Formula 1 is becoming a irrelevance especially to the younger generations. They are so behind the curve when it comes to social media like youtube etc. When i started watching F1 (1985), it was one a few sports you could have some sort of regular access to be able to watch on FTA t.v. Now with half the races on Sky (Murdoch can kiss my A$$), I find myself unable to get passionate about it just watching a highlights package for half the season. With younger peoples access to the many other forms of entertainment which a lot of is free, does Bernie really expect them to pay to watch a race on T.V that may or not be entertaining. Judging by the lack of sponsors in F1 I would suggest most companies don't see it as a good way to sell there product, unless you like Rolex's which for most people are an irrelevance.

The drivers have had all their personality deleted, and for some reason the modern F1 driver now needs and engineer to steer him around a circuit.

Although the technology is amazing it has little relevance with the average fan. The rules that are now in place DRS, double points, tyre rules and then all the driver penalties that are issued these days make F1 far to complicated.

Sorry for the rambling rant, but modern F1 is going the way of the dinosaur if things don't change.

 

[Philip Heck]

The problem there is Bernie doesn't "believe" in new media... he actually said that...

 

[Darren Bentley]

. Now with half the races on Sky (Murdoch can kiss my A$$),

Kinda irrelevant what I am about to say but I think SkyF1 coverage far superior to BBC, even when they are live they are kind of 2nd rate compared to Sky IMO

 

[Spinelli]

1. Get rid of the engine freeze, the worst rule in the history of F1. Imagine a mechanical or aero freeze? Ridiculous!

2. Allow more on-track testing. Testing should be 50/50 % between on-track and CFD/wind-tunnel, not 5/95 %. Ludicrous!

 

[Tony Holder]

Kinda irrelevant what I am about to say but I think SkyF1 coverage far superior to BBC, even when they are live they are kind of 2nd rate compared to Sky IMO

I am actually liking the SKY coverage more. Shame the BBC doesn't have the wonga to compete.

 

[vee10]

I am actually liking the SKY coverage more. Shame the BBC doesn't have the wonga to compete.

I totally agree Murdochs billions certainly put the lame effort the BBC put into to it to shame. Does that signify that the terrestrial channels either cant justify the spend on F1 (BBC's case) or that the commercial free to air channels do not think they will make enough revenue from advertising. When you break it down into a individual component of the Sky Sports package does it even pay for itself. To me Sky may be the place for the best coverage it but it is not the place to get people into F1 there is only one place and that is free to air T.V

F1 has taken the money now without really thinking of the long term ramifications.

 

[Philip Heck]

I am glad that here in Germany it's the other way round
Every race is broadcast on Free-TV and while there IS a Sky broadcast it is so horrible you can't even watch some short youtube videos of it w/o getting permanent braindamage

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Yeah Sky coverage may well be good with all the different TV angles to choose from and what have you, but it's all pretty pointless if the fans aren't watching!. I know quite a few people who like me were avid F1 fans and now either don't watch or can take it or leave it.

I don't know about Sky TV itself but on Virgin I would have to get a full Sky Sports package at something like £25+ PM just to watch F1, you can't buy just F1 channel on it's own, every other Sport I watch (BTCC, MotoGP, Superbikes, WTCC, DTM, V8's) I can watch on Eurosport, ITV4 or BTSport which are all included in my VM package. I have better things to do with my £300 than give it to two of the most corrupt business empires in the world.

 

[Philip Heck]

That's better than what they offer in Germany, here you can't even get Sky Sports alone, you need to get Sky World or w/e it's called too...
That get's you up to 34€/month (iirc) which is just ridiculous if you just want to watch one kind of Sport (F1, UCL, or w/e)