5 things you'd change about F1

[foehammer111]

I figured with Mosley stepping down, I'd start a thread about things that can be done to fix F1.

#1 - No more politics
This nearly killed the sport, and it needs to stop. Get rid of FOM since there's a major conflict of interest. FIA sets the rules, but FOTA needs to approve changes. Every team is a member of FOTA. No more of this expeling teams because they're looking out for themselves.

#2 - Control costs
F1 has been like an arms race with technology. The average car costs $5 million to make, and that doesn't even include operating costs. Ferrari spent $50 million last year on their engine program just to make their cars .5 seconds faster. I'd hate to say that Mosley was right, but budget caps are needed. Just phase them in slowly, and all teams must have them or they don't race.

#3 - Parity
Currently, a F1 race has 20 cars. Only 2-3 of those are capable of winning any given Sunday. Budget caps will help a lot with this, but I think they're going to have to use a standard body type to level the playing field.

#4 - Make it "International" again
F1 has no races in North America this year, and none planned for 2010. F1 has ignored pretty much every market outside of Europe for too long. They're barely represented in Asia and the Middle East, and they usually screw over local fans to make the race broadcast better for Europeans.

#5 - Respect the fan
Fans are what drives any sport. Without their support, it will die. F1 doesn't seem to know this. Some improvements have been made like making drivers more accessable, and making them do interviews to give them more personality than a cardboard cut out. But there's more to do. Lower ticket prices, give fans access to the paddock, team communications, etc. They also need to stop their propaganda machine from spewing their "F1 is the pinnicle of motorsport" crap. That just promotes the stereotype that F1 fans are ignorant snobs.

 

[John Galt]

1. Get someone to replace Mosley who is interested in racing, not power. Get a leader, not a manager. Get a leader who will run the series and not let the team owners, manufacturers and petty politicians call the shots That would be a start

2. I'm going to disagree with hammer on the following: I do not want parity. In case one one understood that, may I restate: I DO NOT WANT PARITY! Parity too often equals mediocre racing. What I would like to see is a level playing field where the rules are applied equally and all teams get an equal chance. What they do with that chance is up to them.

2½. Get away from this spec car concept. F1 was always about the manufacturers displaying their best engineering. Go back to that concept. Give the teams a baseline to which the cars and engines are designed and then let them turn out the best car they can. If one team becomes dominant, don't penalize them and try to artificially bring the rest of the field up to their level. Darwin's Law of Survival works in auto racing as well as everyday life.

4. As hammer stated, go International. F1 has always been a nationality driven racing sport, be it manufacturer or driver. I see that as a good thing.

5. Place the racing venues in areas where there is a rabid motor sports following. They lose a GP in France (where it all began and where F1 fans can be measured per acre) and refuse a race in Canada. Yet they keep races in such bastions of racing fervor as Turkey and Bahrain? What's wrong with THAT picture?

Those are my five humble suggestions, be they right or wrong...

 

[foehammer111]

2. I'm going to disagree with hammer on the following: I do not want parity

Actually, I can agree with a no-parity scenario that's based around technology. But then F1 would have to stop pretending that it's a racing series.

Dave Despain said the 100th Indy 500 should be open to new technology, but I could embrace this idea for F1. FIA could establish some basic ground rules for car design and safety. The rest would be up to the teams. They can use alternative fuels, all-wheel drive, etc. May the best car win.

But if they do this, they should push the race lengths out to make it more of an endurance race. This of course would mean no-parity. It's very likely that one car will be dominant, and might even lap the whole field by the time the race is over.

Thus, F1 couldn't be called a racing series anymore. It would be a "tech-series" for lack of a better term.