What F1 needs to be Great (tm) again

[Zak33]

I think that what F1 needs is:

Racing against the clock, rather than actually against each other simultaneously. OK, the odd race can be done in pairs, but I think it should be man and machine against the clock, so only their own mistakes count against them, not those of others.

A larger variety of places to race... different surfaces and conditions. We should stop pandering to the drivers and make it more of a spectacle.

A slightly easier path for younger drivers to compete on the national arena. Maybe not in the same cars, but they should be in slightly lower power cars, with slightly lower tech levels, but on the same day, so that we can see their times directly against those of the top boys.

More women/Some women drivers.

More team work, preferably with some direct input from someone else to the driver, immediately. Maybe have two seater cars.

More adjustments that are visible to the specatators, such as tyre choices that are more obivous. With the change in surfaces noted above, tyre choice would be more critical too.

Larger scale races. I think that, while the current F1 drivers work hard for their 2 hours/ roughly 200 miles.. it's not long enough. I'd rather see them racing all day, with frequent stops between, perhaps with a gap between race finish and next race start. Perhaps this could be done by using several race tracks in the same country, and road stages between them. Silverstone and then a local park, and then a local woodland trust with an interior road network?

I think that with larger stages/races, we could get more specatators there, enjoying more motorsport than ever before.

And I think that the winner should really be the best in the world.

I think it should be called WRC and I think that last years winner, possibly the best driver on the planet, the winner of the last 6 World titles should be in the news, main page, for his skill, bravery and rampant ability.

Who care's if the person who wins the most races in F1 wins?

Anyone who can consitently turn in thousands of miles in all conditions, snow, fog, rain, ice, dry dust and tarmac, should win.

And he does.
Sebastian Loeb deserves some of your attention soon guys.

Yes, he can drive F1... "it's always a great pleasure!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnRD...layer_embedded

but Bernie Ecc and his buddies are grabbing headlines again, and while F1 is exciting at times... it doesn't cut it with the real men

[kalniel]

More adjustments that are visible to the specatators, such as tyre choices that are more obivous. With the change in surfaces noted above, tyre choice would be more critical too.

Control tyres and choices completely mandated by the authorities you mean? Great fun

[Tumble]

My only problem with Mnr. Loeb is that he's French... apart from that he's pretty handy in a car aint he?

I too wish that the beeb had managed to get the WRC back off ITV instead of F1. it's just so much better as a spectator sport....

[Zak33]

Control tyres and choices completely mandated by the authorities you mean? Great fun

but not durther down the sport... and that's important. In rallying you get to see other people on the same stage, sometimes in similar cars, and they use different setups.
It's great (tm)

edit: hold up you mean the Wales ice debacle...

good point.. you win

[Konan555]

Erm.... so we want a Rally then? I'm sorry, but that's not what F1 needs, that's a whole new race series in itself.

What it needs, is more people with Mansell style facial hair.

[matty-hodgson]

Loeb? F1?
or am i just getting over excited and cba to look it up on google?

[this_is_gav]

Loeb? F1?

He's driven a few tests over the past couple of years, and done quite well too. He also driven in a few Le Mans over the past few years.

There's nothing to suggest he'll be racing in F1 at any point in his career. It's no more than Rossi driving some tests for Ferrari.

[Marcos]

I like WRC, i dont like Loeb

I know he is good, but i dont like the character

I wish WRC had a better formula for presentation, not only do i miss it almost every time its on TV, but its also not very well presented

[Salazaar]

What it needs, is more people with Mansell style facial hair.

Frankly it should be mandated in the rules that all drivers have facial hair along one of the lines of Mansell/Earl Hickey/That bloke from the Impossible Dream Honda ads.

http://www.nigelmansell.co.uk/images.../portrait1.jpg

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/7250/earl3zv.gif

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB_1gPRCLCo

[directhex]

Was over at Renault F1 yesterday. T'was fun!

[Vimeous]

But as we all know the FIA hate Loeb - he has longer than regulation hair!

Muppets

Bring back Mike Hawthorn's dress-sense

[Jiff Lemon]

Reminds me of the time Martin Brundle and Colin McRae swapped places for a day; McCrae in F1, Blundell in the imprezza.

Mcrae ended up being about .3 seconds off the pace. However, they were less than impressed when he returned to the start line and did a monster doughnut. Apparently if it'd been an actual race he'd have taken out the entire grid!

Brundle was equally impressed with the Imprezza and went on to try his hand at a couple of RAC events.

[TiG]

There was me thinking Zak was going to say that TiG (tm) should have been on the grid

Think of the interview i'd give :-)

TiG

[this_is_gav]

"AND LOOK AT THAT!" Good ol' Muzza.

Speaking of F1 and great... BBC Interactive have some classic Australian GPs of the past on loop - not full races, but extended highlights of 1986 and 1994 and snippets of 1991 and 2007 (the latter with 5Live commentary rather than James "the cock" Allen).

Red button or channel 301 on Freeview.

It's available via Media Center too - for details on getting the BBC interactive channels via WMC (certainly Vista's WMC anyway) check out 'Pixelzs' post here

[Jiff Lemon]

There was me thinking Zak was going to say that TiG (tm) should have been on the grid

Think of the interview i'd give :-)

TiG

You'd have to go a long way to beat the good old Markku Alen in the early days of group B.

"we go very fast, maximum attack"

Why did you crash? "too much maximum attack"

[Vimeous]

You'd have to go a long way to beat the good old Markku Alen in the early days of group B.

"we go very fast, maximum attack"

Why did you crash? "too much maximum attack"

Gotta love those understated Scandinavians


BTW

If you've not seen the future regs for the WRC then it's worth taking a look at this: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73747
We could see Loeb retire from WRC at the end of next season if it happens .....