Competing head to head with the new candidates in standard hardware

The series I am thinking about is similar, but I don’t think it even needs the slightly-gimmicky red tyre rules and push-to-pass buttons. Basically just GP2 racing with as strong a driver line up as possible, and even the GP2 staples such as feature-race-plus-reverse-grid-sprint- race might be unneccessary – just a normal Grand Prix weekend format with a normal Grand Prix distance with them all in the same cars without relying on gimmicks.

I am watching Superleague Formula with interest (I note the first British team, Rangers, has signed up to it) – the football club thing is a gimmick, but the cars look interesting and I’d like to see what the racing is like. I’m also starting to root a bit more for A1GP – the country thing again is an unrequired gimmick in my view, but these series are looking for some distinguishing feature to try to avoid being “just another feeder series”. I hope A1GP gets a bit stronger, gets a bit more of its own personality and actually make F1 sit up and think a bit.

I think F1 has become a tad complacent in its position at the head of motorsport and a bit of a threat from another series outside the traditional feeder ranks can only be a good thing in my view.

Wait, they’ve folded, nevermind…

Robert McKay wants to watch Superleague Formula, where the spec Panoz cars look remarkably similar to what the ChampCars looked like, oh, I think that’s because they are, dubbed DP09B- check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/thebeautifulrace

No turbos, but big V12′s.

As for the “purely about the driver mini-series”… What if the spec cars were used to qualify the grid order, perhaps from the results of a sprint race, instead of the raceday cars?

Yes.

Not as a replacement to Formula 1, don’t get me wrong. But we can watch all the young, rough-round-the-edges hotshoes fight it out in equal machinery. And we can watch their developed, honed, contemporary peers battle it out in unequal machinery. At the very least there’s a gap in the market there, surely – seeing the best drivers in equal cars, in a series that gets something similar to the same level of attention that F1 is afforded?

It doesn’t really matter what chassis, as long as they can race in it, but GP2 seems to work well – just paint those cars in F1 team colours, give them a few mini-championship rounds in the off season and see what happens.

Like I say not a replacement to F1. But something a bit different. It’d make it easier for me to appreciate the technology, high-performance side of F1 if we could also get a level-playing field, purely-about-the-driver mini-series as well

I agree with you that Montoya has failed to light any fires in NASCAR, and his last outing at Richmond was a classic example, but don’t forget, for all the attention and kudos he recieved, he never won a championship in F1 either.
This despite the fact that he raced for some of the biggest teams, namely Williams and McLaren, who in 2003 and 2005 respectively, provided him with potentially championship winning cars. Would you say his Chip Ganassi #42 is a winning car, compared to those of Hendrick Motorsports?
On to the point at hand. As I have suggested in previous posts, F1′s biggest problem is that other series are beginning to overshadow them, and GP2 is a prime example.
As you mentioned Keith, were are seeing more overtaking and drama during the GP2 events than we are at the F1 races, and on the same circuits under the same weather conditions. This I find highly embarrassing for F1, as F1 is supposed to be an ‘elite’ driving series, yet is becoming less entertaining than its junior.
Maybe Lewis Hamilton’s point is that he finds GP2 more enjoyable as a racing driver. I have not forgotton what Raikkonen said once in an interview last year, after winning a race quite convincingly.
Towards the end of the race, Kimi set a lap time that was by far faster than anything anyone had done all weekend, when he was under no pressure or under no obligation to do so. When asked on this he coolly replied that he simply wanted to see what the car could do, that he was in layman’s terms, bored!!
Now when a man gets bored racing a car that produces 19,000rpms, then there is something seriously wrong with our sport!