Comments on: Poll: Should drivers keep their numbers?

By: SaloolaS

SaloolaS — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:42:10 +0000

the highest number was actually 237 I think

By: chunter

chunter — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:26:38 +0000

I vote indifference but hope that they’ll avoid having a “3″ and “03″ and “-3″ in the same race, and I like the practice they have in MotoGP.

In fact, I say, combine both methods: You can have a permanent number higher than 25 or you can have last year’s points rank.

By: dangerous bryan

dangerous bryan — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:14:50 +0000

Numbers don’t mean anything to me at all, it’s hard to work out who “is under investigation” when they caption comes up on the TV. The helmet designs are my way of knowing who is in what car (ok, that’s getting harder with the higher cockpit side). As said you can hardly see them anyway. Team keeping numbers might be a good idea as it would help with the “under investigation” captions

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:03:03 +0000

You can hardly see the numbers on the cars anyway, they might as well run without them.

By: Dan M

Dan M — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:10:59 +0000

Interesting, I never thought of that.

By: mJohnHurt

mJohnHurt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:44:33 +0000

@Dan M, McLaren drive the 22 and 23 cars, which are the appropriate numbers for the 11th team on the grid taking into account that currently no one is issues the number 13 (So team #6 gets 11/12, team #7 gets 14/15)

By: Dan M

Dan M — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:26:48 +0000

Max must love the current numbering system, every time Ron Dennis and Hamilton see the front of their car they are reminded of the massive and completely unfair penalty they received.

Question:
Why does Mclaren have #23 and #24 if there were only 22 cars in the field? Did they assume Prodrive would be racing and thus take #21 and #22?

By: Pingguest

Pingguest — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:31:31 +0000

I agree with M. Smith. Teams should keep their numbers, as long as they don’t have the reigning world champion. But drivers keeping their numbers would be better than today’s system.

By: mJohnHurt

mJohnHurt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:26:04 +0000

I’m with M Smith’s clarification, there should be team numbers. I was shocked when I started watching F1 and found out that every team changed numbers every year, or at least it was possible every team would. I don’t think it matters on the cars themselves, but it seems like they are missing a marketing opportunity. I do like the champion having the option to run the #1 car though (in that regard I do think it should follow the driver and not the team – a few years back there was the silly situation in the IRL where Dan Wheldon had won the championship for Andretti Green Racing then switched to Ganassi for the next year. Wheldon wanted to take the #1 with him to Ganassi but he wasn’t allowed to do so and Michael Andretti ended up driving the #1 car in the Indianapolis 500 despite never having won a championship. Like I said, silly)

By: Number 38

Number 38 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:23:04 +0000

Having some experience in this area I found retaining ones number a major benefit. I did NOT choose #38, it was assigned to me at the USGP in 1973. At a club race at Mosport Ontario in 1974 we were assigned the same numbers used at the Glen and someone said let’s keep them! The benefits are simple, first of all you KNOW your number prior to an event, there’s no last minute painting numbers or stick-ons for the car, it doesn’t matter which car you’ve entered, when scanning entry lists or time charts you always KNOW your number, your data is easier to find, and frankly if you have fans they find you a lot quicker, there’s some moral support in that. I used #38 from 1973 to 1999. When I retired from racing the number went back into the pool for reassignment. In many fields numbers are assigned to ‘teams’ and drivers often get known by ‘their number’ because they stay with a team a long time, I.E. NASCAR.
F1 unfortunately is played like musical chairs, some drivers never lasting a full season. Until this flaw changes maybe ‘assigned’ numbers are not such a good idea!