What the fans expect from FOTA
Reviving popular venues like Montreal must be a FOTA priority
Max Mosley may have seized his first opportunity to resume hostilities with FOTA but it’s clear the teams’ association intends to play a major role in shaping the future of Formula 1.
FOTA embraced the support of the majority of F1 fans and broadened its campaign against Mosley to include many supports’ grievances. But how is it going to act on those complaints?
At the beginning of March FOTA published the results of a survey of fans. The conclusions were something of a mixed bag, including some salient points but also a few strange ideas that seemed at odds with the central finding of the research that: “F1 isn’t broken – so beware ‘over-fixing’ it.”
I examined the findings in details at the time. Of the points I (and many of you) were most dubious about – points for pit stops and reducing race length – we have heard little from FOTA since.
Hopefully it will stay that way – but these words from Luca di Montezemolo yesterday give me cause for concern:
Flavio [Briatore] will also be working with the commercial rights holder to improve the show and the interest in the sport.
Briatore has in the past advocated some fairly radical ideas for F1, including reducing race distances to GP2 lengths. Whatever his plans are for “improving the show”, he must acknowledge that dumbing down F1 in this manner is, by FOTA’s own admission, not what fans want.
Here’s what I think should be top of FOTA’s priorities:
Location of races
The loss of several historic venues which often boasted far superior audiences to new venues is a major source of frustration for fans.
In the last two years we have lost Indianapolis (United States), Montreal (Canada) and Magny-Cours (France). The British round, which boasted a crowd of 310,000 last weekend, has been in doubt for much of this year (although it seems Ecclestone is finally admitting the race may remain at Silverstone next year if Donington Park isn’t ready). And the high costs of holding a race has forced one of the two German venues – the Hockenheimring – to relinquish its race.
Bernie Ecclestone might like to compare F1 to top sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics, but holding races in front of sparse stands at Istanbul and Shanghai hardly reinforces that point.
European governments are never going to pay the kind of exorbitant prices Ecclestone can get for his races in far-flung nations. But there needs to be recognition that historic rounds are a fundamental part of F1’s appeal, and the cost to them of holding a race should be reduced in line with their value to the sport.
Such a demand, of course, would risk bringing them into conflict with Bernie Ecclestone and F1 owners CVC.
Extent and quality of coverage
Here in Britain we are extremely fortunate to get BBC F1 coverage that is both free (licence fee notwithstanding) and ad-free. That is not the case for fans in many other countries.
Ad-free coverage is the exception, when it should be the rule. Having watched ITV’s coverage for 12 years with adverts I can how frustrating it is for fans who have to watch F1 knowing they will often miss significant moments of the action.
Worse, many fans have no access to F1 coverage at all, because there is no broadcaster in the area that offers it. In the age of the internet, this is preposterous. Offering an internet stream for those fans (at a modest cost) should be a no-brainer.
As has been discussed here several times before, F1 is badly lagging behind on broadcast technology. Here in Britain cricket, football, rugby, golf and even darts and NASCAR are all broadcast in high definition – and most have been for several years. F1 isn’t, as FOM are not supplying a high definition feed.
Again, the ball is in Ecclestone’s court on this one. If FOTA ever get finished with Mosley, perhaps he is the next of the F1 old guard FOTA will face down?
Consistent rules
Formula 1’s rules have never been entirely consistent, but since 2003 the rules have been tinkered with time and again, often with little reward.
The classic example of this is qualifying – after eight different systems in six years one of the most popular variants among fans is the one that was being used in the first place.
The technical rules have been changed year-on-year and although there have been some notable improvements (banning traction control, bringing back slick tyres) these were often reversals of unpopular changes brought in by Mosley in earlier seasons.
Happily, FOTA have reiterated their commitment to making F1′s rules more stable.
What do you want from FOTA?
What do you think FOTA’s priorities should be? Have your say below…
Read more
- Debate: Are F1 races too long?
- FOTA’s F1 fans survey results in full
- The F1 teams’ plans: what’s good, what’s bad and what’s missing
- FOTA claims to support the fans – but do the fans support FOTA? (Poll)
- FOTA wants more money for F1 teams – it should get some for circuits too
- More insight into FOTA
- New Mosley threat over “dictator” claims puts FIA-FOTA deal in jeopardy
Ferrari1607 said on 26th June 2009, 19:50
as an F1 fan in the U.S. i would like to see 2 races in America :
1 RACE AT A RACETRACK (Indianapolis, Road America- Please dear God, Road Atlanta, etc)
and one race on a street course (Long Beach, etc.)
Road Atlanta would be my top pick: extremely fast,huge elevation changes, not in the middle of frikin nowhere (1 & 1/2 hours from Atlanta) :)
Road America could be brought up to “Bernies Specs” (or we could get rid of the possesed troll instead) :)
i would like a constant set of regulations (the “Formula”) and any changes can not be passed without the team’s “say so”- FOTA :$
go away bernie!!!!!!! :o
Go to tracks where the citizens acually care about F1 ……example- Europe, Brazil, NORTH AMERICA, Australia, and Japan (Suzuka, and nothing else)
lets hope for a good season next year and the years after it.
mani said on 26th June 2009, 20:14
I would like FOTA to look at,
1. Restoring the historic venues
2. Economic and affordable races (for teams as well as fans)
3. The technical freedom for the teams, as long as they all comply to one common technical and safety regulation. I mean, to give an example, “define the engine volume and the number of races an engine must last but not the BHP or engine configuration, let the teams do their best to extract the most in the setup”.
4. Keep the slicks and allow engine dev
5. Restrict the aero expenses with strict regulations (just a kind of cap for this, to avoid over spending… and at the same time to give certain aero freedom)
6. Restore in-season testing, within the strict budget cap
7. Forget about KERS till everything settles down well (it is a cost consuming technology)
Overall, I think teams should agree to have a financial restriction for aero and testing (where they spend the most). The rest should be left in the teams’ control, as long as they can guarantee their stay for the signed contract period.
Max should resign now!!! said on 26th June 2009, 20:22
1 – No more Tilke tracks, in fact classic tracks should have their place guaranteed in the calendar (bring back Canada!).
2 – Classic low fuel one hour everyone vs everybody qualifying sessions.
3 – Points system as well as race length should not be touched.
4 – Regulations that favour mechanical grip to aerodynamic grip.
5 – Extra abrasive run off areas (like the blue ones in Paul Ricard circuit); if you make mistakes and go off track you should suffer the consequences, I think most of you would agree higher skilled drivers would benefit from this and it would be a way to separate boys from men. Sorry go on forever with this but extra wide tracks also punish speed sensation by how the cars get lost in a sea of tarmac.
6 – Tyre selection should be up to the drivers/teams
7 – No driving aids and no “rev limiting” the engine from the pit wall.
8 – Each driver should do their own set up and there should be no sharing of information.
Ok I have plenty more but that’s it for today.
oh one more thing!!! cheaper tickets!!!
Net Sticks said on 26th June 2009, 21:11
GUTS to take their position till the end…..!!!
sato113 said on 26th June 2009, 21:47
i think the bottom line is better racing with the best engineering/ technology. THAT’S what turns casual viewers into fans.
chaostheory said on 27th June 2009, 0:51
For me FOTA can go on with all their ideas but one: shorter races – a BIG NO to this! It’s not the way to improve “the show”.
scunnyman said on 27th June 2009, 2:49
Agreed agreed agreed
some races are short enough already.
wasiF1 said on 27th June 2009, 3:49
Why they want to shorten the race distance?
It will shorten the entertainment.
Historic races needs to be back,but Bernie needs to take less money from them.
persempre said on 27th June 2009, 11:23
The reason for shortening the race length (by a suggested 20 minutes) is logistical.
In their survey FOTA found that most fans wanted pitstops retained but were not bothered about refuelling. F1 cars do not have sizeable enough tanks to complete some race lengths.
The alternative would be to increase the tank size &, therefore, the weight of the car.
This would in turn lead to slower cars in the same way that the KERS weight/shift in balance has.
There would probably be other changes to the format of the race weekend. It was suggested that there could even be an extra day added to the track time but I haven’t heard anything more about that recently.
You wouldn’t be getting less for your money. The hope is to give you more or to actually reduce the costs.
Brian said on 27th June 2009, 4:17
I would rather see longer races, and i don’t want to see anybody wearing a suit and tie at the track. I say no suits because we are supposed to be enteratained at a race, just wear what you want, eat a hot dog, have a beer and put your arm around your lady frien. In other words, cheaper admition.
Piffles said on 27th June 2009, 12:39
Sporting regulations:
- Race format as today, including qualifying
- Cars not taken to park fermé after qualifying, allowing them to run with minimal fuel in Q3
- Ged rid of the 2 tyre rule
- No more refueling
- Reintroduce in season testing
Technical:
- Remove engine development freaze and rev limitations (turbo ban to stay in place)
- Ban wings completely (skirts also stay illegal)
- Remove Kers
- Ban all electronics (mechanical transmition, no launch engine settings, no fuel mixture settings, no break balance adjustment, no semi automatic shifting).
Basically late 60′s racing with today’s technology.
Pingguest said on 27th June 2009, 12:56
I expect FOTA to get rid of the artificial rules and standardization of the sport. Let drivers race, in purity.
Tiomkin said on 27th June 2009, 13:51
I’d like to see MotorGP style celebrations after the race. It goes on for ages. The sport is FOR the fans. Let the enjoy a win, instead of bundling the drivers to ‘parc firme’. and a boring interview.
Becken said on 27th June 2009, 15:42
We, fans, need more of THAT
VXR said on 28th June 2009, 2:03
I’d like to see more ‘classic venues’ too,but the reality is that the manufacturer teams will always ‘follow the money’,and these days that means places like China,India and Russia.Places where there are still large untapped markets for their road vehicles.Places where they want to pay Bernie what they can in order to bring prosperity and recognition to its inhabitants.Both Bernie and the manufacturers want this to happen,so no one should get up too much hope of having ‘dream calendars’ etc.
andreas said on 28th June 2009, 12:00
There are so many rules that should be changed that I wouldnt know where to begin..but in my opinion the point is: bernie should get a lot less money, 99% of the money should go to the teams, and they should be free to spend as much money as they want, do all the testing they want and so on
ive been watching f1 since 93 and in terms of regulations it seems to get worse every year..they did a great thing with improving safety and we all give them credit for that, but the rest of the rules they came up with..how do i say it? they suck
VXR said on 28th June 2009, 16:58
Bernie wouldn’t get up in a morning for anything less than 50% LOL
And what’s Bernie business is Bernie’s business.
If we allow teams to spend as much money as they want then the teams that can’t keep up with that spending will eventually leave the sport.No other teams will want to come in because the chance of success will be virtually nil.No one wants to ‘make up the numbers’ any more,and so we’ll eventually end up as previously with a couple of teams winning all the time and fewer teams in the sport.Only this seasons shake up in the rules has turned the form book upside-down,but we can’t keep changing the rules all the time can we.
Eric said on 29th June 2009, 20:06
I have many requests, but I will take one: BRING BACK THE NORTH AMERICAN RACES!