Comments on: 19 races is too few, not too many

By: Simon Hull

Simon Hull — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:56:46 +0000

I think f1 races should be more frequent, but should start 1 or 2 hours later. The times of the singapore gp qualifying were perfect. I go to church on sunday mornings and usually miss the first half of the race. I miss the old early morning races, and its a shame that this year, there only are three. If Bernie Ecclestone wants as many people to watch f1 as is physically possible, then the races should be delayed by an hour as surely there are others in the same scenario as me.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:35:22 +0000

have more coverage of its feeder series so we get better knowledge of up and coming drivers/teams.

I definitely agree with that but I still think the F1 calendar should be bigger.

By: Watson Waterstone

Watson Waterstone — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:49:24 +0000

Noooo! Not even more races! It’s getting way too expensive! In the past there were 10 or 12 races, now there’s 19… I say anything between 16 and 18 is a reasonable number of races, but it shouldn’t be more than that!
Though, they could always have a couple non-championship races thrown in, like they used to…

By: Accidental Mick

Accidental Mick — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:38:14 +0000

Keith,

I am not a football fan. You can only compare the television coverage of football to F1 if you look at the whole situation.Most of the football coverage is not of the World Cup or other International events, it is coverage of, in effect, the “feeder series” to those events.

So, leave F1 alone and have more coverage of its feeder series so we get better knowledge of up and coming drivers/teams. The idea of promoting the winners of the feeder series and dropping the loseing team in Fi back to the feeder series sounds like fun.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:15:14 +0000

The off-season has its upside too, as it builds up the anticipation for F1 fans

The off-season is a wasteland of inactivity. Best part of five months with basically nothing happening apart from car launches and fruitless attempts to guess who’s doing well. I say cut it back to three months maximum, instead of five.

notice that most F1 websites have their highest traffic just before the start of a season

Yes, but that comes after four months with traffic in the toilet because nothing’s happening!

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:12:16 +0000

Does it increase the importance of those events or marginalise the importance of lesser ones?

I say this as someone who’ll watch the World Cup but not the Premier League.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:09:10 +0000

although you admitted only a couple of days ago that you’re not into football at all

True, but I follow some of it because it’s often relevant to what’s going on in F1.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Its easy for fans who maybe go to 3 races a season to say they want more and more but those who fly to every race would find 30 races unacceptable. this isn’t like football where you turn up for a couple of hours then go home. This is 4 days away from home and families.

That’s a fair point. But there’s no reason (apart from cost) why the teams couldn’t rotate many of the staff members they send out to races – apart from people like the drivers, of course.

One could argue that as long as the calendar size keeps creeping up slowly, teams will continue to keep covering it with the same number of staff. But if Ecclestone announced today, “OK, in 2011 we’ll have 30 races”, teams would have time to take the decision to hire extra staff.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:00:09 +0000

But I think this is a symptom of what is happening in journalism. It is hard for these journalists to make money when we fans get our news from free websites and refuse to pay subscriptions to racing publications.

I agree totally – but it’s not a good reason to keep the calendar small.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:57:40 +0000

with the permission of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

One of the more high-brow references we’ve had on F1 Fanatic for a while! Am off to read about modernist architecture now…

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:54:25 +0000

tag on another 11 races at Spa – obviously to annoy the locals

Definitely!

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:53:41 +0000

maybe there be a format similar to MotoGP, with Formula 3, Formula 2 (or GP2) and Formula 1 races run on the same day.

Doesn’t NASCAR do something similar as well?

I like the idea of having consistent, quality support packages. GP2 is obviously great but we don’t get it every weekend (this weekend and next, for example). I could live without the Porsche Supercup though.

By: SoLiD

SoLiD — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:09:53 +0000

I would love more races and a shorter winter stop

Just add many european rounds and some in the us and make it back to back.
But I Don’t see teams agreeing on that one… But a few more, why not!

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:39:39 +0000

Look, you dilute the brand by having to many races. Each race must matter. If you’ve got 20 races viewers can miss a few and say whatever there is one on next week. ‘So Maciek your instincts are right no more races.

And Keith I’m highly disappointed that you would even make such an absurd suggestion, you gotta keep that desire burning.

By: Journeyer

Journeyer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:36:26 +0000

I remember Ron Dennis saying at the start of the year that if there were more than 20 races, they’d have to hire 2 race crews to ensure everyone gets the necessary rest to run for a whole season. That entails massive costs, which will be difficult for small teams to handle. That alone already makes it somewhat unfeasible.

Also, regarding back-to-backs – I remember there were a lot of blog articles saying that the paddock wasn’t happy with the 4-races-in-5-weeks start we had this year due to jetlag and stress (which may explain why it’s gone for next year). It’s difficult to do back-to-backs for flyaway races because of the logistics involved. Also, Singapore is a bit tricky to do as a back-to-back – I think the crews will find it difficult to adjust to Japanese time. It’s only a 1 hour difference between Singapore and Japan, but because of the night race, they have to adjust by a whopping 8 hours – in less than a week!

I agree with John to a ceiling of 20 races. Any more than that and the value of each race is diluted. The off-season has its upside too, as it builds up the anticipation for F1 fans (notice that most F1 websites have their highest traffic just before the start of a season). Without it, we might take F1 for granted.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:45:42 +0000

America will have more gp’s if you can get the money whore bernie out of the decision making end of the sport. The fia should pick the tracks with input from the teams, I bet you would be surprised what would go and what would either stay or come back.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:42:03 +0000

You now see what happens to a series when it gets super sucessful and then forgets about its roots. You are right about attendence and viewership is down in nascar and that has the promoters as well as the sponsors concerned. When you trade loyalty for money you loose both. When some of these countries grow tired of f1 or bernie and they tell f1 to bugger off wht is the sport going to do, go back to the old tracks..what if they are now too busy or closed down because bernie turned his back on them..this is the price of uneeded progress and charting new ground in countries that have never shown a real interest.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:36:05 +0000

probably true. Some of the mentioned possibilities are sad to be kind. In The Us I would like to se Indy dropped and Laguna Seca,and Road America put in its place with the race alternating if it couldnt be held at both.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:15:08 +0000

Both scoring systems are still not there. I would say 10-6-5-4-3-2-1 and give a half point for pole. Nothing for leading a lap unless its the last lap. Nothing for fastest lap as it means nothing to have the fastest lap of the race and come in 8th.
You have to make winning weighted heavily unless you want to get a lead and ride it to the fininsh.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:10:47 +0000

Gman I agree with you partly. Nascar is the same car shell for all team and a different paint job and engine. Most every team is located within 30 miles of Charlotte, NC. I have many friends in the sport that work there and they enjoy what they do.
For every clown up there that keeps up with formula 1 there are 50-75 that wouldnt know what a f1 car was..if it has open wheels they are all indycars or f1 cars and they could care less.
They do have as you described different cars for different tracks, superspeedway cars for daytona, taladega and such. short track cars for bristol and others and then a medium speed track like atlanta and charlotte. Each type car is built for a particular track condition.

F1 teams would have a hard time competing at more than 20 races a year I believe unless f1 goes to a universal car and the only difference is the paint and the engine.

That would not be formula1 would it.