I’m going to be away for the next week-and-a-half as I’m getting married and going on honeymoon. In the meantime the site will continue as normal, except it will be run by Cari.
You will see some features I’ve already written in the next few days, including a two-part write-up of my discussion with Populous – the team behind the revised Silverstone circuit.
I’ve already received many messages of good will by email, Twitter and in the comments – thanks very much to everyone for those!
See you again in time for the Belgian Grand Prix…
Links
Top 10 motorsports temper moments (The Lowdown Blog)
Yes, that Piquet moment is in there, plus a couple of other F1 temper tantrums.
Comment of the day
Pinball has an imaginative idea how to create a system for promoting new teams to Formula 1:
In my opinion is the answer is the introduction of Formula 1 regional series, in addition to the current World Championship series.
The way it would work, is there would be three series; The Americas, covering North and South America, Asia, covering, Asia plus Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, and Europe, covering the European countries.
The regional series would compete with the exact same rules as the world championship series, the only addition being a budget cap.
Each regional series would have a full 20 race calendar racing at different circuits their region on weekends when there is no world championship Grand Prix.
At the end of each season, the winning team from each region gets promoted to the world championship, and lowest three teams in the world championship get to demoted to the regional championships.
The benefits are:
1) Gives new teams a testing ground to work out how to be a team / build car etc…
2) It means more F1 races for fans, in more time zones, more often, resulting in more fans
3) It gives upcoming drivers more opportunity to drive, and hence "be discovered". Similar for other team members, more employment opportunities
4) Gives organisations that might otherwise be limited to touring cars an opportunity to get into open wheel racing.
5) Gives more opportunity for smaller companies to sponsor the regional teams. They might not be able to afford to sponsor Ferrari or McLaren, but sponsoring a regional team might be more possible, and
6) Gives the FIA / FOM a plentiful supply of up and coming teams.
Pinball
From the forum
Hairs asks why a new engine designed by Mercedes wasn’t allowed in F1.
Happy birthday!
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
Fifty years ago today Jack Brabham won the world championship for the second time. He cemented back-to-back championship triumphs at Porto in Portugal, by winning for the fifth race in a row in his Cooper.
Brabham, 84, is the oldest living world champion.
Joey-Poey
14th August 2010, 0:11
I think I remember him proposing this idea in another article’s comments. I’m really warming up to it. Though it could be rather expensive to get going, I think it could be a great way to get fans of each area more into F1.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
14th August 2010, 12:08
I agree, I think it’s a really good idea, kinda like the Champions League in football or how teams in American sports go to the play-offs, but for the whole season.
And speaking of the Americans, their own regional F1 might do wonders to promote the sport there. We could even have F1 oval races ;-)
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
14th August 2010, 0:12
Be warned Keith, while you’re away I intend to wrestle control of the site, rebrand it Simpsons style, and only allow comments which I agree with. It’ll be much better!
But seriously… enjoy your big day!!! Hope the sun is shining and everything goes to plan!
Ads21 (@ads21)
14th August 2010, 0:26
Haha we wait in fear of the Flanders coup d’tait when F1 Fanatic gets overwhelmed with “okely dokelys” and the forum gets turned into an online leftorium.
But before that happens Keith I hope you have great day and enjoy you’re well deserved break!
newnhamlea1 (@newnhamlea1)
14th August 2010, 0:29
same, best wishes to keith and I hope you enjoy yourself.
Ace
14th August 2010, 0:41
Hear hear! All the best Keith :)
MouseNightshirt
14th August 2010, 12:51
Enjoy your shackling Keith and the customary holiday to a place that’s supposed to be sunny but then isn’t when you get there! :D
Best of luck mate and congratulations! :)
US_Peter (@us_peter)
14th August 2010, 0:46
Ned, love the new avatar. Looks like there may be tongue…
Cari Jones (@cari-jones)
14th August 2010, 11:49
Play nicely please guys :-)
Jack Peekoc
14th August 2010, 1:21
Which region would South Africa be in?
IDR
14th August 2010, 7:47
In the forgotten one…
GeeMac (@geemac)
14th August 2010, 16:15
I was thinking the same thing. Under Pinball’s plan the whole of Africa would be left out…not cool.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
14th August 2010, 21:58
Lump it in with the Middle East and India to make the “Indian Ocean region”, or whatever. Sorted.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
14th August 2010, 1:41
… and then, when those teams are promoted to F1, they’d struggle even worse than HRT!
2 different rules for the same thing…
best thing to do is offer some kind of testing help to the new teams in their first year (a bigger amount of miles per season), or just start looking for new teams 2 years in advance (not just 6 months, like they are doing (wrong for a 2nd time!) right now…)
less complicated, more effective IMO!
matt90
14th August 2010, 3:52
Its difficult to do 2 years in advance though, simply because teams will struggle for money when they aren’t racing even more than they will when they are racing. They need something on the track to generate interest and sponsorship, even if it is a small amount. I think if HRT had been given another year they would have certainly failed. The time given definately needs to be extended (many of the established teams will have started working on next years car already) but perhaps not by so much. If the FIA selected the teams some time between March and June/July I would have thought that would help considerably.
TrueF1Grit (@truef1grit)
14th August 2010, 2:07
Yes, Best wishes for the Big Day Keith!
Looking forward to the new Silverstone review, It will be nice to see what they say compared with my experiences when I went earlier this year.
Vincent1972
14th August 2010, 2:39
Best wishes Keith!!!
geo132 (@geo132)
14th August 2010, 7:40
best wishes Kieth, have great time in your honeymoon :)
IDR
14th August 2010, 7:51
All the best Keith.
I hope everything will go as planned, and enjoy your honeymoon.
Sometimes I think you get married just for having a good excuse for taking holidays. Otherwise you won’t leave the control of this site to another person!
Alexf1man
14th August 2010, 8:12
About Belgium, if Webber retires, Hamilton 8th, Vettel 5th, Button 4th and Alonso 2nd, The standings would look like this:
Webber, Hamilton, Vettel: 161
Button, Alonso: 159
How close is that!
IDR
14th August 2010, 9:28
So… Who win the race?
Massa? Massa 1st and Alonso 2nd is something impossible
You are betting Kubica for wining this race!
BasCB
14th August 2010, 13:35
Or maybe a suprise win from M. Schumacher? He tends to have important moments at Spa, so maybe it gives him the first win of his comeback.
daykind
20th August 2010, 9:33
He has a 10-place grid penalty though, so the best he can start is 11th.
Maciek
14th August 2010, 8:53
On paper the regional series idea is great… we can dream. Best wishes, Keith.
Nixon (@nixon)
14th August 2010, 9:15
Enjoy you your vacation Kieth!
matt88 (@matt88)
14th August 2010, 9:35
Keith, you’re still in time to change your mind! :D
Jokes apart, congratulations for you and your bride, i hope you’ll enjoy your honeymoon.
Sush Meerkat
14th August 2010, 9:52
Like a true fan, sorts out the wedding and honeymoon to coincide with the summer break.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
14th August 2010, 13:11
Haha of course. Although technichally Keith can now claim that he has to because it’s his job to cover the races!
Sush Meerkat
14th August 2010, 20:12
I need to get a job in F1 so my girlfriend will fall for such fallacy!.
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
14th August 2010, 10:49
All the best Keith! I jokingly told my girlfriend the other day that out honeymoon would either have to be during the off season or incorporate a Grand Prix. Unsurprisingly she wasn’t too keen on my idea of a two month road trip going to a load of European races either…
Also if we had the regional series thing, then McLaren wouldn’t have competed in the 2008 season and Massa would have been champion! I’m all for it going by that short sighted logic!
J.A. Brown
14th August 2010, 11:39
Congratulations Keith! Who is the lucky one? =D
Lee
14th August 2010, 11:39
Am I the only one who thinks that idea is completely and utterly ridiculous?
How do you decide which regions the 3 teams are “relegated too” from the world championship series? You couldn’t expect a team to totally uproot to another region to ensure the number of teams remained balanced in each series. If they just went to their closest series, you could not guarantee that the 3 relegated teams would be 1 from each region to ensure numbers remained consistent and after a few years you would have grossly disproportionate numbers of teams in different series.
Possibly the worst idea since the medals system Bernie came up with, in fact are we sure this wasn’t Bernie’s as well?
Icthyes (@icthyes)
14th August 2010, 12:09
Best wishes and best of luck to you (two) Keith! I’m sure you’re breaking many F1Fanatic girls’ hearts!
BasCB
14th August 2010, 13:49
I think the regional leagues to F1 is a very interesting idea. But to introduce it, you would have to solve a lot of details.
First of all, you would probably need to have some kind of period to stay in F1 (degrade only if your not making gains in the second year there) before getting back down. Or the level of the regional competition would have to be so close to worldwide F1, it would be very costly.
And as Lee states above, how would you get regions that are comparable in strength and amount of teams? Like in football you have Europe and South America with very strong teams and Asia, Africa and North America and the middle east less so. It would need some kind of play off for the regional champs to get into the worldwide series.
What would happen with outfits getting teams in several regions (Arden or Prodrive or Carlin running cars for several drivers/sponsors in different regions). You might even get a B-team run by Ferrari/McLaren/Red Bull into worldwide F1 as well, as it upgrades from a region.
Maybe even a very strong team installing itself into say africa, to have an easy run to the regional championship and blast through (back) into F1.
BasCB
14th August 2010, 13:54
look what James Allen digged up from his files, this is a pretty nice one, the lotus clay car mock up!
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/08/a-forgotten-room-at-lotus-f1-factory/
Ads21 (@ads21)
14th August 2010, 21:15
I really miss James Allen, he was a numptie sometimes and annoyingly jingoistic at other times but after a year and a half of Legend I think we’d all have him back in a flash.
rob
15th August 2010, 4:17
Not all of us, no. How many dogs strapped to your helmet is the G-Force of that corner equivalent to.. ask James Allen.
I’d ditch EJ in a flash though.. So cringe worthy.
Marcello
14th August 2010, 16:30
good luck Keith, all the best mate
f1yankee
14th August 2010, 16:51
pinball’s idea is great in theory, but there at least a couple deal-breakers. although the aco runs a very similar setup with its le mans series, unfortunately i don’t think it would translate well to f1. it’s just too expensive for a junior league.
for the western hemisphere particularly, there simply aren’t the tracks nor the money to make it happen. getting sponsorship would be impossible, and the incumbent competition is totally incompatible while operating at less than a third the cost, per car, and dropping.
i don’t see indycar laying down for f1’s new world order.
it’s a shame the economics don’t work out for such a good idea.
silencer
14th August 2010, 18:08
bravo and have a good honeymoon keith…
Ads21 (@ads21)
14th August 2010, 21:09
http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/25900.html
Might be the first time ever but I completely agree with Ron Dennis. I really hope Team Villeneuve gets on the grid as well.
anthony
14th August 2010, 22:25
have a great time keith.best wishs
Lucas.M
14th August 2010, 22:54
Pinball, if you are reading this, you are onto something!
Lucas.M
14th August 2010, 22:56
keith, does bernie own the name ‘GP1’?
DGR-F1
16th August 2010, 10:40
Sorry Pinball, it doesn’t work for me: Its going to dilute the F1 brand too much, and stop the ‘exclusive’ feel that I think Bernie is striving for and that a lot of fans seem to want.
Also, what ‘spec’ of car would you use? If you try using F1 type cars, where will you find the 20 circuits in each region to race them? If you use GP2/F2 type cars, why not just promote those series better in each region, and tie them in closer to F1?
You won’t get the current F1 teams racing in it for testing or development purposes, as they aren’t allowed to race in anything that isn’t F1. You might get manufacturers investing in teams, but those that want to are already involved in motorsport, at the most you will get some rebranding, at the least you will get some engine suppliers.
And how do you think Bernie would react to any teams coming up from the regionals? Something along the lines of ‘country bumpkins’ I imagine!
:-)