19 replies to this topic

[ollebompa]

With the strategy group meeting being held in two days it's time  to make ourselves heard. Let them know what you think about the double points rule.

 

Here you can find every possible contact info for the teams in the group:

 

http://www.f1fanatic...l-teams-matter/

 

If you are also a member on another board please pass this on.

 

Let's stop the lunacy! 

 

[Brother Fox]

Im sure they know that the people who post on bulletin boards and bother to track down contacts for each team will still watch, so if it means they'll get a few more dollars they wont care.

[Jackmancer]

Im sure they know that the people who post on bulletin boards and bother to track down contacts for each team will still watch, so if it means they'll get a few more dollars they wont care.

 

I don't know. Another boring season + gimmick-rules would be enough for me to spend my Sundays away from the television.

[tifosiMac]

Im sure they know that the people who post on bulletin boards and bother to track down contacts for each team will still watch, so if it means they'll get a few more dollars they wont care.

The people who post on bulletin boards only really make up a very small percentage of the viewing public though. We are enthusiasts, but even so, many of us are watching the sport less these days. Its no secret F1 has lost millions of viewers over the past 2 seasons. They really should listen to the voices of those with potential interest. F1 is in great danger of being a billion dollar sport that not many people really care about.

 

Having said that, I wrote to several teams back in 2011 about my concerns and only heard back from one. They don't listen so perhaps let them get on with it. There is plenty of other forms of motorsport out there and many that are actually more exciting than F1 right now

[SenorSjon]

The small percentage yes, but they are also the ones you need to bring fresh blood to F1. If no-one cares anymore, who is gonna watch it? Some camels in the desert?

 

For too long, European venues have been pushed out by Bernie. With it, the soul of F1 slowly creeps away.

Edited by SenorSjon, 21 January 2014 - 09:05.

[tifosiMac]

The small percentage yes, but they are also the ones you need to bring fresh blood to F1. If no-one cares anymore, who is gonna watch it? Some camels in the desert?

 

For too long, European venues have been pushed out by Bernie. With it, the soul of F1 slowly creeps away.

I agree they should listen to us, the enthusiasts, but I really don't think they care one bit what people like us think. They just care about making money and providing a silly rule change like this just gets F1 in the news and makes it a little more entertaining. The quality isn't important and neither is how many people who are watching. If they are happy to put coverage out of the grasp of millions of fans, and indeed let this happen in such a short period of time, listening to a few messages of disgust about rule changes is just going to get laughed at in the PR departments of the paddock IMO. This is the new age of F1 and the good old days of it being the pinnacle of motorpsort are sadly over.

[SenorSjon]

I have a baby now, but I don't think we will be watching F1 together in a few years time if it continues like this.

[chipmcdonald]

The bigger problem is that something is making "them" flounder around for gimmicks. 

 

"They" are obviously not in touch with fans, and at the same time feel They know best.  Like many large western enterprises recently, for some reason it would seem they are bent on shunting their own business.

 

Podium questions?  Who likes that?

DRS - not activated until after the first 2 laps?  What sense does that make?

Random tires?

Smaller engines?

Lower revs?

Crazy fuel rules?

Expensive races?

Pay drivers?

Ugly cars?

 

I'd suggest Chinese industrial espionage to insure the collapse of another Western business venture.

 

They have their own agenda, and it's not congruent with entertaining fans, so maybe in Their world it makes sense. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Disgrace]

...

 

Podium questions?  Who likes that?

 

...

 

I agree with the rest of your post, but this view is very TV-centric. It's good for paying trackside fans.

[SenorSjon]

Who would pay that much money for an event these days? I wanted to go to Monza (first chicane FTW), but from the Netherlands, the tickets were ~€6-700 ish for 2 persons, excluding travel and stay. So I would easily have to spent over € 1.000 for an event? I don't think so. Perhaps some people in F1 are lost to the current day pricing. It isn't only to expensive for most teams, it is to expensive for the fans as well.

Edited by SenorSjon, 21 January 2014 - 16:19.

[Clatter]

I agree with the rest of your post, but this view is very TV-centric. It's good for paying trackside fans.

Not really. 

 

To see it properly you have to be in one of the stands close to the podium. If your on the other side of the circuit then your back to watching it on screen. Even if your in front of the podium it's all very superficial with no real insight being sought or given.

[RealRacing]

Just knowing that this year´s championship, if they keep double points for the last race, is going to be a farce, I won't care that much about missing one or two races. If it continues like that, it'll be more races I won't watch every year until I finally stop watching completely. I've been looking for alternatives already and if I don't find them in auto racing, there are enough good sports out there and I'll be glad to support them and potentially their advertisers with my time and my $$. 

[Disgrace]

Not really. 

 

To see it properly you have to be in one of the stands close to the podium. If your on the other side of the circuit then your back to watching it on screen. Even if your in front of the podium it's all very superficial with no real insight being sought or given.

 

I agree with all of this, but are all of the fans really looking for insight? I would have thought it's good for kids to physically see the drivers, and the press conference in terms of content wasn't that much better.

[johnmhinds]

I still don't know what the double points idea is trying to achieve.

 

If they want fans to be more interested in the racing all year long then they need to create better races.

 

Artificially extending the drivers championship and creating weird post race results isn't going to make any casual fans watch a whole season, if anything it'll make casual fans focus even more on the points table and it tells them that the only race worth watching is the last race because that's when they'll get to see who won.

[Incast]

This unfortunately will achieve little-no effect, it's highly unlikely a general enquiries email will ever reach the head of a team. However, Keith is doing a great job with that blog of publicising the issue. I'm sure at least one team principal will read that as it's fairly well known.

 

I'm deeply disappointed by the muted response from F1's journalists over this matter, I have seen articles here and there but not much else. I would expect F1 journalists to be some of the most passionate fans themselves and in uproar about this.

 

From my perspective this rule change makes me sick, similar to how I felt about the medals. These knee jerk decisions are dreadful and harming my interest in the sport and I haven't missed a Grand Prix since 1996 Canada.

[senna da silva]

The bigger problem is that something is making "them" flounder around for gimmicks. 

 

"They" are obviously not in touch with fans, and at the same time feel They know best.  Like many large western enterprises recently, for some reason it would seem they are bent on shunting their own business.

 

Podium questions?  Who likes that? Not me!

DRS - not activated until after the first 2 laps?  What sense does that make? Agreed, everyone should be able to use it all the time.

Random tires? Agreed.

Smaller engines? Some of my favourite engines were 1.5L turbos, not everything that is bigger is better, take girls for example. 

Lower revs? Agree, should be no restriction.

Crazy fuel rules? Disagree, I think this one makes sense.

Expensive races? Compared to what, NASCAR and Indy car?

Pay drivers? Nothing new, Lauda was a pay driver in his first season.

Ugly cars? Product of aerodynamic focussed regs. Let them have underbody venturis and skirts.

 

I

[Buttoneer]

Not really. 

 

To see it properly you have to be in one of the stands close to the podium. If your on the other side of the circuit then your back to watching it on screen. Even if your in front of the podium it's all very superficial with no real insight being sought or given.

But how else will the drivers hear us boo?

[noikeee]

Podium questions?  Who likes that?

 

The fans that hang around the podium on track.

 

DRS - not activated until after the first 2 laps?  What sense does that make?

 

Bizarre and potentially dangerous on a opening lap with a really bunched up field. The leader has the right to try to open up a gap. Otherwise the fans would complain even more that's it's artifficial.

 

Random tires?

 

It was the fans that complained that races were boring with not enough action, and who raved about that Montreal race a couple years ago where the tyres fell apart.

 

Smaller engines?

Lower revs?

Crazy fuel rules?

 

It was the fans that constantly asked for state of the art modern technology in F1 (and the future of tech is fuel efficiency), and it's the fans that want to see as many competitive cars on track as possible, hence it's in their best interest for the manufacturers to be in F1, hence you want regs that attract the manufacturers.

 

Expensive races?

 

I'll grant you that it's tough to explain that one, but again the fans want the sport to exist therefore someone's got to pay the sport's bills.

 

Pay drivers?

 

The fans would rather see that pay driver on track who's actually not that bad as he has won races in GP2, than that team folding and staying at home for lack of funds.

 

Ugly cars?

 

The fans would rather see an open book of regulations that teams exploit to the full and end up with ugly shapes, than a nice and pretty spec body shape where there's no scope for innovation and everyone has the same car.

 

--------------------------

 

I'm being deliberately obtuse with some of these arguments and playing devil's advocate, just to try to highlight the problems and compromises that these people running F1 have to deal with. By all means contact them and complain about the things that are indeed wrong in F1, but be realistic, be focused in a priority not just complain about everything (it's impossible to fix 10 different things at the same time), and be careful with what you wish for - there's always unintended consequences.

[R Soul]

Here you can find every possible contact info for the teams in the group:

 

http://www.f1fanatic...l-teams-matter/

 

 

Done. I'm not sure if it's in time for their meeting but there's nothing to lose and a sport to gain.

[lustigson]

I'm most concerned by the fact that the 'Strategy Group' comes up with stuff like fixed driver numbers and double points in the final race.

 

That's not strategic — heck, it's not even tactital! — and it sure isn't going to fix the real issues F1 is facing.