Horner -
CK: The same. I think the Constructors' championship is a very crucial one, to be honest with you. It's very important from a financial point of view. You don't gain anything out of the Drivers' championship. You gain, of course, a lot of reputation and maybe indirect sponsorship or whatever but the fact is that the Constructors' championship is more valuable for a team than the Drivers' championship.
BULLSHIT!
The drivers is the one they really want. When Schumacher won, when Alonso won etc etc those drivers are wearing their teams uniform and are inextricably linked to their team. All that advertising and word of mouth! I can't even tell you who has won constructors in the last 10 years. Some years it's the same as WDC, others it's not. That's all I know. The sport is marketed based on names like Senna. How else do you explain Bruno being in F1? On this forum a place for informed F1 fans, those ridiculous long passionate fanboy arguements are always drivers fans vs drivers fans. The team info just serves as ammo for the driver arguements.
The WDC is the fastest most reliable car to get the most points and glory. The WCC team is the first pair of cars. In other words the second driver factors into it. It's basically whether or not the 2nd driver was a weak link or not. The WDC is the one everyone talks about and that is the whole reason team orders exist in the first place. It's all about prioritising to get the glory. The only time the WCC becomes interesting is if the WDC has already been decided races earlier. While they are both open, fans, media, commentators all focus on the WDC. Bernie's money from WCC points is nice, but all their actions show that they would prefer the WDC.
Q. (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Actually this is a follow-up, I know it's getting boring but I still have to ask it. We've heard the question that maybe the teams should listen to the fans a bit more but can we ask it the other way round? Maybe the fans should listen to the teams a bit more, because obviously there is a view that Formula One was always a team sport basically but people really don't seem to understand it. Do you think that really the teams together should make a bit more effort to convince people that it's a team sport, because there have been team orders before they were banned and there are team orders since they are banned, so there's no real point in them being in the regulations. It's really the fact that team orders are unpopular, so even if they do it, they will not always openly admit to it, so?
SD: Otherwise I speak alone. We do a press conference...
CH: It's a good question. You have to listen to the fans. The fans do want to see wheel-to-wheel racing but a lot again comes down to the regulations and explaining the regulations and the practicality of those regulations. So I think it's something that the teams, together with the governing body, need to really learn from the events of last weekend and come up with perhaps a revision or clarity, moving forwards.
Q. (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Will it change anything because team orders will still be used and will be unpopular?
CH: As I said earlier, I think it depends on what constitutes a team order at the end of the day.
It comes down to do you want games or not? Make the decision once and for all. Don't make a fake rule that takes fans for idiots and then lie to them about it. People said the same about TC. "It's impossible to ban it". Now years later, it is fully banned and the fans enjoy it more.
An idea for a new regulation.
- Teammates MUST race each other like any other competitor. Similar to blocking in qualifying, sometimes accidents happen but it puts the pressure on the drivers to stay off the barriers to prevent reg flags, and if accidents can be proved by telemetry fair enough. Same with this rule, if a car breaks down through reliability, fair enough. If a tyre fails, fair enough. The telemetry evidence forces the drivers to race for themselves. For racing incidents you could argue that sometimes drivers "yield" a corner to a competitor. Massa yielded to Vettel in Silverstone. It's a part of racing. It would be a judgement call for the stewards like cutting a chicane or other 50/50 race incidents. There would be a grey area where common sense can be used. Race fans and stewards are not fools, they can tell the difference between racing and formation flying.
This one shouldn't be too hard. Asking race drivers to actually race? The ones that can't could go to Lotus like Heiki.
-(fine print) Allow the teams to have an engine kill button in the ECU that causes the engine to stall. It's no more unsafe then a hydraulics failure or engine failure. Technically safer, because it could be done on a straight near marshalls. This forces the teams to choose between driver or team. If the teams really did care about constructors, they wouldn't sacrifice their 1-2 or 4th etc. So this would be for extreme rare situations. It would actually punish the team though, unlike 100 000 fine. The stewards wouldn't even need to penalise, the penalty is already built into the regulation!
In the situation with the ECU killswitch the driver would be so frustrated that he would probably leave the team, further penalising the team for their choice. They would lose continuity and strength for later in the season for the constructors.
- For the final four races allow a AUTOSPORT.COM TEAM POWERPLAY. Ha, or maybe a larger sponsor like LG or Sony. Now it's starting to be like other sports in this century! A bit of adaption for the betterment of the sport. The teams could openly and honestly use team orders whenever they wish. Fans would already be so interested in who is going to win the WDC (since the points gaps are so big and the list of contenders is so small) that they would understand the team order and not question it. However they would also know that up until this point, all the drivers had a fair chance and the ones that are left in the title hunt are the ones that deserve to be. Sort of like Q3. The other drivers have been eliminated! The remaining drivers deserve the support from their number two and it becomes a true team battle. With 5 or 6 races to go, the commentators would be talking about "X driver needing to win this race to avoid being number 2 for the AUTOSPORT.COM TEAM POWERPLAY. Anticipation for the finale of the season.. The second drivers spirit is not dented because he had his chance and everything is out in the open. No lies, humiliation or secrets. No need for shifty politics.
- If the smaller teams complained, you could put in something for them that cars outside of the top 10 or top 16 can use team orders as they wish. No one would care either way.
Best of both worlds and a true reason for having two seperate championships. It'd probably never happen but it'd be kickass. Something to really cheer for.
Purists can screw themselves. Maybe 40 or 50 years ago the fans were so desperate to see the races that they would go to any race and enjoy it, I don't know. Sport is a competitive business these days. The fan interaction is higher and the shortcomings are exposed alot more easily now. It's the same reason why test cricket isn't popular anymore. Maybe 100 years ago it was easier to watch while sipping tea. In this day and age we want more concentrated entertainment. More bang for the buck. If you want people to watch, give them something to watch. This just isn't about overtaking, and unpredictability of results, it's about having integrity and giving a pure deserving result. I've seen people mention soccer and enjoying how the ref can influence a game. For me, that's one of the main reasons why futbol/soccer/football SUCKS. Their excuses for lack of video technology or a second referee are laughable. The goal against England/Germany was laughable. It's like Europeans don't understand the meaning of the word "sport" or something.
The guy who stands on the podium and sprays that bubbly should deserve it. The driver who wins the WDC should have won it purely, without extra help. If he is good enough to be WDC he shouldn't need extra help. These drivers already have a car advantage over 3/4 of the field to begin with. Already in a season there is only 4 or 6 (2-3 teams) that can win WDC. Allowing team orders lowers that list to 3. So out of 24 drivers, only 3 have a realistic chance to win it. "Vintage F1" at it's worst. While drivers like Kubica or Alonso a few years ago, had no chance to win. More drivers that have a chance the better. Make the WDC earn it. Make the sport rely on the track for interest, not offtrack artificial politics. Most people watch sport to avoid tedious things like politics.
Maybe it makes the comparison to earlier champions harder, is that important? Comparisons are silly in the first place, there are already too many factors that make it impossible to compare. Who's quicker Fangio or Alonso? Who cares? At least these newer champions could be respected more. Especially in seasons like this where there is 4 or 5 drivers going for it. Whoever got the glory would really deserve it.
You can't have it both ways. You can't hype up drivers as being superhuman and great, while taking wins in this fashion. The "why have a WDC in the first place" is a good question in this instance. What's the point if it's empty? It degrades the drivers reputation, and also the sport's image as a whole, and takes the fans for fools. Not to mention, it makes the betting a farce. It also gives the teams control to "script" the race, taking away the random unpredictability that something like MotoGP has. This regulation solves that, without needing to ban team radio.
Edited by ForeverF1, 31 July 2010 - 00:33.
