Originally posted by RTH
I do believe it is the evolution of the Racing Car which has been allowed, that is behind the deminishing spectacle and level of interest.
Just have another look at those pictures taken by Geoff Goddard at the on the very limit of control of those cars. Technical advance has made the drivers job easier and safer (even though its all done at much higher speeds ).
Now they have both power assistance from all the controls brake,clutch gearchange, throttle steering which as recently as 18 years ago were not present and intelligence assistance from a miriad of electronic dynamic systems, even radio voice and telemetry assistance. Assistance from the elements with the help of aircraft wings pushing one ad a half tons of force through the tyre in to the tarmac.
In short its been allowed to get so good its predictable. I want to see human error, missed gears,degrading tyres , losing gears, fading brakes, heavy steering delicate human throttle control difficult to handle cars being wrestled around with no help, just one person out ther dealing with it all a once ...........just as it used to be,........ not ,in the scheme of things, all that long ago.
Many other people have said these things time and time again here , the rule makers and sport controllers either don't know, don't listen , don't care or just don't understand.
We could (and have ) list technical changes and deletions from the current racing cars which would re- introduce racing spectacle and as a by- product cut the cost of it all by three quarters or more.
But it's a waste of breath.
Richard, I think you hit the problem right on the head. You want to see "human error, missed gears,degrading tyres, losing gears, fading brakes, heavy steering, delicate human throttle control and difficult to handle cars being wrestled around ". I agree with you completely, but safety is very important too. F1 has a pretty good safety record under this new technology. I personally don't think the average fan goes to F1 races just to see blistering speed (robot races). Some of the best racing I've watched over the years the lower formula classes. Even the IRL puts on a hellava show, and those cars are very low tech by F1 standards. It should'nt be a matter of downloading new software to go fast, hell, your can do that with a video game at home, and the future potential fans are the ones who play those video games. So why pay big bucks to go to the races?
When driver to driver combat and the total skill of drivers to be competitive in ill handling cars is gone, so are the fans. OW racing has got to evolve, but not at the cost of the folks who pay to watch it.
Some body stop me, I'm starting to babble.
