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Originally Posted by chris bailey
Whatever your opinion of Bernie, it's hard to point to an era when F1 was truly a sport.
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Formula One, as such, was only brought into existence when the World Championship was first created; in 1950. Prior to this, of course, it was generally called Grand Prix racing.
Many many drivers of significant means, raced for the sheer challenge and enjoyment. Check the history books.
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It's always been a showcase for engineering excellence
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For the repeating winners, perhaps; however, the driver's skill was surely of much greater criticality?
Many legends arose from epic drives to the winner's flag, in wholly outclassed cars, thanks to superlative driver skill.
Perhaps one of the very best being Tazio Nuvolari's win in the German GP in 1935 at Nurbergring.
See here:
Another epic was Jimmy Clark's win in the British GP at Silverstone in 1965. The 1500 c.c. Coventry Climax V8 was notorious for oil consumption. To win the race, Clark coasted at times and even switched off the engine!
See here:
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manufacturer interest/support has always influenced the outcomes.
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Motor racing was never ever "cheap": and naturally, manufacturers used the sport to both promote their brand of automobile and as a test bed, for new concepts. Additionally, various forms of support and assistance was given by automotive industry companies. Oil, fuel, brake linings, tyres, sparking plugs and so on. Yet, these were manufacturers
within the automotive industry. Since once again, motor racing was a very useful engineering test bed, as well as excellent publicity.
Red Bull (IMHO an obnoxious, toxic, and highly dangerous liquid) has absolutely no connection with the automotive industry; anymore than did cigarettes clothing, banking, mobile telephones, airlines, et al.
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If there was ever a point when the sport became accessible to normal human beings, it was the 1970's, when you could buy a DFV for relatively little money, build a car from some bits of alloy sheet and fibreglass and persuade some local hero to risk his neck in it. You could turn up for one race and give it a go alongside the regulars.
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Nice dream. You should ask the F Atlantic champion, John Nicholson if your concept is sound! And Martin Slater of Lyncar.
In order to build a"Kit Car" F1, you needed a monocoque from such as GP Metalcraft or Arch. Plus a GRP body Skin.
Plus, of course you needed a designer.
And bundles of dosh!
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It allowed the likes of James Hunt amongst others to find a way in, and the likes of Maki/Lec/Ensign/Amon etc to grace (?) the racetrack
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Hunt had Teddy Hesketh's money; and even that ran out.
Ensign: well, Mo Nunn had much experience of designing and building race cars. His Ensign F3 (Driven by Riki von Opel) won the European Championship. Dave Purdey (LEC) had Daddie's cash behind him.
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Despite my fondness for the 1970's, it has to be said that the cars today are the most amazing pieces of engineering we've ever seen, so on that basis, F1 is at its best point ever. Whether it entertains the masses is of no consequence at all, if you follow the original ethos......
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And this, surely, is the crux; it has descended into a mass media spectacle; the real
aficionados are long lost.
But, is it true motor racing? Loads of overtaking? Driver skill above the norm? Tiger performances?
I would suggest not.