What makes F1 exciting ?

For me overtaking is exciting. When asked the question "What is motor racing ? " I answer "One driver passing another."

To be exciting, overtaking must only be related to drivers, not cars. This means all technical items must be standardised to be as equal as possible, with lotteries deciding who gets which chassis / engine / tyres.

This method would not require billions of dollars to do and we would discover who the best driver really is. We will never know this for sure unless the cars are of identical performance.

There must not be any technical reason, e.g. aerodynamic design, stopping 'natural' overtaking.

[J.McClane]

Im with you...overtakin'.
Racin' not drivin'.
Incidents but not bad crashes.

[Glen]

F1 is not the formula for you then. There are two championships in F1 - Constructors and Drivers. Without an appreciation of the constructing, the racing looks boring. (Well, the last one was boring - but I blame the circuit for that.)

[Maxmil]

For sure overtaking is important. There are few better sights in motor racing than a well planned and executed pass. But for me, at least, the spectacle of sheer speed is also an important part of racing. The F1 series displays the fastest cars in the world, and the races decide which one is fastest. You can watch a good CART road race, and it can be very exciting with lots of action, but you know all the time that the cars have been dumbed down in order to contain budgets and promote close racing. F1 is the only form of racing which permits reasonably unfettered technical competition. The trouble with F1 right now is that one team has managed to achieve a significant technical advantage and has also hired the best driver in the world. The combination produces very boring races except for the devoted Tifosi. You have to remember, however, how many years they endured dismal results before emerging from the wilderness.

[f1manoz]

What makes F1 exciting?

Bikini-clad grid girls

[J.McClane]

Glen i right about the constutors champ.
I would seem a little stupid if all cars were the same, but it would also be good to see if Shu could still win aswell as he is.

[Bononi]

Formula one is the most competitive championship in the motorsport.

It looks like a good laugh, but that's the true.

The competition starts in the engineers desk, the components building, the development of the engine and so on... when it gets to the driving, the cars are so optimized with hi-tec, that the drivers have to deal more with strategies than dirty racing.

The present F1 is consequence from all those years of development. Unfortunately who suffers is the public who watch it. I would say cut the budgets, limit them and level them for all teams... and let's see what happens.

Thankyou for these considered responses, especially about bikini-clad girls !

I understand that there are 2 different championships, but why are they run in the same race ? Why not have drivers championship races on saturday, all in last years Ferrari or Minardi or whatever, then on sunday we can watch the constructors championship, where cars decide who wins and we can all get excited anticipating pitstops ?

Maybe F1 isn't for me. I am interested in the sporting performance of drivers not cars.

[J.McClane]

On offence TTT, but i think the idea of havin' 2 differnt champs on different days is a little stupid.
But i did like Bononi's idea of a limited bugdet, but how would it work, who gets what?
Not that it would ever happen anyway.

1. If the objective is to discover who is the best racing driver in the world, why use different cars ?

2. If the objective is to find the best team of designers/engineers/pit crew in the world, why use different drivers ? No racing is required for this, it would be a bit like Imola was and Barcelona is going to be.

[Red]

I do believe that there's a third option: Best driver/team combination, aka Formula 1.

[Glen]

TTT

The problem with this is your two "ifs". The endeavour is to find the best package of all of these things. You still find the best driver - but you need a few years to gain general consensus on that question.

[neilap]

F1 is about being the best, period. Not just the best driver not just he best car. Ferrari has the combination of the two. However I think it would be a huge mistake to make F1 anything like CART. Look how boring it has become from a constructors point of view. Honda dropped out because they have gone to a low tech method of racing. Ala Indy and to a lesser extent Nascar.

It is unfortunate that some really good drivers never get good drives. However, the F1 battle is not only fought on the trrack. Poor management and poor dicisiion making has ruined the career of many drivers.
Personally I am not a fan of the drivers. They are all pretty close in skill level. I am interested in the constructors. If we limit them then all the glamor of being Ferrari will be lost. Now Minardi and Ferrari will be the same. It wont be special to build your own chassis either, it might not even be possible. Right now in CART Honda has dominated the last 5 years. The new rules in essence eliminates any technical advantage that they might be able to attain. CART also does spur of the moment things to appease the losing teams, like Toyota (my car cant keep up) so change the rules. I say fix the circuits dont change the cars.

[Bononi]

That's it, Neilap. The best combination.

take a look at 70's champions, and you'll see that the champion of the previous year usually was different from the next. And it was no surprise seeing the champion team way down the grid in the next year.

Since mid 80's F1 became a cycle, and it remains this way until today. McLaren, Williams, Benetton and Ferrari. Simply best combinations of team/driver. What makes this domination is the money injected in development and structure. Ferrari tops the list, follow by Mclaren and Williams. The exception to this, Jaguar and BAR is mostly due to bad organisation and planning, as Toyota and Renault showed how to make it.

[twig]

i dont think the engineers or machanics would be motivated to work if they didn't even know who would be driving something that they had worked on for a long amount of time.

you would also see a lack of team if the driver would change every race, especially if he werent chosen.

surely there is another way of evening out the field and keeping parity to a minimum. That is what technical regulations are for. but if one team is good, then why stop them, look at McLaren 98'- 99', but now their reign of terror is over.

imagine how difficult it would be for machanics to get used to a new driver, language, personality, driving style for every race. a race engineer would have one **** time.

[f1truestory]

hmn... i think weather makes f1 exciting....at least for me
half dry half wet race would be the best!
SUCH AS: hockenheim 2000 germany.......hmn.....good race and unpredicted out come.

At least we could encourage a bit of overtaking. It was good to see Massa having a go at Imola. The truth is that, if the car in front having a poorer pitstop than your own is stil a possibility, what is the point of risking an overtaking manouvre ?

The reason IMO the championship for drivers is not nearly as enthralling as an overtaking manouvre is that we don't find out who is the best racing driver in the world from the F1 drivers championship. It is not possible. There are too many other factors affecting the result, not least of which is the fact that to qualify for entry a driver is not judged by skill level. Look at all the fuss about Kimi last year, was that really about safeguarding the fake idea that you have to be a bit special to drive an F1 car ? Not much fuss about one driver in particular that I could mention this year was there ? If the face fits and all that.

[Lee Janotta]

It's interesting seeing engineers and designers compete with each other, but I don't like rooting for souless corporations. I like rooting for teams made up of people who really love what they're doing, and drivers testing themselves against each other, giving their all week in and week out.

We _could_ have separate championships for manufacturers and drivers, but the problem is that it's manufacturers who primarily provide the money that makes professional auto racing possible. So the driver's championship will be left out in the cold, and force them to seek work in the manufacturer's championship, and that's the situation we have in F1. To call it the World Driver's Championship is a crock and a disservice to everyone who can't buy their way into a seat with one of the Big Three teams.

And because the manufacturers would be in a constant battle to outspend each other, you'd have the cyclical boom-bust scenario we always have at LeMans, where one team eventually spends so much that no one else can compete and they all pull out, ripping away the foundation of the series.

I think the idea that the top series should always showcase the very latest technology is a crock. The competition would be decided as soon as the cars hit the track. Maybe a one-off, like LeMans, can become that and survive, because the endurance format tests the durability as well as the speed of the designs. But not a whole series. 4 races into this season and the F1 championships are already a lock for M. Schumacher and Ferarri!

The immediate interests of manufacturers runs directly counter to that of the drivers and the race fans, as the best thing for a manufacturer is absolute dominance. They're not in it for the competition, they're in it for bragging rights.

Especially in a global recession, racing needs to tighten it's collective belt. F1 always has a huge amount of money going thru it, and won't change until it gets so boring that fans leave en-masse. But other series around the world are finding they're hard up for manufacturer and sponsor money.

The best way to limit costs and tighten the racing is to tighten the variations between the best and worst cars in the grid. Limit the number of chassis available (3 at most), and tightly restrict innovation in engine design, especially in electronics. Eliminate exclusivity and true factory teams. Have a good, stable formula, don't pull any suprises on the teams and suppliers. Stability is key. Race on the best road tracks, not stupid street circuits where passing's impossible, or a bunch of useless ovals that all look the same. And make sure the cars are fast and visualy appealing.