Too many cars, or not enough drivers?

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by littleman
I think Elton Julian has made some good points.Why don't the various teams come together and launch their own project.

Because there are so many others?
One major obstacle to any attempts of bringing some structure into the current scene is the sheer fact that all these "privateer" one-make F3 and F3000 clones already exist. If Nissan wants to finance its own series who can stop them. Neither the FIA nor anyone else can shut them down. - But simply adding another series in the hopes that it will, over time, blow everything else out of the water may not be the right anti-fragmentation strategy.

[Russfeld]

Sport brings out the best in people, money the worst

[cybersdorf]

And now we have the "A1 Grand Prix series", and Premier1 wants to give it another go...

[Alfonso de Orleans]

I guess this does prove that we do need Bernie to come in and make a clean sweep and run things, even if they are his way.

Any comments? And don't shoot me for asking...

[NME]

Alfonso i agree with you ... the best "democracy" is the one the have just one Leader.

Formula racing doesnt have a clear path to the top ... sponsors and general public cannot understand the diferences between F. Renault, World Series or Formula BMW. And those are the ones that a driver must attract in order to justify the investment made in his career.

[cybersdorf]

Except that this "leader" doesn't have any control over all the upstart series; they are private ventures, he'd have to buy them first. What should the FIA do, outlaw them? They'd set up their own sanctioning body (á la boxing), or simply run the whole show as a totally commercial "sports entertainment" enterprise.

They'll have to drive each other out of business, or fail on their own. Frankly, I hope they will.

[Alfonso de Orleans]

Good point!

[Mekola]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
They'll have to drive each other out of business, or fail on their own. Frankly, I hope they will.

Do you say like the IRL is trying to do with CART (drive the CART out of business)??? Well, eh... It's something a bit cruel.

About the categories, I think only F3000 (née GP2) and World Series should remain as the "official" F2 series. Renault should merge the FRV6/FR2000 ladder with the World Series system (supported by Nissan, a satellite of Renault) and the Euro3000 is definitely a Class B F2 series that could be converted to a club formula like the Formula Palmer Audi.

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Mekola
Do you say like the IRL is trying to do with CART (drive the CART out of business)???

Yes of course. Good comparison.

But, look at the damage this has done to top-level single seater racing in America. That's what happens when you treat racing purely as a business, rather than the sport it still is. In Europe, I think the situation is much worse in the "lower level" series. You have f3 and F3 clones, F3000 and F3000 clones, now there are F1 clones... - what fore? How big is the market they are trying to divide up among themselves? They can only try to drive each other out of business. The sporting side of motor racing will lose out.

[ale16]

Dear Friends, this is a very interesting topic of plenty good opinions from all parts. I would like to add that I believe that big manufacturers backing young guns is a good initiative, but I can not understand which criterias are used to nominate drivers who will be supported. For example, why whould I race F-Renault if F-Renault champions usually are not backed by the company in their junior program. Why Toyota prefers to back a Opel-powered team in F3 Euroseries, instead of investing on a team that uses Toyota engines (like TME)? By the way, Renault does the same... If Toyota, for example, choose to support an Spanish F3 Champion (where everycar is Toyota-powered) in F3 Euro, there will be more motivation for the national series. I think that F3 Euro is becoming the straight way to F1, because of tough competition, but it would be more interesting if national F3 championships and/or junior series like F-BMW and F-Renault offer prize money for drivers to make the step forward to F3 Euro. Otherwise, why would I spend so many money in national F3 series if it won't get me in the right path to my target?

[kobefly]

I can speak for Argentina´s situation and there are 2 main reasons not to have more good Argentinian drivers filling seats in the world.
First and more important, no sponsors backing up all these drivers, not even the ones that reached europe by themselves and prooved to be good.
Second, here in Argentina open wheel cars are not popular at all, Turismo Carretera (a categorie of 70's cars with a lot of technology under their old-looking shape) is the most popular and brings thousands of people to circuits and tv. So young talents after prooving themselves in a minor open-wheel categorie end there or TC2000 (one of the best touring series in the world but still touring).

[Mekola]

But that's a result for a weak promotion of open-wheelers in Argentina plus the negligence of the main motorsport media, too much interested to promote Turismo Carretera and other touring car things over formula cars, rallying and sportscars/prototypes. The result is the retro-feeding of the promotion, and with that the media finishes to convince people that touring car series are the only that worth to follow. But that's not true.

For example, SudamF3 has some interest in Argentina since its beggining (as F2 Codasur, 1982) until late years of 1990s; now there are few Argie presences and total lack of interest by principal motorsport press, no matter if an Argentinan driver wins an SudamF3 race (I deeply regret that). Fortunately our F. Renault is still alive and plenty of cars, but partly caused because touring car teams knows well that F. Renaults does a strong development on driving abilities of motorsport newbies.

I, as Argentinian, am NOT proud that my main motorsport series is represented by a touring car series whose chassis are far outdated, that pretend to show touring cars where its development put them on the boundary of prototypes, and where they're clearly a NOT road course series (hence the "Carretera" [= road] doesn't fit correctly on the Turismo Carretera name when they only use racing tracks). Turismo Carretera used to be a mix of touring and rally series in the past that contributed to progress, now is a big stone that blocks the presence of Argentina in the motorsport world. Period.

[Mekola]

On a counter-part of my impression, deeply influenced by the decadence of open-wheelers in Argentina, I should reckon that Turismo Carretera is the most popular series of my country, despite all the cons I found on it.

TC relates itself to history of Argentinian motorsport and the start of its growth, when old '30s and '40s Ford, Chevrolet, Plymouth and Mercury coupés were running across the Argentinian territory. That's why I relate the past of the TC to Rallying, because its development (at least until mid-1960s) were strong linked to Rally rules.

Later, by influence of car companies, TC turned to racing tracks, built or improvised near important cities or regions to concentrate interest in motorsport. At that same period TC suffered a modernization that got rid of all '30s-'40s old Ford and Chevys and replaced finally by the chassis they still have nowadays: 1963 Ford Falcon, 1969 Chevy Nova, 1969 Dodge Coronado and 1967 Torino (Argentinian car based on 1964 Rambler American). But in 1979 all car manufacturers retired all their support to TC, some because were interested in the new TC2000 series, some because they closed factories and left Argentinian market. But TC, too linked with "national and popular" feeling, decided to resist. And when happened the economic turmoil of 1981-82, all Argentinian F1 hopefuls in Europe were in trouble, but Turismo Carretera returned for its honors. Since then TC shared importance with the new TC2000 series and partly with F2 Codasur, until mid-1990 when TC approfited TV coverage by Carburando (one of the main motorsport media in Argentina) to increase its popularity highly, doing abandon of road courses and making focus exclusively on racing tracks.

I think the problem of TC isn't solved with the axe of the series; that would produce a worse situation, because TC turned as one of the main points of interest of Argentinian motorsport. Better sollution is trying to modernize it, suggesting the use of more modern chassis than the Ford Falcon or the Chevy Nova, using i.e. the chassis used by Top Race V6 series (Mondeo, Laguna, Vectra) or these of V8 Supercars in Australia (Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore -this renamed Chevrolet Omega to preserve folkloric Ford-Chevrolet rivalry-). And IMHO they should return to road course, because of the road is the essence of the series, the reason because why they hold the name "Turismo de Carretera".

Is to remark that the Gran Premio Argentino of Turismo de Carretera, a rally-like race in stages that covered several kilometers of Argentinian roads, was the most important race on series history; last time they did it was -fiscalized by Argentinian automobile club- at mid-1970s, and was replaced since 1980 by the Rally of Argentina, a WRC date since then.

[Andrew Kitson]

The biggest problem is too many series between F3 and GP2. Period. The general public are confused, what chance trying to entice a sponsor? Bet they all ask why is GP2 not called Formula 2?

[DanFlag]

Too many series, too many winners!