Beginning of the end for Grand Prix Masters

[dazbaz_99]

Looks like it's really in trouble now...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/62536

[Knowlesy]

Thank god, let it die.

A truly pants series.

[runshaw]

What was wrong with seeing all them old greats race against each other?

[Knowlesy]

The concept is a fine one, I'll give them that.

However let's see.

Kyalami: a reasonable success.

Qatar: truly dreadful idea to run there. And were they letting Mansell win it?

Silverstone: dodgy engines, cars ran at truly mortifyingly bad speeds in the wet. Horrid, horrid.

Then there was the race that never happened!

The driving roster was all wrong and the whole thing was a disaster. It was also set up for corporate types it seemed at one stage.

[bella]

it's not all been rubbish. one of my favourite pictures of all time is yelmer buurman from the british f3 race looking like he's being bored senseless by nigel mansell. his face says what everyone else thinks

erm, yeah. it was a good idea, but it goes to show that if champcar can't survive properly, a little private champcar with a bunch of old boys being paid a huge amount of money to go for a sunday drive won't either.

[chunterer]

AFAIC, the concept was sound and they really haven't made the most of it.

Ok, so the 'races' edned up as little more than demo's but the drivers seemed to like it a lot?

We were just getting towards a new age cut off limit which would have allowed a load more guys in who were F1 regulars through to the mid 90's, some of whom are possibly more known a younger generation which might have helped with the promotional side, I dunno.

This Speedcar thing looks like a similar idea with roofs on, so I think a few of the guys are going to do that instead. Maybe a more touring or silhouette based car would have been a better bet as the GPM car anyway?

[runshaw]

The only thing wrong for me with GPM was that some of the drivers were not 'Grand Prix Masters'. Who would have thought that Eric van de Poele would have finished 2nd against some of those guys, his best result in a poor F1 career was 9th! Johnny Herbert was rumoured to be going to take part in the championship proper, that would have been good had it happened. And yeah as Chunterer says, Mansell, Fittipaldi and Arnoux spoke volumes about the series and really enjoyed it. I never understood why Piquet snr slammed it so much...maybe he knew he wouldn't be competitive anymore!!

[Asa]

If we had Prost, Piquet snr, Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Niki Lauda, Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter...etc then it might be good, but it seems we are stuck with some lesser names (not lesser drivers).

[kipper]

Originally Posted by Asa

If we had Prost, Piquet snr, Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Niki Lauda, Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter...etc then it might be good, but it seems we are stuck with some lesser names (not lesser drivers).

I problem I think with drivers such as those mentioned above would require such a huge financial commitment, that it would perhaps be unworkable. Plus, I'd imagine that some drivers, with impressive CVs and other business activities, the desire to come back may diminish.

Originally Posted by chunterer

Ok, so the 'races' edned up as little more than demo's but the drivers seemed to like it a lot?

Whilst that may have helped attract a few drivers to the series, races effectively becoming a demonstration is perhaps a good selling point for sponsors/TV companies.

[safc_fan89]

Never really got going, did it...in theory it was a good idea, but I agree that even without the problems with the car and everything, the lack of big names meant that it wasn't really that interesting. Not to me at least.

[Knowlesy]

Big names isn't a problem for me with any other series, but a series like this really needs to sell itself on its names.

That said, that is not the base of the problems. The problems are that everything else is crap.

[Mekola]

If they changed cars to Dallara GP2/05, would be the spectacle more interesting?