[Magazines] Autosport requests your input on redesign

[The STIG]

More national motorsport reporting please, and a regular "behind the scenes" article from various circuits around the country may even help bring in more volunteer helpers

[Austinspace75]

Agree with many of the things said here. But the thing that I find disappointing about Autosport is its lack of willingness to take the motorsport establishment on when its needed. It seems to be genuinely scared of printing anything contraversial.

Now, I understand that this is a difficult path to tread and can often mean publications become a little tabloidy at times as they try to get a scoop, but Autosport has a responsibility to its long standing 'involved' subsribers who, judging by the range and depth of debates held in this forum (none of which we need to go into here), deserve a magazine that properly investigates the key issues going on in the background and puts pressure on the organisations and people that matter. This sport is rife with old boys running playschool politics while fleecing everyone else in every way they can imagine. Autosport needs to engage with this stuff and not be scared to put an opinion or two across! It does not have a mandate to be impartial.

In short, I find Autosport irritatingly 'safe' which considering the sport it covers is a philosophy unlikely to appeal to its readership or their intelligence.

[dj choc ice]

more coverage of sportscars, touring cars, champcar, indycar and rallying etc, i appreciate F1 is the headliner in the world of motorsport but the amount of F1 stuff in autosport is overkill imo, far too much of it and far too little fact, speculation is good but there seems to be waaaayyyy to much regarding formula 1, a more broad overview of motorsport in general would be welcomed by me, i only buy autosport around the month of Lemans 24 hours, Sebring and Petit Lemans. Other than that i dont buy it usually because as much as i love Motorsport and fast loud things with wheels, i find F1 depressingly dull at the moment despite the slightly closer racing.

and have more front covers of touring cars, sportscars, rallying instead of constant F1, remember, variety is the spice of life

[mark_l]

I would like to see more indepth news articles and less of the 'see how many news items we can cram on a page'.

I would like to see less F1, there are enough F1 magazines and websites to cater for that market. More on the national motorsport and rallying scene, with decent features on different series, without appearing like an advertisement for a one make series manufacturer.

Better previews of upcoming events would be appreciated so the reader can decide which meeting to attend.

I would like to see less of a revolving door of staff at Autosport, it seems that not a week goes by when a writer is not leaving or joining. I dont expect them to stay as long as Roebuck or Pye but if they could last longer than a 12 week work placement would be good.

[JimW]

I'd like you to take two steps. One towards Motorsport Magazine and one towards Motorsport News. Not too far in either direction (the ripping sound would be painful to hear!) but enough to find a bit more of the excellent reflective Motorsport coverage (and for my money, you could fit that in by cutting a little of the breathless tabloid F1 non-racing coverage - possible team changes and similar). Then a bit more space for National and club coverage.

Make sure you don't reduce the superb picture coverage.

Oh and give Bamber two spots to fill. Then there would be two pages I would turn to first.

(But first find a fairy godmother so you could afford all this without continuing to have to rely on F1 coverage. )

Regards

Jim

[Peter Mallett]

Maybe the biggest problem is the aspirational aspect of the sport? When I were a lad (swing that lantern) there was a chance that us ordinary guys could get to BTCC or at a push F3 (didn't happen for me). In between there were Super Saloons, Minis of varying class, Formula Ford 1600, and many other areas where the technology was sufficiently normal not to require a team of twenty people just to start the bloody car.

Now things have got so unnecessarily technical that the ordinary bloke can't even think of driving a touring car. And these were the classes that we looked at as national and club racing. Now we have historics and various saloon championships, all catering for the weekend warrior but none allegedly attracting the imagination. Ergo its hardly surprising that the mag has gone all "hello" on F1.

But it is a chicken and egg thing. Report more about the grass routes (roots but the Freudian slip may be right) and you'll get more enthusiasts reading it. That may however put the general F1 follower off though.

With all the club sport that is happening every weekend Autosport should be out there grabbing stories, in order to encourage more to participate. IMO it should be the weekly bible of all thing motorsport but. Right now it isn't. Even when I'm in the UK I don't buy it, but I have all the years from 1978 to 94 if someone wants them.

[Charlies]

Even though I'm repeating much of what has already been said, it's worth doing so for emphasis:

1) Drop the pun headlines and 'jokes', especially in the captioning of pictures. They're never funny, usually infantile and always annoying.

2) Less of the tabloid speculative journalism. Look back through old Autosports and see how wrong many articles are. (Although I'll give you 'Kubica: Can he win in Montreal?' even though I sense it was more luck than judgement.)

3) Excessively patriotic and F1 focused.

These are the three main reasons I've started to question whether it's three quid well spent.

Obviously it's difficult to strike a balance between the enthusiast and casual fan, but the magazine has moved too far away from the former.

The internet is the biggest problem for me. The news section of Autosport can be found on the internet (autosport.com most obviously), the F1 race reports, and some others seem almost redundant when most of the major championships are featured live on TV.

So Autosport needs to offer articles, reports and interviews that aren't really available elsewhere. I enjoy reading about new young drivers, the history of the sport, interviews with major players (not necessarily drivers) and behind the scenes reports I couldn't read at 'F1.com' or such generic websites.

I'd also second the comment about timid reporting. The Mosley Scandal highlighted for me a lack of courage in commenting on the news, or scrutinising and holding major figures accountable. Obviously that's difficult to do given the need for accreditation, but there needs to be someone willing to be more critical, especially in F1.

I'll await the new look before I abandon my weekly habit, but at the moment habit is the only reason I still buy the magazine.

[Oscar114]

I agree with wanting coverage of club level racing / rallying etc..

Behind the scenes with drivers in a team discussing how they got involved and and what it takes / costs may encourage people to take up our wonderful sport.

Then maybe some articles on what it takes to run the meetings. Officials required, medical centres, safety car driving, rescue units, marshalling etc.. for those of us who would love to race but can't afford to. This way it may encourage the enthusiasts out there to be part of the sport.

Dave

[The STIG]

Buggermesidewayswithafrenchduck....

I agree with Mallett!

I must be going crazy.

[Stuart H]

how about more on national club racing?

[Burnsie]

Hi Andrew.

This year saw me change my subscription from F1 Racing to Autosport. The main reason behind this was that while I still enjoy watching Formula One, I also enjoy other forms of motorsport. Financially speaking I'm not in a position to subscribe to Satellite/Sky TV, so aside from the occasional highlights programmes shown on Freeview, I rely on Autosport to keep me up to date with what's happening in the likes of the WTCC, WRC, A1GP and so on.

As it is often regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport (although I'm not completely convinced about that), Formula One will undoubtedly occupy a significant portion of the magazine. However as others have already said, there are countless other websites and magazines which are devoted to F1, and therefore it shouldn't always dominate the pages of Autosport. If I was to elaborate further, I would only be repeating what others have said; however there is one point I would like to make. If I open up the magazine at random, the chances are I will see a great photograph - this is something you should definitely be proud of. Why, therefore, does this week's magazine (September 4th) show a grumpy-looking Fernando Alonso going for a walk in the paddock, instead of (for example) that magnificent action-photograph of Mikko Hirvonen during Rally NZ from pages 44/45? If I was browsing the magazine racks in a newsagent, I would definitely be drawn to the latter.

It may seem that there's a lot of F1-bashing going on in this thread, but that doesn't mean that we don't want to read about it. In fact I'm looking forward to reading your report on today's Belgian Grand Prix when the magazine drops through my letter-box on Thursday. It's simply a case of changing the proportions - less Formula One, and more national and international racing.

I hope my comments are of use to you.

Paul Burns.

[Pete Fenelon]

I stopped buying Autosport regularly a few years ago (Greatest Crashes, anyone?) but still pick it up occasionally.

What might tempt me back?

Well, I think Autosport has long passed its nadir and is actually improving a lot, with a mix of experienced and good new writers, but it's still lacking in gravitas and isn't a three quid read. But there are still things wrong with it.

It needs:
- More words. If you want tabloid coverage of motor racing, there's tabloid newspapers out there. Treat the reader with a bit of respect and remember that they're readers. And while we're at it, let's have a layout that lets you read the words. Photography's important, but the (adverts apart ;P) the magazine's there primarily for READING not gawping it.


- Less F1. This means not only less of the "WHY MEGA F1 IS GREAT!" "WHY X MUST WIN Y" crud, but also less idle speculation and less ball-aching detail (or do I mean padding to make the GP reports look superficially impressive?) in reports of races where nothing happened. Really. The races aren't that interesting; they just don't warrant that depth of coverage. Or if they do, it belongs in F1 Racing. I'd say no more than say 6 pages per GP is justified, including entry, qualifying, lapcharts etc.


- Much more about the rest of international racing. The Bernie soap opera addicts have got the content-free monthly glossy they want; the beanie hat and bacon butty brigade have got MN and long may it prosper, but Autosport should be the magazine for people with a broad interest in international and national racing. Now that MS is starting to cover contemporary racing again and is covering more recent history, I can see it taking readers who value content over form ditching Autosport for the green'un.

- More background artlcles - when Autosport does track tests, it's usually great. More! Let's also have more about circuits, notable drivers outside F1 or the BTCC, teams... and let's not have PR fluff, let's see WHY things are happening.

Compared to a few years ago Autosport's improved dramatically, but it's still not got the mix I devoured in the 70s/80s/early 90s. I appreciate that F1 is the great dark cloud blighting motorsport, and every word/picture that isn't about "WHY MEGA HAMILTON MUST BEAT SHIFTY FOREIGNERS" loses sales, but hey, what price pride and integrity?

[Rodger Davies]

I admit, I haven't bought it for a few years for anything other than the Le Mans preview. I must be honest, I never really read the Formula 1 stuff as it doesn't interest me and the continued celebrity-ism of the circus has become more and more the focus. Don't get me wrong, Autosport is by no means the worst purpotrator of this, ITV's pre-race coverage is a far better example.

Now, I'm not a complete idiot. I know Formula 1 is way and away the biggest form of motorsport in the world and is probably always going to be the focus of a general motorsport magazine. However, with the multitude of Formula 1 focused magazines available to the reader, I can't help but feel that a more generalised approach to motorsport with focuses on other areas would make me more interested. Especially on weeks where a Formula 1 race hasn't taken place, it does grate me to see a Formula 1 headline in a magazine I'd always bought to find out about the latest motorsport news and reports (for me, sportscar coverage, American series and touring car series would be great, ta).

I recently subscribed to Motorsport, having bought and enjoyed several issues of their new modern-meets-historic format. Based on some of the comments in this forum about its recent improvements, I think I will take a look at the current edition and post again later.

(I'll also reread this and correct it later, I've written it quite ruushingly but I hope you get my points!)

[bobmilligan]

My thoughts are much the same as everyone else ie. less F1 banality and more of other types of motorsport. Sportscar , rally and touring car fans don't have dedicated magazines (for sound financial reasons I'd imagine!) but that doesn't mean to say we aren't legion.

Maybe Autosport could write some interesting features on the lesser forms of motoracing, on top of the usually dry and formulaic race reports. It might pique some interest with the casual F1 fans and then they too might see that motor racing isn't just about primary colours, prima donnas and James Allen for an 1 1/2 every fornight during the summer. With luck they might even be persuaded that racing for 24 hours is superior in so many ways.

[ss_collins]

I would love to see some fun features on the motorsport oddities - Tillamook pig & Ford racing for example (google it).

But I concur with most of the themes above, but I'll say this I find the writing style of Autosport in the 1960's far better than current. This is not a comment on the quality of journalism rather the style of writing. As the Grand Prix Gold features show (great idea that!). I prefer the actual writing style of MN (yes I'm biased) to AS at the moment

[cptkablamo]

I stopped buying this when it became a defacto F1 magazine (like I stopped buying F1 Racing when it became the unofficial Lewis Hamilton Fan Club newsletter)...

A couple of things

1. Writing style must improve - I am not an idiot, please don't treat me like one - like SS said, it is a writing style rather then journalistic skill....

2. Autosport - this should include a reasonable amount on all motorsport - yes keep the F1 stuff but not every cover and every feature needs to be on that series, more on sportscars, rally (including IRC) junior formula, touring cars, historics and otherwise needs to be included - this includes features

3. A rethink of how the race weekends are reported - with the ease of viewing press releases and other internet articles, publications like Autosport should investigate a way to give more depth to he weekends antics

That is all I can think of for now at least...

[Dr Jimi Ibett]

I would like to see more article space put over to the bigger series, like the BTCC, WTCC, DTM, V8 Supercars and NASCAR which do have big fan bases in Blighty but do not recieve much attention from Autosport.

Best Regards

PJ - An Autosport Subscriber

[davyboy]

How about a section explaining how the FIA arrive at their decisions !

[mark_l]

Originally Posted by davyboy

How about a section explaining how the FIA arrive at their decisions !

You are asking for the impossible there, how can you explain to a lucid audience the minds of 3 senile men, one of whom cannot speak english, who watch events that bear no relation to reality or actuality.

If Autosport could do that then next weeks winning lottery numbers will be a breeze.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally Posted by davyboy

How about a section explaining how the FIA arrive at their decisions !

Simple, they phone Maranello, Maranello send some old brasser who doesn't mind slapping pensioners around a bit to give Max a sound beating, and if he enjoyed it the decision goes their way

Mystery solved.

[Kilvy]

Like many other enthusiasts the first thing I do when Autosport hits the doormat is turn to the back and read the National section. Why? Because I'm interested in the series that I actually go and watch. The National section has improved alot in recent times, and maintained it's size and content. I'm not advocating making it bigger, but please whatever you do in the redesign, don't lose it!!! That would be the end for me.

As for the rest of the magazine, while F1 is always going to dominate, I do feel it is overdone sometimes. A cover pic of another form of motorsport would be nice now and again.

A note of caution. I bought Motorsport for the first time in years last week, and throughly enjoyed every aspect of it. It felt like it had been written for adults to read. While I'm not going to be cancelling my Autosport subscription anytime soon, it's a long time since I've read Autosport cover to cover.

Autosport has improved markedly in the last couple of years, just don't let the Hamilton cult of celebrity thing undo the good work already acheived.

Kilv

[Chigley]

I stopped my AS subscription when eventually I became fed up with it being a subsidiary of the F1 PR machine.

Autosport is primarily British so lets have more reporting on whats happening on British circuits, the national scene. I agree the major international events need covering but with the decline of British motorsport active promotion of good clean close racing from all disciplines from BTRA to 2CV's should be a priority. The diabolical bully boy, corner cutting, barging through tactics that are promoted as "great racing" should be condemned and the greater public educated that there is some fantastic club racing going on that they are totally unaware of behind the smoke screen and hype of F1, BTCC etc.
The British public want entertainment and some of the best entertainment is provided by club racing, but it needs promoting and highlighting, that is where AS should be doing more.

[alimcb]

I would echo what has been said about too much coverage of F1, but I also have some ideas.

For example, a story ran some time ago about several teams pulling out of the British GT, but it got no more than a couple of paragraphs. The British GT race at Silverstone a few weeks ago was a joke, with only 4 of the GT3 cars finishing the race. Sandwiched between the value-for-money Britcar series and the glamorous FIA GT3 European Championship, does the British GT have a future? And where will the British GT be left if/when the F3 jumps ship to join up with the BTCC? This is the sort of story I would love to read.

Maybe also some features about people behind the scenes. The TV series currently running on Sky Sports about the Eurotech/John Guest BTCC team is fascinating.

[Adam43]

All that is required is better writing and analysis, particularly on the F1 side. This goes with more coverage of the other motorsports. F1 should dominate, that is the way of the motorsport world at the moment and it should reflect that. However if the F1 story is trash then don't print it, print something else.
And drop the word "expert" or similar unless the person actually is!

Does that come under "re-design", or are we just considering a new fuel corrected fact section?

[Dutton]

I basically echo the sentiments in the thread to date.

A bit less F1 domination, or, at least, if the same amount must be there, make it high quality, and relevant. Tabloid, space-filling, speculative nonsense is a complete waste of energy (not to mention an insult to the intelligence of the reader).

Less photos/far-less-huge-ones. I primarily buy magazines such as Autosport for words and numbers.

Try to provide things that are not easily obtained on the internet. Simply replicating what can be obtained online is a complete folly in this day and age.

Just make the journalistic/writing standard superior, and only report what is verified (or, at least, something unverified but with truly genuine substance). In terms of analysis/features: make them insightful, considered, and all that (don't just provide light-weight, fluff-filled pieces that don't really add anything to the understanding of the reasonably well-informed reader - something the core of those with an interest in Autosport will be).

I wil stop now, but that is the general idea.