F1 rejects revolutionary plans
3:18pm Monday, 28th October 2002

Radical plans to revolutionise Formula One have been rejected by the teams as major changes to qualifying have been announced.

The idea of drivers swapping teams in the first 10 races and of successful drivers being penalised with a weight penalty were not passed when the Formula One Commission met at Heathrow Airport.

But the Commission have altered qualifying and the points system used in the sport.

From next season qualifying will be held over Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday only.

Drivers will have just one flying lap on each day and will go out in turns.

The championship leader from the previous season will do the first flying lap when the new season gets under way in Melbourne next March.

On Saturdays, the slowest driver from the Friday session will go out first.

Max Mosley, president of the sport's world governing body the FIA, also announced changes to the points system so that in future the top eight drivers instead of the top six will be awarded points.

The winner will still receive 10 points but drivers in the lesser placings will be awarded eight, six, five, four, three, two and one points, instead of the present system whereby the second-placed driver gets six points.

Teams who agree to restrict their testing to just 10 days next season will also be able to run for two hours on the Friday of a race weekend and will be able to use their third driver.

It was also announced that next year's Belgian Grand Prix would not take place after the teams could not unanimously agree to run the event without tobacco advertising.

Next season will be reduced to 16 races and there is a strong likelihood Belgium will not return to the calendar with Bahrain and Shanghai having already been given races for the 2004 campaign.

 

Hmmmm. But frankly not much more, IMHO.

Doesn't sound to me like it will do much (if anything) to address the processional nature of F1 racing at the moment, which seems to me to be the key problem and the reason why audiences (and hence revenue) have been going through the floor over the past couple of seasons.

 

These changes sound reasonable. Car/driver swapping and weight additions were just plain dumb ideas.

 

I'm not sure they've thought through the changes enough. It seems to me like they were desperate to do something and had to come away from the meeting with some changes.

What happens if it rains halfway through a qualifying session that would put whoever went out first at a huge advantage. I doubt that the points system will do a great deal either short of spreading a few points around the lower teams

Also scrapping the Belgian GP, one of the most exciting races in the calendar and apart from Silverstone the most accessible too, is really sad. How many Brits will be off to Bahrain and Shanghai?

Bahrain and Shanghai? I wonder what they brought to the negotiating table?

IMO the problem with F1 is that the best teams have too much cash. In the end only three teams can compete and even that is stretching the definition of competition. I think F1 has got too big for itself. I can't see a solution short of sticking a budget limit on each team.



Rant over.

Lou

 

I intend to be there I think that Shanghai is a fabulous place and the track is being purpose designed for F1. I expect it will even upstage Sepang. I would recommend a holiday in Malaysia (prior to recent events in Bali) combined with a trip to the race over battling for a place at the overpriced, under develped farce of Silverstone. Grandstand seating for three days at the track, public transport and a reasonable hotel downtown can be achieved for about

 

So what happens if a driver spins off on his one and only flying lap on the Saturday - game over?

 

For what it is worth - my 2p's.......Scrapping Belgium is an absolute travesty - I have little doubt that Shanghai / Bahrain will bill impressive facilities - but I cannot in a million years see them coming up with a track on the scale of the awesome Spa circuit. This is down to an argument over Tobacco advertising, which confuses me a little - bans exist in UK, Germany and France, so why cant the cars run in Belgium???? (As for China/Bahrain - I am sure tobacco advertising will be permissible for many years to come.

With regards to rule changes - I cant see the restructured points system making diddly difference. Nor the ban on team orders for that matter.

Qualifying will no doubt shake the grid up a little (although I distinctly remember the FIA in the mid '90's saying they where doing away with the 2 day qualifying structure to 'improve the spectacle!). This shake up will come from external factors however - primarily the weather and occasionally exploding engines dumping oil on the racing line (how long before a team develops an engine which can be detonated from the pits on the cars 'slow down' lap )

All in all, these changes will do nothing to sway the balance of power from Ferrari. That will happen, as it always does, by one of the other teams making the necessary leap forwards.

 

obviously not all the commercial detail is shared - but I guess the whole point of Spa is that the race organiser can't stump up the fee Bernie wants without Tobacco bankrolling the deal.

I have been to Spa during F1 and also driven the full circuit in my road car - and yes it must be a super place to race an F1 car + TV view is good, but as a punter watching on the ground during F1 weekend, unless you have some VIP tickets, it is pretty crappy. The best time to visit Spa is for something like a Porsche or 24hr GT event.

It's usually very wet, the parking is more of a bog than silverstone, the facilities are almost non-existent since the circuit is so huge, they serve chips with Mayonnaise as about the only food - and the support races don't exist as there is not enough room to park the cars i.e. there is no paddock area. No Belgium airforce to show off like the Red Arrows, and finally it is invaded by Germans from across the nearby border - which was classic when Couthard took out MS and Hill won in his Jordan with little Schu in tow


Just wish somebody would cut Bernie's hair -


Edit: I just notice in the detail of the FIA comments, team orders are also out...well perhaps, but how is that going to work..?

 

They can tinker with F1 all they like - Touring Cars is far more entertaining IMHO.

 

Many of us would not know that.
Now that Speedvision has turned into the Speed channel over here, now we have dozens of channels broadcasting NASCAR crap and we can't get the good stuff like Touring Cars anymore....