T Wings, Sharks Fins and Pink Liveries, F1 Back On Track
The F1 pre season testing has been and gone, cars have been launched, tested and speculation has begun about who will be on top come November (Mercedes).
It'll come as no surprise to regular readers (if I have any) that I am fast falling out of love with F1, the series still needs a huge shakeup, costs need to be reduced to enable and encourage new squads and manufacturers to join. The sport and it's stars need to be more accessible and affordable to the fans and, more importantly the spectacle and excitment needs to return.
But back to now, unfortunately I cannot see anyone other than one of the Mercedes drivers winning the title this year. Red Bull and Ferrari will be there or thereabouts but, I don't think they'll have the consistency to keep with the "Silver Arrows" for the whole season.
The Williams and Force India cars should be along next (Mercedes engines) with Reanult, Haas, Toro Rosso, Mclaren and Sauber battling for the low points places.
But before the season has started the fans and media alike are already questioning the look of the cars, yeah, because that's the biggest problem the sport faces right now! T Wings, Sharks fin and stepped noses with one or two "protrusions" still seem to cause an issue to the casual viewer but, the FIA write the rules, the teams, designers and aerodynamicists interpret the rules. If you start banning things for the reason of looks then you'll very soon have 10 teams each producing a visually similar car to the next and, all of a sudden you are fast approaching "Spec Formula" territory. If we are not careful F1 will become a glorified F3 programme, several similar chassis with only the engines to differentiate.
We need the radical flaps, fins strakes and ribs on an F1 car, yet the public seem more interested in the fact that Force India will be a pink car rather than the more traditional green, orange, white and chrome of the past! We need trick suspension, we need the questionable diffusers and, we need visually different cars. But we also need for the cars to be competitive, able to run together both quickly and safely, we need the guy behind to be able to get ahead of the guy in front without having to uses a kinetic energy boost, without having to deploy the trimmed out wing and without the thought in the back of their helmet that if there is even the slightest bit of contact that they are not going to be served a penalty for the following event or dropped down the order 2 hours after this one.
F1 and all motorsports in general has always been about speed excitement and action, lets see action on track not positions changing due to pits stops. Please.
It'll come as no surprise to regular readers (if I have any) that I am fast falling out of love with F1, the series still needs a huge shakeup, costs need to be reduced to enable and encourage new squads and manufacturers to join. The sport and it's stars need to be more accessible and affordable to the fans and, more importantly the spectacle and excitment needs to return.
But back to now, unfortunately I cannot see anyone other than one of the Mercedes drivers winning the title this year. Red Bull and Ferrari will be there or thereabouts but, I don't think they'll have the consistency to keep with the "Silver Arrows" for the whole season.
The Williams and Force India cars should be along next (Mercedes engines) with Reanult, Haas, Toro Rosso, Mclaren and Sauber battling for the low points places.
But before the season has started the fans and media alike are already questioning the look of the cars, yeah, because that's the biggest problem the sport faces right now! T Wings, Sharks fin and stepped noses with one or two "protrusions" still seem to cause an issue to the casual viewer but, the FIA write the rules, the teams, designers and aerodynamicists interpret the rules. If you start banning things for the reason of looks then you'll very soon have 10 teams each producing a visually similar car to the next and, all of a sudden you are fast approaching "Spec Formula" territory. If we are not careful F1 will become a glorified F3 programme, several similar chassis with only the engines to differentiate.
We need the radical flaps, fins strakes and ribs on an F1 car, yet the public seem more interested in the fact that Force India will be a pink car rather than the more traditional green, orange, white and chrome of the past! We need trick suspension, we need the questionable diffusers and, we need visually different cars. But we also need for the cars to be competitive, able to run together both quickly and safely, we need the guy behind to be able to get ahead of the guy in front without having to uses a kinetic energy boost, without having to deploy the trimmed out wing and without the thought in the back of their helmet that if there is even the slightest bit of contact that they are not going to be served a penalty for the following event or dropped down the order 2 hours after this one.
F1 and all motorsports in general has always been about speed excitement and action, lets see action on track not positions changing due to pits stops. Please.
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