Cav's Place

At the start of the 2009 season I offered some suggestions for the future of the FIA Formula One championship. I still fully stand by what I wrote then, but there have been certain rule changes and other new developments over these past two seasons, so I’ll take the end of the 2010 season as an opportunity to make some appropriate additions to those earlier suggestions of mine.

I’ll certainly admit that the change in the number of points awarded did make for a very interesting season all the way to the end, with four drivers still having chances to win the title at the start of the last race and the one who was third at that moment ending up victorious. This was most likely the best change made during these last two seasons, but unfortunately it still only improved something other than what really happens on the track, because the races themselves haven’t been particularly more exciting than usual, though there have certainly been several notable moments, some of them even without a wet track.
With that in mind, I will reiterate my desire for regulations that would allow more aggresive driving, materials and construction methods that would make the cars capable of withstanding at least some contact without risk of noticeable damage, more safety car periods, less yellow flags and, quite frankly, less safe tracks, in the sense of making driving mistakes more likely to result in retirements. In fact, though this may sound strange to some, I’m also quite worried about the very high reliability of the cars, as there have been quite few retirements in most races this season, culminating with a single one in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Granted that having many cars on track can make for interesting racing, and the Brazilian Grand Prix certainly was that, but it also often makes the results quite predictable and, perhaps more worryingly, is a sign that constructors are no longer pushing to the limit, because it’s extremely unlikely to have such a high reliability if your designs would push the limits all the time.

But that is the problem, isn’t it? In this effort to reduce costs, development is being stifled in every way possible. Engines can’t really be improved until 2013, though a true revolution is expected for that season, KERS has been abandoned for the 2010 season, testing during the season is also now forbidden… Sure, a few teams keep finding ways to innovate even under such circumstances, but they’re certainly doing it in spite of the regulations. And that’s awfully sad and just plain wrong, because the regulations of a sport such as this should do their best to stimulate and reward development and innovation instead of discouraging and even completely banning those things!
My opinion regarding reducing costs in this sport remains the same one I have expressed in my previous post on this issue, and that also goes for my suggestions of ways in which the poorer teams could be helped to continue racing despite being unable to afford raising themselves to the level of their wealthier competitors, so I won’t repeat myself. Suffice to say that I find the current efforts at best misguided, and often completely detrimental both to the sport itself and to any potential “real world” benefits it may end up having.

The refueling ban is something I’m quite uncertain about. It greatly reduces the impact of strategy and, though such a thing was theoretically expected to make racing more spectacular, tends to be one more element that turns the “new” Formula One into something more similar to endurance racing, which is certainly not what it should be. It also has the effect of making pretty much all drivers focus on passing through the pits a single time during a race, for the required tire change, and otherwise simply manage their car and their tires instead of pushing nearly all the time, in a series of sprints separated by two, three or occasionally even more pit stops, which really goes against the idea of Formula One being the pinnacle of motor racing. It’s no longer just a matter of being the fastest, but more of being the most careful, looking after your fuel consumption, your tire degradation, your engine, your gearbox and who knows how many other factors…
I’d still really want to see an actual limit imposed on the total amount of fuel a car may use during a race, and I saw a news piece once stating that it will happen starting in the 2013 season, but see no reason to ban refueling during the race as long as that total is not exceeded. I’ll also admit that limiting the number of engines and gearboxes a car may use during a season is a good thing, but wish someone would come up with a way to do that without forcing drivers to look after those parts during each race, for example by building them in such a way as to allow repairs, so the mechanics would be able to solve any problems noticed after one race that could compromise the reliability during the next one.
But what bothers me the most out of all these elements that seem to change the nature of Formula One racing is the apparently too high durability of the tires, proven by several drivers who have managed to drive almost entire race distances on a single set, only using the other compound for as little as a single lap, and even that only because the regulations required them to. This only encourages careful and safe driving even more, making drivers attack far less or even not at all, which once again goes against everything Formula One should be about, so I suggest making significantly softer tires, which should provide more grip while also making it clear for the drivers that they’re unlikely to make it to the end of the race even if using just two sets of tires, much less a single one. This should theoretically make them attack more, knowing that their tires won’t last long enough even if they don’t… Or they could simply be required to stop at least twice while preserving the current tire durability, though that would once again reduce the impact of strategy.

Finally, I really don’t want to see night races anymore, for the simple reason that motor racing is by definition a very wasteful sport and that waste needs to be reduced, such as by increasing fuel efficiency and building engines in such a way as to allow repairs instead of requiring replacement. Yet the insane amount of electricity required to provide the appropriate illumination for a night race does nothing but add to that waste, and that simply must not be allowed to happen. So forget about trying to have races at “reasonable hours” in Europe or any other marketing interests that would appear to justify night races and just focus on eliminating a completely unnecessary addition to the already huge environmental footprint this sport has!