With the regulations on engine development in place, we now see McLaren Honda penalised FIFTY grid positions and Red Bull cars both down 10 positions plus a 5 second drive through. For a sport that is imploding and driving fans away in droves, it seems strange that a manufacturer like Honda rejoin F1 and instead of being helped in its initial season, is instead hugely discriminated against and not allowed to compete. Renault got their initial design wrong , they too are penalised. Ferrari, try as they might , can't overcome their design problems to be truly competitive either. Mercedes get theirs right, and will probably get 3 World Championships for doing so, while the others are not allowed to build a competitive engine. Why not just give Mercedes engineers the prizes and don't bother with the cost of running any races? Until drivers have to drive flat out from the start to the finish, F1 is now a phoney, contrived and artificial sport that deserves nothing more than is happening to it. Feel for the drivers, who must be far more frustrated than I am.
Hmm. A very interesting statement, Chelsea P. Very interesting indeed. It is so deep-reaching that although I want to respond, I find myself at a loss for words. It may even be symptomatic of my own reduced in-put to public debate. The problem runs deep and has many tributaries. Most (if not all) of them run into the River Ecclestone… In my view, only an earthquake (and a very big one), or an asteroid impact can re-distribute the water flowing along an embedded river. F1 missed its chance in the near-past when all bar one of its competitors did not 'breakaway' to leave the biggest, reddest problem to lick its FIA/Ecclestone infected wounds and chase its own tail. There. I've said more than I intended. Glad you raised the debate, Chelsea.
Looking at the past isn't going to solve the problems of the present/ future is it. How do you explain the utter strangle hold the so called silver arrows or 'silver noose' has on the sport at the moment and how do we stop it.
I think these are all interesting points and the only parts I'd question are, 1: that F1 will be phoney until drivers are pushing "flat out from the start to the finish", just because I doubt that this has ever been the case; and, 2: the dominance of Mercedes, which is only the latest in many moments of preeminence that various teams have enjoyed through the sport's history. I think it's interesting that Cosi notes his "reduced input to public debate" (nice phrase!) as I've been conscious that I am posting less than I used to simply because I don't feel I have very much to say lately; then I realised that it's not only me and that there are fewer posts and threads on this forum than there used to be. As I said, I doubt that this is simply because of Mercedes' dominance and the predictability that follows as we were rarely short of something to say during the Red Bull era. I think it's a more general sense of malaise that, increasingly, pervades the sport: it's sterile and cold and the regulations have become so byzantine that they are strangling the life out of F1. Money, of course is the other big one: small teams struggle to survive, let alone challenge, and what used to feel like big TV events are increasingly locked away on pay channels; ticket prices have to increase to cover FOM's greedy rights demands; and Bernie dismisses the importance of young followers in favour of wealthy septuagenarians, Rolex mandatory. I could go on but how does a sport thrive without enticing fresh interest in significant quantity? I think the elephant in the room here is that there is no end to it in sight and fans have become resigned and demoralised. The solutions proposed are always yet more rule changes or, worse, a drive to attract a wealthier fanbase which, logically, will only ever bring in limited numbers. It appears clear to me that Bernie only sees his world and his kind as important but, in my opinion, there simply aren't enough of them to sustain the sport as a mass global spectacle. As Cosi says, all these tributaries and more run into the River Ecclestone: to stretch his metaphor, it's way past time to dredge all the crap out before the river runs dry.
Hi EMSC. I cited the past merely as an example of the type of paradigm shift I believe is needed. Any 'strangle-hold' a team may have is a symptom rather than a cause. Holding that thought for a moment, even the briefest reflection upon F1's history shows dominant teams throughout almost every era, and many are considerably longer periods of dominance than two or three seasons. This is the nature of the beast. The current predicament F1 finds itself in is not due to Mercedes, who, so far as I know, are playing entirely according to the rules, unlike three (a rough guess I do not wish to elaborate upon here) other dominant teams of the past two decades. The current predicament is the result of allowing (one might argue actively nurturing) an unhealthy nepotism within F1's own, somewhat incestuous establishment. In this sense, shouldn't we be grateful that it is Mercedes rather than the two most financially favoured teams? Red Bull and especially Ferrari, who reap disproportionate reward for simply turning up and thereby gain significant financial advantage, would have made any such strangle-hold even tighter than it is. The problem is not the competitors. Even Ferrari. Who can blame them for accepting permanent favouritism, or Red Bull for negotiating a similar deal which clever old Bernie saw as a very shrewd investment to play off against his own favourites in case they became too powerful? These symptoms are just the result of seeds buried deep and out of sight. The seeds have grown and borne fruit for a gardener who doesn't want to share the leftovers except with only his closest neighbours. And these trees will take some cutting down... And actually, the problem is not the rules either! It is a combination of things so intertwined only an earthquake will shake it. We must look beneath the symptoms in order to find a cure. And some cancers require major surgery, sooner rather than later...
A very good reply Cosi, respect for that. Yes I would rather Mercedes for a change, but I just hope it doesn't last long enough for the sport to implode on itself. Also I doubt very much that Mercedes themselves think this is positive for the sport. Ari Vatanen (as you cited) and a Ross Brawn leadership would be the only real hope. Both are vastly intelligent and both have experience in motorsport. The fans have expressed their opinions, we just need that 'earthquake' to remove ecclestone, he is a malignant cancer that has invaded every single node and tissue of the sport.
