Formula One

KennyD

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Jan 13, 2015
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Anyone on here fans of F1 and if so what do you think of the changes Liberty & NBCSN are trying to make to make the sport more approachable for casual fans.

I love the sport and all the tactics and strategy that are involved in it. My feelings are that both Liberty and NBCSN are doing a great job making it more accessible here in the US (for now)
 
Yeah, I watch f1 fairly regularly. Almost got to Silverstone for P3 and quali this year, but the trip got cancelled because my friend's mum was sick (in fairness, he had offered me the ticket for free in the first place).

Not sure what I think of the changes yet. The only ones I've really heard of were moving to more digital broadcasting and promotion, having more US-based races and turning each race into a week-long series of promotional events. The first idea seems sensible, the second I can understand although as a traditionalist I think that ideally there should only be one per country, and the third again seems sensible from a marketing perspective but could be draining to the teams and could enforce them having to move to the rumoured system of having two sets of raceday crew (and let's not forget, each team has about 60-70 of them...) who alternate races, else they'll never get to spend any time back at base.

In general I'm optimistic about liberty over Bernie "screw the rest of the sport, so long as I'm making money off dodgy transactions" Ecclestone. If they focus mainly on adjusting the rules to make it more competitive, faster and - dare I say it - a bit more dangerous then I'm in board as the current format is essentially neutered right now. However, they need to do this carefully as the obvious solutions (customer cars, standardising features, restricting development) aren't necessarily the right ones.

Heck, I think I'd probably find f1 most interesting right now if the teams had to go back to only having half a dozen staff total and bringing the cars to races on the back of a Land Rover trailer, like the good old days of the 60s and 70s.

The other thing is that, rather like football, f1 has competing codes in the US which it doesn't really have to compete with, so it'll be interesting to see what aspects of indy and nascar they copy and which they distance themselves from.
 
I dearly wish that the sport would go back to the v8 and allowing refueling during the races. High end motor racing is not about being green stop trying to make it kind like it is.
 
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I dearly wish that the sport would go back to the v8 and allowing refueling during the races. High end motor racing is not about being green stop trying to make it kind like it is.

Refueling wasn't dispensed with as part of efforts to be more "green". Refueling was scrapped partly as a way of reducing costs for teams, and partly because things like this kept happening:

 
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The other thing is that, rather like football, f1 has competing codes in the US which it doesn't really have to compete with, so it'll be interesting to see what aspects of indy and nascar they copy and which they distance themselves from.

I do like the one race per country style it is awesome to just see the different place through the lens of F1 Monaco, Spa and Singapore just have all these different feels and wouldn't want to lose that to add more US races. However, personal bias with the rumor of an "nyc" based circuit I wouldn't mind an additional US based race in addition to the 21 next year. Either an NYC race or if the revamped Watkins Glen and brought back the classic US F1 race it would be the only way I would want to see it. Obvious that is all personal bias and wanting a race closer than Texas to go see. Formula E was an awesome event.

I think the week long events are just good for the brand of F1, the London event looked great and I have always heard good things about the spectacle in Texas. Think the teams would find a way around it to stay with the current race weekend plans and systems. Bring out some legends or some old cars, have some interactives and festivities like the concert in TX and I think it is good for F1 without greatly impacting the teams.

I have never really been into nascar and Indy.Even though I think Indy is interesting with some of the Oval tracks, it was cool to watch Fernando learn and handle the strategy of the Indy 500 and really thought he could challenge for a win until his car pulled a Honda.