10 – Ticket Prices
The fans are what keep Formula One going. They are incentive for the car manufacturers to poor billions of dollars into designing 2 cars. They are why companies pay millions to get sponsors on the cars, and around the track. Yet the fans are still treated poorly.
A ticket to watch the Spanish Grand Prix in the grand stand seating section, for practice sessions, qualifying, and the race, will cost me $665. That is ridiculous. Only rich people can afford that… Which I think is the reason why it’s so expensive. F1 has a certain amount of snobbery about it, and by charging a stupid price for a grand stand ticket the rich can keep the middle classes away from them in the cheaper parts of the track. When I say cheaper, I mean the cheapest part of the track is $140, and you sit on a grass bank. On the other hand $650 will get you a penthouse suite for the Indy 500 weekend.
Why on earth are we paying that much! It makes no sense! You know what else does not make sense? A track like Barcelona can sell out with 140,000 people in attendance, and still struggle to break even. Why is that? Well we know why, but I am going be cautious and not go into who and what causes the problem.
9 - Entertainment
This could have gone under ticket prices, but bare with me, I'll explain.
So I decide to splash out on the stupidly priced ticket. I get 3 practice sessions, 45 minutes of qualifying, and a race that lasts 1 hour 30 minutes. Great. Is there any side shows? Well GP2 races, if there is one scheduled, and if your ticket includes it. Concerts? Only in Singapore, but the tickets there are even more expensive.
OK, so you don't really get any extras, how about getting up close to the drivers? Nope. That's not allowed. What about watching a crazy overtaking filled race? Only if you're lucky. Spectacular celebrations? No, has been banned.
What I am saying is, F1 is bland. Compare it to MotoGP and you will see none of the drivers have any personality. One time Lewis Hamilton did a donut in front of the stands at Sliverstone and the forum I posted on nearly exploded with excited. If one donut can cause most the F1 fans to orgasm, imagine what they'd be like if F1 drivers celebrated like MotoGP riders? Of course, some people debated whether Hamilton would get a penalty for such the single donut, which leads me onto:
8- For Gods sake make the rules clear!
Raikkonen jumps around the outside at Spa, Webber jumps around the outside in Singapore: how many get punished? Well one, for arguably the same thing,
It's crazy cause that's all that seems to be discussed nowadays. Never who drove well, but who cocked up. Example:
Forum User One: Raikkonen went off the track and gained an advantage, no penalty!
Forum User Two: I Know right! FIARRI again! F1 is such a FARCE, i hate F1, it sucks.
Forum User Three: He didn't gain an advantage.
Forum User Two: OMG yes he did! Besides if it was Hamilton, they would have banned him for life. FIARRI FARCE!
And so on. This continues until the next race, where the next dubious issue is debated in very much the same form.
The point I'm making is that the FIA need to get some permanent stewards to make the decisions, and have a clear rule book to read. This way we can get past this era of constant bitching and whining.
7 - Engines
Use one engine per race weekend, and it would be fine. None of this 8 engines a season rubbish. At the moment if a driver is in second place, why would they push if their engine has to last another 2 races! It's a great way of killing races, turning F1 into an endurance race spread over 17 different tracks. I want to see balls to the wall, pedal to the metal, until crossing the line! Then if the engine grenades, who cares? It's done it's job, let it go out with a bang.
And another thing, let the engineers develop the engines. The cars are so weak in the power department. Having to handle 1000 horsepower will be a great test of driver skill. 750 horsepower? They barely get to 200 Miles an hour at some tracks. Sure the cornering speed is what makes F1 fast, but if you have them a huge engine they would have more speed down the straight, and have to break earlier for turns, and it might just lead to overtaking. Watching a driver stamp on the gas whilst under pressure and wheel spin, giving the driver behind a nice run on him would also be cool to watch, it rarely happens now.
I miss V10's.
6 - Tracks
Yes, Singapore looks great at night, but you know what else looks good? Two Formula One cars side by side going into a corner, battling each other for position.
That doesn't happen in Singapore.
It doesn't happen in Valencia either. In fact, Valencia doesn't even look nice, so it's a double whammy of rubbish.
Why create a track you can't over take at? We have dumped many great tracks to watch a procession in the dark, or in a dockyard? What about Barcelona? Don't get me started on Hungary.
Or what about these new breed of tracks in China or Bahrain? They have more overtaking than the Tilke Street circuits, but still, bit as much as promised. And they look rubbish: No scenery, no spectators. Great! Forget Imola, lets go to the desert to race in front of no one, on a track with no flow.
We need a few other F1 track designers to the monopoly of Tilke. We need to keep the tracks that made F1 what it is: Monaco, Silverstone, Spa and Suzuka especially, and race in places that has a fan base. Not just cause they are willing to pay a stupid amount of money.
Part 2 coming soon
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