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The Netflix series on F1 got me interested in the current rule sets and it's mostly just kind of depressing. It occurred to me that a professional racing serie

The Netflix series on F1 got me interested in the current rule sets and it's mostly just kind of depressing. It occurred to me that a professional racing series becomes boring at about the time that the car isn't built by a dozen (or less) mechanic/fabricators in a commercial space at an airport.

_carbyau_ 5y ago
Depends what you want from a series I guess. I see F1 as high budget soap-opera/reality-TV with a racing series setting. I can't relate to the people in the same way as you might with the "dirty dozen" approach but the drama is there nonetheless. I used to love F1 as an engineering research unit for the world. But once regulations started banning technologies - and even relatively simple tweaks! - left right and centre it lost that shine. I wish F1 would largely throw away the regulations again. Keep general safety regulations, a safety cell and 4 wheels, set the physical parameters for the car like size and weight with an 80kg driver, maybe specify some aerodynamic condition for trailing air and limit the unobtanium material use. I think limiting $ spent should be done by full specifications of cars to be released after 3-5 years. It is only worth spending money to get an advantage. If all your competitors are going to have your research in a few years then why spend so much? Also, ALL the engineering fanciness is released for the world to benefit. Then, when cars get too fast. Reduce the size/weight of the car, while keeping safety cell and wheels the same. "Oh, your 2m wide car goes too fast? Try it next year at 0.8 the size." Eventually it will be go-karts again. But of the most brilliant engineering.
dgritsko 6y ago
To each their own perhaps, but I find F1 very exciting. Even despite Mercedes's recent dominance, there is plenty of great midfield action, strategic decisions, uncertainty due to safety cars or weather, and teammate battles that make each race a fun watch.
- kingsuper20 6y ago
  To be fair, scarcely any HN readers (and a vanishing amount of the general population) remembers when racing hadn't gone down the rabbit-hole of infinite cost and technology. The post-war period of extremely common amateur racing morphed into pro racing some time ago. Most organized series became impossible for the dozen-guys-in-a-garage to compete probably sometime in the 1980s. We'll never see the likes of the Herb Adams 'Grey Ghost', Smokey Yunick small block Chevrolet Indy car, or (I suppose) Hesketh ever again. Like most endeavors in the era of mass media consumption and mass production/distribution, you end up with a handful of utterly dominant players with everyone else simply a consumer.
ehnto 5y ago
It's worth noting the current rule set is trying to optimize for spectator moments, safety and budget constraints. An F1 series unruled at this point would be a case of biggest pockets wins, and the racing wouldn't be close at all. I like to think of F1 as just a big go-cart race. The cars are obviously on the edges of performance inside the rules, but the cars are still homologated. The really interesting racing has been in Time Attack and grassroots leagues in my opinion. I forsee an end to F1 soon enough, the budgets are big and it's no longer a good platform for R&D given manufacturers will start to ditch consumer ICE anyway. Whereas Time Attack and other leagues are more about developing enthusiast level performance fabrication shops and parts which is something that will go on in to the future.

_carbyau_ 5y ago

Depends what you want from a series I guess. I see F1 as high budget soap-opera/reality-TV with a racing series setting. I can't relate to the people in the same way as you might with the "dirty dozen" approach but the drama is there nonetheless. I used to love F1 as an engineering research unit for the world. But once regulations started banning technologies - and even relatively simple tweaks! - left right and centre it lost that shine. I wish F1 would largely throw away the regulations again. Keep general safety regulations, a safety cell and 4 wheels, set the physical parameters for the car like size and weight with an 80kg driver, maybe specify some aerodynamic condition for trailing air and limit the unobtanium material use. I think limiting $ spent should be done by full specifications of cars to be released after 3-5 years. It is only worth spending money to get an advantage. If all your competitors are going to have your research in a few years then why spend so much? Also, ALL the engineering fanciness is released for the world to benefit. Then, when cars get too fast. Reduce the size/weight of the car, while keeping safety cell and wheels the same. "Oh, your 2m wide car goes too fast? Try it next year at 0.8 the size." Eventually it will be go-karts again. But of the most brilliant engineering.

dgritsko 6y ago

To each their own perhaps, but I find F1 very exciting. Even despite Mercedes's recent dominance, there is plenty of great midfield action, strategic decisions, uncertainty due to safety cars or weather, and teammate battles that make each race a fun watch.

kingsuper20 6y ago
To be fair, scarcely any HN readers (and a vanishing amount of the general population) remembers when racing hadn't gone down the rabbit-hole of infinite cost and technology. The post-war period of extremely common amateur racing morphed into pro racing some time ago. Most organized series became impossible for the dozen-guys-in-a-garage to compete probably sometime in the 1980s. We'll never see the likes of the Herb Adams 'Grey Ghost', Smokey Yunick small block Chevrolet Indy car, or (I suppose) Hesketh ever again. Like most endeavors in the era of mass media consumption and mass production/distribution, you end up with a handful of utterly dominant players with everyone else simply a consumer.

ehnto 5y ago

It's worth noting the current rule set is trying to optimize for spectator moments, safety and budget constraints. An F1 series unruled at this point would be a case of biggest pockets wins, and the racing wouldn't be close at all. I like to think of F1 as just a big go-cart race. The cars are obviously on the edges of performance inside the rules, but the cars are still homologated. The really interesting racing has been in Time Attack and grassroots leagues in my opinion. I forsee an end to F1 soon enough, the budgets are big and it's no longer a good platform for R&D given manufacturers will start to ditch consumer ICE anyway. Whereas Time Attack and other leagues are more about developing enthusiast level performance fabrication shops and parts which is something that will go on in to the future.