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Reader's Comments

This is indeed the way the sport ends, not with a bang but …. with a whimper!

The decision has been made, Max has given in on the things that the TWG couldn’t control anyway (Launch and traction control live on till the end of the season) but won on the rest. No changes to qualifying, no refuelling or set-up changes post qualifying session 2, something I can’t even say without having a sneering italicisation. The changes stay and the fans, as I suggested, stay away. 50,000 at San Marino for the race weekend (I think it was 7 on the Friday and 11 – including 3 lost English tourists - on Saturday). Not too bad, only 100,000 down on a few years ago. Oh, that’s right, the tickets are too expensive, it’s not that the lead-up sessions are boring. The tickets are indeed too expensive, but when you have a roadshow like F1 to support and you have driven the fans into a state of catatonic indifference you have to charge the few diehards who can’t play golf a fortune to cover the costs. Given where it’s all heading I think they will look back enviously at those huge crowds of 50,000.

Max is hinting that he may not stand for a 4th term after his current round ends in 2005. Wise move Mr Mosley, although it’s not the age that’s the problem, it’s the senility! You have managed to kill F1 (with Bernie’s help of course) please don’t stay to give the eulogy.

This is the way the world ends 
This is the way the world ends 
This is the way the world ends 
Not with a bang but a whimper.

T.S. ELIOT- 1925

To give you some idea of how ‘successful’ the rule changes have been, based on Britains Sunday Times’ Rich List, F1’s commercial and media rights have plunged in value by £2,000m to a paltry £800m in the space of 12 months. Of course this fall is also an impact of the rule changes that didn’t happen, like aerodynamic and tyre property changes that would have enhanced overtaking. Don’t spare too much sympathy for Bernie though, he still manages 3rd place among the wealthy brits.

Trulli must have the same motivational trainer Ralf has used for the first three races. His performance at San Marino was terrible even before he latched onto the excuse of having to use the T car. Having said that, once again the stupidity of the new rules raises its ugly head. How can a group (the FIA) supposedly so focussed on safety claim that it is safer for a driver to use a car set up for his team mate than to allow the set up of his own car to be emulated? Of course it won’t matter in a few years when off the shelf components and 5 year lifecycle engines are in place, the only set-up changes needed then will be swap the seat insert (assuming that’s allowable then). 
Alonso should be dealt with severely for what can only be described as dangerous driving in Brazil, but at least he’s fast.

Ralf heeded the wake-up call at Imola, anybody want odds that it was a one-off and that he will be back to his old “15th on the grid is not bad because my car didn’t feel right” ways pretty soon?

Intertechnique (the builders of those remarkable fuelling rigs) must be getting a bonus from the FIA – They have managed to inject some interest into what would otherwise be a procession. How can something that works fine at the corner gas station without blowing up cars be made so complex that it can disable multi million dollar racing machines with monotonous regularity? And how can the FIA and the teams sit back and allow that to happen race after race, year after year?

We are now one quarter of the way through the season and Pizzonia is failing. Surprising given the rap Sir Frank gave him.

Firman and Wilson both need to lift their game and da Matta isn’t likely to get the Rookie of the year by anything he did right, rather by the lack of competition this year.

The Quali-flyer
The Real Race Archive

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Reader's comments:

The rules are a farce - F1 used to be the pinnacle of motor engineering until some prat decided that nailing a bit of wood underneath each car would be a good idea! It's been downhill from there. The fans want to watch the fastest cars driven by the fastest drivers and instead of constantly trying to slow the cars down (I hear rumours of Reliant coming in with an engine deal next year provided the FIA will agree to a three wheeler) control should be handed back to the teams. If the teams want to stick a great big fan under the car to suck it to the floor, fine - if they want to bolt a couple of turbos or superchargers on the engine, fine - whatever they want to do, let them get on with it. The drivers will decide how much speed they're prepared to use. The FIA should be focussed on safety SYSTEMS (both on car and on track) and keeping the sport competitive. Not deciding that the only way to safety is to keep the cars slow (or is just to try to slow Ferrari down to the speed of the rest?). To keep the sport competitive means saving the teams money - If Minardi and Jordan had an engine that could survive several races they'd be in a better position to develop speed instead of spending the budget replacing engines because every last drop of performance has had to be squeezed out of a technically limited package. If something doesn't change soon (and although I doubt it will, lets hope that Max's departure from the sport will bring a sea change of attitude) the sport will slowly die away. Hand control back to the teams and lets see some innovation again! - Will - UK

Will,

While I sympathise with what you say I'm afraid we are seeing now the results of control being in the hands of many. Giving it to the teams as a group won't really resolve anything while you have each team putting its own interest before the sport. Paul and Ron are very unlikely to agree on anything, not that they ever did!

I think the sport needs a governing body - At the moment it has lots of them (FIA, FOM, Teams, Committee's, sub-Committee's, sub-sub Com .... you get what I mean). It needs one group comprising Team Principles, Driver Representative, FOM style Representative and FIA representative - Equal votes and simple majority rules! That body can then delegate authority over various components to Working Groups but remains the absolute arbiter over all decisions.

The Quali-flyer


Qualiflyer - you are spot on. I have followed your stuff ever since you came on board. Loved the real race. Now it's a pitiful shambles. The new rules are hopeless and ridiculous and don't help safety either. Bernie and Max should be ashamed as you say. The team bosses (and drivers) should be ashamed for not having the guts to stand up and say the rules are crap. 
Keep up the good contentious stuff - more entertaining than anything else that happens before 2pm Sundays anyway... Cheers, Stephen - Australia

Thanks for the support Stephen, it's nice to know someone is listening, even if it's not Max. Bernie seems to have seen the light on qualifying but that's too little, too late.

At least he (Max) is contemplating retirement, it can't come soon enough for me. If I overstay my welcome the way he has, please shoot me - The Quali-flyer.


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