Brawn: Changes Won't Happen Overnight

[Bethonie Waring]

Formula One’s new motorsport managing director Ross Brawn has warned that changes are going to be gradual and the “straight forward issues” are going to take some time to be solved.

The number of stakeholders with conflicting priorities mean any change in F1 is going to be gradual, but Brawn says those he’s already spoken to are optimistic about the future.

“You can’t change a sport as complex as Formula One with so many stakeholders overnight,” Brawn told BBC’s Radio 5 Live. “It simply won’t happen. There are structures in place that prevent that. It will take some time.​

“But I think the message is that we’re fighting the corner to make the sport as entertaining and as economic and as viable as we can for the future.”​

F1’s new owners are prioritising making the championship more entertaining. Brawn explained how the commercial rights holder is currently focused on getting the best deal it can, but he wants the rights holder to consider how decisions help “the show”.

“Every decision that we’re going to make in the future, technical decisions, sporting decisions, economic decisions, will have to tick some boxes,” Brawn said. “Those boxes will be: does it make the sport better, does it make it more entertaining, does it make it more economic? And all the factors that we know have probably been a lower priority in the last few years, gradually will steer the sport into a better place and in a better direction.”​

For more Formula One news and discussions head over to the RaceDepartment Formula One sub forum and join in with your fellow community members.

Do you think Liberty will really make the changes Formula One needs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

 

[stbreaker]

I'm of the somewhat unpopular opinion that maybe we as fans don't know what Formula One "needs" on a technical level. For instance, as much hate as there has been towards the complex hybrid engines, I do appreciate the move in terms of helping to push the technology into the public eye and maybe eventually into our daily drivers - (Obviously that isn't a straight line). WEC is great for these things as well, but has no where near the international recognition. There are many here that would argue we should bring back V12s and full manual gearboxes. It's definitely nostalgic and sentimental, but was it objectively better? I certainly don't claim to have all the answers to those complexities

So while I'm not sure about the future technical aspects of things, I do think that Liberty will help reign in all the ridiculous "$$$ at all costs" approach that has led to threats of Spa, Monza, and Brazil being removed from the calendar to add odd contrived street-ish circuits like Sochi and Baku.

Even before technical changes though, they need to focus on consistency and common sense. These issues confuse and frustrate casual and more serious fans alike. Look at the radio ban last season. Why was it an on/off switch between 1) You can't say anything and 2) you can say any and everything? We already have way too many examples of selective rule enforcement, so no point in even bringing up examples of that.

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

Do you think Liberty will really make the changes Formula One needs?

Hopefully.

F1 is heading in the wrong direction, and if Liberty Media don't make the changes F1 needs, then F1 may not survive. Jean Todt is babbling on about how "great" F1 is when it really isn't, especially with these god awful changes they are bringing in (But if you see my comments on these sorts of posts, then you already know my stance on the regulations).

F1 changes things that simply do not need changing. The qualifying system for example was perfect until they tried ruining it with elimination qualifying. Meanwhile matters like the financial situation of teams and the prize fund and the quality of racing has not been addressed. The last time the FIA made an effort to improve the racing was back in 2009, and all they gave us was DRS, when the obvious solution is to either go with a Ground Effect system similar to what IndyCar used with the DW12 before 2015 (which is perfectly safe by the way before that arguments comes up) or simply reduce the aero.

Also, the tracks suck. Sochi and Baku are some of the worst additions to the calendar in F1 history.

I'm of the somewhat unpopular opinion that maybe we as fans don't know what Formula One "needs" on a technical level. For instance, as much hate as there has been towards the complex hybrid engines, I do appreciate the move in terms of helping to push the technology into the public eye and maybe eventually into our daily drivers - (Obviously that isn't a straight line). WEC is great for these things as well, but has no where near the international recognition. There are many here that would argue we should bring back V12s and full manual gearboxes. It's definitely nostalgic and sentimental, but was it objectively better? I certainly don't claim to have all the answers to those complexities

So while I'm not sure about the future technical aspects of things, I do think that Liberty will help reign in all the ridiculous "$$$ at all costs" approach that has led to threats of Spa, Monza, and Brazil being removed from the calendar to add odd contrived street-ish circuits like Sochi and Baku.

Well it's a unpopular opinion because the majority of fans don't like being called wrong I think it's more of a case that the fans want the "wrong" things (or the unnecessary thing). Tyre wars and refueling didn't exactly improve the show in the first place. Loud, faster and better looking cars are let's face it unnecessary at this moment in time or just not needed. Faster cars is 100% what the sport does not need at this moment in time, better looking cars aren't really needed, and improving the sound is the equivalent of polishing a turd. It's why I'm a fan of Formula E. The racing is actually good. People just hate on it because apparently sound is more important than good quality racing....

Another thing is this rubbish about more durable tyres, because that doesn't improve the show at all. Pirelli nailed the tyre formula last season, and the three tyre compound regulation was one of the best changes in years. It created for some brilliant races and very interesting strategies. I don't see how a more durable tyre and everyone on the same strategy will make the racing more "interesting". If everyone was on a one stop in Australia last season, then the race would have sucked, and it would have been a procession

 

[Nick Hill]

I'm reading this as "I hope you like Mercedes 1-2's, cuz here comes another seasons worth of 'em!"

 

[Benutzername]

I'm of the somewhat unpopular opinion that maybe we as fans don't know what Formula One "needs" on a technical level. For instance, as much hate as there has been towards the complex hybrid engines, I do appreciate the move in terms of helping to push the technology into the public eye and maybe eventually into our daily drivers - (Obviously that isn't a straight line). WEC is great for these things as well, but has no where near the international recognition. There are many here that would argue we should bring back V12s and full manual gearboxes. It's definitely nostalgic and sentimental, but was it objectively better? I certainly don't claim to have all the answers to those complexities

So while I'm not sure about the future technical aspects of things, I do think that Liberty will help reign in all the ridiculous "$$$ at all costs" approach that has led to threats of Spa, Monza, and Brazil being removed from the calendar to add odd contrived street-ish circuits like Sochi and Baku.

Even before technical changes though, they need to focus on consistency and common sense. These issues confuse and frustrate casual and more serious fans alike. Look at the radio ban last season. Why was it an on/off switch between 1) You can't say anything and 2) you can say any and everything? We already have way too many examples of selective rule enforcement, so no point in even bringing up examples of that.

Partly i agree. Partly i don't.
First of all i am not sure if i find the right words to explain my point, but hopefully its possible to understand what i meant.

F1 should bring us innovative ideas, new technologies developed further and further. Thats sonething really exciting for engineers, fans and the car industry itself.

But there has to be a line - The cars on the roads get more and more electronical systems to help the driver. We even have first versions of self driveable cars.
Its obvious that if F1 follows the tendencies of the car industry completely it will lose the whole spirit.
We dont need self driving cars. At least not in F1. There probably will be exciting series with self driving cars, pure competition of the engineers and programmers. But F1 should choose a different route.

I think Brawn said something similar in an interview. Not that he suggests to go back to V10s or so, but its important to not follow the whole development for car industry. Partly yes but not blindly.

All these supporting systems for drivers are a great technical aspect, but is it needed? Its costs more, its not making a difference for any driver if everybody has the same assists and its takibg away the purity of deiving itself. The driver should be able to make a difference aswell

There is need to find a good balance. Atm its too technical.

On the other habd i want to see exciting engineer solutions.
I dont quite understand why there are restrictions for so many parts of the cars, front wing width f.e.
Let the engineers choose. i want to see different concepts. Atm every car looks pretty much the same. With a budget cap on top stuff like that isnt too unrealistic

And what i heard from interviews it seems Brawn has a very similar opinion on that and will try to change F1 into that direction. I am excited to see this fresh air. Looks like they try to make the sport better instead of trying to make most money out of it.

Will be a long and tough process bit itll be good. I strongly believe that.
They also seem to only change things for the better. Calculated. In the padt they just reacted to stuff that wasnt good and made a quick decision. Often a bad one. Rules changes every season. Thats bad and thats gonna be a thing of the past it seems.

 

[Benutzername]

@Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham If you look at the tyres:

There are different types of racing. F1 has been really strategic in the past. MotoGP is pretty much 'lets race'. No pitstops, just flag to flag with awesome fights.

Strategy always was a big part of F1 but we shouldnt forget about that 'lets race' part. What do we have on the tracks? Overtakes most of the time only happen because
- DRS (yawn)
- strategic pitstops (interesting if thats not the majority)
- Car 1 overtakes Car 2 because of better tyres/different strategy

But dont we want wheel to wheel action? driving on the limit? instead drivers have to save fuel and tyres and there barely are 'real' overtakes. Thank you Max for delivering these quite often!

Also: Imagine youve never watched F1. You decide to watch your home gp anyway. You wont have much clue of what the hell is going on. You have to constantly calculate where everyone would be after theyve done their pitstops. And what strategy they are on. Also keep in mind the different tyre sets. and how many they used during the weekend and which compounds they brought to the gp.

You dont even know about that!

You see the race and dont understand it.

Thats a different type of watching, i like to watch a race and be involved, calculating the strategys etc. But its too much.
F1 needs to be fadcinating for 'newbies' aswell.

It isnt atm.And even die hard fans are slowly turning away from it

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

MotoGP is pretty much 'lets race'. No pitstops, just flag to flag with awesome fights.

That's because overtaking and wheel to wheel racing is way easier in MotoGP. You can't compare

But dont we want wheel to wheel action? driving on the limit? instead drivers have to save fuel and tyres and there barely are 'real' overtakes. Thank you Max for delivering these quite often!

We do want wheel to wheel action and real overtakes, shame we can't have that because the regulations are bull poo. Right now, different strategies are the only way to keep things interesting. I mean Australia last year was fantastic and that was down to strategy. Watching drivers not being able to race while pushing like crazy is going to be just as or even more boring than what we had before

 

[Benutzername]

That's because overtaking and wheel to wheel racing is way easier in MotoGP. You can't compare.

I even said "There are different types of racing". Right in front of that sentence.

I could have named different series aswell. Some Touring Car series are similar, just close racing, nice overtakes. Or karting.

 

[ronniej]

“You can’t change a sport as complex as Formula One with so many stakeholders overnight,” Brawn told BBC’s Radio 5 Live. “It simply won’t happen. There are structures in place that prevent that. It will take some time.

“Every decision that we’re going to make in the future, technical decisions, sporting decisions, economic decisions, will have to tick some boxes,” Brawn said.​

Pretty good "saving face" statement from Mr. Brawn...In other words, there's nothing I can do to change the current state of F1.
The other quote is general political speak...The old cowboys of the west would call that "all hat, and no cattle"

​

 

[ronniej]

Just make the cars remote control and be done with it.

 

[Deleted member 130869]

They talk about innovation but F1's rulebook perennially reduces the opportunity for innovation with very specific and restrict sets of what teams can do, with limited ranges.

I'd like to see a return to more mechanical importance and to the drivers needing to be truly special to be able to tame the cars. It can't be super accessible to any 18-year old.

 

[BenjiBenjamin123]

Hi, guys!

Few weeks ago I found one page about F1. Are you interested? If yes, I want to share with you this site: http://www.gamespedition.com/pc-games/sports-games/racing-games/f1-2016 In this site are a lot of useful information, tips for beginners, hints how to win this game. So, please, let me know what do you think about this game and page. Maybe do you know other sites or articles where I can get information about F1? Thanks a lot, Ben!

 

[grahamw]

Just make the cars remote control and be done with it.

If we are to believe some people they already going that route since remote computers pretty much do most stuff for the driver provided they press the right button sequence (or not in the the case of LH at Baku) but not as crazy idea as it might seem.

I think fundementally these are the types of reasons F1 has become so unexciting it's become all about tech and very little about driving or more importantly driver ability.

If you put a decent driver in the best car he will in all likelihood still win over the best driver simply because the mechnical aspect of the car has taken over.

So adding wider tyres and increasing or even for that matter reducing it isn't the answer because the problem is not how the cars are the same but how the cars differ so it ceases to be primarily driver ability that runs the show.

If you watch other forms of motorsport where cars are generally closer in their fundemental design to each other generally the racing becomes closer and therefore by default more exciting.

You only have to look back to last year with few exceptions most people will say the Inter Lagos Grand Prix was the most exciting so why was that the weather made the whole race unpredictable some called Vestappen mad and other were blown away by his fearless driving that is how you bring back excitement make the race unpredicatable.

Yes Lewis Hamilton went on to win but almost no one noticed as they were too busy looking elsewhere the younger generation have a far shorter attention span than us oldies but they are the future fans of the sport if it is to survive.

I sat and watched several GP's and got up to make drinks, eat and answer natures calling even sent a few texts and did I miss any excitement not a bit ....

This season I discovered the V8 supercars from Australia the longest race is the Bathurst 1000 (a stunning location) a total of 161 laps and was glued to the screen throughout. Why you might ask if you haven't seen the race because after 161 laps the race winner Will Davidson won by 0.14 of second having started 17th on the grid. Now that's excitement.

 

[gamer19]

Where's the topic about new Sauber launching ?
Ahh... you're late RD boys and girls.
Maybe to open one for new 2017 cars launching, it youd be more ...convenient.

Cars didn't look this for... actually, it didn't look NEVER this good. Wow.
More on Motorsport.com:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-reveals-its-2017-f1-challenger-875151/

 

[Benutzername]

Where's the topic about new Sauber launching ?
Ahh... you're late RD boys and girls.
Maybe to open one for new 2017 cars launching, it youd be more ...convenient.

Cars didn't look this for... actually, it didn't look NEVER this good. Wow.
More on Motorsport.com:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-reveals-its-2017-f1-challenger-875151/

There are already two threads open
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/sauber-c36.132077/#post-2403781
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/official-car-reveal-thread-2017.132078/#post-2403784

 

[Bethonie Waring]

Ahh... you're late RD boys and girls

Would've been on it, but had to film an epic package about parking for another publication

 

[gamer19]

Why do I don't see it whn I go on MAIN RD page http://www.racedepartment.com/ ?
Ok, obviously there's some system which news/srticles go to front page and which don't. I don't check all those subforums, got some other forums to check too. So guess we can say it is my mistake.
But news like this one should be on front page on the first place.
I'm sure everyone will find it much more interesting than, for example, Formula E news, in four in depth arcticles ...in a row.

 

[Bethonie Waring]

I'm sure everyone will find it much more interesting than, for example, Formula E news, in four in depth arcticles ...in a row

We'll have lots more in depth post race analysis from FE, F1, and WEC in the future

 

[stbreaker]

If you watch other forms of motorsport where cars are generally closer in their fundamental design to each other generally the racing becomes closer and therefore by default more exciting.

This is a perfect example of the dichotomy that has made "fan input" difficult to interpret. On one hand, it's clear that spec series have closer racing because the cars are generally the same. This is a good part of the reason why I find GP2 more exciting than F1 on a race to race basis.

I find it a bit difficult when people say they miss the "good ole days" of F1 because the desires expressed are contradictory. Gradually, the FIA has been homologating parts in the name of cost cutting and competitiveness, but many (myself included) would argue that the soul of F1 lies in its tech/engineering solutions. Think back to iconic examples of clever engineering solutions such as the Brahbam BT46 (AKA Fan car) or the Tyrrell P34 (AKA 6 wheel car). But if you really think about it, the only reason there was parity before, is because there was a lot of unreliability associated with constantly pushing the envelope. [Well, that and drivers constantly being injured/killed.] Now with all the strict regulations, the most "innovative" things engineers can do revolve around the shape of the front wing cascade elements. Combine this with essentially no testing allowed, and no one is really going to try anything radical because unreliability is literally against the rules - see: Lewis Hamilton and KERS in 2016.

 

[grahamw]

I agree stbreaker I think you hit the nail on the head GP2 is more exciting for the very reason they have roughly the same car with the odd tweak. But as you also said F1 was once about clever engineering but is now more about money than pure genius with the rules preventing any so called enginnering marvels.

In recent times the most invovative engineering solution was the Brawn racing diffuser and when you consider that was 2009 shows how the boring predicablity has been slowly unfolding before F1 fans eyes.

I am sure the current over regulated environment still means Ferrari and Red Bull and Mercedes spend a fortune shaving a 100th of second here and there but the lesser teams have neither the man power or the budget to play at the same level.

If the rules were slackened pretty sure the heavily funded teams would still triumph but every so often we might see another Brawn diffuser that just changes the rules of the game even if only for a short while.

I think if all teams had the same agreed budget and this was independently verified to include everything from Drivers wages, equipment, staff the whole need for those engineering geniuses would seem all that more significant surely this has to be the way forward level the playing field and you create a battle of skills and wills not who can stump up the most cash.