The Parc Fermé F1 Skid Marks: Would an 8-race season be a legit world championship in your mind? Eight is technically enough to qualify for a title but do you feel that anyone who would win that title will forever be an asterisk?
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Negative Camber
Chief Opinion Officer, TPF
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I think whatever happens, all sport and most anything that relied on a schedule will have an asterisk of ‘affected by covid 19’ forever attached to 2020. Even if the sport had miraculously pulled off a full resumption, someone would complain that they weren’t race or match fit so it wasn’t fair, same as other sports will have an issue with I feel, particularly championship defining football games. The only way to avoid that would have been to cancel it altogether or make it non championship, options which would have been much more painful for F1. At the moment,… Read more »
Do think you can make a strong argument any which way on this though.
Do you put an asterisk against all the champions of the 1950s (except Mike Hawthorn), as they only competed in eight or fewer championship races? It’s a bold argument to state that Fangio isn’t a worthy champion. Drivers can only race in the events that are available to them. There would be more problems in my mind if the championship was declared to be only eight races and then an extra race or two was added later in the year which changed the result. If more races are to be added, then they need to be known about before the… Read more »
Agreed that you wouldn’t want to stray into that argument of justifying what is and isn’t a worthy champion. I’m sure we would all agree Fangio was very worthy. It was a very different time though, I do sort of see what Todd is getting at here I think. I do disagree with Todd that strong advantages didn’t exist then for certain manufacturers/drivers though. I would be happier with 16 as whilst you could argue its a different world to the 1950s or 1960s, you couldn’t really make the same argument for Schumacher in the early 2000s. If it… Read more »
I don’t think eight one bad race or a DNF and your championship is gone. It’s then a WCC more than a WDC. Also on a similar topic, I think F1 needs to decide which side of the fence it’s sitting on in regards to the pandemic. While it’s supporting Lewis and his opinions that the UK Government should have closed it’s borders and that it’s rubbish, it’s also trying to get an exception from the UK Government on the 14 day entry quarantine. You can’t really have it both ways. “F1 is due to begin its… Read more »
Reading the article, I think they’re supporting his comments on the statue and the movement rather than on the border comments. Whilst it hasn’t been announced, it is believed that F1 do have that exemption which is why it was able to confirm both races at Silverstone.
The quarantine thing if i’m honest is likely to get quashed before F1 rolls into town anyway, given the strength of opposition they have over it due to their dithering… anyway I digress, on the eight races then, would you support it if we dropped the WDC and just had a WCC?
To be honest, I’m not sure on that either. There’s a part of me that thinks it should just be a ‘non championship’ year. I appreciate that this in not going to happen as there’s no benefit to the teams. Maybe they could look at revising the points system so that if someone has a DNF, then it’s not going to be so damaging to their championship.
When Formula 1 started, it was about 8 to 10 races long, and everyone thought that was enough. Ergo, I’m okay with 8 races, but I do want them to try to get more in if they can. Minimums are okay, but you must make an effort to do more so that nobody will ever think that you are lazy. I remember a long time ago that I tried to put together an event for a group of people within an organization. I was calling some folks, talking to a hotel manager, emailing people left and right. In the… Read more »
While waiting for F1 to resume I’ve been catching up on the MotoGP seasons I’d paid for and not watched, and with all due respect to F1, I think whether it’s 8 races or 22 is the least of the questions about whether it’s legitimate. Does a series where only three (and by three I mean two) teams could possibly win a race produce a legitimate champion? Is something where starting position is 95% of the race even a race? I’m not trying to sh*t on F1 I’m just saying how many times you have the fastest car go around… Read more »
It is always a bit of a stark reality when you watch MotoGP and then F1 isn’t it?
It is, and I don’t want to bitch about physics or anything, but they do a lot that would be possible in F1, like loosening up on the riders to engage w the crowds &c., having legitimate different tire options, pitboards not radios, etc. But if I could take 1 thing from GP it would be small teams getting the big teams’ last-year stuff. Big teams recover development costs, small teams can access competitive equipment. This seems to fill grids.
I do find it interesting how much more accepted the Marquez/Honda domination in MotoGP is compared to Mercedes in F1 overall, I do agree with you on most of the points though and I like MotoGP’s concession system for the smaller team as well as the satellite team system.
It seems that the domination of Marquez/Honda is more accepted since the racing is close and other bikes have chance of passing. Whereas in F1, no one can get within cooee of the Mercs.
Agreed Marquez has settled things early several times, and also I’m surprised there isn’t more outcry about his riding style. I’m a fan of his ability but I do find him aggressive bordering on cheap and dangerous. But as to domination, he struggles to take pole, which often goes to a support team, he loses a lot of individual races, his teammate is often 10 spots behind him, I mean when he wins a race he as a rider seems to win the race. I don’t think that bothers people quite so much, for good reason.