Honda managed to create a two to six cylinder hybrid...

BTW is a split raging in McL? The rude comment of Dennis about livery, was it aimed rather towards some inside opposition than towards general public?

R.I.P. Marussia F1 (2010-2015)
R.I.P. Caterham F1 (2010-2015)

It's a shame! But Marussia have at least a few chances, to survive, but then with 2014 cars. And Force India also have big problems. I think, actually only 16 cars could start in Australia. In this case we could see 3 Mercedes, 3 Red Bulls and 3 Ferraris

I really hate the idea of three cars per team, then i would prefer 16 cars and two cars per team...
It would be not only unfait to the other teams...it would be boring, imagine three ferraris, mercedes and redbulls in TOP 9
so the rest will always fight for one point

@zgr: Well maybe only two best cars from each 3 car team would score points and the third would be "invisble" for team points.
Or they would have to sign junior driver or somebody like that for the third car . There are possiblities...

Yeah, but still, if three cars are in the points and one car have a crash, the third one, then there will be no lose for the team because it's "invisible"...and when a team with two cars lose one car after a crash...it's a huge disadvantage...
In fact, of course there are many negative but als many positive aspects...but IMO this idea is awful

And, when all teams will have 3 drivers? 8*3=24. As much as 2010-2012.

F1 is the best series on the whole world (I mean the highest division) and there's problem 'cause number of teams is smaller and smaller? So weird thing are going in motorsport (F1 is great ad for huge maufactures so why they don't want to participate?) and this thing we call money

I think that 3 cars will be introduced only if all teams can have 3 cars on the grid. Otherwise, the sport would lose on its amusement and exicetment.

I think, without Ecclestone the F1 would be better.

I agree.

(As a disclaimer, I first read this as huge advertisers, so it doesn't really answer this specific thing...)

That's because it isn't that anymore, really. The viewership is dropping fast, partly because of the pay-tv route many countries have been going towards, but partly it's also because F1 (and other motorsport, really) isn't seen as some kind of flashy cool thing in the majority. These more and more people see it as pointless gas waste and noise creator and [insert any other green hippie comment here]. And these days F1 is more seen as a thing for the rich elitist people wearing those 20k rolexes and crashing their Mercedes Benz'. And it doesn't help that pretty much during every race you can hear how some team is complaining about team x because regulation y. So fewer and fewer companies are willing to risk tarnishing their image in a super expensive sport, especially during the recession

And it doesn't help that FOM/Bernie is a dumb fork and blurps out stuff like they aren't interested about young viewers, making it look even more like a sport for middle aged men. They have practically no activity in social media, they aren't even trying to create a way to see the races some other way than through one of the TV channels.

Meanwhile, for example, Formula-E is shown online, is right in the city catching more eyes, is new and hip, is for the "new generation", is cool, quiet, no emissions, and costs less to sponsor.


And kinda edit part:
As for manufacturers, why join in F1, when WEC, Le Mans, etc endurance series' are better platforms for development and (I'd dare to say) are even more popular by the people who actually would buy those manufacturer's cars.


And as a TLDR; F1 is in a sort of limbo, where it isn't really interesting for the "casual viewer", but it isn't that interesting to the "hardcore viewer" either.

It's more than just F1 that is in this state, though. NASCAR is decidedly following this same path as well, and Indycar to a lesser extent. Seems like motorsports are just not as popular as they used to be, period. The old timers complain about how it's not like the good old days (spec cars, bland drivers, bad tracks, etc.), and younger people who have been trained to have a shorter attention span by various forms of media find it boring and uninteresting (races are too long, there is not enough action, where are the big fiery car destroying crashes like in video games?, etc.)

As to the teams aspect, maybe it's time they move to a different model of how teams work? NASCAR and Indycar don't have a problem getting a decent number of cars in their series with teams of up to 4 cars with each car having it's own sponsor. Seems to me that you might be able to get a little more money by having a different sponsor for each car. Overall the price would be cheaper for the sponsor, but you could make a little more in total. I don't claim to be an economic expert, that just seems like a fairly logical thing to me. Then again, F1 is also a more expensive series than most others in the world, so who knows if that model would actually work out or not . Then there is the tradition/purist aspect of it that fans and/or teams might be opposed to a change like that. Any way you slice it, though, 16 cars is an awful small grid for what is claimed to be the premier motorsport. Frankly, despite F1 being "premier," it can be awful boring compared to so called "lesser" series like Indycar, NASCAR, WEC, V8 Supercars, TUDOR USCC and more. At least in my opinion it is. I'd rather watch those series over F1 any day. But maybe I'm just a stupid redneck American who knows nothing about real racing

NASCAR was made by common people for common people. F1 was made by richies for.. People, yes, but mainly for themself. There's a difference - so NASCAR is open for people, but F1 is open for money. But I'm stupid European who doesn't know anything about American motorsport

I only wonder, why it is considered so weird nowdays to imagine open wheelers of various specifications to race at once together in a top event like sportcars/prototypes and GTs still do. It also used to be common in past - to have GP and voiture cars or F1 and F2 cars on grid at once. I'd like more watching it than e.g. one-chasiss-make series.

Heh, well... I guess it comes down to the greed of the current teams. (Wait what, we'd lose money if more teams came in? Let's find a lie to prevent that!) But yeah, it would be cool to see two different classes on track at the same time. Or make it like BTCC where the manufacturers and "customers" are separated, so the speed difference wouldn't even be that big. But that would be too good for spectators, no one wants that!

http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117721

For some reason, current open-wheel drivers will complain loudly if other cars are even slightly (3-4 seconds) slower than them, claiming it's "unsafe" and so on. It's as if they don't even know that sports cars exist, or that that was the norm during most of F1 history...

Fernando Alonso misses the Grand Prix of Australia! Kevin Magnussen will drive there.

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/inside- ... al-update/

I know he would come back.

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/215420/1/v ... drive.html

He better be fast ...

Ok, let's do math! We technically have a 20 car grid.

So Sauber didn't accept the decision and have been appealing again and again to change it. So the next hearing will be just before the practice sessions. If they get to no conclusion, Sauber won't race in Australia. We're down to 18.

Manor might not race in Australia because of a software bug in the engine. This might also continue until the next few races. So this brings to number down to 16 before we have even seen a minute or practice.

McLaren's reliability during testing was very poor, with the engine or car failing pretty much every day causing a driver to get a motivational concussion. Assuming the team doesn't burn all of the spares during practice and qualifying, they might still be out of the race in just a few laps. Oh hey, 14.

And then we have Force India, which is also in a bit of a messy situation, propably just driving around to survive. Who knows if they'll just start and park. And we're down to 12 cars.

I have a feeling I won't be watching the morning races this year. I just can't care about F1 with the situation it is in currently, and how FIA has been behaving during winter.

Well, If Sauber will give Guido the cockpit, there will be (after your logic) 14 cars. And there will be also 1-5 retires. So, at 14 cars it would be 13-9 (without Sauber 12-7) cars in the finish.




F1 need to become cheaper (and more attractive) or it'll become worthless, will split up into F1 and a ''pirate-series'' [GP1] or F1 will be removed.

By the way, F1 now has a Youtube channel, and it now there are some videos too: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_qr7 ... SF9Dmo6izg We'll see how fresh material they allow in, right now it's mostly from testing and highlights from previous year(s)