Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1
Titolo: [ENG] F1 boring

http://www.autosport.com/featuresasknigelitem.asp?id=20478&s=5&l=5
Dear Nigel,
What hope is there for Formula 1 when it travels to arguably the best
circuit in the world and the drivers still can't put on a decent race? Where
will it all end?
Jim Champion, Barnsley
Dear Jim,
First of all, I don't think for a moment it's the drivers who can't put on a
decent race. The mentality of the grand prix driver - when he's in the car,
anyway - doesn't change from era to era: he's a highly competitive creature,
who wants to be quicker than all the rest, wants to pass the car in front of
him. Simple as that.
Problem is, he doesn't have a lot of say in the path his sport follows. I
have yet to come across a single F1 driver who wouldn't, for example, ditch
the electronic 'gizmos' - traction control, above all - tomorrow, and
equally I have never encountered one who didn't hugely prefer
Spa-Francorchamps to a dump like the Hungaroring.
What I'm saying is that the drivers, by and large, like neither the
specification of the cars they are being given to drive these days, nor the
great majority of the circuits at which they have to drive them. In these
politically correct days, what the powers-that-be strive for is a nice,
safe, vacuum-packed, lucrative, event, in which not much happens, good or
bad.
Thus, we finish up with cars and circuits which might have been conceived to
make for poor racing, and I don't think I'm alone in believing that the time
has come for a fundamental reappraisal of what Formula 1 is supposed to be.
For so long it has prided itself on being the pinnacle of technology in
motor racing - but so what, if that technology actually militates against
the racing itself? Grand Prix cars, so far as I am concerned, have simply
become too efficient for their own good. At a time when F1 is suffering from
the current worldwide economic slump, tens of millions of dollars are being
squandered on technologies which make the cars less interesting to watch.
People like to see cars sliding, for Christ's Sake!
Long ago, Patrick Head said he thought this 'racing improves the breed'
stuff was a lot of nonsense, that F1 could stand alone, on its own merits,
as simply a sport, an entertainment, without any need to justify itself. I
entirely agree with him.
For many years, of course, F1 has been very 'fashionable', a place to be
seen for B- and C-list 'celebs', but the signs are that that phenomenon is
very much on the wane at the moment - the public's tastes are fickle, and
this happens in all activities and sports from time to time.
Having ridden the crest of a wave for so long, I think F1 has become
entirely too complacent. Whenever I have dared to suggest that the so-and-so
Grand Prix was a bit less than rivetting, the invariable rejoinder in the
paddock was, 'Look at the TV figures!'
They're not saying that now, because the TV figures, in many countries, are
not what they were - and if anything is going to get the attention of the
decision makers in this sport, it is this.
Various rule changes are on the way, but so far I don't think they are the
right ones. This 'one engine per weekend' thing, for example, seems to me
nothing more than an artifice, a stunt, aimed at occasionally producing an
unusual grid.
No, if you want to make racing better, I think you must make the cars less
efficient, and put back in the hands of the drivers what were once
considered their traditional skills - like gear changing and throttle
control and getting a car off a grid. You must make it human again.
Well, we can all dream, can't we?

 Well, we can all dream, can't we?
Posto che a me la F1 attuale non č che mi fa schifo, anzi, effettivamente
la federazione dovrebbe cominciare pensare a ridare alla F1 un aspetto
meno di fredda perfezione tecnologica. Tuttavia i costruttori puntano
proprio sulla perfezione tecnologica per pubblicizzare i propri prodotti.
Bisogna quindi con mani esperte saper scremare le cose necessarie da
quelle superflue. Personalmente ritengo che circuiti piů carismatici
farebbero un gran bene alla F1 ma purtroppo assistiamo a grossi passi
indietro (quali nuovo Hockenheim, l'addio a Spa ecc.). Anche per le
monoposto basterebbero pochi mirati accorgimenti per ridare piů spazio al
Pilota e renderlo meno passeggero (diminuzione dell'appoggio aerodinamico
e dell'elettronica). Va bene quindi la sfida tecnologica ai piů alti
livelli tra Construttori Mondiali ma questo non deve andare a sminuire le
aspettative dei Piloti e del pubblico che vorrebbero assistere a corse su
circuiti magici che incutono rispetto e con macchine meno su binari.
-- 
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
 segnala gli abusi ad 
ab...@newsland.it