2011 Rules

[Quiet One 15]

It's worth noting that three series considered "professional" with overtaking assists either died or are dying.

Champ Car World Series...never had enough popularity to stay afloat and went the same place as the owners' money: far, far away.

A1 Grand Prix...those "drivers and fans" love the overtaking button so much no one actually bothered to care about A1 and it too died.

IndyCar Series...some races get viewership as low as 307,000 people total (in fact, 921,000 viewers for the Texas race was sooo much the IRL have been bragging about it for weeks...that's 1/3 of what the Canadian Grand Prix got in the United States) and the series couldn't be closer to just folding up and going away. Ratings have actually gone down since they added the overtake button, turning their typical Penske and Ganassi-led parades into...Penske and Ganassi-led parades where Penske and Ganassi sometimes push buttons to pass each other.

Point being?

People aren't actually attracted to this fake racing. Formula 1 won't lose 80,000,000 viewers and collapse to the lows of CCWS, A1, and IRL, but they're not going to gain interest by doing this, even if it does generate overtaking. It's action, but it isn't interesting action, and that's the problem. You can have real overtakes more frequently if you try hard enough rather than take the easy way out and introduce driver aids of all sorts to do the overtaking for them.

A comment from James Allen's blog sums it up nicely: "Overtaking is an art, not a right"

[Pucky the Whale 0]

I'll agree with that comment to raise my post count so I can change my username to lewistERIC. Har har, I thought it was clever too.

[Rainmaster 7]

A comment from James Allen's blog sums it up nicely: "Overtaking is an art, not a right"

Yep - you just saved me a post (well, not really, because I wouldn't have posted this if you hadn't of posted that, but you get me).

I'll agree with that comment to raise my post count so I can change my username to lewistERIC. Har har, I thought it was clever too.

You're one crazy guy Lew.

[Autumnpuma 0]

My only comment about the new rules is a certain concern over Pirelli. Do they really know how to make a tyre that can withstand the extreme stresses of an F1 car? I doubt it. Their first year will be marked with a huge number of de-laminating tyres. Also, because they'll be dramatically altering the tyre construction from race to race until they figure out the right compound we will see some bizarre results as the teams chase their respective tails to find a good set-up on tyres that are no longer consistent.

[Jean Todt 4]

My only comment about the new rules is a certain concern over Pirelli. Do they really know how to make a tyre that can withstand the extreme stresses of an F1 car? I doubt it. Their first year will be marked with a huge number of de-laminating tyres. Also, because they'll be dramatically altering the tyre construction from race to race until they figure out the right compound we will see some bizarre results as the teams chase their respective tails to find a good set-up on tyres that are no longer consistent.

I don't think it will be much of a problem....they can hire former Michelin or even Bridgestone employees who are in the market...hiring bridgestone guys could be a bit unrealistic because of the varying culture or language barrier....not that its bad, but thats the way it it....Michelin guys may work out fine..