Ask Goodwin - Can you fix F1?
Arguably, Formula 1 hasn't been exciting for years but does Goodwin have a solution?
Can you fix F1? - Sue Thorne, Exeter
Where to start? One thing that I’ve come to realise is that we don’t have a problem with the drivers. They’re talended, committed and brave, even if they’re not facing the challenges that their forebears did. I’m pretty sure that if cars and circuits weren’t as safe as they are today, there would still be young blokes taking as big risks as drivers did in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Perhaps F1 simply has to continue to go downhill until virtually no one is interested in watching it any more. Then the money will start going elsewhere and so will the manufacturers. Only when the incredibly greedy people who are behind the sport start to lose out financially will they seriously think about making sensible changes. And people will continue to abandon F1. Several friends, one of whom can spout qualifying lap times from 30 years ago, can’t bring himself to watch it any more.
One thing I’d certainly do is make the cars harder to drive. Newcomers arrive in F1 and are immediately quick and on the pace. This doesn’t always happen in Moto GP. Colin Edwards was fantastic in world superbikes but never won a GP. Cal Crutchlow is clearly a superb rider but he isn’t in the same league as Rossi, Marquez, Lorenzo and Pederosa. Even with electronic aids, those bikes are clearly not easy to ride on the limit.
I don’t understand any of the new rules, when you can deploy DRS etc and can barely be bothered to find out how the new qualifying works. You shouldn’t need to get your head around a load of rules and regulations. Motor racing used to be a simple sport to watch: a green flag was waved and everyone went like a bastard until the bloke picked up the chequered flag and waved it when the winner went over the line.
Let me know when F1 has been fixed, meanwhile, I’ll be watching events like the Goodwood Members’ Meeting.
