Given the pre-season testing on at the moment and the supposed "freeze" in place that has still resulted in various improvements across the board, it's an interesting question. I'm spending a shitload of time in an isolation facility going backwards and forwards to my job in international waters, been spending a lot of time pounding the pavement listening to podcasts as there is literally nothing else to do. This one was just so enlightening:https://player.fm/series/rustys-garage/sam-michael with obvious parallels to Motogp. It's an in depth chat with Sam Michael https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Michael, who spent 20+ years in the F1 paddock, starting with Lotus in '93, becoming Race Engineer with Jordan, to Senior Operations Engineer with Williams, to Sporting Director at McLaren. Having experienced and influenced technical development at the forefront of motorsport he is a fascinating bloke to talk to. I used to think it was crazy that Raymond Roche and later Max Biaggi went through 20+ engines in a season on the way to winning their WSB championships. Sam talks about his Williams BMW years where they would go through 220 engines in a season (no misprint), 6 per weekend, plus testing etc. 600 people in an F1 team, with 60-odd actually travelling. 70kg's (?) of tungsten ballast on all the cars, when someone had they bright idea of using that weight to focus on safety aspects instead. It's also interesting to hear the path of development and the quest for technical advantage, with the leaps forward when only a couple of teams had their own wind tunnel, then everyone had to have a wind tunnel, the teams who first had the "7 post rig" for suspension analysis had a big advantage so then everyone had to have a 7 post rig, the super computing involved with millions of simulations/variations/permutations being carried out at any one time. The bit I found most interesting was the "soft" stuff: internal politics, the difference between tactics and strategy, how sport is war and the focus on obliterating the opposition which he admits is detrimental to the sport which places extreme importance on those running it, his encouraging young engineers to study history along with technical subjects because history is mostly about war. Sorry for the waffle, but I look at the way Honda has exerted their dominance, the way Dorna responded, the way Ducati are stretching the technical envelope and I wonder if Motogp will be more simple (to control costs) in the future as they try and put the aero genie back in the bottle....or is it too late?
10 years time the bikes will be electric unlesss someone comes up with an emissions free way of running an internal combustion engine.
No idea where it’ll be. But the costs involved in this level of motorsport is hideous my mate and fellow instructor (cars) is the test exhibition driver for Mclaren. He was saying that every time they want to run one of the v10’s they have to fly in two engineers from AMG just to start the thing. At the cost of about 25 grand. there’s been times even in touring cars when manufacturers were involved that they had a quali engine that would go in to the bin after 5 laps. Mental. I don’t think it’ll go electric personally. If it does it’ll be the end of motorsport as a spectator sport. Nobody I know in manufacture r&d or indeed motorsport believes that the future is electric. Most just state that governments have given them grants to look at electric which is why they do it.
It's an interesting question. I think there's going to be a huge shift in a lot of motorsport over the next few years with all the chasing of environmental targets. I really hope I'm wrong and hopefully bikes will be the last to go as the impact has to be less based on materials consumed, fuel, shipping etc. compared to cars.
My view it's a fine balance between safety and spectacle. Years ago before all of the electronics, or even early electronics you'd see high-side after high-side, drama, crashes, and the riders talent. As time has gone on the electronics have become so important that the rider is less important to a small degree. Saying that I think Dorna have got the reg's pretty much bang on currently, the racing is close and although the bikes may not be pretty it's certainly a halo moment in terms of where we are. The future, well the push is for electric bikes, and the actually racing looks good. Saying that I was at Mugello the other year on the start/finish when they had Max Biaggi doing parade laps on a Moto-E bike, you had no idea where it was on the circuit and it was 1/2 down the start/finish before I'd twigged it was even out on track. The noise of an ICE especially a MotoGP engine is out of this world and when you've got 25+ flying around regardless of whether you can see them or not is something to experience first hand. I occasionally listen to a few podcasts, mainly MotoGP and Toby Moody (remember him) has a great one call the race, in a recent podcast they were discussing Moto-E and if it would get bigger, and the consensus was no, because there was no noise it won't attract the fans, and even went on to suggest batteries are the stepping stone to the next power source...
I know the vast majority of fans watch the racing on screens of one type or another. They know where the bikes are. The engine noise on their smartphones isn't very loud. Will watching in the stadium lose some appeal or change - yeah definitely.
It’s that age old axiom: be careful what you wish for. Aero seems to be the new electronics. I get the whole “prototype” argument for unfettered development but listening to Sam Michael it is a scary prospect seeing just how far the combatants are prepared to go. Can’t help feeling aero is in the same “no real world application category” as the seamless gearbox, the holeshot device, pneumatic valves etc. Yet it’s cost the manufacturer’s millions, if not billions collectively, just to “keep up with the Jones’s”. Maybe a new model needs to be considered: Sam talked about the F1 manufacturers association being able to ban/veto certain technologies and it also illustrated his tactics vs strategy attitude: no-one patents anything in F1 (looking at you HRC with your seamless gearbox). Why? He gave the example of a team developing some 4 wheel active braking technology and they went on to patent it so nobody else could copy it. The other teams got together and simply banned it. Millions to develop the competitive advantage, wiped out in a 5 minute meeting! You and I might take the approach, well no point focussing on pushing the boundaries, right? Wrong. The focus now becomes development and secrecy/espionage. Deadset spy shit without the prospect of firing squads being involved, lol. Do MSMA have the right to push back on technical rules? Should they? Ducati have shown that nothing is off limits if you are prepared to pay for it.
Or there will be some background "music" with extra commentarty to fill in the void. Six years ago -possibly the majority- people who watched F1 said it would go out of business because the booming V10's would mean the fans would not turn up. That was back when Hamiliton only had one WDC... What seems to be more accurate is people don't like the idea of change, the media stir everyone up, then the change happens and mostly its OK.
Look at the viewing figures though and tickets sold/merchandise etc And you will see that f1 is most definitely dying and has been for a while now. it’s just not exciting anymore. There’s not really any personalities in it either. Corporate sponsors and political correctness has fucked the job. f1 drivers used to be talented playboys, proper hero types. now they’re geeky looking teenagers who thank Vodafone straight after a race instead of banging 30 birds in a hotel room.
The viewing figures are skewed by the pay per view access imo. I don't know about the merchandise, but after you've bought Lewis WDC t.shirt three times I'd imagine its enough? F1 is always damaged by the same guy winning every race. It was the same after four years of Schumacher.
Go along to the British Grand Prix and see how empty the stands are. I seem to recall that f1 lost 19-20 million viewers between 19-20 alone. the “I’m a racing driver line” doesn’t work anymore. It used to be a proper statement and access all areas to vagina worldwide. I can categorically tell you that unless it’s accompanied by a very large wallet, nobody gives a fuck anymore. The chicks aren’t letting you rummage around in their insides because you’re a personality. also have you seen modern motorsport fans ? Christ alive. They’re like trainspotters.
I don't know, maybe the stands are simply too expensive? Silverstone 2019 attendance was 141,000 https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...s welcomed more than,) and Melbourne (102,000). https://www.planetf1.com/news/silve...y Reuters.com,Australian Grand Prix (324,100). Silverstone 2018 140, 500 https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/british-gp-silverstone-revenue-profit-2018-f1 So these numbers may be slightly over or biased, but it doesn't look disastrous?
If that’s for a weekend. It’s pretty bad. brands superbikes used to get 100k+ in one day on a regular.
That's not just motorsport though, that's the whole world. Big business has the biggest say in pretty much everything these days. Unless it makes them money, they will have no interest. And moving on to the electric thing, it maybe that motorsport will get some dispensation in this but the reality is the internal combustion engine has a very limited lifespan unless someone can make one that does not pollute the world. We are killing our enviroment at an alarming rate and at some point in the next 10-20 years we will reach a tipping point from which there might be no coming back.
Likewise we need to actually come up with an alternative that is better and not just peddled as a poster boy which is massively flawed. we can go on about how polluting combustion is all day long. But as of this time there’s not viable alternative
If we don't find a viable alternative and very soon, there won't be any future to think about. The flaw in the electric vehicle is the battery, the energy can be had for free every single day of the year, but scientific minds are working on that. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200428165755.htm
