Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing? (Read 4586 times)

What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Yes, it can be exciting for 30 seconds or so when start if there's a pile up, but then the rest is just waiting for something to happen which is not often.

Does it pollute, smell, is it noisy?.  ----   yes.

Does it advance passenger car design?.--- Once upon a time perhaps, but not now

Is it worth the money?.  ---  I don't think so.

Vroom, Vroom !

Are people interested in it?  ---   Surprisingly, some are.

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #2 –
I'm not sure that Electromagnetic Engine is the right word but if so it could raise some interesting racing possibilities, to Pluto and back for example. However I doubt it would raise the interest level of the race itself, not so much watching paint dry, more watching it evaporate.

NASA's Physics-Defying Electromagnetic Drive May Work in Space

In fact it's. difficult to coin a single concept for a F1 Racing Car engine

The new F1 power plants – you can't call them engines anymore

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #3 –
You just can't make some people happy I guess.

F1 race cars gave up gasoline as a fuel a long time ago. These days they burn an alcohol fuel-- have for years. Straight methanol last I heard. Now, that DOES produce a smell of course, and some pollution--- but NOT the standard hydrocarbon that gasoline would produce.

All those high-tech computer controls and electronic gadgets should help the cars get better mileage and power--- which MAY someday translate into better cars on your showroom floor. Then again maybe not. But--- time will tell on that one.

Expensive? Sure. But it's not YOUR money so what's your beef? These cars are heavily sponsored (shoot, a lot of them are little more than rolling bill-boards) so corporate money is being spent on these machines.

You don't enjoy the sport? Don't watch it. Personally, I don't care for American football and will do anything to miss it when I can--- but people do enjoy the game so it's here to stay for awhile.


Unlimited hydroplane racing--- now THERE'S a sport I can get into. Watching, anyway-- no way I could afford one of those boats. Of course it shares some things in common with F1 cars--- it's furiously expensive, the tech involved will most likely never show up on any fishing-boat I could ever buy, and it's heavily sponsored. But--- I do enjoy watching the spectacle.
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #4 –
I was under the impression that all electric motors worked using electromagnetic fields? But yes, I suppose electric motor or engine would be the right term.

Quote from: string on
In fact it's. difficult to coin a single concept for a F1 Racing Car engine

The new F1 power plants – you can't call them engines anymore

I don't really follow F1, but I'm not sure if anything except perhaps one-cylinder internal combustion engines can be called "simple". But mostly it just sounds like a miniaturized version of perfectly standard train enginespower units. :P

Quote from: mjmsprt40 on
Expensive? Sure. But it's not YOUR money so what's your beef? These cars are heavily sponsored (shoot, a lot of them are little more than rolling bill-boards) so corporate money is being spent on these machines.

While product pricing is driven primarily by what they think the market is prepared to pay, one imagines there might still be a small correlation between such corporate spending and their final automobile pricing. I mean, it's not like it exists in a vacuum into which money can just indefinitely be funneled.

Quote from: mjmsprt40 on
Unlimited hydroplane racing--- now THERE'S a sport I can get into. Watching, anyway-- no way I could afford one of those boats. Of course it shares some things in common with F1 cars--- it's furiously expensive, the tech involved will most likely never show up on any fishing-boat I could ever buy, and it's heavily sponsored. But--- I do enjoy watching the spectacle.

I think it looks visually far more exciting, myself.

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #5 –
Plane races look awesome. Bet that would be entertaining to watch in person even without crashes.

Boat and car racing never really seemed so exciting to me. I avoid some family members during Nascar races. That's just dreadful to try and watch.

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: ensbb3 on

Plane races look awesome. Bet that would be entertaining to watch in person even without crashes.

Boat and car racing never really seemed so exciting to me. I avoid some family members during Nascar races. That's just dreadful to try and watch.


I had the great misfortune to have to overnight in Talledega just a few days before NASCAR hit town. The motels can charge whatever they like during the time just before and during the race--- and they take full advantage of it. That was last year as it happens.

When NASCAR hits town in a place like Talledega, it's PARTY TIME. No doubt of it.
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: mjmsprt40 on
When NASCAR hits town in a place like Talledega, it's PARTY TIME. No doubt of it.


Oh I've heard tale. They try to get me to go, no thx.

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #9 –
Joking aside, there was a conversation on the BBC the other day on how to make F1 more exciting.

Car speed was identified as contributing to boring races, speed being so high that it made overtaking more difficult. Without being specific it was suggested that the cars should be made slower.

I'm not so sure that is an answer but the race circuits could be made more convoluted to offer many more overtaking opportunities.

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #10 –
What turns F1 boring is the absence of danger.

Cars passes so distant from spectators at the new circuits that no one can feel any excitement. No tv can transmit the way a person "shakes" inside when a fast race car passes near him. No tv can trigger all that adrenaline.

I had three captive seats at the Race Track of Estoril for many years and saw the two first F1 Grand-Prix there and I remember quite well Ayrton Senna driving divinely that fabulous black John Player Special's Lotus. :)

Or, when at the second year, under a deluge, Alain Prost right in front of me at the finish line straight, gets aquaplaning and spins for three times without hitting the boxes or the spectator's tribune wall and gains control again at near 300 km/h, arriving at the first corner still ahead the other drivers. Believe me, he never decelerated...

Those were the good times.
Today, I fall a sleep with F1 on tv.
A matter of attitude.

Re: What's the point of F1 Motor Racing?

Reply #11 –
I think you've got your finger on the pulse there Bel.

It does suggest a new variant of TV.

TV with vibration actuators set into the floor, smell generators giving burnt rubber outputs and billowing fumes. Maybe a motor on the TV itself which would run over a randomly chosen viewer at least one per race.

The element of danger is indeed missing.

That will wake you up from your slumber!