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8 Jan 2021, 00:03 (Ref:4027550) | #1 | ||
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Customer Cars?
With the increasing difficulties for a new team starting or getting into F1, maybe its time to go back to customer cars or used cars for new teams.
Merc etc could sell its 2020 chassis to new start up to use in 2021 or manufacture a number of chassis for customers to run with whatever engine they can get a deal on or make themselves. This would be a cheaper way in for new teams, if they could buy someone elses chassis, give existing teams an additional income stream and a market for their used chassis. You would also see red bull car with merc engine, ferrari chassis with renault engine etc. Optionally a company like Lola, Dallara or someone just making chassis for 3rd parties and not ever entering themselves. Maybe a 2 - 3 year limit. Only allow a new team to use customer chassis for 1st 2 or 3 years, then start making their own or get out. After all there are some who say Haas and Racing point are pretty close to doing this quietly anyhow |
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8 Jan 2021, 00:25 (Ref:4027553) | #2 | ||
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It's a slippery slope that F1 is really wary of. Before you know it, F1 can wind up like IndyCar. History shows that it's a one way trip that I don't think any series has ever come back from.
That's just not factual. It's not even true for Alpha Tauri anymore, although was true at some point in the past. |
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8 Jan 2021, 01:03 (Ref:4027554) | #3 | |||
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"there are some who say..." Last edited by bathurst77; 8 Jan 2021 at 01:13. |
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8 Jan 2021, 01:07 (Ref:4027555) | #4 | ||
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Blummin’ ‘eck do we have to be so argumentative about everything round here. Let’s take what someone posts and run with it rather have to find a bit that we can pronounce is wrong.
There are some who consider Haas and Racing Point as getting too close to customer teams as it is. Note the number of “pink Mercedes” comments. I agree that they still put a lot of work into the design themselves, but you can see what is being getting at. Now if you think this is too far it might be of interest. Personally I would try and keep the individual teams as constructors. I find that of interest, but customer cars do have some benefits. |
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8 Jan 2021, 01:10 (Ref:4027556) | #5 | ||
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Also a team could buy a customer/used car and change the aero or anything on it.. maybe the williams would be faster if the front wing or something was changed..
Would be embarrassing if your last year or customer car was beating your actual team car. Of course if youre not building your own car, you cant earn points in the constructors championship (so they wouldnt get as much money each season).... Which again gives teams incentive to move away from the customer car to being constructors and enter that championship. Or does the chassis builder get any points you score? |
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8 Jan 2021, 01:16 (Ref:4027558) | #6 | ||
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From
https://wtf1.com/post/6-years-where-...e-works-teams/ customer cars weren’t officially banned in F1 until 2010, though teams never really made use of the practice. It made a bit of a comeback in the late-2000s when Super Aguri ran old Honda chassis, and when Red Bull used the same cars for both of its teams, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso. In 2008, Toro Rosso didn’t get its new car until the Monaco Grand Prix but when it did, Red Bull Racing was in for a bit of an embarrassment. Dubbed the STR3, the Adrian Newey-designed chassis was basically identical to Red Bull’s RB4, the only difference being the Ferrari engine and gearbox in the back, compared to the Renault which powered the Red Bull. Despite the smaller budget and lack of updates compared to Red Bull, the engine gave Toro Rosso a bit of an advantage – well, that and the fact it had a young Sebastian Vettel as a driver. He became a regular points scorer and took that brilliant victory at a soaking wet Monza, and by the end of the year Toro Rosso had scored 39 points – 10 more than it’s sister – and supposedly ‘main’ – team. |
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8 Jan 2021, 02:06 (Ref:4027565) | #7 | |
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The constructors championship should be done away with as it distorts everything and makes F1 an engineering championship and not a drivers one which it should be. Getting rid of the constructors championship and making it viable to new entrants to use a customer car is the one thing that would raise interest and introduce new blood into the sport but it won't happen.
The constructor teams would then benefit from being able to sell on their previous year cars and at least get some money back. BTW it was introduced in 1958 which surprises me as I thought it was a Bernie invention. Just because it has been in place for that long does not mean changes could be made for customer cars, preferably its removal. No new teams will be added now anyway due to the lockout fee that has been introduced to artificially guarantee the teams have a value and can't just disappear without someone getting money in their hand. |
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8 Jan 2021, 02:10 (Ref:4027566) | #8 | ||
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8 Jan 2021, 04:09 (Ref:4027571) | #9 | |||
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Quote:
Bernie invention?! Officially or not the formula was a competition of constructors who tried to hire the best drivers, among other personnel, since well before the World Championship began, well before Bernard Ecclestone was even conceived! And the roots of it reach back to first ever motor race. It's all (well, most) of the other major types of racing that changed from a constructor competition to a competition of drivers in equal machinery. Honestly, I suggest seeking out a brilliant documentary series called Victory By Design presented by Alain de Cadenet, who himself is a former racing driver and constructor. It's about the different car makes and their efforts in racing. First of all it's porn, if you like cars, since he actually drives all of the legendary cars he's talking about. And secondly, it'll give you a whole new appreciation for racing history, since it's not grainy black and white silent footage, but fire-breathing machines filmed in full colour with HD audio. Last edited by Pandamasque; 8 Jan 2021 at 04:18. |
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8 Jan 2021, 04:31 (Ref:4027572) | #10 | ||||
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Quote:
Quote:
That could be a solution. But it seems most current teams are against even something like this right now. Every time you make a big change like that in favour of potential entrants, existing entrants feel threatened. |
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8 Jan 2021, 05:44 (Ref:4027575) | #11 | |
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8 Jan 2021, 07:27 (Ref:4027584) | #12 | ||
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8 Jan 2021, 07:28 (Ref:4027585) | #13 | ||
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Customer cars must be 1 year old minimum snd compete for a Class B championship.
If on the odd ocassion one gets in the mix at the front they can score drivers points but not constructors. |
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8 Jan 2021, 08:00 (Ref:4027586) | #14 | ||
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Just throwing my bit into the ring here.
I see the advantages of allowing customer cars for new teams (or cars based on something that has been raced before) and also agree with the three years limit. But, I also think the the teams should be allowed to score constructors points, but why not make that half points? That will reward the teams who can develop/improve the cars (showing that they will be capable of being a contender when they have to produce their own chassis), and give them an improved income at the end of the season. |
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8 Jan 2021, 09:02 (Ref:4027590) | #15 | ||
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What a fascinating question. Would a two year old Mercedes driven by the latest up and coming hotshoe still be quicker than a state of the art Alpine or Alfa Romeo driven by some old tugger filling up his pension?
We need more teams on the grid to give young drivers the chance. They will have to pay for their drive anyway (it's always been like that, e.g. Niki Lauda), maybe if we could make it slightly less expensive some underfunded stars could come through rather than just the super-rich. We must keep the Constructors' Championship. Motor racing has always been about the cars, it's in the very name of the sport. The problem is it's been turned into "F1" for the top layer with a focus on people. Go back to the 30s and the likes of Carracciola, Rosemeyer and Seaman may have been the high-profile names paid a king's ransom to drive the brutes, but it was always Mercedes or Auto Union that was seen as the winner rather than the driver. Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk |
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8 Jan 2021, 10:41 (Ref:4027608) | #16 | ||
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Williams started as a privateer running a year old car manufactured by others
Ronni Peterson, John Watson and many others had their first drives in privateer teams It was only way to make up grids until late 60’s when you could buy DFV’s And it allowed the small constructors to build cars Suggest the problem these days is the complexity of the cars In the old days it was five mechanics and a few extras Not the army involved as now |
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8 Jan 2021, 11:30 (Ref:4027618) | #17 | ||
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I can see why midfield and back of the grid teams who design and make their own car would be massively opposed to one of their competitors just buying a championship winning car off the shelf. Does anyone want to see the front two rows of the grid filled with the same car, with team orders and inter-team orders in play preventing proper racing?
F1 needs to be financially fair enough in order that the current teams do not go out of business. If we do lose teams, then one solution would be customer cars, but I would see that as a last resort. I would prefer to see the ridiculously over complicated and massively expensive engines and other costs cut first, so that teams can continue to operate, and potentially even new teams join. Another issue is that F1 rules and regs change from season to season, so last years car might not be viable under this seasons regulations. |
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It's just my opinion. |
8 Jan 2021, 11:41 (Ref:4027621) | #18 | |
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Your opinion is different to mine and I am expressing it and I explained why. F1 is strangling because it has become an engineering w***k fest, nothing more and nothing less and if it continues and it will without intervention then the best engineering team wins every time, enter the whinging about Mercedes winning every year. If it was a pure driving championship with no other reward then no driver is infallible and the champion is less predictable. It isn't going to happen so don't get your underwear in a twist.
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8 Jan 2021, 11:47 (Ref:4027625) | #19 | ||
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Adam, I apologise for this post but some things need to be said. Please feel free to delete either of my posts, I have said my bit. |
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8 Jan 2021, 12:48 (Ref:4027642) | #20 | |||
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(Purposely using your type of language here). Read what people say and get their meaning rather than being so dismissive. You can be dismissive if someone claims the earth is flat. They didn’t here. We’re done with this now. Think about it. |
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8 Jan 2021, 13:03 (Ref:4027646) | #21 | |
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Well, accounting that F1 is so commercially lucrative that one the features of it is gone (fluctuation of performance from year to year, self regulation and "natural attrition" of competitors moving or leaving), and these corporations acting as race teams are taking the mickey out of the series (Ferrari and MB in particular), the only way I can see to satisfy most factors is for F1 to expand to 2 or 3 divisions. And have promotion and relegation like European football leagues.
It's an overinflated economy. It's too hard to cherry pick specific features of the past and think its suitable now. |
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8 Jan 2021, 13:17 (Ref:4027652) | #22 | |
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Customer cars were once a thing in F1 and even since they were pretty much outlawed, the topic keeps popping up now and again in F1. Obviously there is plenty of pros and cons to it. On the one hand it could help new teams enter the sport. On the other it would be tougher for those building their own cars if they are beaten by a customer car and there might be a lot of arguments, which we can do without
It’s very hard to manage if you ask me. With major technical rule changes, like the one coming in in 2022, you can’t always run last year’s cars. If you are to run customer cars a lot of thought would be needed into it. Maybe it could work if a new team comes in, it can run a customer car for the first 1-2 years, with say a weight handicap so it doesn’t get a big advantage and then after that has to build it’s own car. It might work, it might not. But I wouldn’t want to be the one making the decision here |
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8 Jan 2021, 13:42 (Ref:4027656) | #23 | |||
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8 Jan 2021, 13:43 (Ref:4027657) | #24 | ||
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More generally if there are customer cars then is it best to limit to last years car as mentioned in passing above? How do we manage a transition to new rules (BoP?).
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8 Jan 2021, 14:09 (Ref:4027659) | #25 | |
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No plan is perfect and my suggestion does not work in a major change as will happen in a few years time. Having said that F1 in the past has allowed legacy cars to run in a split championship...atmo v's turbo which was not a roaring success so there maybe a legacy year where that could be repeated. Not ideal but if it works then why not.
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