What would you do to below F1 single seaters/The lack of a non-spec series below F1

[Roninho]

I think it is perfectly doable to have a multi make serie, and actually think it would probably be doable to have a junior serie with each team designing and building its own car.
But it will only work if the serie is seen as THE stepping stone to F1. In that case every driver with sponsorship money (from a sponsor, daddy or OEM support) will be looking for a seat.
You will also have to accept that there will be teams with awfull cars, unreliable engines and constant out of money.

[Last2LiftOff]

Originally Posted by Roninho

You will also have to accept that there will be teams with awfull cars, unreliable engines and constant out of money.

Seems wonderfully contradictory Ron. How would teams with awful cars, unreliable engines, and constantly out of money be perfectly doable? Or have I missed the sarcasm?

[S griffin]

Maybe have the rules tight so no car has a massive advantage over the others

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

Seems wonderfully contradictory Ron. How would teams with awful cars, unreliable engines, and constantly out of money be perfectly doable? Or have I missed the sarcasm?

The 1 big advantage of spec racing and semi spec racing a la indycar is that 90% of the field is competitive.
A serie like f2 going for every team designing its own car is imo perfectly doable in the sense that a typical f2 budget should be big enough to pay for that.
However the differences between the cars will be huge, resulting in the back end of the grid being totally uncompetitive (a la tge 80s in f1 and indycar).

So yes its doable but will also redult in massive performance differences that we are not used to seeing in this era

[Johno.UK]

It's the age old issue of people looking at motorsport purely from the perspective of it being about the driver and nothing else. Spec series are fine if that were true but it's not. Motorsport is about everyone involved in the team. The more spec the car and the tighter the rules in non-spec series the less interest there is for engineers, designers etc.

[S griffin]

As I said multi make is a perfect training ground for both drivers and personal. It's easier if they have different constructors supplying the cars

[Go_For_Pole]

My view is that junior series are for nurturing talented drivers, being spec gives some sort of equality and that's fine. There are sportscar or touring car series where designers, engineers etc. can learn their trade.

[S griffin]

Yeah, but it would help if they did have the experience in single seater engineering

[Johno.UK]

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

My view is that junior series are for nurturing talented drivers, being spec gives some sort of equality and that's fine. There are sportscar or touring car series where designers, engineers etc. can learn their trade.

Not even close to being the same though. Would you think that a driver who had come up through karting and single seaters would be better prepared for F1 than a driver who had come up through Ginetta Juniors, WTCR etc?

World class designers and engineers need the same opportunity as drivers. If you hadn't guessed it's one of my pet hates that so many people think that motor racing begins and ends with the driver. They're nowhere without the team behind them.

[champcarman]

Interesting article in this weeks Autosport about this very topic .

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by Johno.UK

World class designers and engineers need the same opportunity as drivers. If you hadn't guessed it's one of my pet hates that so many people think that motor racing begins and ends with the driver. They're nowhere without the team behind them.

I agree with you about the latter point, however as essential as it is to train designers and engineers one shouldn't expect a young driver's budget (i.e. family most of the times) to fund this in addition to their daughter's / son's racing education. Families don't really have an obligation to the industry.