Grand Slam of F1??

[strad]

Racing is too variable regarding outside influences..You can't have a Grand Slam or a Super Bowl when weather for example could throw such a monkey wrench into such a race.
The out come would hardly be representative of ranking.

[astracrazy]

I´d rather see one endurance race instead to really test the cars to the max.

a 6 hour race at some racetrack they don´t run at today would be cool.

Because a driver could last that long in an f1 car?

[scuderiafan]

I'd like to see a race at Indianapolis, like they had back in the day. They could use ultra-special one-off cars and race for double points.

[thearmofbarlow]

Racing is too variable regarding outside influences..You can't have a Grand Slam or a Super Bowl when weather for example could throw such a monkey wrench into such a race.
The out come would hardly be representative of ranking.

Oh well. Be better at everything. It really is that simple. It never ceases to amaze me how the supposed top drivers and teams crap themselves silly whenever the track gets mildly moist while the backmarkers have their best finishes.

If Bernie wants to do this, do it right. Non-championship events for BIG money. Wasn't that the original point of a Grand Prix anyway? Do three races spread through the year. Make the races slightly longer. Make it DIFFICULT again because the fact is that monkey wrenches are what make racing interesting. Perfect tracks, perfect weather, perfect cars makes for BORING racing.

[strad]

I agree thearmofbarlow but it wouldn't be a fair contest.

[Websta]

Then they would have to reintroduce refuelling and develop ultra-durable tyres for a 6 hour race.

Not really. Just need a whole lot more pit stops.
refuelling could be done in a very safe manner like they do in NASCAR where gravity controls the refuelling speed.

I prefer the current absence of refuelling in F1 as it allows the teams to make more drastic strategy changes mid-race and allows more effective undercuting, etc. I wouldn't want it to return. Having more pit stops would be one option to accommodate a 6 hour race, but it would be something ridiculous like 15 pit stops plus per car.

I don't see why watching a 6 hour race would be exciting either.

Right because nobody ever watches Le Mans, ALMS etc. it´s because it´s sooo boring.

Like I said, to each their own. You must have missed that. I myself can't sit through more than 3 hours of racing maximum and I suspect that only racing enthusiasts would be bothered with a 5 and a half hour coast-a-thon and 30 minutes of actual racing. That is a small proportion of F1 fans. Endurance races are only races in the opening and final stints so that is what I would tune in for. The rest of the time they are just focusing on long distance, consistent lap time stints. Nobody I know watches anywhere close to the whole 24 hours of Le Mans and Daytona or full 12 hours of SeBring either so essentially people would only be tuning in periodically. Not even here in Australia do people watch more than half the Bathurst 1000.

You might as well just record an F1 race and set the playback at 1/3 speed. That's essentially what it would be like.

Maybe in some parallel universe yes.

I meant that the cars wouldn't be sprinting for 6 hours. The engines and gearboxes couldn't handle that, the tyres certainly couldn't (a 15 stop strategy would be unlikely to win anything so most teams would do long runs), and the drivers themselves would definitely not handle a 6 hour sprint. So they would be driving around much slower (okay, not 1/3 the speed), but it wouldn't exactly be F1. They would be lapping marginally faster than LMP cars. Now what is Formula 1 about that?

Alternatively, they could design specific packages for the endurance event. They would require different regulations so I wonder what "the ultimate endurance race cars" would look like...

[Lycoming]

The appeal of endurance racing is the strategy, and particularly at some tracks, the attrition rate.

Also, worth pointing out that even in the slightly less physically demanding 24 hours of le mans, regulations only allow you to drive MAXIMUM 4 hours straight, which is the longest I've ever heard of for an endurance series (24 hours of Nurburgring is 2 hours max).

Also building endurance spec cars sounds really, really expensive. It would almost certainly mean a new powertrain, which by itself is already ridiculous.

[Maelstrom]

It sounds like a silly idea. The countries whose tracks aren't selected for the event won't be happy and it will be a nightmare to telecast. Bernie already wants night races in certain tracks to alloow telecast to be in decent hours in Europe. Can you imagine scheduling a six hour race?

Not not mention they might become lottery races.

Endurance should be over a season and not a race.

[megz]

Then they would have to reintroduce refuelling and develop ultra-durable tyres for a 6 hour race. An endurance event isn't feasible. Having 400km races would also require increasing the capacity of the fuel tanks, which seems like a waste considering that it would compromise the cars for majority of the races that season. They would have to develop and build specific endurance-spec cars and Pirelli would need to develop super-hard compound tyres.

Bring back refuelling for the "endurance" event, as others have mentioned, problem solved.

Super-hard tyres? 2005's Bridgestones and Michelins were regularly doing 320km a set. Not a difficult proposition for Pirelli to hire some engineers from that era or reverse engineering a few that are still around. That problem solved.

Endurance spec cars? Well the engine and gearboxes need to last at least 4 Grand prix distances and then some with Quali and Practice sessions under the current regulations - lets say 1200km (races) + 1200km (practice + quali) that's 2400km without breaking too much sweat and well within the engine life spans that have been documented so far. (Yes, I am aware that engines and gearboxes are routinely maintained and examined in between races).

The issue would not be about the equipment it would be the driver, and we could just do a straight driver swap to deal to that issue, like any other endurance event.

All of that said, I'm not sure I'd be for the silly old fart's idea. It'd have to be on an amazing circuit (Spa or Potrero de los Fumes for example) - Circuits need to go back to the natural environment I reckon. Those two plus the old Hockeheim and Monza are so much more nicer to watch in my opinion.

[TheRMVR]

The reason this works in tennis is because at the end of the year there is no Tennis Champion 2011. You don't work a whole season up to one championship. A Grand Slam tournament is a title on it's own, its doesnt contribute to an end of the year champion. Sure in tennis they have the Masters series but thats different.

So there is a F1 2011 Champion by the name of Vettel, but no Tennis 2011 champion in which the Grand Slams contribute, THATS the difference. In F1 you count your championships in tennis you count your grand slams.

[thearmofbarlow]

The reason this works in tennis is because at the end of the year there is no Tennis Champion 2011. You don't work a whole season up to one championship. A Grand Slam tournament is a title on it's own, its doesnt contribute to an end of the year champion. Sure in tennis they have the Masters series but thats different.

So there is a F1 2011 Champion by the name of Vettel, but no Tennis 2011 champion in which the Grand Slams contribute, THATS the difference. In F1 you count your championships in tennis you count your grand slams.

So bring back non-championship races at "difficult" tracks. Who wouldn't like to see the Indy oval back on the F1 calendar? Not the road course, the oval... talk about old school. Or even LeMans or Nurburgring. It could all happen if some rich bastard out there wanted it to.

[Maelstrom]

This idea seems like a pipedream that might not take place for years if it ever does.

The amount of planning and rule changes it would require would be staggering.

[TheRMVR]

The reason this works in tennis is because at the end of the year there is no Tennis Champion 2011. You don't work a whole season up to one championship. A Grand Slam tournament is a title on it's own, its doesnt contribute to an end of the year champion. Sure in tennis they have the Masters series but thats different.

So there is a F1 2011 Champion by the name of Vettel, but no Tennis 2011 champion in which the Grand Slams contribute, THATS the difference. In F1 you count your championships in tennis you count your grand slams.

So bring back non-championship races at "difficult" tracks. Who wouldn't like to see the Indy oval back on the F1 calendar? Not the road course, the oval... talk about old school. Or even LeMans or Nurburgring. It could all happen if some rich bastard out there wanted it to.

But don't you think all teams would end up using such a race to test parts? And the 'poor' teams probably wouldn't even show up. I don't see how that could work.

[Lycoming]

It would only happen if some rich bastard thought they could get richer by doing it. Just to clarify that.

[thearmofbarlow]

But don't you think all teams would end up using such a race to test parts? And the 'poor' teams probably wouldn't even show up. I don't see how that could work.

It worked until 1983.