Grosjean: F1 split into two categories
Romain Grosjean says fighting in the unofficial "B" championship in formula one is nonetheless enjoyable.
The Frenchman drives for Haas, the small Ferrari-linked team that is locked in a close battle for fourth with Renault.
But not too far behind Renault and Haas are McLaren, Force India, Toro Rosso and Sauber, and Grosjean says that sort of close competition is what is missing at the front of the grid.
"The problem today is that there are two different F1s on the same track," he told France's Auto Hebdo.
"The 'B' F1 that I am in is pretty cool with nice fights," Grosjean added.
"At one race we're ahead, at another it's Force India, Renault, Sauber or Toro Rosso. There is action, competition, suspense. Everything that is missing at the front of the race, in fact.
"We go to Austin knowing that there will be a Mercedes or Ferrari on pole with the Red Bull behind. A crazy qualifying can make an interesting grid but everything quickly returns to normal in the race," he said.
"They have their race and we have ours. The cars are extremely reliable, crashes are rare, and no one runs out of fuel. There is no more surprise," added Grosjean.
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Yes! All the more reason to consider my proposal: decouple the drivers from the car teams. Let every driver get to drive a different (team) car twice during the season. That'll show who has talent, and what car is best.
Until one of them gets injured doing it....what then? Legal palooza! A nice idea but it could never happen. In the '80's they had a seperate series where all the drivers drove randomly picked BMW M1's. Now that was talent based racing!
What do you mean "what then?" It takes an effort and attention, but not an astronomical amount of money to make sure that all cars are safe for all drivers. Didn't Hemingway, at any rate, say that there are only three sports: mountain climbing, bull-fighting, and car racing (because there is a danger of being killed.) Everything else is just a game. Bernie Eccles said very recently that the current cars are TOO SAFE. If a tightrope walker did his walking 3 feet above the ground nobody would come to see him. Racing cars are safest when parked, but that's not what they were built for.
What I mean by what then.....
scenario 1 - driver A is fighting for the championship and has to drive another teams car that weekend, it just happens that the car he has to drive belongs to his main rival. do I need to draw pictures here? ....
i could go on with countless reasons why not and different scenarios but its pointless. It just wont happen.
No, don't draw a picture, I am not very good at interpreting art on account of being colour blind. If any driver stakes the whole season on what happens at the very last race that is his problem (see example of Alonso who is a good driver but a lousy manager of his career.) On the other hand that is, perhaps, what we should want. Imagine 5 drivers at the last race of the season all vying for the title and within 20 points of each other. Wouldn't that be preferable to the current situation of the runaway leader like Hamilton now, or Vettel at Red Bull, when they became champions with 4 races to spare. I thought that that is exactly what the fans and viewers came to detest.
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