http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-spa-f1-layout-to-be-shortened-report/

Get rid of Stavelot?  If they keep crapping up all these classic tracks F-1 will get the NASCAR "cookie-cutter" track syndrome, where there isn't much difference between each race.  The FIA needs to focus more on tradition, rather than newer and bigger circuits

What rubbish. Then again, having seen what they did to Hockenheim (not only shortening it, but they digging up the remains of the old loop), it wouldn't surprise me.

One of the joys of Spa is its length.

I'd love to know the excuses for this?
Safety? we've just witnessed a race round a high speed track with walls for barriers and no run off, without incident.
Distance? same thing since brand new valencia is only a few hundred yards longer than Spa.
Overtaking? Not one of the tilkedromes have provided overtaking on a consistant basis.
Excitement? The Schumi hakkinnen pass between the other guy down the main straight? Montoya's pass around the outside at eau rouge. Michael schumachers fighting march down the pitlane to find DC. If theres one track which provides excitment its Spa.

It's another case of Bernie and Max getting together and trying to come up with ways to piss off the F1 fan base.

Apalling, although it is disputed over on the Autosport forum - the circuit owner or somebody refutes these claims, or somthing like that!

Having been to Spa (with the old bus stop) i can confirm that its possibly the greatest place to go and watch a race...without doubt! Seeing Senna, Mansell, Prost, Berger, et al flat out through Blanchimont is somthing ill never forget.

Standing at the lowest part of eau rouge is quite somthing as well - i dont know if you still can but its certainly a 'hairs up on the back of the neck' place, in fact the whole circuit is. Its a most bizarre place for the motor racing fan, i know that. I didnt know you could feel, smell and almost touch history...

Ive probably mentioned it before though so ill shut up!

Long live the proper spa! Although in its original form it was no doubt more awesome

Max may well enjoy that

todayshorse wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2008 at 1:16am:

  Only if you dress as a......, never mind.

machineman9 wrote on Sep 4^th, 2008 at 1:35pm:

In general the cars are actually faster in the corners, those bits being sprouted are not the FIA, but the teams taking advantage of the FIA's rules.
Next year things will be back to basics. No winglets, no messy designs. Lower wider front wing, higher and narrower rear wing, smaller diffuser, and slick tyres.
Sadly three areas in need of change still arn't being addressed.
1: The 19,000 RPM limit, until that is removed, overtaking is a thing of lunges into corners.
2: The type of engine/engine freeze. The 2.4 V8 just doesn't have the power or driveability of the 3.0L V10's to allow proper out of corner drag race's and they are all generally within 14 to 15BHP of each other.
3: Ride height. Until they allow teams to lower the cars properly like they were in the 90's, there will always be the problem of dirty air affecting the car behind.

Well, you'd have to go back pretty far to find a year when one make didn't dominate. As for turbos....um, no...not again. I'm sure Honda would love that though. The best racing was and always will be when it was basically unrestricted, but technology put an end to that. Indy was the same way. I remember seeing all sorts of wild designs in the 1960s-1970s era, many were built not in huge mega shops, but in small garages by men not necessarily with college degrees but with big imaginations. Sadly those days are gone, never to return.
 The thing that irks me the most right now is making all the teams use a standardized engine management system. It seems that would only work if all teams were using the same engine. Then it's just another boring spec racing series like a certain sedan division in the states.

hmm no one for turbos then? Interesting. I guess thats a throwback to the cars i remember when i got interested in F1 - and the later glory days of the TAG porsche, and Honda. Amazing engines.

oh well. Id be happy with unrestricted on the engines, do what you like type stuff. The car has to be this long, this wide and this high and you cant put bits here but you can do this.....thats how it should be i think, but i guess those days are over

I think turbo tech has moved on a lot from the late 70's and 80's - I was quite atsonished at the power figures of a VW Jetta i was looking at the other day, turbo 1.4, nearly 170bhp! And i dont think it will be a petrol drinking fire breathing push-you-in-the-back-of-your-seat type car (such as one i used to own - boy did that drink the gas!!!!) but more of a 'you wouldnt know it was a turbo' type car. Must go for a test drive!

Quote:


  IMO there's maybe too much attention toward the fans and not not enough toward racing for the sake of racing. In the beginning years of motorsport spectators were the by-product of racing and the racing for the most part was unrestricted.
  Today's racing wouldn't survive without fans and sponsors because those involved have simply gotten too greedy for the green. It isn't as much about the racing any more, but about a big paycheck. To draw that check you need to have a large fan base, sponsors, and video rights to sell for big $$$.

  There was a Cummins Diesel raced at Indy twice that I know of. Once in 1931 with a Model A Duesenberg fitted with an 85hp, 361ci four-cylinder diesel. It qualified last, ran the whole race without pitting, and finished 13th. And again in 1952 Cummins was back with the inline turbocharged Cummins 6.6L Kurtis Kraft Special, which won the pole position with a speed of 138.010 mph and was 4 mph faster than Ferrari's  V-12.
  Indy also had the STP Special turbine cars, which came very close to winning.
  Now we have the Audi diesel in ALMS and I love it. I don't care about noise and to me excitement is a pass for the lead while going into a difficult corner.

  As for turbos I remember the Can-Am series where in 1973 the Porsche 917 had a 5.4L 1500 powerplant. Porsche only went to Can-Am after the FIA banned the 240 mph supercars from the period. Unfortunately they were killed off by rules restrictions.

just my 2¢